Irotoutoshi-hen Chapter 6

Irotoutoshi-hen Chapter 6 (第6話, Dai Roku-wa) is the sixth chapter of Irotoutoshi-hen.

Summary[]

Rika now understands the things that happened in Oniokoshi's Fragment and figures out what Polaris was thinking. She thinks that Kururu had a key role in that Fragment, and theorizes that she went through a similar ordeal as to what Keiichi did long ago. Keiichi once developed Hinamizawa Syndrome and doubted his friends, and killed Rena and Mion under the belief they were out to get him. While it was easy to tell what Keiichi was feeling, the people of Polaris conceal their emotions and so they may have already developed L2-L3 symptoms. Rika considers the possibility that Kururu may have developed L4 symptoms before the Watanagashi Festival due to spending so much time around Keitarou and his friends, and theorizes about what happened to Kururu as a retelling of Oniokoshi is shown.

Kururu is put off by all of the villagers at the festival and hopes to cleanse herself when she gets home. She worries about getting found out by the villagers and remembers what the club said about Oyashiro-sama's curse. Kururu is initially skeptical that the curse is real since they're in the modern era now, but considers that with how antiquated Hinamizawa is, they may still maintain old traditions. Kururu becomes paranoid at the thought she'll die tonight as part of the curse and be eaten by demon villagers.

Kururu tries to calm herself down as Keitarou and the club arrive. Keitarou grabs Kururu's arm and shows her around, with Rika narrating that Kururu must've felt pressured being led around to all the villagers. Abuse victims know from experience that people in front of them can suddenly become violent, and so they'll tough it out rather than run; Kururu must've been afraid that the villagers see her as an enemy. Kururu starts scratching her neck in nervousness and tries to ignore the villagers' perceived staring. Kururu is then brought on stage to perform the Watanagashi ritual, hallucinating graffiti of the Holy Mother on futons as the villagers watch in joy and tell her to pull out the Holy Mother's entrails. Kururu sees Keitarou as forcing her to do the ritual to prove she's not a Polaris member. Later, Kururu prays to the Holy Mother for forgiveness and curses Keitarou for the act. She tells the rest of Polaris later; Rika figures that, even though Hinamizawa Syndrome can be alleviated by communication with others, the members of Polaris may have already succumbed to paranoia themselves and believed in Kururu's story. When the curse of Oyashiro-sama happened later that night, Polaris came to the conclusion that the people of Hinamizawa masterminded it as a ploy to get rid of them. Keitarou still pushed to get more involved with Kururu, making her symptoms worse, and ultimately developed Polaris Syndrome himself. Keitarou's new elevated sense of righteousness and martyrdom spurred him to hold the Starlight Camp, and matches what Kihiro told Rika earlier. To Polaris, Keitarou must have seemed like a demon intimidating people into unity.

Kururu develops terminal symptoms of Hinamizawa Syndrome and scratches at her neck as she pleads to Inori that Keitarou is planning something with the camp, and thinks she was poisoned earlier. Inori says that other kids involved with Keitarou are becoming ill and aqre claiming Polaris was behind the curse, which reinforces Kururu's belief that Keitarou's behind everything. In the end, Kururu's group suffered dual symptoms of Hinamizawa Syndrome and Polaris Syndrome and interpreted Keitarou's plan of peace as a plan to slaughter Polaris, and burned his house down.

Rika then theorizes about what happened in the Hoshiwatashi Fragment and determines that her death caused the people of Hinamizawa to believe Polaris was responsible, resulting in a bloodbath and dual outbreak. Rika asks Irie if there's anything they can do to stop terminal symptoms from occurring, but Irie says he's just a village doctor now and the Irie Institute is gone, so there's no cure or research facility. Rika is horrified at the hundreds of bombs now walking around.

Irotoutoshi-hen Chapter 6

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