Author's Note: A compound found in chili peppers, Oleoresin Capsicum (OC) is the irritant in pepper spray.
By the time I needed to set out for school, Mari had temporarily regained control of me. I was Mari, but I could hear all the other personalities talking and arguing in my head. Any one of them could take control at any moment.
My memories were in a jumble. I wasn't sure if I had killed anyone or why. I felt sure, however, that trying to put the pieces together would break me completely. So I operated on "auto pilot," pretending to be some kind of detective trying to expose the crimes of my family. Yes, thought Mari, this was all for justice.
Disguised as Mion, Mari met Keiichi and Rena on the way to school. When Mari yawned loudly, thinking it within my sister's character, the others wondered why I was so tired. Rena then suggested that perhaps I had stayed out late trying to find the village leader (Kimiyoshi). Mari nodded and explained how she and the Youth Corps searched unsuccessfully all night. Keiichi acknowledged that I must have a lot on my plate.
"An all-nighter isn't a big deal," Mari stated cheerily. "I've got lots of stamina I haven't even touched yet!"
In her head, Mari noted that Keiichi seemed awfully relaxed. It seemed that he hadn't yet been in contact with the enemy. Nobody had tried to spirit him away. Perhaps we should give him another call tonight, as Shion. After all, now that Oryo and Kimiyoshi were dead, the only way to find the actual killer was to lure him out using Keiichi as bait. If that plan failed, everything would fall apart.
Before going into the classroom, Keiichi, Rena, and Mari stopped to say good morning to Satoko and Rika. I probably hadn't seen them yesterday, in my hurry to get to the executive committee meeting. It felt like Mari hadn't seen them in a long time. She was glad to be reminded of their presence, however. Satoko's closest friend, ten year old Rika, could prove of utmost importance to Mari's plans.
Rika Furude was the last surviving member of her immediate family. Her only living relatives were her father's brother and his wife, who provided the money for the orphaned Rika's living expenses. The young heir to the Furude Shrine lived in a small rented house with Satoko, whose uncle would no longer take care of her.
While Rika was certainly a member of the Three Great Families, Mari found it difficult to believe she had anything to do with carrying out Oyashiro's Curse. She was only a child… not to mention the fact that she had never been asked to the board meetings. Still, we needed to question her. Mari planned to do so discreetly, at school, silencing Haruka's demands that we kidnap the poor girl.
***Rika's Interview***
During recess, Mari asked for a word alone with Rika. We stood on the field behind the schoolhouse next to the eaves of the woods. None of the kids played this close to the woods, and they avoided the back of the school anyway because of the tall, unkempt grass. They preferred to play around the storage sheds on the sides, on the neat lawn in front, or on the baseball field not far from the schoolhouse.
"So, as the heir of the Furude family," Mari began, "how much do you about the current situation?"
"You must be talking about Mr. Tomitake, so-it-is?" Rika asked after a moment of puzzled silence.
She knew. Nothing about Tomitake's death had been released to the public. There was no way Rika should know, unless she was privy to the plans.
"It was the will of Oyashiro's Curse, so-it-is," Rika stated noncommittally.
"I know that much," Mari bit back. "But that means it isn't over, right? There's two more to go. What will their fate be?" We noticed Rika looking at us with lips shut tightly. "Well?" we demanded. "Are you listening to me?!"
"Nothing needs to happen to them, so-it-is," Rika said at last. Her innocence surprised me.
"Of course something needs to happen," Mari protested, trying to keep up the role of Mion. "If we let those two free, it means they never took responsibility. They never distinguished themselves."
"Ok, but I think if they feel bad about what they did, that's all that matters, so-it-is."
Mari lost patience with the little girl's supposed innocence. She grabbed Rika by her collar and pink bowtie, saying, "Don't screw with me! That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. How did the last of the Furude family ever get so soft?! You're saying it's no big deal to violate the ritual tool shrine?"
"Not at all," answered Rika hurriedly, unused to being handled this way. "That shrine is still an important place for Oyashiro-sama. No one should ever go in there without permission, so-it-is. You're right. The ones who broke in are like bad little kitties."
"They are very bad kitties indeed." We channeled Mion. "But only two of the four have been punished."
"Meow," said Rika. (Mari had no way of telling if she was mocking our conversation or not.)
"So, how should we make them distinguish themselves for this crime? Well, head of the Furude?"
"I think we should just forgive them," Rika smiled, "the two little kitties left running around."
"You don't believe they need to distinguish themselves or take responsibility?"
"Mii-chan," Rika answered, meeting my eyes calmly. "You keep using this phrase 'distinguish themselves' and I don't know what you mean. Oyashiro-sama won't care if all they did was take a peek, so-it-is."
"Amazing," Mari seethed with sarcasm. "You're still going like that!"
"I'll tell you the reason nobody is supposed to be in that shrine," stated Rika, staring at me with her calm violent eyes. "The shrine is full of scary tools, so-it-is. I bet when the four of them saw that stuff, they got really scared. And if they got scared and left, and feel bad, then it's all ok. So-it-is."
"You can't decide whether it's ok," Mari protested. "Doesn't Oyashiro decide that?"
"Yes, so-it-is. But Mion, I'm Oyashiro-sama's Priestess."
"So what?" Mari demanded furiously. On top of everything else, this little girl was bringing religion into it. "Please don't tell me you think Oyashiro speaks to you, or tells you who is going to be cursed!"
Rika simply nodded.
"Ha!" cried Mari, frustrated. "I can't believe a brat like you is the Furude family head! They used to be one of the Great Families!"
"I don't know why you're so angry." Hints of annoyance and defiance stole into the little girl's face. "I wish you would just tell me what's actually upsetting you, so-it-is."
"YOU are upsetting me!" snapped Mari.
She slapped Rika's right cheek, struck again with the backhand, and hit the girl's left cheek with the third blow. They were not maliciously powerful slaps at all, but they were enough to sting, and perhaps bring a girl to tears. We released our hold on Rika's collar, shoving her down into the grass.
Of course, Rika had been exactly right in noticing that something under the surface was what actually left Mari so upset. Rika mysteriously knew about Tomitake's death and the break-in at the ritual tool shed. She couldn't have received this information from the village's nonexistent god. The only explanation was that Rika was involved with the crimes, but if that was so, why did she seem so innocent and forgiving? Was she smart enough to put on an act to throw us off?
It was more than lack of understanding that made us angry. In Mari's mind, there needed to be a culprit. We needed to find the killer, the person who actually carried out Oryo's wishes. Oryo was silent in her grave, Kimiyoshi had never asked the killer's identity, and now the last of the Three Great Families was talking about forgiving Keiichi! How could Mari lure out the criminal unless someone went after Keiichi? Rika might have the power to call whoever it was to stop. But if she did that, the mystery would never be solved. Satoshi would never be truly avenged.
"The village leader had to distinguish himself too," Mari said, looking down at Rika threateningly. "That is why he had to disappear. The only one left to distinguish himself is Keiichi-kun. The Furude family is tasked with carrying this out!"
"Mii-chan," Rika said in a slightly subdued voice, "I don't know anything about that stuff."
Mari glared nails at her until the little girl looked away, not wanting to hold eye contact. We had hoped for information and come up with nothing again. We had not verified whether or not Rika was telling the truth. Something certainly didn't add up about her. If something did happen to Keiichi, then as far as Mari knew, Rika was as guilty as the old Hag Oryo. Even if she wasn't directly involved in killing, withholding necessary information would make this holy Miko a guilty sinner. If they succeeded in spiriting away Keiichi, we thought, we would take revenge by killing Rika. Haruka delighted over the thought of giving her a painful death.
***Rika's Visit***
The Hinamizawa Syndrome was actually making my Dissociative Identity Disorder worse. It caused me to switch rapidly between alters and yet maintain a vague idea of what was happening. Strangely, I could remember some things done by another personality. It was as if my multiple selves were merging. The weight of it threatened to snap my mind at any moment, combined with the paranoia and violent urges of Hinamizawa Syndrome.
After school, I (as Mari) began to remember throwing Kimiyoshi down into the dungeon well. Try as she might, Mari could not justify this. She sat in Mion's room in the dark, holding a vicious, fixed hunting knife with a five inch blade. Just as Jun considered jumping down the well to join Satoshi in death, Mari considered using that knife to end her mockery of an honorable life. She felt fairly certain that Haruka had thrown Kimiyoshi down alive. We wondered if he was dead yet or still suffering with dozens of broken bones at the bottom of a pit.
"I actually loved that old man," Mari realized, gripping the knife. "Look at this. All the people closest to me are disappearing one by one. It all started with Satoshi. Yes, Satoshi…"
She slammed the knife down and it stood quivering, blade embedded in the wooden floor. Anyone from the Hojo family could have been chosen as a victim, Mari realized. In that case, Satoko deserved to die instead. That brat did her best to drag Satoshi down and tear away at his heart with all her caviling. Satoko fed on her brother like a parasite and never once gave anything back. What would it be like if she had died instead?
"Satoshi would have been broken," Mari thought. "His heart would never fully recover. Her death would free him temporarily, but a dark cloud would have loomed over him. But I would have been there for him! I would be there to heal his pain. And then, he and I…"
The doorbell rang.
Wearing one of Mion's t-shirts and close-fitting trousers, Mari hurried to answer the front door. She found Rika waiting with a smile on her pretty face, and a gigantic (empty) sauce bottle in her arms. The shrine maiden told Mari she had come to get some soy sauce. We probably told her to come over for that earlier, but we must have forgotten because of the rapid personality switches. Mari welcomed Rika inside, feeling friendly enough. She was glad of anything to take her mind off Satoshi and off of suicide.
The little girl walked behind as Mari led the way, down a hall, and toward the walk-in food pantry. Oddly, Mari could not hear the sound of Rika's footsteps. She paused, and Rika walked right into her back. Mari quickly apologized, saying she had spaced out for a second. She kept walking. Presently, Mari realized she could hear her footsteps, but the sound was masked by that of her own. Was Rika trying to mess with me by matching my footsteps?
Briefly, Mari turned her head and looked back at Rika. The shrine maiden grinned and said "Nipaa," a sound effect of cheeriness she often uttered. Mari continued on, wondering what the little girl could be thinking. Soon we reached the pantry and entered without delay. Opening a mini-cellar in the floor, Mari drew out a jar of sauce big enough to fill even Rika's large bottle.
On her knees, Mari put the lid over the cubby and turned to face Rika.
"Take as much as you want."
But the smile had vanished from Rika's face. Our heads were on the same level now, since I was still kneeling. Without warning, the shrine maiden pulled out a small canister and sprayed it directly at our face.
At once, Mari's eyes began to pour water and shut tightly against our will. It seemed like floods of mucus were running along our sinuses and out our nose. It had to be pepper spray. Mari cried out in pain because the next thing we felt was the burn. Have you ever been so badly sunburned that a layer of skin died and peeled off a few days after exposure? The burn of the pepper spray was worse than the pain even from such a scorching. When she tried to get her breath, Mari kept coughing, bringing up more mucus.
We were so physically distressed by the oleoresin capsicum, we became completely helpless. Mari lay face-down on the floor, still coughing and rasping. Rika grabbed us by the pony tail and forced us onto our back. Trying to use even her slight weight to an advantage, she sat on Mari's stomach as if to hold us down. Although she was shouting in pain, Mari managed to open her watery eyes for a second. She saw Rika holding a large, sharp-tipped syringe. It must be some kind of deadly drug.
The shrine maiden meant to inject us right away, but we screamed and tried to struggle. To subdue Mari, Rika attempted to spray us in the face again. However, Mari shielded her face and Rika herself breathed in the cloud of pepper spray. At the same time, I unintentionally switched to being Haruka. She took control and pushed Rika off her body right away. Standing and staggering a few steps backward, Haruka whipped out her Taser.
"If you want to play like that, fine!" Haruka shouted.
To Be Continued...