"さとしくん….郷子はしねばよかったのに…そうだよ…北条のいのたれからいいね！"

-園崎　詩音

"Satoshi-kun… if only Satoko had died! Yes…If one of the Houjous had to die, it should have been her!"

-Shion Sonozaki

Hinamizawa: A village, a quiet settlement, a strong community ran by three great families…and a cursed cesspool of lies and murders dating back to the ancient times where "oni" used to thrive and devour all humans who were in their way.

One Day, the "oni" appeared from the village's bottomless swamp and started a raid. They attacked the villagers, taking each and every life with them. However, the heavens cried out and blessed the village with a god. That god was named "Oyashiro-sama". To bring peace to the villagers, Oyashiro-sama granted them with a human form, so that they could live in peace and harmony with the other villagers.

It seems like a happy ending, yet every decade or so, the demon blood within the humans would awaken, and the demons would attack the villagers once again, only with a desire to feast. The demons would take one human as a sacrifice; the villagers referred to this as being "Demoned away".

They say Oyashiro-sama planned it so that only one sacrifice was to be made…The human's life would end by being tortured and soon having his or her entrails ripped out and feasted upon.

That is the tale that every villager is told. Oyashiro-sama is a deity that is both feared and respected in Hinamizawa; and since the June of 1979, there has been some speculation that Oyashiro-sama has continued to send sacrifices to the demons that lurk within the village, and they deemed this sick ritual "Oyashiro-sama's curse".

However, I never believed that any of it was true.

~ Hinamizawa: June 1982 (Shouwa 57, June) ~

"Satoshi-kun." I whispered, "Satoshi-kun, please, please just calm down."

"How can I?" he asked with tears pouring from his eyes, "How can I be calm when I find this in the middle of the forest!" Satoshi cried as he, Rika Furude, Rena Ryuugu, and myself stared at the corpse of his deceased sister, Satoko. She had large bruises all over her body and a rather large gash on the side of her head. Her aunt, who had yet to show up around in the immediate area, had beaten her. Rika took Satoshi's head into her arms to calm him down, Rena soon did the same.

Satoshi, he was a bright, young man, and about my age. He had short, blonde hair and bright magenta eyes, just like his little sister. He was a member of the ever-so-unpopular Houjou family, a family that was said to be cursed in the village for supporting a previous dam development project that began nearly three years ago. If the project was successful, Hinamizawa would have been flooded, causing the hundreds of villagers to flee higher into the mountains. His mother and father were hated by the villagers, as were their friends, the Furude family. The Furude family was torn apart a year after the death of Satoshi's parents; the husband died of a mysterious disease and the wife vanished into the "Onigafuchi" swamp, the place where the demons were said to live. Those deaths were directly related to "Oyashiro-sama's curse" that happened every June since Showa 54. First, the coordinator for the Hinamizawa dam project was brutally murdered, then Satoshi's parents, the Furude family, excluding Rika, and now Satoko.

"Satoshi," Rika murmured, "I know, deep down, that Satoko wouldn't have wanted to see you so upset." Satoshi continued to bawl his eyes out. It seemed pathetic, but in my heart, that moment was a cry out for someone he loved to hold him.

"Satoshi-kun." I whispered, nudging Rika out of the way and holding him close. He gripped the back of my shirt and stuttered into my ear, "Why, why couldn't she just live, Mion?"

Mion, that was the name I went by. Was I Mion? No. I was her twin sister, Shion Sonozaki. My sister and I are identical, so it's very difficult for those to tell us apart. I didn't live with my sister, instead I attended a private school outside of Hinamizawa due to the fact that I was, indeed, a twin. My grandmother, she despised the fact that I was born, and it was custom to have the youngest twin die by suffocation before its first bath. It is a dreadful story, I know, and how I managed to survive is a miracle in itself. My sister, she was always the "queen". The day I was transferred into the academy, she left my parents to live with my grandmother. Mion was the head of the Sonozaki family, and there was no doubt about it that my family exiled me from ever approaching Hinamizawa.

Yet I escaped that school and began taking my sister's place at her school. Why? At first it was merely for fun, but then I laid eyes on Satoshi, and since then I couldn't stay away from him. He was addicting, his very essence paralyzed my senses to the point that I attacked Satoko due to her obnoxious behavior with him. This attack wasn't the one that put her to death, but it allowed Satoshi to see how I truly felt about his sibling relationship. I couldn't release myself to be Shion, that would be too awkward for him. So, I stayed as Mion for awhile, he seemed to already know a lot about my sister, so I used that to my advantage.

Satoko's death…well…that actually made us much, much closer.