- Did you hear about what happened today in Takaminechō?

- Takaminechō? That's the other end of the city.

- It is said that someone was burned alive there

The girl hearing this covered her face with her hand

- Oh my God!

Another person joined the conversation

- I heard that it was supposedly a former student of the 3-3 class of Yomiyama North, from 1972.

- from 1972? Are you talking about the yearbook that brought the curse? or the first one that was its victim?

- I don't know, I only heard that someone was burned alive.

The conversation was accidentally overheard by Kouichi Sakakibara, but he didn't want to get involved in the discussion but wait for developments - he was curious about the part about the victim allegedly being a former student of Class 3-3, and wondered if this was a coincidence or some evolution of the Class 3-3 phenomenon.

On the night between January 28 and 29, 1999, the Yomiyama Fire Department was called to a burning shed in one of the houses in Takaminechō, one of Yomiyama's southern districts, but an already burned body was discovered on the scene.

As a result, the police were summoned and among the officers was Chigusa Nomura.

She sensed on the spot that this was another victim of the serial killer who had been responsible for the killings since December.

The location of the body indicated that it had been dumped there and then burned to cover up potential evidence, DNA tests confirmed that the victim was Yoshiki Yatagai, who fled the hospital to the southern part of the city on January 28.

- The killer must have known where Yatagai could have escaped, it's scary, it's as if he was following him, he must have known that by some miracle Yatagai would not escape from his family...
- The deceased lived in Asamida, so he went almost through the entire city to take refuge here, why didn't he take refuge elsewhere?

Much closer to other abandoned buildings, he could have taken refuge anywhere else, but for some reason he preferred to go through the whole city?

Chigusa pondered this, then decided to personally check all the abandoned houses in Yomiyama - which were south of Yuumigaoka.

Some of these houses seemed too difficult to break into, or too in plain sight, so Chigusa drove even farther, and passed the former Muneyoshi mansion, abandoned since 1977, it was about a kilometer from the crime scene, so the logical option would be to choose this place rather than where he eventually ended up, after all, Chigusa noted that Yatagai could have escaped from the hospital for a reason and run so far away.

"Wait a minute, isn't there a surgeon named Muneyoshi at Yuumigaoka Hospital?"

Chigusa began to connect the dots - Yoshiki Yatagai was panic-stricken by the fear of people from this clan - however, it was a well-known fact among Yomiyama residents that the Muneyoshi clan was considered extinct, so Chigusa began a search for surviving members.

A few days later she learned that some people who were related to this clan living outside of Yomiyama - did not identify with the clan, Chigusa also learned that one of the people living in Yomiyama who belonged to this clan was Naoki Muneyoshi - moreover, he legally owned the shed and abandoned house - where Yatagai's corpse was found.

Chigusa did not rule out any scenario so Naoki was summoned for questioning, as was Kaito.

When they arrived at the police station Kaito felt deeply uncomfortable - he felt somehow guilty for being able to stop Yoshiki Yatagai from escaping from the hospital, and felt somehow complicit in the fact that Yoshiki had been killed.

Kaito quickly testified and his testimony was credible, followed by Naoki - his testimony was also credible - however, during the interrogation he noticed one of the officers and felt a kind of déjà vu - as if he had already seen that officer somewhere.

After a while, he dismissed this thought focusing on his testimony - the property where the murder took place did indeed belong to Naoki - as he inherited it from Kiichisaburo Muneyoshi - it was his former home, before leaving Japan in had no idea about this however he didn't cared much about that property.
Upon returning home, Naoki was haunted by a feeling of uncertainty after seeing this policeman by complete coincidence; he had no idea that this was in fact his father.

Tatsuji Chibiki, a few days after Yoshiki Yatagai's murder, also realized one thing - the last 5 murder victims (including Yoshiki Yatagai) were students of Class 3-3 in 1971-1972, making Tatsuji seriously wonder if the curse had somehow transferred to the graduates of Class 3-3, or if it was just a series of coincidences.

That same evening, Akira Kobayashi drove up to the house where Yuho Yatagai - Yoshiki's wife - and Rumi Yatagai - his daughter - lived, it was quite late at night so Yuho was quite surprised that someone knocked on her door.
Yuho - tired and quite sad after the death of her husband walked up and opened the door.

- Can I help you with something?

She asked in a sleepy, reluctant voice.

- Detective Kobayashi Akira of the Yomiyama Police Department, I would like to ask you some questions.

In doing so, Akira showed her his police badge - to acknowledge the visit

Yuho's demeanor changed slightly

- Will you wait a moment?

Yuho dressed up and went out in front of the house, it was a cold February evening, so Yuho dressed a little warmer.

- So, I would like to ask myself, as I believe my colleagues in the police department may have missed it...

Did you know anything about your husband's ties to Kouta Nakano?

- Nakano? Kouta?, no I don't think my husband knows anyone like that.

- In that case, you can approach the car, Detective Ota will show you his photos - maybe then you will remember something.

Yuho approached the car - however, there was no one inside, in addition, it was her neighbor's car, however, Yuho did not have time to register that something was wrong, when she was shot by Akira in the head, she slumped to the ground, and Akira went up and shot her in the head one more time to make sure she was dead - after that he was about to flee the scene fairly quickly - when he noticed that Yuho and Yoshiki's 14-year-old daughter Rumi Yatagai had seen the whole incident - Rumi froze in place which Akira took advantage of and fired a shot in her direction - just one, as he knew he had to flee.

Rumi was shot in the head, however she was still alive.
Akira, on the other hand, started to run away from the place, no one was around but an elderly man who was walking his dog, he came across Shion by accident - as the man was running away, Shion, knowing that he could be a potential witness, shot him with two shots to the head and started to run away further, He ran for quite a long time, however, he stopped and started walking normally - however, he heard the police cars coming, for this he entered the still open store - he was afraid that he might be recognized by someone from the police station, which would complicate matters.

The store he entered was almost empty and poorly lit, his face was barely visible and Akira began to look around pretending to be a regular customer, He watched the dolls with almost perfect acting as if he was captivated by their beauty, after a while he approached the receptionist

- Could you please turn on more light? If possible?

- We are already closing.

The old woman replied in a monotone voice.

- My deepest apologies, the door looked open, so I thought the store was open, goodbye in that case.

After leaving the store, Shion lit a cigarette, his hands were trembling - these were the 2 riskiest assassinations he had made, there was a high chance that someone might have seen him, this was the second situation in his life when he might have been exposed - the first was when Chiemi Kobayashi - Akira/Shion's second wife - discovered a photo with Naoki in it, Sei and Shinatsu - in order to protect his life as Akira Kobayashi Akira poisoned Chiemi with ricin - however, when she said she could acccpet his past - Akira strangled her with a pillow - her death was considered a death from illness, no one suspected Akira at the time, however, now it was a big threat - Akira had to get rid of everything that could now link him to what he had done.

He went home, where he hid the weapons in his secret stash. Then he went to bed.

The next day he went to work as if nothing had happened.

Chigusa Nomura seemed upset that Yuho Yatagai had been murdered, but he himself did not feel confident - he feared that the whole truth would soon come out