Chapter 2: Tmf Wdr

June 1st, 1984
The First Day

He woke with a groan and a stretch, as he did every morning. He'd slept well the night before, and in truth the groan was associated more with the fact that he now had to actually get up and act like a functional human being, rather than a need for anything in particular.

Fortunately he had enough willpower to drag himself out of bed, proceeding to get cleaned up. He put on the same white shirt and black pants he wore every day and made his way downstairs. His mother was naturally already awake, his father and his red car were already out of sight, never to be seen again until very late that night. Sure enough breakfast was on the table, and as always he had managed to work up enough willpower at that point to eat his fill.

As usual, his mother reminded him to make lunch for himself, and with that, the average looking boy was out the door, delighted that the rain had finally stopped. And also as usual, he had to wait no more than five minutes outside his front door for the usual beaming girl with equally as brilliant orange hair to turn the corner and wave to him. A usual she'd made enough lunch for the both of them, and as usual they began their walk down the path to school.

This was Keiichi Maebara's morning – an average morning for an average person, living and average, unremarkable life filled with romantic comedy and enough cute shit to drive someone crazy.

"Say, Keiichi-kun, did you have Natsumi's leftovers for dinner last night?"

"Ah yeah, the rice was great. My mom said thanks for the cucumbers, by the way. She's shocked you found such fresh ones."

"Heehee, it's not so amazing if you know where to look." She smiled broadly. "Papa told me I should start sharing our groceries with my friends, in case you were wondering."

"Ah, good, the less crap I have to hear from that guy the better."

"Hey, that's rude, Keiichi-kun." She pouted. "Papa might not be the nicest person in the world but he always means well."

"That aside they didn't stock the grocer this week. You know if anything went missing again?"

"I dunno. Maybe Furude-san had a slow month."

He laughed. "Yeah, maybe you ate the all the flowers he actually needed."

"Hey, Natsumi was hungry! Hungry! Don't tease me about that!" She whacked him on the arm.

They kept heading down the path like that, Keiichi constantly finding new and creative ways to make his companion feel uncomfortable. They ran into the same elderly couple, Harumi and Narumi, that they did every day, and as most elderly folks did, talked about the weather and whether or not the two of them were dating yet. Eventually they came across the Sonozaki Estate, at which point a third companion would join them.

It was at this point the average morning not only diverged, but managed to go off the rails for quite a bit.

There were several black cars clogging up the short roadway, and even more in what was typically considered the estate's main courtyard. There were several men dressed in black suits hovering around those cars, eyeing the two of them suspiciously.

"Maybe we should ask what's going on?" The girl squeaked nervously.

Against his better judgment he approached one of the men and talked to him.

"Hey, do you know if Mion's in there? Her friends are here to pick her up."

The man didn't so much as budge.

"Hey, can you help us or not?"

Before he knew it two of the other men started to approach them, the silence left unbroken with tension building. The man in front of him was about to grab his arm, and the girl beside him had silently moved closer and was about to put her arm on them - before someone further in suddenly made their way into the situation.

"Hey, hey, what's going on out here?" the voice came from further back.

The man just in front of him turned around and had no problem answering. "He matches the description."

The source of the voice made their way to the front of the group. It was a man with a shaved head, wearing a black hat and suit like the other men, though the dress shirt underneath was unbuttoned partially. He had a beauty mark under one of his droopy eyes – and Keiichi was sure he'd seen him somewhere before.

"Woah, no, no that's not him." He said with a laugh. "Hell of a resemblance, though."

"Who are you people?" The girl spoke quietly and calmly, her eyes sharp. Ah, and there she was, the brilliant flame that burns quietly. That was Natsumi Kimiyoshi, one of his best friends, in a nutshell.

"Sorry about all of that," he said with a bright smile that had a strange, childlike quality to it. "We're friends of the family. I'm Ryou. Ryou Sekiguchi. You must be Natsumi-chan, right?"

"If I go inside and talk to Mii-chan, will she tell me the same thing?" She asked, staring the man down like she wanted him dead.

"Hah, you're every bit as scary as I was told you are. Sure, I can go get her for you." His smile didn't twist even marginally.

"We'd like to talk to her ourselves all the same," Keiichi finally jumped in.

"We're sorry, but no one is allowed into the estate at this time." One of the other men spoke sternly.

The tension didn't seem like it was going anywhere until someone else pushed their way form the back of the small crowd.

"It's fine, I'm here." Emerging from behind Sekiguchi was the girl in question – she'd dyed her hair red but aside from that it was the usual Mion Sonozaki, her calm expression reassuring them both, with her bag in hand, ready to head off to school. "Hey, we're gonna be late if we screw around here any longer." she said, pushing the two along and waving to Sekiguchi as they rushed off down the road, preventing the exchange from going on any longer.

"The hell is going on in there?" Keiichi wasn't willing to act like nothing had happened at all, however. "And what the hell is up with your hair?"

"I'm not allowed to tell anyone shit right now. Sorry, Kei-chan."

"Can you at least tell me who that guy was?"

"Which guy? The only one I know anything about is Ryou."

"Do you know him from somewhere else?" Only then did Natsumi's voice return to its usual tone.

"You really need to hold yourself back a little more, Natsumi. Those guys weren't going to kill you but they would've beat the shit out of you." Mion sighed with frustration. "And no, I met him yesterday, but he's a decent guy. The rest of those suits might as well be stone walls."

"I would've been fine. I'm just worried about you, Mii-chan." Natusmi frowned, clinging to Keiichi's hand like she'd been doing ever since they took off.

"Yeah nah, I'm fine. It's Shion you should be worried about."

"Did something happen?" Natsumi nearly tugged hard enough on Keiichi's arm to dislocate it.

"Nah, just the usual shit. That idiot wasn't meant for a shitty family like ours." Mion rubbed at her eyes.

That was apparently the end of the conversation, and the three made their way to school in silence. It was a bit of a bump in their morning routine, but it wasn't anything honestly that surprising – distressed folks were rather common in Hinamizawa, though they mostly didn't turn up until much later in the day.

Keiichi arguably knew Shion the least out of their group of friends, but what he did know is that she had a very weak heart for a Sonozaki. She had a job out in Okinomiya that didn't suit her personality whatsoever. She was also prone to impulsive behavior caused by nervousness, though she always acted out very quickly and quietly. Mion complained about her often – for the time being he'd take her words at face value. Instead he tried to lose himself in his surroundings, as difficult as it was.

Hinamizawa itself was a very average looking place, at least once you'd gotten past the giant wall. He'd only been there for a little over a year but he was more than familiar enough with it to call it an average place where perfectly average people could very easily live. It had everything from small, family run convenience stores to a public school and very clean, spacious housing that was by no means as suffocating as the people that made homes out of it. In terms of population it was almost too big to be considered a village, but no one dared to question that point all that seriously.

The plant life was all well maintained, though all owned by the village itself and maintained by a selection of staff hired by the Furude family. The streets were cleaned by a similar institution, except managed by the Kimiyoshi family instead. Public safety, meanwhile, was regulated by the Sonozaki family and to some extent Furude's best built monks. They were all remarkably good at their jobs and whenever he saw any at work they possessed some inhuman quality to the way they carried themselves. It was some level of devotion he couldn't quite understand.

The usual road to the schoolhouse was closed down due to major flooding from the night before, so the group had to take a slightly less roundabout route that took them past the Furude Tower, the great symbol of Hinamizawa's religious practices that resided far to the north of the rest of the village. The area just around it was the grounds of the Furude Shrine, a clear cut area that was mostly farmland accompanied by living quarters for the shrine's nearly two dozen mikos, the shrine itself for more typical worship than the tower was meant for, and an old storehouse that was used for storing farming equipment, among other things. A decent percentage of the village's produce came from the field, though it was almost exclusively used to feed the three families and those that were willing to pay for what was considered a premium product. There was a portion the field that was used exclusively to grow flowers, planted around the tower and along the path leading to it, filling everything up to the base – it was expansive enough that you could see it from the top.

Natsumi, who had been very quiet the entire time, suddenly decided to stop at the storehouse. Noticing how happy the prospect made her Keiichi and Mion had no choice but to entertain her. They'd most certainly be late at this rate, but if their excuse was visiting the Furude grounds they could get away with it.

She excitedly knocked on the door, and when it opened she didn't waste a second tackling the person on the other side of the door.

"Oji-san!" She cried happily, nearly bringing the man to his knees.

"Good morning Natsumi-chan!" The man said with a groan, followed by hearty laughter.

He was a tall man with black hair that was about shoulder length, with bangs that were just as long and parted down the middle. More often than not he had some kind of a smile on his face, even if someone had just openly insulted him. This was Takumi Furude, the father of another one of Keiichi's close friends who actually lived in the storehouse on his own. Natsumi called him 'oji-san' for some reason she never bothered explaining.

"Ah, I see she pulled you two along again this morning. Don't you all have school right now? Come to think of it, Rika did leave a long time ago..." He smiled knowingly.

"It'll be fine." Mion smiled. She was fond of him as well, as were most people that had spent even just a few minutes in his presence.

"Hm... Is this the sort of thing you've been teaching these two, Natsumi-chan?"

"K-Keiichi-kun and Mii-chan are the delinquents, I swear!" She whined.

"So did they hire you any help for the summer?" Mion tried to move things along a little faster.

"Man, I wish I were so lucky." He shrugged his shoulders. "We're adding one more field next week, but some social workers from Okinomiya are going to be planting there, so we just have to till the soil. It shouldn't take that much more effort than usual, as long as I've got you kids helping out. "

"Ah, yeah, that's right." Keiichi sighed. It was almost that time of year again, when Mion's school based club would spend three days a week working on these fields.

"Heh, I know that sound." Mion teased, "It's the sound Kei-chan makes when he wants to work a double shift."

"So you can go goof off with your sister? No thanks." He'd gotten better at hurling comebacks in Mion's face – in some weird way he was proud of it.

For the most part, the planting process was handled by this man alone. The mikos weren't in the best physical shape to do anything beyond pushing dirt around, and what monks that there were spent most of their time guarding the border, both by the gate and up in the mountains by the swamp, where most of them actually lived. Very few of them put much, if any work into managing the fields. Most of the work fell to Takumi.

To make matters stranger, he was not only the head farmhand but the husband of the principle shrine maiden, who spent her days in the Furude Tower, out of sight from most people. As such, he wasn't obligated to take this matter into his own hands but did so anyway. He was the sort of man that held hard work and just rewards above most other things. But for a man with such a position, living in a storehouse was rather extreme – Keiichi hadn't the slightest clue what the circumstances were but they were surely complicated. Or, knowing this man the way he did, it might've just been personal preference.

"So did you kids just stop by to say hello?"

"Oh, oh!" Natsumi suddenly started shuffling through her bag before pulling out a small boxed lunch. "Here you go!" She handed the box to him, with another one of her sweet smiles.

He opened the box and inside was a well prepared lunch, the main feature of which was salmon roe. "Ah, you really didn't have to make this for me, you know, I was just joking the other day."

"Papa heard me talk about it and thought it would be a good idea, so I made it last night. You weren't going to eat sunflower seeds again today, were you?"

"No, I can manage a healthy diet on my own, but -"

"You might want to reconsider turning her down, pops." Mion cut in. "She's just going to make you a bigger lunch tomorrow. That's just how it goes."

"Ah, I guess that's a good point. Thank you, Natsumi-chan, I'll savor it." He said with a polite bow. "But seriously, you kids really need to get to school. Chie-sensei was in a foul mood when I saw her last night, I doubt she's defused by now."

"Shit, you should've said something earlier!" Mion suddenly started panicking. "We'll be around again tomorrow, you'd better eat that lunch, now."

"Ah, actually, there's one thing -" He interrupted them as they were about to leave. "Keiichi-kun, could you actually stop by some time tomorrow night, preferably before midnight? You won't have to worry about the curfew; there's just something I'd like you to help me with."

"Sure thing." He agreed immediately, though he couldn't help but be curious.

"Why can't I help?" Natsumi cocked her head inquisitively.

"Because you have work all night." Keiichi reminded her.

"So does Keiichi-kun! That's no fair!" She pouted.

"Sorry Natsumi-chan, this is something I can only ask another man to do."

"Woah, that sounds steamy." Mion joked, before turning to leave, ignoring whatever retort came out of Keiichi's mouth.

"I can probably manage sometime after eleven. That sound alright Natsumi?"

She nodded reluctantly in reply.

"Alright then. Have a good day, you three." Takumi bid them farewell.

Keiichi had to pull Natsumi by her arm to get her out of the storeroom, but very quickly they were back on the path to school, the elder Furude waving them off and most of the tension from the early morning having finally dispersed. It was rather easy to calm yourself down in Takumi's presence, given how the man could put you to sleep with just the sound of his voice.

On their way off the shrine grounds, Keiichi noticed the faint impression of tire tracks on the grass. The average person might not have taken it to mean much, but driving a vehicle even within a hundred feet of the tower was one of the largest offenses you could commit. He chose not to bring it up, instead commenting on how no one had pointed out Mion's hair color thus far. The rest of the walk to school was filled with that usual sort of laughter, and Natsumi occasionally checking in with them from the far reaches of her own little world.

It had started off on a very peculiar note, but it seemed as though the course had corrected itself, and thus another perfectly average day continued.


It was finally time for their coveted lunch break, a very small but nonetheless treasured window of forty minutes between the first four hours of constant schooling and the next three. The schoolhouse was a three floor structure with the children broken up primarily by age group, but everyone had lunch outside in the yard, where the younger students frolicked about and the elder children did the usual complaining about their families. During this time Keiichi and his friends gathered together by the lockers on the third floor where he, Natsumi and Mion had class and had the privilege of eating their lunch in one of the classrooms.

From the second floor came Satoko Houjo and Rika Furude, who were just recently promoted to the second tier of students having turned thirteen just this past year, with their own lunches, Rika's packed by one of the shrine's lesser mikos and Satoko's packed presumably by her mother. Typically Shion Sonozaki, Mion's slightly younger sister, would have joined them as well, but she was absent from school that day.

The five of them constituted the bulk of Mion's after school club, which as of late had become less about playing the exotic games it was founded for and more about helping the poor and sick around the village, though most of the time Mion's own family gave them the whole bureaucratic red tape treatment and they ended up performing some simple task like helping Takumi Furude with his farm work. Keiichi had been more or less drafted into the club very shortly after his arrival, but enjoyed his time in it all the same.

"So I was thinking we could play some old maid today – whoever ends up in last place has to clear out all the basements. Make sure you wear rubber gloves, Kei-chan." Mion wasted no time in laying down her plan for the day.

It just so happened that today they would be going around the village and searching for damage done by flooding. The way a lot of the houses were built, the cellars were very prone to flooding. A few families in these parts of town used their cellars as living areas and had carpets that could absorb some of the water, but even then the flooding was usually bad and wet carpet needed to be treated with hardware that most villagers had no access to.

"If it's Keiichi-san, he should have to clean the power generator." Satoko exclaimed, her eyes glistening mischievously.

"You have no clue how long that would actually take, do you?" As usual Keiichi would shoot her outbursts down with ease. It wasn't always that easy, however.

"Satoko's just being mean," Rika chimed in as she was chewing her food. "We're not allowed to go that far up the mountain anyway."

"They'd make an exception for you, wouldn't they?" Mion sounded a bit too hopeful – then again it was not a surprise that she'd find some kind of enjoyment from watching him scrub away with a toothbrush all day.

"You're not really thinking about cleaning the power generator as a punishment game, are you? That's not realistic at all. Can't we just do the same cute outfit shit we always do?"

"Hm? Is Kei-chan really that eager to cross dress?" She said with a grin.

"What does Natsumi want as the punishment game?" He turned towards the girl who was staring off into space, ignoring Mion completely.

"...the pad is in One." she murmured, her eyes still entirely unfocused.

"Come again?"

"H-Huh?" She suddenly came back to reality and her head jerked in his direction.

"The punishment game. Cast your vote."

"O-Oh, I want to see Keiichi-kun do something cute!" She said flatly with a smile.

That made three of them that were all preparing for the same outcome. He wanted to sigh, but held it back. Apparently his disgust was showing on his face since Rika stopped chewing her food to lean across the desks they'd pushed together to pat him on the head. He'd have to come out on top today and prove them wrong.

Satoko let out her usual chuckle. "It looks like Keiichi-san's fate is sealed."

She was feeling particularly high and mighty as of late since she'd caught a serious growth spurt recently. At one point she barely passed his waist – she was now well on her way to reaching his shoulders. In fact she could already make it there if she stood on her toes.

"Heh, alright, but if any of you end up in last there's a swimsuit with your name on it." He proclaimed with confidence.

"...Hey do you want any of this?" Rika asked Natsumi, pushing her lunch box filled only with vegetables

"You really should eat your veggies, Rika-chan. Come to think of it I've never seen you eat any ever!" Natsumi chided.

"I'm a carnivore." She said with a shrug.

"Hey, don't ignore me, dammit!" He continued vying for attention like that for the remainder of their lunch break while the others had very normal, polite conversations with each other and acted like he wasn't there.

During their club activity he performed rather poorly, but didn't end up in last – however, he'd stretched out the swimsuit so much when he'd worn it previously that none of the girls were able to put it on without breaking regulations. He considered his victory short, but sweet.


The First Night

He entered his room around ten o'clock that night. Immediately across from the door was a note staked to the wall with a knife. It had been there that morning, but he'd chosen to ignore it. After all, that business was not the business of the Keiichi Maebara that went about kindly greeting people and having fun with his friends during the day. It was instead for the man of the night, who he merely shared a mind and body with.

Though perhaps it wasn't that he'd 'chosen' to ignore it, but rather that he'd been 'allowed' to ignore it.

The note was the usual command with the usual complaint.

For the eyes of Keiichi Maebara

Please report to the Firehouse at 11:00 P.M. for mandatory community service.

We will not tolerate further failures to report for duty this month, further offenses will result in multiple fines of increasing degree.

Sincerely yours, The Powers That Be

The first time he'd woken up to one of these notes he'd nearly had a heart attack, but ever since he'd become rather numb to the notion of someone sneaking into his room in the middle of the night just to tack a note to the wall. The more time he spent going out at night like this, the more apparent it was that he, along with everyone else in the village that wasn't named Sonozaki, Furude, or Kimiyoshi had virtually no control over their own destinies.

Digging through the very back of his closet he pulled out his uniform.

It was a typical fireman's garb complete with the typical yellow and black pattern. The only difference between it and any other were the bloodstains that had long since become part of the outfit. Sure enough, he had no idea whose blood it was – after all it had already been like this when he'd obtained it.

After suiting up he got down on his knees and felt around the space underneath his bed. From it he pulled out an axe, with a smooth wooden grip and a sharp, well maintained head that looked as pristine as it did the previous night and the night before that.

Axe in hand, he left his house and went off into the night. Along his path he spotted many familiar faces from his morning route – but unlike their glowing politeness from not even twelve hours ago, what they showed him now was fear, going out of their way to avoid him or hasten their pace.

His path took him into the main section of town, the tower eclipsing the moon and covering the road in darkness. He doesn't need a light to see, however – he knew this path perhaps even better than he knew his walk to school. He soon reached his destination – the old Okinomiya Volunteer Firehouse, an old establishment that had long since been abandoned by those that had built it. All that remained of it now was a run down, hollow shell of what it once was that served as the nest of the Hinamizawa Fire Department.

He made his way to the front door and knocked five times. He was returned three knocks in reply, after which he knocked another four times. The door opened and Natsumi of all people came flying out, wrapping her arms around his neck and swinging herself around to regain her footing, much like she'd done to poor Takumi earlier that day. Were he not wearing the two ton tunic he would've been toppled easily – she was fairly light, but she didn't hold back even in the slightest.

"You came!" She cried happily.

"Uh, yeah." He sighed. She did this every single night. Without fail.

"Come on, come on, we're almost ready! Kijima-chan bought a new bowtie, you have to see it, it's just so cute!" She pulled him into the building.

The interior was a series of cramped hallways, with most of the rooms in an unusable state. The only exceptions were the small lounge on the top floor and the garage, which incidentally was where she was pulling him towards.

Inside was the usual crowd, and the usual vehicle – the Kimiyoshi family's prized fire truck, passed down from parent to child for three generations now. It looked like it had just been rolled out of manufacturing – at least on the outside – and had a coat of fresh, green paint, with the additional cutesy doodles of animals Natsumi, the theoretical owner, had spray painted on over the years. The first man that came into view was Noro Urushibara, a tall, thin man with black hair kept in a ponytail, wearing a white oni mask. He was curt, rude, and very deadly – he'd once thrown a knife at and successfully pulverized a squirrel in a tree, mistaking it for a curfew breaking child hiding in a tree. Not only did he act like a ninja but he was dressed like one, too, turtleneck included.

The other was Shiki Kijima, the man that put the two tons into the two ton tunic. He was bald, blown up like a balloon, very nearly spilling out of his uniform and surely hadn't exercised a day in his life, but you'd never notice how fat he was until you got past his face, which was scrunched together so tightly it was a wonder he could breathe through his nose. His eyes were the sole exception – they were oddly spaced apart and he had no pupils, only pale sclera across their entirety. He was hideous, and would've probably been declared legally blind in any other part of the world and maybe caged for scientific research, but in Hinamizawa he was the Kimiyoshi family's designated driver, and naturally was currently cackling like a madman from behind the wheel of the truck. The most terrifying thing is that he was damn good at it. And sure enough he was wearing the bowtie Natsumi had mentioned, though it could only just barely be seen sticking out from under the rolls of fat.

The four of them together were the sole members of the Kimiyoshi Fire Department, with Natsumi, the future head of the Kimiyoshi house, as their leader. But surprisingly enough four was more than enough to get the job done.

"Hey, Maebara." Noro greeted him without so much as looking in his general direction, instead fishing through some drawers, likely in search of something to stab someone with.

"Where are we going tonight?"

"Natsumi knows the way. We'll defer to her. You know, like we've been doing every single night." Keiichi was rather amazed that he'd actually gotten a response out of him.

"Right..."

"Okay everyone, I'm ready!" Natsumi declared from the other side of the room, having changed into her own uniform.

Which, for the record, was a much slimmer version of the suit the men wore, but with no jacket, a black top with no shoulders and roll up sleeves. Essentially she'd removed all the elements of the outfit that would actually protect someone from a fire – but she did wear her hat which on her head came off as adorable.

"We're ready to go, just give the word." Noro said, once again with as little bodily movement as possible.

"I gave Kijima-chan the directions already. You remember them right?"She cocked her head to the side so she could see the man in the driver's seat.

His response was rather garbled, but he did make an 'uh huh' sound of some kind.

"Perfect! Then let's go." On her command the three of them entered the truck and with that they were off into the night, left at the mercy of Kijima's driving ability.

They made their way across town with the usual rickety noises. The interior was rife with torn leather and open panels – when he first joined he was almost certain that it had been stolen, but apparently the Kimiyoshi family had acquired it from some external connection a very long time ago. All the way Noro kept on wiping his tonfa. Natsumi, meanwhile, just sat there very patiently and smiled at him whenever their eyes met. All Keiichi ever did during these long rides was stare at his reflection in the window and try as hard as he could to ignore the stench of kerosene and burnt rubber coming from the back of the truck.

He could never succeed, of course – not with Kijima purposefully hitting every bump on the road to satisfy his own lunacy. The first night he went out on a job with the others, Kijima nearly ran over a citizen that had broken curfew – the only reason he ever stopped short was because Natsumi threatened to cut his throat if he didn't. And he was supposed to have been Catholic before he came here.

The street they pull over on is familiar to him – after all, he passes it every day on his walk to school. He knew the villagers that lived there almost by name. He would have to make himself scarce this evening – otherwise he wouldn't be able to look his neighbors in the eye ever again. And, sure enough, the residence they pulled over in front of was just as familiar – it was the home of the old couple, Harumi and Narumi, that greeted them every morning.

Kijima hopped out of the driver's side with great enthusiasm, wasting no time in hooking up a hose to the nearby fire hydrant. As usual Keiichi reminded him that they might not need to put out a fire, but he ignored him as usual.

As is always the case, Natsumi took point and started banging on the front door of the accused household as hard as she could. Sure enough, no one answered, and on top of that the lights were off. The villagers aren't stupid – they're well aware that only the fire department could be out and about at this time of night. If these two were wise enough, they would've cleared out of town by then – but they were too loyal to their neighbors to do that sort of thing. They were likely just in hiding.

"You're up, Keiichi-kun," She said sweetly.

Although heavy with his conscience, the axe in Keiichi's hands tore through the door at Natsumi's command. It was never over in one swing – he always had to hack at the door multiple times and from more than one angle. With how often he did this – and every night he was called out Natsumi made him do this – he'd learned how to target the lock first, then the hinges. Night after night he'd always convince himself that this was the extent of his involvement. I just get the door open. I don't hurt anyone, I don't steal anyone's shit. This is alright. They know the rules. They choose to break them. But eventually the door came down, and Natsumi pat him on the head in approval. All it does is reassure him even further.

He took one step into the house, surveyed his surroundings before Noro cut in front of him and charged off into the darkness. The others follow suit – strewn about the floor of the tightly packed entrance were chunks of wood and plaster, along with only a single pair of shoes.

They moved into the living area quickly and quietly, with Natsumi moving fast enough to catch up to Noro and restrain him. They came upon the shrine dedicated to the deceased, covered with an exotic velvet cloth – before anyone had the opportunity to smash or set anything on fire, Keiichi knelt down in front and examined the two photographs left on the small altar. One was an image of a young boy, no older than twelve with brown hair, labeled 'Narumi'. The other was in black and white, depicting an even younger looking girl, who according to the faded label was named "Reina".

"You sure we have the right house?" He asked, turning to Natsumi. "Not seeing anything illegal going on here."

He was mostly objecting because the idea of doing this to someone he knew more than just in passing didn't settle with him at all. He knew it wouldn't really get him anywhere.

He almost stopped mid sentence when he got a look at her face, however. She was staring at the shrine intently, her expression stern and emotionless. He supposed that it was about that time of night, but her gaze was somehow even more murderous in its intent than usual. He could tell that she wanted nothing more than to smash the shrine to pieces, but even so she restrained herself.

"They wouldn't leave anything out in the open like this," Noro replied on her behalf. "These folks aren't fools. They've been around long enough to know all the tricks."

Without even waiting for the exchange to finish, Natsumi went off into the house on her own, her colorful attitude having faded away completely – there was something about this place, that shrine in particular, that was eating away at her, but as was to be expected Keiichi hadn't the slightest clue as to what.

The rest of the group was stalled by a rather slim doorway that Kijima's rotund figure was unable to pass through easily – by the time they caught up with her, she'd already made her way to the bedroom, turned the lights on and had started overturning the whole room.

Keiichi's heart sank when he spotted an overturned Celtic cross made of silver by the demolished nightstand and what appeared to be a Bible tucked in the space underneath it.

"Still think we've got the wrong place now?" Noro commented from over his shoulder.

"Still, it seems like there's no one home." Keiichi ignored him.

"Judging by the entrance the husband is probably out," Natsumi spoke, her voice devoid of emotion and her language devoid of care. "The wife must be hiding still. Kijima-kun, check under the house."

That line stung Keiichi particularly. After all, just this morning she'd called her 'Harumi-chan,' despite the age gap, like she always did because it always made the old woman laugh.

Without a word the walking marshmallow stumbled into the room and, taking a deep breath, arched himself backwards before swinging his whole body as far forward as possible – he hit the floor face first, the sheer force of the impact forcing his whole head through the floorboards. The sudden impact was accompanied by a muffled scream that made Keiichi's heart skip a beat.

"I don't see anyone," Kijima remarked from under the floorboards. "It's too dark."

"Did you bring a flashlight with you?" Natsumi asked sweetly. More often than not she babied Kijima despite how much older than her he was.

"Nah. Diddn' think about it." A few moments of squirming later, he reported back. "There's a draft. By the bed."

Wasting no time, Natsumi dragged the western bed across the room and very quickly found a series of loose floorboards. Sure enough, there was a small set of stairs leading downward into a cellar. She proceeded down by herself, and very quickly the shrieking started again, this time a lot more audible.

Natsumi emerged with the cowering, shivering form of Harumi, dragged along roughly by the arm.

"There's a place of worship downstairs." She spoke.

"Anything good down there?" Noro asked while Kijima stared at her pleadingly.

"Nothing but. Burn it all down." The moment Natsumi gave her order Kijima squealed with delight and practically skipped out of the room.

"Natsumi-chan, please! Keiichi-kun, talk some sense into her!" Harumi started begging, as the elderly folks tended to at this point.

"We'll leave the cellar completely intact," Natsumi decided. "Make it seem like we attacked them blindly. We can probably draw out the husband and some of their co-conspirators that way."

"I can think of at least ten people off the top of my head that won't let you walk out of your house without a few missing limbs if you took it that far." Keiichi warned her.

But she didn't care in the slightest. "Then let them try. Make more arrests that way."

He was left dumbstruck by how cold and ruthless her words were – even for being this nighttime version of Natsumi at the moment she was acting incredibly irrational.

"Hey, think about this a little more -"

But before he could even finish his thought Noro drew a blade from his coat and skimmed the skin on his neck with it – had Natsumi not stopped him short mere moments before it may have drawn blood.

"It's okay. Keiichi-kun is allowed to have his opinion." Natsumi said with a much more levelheaded sound to her voice. "Harumi-san will give us a confession. That should take care of any problems we could have, okay?"

Keiichi couldn't object to that, especially with Noro's killing intent out in the open, so with a quick smile Natsumi pulled Harumi through the house towards the door, passing the small shrine on the way. At that moment Harumi broke away and clung to the picture of Reina.

"Please, Natsumi-chan, please let this go, just this once – think of poor Reina! No one to remember her, not even her own family – if you do this she won't have any place left! Don't you understand?!" the old woman wailed on her knees.

Natsumi glared at her, gritting her teeth. Noro, who had been standing behind her until then, backed away just in time as she went into a frenzy, stomping on the small shrine over and over until it splintered and collapsed. She pried the picture frame from Harumi's hands and gazed at the image of the smiling girl for a few moments before snapping the frame and tearing the picture in half with her naught but her hands.

"I don't know who you're talking about." She hissed at Harumi, who had broken into tears. "There's no 'Reina'."

With that she pulled out a lighter and a pack of cigarettes. She lit one, brought it close to her lips, but didn't smoke it before just letting it fall from her hands. The cigarette landed on the fabric covering the shrine, which quickly caught fire. Harumi moved to put it out but Noro pulled her back – kicking and screaming she was drawn out of the house as the others, including Keiichi, pulled out their own lighters and moved about the house, setting anything and everything they could on fire.

Out on the street Harumi was held down on her knees, facing the growing conflagration that was once her home. And all the fire did was grow and grow, devouring all in its path. When her eyes met Keiichi's then the pleading look was gone – all that was left was a hollow, empty stare. And all he could do was continue to tell himself – She broke the law. This isn't my fault.

That's a lie.

And Natsumi, who noticed the rift in his heart from watching the wailing woman's life change forever, merely stood next to him and pat him on the head, further reinforcing that justification. He gripped the axe harder and swore to himself that he'd hold onto that belief for a little longer this time.

The ultimate point of all of this was fairly simple. The Kimiyoshi Fire Department went around during curfew hours at night breaking into homes that were suspected of housing contraband, and upon finding hard evidence that the owners had done so, made them regret it. This was their role in this village – stabilizing the culture of Hinaizawa, ever so steeped in its traditions, which mattered more to everyday life than most other things. And so dissenters, regardless of age or background, were punished severely. And as of late, dissenters had become vermin, small Christian shrines being exposed all across the village at an alarming rate.

Belief in Oyashiro-sama had become more of a law than anything else, but it was a law that the three ruling parties of the village, and many who had grown up in the village and come to despise the outside world mandated. It was Keiichi's job to assist in the process of maintaining this law every night a call came in that only Natsumi, the future head of the Kimiyoshi family, was permitted to take. And if he didn't follow her blindly, he and his family would suffer the consequences.

None of it changed the fact that there was a third party spreading Christianity in the shadows that had yet to reveal itself. But for now the spread was limited to a minority, though not a particularly well defined one. For the time being the brute force tactic still worked. Though knowing both sides of Natsumi as well as he did, effectiveness wasn't an immediate concern of the Fire Department.

Once the house had burned down in its entirety and what was left of the fire was contained, they returned to the firehouse, throwing Harumi into one of several cramped closet spaces that served as a cell, which she would be locked in the darkness of for a mandatory sixteen hour period. After that, they didn't care what she did – in almost all cases the initial home invasion was enough to dishearten blacklist violators along with those peripheral to them and prevent them from lashing out ever again. She might warn her currently missing husband to steer clear, but Noro would keep watch at the residence for two whole days, and anyone that came close to the rubble would be brought in without question.

But for Keiichi, this was the point where he was allowed to turn a blind eye to everything and go home. He wouldn't get any angry notes from the so called Powers That Be if he skipped out at this point. And so that was precisely what he did – it was nearly one in the morning, but it wasn't as though he was going to be getting any real amount of sleep anyway.

At the beginning he would withdraw much earlier than this, and receive a note. Some nights he simply fell asleep too early, and would receive a note. Despite how often he was threatened, the note writers were uncharacteristically forgiving, seemingly resetting their counter for the number of offenses he'd made whenever he fulfilled his duty. By now he was numbed to all of it, and knew exactly how often he needed to show up when a call came in and how far into things he could take off. There was a neat, very well defined pattern to all of it, and he was willing to work within the confines of that pattern.

His walk home is much more sluggish, and almost deliberately so. In this mind this is what constituted resting. He couldn't sleep at night all that much anymore, and he couldn't exactly take a day or two off from school lest his family be put through a lot of unnecessary trouble, and so this was the only downtime he had.

He was about halfway along before he encountered another person – a boy about half his height that nearly turned tail and ran before he saw his face.

"Oh, boss. Thank god." The boy sighed with relief, fixing his glasses.

Daiki Tomita – one of the boys from Satoko's grade. Short and scrawny for his age, he stood out like a sore thumb amongst the other budding teenagers in that group. Incidentally he had a huge crush on Satoko, which made this particular encounter fairly ironic. For awhile Tomita had been looking up to him as a role model – not because of the whole fire department aspect, but because the previous summer he'd instructed him on how to pick up girls.

"Hey, what's the big idea? You know you're not -"

"I just had to go for a walk. Mom and Dad got into another fight and I couldn't sleep." He suddenly bent at the waist and put his hands together. "Please don't tell Natsumi, I'll do anything you want -"

"Hey, it's alright, I'm off duty now, just calm down and head on back, alright? If I was anyone else you wouldn't get off easy."

"Yeah, I know... Hey, you went home with Satoko today, didn't you?"

He changed his tone far too quickly – he wasn't reluctant about having broken curfew. He just hoped that it wouldn't take something drastic to make him understand.

"Yeah, what about it?" He replied with a sigh.

"Y-You wouldn't know if she's found a boyfriend yet, would you?"

"Wouldn't you kids catch wind of something like that faster than I would?"

"Yeah, but, you know, she could be hiding it or something. You know how her parents get."

"Huh. I hadn't thought about it like that. But you're good, she's not dating anyone."

He sighed with relief. "I still don't know what I'm gonna do, though."

"You already have the framework, right?"

"Yeah, but none of that stuff is going to work on a girl like her!" He shouted. "Now that I think about it Suguru couldn't get anywhere with Rika, and she turned him down pretty hard, so –"

"Hey, relax, all you have to do is come out and ask her. She's not into guys trying to flirt with her or anything like that."

"Now that's just made up."

"I'm being serious. Just go talk to her about it. Try not to stammer, keep your head held high – you know, all that junk Chie-sensei tells the older kids about applying for jobs."

"Like I'm applying for a job... Hey, that's, like, amazing advice!" He beamed. "Alright, I'm going to go practice! You're the best, boss!" With that he ran off into the night. He almost called after him, reminding him to avoid the main roads, but he didn't have the willpower to do so.

He had little to do beyond heading home after that. His parents had long since gone to sleep and fortunately kept their door shut, so there would be little risk of waking them. It was a fairly attractive evening that marked the end of the awful weather – the moon was even out that night. He felt at peace – something that only someone allowed to be out on the streets could feel. To some extent this night was his and his alone – he enjoyed the feeling, and basked in it as much as he could, even though he was almost certain that there were villagers eyeing the streets like hawks from their homes.

Somewhat surprisingly he found Satoko upon opening his front door, standing in his kitchen with two glasses of some milk product, fitted with straws. He might've had more motivation to question how she'd gotten into his house if he weren't about to pass out.

"I made shakes." She announced, an amusing amount of pride in her voice, passing him one before she plopped herself down on the steps just outside the house. He joined her shortly after – she'd made him a vanilla shake, by far his favorite flavor.

"It's way too hot. You really shouldn't be wearing that thing on a night like this."

"You should see the layers the other guys are packing."

"Well, they have to make up for their ugly bodies somehow."

"I don't know about that, Noro gives off the impression that he's pretty ripped."

"Men like that are disgusting." She snorted.

"Yeah, like you'd have any idea."

"Plenty of girls give up on guys like that once they've spent a night with them. Then again, most girls would give up on a guy like you halfway through the first date." Despite her harsh line she scooted closer to him.

"Wow, that's rude." He took another sip from his shake.

"Hey, I want to go to Angel Mort this weekend."

"Planning on confessing to someone? I just told poor Tomita that he still had a shot. At least pick someone other than Shion."

"No, you fool. I just want to go, alright? And don't go around teasing Tomita-kun like that, he's not equipped for your level of bullying."

"Depends on the mood. There's some shit going on at Mion's place that doesn't seem like it's going to bode well for any of us."

She frowned. "Like what?"

"Well, for starters there's a bunch of guys in suits blocking anyone from going inside that just showed up this morning. Mion basically confirmed there's some pretty dubious shit going on in there but she's not allowed to say anything… Also, they're looking for some guy that I closely resemble."

"Wow, there's someone else with such a dopey look on their face in this village?"

"Eh, I'll give you a three out of ten for that one, you at least tried. I'm being serious, by the way."

"Alright, I get the idea. Then I'm going to borrow your room instead."

"You're moving out pretty soon; you should just take the time to finish packing."

"I don't even have that much to pack. You're not fooling me by the way; you just don't want me stumbling upon any porn or whatever. I want to see what's in there at least once before I go." She narrowed her eyes and smiled confidently.

"I'm going to be too tired to do anything you're into." He sighed. "You know, like I am right now."

"Hee hee, says the little boy that can't keep from getting excited around a cute girl."

"I'm not -" A quick inspection stopped him short. The sudden realization made his pants grow even tighter.

"Geez, maybe I shouldn't have said anything." She sighed, twisting around until she was facing him, her cheeks a little red. "Alright, alright, you did a good job today, so I'll take care of this for you."

Without another word she pulled him in to kiss her, tugging on the back of his head. It was sweet and tender – and served more as a minor distraction while her hands made short work of the zipper between her and his growing length.

"Hey, not out here, alright?" She ignored him, freeing the bulge from his pants in its entirety. "I'm being serious, you know."

"Oh relax, no one's going to find out. Just shut up and finish your shake."

"Hell no. 'Specially now that I'm pretty sure you spiked it with some –"

The inside of her mouth was cold from her shake, and from the moment he'd entered her she'd forgone her usual gentle uncertainty. Damn this girl – she'd planned this all along. It wasn't very long into their impromptu lovemaking that her lower half started to squirm – noticing this, he slipped his hands down her shorts, forcing her to stop and gasp. She wasn't quite used to this sort of thing yet, and in that moment he stood up, pulling her up from her rear with him so her arms were thrown over his shoulders and her legs ended up wrapped around his waist, her damp shorts pressed up against him.

"You're going to take responsibility for this, aren't you?" She asked sweetly, perhaps with a higher pitch than she intended.

The two of them vanished through the doorway after that, and while Keiichi managed to shut the door behind them they didn't make it much further than that. Had anyone gone past the Maebara house that evening they may have questioned the quiet but noticeable noise that filled the entrance-way. It was rather fortunate for the two forbidden lovers that no one did.