50 – Point of no return
Hinamizawa, 29th February 1984
Quiet in his house in Okinomiya, far from the hell he was the author of, Goemon Sonozaki was waiting for his servant's return. He had sent his bodyguard to the village when Sun had still to rise, so some hour had already passed since his departure, but it was still early. Attacking in that moment of the day came in useful not only to take the other faction by surprise, but also to have more time to think about the next moves. He had the whole day in front of him, he was not in a hurry.
The original plan was to take Mion to Okinomiya, at their house. His wife had insisted about the importance of having her at their mercy: once she had been led there, that same afternoon they would have shown her at the members of the clan who supported the changing of the ruler, in order to let them see the tattoo on her back and make them witnesses of her true state of health. And then they would have convened an extraordinary assembly where everyone would have assisted in the girl's final dethronement. Everyone would have been forced to admit that Mion was not able to guide them anymore, and that the one they had seen in the previous days was someone else, likely Shion dressed up as her sister.
Officially, in fact, the whole clan had been told that it was Shion who was at the Clinic, ill and needing rest. And their relatives had no particular doubts about that, since each time they came to the Manor they saw a girl with a ponytail who used to speak to them calmly and resolutely. That illusion was perfect, and they had always thought to speak with Mion, by phone or in person, to such an extent that Shion was spending more time as her sister than as herself. Paradoxically, the Sonozakis' traditional stories were full of curses and bad events about the birth and existence twins within the clan, but having Shion next to her was rather a bless for her sibling, now.
Anyways, in spite of the efforts by the main branch to hide the truth, Goemon had understood it was only a gimmick, even if he couldn't prove it, unless he was able to bring Mion to Okinomiya and show her tattoo to the others. Ouka Furude had told him about the so-called ATPC and about its plausible effects. If there was a sister with those symptoms at the Clinic, then it was nobody but Mion, there couldn't be any chance of mistake. However, he had to move carefully, the ones on his side had to avoid to let the main branch of the family know something about their secret meetings and about what they were planning to do to their actual leader, otherwise they would have messed up everything.
Ouka Furude... He remembered the very first time she had appeared in front of him. He couldn't believe in his own eyes. But that spirit had told him that she had read his heart... and she had seen how much he was eager for revenge. This was what she had explained, and the fact she had claimed to share his same feelings had made him trust her. His wish was too strong to let that chance slip. That girl had shown him all the weakest points of the ones who would have faced him, and how to deal with them.
When had it happened? Just after Nabiha's failure, when the whole village had come in front of the prefecture. With that plan, his wife wanted to isolate Mion and her group from the rest of the family. She had been the one who had made the first step, and she had convinced him to help her. Moving the inhabitants elsewhere would have allowed her to have it easy thanks to the shock and the trauma: Hinamizawa's spirit wouldn't have worked because Hinamizawa itself would have finished to exist, and that young girl alone would have been an easy prey. But something had gone wrong, and Goemon had to be careful not to let Megumi or himself be discovered by the others' searches.
But when he met Ouka... He had found out what was his real purpose... He didn't want mere power within the clan... he wanted to annihilate it, and the whole village with it. And that spirit had illustrated to him the way to do it. She had revealed to him about the Syndrome, and about the importance of Rika's life. And then she had told him that, if a single person within the group surrounding Mion had fallen because of his own sacrifice, the priestess of the Furude Shrine would have died, and the whole Hinamizawa would have been destroyed, not letting any survivor. He wasn't sure to have understood how this was possible, but he had trusted her, because he had realized she did is a powerful spirit and not a normal girl or a vacuum ghost. There was something mystical and supernatural, inside her, so he didn't question what she had said.
And moreover, this was what he wanted to do. Ouka had read in her mind too, and she had awaken the evilest side of her soul. Like her, he was hating the members of the family he belonged to, and not without reason. She had reminded him why he hated them so much.
"Yuzo..." he whispered "Your son and you will rest finally in peace, and I will join you serene. I will have... my revenge."
Goemon rubbed his eyes, as to wake up from a dream, from a state of ecstasy. He stood up, and he watched the hour. His bodyguard was supposed to come back at any minute... He was sure he would have arrived before than that. He was late.
But it didn't matter, finally. He could even fail, he didn't care about it, he had decided to kidnap Mion only to second his wife's will, to make her calm. He couldn't dissatisfy her, she was a vital pawn for him: between them, she was the one who originally belonged to the clan, as a matter of fact he was only an in-law, and her acquaintances and means were fundamental for him, to reach his purpose. Because her aim was still to gain the control of the family, and nothing else... but his one was different.
"Poor Megumi" he said to himself "She is not imagining that, once Rika is dead, she will follow her same destiny..." He was right, after all. Unlike him, she didn't know a thing about that disease. But at the same time she had lived in Hinamizawa several years, right in the Manor and side by side with Oryou and the main branch of the family. Without the Queen Carrier's influence her life would have ended quickly, exactly like the other ones, quite surely.
Was he sorry for her impending death? He wasn't able to answer to this question. Instead, he was looking like being indifferent. Years before, he had married her because their hatred was what bound them. He had found someone who had a lot of things in common with him. Megumi hated the other Sonozakis as much as he hated Hinamizawa, so she was not an angel. He didn't want explicitly to kill her, but if she had died, nobody would have cried for her. For him, it was nothing more than a necessary step.
And it was going to come soon. At the Clinic, he had a contact. Using her wife's money, had corrupted one of the medics, who was keeping him informed continuously about what was happening to Mion. That agent faked to be detached not to generate any suspect, but in reality he was controlling everything. And he had revealed to Goemon that one of the boys was going to die in one or two days at most. Was it the kind of death Ouka had talked about? He was not sure, but it wasn't a real problem. Even if Rika had survived to him, he would have pushed them, more and more, until he would have made it. He was sure to have the whole situation under control, they would have never been able to save their own lives.
Even from there, he could hear their screams, he could taste their pain and desperation. It was the sweetest of the foods for him, the only thing which looked to be able to dull the sorrow his spirit was full of. Goemon looked out of the window, and he prided himself on the inferno he had created.
...
The basement of the Clinic in Hinamizawa was full of a surreal silence.
The cardiogram which was monitoring Giancarlo had been turned off, keeping it going was useless. Now, the room where he had been hosted was rather a mortuary chapel, and it was containing only a person alive, and a corpse.
Takano was looking at his immobile body, standing up next to the bed. She had done nothing in the whole period, during the last moments of his agony, she had just contemplated what was happening, without moving or trying to save the dying boy. She had only inactivated the device once it had shown that the one it was connected to had stopped to give any sign of life. She was alone, Irie still had to regain consciousness, the hit they had given him had been heavy and painful, and he was still fainted. He was still there, out of the room, sleeping in an uncomfortable position, but it was too heavy for the nurse to bring elsewhere, as far as she was alone.
She had done nothing, but pushing the switch which controlled the working of the cardiogram. And now, she was only looking at the grief around her, and at the one within her. She had not checked the state of Irie's head, she had not called the police, she had not informed anyone about what she had seen. She wasn't caring about it, anymore.
"This was... unavoidable." she commented, in fact "This is what occurs when you fight against something bigger than you. This is a thing I've already experienced, last year. I fought against God, against an unlimited force, and I lost. It couldn't end differently, I do think it's to be the same for whoever tries to do that. Now I know it."
She sat on the chair present in the room, the one where Alice had spent the night on. The light was vanishing from her lifeless eyes, and her movements were slow and without energy. She was tired of everything.
"You know..." she said "When I had met that girl with those little horns, she had proposed me to join them. She had said there was space for me too, in Hinamizawa. She had said that I could begin a new life here, surrounded by friends and free from the ghosts which had chased me during all these years... And I had trusted her. Really. She sounded so sincere, she had faith in what she was saying, and I could see that my happiness was important, for them. Hanyuu-chan had told it because she did believe I could have a happy time here, she had proposed that offer and I had accepted."
"But... she couldn't stand by what she had told. Nobody of them could. It's not their fault, they all did their best. The matter is that this place will never be a blessed one. They have tried to change it, and the result has been a disaster. They are all suffering, now..."
"I already knew that Hinamizawa's destiny was to be cursed, they had never been able to make me change my mind. I had got it the very first day when I came here, all those internal fights because of the Dam, a Syndrome taunting the ones it strikes... Joy couldn't rise, among these dark mountains, but for me it was neither an inconvenience, I never wished for it, after I had arrived here. Instead, I was hoping to become at least the source of this curse, the God who condemned the others to a miserable life. I was in despair, so I wanted them to be like me, and their pain would have alleviated mine... But how could I be so? The role I was aiming for is already occupied, I can see it now. The Evil which is tormenting the village, now, is something enormous, much bigger than the one I could ever create. Maybe it's not Oyashiro-sama, but there is really a force desiring a universal desperation, for all of us."
She sobbed. "A miracle will not happen... And if there is no hope for you, there is no hope for me. There is not any place here, for me."
Takano undid three of the buttons of her coat, to let her hand reach an inside pocket which she had sewed on her piece of clothing, some day before. From there, she took a gun, and a bullet. "Irie-sensei hadn't the foggiest idea about this hideout... thankfully..." Then, she laid the ball on the desk for a moment, to open the stock more easily, and after doing it she charged her weapon. She had kept it unloaded, previously, because she didn't want to take a shot accidentally, and in this way nobody had taken a chance of being harmed.
But now it was different.
Takano gave a rapid look to the door. She was still alone, nobody had reached her. She was pretty sure of it, the presence of the doctor's body next to the entrance of the room was an effective alarm system: if someone would have come down the basement he would have shouted, as soon as he had seen Irie fainted, and the intruder would have revealed his arrival. But the woman desired to be sure: she took a key from the pocket of the doctor's coat, and with it she locked the door.
Now she was like alone. She was free to do what she was going to do.
"I remember that day... Okonogi had given me a gun with a single bullet, inviting me to kill myself. I had refused, then, I didn't want to give up to such a destiny... but my shot in the end had hurt nobody. The ball had ended inside a tree, forming a deep hole... Poor plant, I had gone and seen it dozens of times, since that afternoon. It was the symbol of what had taken place... The memorial of that old story. Now I know that... It had to go in another way, that projectile was supposed to hit someone..."
She closed her eyes, bitterly smiling: "I think that Okonogi had given me the right suggestion, that day... The gun he had handed to me had been seized by the Banken, but after all it is not going to matter, this world is full of weapons... The past pain, and the present one, the one I had suffered, and the one they had... It's too much. My mere existence is the cause of everything... the despicable God who had created me assigned to me a hideous life, and I can't bear with it a day more..."
"I am tired, Hanyuu-chan... Sorry if I can't fulfill what I've promised to you... I am sorry for everything, it's all my fault..."
Takano sat on the bed where Giancarlo's body was, and she said: "Won't you mind if I do it here, will you? I am too tired even to go elsewhere..."
She put the barrel of the gun inside her mouth.
Her eyes were watering... And suddenly, a vision appeared in front of her.
"Grandpa, it's you..."
That kind man's spirit was there, holding out his warm hand to her. They would have lived together, far from all the sorrow she had dealt with in all her life... Finally...
Takano smiled, while crying like a little girl who had found again her parents. It was like her heart had just melting, she was not feeling her body, her anguish was vanishing. Her soul was flying away from her body. Together with his grandfather, she would have lived the dream she had always wished.
And then, she pulled off the trigger.
...
Some kilometer far from the Clinic, the man who had kidnapped Mion hadn't had the time to run away with his booty. Two other people had reached the place where he had fought against Alice.
Satoko and Satoshi had been contacted by Rena. The brown-haired girl was still inside the building because of her state of health, she had been there for a lot of time by that moment, but finally that day was to be the last one she had to stay there, her father was about to take and bring her at home. So, Irie had told her he would have come to her room very early in the morning to do a final checkup, after visiting Mion and Giancarlo. And his lateness was the thing which had aroused her suspicions. She was having a bad presage, so she had taken her wheelchair, and she had gone to the window of her room, to look outside. And there, she had seen Mion while being moved away, and Alice while looking for the man and her. She had realized immediately what had happened, so she flung herself to the reception hall, and since there were not doctors, nurses or employees yet she directly called the police.
After doing that, she realized that neither Irie nor Takano were present inside the various halls or anywhere on the main floor, and she got worried for them, too, but she quickly concluded she couldn't reach them. She was conscious they were probably at the basement, that unknown was carrying Mion's body and so he had likely assailed them not far from her room, but she couldn't go downstairs, now she was just not able to walk. Furthermore, from the lower floor they would have never listened to her voice, they were too far, and the walls of environment were sound-proof. Finally, there was nobody to send down to check the situation, Irie had come very early that morning, to give a look at the two young ills, and so there was not any member of the staff yet, they were going to come only in half an hour. And the few patients who had arrived until that moment were very old men, people driven there by their sons and nephews who had afterwards gone away to work. They barely could stand up. They were helpless individuals, just like her.
Cursing herself for not being able to help Irie or Takano, Rena concluded then that the only thing she could do for him was waiting for other doctors or nurses. Maybe they would have come earlier than usual, but she was aware that even in the most lucky case her waiting would have been at least fifteen-twenty minutes long: the rest of the staff had never arrived in good time during her stay at the Clinic, and there was no reason to think that day was unlike the others. It was a pity than the sensei was used to arrive so early, so much time before the others, that man would have had less time to perform his plan.
But, at least, there was something else Rena could still do for Mion and Alice. That man was going far from the Clinic through the wood, a zone that maybe Satoko had filled with traps. The blond-haired girl knew very well the zone, and her intervention would have been decisive. Simply, she had not to stay alone, but luckily her brother was with her. And so, she decided to call them, concisely informing them about what had happened, and begging them to give a hand to Alice.
That's why they were there. Satoshi had made a beeline for the ones they had heard fighting, and Satoko came just some second after him. But when they had arrived there, they had seen it was over. Alice was lying on the ground, dead, in the middle of a bloody pool.
"Ali-chan..." said Satoko, while realizing they had arrived too late. But it was not the moment to be sorry for her friend. The one who had realistically killed her was in front of them. Carrying Mion's body hadn't allowed him to run fast, and he hadn't had time enough to go away not being seen.
"Damn..." the man only commented.
"You, don't move! Hold still!" yelled Satoshi.
"And what if I defy?"
"The matter is not whether obeying or not" exclaimed Satoko "Simply you have no choice. While Nii-Nii was arriving here and distracting you, I lingered to go not far from here, and to deflate the tires of your car. You can't go anywhere, now."
Their enemy looked at them, coldly. "You have decided not to head directly for here, then... So, don't you think that your friend might be still with you, if you had come here at once without making any detour?"
The man's acid comment hushed Satoko, who lowered the eyes sorry. But Satoshi came to her defense: "Don't charge Satoko of something you have done, now! She ran as fast as she could, but she would have arrived after me, anyways. There was no way she could prevent this from happening."
Satoko hugged her brother, grateful.
"Yes, probably you're right." the other replied "Still, you can see I'm not joking, here. I am not here for fun. Let me go and don't hinder me, or your destiny will be like this girl's one."
"You already know the answer to this absurd invitation." told Satoko.
"...Yes, I think so. It's something I wouldn't like to do, but you're obliging me." Another time, he was compelled to lean Mion on the grass, but this time he put his knife back into its case, and he took Alice's sword which was not far from there. He lifted it as with a certain shape of respect, it had belonged to an honorable enemy; but at the same time, it was a longer weapon than his dagger, one which could cause deadly wounds more easily, and it would have allowed him to end this story more quickly. Moreover, the others looked unarmed.
Satoko, as for her, was trying instead to get what they could do against him. Unfortunately, their opponent had not run into any trap, because there was not any of them, there. She hadn't mined the area around the Clinic, because she feared to harm some of its patients. And even if there had been some, their opponent looked someone with great experience, a fighter strong like a samurai coming from past times, and he would have dodged them with mastery. Furthermore, she had no possibility to prepare new ones, and Keiichi, Rika, Hanyuu and the Sonozakis, which had probably been called by Rena too, would have joined them much later, because they didn't know the zone as well as she could. Their friends couldn't know it, but in the whole area there was only a place where they could hide a way of transport to escape with, and so she had been able to conduct her brother there very quickly, unlike what the other could. They were about to help them only in quite a long time.
But they still kept a chance. She knew that Satoshi would have protected her, offering to fight against him even if he feared to be forced to do it bare-handed, but he was not aware of the fact his sister did carry a weapon, with them. One of her last experiments, which she had taken from a drawer before leaving, suspecting that it would have turned out precious, but which she hadn't fully tested yet. But there was no time for hesitations and doubts.
"Nii-Nii, please wear this."
In her hands, she was holding a gauntlet, made-to-measure for Satoshi's right hand.
"A... glove? Why...?"
"Please do it at once! It's our only resource, now. If we win, it will be thanks to this."
…
As Satoko had guessed, Rena had phoned to all to raise the alarm. But she couldn't know that she hadn't been able to talk with everyone. Nobody had answered, from the Furudes' house. Rika's heart was aching excruciatingly, and she had asked Hanyuu not to take the receiver. Talking with them was useless, she was realizing that her time had come.
"Rika, please no!" shouted Hanyuu "Please, hang on!"
"You... ugh... You already know I can't do anything about it. This damn spiritual orb... It's going to... To... The pain is getting unbearable... So..." Rika violently coughed, and with that some blood came out of her mouth.
"Rika... Rika..." Hanyuu was keeping on crying, getting desperate for not being able to help her descendant, in addition to cleaning her face. "I'm sorry not to have the ability to make you travel back in time again, I would immediate activate it if I could. But my powers has got so weak, during all these centuries, after all the times we had to have recourse to them... I'm sorry, Rika, I'm helpless..."
"Please... don't bore me with these nonsenses." replied the blue-haired girl, floundering "Hearing you while you're blathering these falsities is making this moment even more painful than what it already is... However... This ache... This means that Gi-chan has finally dead... I'm sorry for him, really... But the truth is that I am sorry for all of us. Is... Is this the end of all?" Rika was feeling like dying. What Ouka had placed in her body had come into action, since the conditions necessary for its activation had definitely occurred, and now it was mangling her heart, which was beating wildly. Rika was sweating, her eyes and her mouth were wide open, veins and dark spots were standing out on her tiny arms. She was feeling like her whole body was rigidifying...
She had nearly forgotten that kind of pain. Her body had been disemboweled in so many cursed worlds, but by now she hoped it belonged to the past. Still, she hadn't stopped to feel like being sarcastic "Maybe... this is what people live during heart failures... Or when they fall in love. It's instructive."
"Please don't kid, Rika, at least not in this moment!"
"What... should I do, then...? Give me... the permission to face my end with dignity..." Rika closed her eyes.
"Don't be this mean! Take heart, resist, we will find a way to make it! Don't you agree, Rika?"
Rika didn't answer.
"Rika, I've told you not to joke! Please, try to understand me, it's a hard moment for me, too, so don't make me feel worse than necessary!"
Rika didn't answer.
"Please, answer me! Tell me something!"
Hanyuu was going on speaking with her, pressing her to reply, but she was beginning to realize it.
"Rika? Rika, Rika, Rikaaa! Rika, tell me something! You can't do this to us! Rika..."
Rika didn't answer, because she couldn't. Her heart had ceased beating.
"Rika... Ri... ka... RIKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
