Author's Note

Moving right along, I'll be posting these in smaller portions from here on out.

Bio Study Observation 02 : Subject ACER-0138234691

This'll probably seem more like a diary entry than an observation report, but I whole-heartedly think that this is appropriate for a study as convoluted as this one.

About four weeks have passed since the last one of these that I've written, and the developments we've seen don't have much to do with the man himself, but rather the reaction we've been getting from our own fellow medical staff members. It would seem that this man is far more unique than we ever would have thought- it seems that he is the single carrier of the so called Hinamizawa Syndrome. How this is possible we still aren't sure. After all, the syndrome is purely psychological. But we've determined from studying the effects that exposure to the man on a constant basis is just as plausible a method to contract the syndrome- even if you aren't a resident of that village. This has been confirmed due to the fate of poor Aria, who has begun her own treatment due to having displayed psychological disorders that the rest of the staff could not explain. It would appear; however, that Saika has completely ignored the whole situation and still keeps him company on a regular basis. Why this is I have no idea, but I assume she just believes that Aria simply cracked under some sort of pressure and she believed that she would not succumb to that. But Saika seems to be highly optimistic about the entire situation and seems relatively unaffected by the man. As such, I have moved her onto my team in Aria's place. Mido was against the idea of replacing Aria, but I eventually convinced him to let it go.

As I write this I am standing outside the man's room, looking at him through the glass window. He seems so incredibly indifferent to all of this, even though we've already gone and told him about what had been happening to Aria. Instead, the man seems to be plagued by something else all together. Saika has informed me that he has been experiencing throes of pain in his chest, his legs, his stomach as well as his neck and his esophagus. What could be causing this pain I really just have no idea. I highly doubt this line of research will ever yield anything, but as I actually like this job I'll leave my objections at that and let you figure out the rest for yourself.

Of course, after I mulled this over, I decided to do the same as Saika had done. I entered the room and we simply talked. I pressed him for details on Sonozaki , but as usual all he could recall was the name and the great pain it brought him. Since I knew asking him would get me nowhere, I decided to bring my line of questioning to Saika, who reportedly had a decent grasp of the entire situation given her prior experience in the cult field, having been following that nasty incident a few years back with an entire family of rich people turning up dead on their own private island. I actually remembered bits and pieces of this when it first hit the media and I realized that there were some similarities between the two- the mystery factor. So I figured that Saika would be the most useful of our current staff to investigate this.

It's needless to say that I got what I needed and more. It turned out that she knew someone from college who was huge on the occult scene and after contacting him he pointed us in the direction of an occult site dedicated to the Hinamizawa incident that was recently suspended due to the rumor that the entire group had turned up dead a short while ago. I verified this with Kuma-san from the precinct, and we determined that they all were part of the occult group we'd been informed about- the Watchers, who were essentially a group of people who investigated (or 'watched') information relevant to the original incident in order to discover "the truth" of Hinamizawa's disaster. It's only somewhat noble, and in the end their curiosity ended up getting them killed.

Anyhow, the site was filled to the brim with information pertinent to the name of Sonozaki- more specifically the elder sibling, Sonozaki Mion. There was more information on her than we would ever need- hell; they had her blood type and weight. Watchers? More like Deranged Stalkers. I wouldn't be surprised if the woman herself was part of this group. We managed to ascertain one of the more popular theories about the incident in that it was supposedly caused by the Sonozaki family, a former Yakuza branch, in retaliation to the town's precious rituals and whatnot. There was absolutely no way to verify this, of course, but if the Sonozaki family was wiped out as well I highly doubt this was the case. Or perhaps they're all in hiding? Regardless, we still had no information on Sonozaki Shion, but knowing about the elder might actually help us out in the long run.

We decided to visit him together. He was a bit uncertain about me, of course, since I was just some random doctor who could be plotting to kill him. He seemed so insecure when anyone entered the room with Saika, but when anyone entered on their own he'd be fine. It was a strange development, but then again everything about this whole case is a strange development. I'd just read up on an occult faith, for god's sake. Anyhow, upon being told everything we knew about Sonozaki Mion, he actually did something remarkable. By some stroke of luck we'd somehow managed to trigger something from within his memory- it wasn't much, and he nearly had a heart attack trying to relay it to us, but Saika with her insanely accurate understanding of this man managed to keep him under control. We'd learned that Mion was apparently a demon. What exactly that meant I wasn't even remotely sure. I just knew that this man had a great fear of the Sonozaki siblings, but what that fear was rooted in I was still unsure. Perhaps in time he'll be able to produce more productive results. I leave the room and Saika tends to him while I try to mull this situation over. He calms down rather quickly, and I am able to press him for a few more minutes before Saika gets a tad irritated with me and sends me out of the room.

This man is about as remarkable as could be. He can't even remember his own name, but he can somehow remember the names of these two twins- one who brings him great pain and the other who brings him great fear. Somehow I can't help but think that these rumors might have some credibility to them. But despite the futility of it all I will continue to research this man, but now I will focus more intently on the occult's view of things. After all, the name of Sonozaki is meaningless to all but these people, and I believe that the past of this family is required in order to achieve the final resolution that this case requires.

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