Lies aren't bond to last long, she will eventually figure it out. Or I'll tell her directly, I'm honestly not entirely comfortable lying like that and it's troublesome. I just mostly want the time it can buy me until it explodes.

Hanyuu should be all right. Takano... I don't think she can do much to her and Hanyuu is the only resident of Hinamizawa not infected.

[Because she's Oyashiro-sama.]

I honestly don't know, maybe she really just is interested in the syndrome. But... I don't know, the wings, for example, or maybe there are other worlds with similar illnesses or something.

[A pause.]

No... I'm not kidding. At the highest level of the syndrome, people usually end scratching their own throat so much that... They just tear it out.

[And he remembers... A dark night, the phone booth... Ooishi's voice at the other end of the phone as he coughed and... Scratched. It itched so much. So much. The warm feeling of his own blood over his fingers and he kept scratching. And the feeling of someone behind him. The feeling of her behind him, looking at him as he teared out his throat.

Keiichi closes his eyes with strength and opens them again. His hand is back at his neck, but it's not scratching, instead it's placed firmly against the skin, protecting it from everything else. A reflexive movement that he brings to an end by lowering his hand again.]

It's... All sorts of painful and horrible.