Return To The Country (帰国 Kikoku) is the eighteenth chapter of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Oni.
Summary[]
An unknwon narrator states that they wanted to have demon soldiers. In July 1944, Dr. Takano and Souhei are on a boat home to Japan. The Chief drunkenly complains to Zhao's brother that the boat's shaking, prompting Zhao to admonish him for being drunk. In a flashback, the wounded and resting Chief tells Takano that at this rate, there will be ground warfare in their homeland, and they don't have the forces and artillery to compete with the Allies. However, the drug should allow them to create demon soldiers and secure the advantage. The Chief tells Takano to complete the medicine and use the secret funds, and to take more test subjects from Souhei's village if need be. The Chief says there's a possibility that other endemic diseases exist and are being researched by the enemy, and that they can develop a cure for the villagers once the research is complete; he says that Takano is the only one who can do this, for the sake of his country.
In the present, Dr. Takano reminds Zhao and Souhei that there's still a few hours until they arrive, and says that the Colonel made arrangements for the Chief to get in a special hospital to heal his leg. He has Zhao take the Chief back to his cabin. Alone, Souhei and Takano talk about how Zhao clearly doesn't like the Chief, and that the Colonel put him a sanatorium and vowed to never let him out, which made Zhao feel better. Souhei asks if the Chief was put in the sanatorium to keep the disease onset a secret. It's explained that officially, the incident was explained as caused by a money-hungry local, and so the Chief can't talk about to avoid taking responsibility. If he got discharged due to mental illness and spoke out, nobody would believe him. Plus, the sanatorium is one directly under the Colonel's patronage. Souhei notes how the Colonel has a lot of influence in Japan too, and that the Manchuria clinic can be called his hobby under the guise of research. They seemed to research spirituality and the extraordinary, to study how people think and act in a small isolated group.
The ship finally arrives in Japan. Souhei and Zhao plan to go to the storehouse to check their supplies, as the Chief would do the same if he wanted to flee the sanatorium. Dr. Takano says he isn't familiar with the West and anticipates using Zhao's knowledge. Zhao replies that Souhei was his sister's benefactor, and his family will always be indebted to him. Souhei remembers Zhao Yuhuan and Takeshi's deaths, and asks Takano to have all the villagers that were in the clinic sent to Nagoya. Takano agrees, and Zhao thanks him for taking care of his sister until the very end. Dr. Takano thinks that Souhei's connections with the village will be indispensable, and has already told the successor Lieutenant Koizumi about them, and that it won't be long now.
Okai meets with Heishichirou and asks if he's ever seen "grave wax", corpses that look strangely waxy. Heishichirou affirms it, recounting how when he was Kiichirou's age he found someone who was demoned away in a cave deep in Onigafuchi. The corpse still looked alive with its arms and legs soaked in water. Okai asks if he's ever seen one with their body fully intact, and wonders if someone preserved that way could be brought back to life. Heishichirou wonders what it is Okai saw and says that there's no bringing humans back to life, but demons and Oyashiro-sama's blessing could do it.
Heishichirou asks how Seiji's doing. Okai replies that he's healthy, and Ritsuka is taking care of him. He remembers how Seiji snuck into the ritual storehouse to read some ancient manuscript and asked Kiichirou to show him old Kimiyoshi tomes, and figures Seiji knows things they don't. Okai takes her leave, and Heishichirou tells her not to strain herself.
Kiichirou meets with Ritsuka and Oryou. Kiichirou reports that Souhei sent a telegram saying he's coming home, which excites Oryou and makes her cry. Meanwhile, Okai talks to Seiji imprisoned in the underground storehouse and asks if he remembered anything from the village books. Okai tells him to remember what happened the day he saw a demon. Seiji's mother Chiyoko was cradling Seiji when she died, and so Okai asks him to remember if she was a demon or stayed his mother until the end. Seiji shudders as he remembers: Chiyoko was calling his name, crying, and holding her arms out before being attacked with an axe to the back of her head. Seiji sensed someone behind Chiyoko's back but was so scared that he ran away, and doesn't know if his mother was really protecting him.
Okai starts yelling that Seiji should know who it really was. Seiji says he did research to learn more about the demon and found a scroll in the storehouse showing a man eating a demon's entrails: the Watanagashi. Seiji is certain Chiyoko wasn't a demon but was actually killed by one. Okai doesn't understand why humans would eat demons, and Seiji explains that in this image depicting demon descent, a human will gain a demon's power by eating the demon. To revive the demon, the person who ate the demon must be eaten themselves. Okai is shocked. Seiji asks how she can declare Chiyoko died when her body was never found, and demands to know who the demon is. Okai ignores Seiji, thanks Oyashiro-sama, and cackles.
Characters[]
- Hifumi Takano
- Souhei Origuchi
- Zhao's brother
- Chief
- Zhao Yuhuan (memory)
- Takeshi Nakamoto (memory)
- Koizumi
- Heishichirou Kimiyoshi
- Okai Sonozaki
- Ritsuka Furude
- Ryou Sonozaki
- Kiichirou Kimiyoshi
- Seiji Kimiyoshi
- Chiyoko Kimiyoshi (flashback)
Gallery[]
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