breaks_destiny | 009th Shattering * Audio

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009th Shattering * Audio

[Filtered to: Minato, Minako Arisato, Hanyuu, Ami, Hughes, Elicia, Winry, Adell, Patchouli, Bernkastel, SOS Brigade members, Shiki, Neku, Grell. || Unhackable ~~70%~~ 100%]

[Actually the Arisatos and Hanyuu are a bit of an overkill to add to that filter since they should know already but just in case...]

Just a small heads up to the lot of you, not that it has happened that I can remember but... I won't be answering to any call through the journals unless it's filtered as high as you can.

Which means that, Elicia, you tell your dad beforehand if you want to call me for something.

[A pause.]

Actually if any of you have problems with filters or something just call for Souji instead, I'll answer if it's any of you calling.

[That sounded casual enough, right? Let's hope no one goes into too much of a question mode as to why he suddenly wants to be so secretive with the journals.]

[Filtered to Ami || ~~70%~~ 100% Unhackable]

Are you free to meet up and talk? [The library would sound good but he can almost imagine Takano there looking for information so... And the medical center at the battledome is as out of the question as anything that is related to medicine.] Does the lake sound all right with you?

[Filtered to Hughes || ~~70%~~ 100% Unhackable]

Hughes-san, where could we meet to talk? Alone if possible as I told you.

[Hopefully it won't be a place where Keiichi can imagine Takano around easily. Though maybe he's just being a bit paranoid.]

[Filtered to Adell || ~~70%~~ 100% Unhackable]

Oi, Adell, I think I heard around that you knew about one of those groups, Blue Rogues, I think? Can I ask you a few questions?

[Filtered to the Malnosso || ~~70%~~ 100% Unhackable]

I... I'm not entirely sure how to do this... Can I talk with... Catherine, I think it was?

[Sincerely he has not much hope, he has been out of things for a while and who knows if that guy hasn't been changed or whatever. But he won't lose anything for trying, right?]

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[Ah, hell. This is going to be one of those things, isn't it? One of those huge, shattering thing that's a very big deal. He can just tell, both in Keiichi's tone, and stance. Well, no matter what, he said he would help. And if he wants to tell the whole story...]

Yes, I will.

[Keiichi takes a deep breath at that.]

Sincerely I don't know where to start from...

I come from a small village, not known by many even back in my world. It's called Hinamizawa and it's certainly quite a forgotten treasure or something. It's small but warm, the villagers are very united and great people with great hearts. They have endured many things and there was a time in which the goverment wanted to build a dam and bury the village with water, yet they didn't give up their homes and eventually won against the goverment. A small village against the leaders of the country and they still won, that's the kind of people they are. Stubborn and hard to convince of things but ready to do any sacrifice for what they believe in.

There's a saying there 'If one person throws a stone at you, two people shall throw stones back. If two people throw stones at you, get back at them with four. If eight come after you with sticks, you thwart them off with sixteen. If slandered by thirty, you yell back with sixty. And if a thousand tries to get us, we all come out as residents of Hinamizawa.'... Basically you don't mess up with an Hinamizawa resident unless you want to face the whole village. I saw it myself, despite not having been born there, if I ever got in trouble, like some delinquents trying to pick a fight with me, suddenly all the Hinamizawa people on the street would be there with me, ready to fight back if the others dared to.

It's a wonderful place, no matter what limitations it may have compared to the city, no matter how behind time it can get due being so secluded. No matter what shit they had to go through, Hinamizawa survived, its people were strong and welcomed others with a huge heart. It's just awesome...

[He smiles faintly upon talking about the village. Until he reaches the 'but', because it was obvious that there was going to be a 'but' in all this, right?]

But there's just one little big problem. There's a parasite that seems to only live in the area where the village is, from what I know it eventually infects the people in the area and takes residence in their brains. As it is it's not a dangerous thing. It doesn't cause any open syntoms upon infection and one can spend their whole life without even knowing it's there. The parasite works very much like a group of bees, all is fine and safe until the queen bee is missing or something hurts their home.

At Hinamizawa there was a child, Rika Furude, she was here for a while though I'm not sure if you ever met her. She was the daughter of the village's priest, member of one of the three most important families there due how much they had helped the village to survive and all. She was special, because she was infected with the parasite that was considered que queen, technically Rika was the Queen Carrier. And because of that so long as she's there, the parasites infecting the people of the village will be dormant or at least not causing problems, most of the time. Still there are some dangers if the infected people are under a lot of stress and away from the village themselves, or rather away from Rika.

In short the parasites and the general disease is called the 'Hinamizawa Syndrome'... If active... Well... Do you know how things were during Halloween just now? People hallucinating and in general high levels of paranoia manifesting in many people?

...Yeah. I was lucky not to get hit with too many of the worst images, but I saw what it did to people. Some of the images were pretty horrific...

...Is that what the Hinamizawa Syndrome does to people?

Edited 2010-11-14 07:41 (UTC)

Yes... The syndrome has different levels of infection, the lowest one is what could be called the dormant state. No symptoms or anything. As people experience stress or homesicked, the syndrome activates and scales through the levels, per say. It starts slowly, a feeling at times of being watched or followed, the impression of hearing people talk in a suspicious tone...

Slowly the hallucinations start, at first just overlapping reality, like having someone who's not smiling showing a psychotic smile. But by the final levels the hallucinations are almost a full time thing, you see things where there's nothing, and interact with them without even noticing they aren't real... You can touch them and they will feel real. And all builds up to paranoia, to feeling unsafe, unable to trust even your closest friends as they are the ones who are out for him, everything is against you, out to kill you... By the final level people are just at a situation in which they will kill what they think is a threat to survive. And eventually they end scratching their own throats, tearing them out with their own hands.

However I'm not saying that it can't be treated or stopped. There's a medicine that may help to supress the symptoms and lower the level of infection. And it's not contagious, only upon going to Hinamizawa one can get infected... And even without the medicine it's possible to bring people out of the paranoia, with the right words and a lot of effort but... It's possible.

So... While it's dangerous it's not to say that it's an immediate threat to anyone... But not everyone thinks that way. There's one woman, convinced that the disease is so extreme that if the Queen Carrier dies everyone in the village would go crazy in less than twenty four hours... And she's out to prove it, even if to do so it means she has to kill the Queen Carrier with her own hands. She... Aims to prove that her research is right and true and won't stop at anything.

[He stops for a second.]

Right now there are two people in Luceti infected with the Hinamizawa Syndrome. Myself and... The woman who's after Rika Furude's life. Though technically one shouldn't find her too dangerous but one can't know how the syndrome will affect her. Rika's not around and Luceti is stressful as it is. The idea that she can't reach her goals may be a serious trigger and even when she's not at the high levels of the disease she just can be dangerous as it is. But it's just a possibility. I won't say that she's definitively dangerous or anything, I don't know how much of it is caused by her own mind and how much is due the syndrome. And if we were to consider her a high threat as things are... Then me too should be labelled as one, as I'm infected too, even if in all this time I haven't harmed anyone.

[Except himself.]

[He looks a little blown away by this reveal, but he keeps quiet until Keiichi finishes. The bit about tearing your own throat out is... wow. That's gruesome.]

...So what you're saying is there's a woman here who's out to kill a girl named Rika by whatever means necessary. But you're not sure whether she's doing it out of malice or paranoia or a mix of the two.

And more importantly, you're worried about her stress levels and the fact that Rika isn't here to begin with, so she's at higher risk of her Syndrome getting worse. So she's potentially a danger, but her knowing that we think that will only make things worse... and will therefore make her a threat to others.

[Adell folds his arms over his chest.]

I do have a few things to say. First, do we have any doses of that medicine available? If we're dealing with something as serious as the syndrome, we need to be prepared to deal with it.

Second, what if this Rika Furude person shows up in Luceti? Would that act as an anchor for the Syndrome and keep it suppressed? And how likely do you think this person would try to kill Rika if she was here?

Third, if this affects everyone from Hinamizawa, that means anyone from your hometown would be infected too... which meant Rena was as well.

...I'm going to be honest with you. At one point I had talked with her about my own world. How I fought to overcome a curse. She seemed terrified at the mention of the word "curse" and it sounded like she was dealing with one of her own. She was too distressed to go into detail, and I didn't press it because she looked so... scared. But I take it that the whole Hinamizawa Syndrome is what she was alluding to?

[Keiichi passes a hand over his hair. Adell aims for a few points that Keiichi himself is worried about. If Rika arrived to Luceti again... Would she be in danger or not? Would Takano restrain herself and act carefully or go all out?]

I talked with the Malnosso. With that guy named Catherine, in order to get them to provide us of the medicine, so I think we will be safe on that field. At most maybe we should tell to the doctors and people who work at the clinics but... That woman is a nurse herself, I think she will want to go back to a clinic probably, so it may be tricky. If she has access to the medicine and recognices it... I'll ask someone I trust to give me the doses for the treatment but I won't put myself in that woman's hands, nothing ensures me that she won't lie and give me something else instead of the medicine if she's interested to see how the syndrome acts in Luceti.

As for what would happen if Rika arrived... From experience I know that even with her around the syndrome may go under control. But her presence certail makes it more unlikely, still with the stress we're put through in here I'm not sure if we could really feel safe if she appeared, but her presence would certainly serve as an anchor in many ways.

I'm not sure what that woman would do. Killing Rika here with only myself around, it wouldn't prove much, but at the same time she may try to use her time here to study things from another perspective or something. I won't say that Rika would be out of danger.

[Rena's mention makes Keiichi flinch. And he flinches again at the mention of the curse.]

Oyashiro-sama's curse...

[He lets out a soft bitter laugh.]

Are you sure you have time for me to explain that?

I'll talk to Dr. Faye-Ling and see if we can't get a few doses stored away with the Blue Rogues. If the Syndrome gets out of hand with one of you two, having the Rogues have access to it will lessen the likelihood of her getting her hands on it or you.

...Then let's hope for everyone's sake that Rika doesn't show up. I'd really rather not have this whole thing get worse.

...I've got all day if we need it. But if it's something you'd rather not talk about, then I'll respect your privacy on it. I know there are just some things people aren't comfortable discussing.

[Boy, does he ever.]

[Keiichi nods at the first part. He doesn't know many doctors, Ami is the closest thing if his guess is right, so he will let that part to be dealt by Adell if he wants to.]

I'll be stocking some doses with Minato Arisato as well. He's a good friend and has helped me before the times the syndrome started to kick in. I know he will take care of them.

[He certainly wouldn't want Rika showing up either. Or any of his friends for that matter, not now that Takano is here at least.

Keiichi takes a moment before he continues talking, part of him doesn't want to talk about that. But then again he would have prefered to not talk about anything at all. He can't stop in the middle of the path and call it a day. He just can't. Even if it will only put Takano in worse light, he can defend her a bit, he can try to hold doubts, but he can't hide what she has done. At least he can avoid mentioning the other worlds, right?]

I know all of this from hearing Mion and Rika, people from Hinamizawa basically, I wasn't living there yet, so I can't be too detailed. Anyway... Back in the ancient times it seems Hinamizawa was known as Onigafuchi and it was revered as a sacred place, its people said to be descendants of demons and thus having demon blood in them. Due political changes and the like the name was eventually changed to Hinamizawa...

[There's more to that but that's not important right now.]

Oyashiro-sama is basically the demon deity that's sealed in Hinamizawa and the Furude family are descendants from it, thus being its priests. The thing is... The legend states that Oyashiro-sama gave the habitants of Hinamizawa two rules in order for them to live there. To never leave Hinamizawa and to not let outsides enter the village. If those rules are broken, Oyashiro-sama will know, even if it's by merely wishing to leave the village, and a curse will fall upon those that break the rule.

Rena... She had to move out of Hinamizawa due her mother's work if I remember correctly. But when she did... Let's say that things didn't go well for them, her parents divorced and the syndrome took a huge strike on her. So she... Assumed that it was because Oyashiro-sama was punishing her for leaving Hinamizawa and once she returned things went better. It's kind of logic that she would think it was the curse... Even if it was mostly just coincidences and the syndrome.

Still, even with the syndrome and all, Rena didn't think of the curse just because of the legend. You see, for several years, the village... Suffered Oyashiro-sama's curse.

[...Ok-ay. That's...]

...Demons? Really?

[That hits a little too close to home. He doesn't sound like he disbelieves or is questioning Keiichi, so much as he's surprised.]

...So even if Rena herself wasn't cursed in those events, the village was? What did the curse do to Hinamizawa? ...And didn't you say that you weren't from Hinamizawa originally?

[Er... Not exactly. Now Keiichi understands how Rika felt when the people said that Oyashiro-sama cursed them. He holds up his hands to signal a stop for Adell's train of thought.]

Okay, first off... Oyashiro-sama would never curse anyone, not even someone it may hate. It may sound sappy but Oyashiro-sama just worries about people and wants to help and do as much as possible but... Its powers are limited, okay? So even if it would want to stop the so called curse, it can't, but Oyashiro-sama never cursed anyone.

The rules were mostly probably created due the syndrome. Given how the parasite only lived in Hinamizawa's region and anyone who entered the village would be infected and if anyone left the village and the radius of effect of the Queen Carrier... Things would get bad. Oyashiro-sama didn't make them because it wanted to trap people or something.

[He clearly sounds as if he knows Oyashiro-sama personally. He scratches his head for a moment.]

Let's see how to start this... Maybe Rika would be better to explain all this but she's not here so...

Let me start from several years ago in my world, okay? Around four years ago, there was a goverment project regarding the building of a dam in the village that would drown it under water. The workers all came from outside the village, most of the village people were against the project because they didn't want to leave the village. This kind of broke the rules Oyashiro-sama had set, people outside the village were in it and they were going to damage the village. Besides the fight people put up everyone expected them to be cursed by Oyashiro-sama...

Four years ago, in the night of the Watanagashi festival, a festival of the village to worship Oyashiro-sama. Two workers of the dam were 'cursed', one was killed and cut in pieces, most of them were found except one arm, and another vanished entirely apparently taken by the demons. That was the first time the curse acted.

The next year, around the same date, that of the festival... A married couple fell from a cliff, one of them was found dead, the other's body vanished as well. They were the parents of a good friend of mine, and even if they had been members of the village they had supported the dam project, thus they hadn't minded leaving the village nor harming it. So everyone assumed it had been Oyashiro-sama's curse punishing the traitors of the village...

The next year, once more, a married couple suffered the curse. Rika's parents, despite her father being the priest of Oyashiro-sama, he had kept a neutral position during the dam project instead of fighting for the village. He died, his wife vanished.

And finally the previous year to the one I'm from... A woman was killed and her nephew vanished. Them both were related to the victims of the second time the curse was said to happen. She... Was an evil woman, an outsider who tortured my friend. He was my friend's older brother, who kept protecting her but... Apparently he wanted to leave the village as well.

[Keiichi sighs.]

But all this was just a coincidence. There was no curse... At least not one that came from a deity or a demon. It was simply a combination of the syndrome and a human working against the village.

...This is getting complicated. So the "Curse" is nothing but a farce, but this Oyashiro person actually exists, and they're actually benevolent.

But I think I get it. The so called terms of the curse are more related to the Syndrome itself rather than Oyashiro. ...In a way, it almost sounds like a way to keep people from being exposed to the Hinamizawa Syndrome. Never leave, never let anyone in. It's almost like a medical quarantine.

[He pauses. He's clearly thinking very hard right now. ~~Mom would be proud~~.]

So you figure the murders and disappearances every year during the festival were all results of the outbreak of the Syndrome? And if you said the Syndrome triggers because of stress... do you figure that some of the disappearances were related to the fact that people were stressed out over the dam project and felt excluded and shoved aside because their opinion wasn't the popular one?

Edited 2010-11-14 20:23 (UTC)

[You have no idea how complicated it is, fortunately there's no reason to tell you about the multiple worlds. But Keiichi sees you're thinking about so he will change the way he presents things a bit.]

I didn't figure it. I'm... Let's say that I'm from the end of it all, we discovered the truth behind the so called curse. And the objectives of the woman I told you about, and we stopped her, defeated her per say. So this isn't just speculation, okay?

Anyway, you can figure it out on your own. Just... Focus in the first year the curse happened. A man was killed and cut in pieces in the most gruesome way. And another man, who worked with the first, vanished from the Earth apparently.

Back then, the study regarding the Hinamizawa Syndrome was already working and estabilized in the village... And I already told you what they were after.

[A pause, if Adell doesn't get it on his own Keiichi will say it but... He really would prefer to not be the one to say it openly even in private.]

[He hesitates again, his expression oddly stony. Come on, Adell. Think. This is just like what happens when he talks to Luki. Keiichi's given him pieces of the puzzle, he just has to put them together.

He puts a knuckle to his upper lip as he begins to really think hard. How does this all fit together... the false curse, the murders, the disappearances, the Syndrome... and the people studying it, the dangers and psychosis associated with an outbreak...

They were looking for ways to study the Syndrome and the extent of how strong it was. There was a murder of a dam worker... and one his coworkers disappeared entirely without a trace. ...And similar things happened beyond that... and there was no actual curse.

...Wait. Adell's eyes light up with a realization, though it's not a happy one. To figure out the Syndrome by any means necessary...]

...The team that was studying the disease was responsible for the disappearances, weren't they? If one of the dam workers had an episode with the Syndrome and killed his coworker, it'd be a perfect excuse to take him away for study...

[And his expression darkens again.]

...And the village's so called curse was a convenient cover for it all, wasn't it?

[Keiichi nods.]

That's more like it was... The syndrome wasn't public knowledge, no one told us and the research was covered, we all thought it was just a clinic there. Not that there was something being studied.

From what I know the incidents... Happened and they took advantage of it to go further with the investigation, though to know the details of how and such you would have to ask someone else. Still... They took advantage of the village being scared and worried about Oyashiro-sama's curse, and used it to cover themselves and keep the village under a limited amount of stress. And as other bad things happened to people and the circunstances matched... They considered it the curse, even if there was none.

[A pause.]

Her name's Miyo Takano.

Miyo... Takano. I won't forget it.

...So this Takano person? Was she responsible for the disappearances, or was she just a part of a larger research group?

She was the one behind the research as a whole, the one interested on it and all. Maybe that's why she was so ready to go to all those extents.

The disappearances... Some of them were mostly the person being taken by the research group for their study, but I don't know more or if all of them were taken by them.

Given the frame ups are virtually the same, year after year, it's likely they were. If Takano was the head of research, that probably means she approved all of this.

...If she was afflicted with the Syndrome herself and that's why she started getting so extreme with her methods, she must've been running on some level of the Syndrome that makes her not right in the head. ...Or maybe she's just a huge bitch.

...It's probably a bit of both. But I do believe you're right in that acting on it without provocation here would be wrong.

Is there more to the story?

[Keiichi nods.]

It's hard to tell where starts her own mind and where the syndrome. As far as I know the clinic was settled in before the dam project started even, or when it was starting. The curse only began months if not even a year later. More than enough time for her to get infected and go up some levels due frustration on having the research at a stalemate or something. I hadn't been in the village for more than a few months and I'm already infected so...

Still I think too that it may be a mixture of the two options given all that I know... You see if she had been successful in killing Rika... The next step would have been to gas the whole village and make it look like a natural disaster. But that may have come from the higher ranks she worked for and not from herself...

[It's hard to tell when the puppet is the culprit and when the puppeteer is the responsible one. At any rate Keiichi stops to think. More to the story? Actually yes, but he doesn't think it really matters. At least not now. He has told Adell about the syndrome, the medicine, Takano and what she was after. There's not much else to share, at least that he can think about now.]

No... At least now I can't remember anything more that needs to be told, but if I forgot something I'll let you know as soon as I remember.

[A sigh.]

That's why I was asking about monitoring... If we could get someone to keep an eye on her without her noticing or realizing it, we could be one step ahead of her if anything bad happens. Whether if it is her doing something to someone in the village or her hurting herself. And even if she did something, confinement wouldn't be a good idea, the syndrome would eventually just... Make her kill herself and the only way to avoid that would be to restrain her completely... Which is inhuman.

Back home... The guy that defended her when we got her, he was her boyfriend or something. He had been working with her but knew basically nothing of all the things they were doing. He was completely kept in the dark and used, she kept an eye on him that way... I suppose that would be the best way to monitor her, to have someone befriend her naturally, without her noticing that they are doing so to keep an eye on her, and have them keep an eye on her that way.

At least it worked for her.

[Adell runs a hand through his hair and shakes his head. Good god. This is pure insanity. And they had someone like this in the village? God dammit.

Just... arrgh. This is a completely lose-lose situation, and Adell would really like nothing more than to go down and just start kicking some ass to solve his problems. He misses those days a lot. That was the thing about the Netherworld! Solving problems was easy. You didn't need to be subtle.

Here though, as the leader of the Blue Rogues and dealing with mostly humans things got much more complex. And this whole Hinamizawa thing sounded almost like the dreams of a madman. Or some form of horror story.

Gassing the village after committing murder. Hell. Even if that wasn't Takano's idea, that's still disgusting and she might've still had a hand in it. But either way, it still doesn't change the fact that she hadn't done anything here yet.]

...Deception to that degree really isn't my style, man. And I don't know anyone who could or would be willing to pull that off. It's a lot to ask someone to do something like that. I can't really condone using methods that she would. Indirect monitoring's really the best I can do, and like I said, I'll have to go outside of the Rogues to do it.

I mean, I guess you can try it if you find someone who'd be willing to do it, but I've got no one who can. I personally couldn't ask anyone to do it, either way.

And I know imprisonment is going to be bad for her. But if she tries something against you or anyone else in the village, I'll be damned if I let her stay free and do it again, especially if she's as manipulative and dangerous as you allude to.

[He lets out a tired sigh and pinches the bridge of his nose.]

I know... this is something of a really sensitive area for you. You suffer from the Syndrome as well. And given we don't know how much of her actions are caused by the illness and where her mind is... we might be fighting and jailing the Syndrome, not Takano.

...If she tries something and we have to detain her, we'll do our best to figure out whether it's her or her illness that's causing problems. If we can figure it out, we'll just go from there. Does that sound fair?

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009th Shattering * Audio

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