Chapter 12
The Dark Secret of Hinamizawa and the Watanagashi Festival!


Morning…

The Smashers were all asleep on bed sheets sprawled out on the floor of the living room. Wario was sleeping in a way where his butt is in front of Bowser's face. Bowser suddenly had a dream where he married Peach and they were going to enjoy their wedding cake. Bowser thus opened his mouth and took a bite.

CHOMP!

-

Around the same time, the gang was on their way to school. "And then he flushed it down the toilet!" Mion said.

"Haha! That's funny!" Rena commented.

"Whoever thought he was like that! Haha!" Keichi said as he laughed.

As the friends chatted happily, Rika turned around as she had a strange feeling that they were being watched. She turned in time just to see some strange shadow zipping behind a building a wall, but she couldn't see properly what it was. "Anything wrong, Rika?" Satoko asked her.

"Nothing," Rika said with a smile. "Nipa!"

-

Some time later, during class time…

"Keichi, do you know how to do this question?" Rena asked Keichi while pointing to a particular question on her notebook.

"This one? This is how you do it," Keichi told her.

"I see… Thanks!"

"Help me with this one too!" Mion asked him.

"This one? It's very easy. Watch!"

"I have a problem with one too," Shion asked him. "Please help…"

"Sure, watch!"

"Oh, I don't know this one either," Mion asked him again.

"Okay, just let me teach how to do these problems."

"I get it now!" Rena said.

"Now I know how to do it!" Mion said.

"Ask me if you need any more help!" Keichi said.

Rena then lifted up her arms in happiness and said, "Yay! I'm done with the class work!"

"Me too!" Mion said. "You sure taught us a lot!"

"Sorry if we wasted too much time on you," Shion told him.

"I took too much time teaching you two that I didn't work on mines at all…" Keichi grumbled while writing his work.

"Okay! Whoever is finished can go out and have break time!" their teacher said.

"Doh…"

-

Time continued to fly by and school was finally over, but the gang was still in the classroom sitting together and playing cards.

"Dammit! Lost again!" Keichi cried, slamming down his head onto the table in defeat.

"Just as planned! Hohoho!" Satoko jeered while doing her trademark laugh and pose.

"Okay! Penalty time like always!" Mion told him.

-

A short while passed again and now the gang was walking down the road, and Keichi was dressed in a beautiful pink tutu with a swan head coming from the area between the legs. "Aw, you look so cute in this!" Rena said to him.

"It fits you perfectly, heheh!" Mion said to him mockingly. Keichi just cursed under his breath while the girls laughed.

Wario came walking up the road and met up with them, and when he saw Keichi, he said, "Walking out of the closet, aren't you? Aye, young people nowadays…"

"It's not what you think!" Keichi said, looking embarrassed. "I lost a bet, that's all!"

"What sort of bet?"

"Card games…"

"Gambling, I see? Young people nowadays…"

"It's just for leisure," Mion told him. "We don't use real money in these."

"Ah, I remember the fun times I had at the casino in Soleanna. I won every single bet and earned big bucks! That sure was fun!"

Keichi lifted his brow upon hearing this. "Are you good at cards?"

"Anything that involved gambling, I'm too good at it," Wario claimed.

Keichi grabbed him by his hand and said in pleading manner, "Then would you mind if you get revenge for me?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I see where you're getting at, Keichi," Mion said. "Still cannot accept your constant defeat and want someone to get revenge for you? You're really hopeless, aren't you?"

"If you really insist my help, then pay up afterwards," Wario said.

"Okay, I'll give everything I got in my wallet, okay?" Keichi said. "For once I just want that green-haired wench to taste defeat, even if I'm not the one taking her down!"

"Who's the wench here?!" Mion shouted angrily. Shion just laughed at this comment.

-

Soon afterwards, they were all gathered at a table that was placed randomly on the fields and Wario and Mion were sitting face to face playing cards. "There's no way I can lose to some outsider," Mion thought with a smile. "I've been using these cards for so long that I know which card is which by looking at the scratches and marks on their backs. Heheh! I'm going to get the last laugh in the end!"

Note: I'm not good on any kind of card games at all, so don't blame me if the following parts do not make sense.

Wario then put down his card onto the table and when Mion looked at it, her eyes widened. "What?! Impossible?! How can he…? Whatever, I still have a chance here!"

"Your go now," Wario said, bringing his cards near to her.

She reached for a card and picked one, and was shocked what she got. "Dammit! Joker!"

Wario then picked a card from her, and after looking at it, he smiled and put down more cards onto the table. "Haha!"

"What?! This can't be happening?!" Mion gasped inside her mind. "How does he get away with this without a sweat?! I'm not losing to some fat hobo anytime soon!"

Keichi leaned close to her ear and said in an evil-sounding manner, "Get ready to lose. Hehehe!" Mion gritted her teeth and continued dueling with Wario.

-

Some time later and somewhere else…

Ness, Toon Link, and Kirby were lying down some benches and looking into the sky lazily. "What's to do here?" Ness asked.

"Don't know," TL said. "We don't know this place enough to find anything fun to do."

"How about we go eat?" Kirby asked.

"We just had lunch, didn't we?" Ness asked. He then looked up and saw the gang walking down the road. "Hey, it's them. Let's get over and see if they are doing anything!" So the three got up and ran over.

"Heheh! I feel so happy to see you in something like!" Keichi said with a wicked smile.

Walking in front of them was Mion dressed only in her underwear, and there were notes stuck all over that wrote stuffs like idiot, witch, old hag, demon incarnate, stupid woman, slut, loser, etc. Her face was also drawn with markings using markers too.

"I'll get you for this someday…" she grumbled with an embarrassed face while keeping her arms wrapped around herself.

"Isn't this a bit too cruel?" Shion said.

"Not half as bad as the punishments I received when I lost!" Keichi said.

Then the three Smashers ran up to them. "Hey, what's the fun here?" Ness asked.

TL looked Mion and gave an excited whistle while Kirby said, "I didn't know you're this kind of girl! Going around in your underwear, how daring!"

"It's not what you think…" Mion grumbled.

"The fat guy with you sure is good at cards-wa," Satako said. "It's like he could see what's underneath each card and perform actions beforehand!"

"You mean Wario?" Ness asked. "I wouldn't know anything about that since I don't know him as much as Mario."

-

Some time passed again…

Satoko and Rika walked down a market together and they stopped by a butcher to buy meat. "Hey kids," the seller said. "The usual, right?"

"You bet!" Satoko replied.

While Satako was paying the cash, Rika suddenly caught notice of a person zipping behind a building wall. Satako noticed her looking straight and asked her, "What's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing at all!" Rika replied with a smile. "Let's go home fast!"

The two girls walked down the road again, and Rika turned to look at the place where the person was looking at them again.

-

Somewhere else, Bowser was wandering around like a stray green koopa troopa. "Duh… Nothing to do here," he mumbled under his breath. "I hope the bad guys would show up sooner so I can whoop them and return to Soleanna knowing that Everything is safe…"

A truck went past down the road next to him, but it's not like the truck is anything special, so he didn't care.

But then the truck stopped and the driver looked out the window and at Bowser. He went back into the truck and did a u-turn and suddenly drove towards Bowser at high speed. Bowser then noticed something behind him, and he turned around and saw a coin on the ground. "Hey, a coin!" He bent over to pick it up just at the same time the truck came ramming onto his head.

CRASH!

For some reason, the truck stopped moving the moment it hit Bowser. Bowser lifted up his head and there was a large bump on his head, much to the driver's surprise. "Watch where you're going!" Bowser shouted, and he rubbed his head and continued on his way.

The driver growled and then stepped on the pedal again and tried a second attempt. This time Bowser turned and did a shoulder bash that not only stopped the truck dead in its path, but also caused it to slide back a distance. "You got a problem with me, don't you?!" Bowser said angrily as he approached the truck.

The truck driver was frightened and he quickly drove past Bowser and went into the distance. "Hey! Get back here!" Bowser shouted to him. "What's with that guy?! Trying to kill me or what?!"

-

Rika and Satoko were now back in their house and looking over the groceries that they bought. "We sure bought a lot today," Satoko said. "I wonder what we should have for dinner."

Then unknown to them, a guy in uniform and a hat was looking at them through the window. Rika suddenly turned her head around and caught a glimpse of that man pulling away. Satoko noticed this and asked her, "What's wrong again?"

"Oh, it's nothing!" Rika told her.

"You're strange, Rika… You've been like this since morning… There has to be something wrong, right?"

"Oh no, there's really nothing. Don't worry about this too much! Nipa!"

"Seriously, if there is anything wrong, let me know! We friends, aren't we?"

"Really, there's nothing at all!"

"Fine, whatever…" Satoko said, but she thought to herself, "There's got to be something with her."

-

Meanwhile, at a junkyard somewhere in town…

"So you come here all the time?" Ike asked Rena while she dug through the pile of scraps.

"Yes, it's my treasure hunting area," she replied. "I can find lots of cute things here for me to take home!"

"There's nothing here but junk," Wario said as he dug through the piles too. "I was hoping to find something valuable." And then he spotted a coin and so picked it up. "Not too bad for a start."

Ike looked around the place too and caught notice of some old newspapers, and so he picked up one and read it. The headline at the beginning grabbed his attention the most. "Two people found dead on the night of Watanagashi Festival. Like always, this is the sixth year that this happened…"

"Hey, why are you reading old newspaper?" Wario asked him.

Ike looked up at Rena and called out to her, "Hey, what's the Watanagashi Festival?"

"Oh, that's a festival that is held in our village once a year," she replied while keeping her eyes on the scrap pile. "It is a day to commemorate our god Oyashiro-sama. Speaking of which, the festival is coming in two days. Time sure flies!"

"The paper here says that two people were found dead on that day, and it is the sixth year already."

Then Rena immediately stopped digging through the pile and said, "That's… That's very common here…" And she returned to digging again.

"Strange…" Ike thought to himself.

-

That night, at the rental house…

Ike put down the newspaper onto the table and showed it to the Smashers. "I find this very strange."

"Two people died at Watanagashi Festival and it has been the sixth time in a row already," Ness read from the paper.

"When I asked Rena, she said it's something that happens often. However, I still feel that there's something wrong with this. From the way she says it, it seems that she is hiding something."

"Maybe the thought of people dying makes her scared," Kirby stated. "After all, she's a girl, so she's obviously scared of death."

"So this has been happening for so many years already?" Bowser asked. "Funny how they have never did something about this."

"I think we should ask them again about this tomorrow," Ike suggested.

-

Meanwhile, at Rika and Satoko's house…

Rika was sitting at the porch of the house and looking at the night sky while drinking what appears to be wine. As she sat there, a ghostly figure of a purple-haired girl with goat-like horns growing out of her head came to existence next to her. "Rika… The day is drawing near…" she said.

"I know, Hanyu," Rika replied. "I can feel it… The judgment day is near… It is the day when all will end…"

"Can't we do anything to stop this?"

"This is fate… Nothing can stop what is going to happen. In the end, the village and everyone in it… will die…"

"There has to be a way! We cannot all die like this! There must be a way to stop this from happening!"

"Impossible… There is no way we can go against fate…"

-

In the middle of the night…

Ness woke up and walked through the hallway drowsily to get to the toilet. After using the toilet, he began to walk back to the living room. But suddenly, he heard footsteps. He then remembered what Ike told them about the god of Hinamizawa and that he would stalk people from behind. Ness began to tremble and sweat violently, and he slowly turned his head around and came face to face with… pink puffball.

"What are you doing?!" Ness said. "You scared me to death!"

"Midnight snack," Kirby said, holding up a slice of bread.

That was random…

-

The next morning at school…

Satoko was gathered together with her elder friends, talking about something. "Rika has been acting strange," she said. "But she refused to tell me anything. And honestly saying; I have this feeling that we both are being stalked by strange people lately. Something tells me that Rika knows about this, but she refuses to share it to me."

"That's strange to hear…" Keichi said.

"Who would want to stalk little girls…?" Shion said.

"Well, Dr. Irie is quite a pedophile if you didn't know," Mion said. "I wouldn't be surprised if he wants to see you two more often."

"Still, I don't feel safe at all," Satoko said. "I'm especially worried about Rika too. She doesn't look normal at all lately."

"Don't worry; we will help you with this," Keichi told her.

"Yes, we're friends and we will help each other!" Rena added.

-

After school, Satoko was walking down the road alone. She then saw Ness and Toon Link coming down from across her too, and she quickly ran up to them. "Hey guys!" she shouted.

"Oh hi, Satoko!" Ness said. "How's it going?"

She stopped in front of them and panted a bit, and then said, "I have to tell you something." And she told them the same thing she told her friends.

"I see… Strange people have been stalking you and Rika lately?" Ness said. "That's pretty scary for your age all right."

"Don't worry about this! I will make sure those bastards don't lay a hand on you!" TL told her.

"Thanks!" she said happily, and she looked at TL and thought, "I feel safer when I'm with him."

"Speaking of which…" TL then eyed the bushes next to the road and they saw it wiggling. "Get out of there!" And he tossed himself at the bush.

CRASH! POW!

"Yeah! Get him!" Ness said, punching the air.

"Ow! Stop it! Help!" cried the voice. TL then stood up from behind the bush and there was Captain Olimar standing next to him!

"Huh?! Olimar! What are you doing here?!" Ness gasped.

"Ow… I was here on a study expedition," he replied.

"Sorry about that," TL said. "I thought you were the one stalking that girl."

"Wait a minute… You're not the one, are you?" Ness asked Olimar.

"Oh no, I am not a person like that," Olimar said. "In fact, I just came this morning! I'm only here to discover new life forms."

"You know him?" Satoko asked Ness.

"You can say that," Ness replied.

-

Meanwhile, Bowser and Wario were walking together on the road. "It was this place that the psycho driver tried to kill me with his truck," Bowser told him.

"That guy must be drunk driving," Wario said.

"Whatever the reason is, I'm going to get him for real the next time he shows his face to me again!"

"If he did that to me, there will be no tomorrow for him either!"

-

The gang was now at a field that they usually gather together, eating homemade lunch together. Ness, TL, and Kirby were with them too. "This is good!" Kirby said in between bites.

"I'm so glad you like it!" Rena said to him happily. "Here, have some more!"

Satoko offered TL a piece of food and said, "I made this myself! Try some!"

"Thanks!" TL said, and he took it from her and ate it. "Delicious!"

"I'm glad you like it-wa! Heheh!"

As they were eating and enjoying themselves, Ike came up to them. "Having a great time?"

"Hey! Come eat with us!" Keichi said to him.

"Don't mind if I do," Ike said, and he sat down and began eating with them too. "By the way, there is one thing I would like to ask."

"What is it?"

"Sorry if I shouldn't be asking this, but… About the Watanagashi Festival… I heard that people die all the time on that day."

"Oh, that one," Mion said. "Yeah, it's the sad truth… Even though that is an enjoyable day, we are also afraid that if one us would become the next victim."

"It's going to happen for sure this coming festival too," Rika said in a sad voice.

"Do you know why all these are happening?" Ike asked.

"It's a punishment from Oyashiro-sama," Rena said. "His wrath is upon the village due to what happened seven years ago…"

"What happened seven years ago?" Ness asked.

There was a silence among the gang as their face turned sad, but then Mion spoke up, "Seven years ago, there was a project for a dam construction at the river around this area. This would mean that the village needs to be moved away. Naturally, the villagers would not allow this as they have been living in this place for so long and created a history. So there was a strike to stop the dam building. It was a very violent uproar and many people were badly injured and some died. In the end, the project finally came to a stop, but it was a very striking event that was engraved into the hearts of people who participated in it…"

"And it happened on the day of the festival too…" Rika added. "Ever since that day, there would be people dying every year on the same day…"

"It is without doubt Oyashiro-sama's punishment for us," Rena said sadly. "He is punishing us for causing the disturbance of the village… His wrath will not die until we all face punishment…"

"That's a scary story…" Kirby said.

"How do the victims usually die every year?" TL asked.

"Most of the time the victim was found with his throat clawed open," Keichi said. "Either that or they were found with their body burned into crisp, or they even die from unexplainable sicknesses. At times, people would also disappear without a trace and never to be heard of again."

"That's really scary…" Kirby said again.

"So you believe that these deaths are all supernatural?" Ike asked.

"That's what most of the villagers believe, but there are some that believe there is actually someone behind the scenes," Keichi replied. "For example, the chief officer of our village, Mr. Ooshi, is convinced that someone is behind all this, so he tried to investigate over this matter all the time. Unfortunately, he is quite a bumbling police that he couldn't get anything solved at all."

Ike then noticed that Shion had her face lowered and she looked very gloomy. "Is she all right?"

Mion moved close to him and whispered into his ear, "Her boyfriend, Satoshi, who was also Satoko's older brother, was one of the victims. He disappeared the 3 years ago and was never heard of again. Every time she is reminded of this, she goes into serious mental breakdown."

"Sorry that I asked…"

"We better make her think of other things before she goes insane…" Keichi suggested.

-

After a while, the Smashers had finished their meal and were walking around on their own. "Ah! That was a nice meal!" Kirby said.

"I agree!" TL said.

Ness looked at Ike and said, "So what do you think about that?"

"I'm not convinced that this is all a supernatural event," he said. "I have feeling that there is someone behind this."

"I have the same feeling too…"

Then Bowser and Wario walked up to them and Bowser said, "Hey, I was just searching for you guys."

"What is it?" Ike asked.

"Just now some villagers said to us that there was a strange creature causing disturbance in the place outside the northeastern part of the village."

"What?" Ness said.

"I don't know… That's what they told us, so we decided to come tell you about this."

"I don't know if they are telling the truth, but I say that we go over anyway and teach whatever that creature is a lesson. If they are lying to us, we will teach those villagers a lesson for playing Pinocchio instead!" Wario said.

"Hmmm… Since we do not have anything to do right now, it wouldn't hurt to go over and check things out," Ike suggested.

"Let's go stop that creature before it causes trouble to the village!" TL said.


TO BE CONTINUED