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Watadamashi-hen Part 4 (綿騙し編 其の四 Cotton-Deceiving Chapter Part 4) is the eighth episode of Higurashi: When They Cry - GOU and the fourth and final episode of Watadamashi.

Synopsis[]

Japanese[]

祭具殿に入ってしまったことを後悔する圭一は、鷹野や富竹のように自分も鬼隠しに遭うのではないかと怯える。

そんな中、村長に続いて新たな行方不明者が出てしまう。

English (Translated)[]

Keiichi regrets that he has entered the ritual warehouse and is afraid that he, like Takano and Tomitake, will be demoned away.

In the meantime, the village mayor is followed by a new missing person.

Preview Gallery[]

Plot Summary[]

First Half[]

Higu2020ep8 preview (2)

Monday, June 20. Keiichi is walking up the steps at school when he sees Chie and asks if they found the mayor yet. Chie denies it, as they haven't heard any more news. Keiichi lowers his head and Chie assures him that he's fine and they should go back to class. The students are assembled for afternoon class but Chie notices that Rika hasn't come back from break. The students clamor with discussion and Satoko asks Keiichi if he was talking to Rika earlier, an interrogative look on her face. Keiichi confirms they talked, but he has no idea where she went after. Mion says she saw Rika talking to someone behind the school; it wasn't Keiichi, but rather someone who looked like a construction worker. Satoko says nobody like that is at their school. The other students begin to realize Rika has also disappeared.

The entire school searches around the grounds and calling out Rika's name. Keiichi comes upon an outhouse in the back and tries to open the door, showing confusion when it doesn't budge. Mion calls out to him and says she saw something on the roof, asking him to climb up a ladder and check. Keiichi climbs up but there's nothing up there, not even Rika. He calls down to Mion, who's holding the ladder steady and apologizes for her mistake. Keiichi becomes crestfallen and says Rika was acting weird earlier, wondering what happened to her.

Mion suddenly says she has to put an end to this and a confused Keiichi asks her to repeat that. Mion repeats what she said, a strange look appearing on her face and startling Keiichi. Mion ominously says that Rika is going to carry out Oyashiro-sama's curse and is the leader of one of the Three Families; she claims Rika is the mastermind behind it all. She starts rocking the ladder, much to Keiichi's horror, and continuously accuses Rika for causing the curse and says she's going to kill people, She believes Rika has been exploiting the Three Families, and Mion's expression intensifies as she swears she will put an end to the curse. The ladder becomes even more unsteady from her rage, and Keiichi struggles to hold on while questioning Mion's behavior. Chie finally arrives and calls out to them, and Mion stops her strange behavior while saying they haven't found anything. Chie says they're cancelling class for today and want the students to go home; the teachers will handle the search.

Higu2020ep8 two men

Keiichi, Mion and Rena are walking home when Keiichi suddenly stops and says everything is his fault. Rena asks why he thinks that and Keiichi is about to explain but he gets distracted from looking at some men up ahead. Keiichi changes his mind and continues walking. At home, Keiichi sits in the corner of his room and regrets ever going into the ritual warehouse. He blames Shion for making him go in but he realizes blaming her won't change anything. Just then, his phone starts ringing. After letting it ring for a while Keiichi picks up and hears what sounds like Shion, saying her name. He immediately stops and thinks back to Mion's strange expression earlier, realizing that she's the one calling. Mion says she wants Keiichi to come over to the Sonozaki mansion right away and meet her at the waterwheel.

Higu2020ep8 car mirror

Keiichi meets her at the requested area, where Mion's figured he wanted to tell her something. She knows how nervous he is and gives him a reassuring smile, wanting to talk at her place. Keiichi agrees. They soon walk off together and are seen reflected inside a car mirror.

The two walk by a "No Trespssing" sign, with Keiichi asking if the entire mountain is Sonozaki property. As Mion affirms it, they walk past high barbed-wire fences and security cameras. Inside the main house, Keiichi comments on how nice it must be to live in an old-fashioned house, with Mion saying it isn't since it gets cold in the winter. She wishes she had a modern house like Keiichi's though clearing snow off his roof will be tough. Keiichi is surprised to hear it snows a lot in Hinamizawa, with Mion saying the village is right in the middle of a snow country. They joke around some more and Mion soon goes off to prepare tea.

She comes back with tea and is now wearing a kimono, with Keiichi and her sitting quietly. Mion breaks the silence and asks Keiichi if he feels like someone is out to get him. She apologizes for trying to scare him when he asks a hypothetical, and then Keiichi says he wants to apologize to her. He confesses that during the Watanagashi Festival yesterday, he went into the ritual tool warehouse. He knew it was wrong, but he was curious. Keiichi bows his head to the ground and apologizes again, and Mion says she already knew; she knew he, Shion, Takano and Tomitake had trespassed into the warehouse. In fact, lots of people already know. Even though Keiichi was curious, Mion admonishes him and says there are many who want to see him punished. Keiichi knows it's too late, but he apologizes some more and asks for forgiveness. Mion walks over to him and asks him to look up, assuring him that she's on her side and to trust her. He wants to trust her, but after seeing Rika acting like a different person earlier he doesn't know who to trust. Mion consoles him, as he confessed his sin so she can definitely trust him. Keiichi finally agrees to trust her.

Keiichi asks why someone has to die on Watanagashi every year, and Mion explains that at first it was just a coincidence. Over time, people used Oyashiro-sama's curse as an excuse to kill people who defy the village so long as it's done on the night of Watanagashi. Keiichi can hardly believe such a thing would happen in this day and age, and Mion tells him to follow her.

Second Half[]

Mion and Keiichi walk outside, with the former asking if he saw all those torture devices in the storehouse, the latter responding that they were really old tools. Mion opens a door to an underground area and explains that those tools were used long ago to uphold Onigafuchi's strict religious laws by torturing and killing those who defied them. As they walk past rows of jail cells, Keiichi wants to confirm that that was all in the past and not the present. Mion says it was, as the Watanagashi ritual was once overseen by the Three Families. After the Kimiyoshi and Furude families lost influence and times changed, carrying out the Watanagashi became difficult, so those torture tools were put away forever.

Mion and Keiichi walk down a set of stairs, with Mion explaining that the Sonozaki family built a torture chamber: the very chamber she and Keiichi are standing in now. Confirming Keiichi's suspicions, Mion says the chamber was built as a place where the Watanagashi could be carried out in secret and opens a set of doors to reveal torture devices hanging on the walls. These tools were like the ones in the warehouse but kept in good condition. There were also cushions for people to sit on. Even though it's 1983, times haven;t changed; Hinamizawa is still the demon village known as Onigafuchi, though Mion has no idea that anyone's ever actually used these tools they way they were supposed to. In any case, these tools are still here for the day that they will need to be used for real.

Keiichi follows Mion deeper into the chamber, where Mion shows him a safe room used by her uncle, the most secure place on the estate. The steel doors are thick, and not even bullets can pierce them. She opens the doors and shows off a jail cell filled with commodities, which Keiichi takes to mean someone could live here. Mion affirms it, as there's enough food and electricity for someone to live for an entire month. They walk past a monitor system where Mion tells Keiichi not to worry. Confused, Mion tells him she wants him to stay there for a while and opens the cell. Keiichi is still confused; he asks what they'll explain to his parents, and suddenly Mion pushes him into the jail cell and locks it with a key.

Keiichi goes up to the bars and demands to be let out. Mion says it has to be this way; so long as there are people who want to carry out the curse, she can't let Keiichi out. Keiichi still wants to know why, and Mion swears she will do something about it and wants him to stay safe until then. Keiichi pleads with her some more, saying he doesn't need to be locked up, and Mion keeps saying it's going to keep him safe. She even says that in the worse case scenario, Keiichi can just play the victim and claim that Mion locked him up.

Higu2020ep8 serious mion

Seeing the determined look on her face, Keiichi asks what she plans to do. Mion doesn't answer and instead says that for the longest time, anyone who's in trouble will be helped by others with the power to do so; this was the spirit of community that unites the village. During the dam war, this spirit of community changed to where people were now getting revenge on behalf of the village. It became warped to the point that Satoko's family has affected. The custom that encouraged people to help one another and spread happiness became one where they hurt one another, and the Three Families are responsible. Keiichi consoles her by saying it was all so long ago, but Mion says that as the de facto head of the Three Families, it is her job to end that custom for good. The Oyashiro-sama's curse phenomenon created by the Three Families has gone on for five years, and it's gone out of control; Mion swears that she will fix it. Keiichi still has no idea what Mion plans to do, but he wants to help her in any way he can. Mion asks if he remembers the game tournament and how he gave her the doll. He treated her like a girl and it made her happy, with Mion saying she loves Keiichi. The best way to protect him would be to end this custom.

Higu2020ep8 gun

Mion hears an alert on the nearby monitors and then checks the cameras, commenting that some minions have arrived. She decides to go greet them as Keiichi asks what's going on. Mion pulls a gun out of a drawer and stores it in her kimono as Keiichi looks on in shock. She says she might take a while and Keiichi pleads her to stop, saying to let the police take care of things. Mion says she doesn't trust cops, at least not the ones in the village. She asks Keiichi to claim being a victim should someone else find him here if she doesn't come back. Mion finally opens the steel doors and leaves, ignoring Keiichi's anguished cries to stop.

Higu2020ep8 cameras

Keiichi yells out and then starts ramming into the cell door, busting it down after three strikes. He looks at the cameras to see several uniformed men surrounding the estate and swears. Going up to the big set of steel doors, Keiichi tries to open them to no avail. He then starts ramming his shoulder into it, trying to bust them down but he starts losing strength and hurts himself, his blood covering the door. Keiichi eventually passes out after one last charge.

Keiichi wakes up at night being carried on a stretcher and Ooishi calling out to him. Keiichi closes his eyes again, with several police cars surrounding the Sonozaki estate. Later in June at an unspecified date, Keiichi walks around Okinomiya and looks at a doll in a store window, a similar one to the doll he gave Mion. Ooishi calls out to him from his car, saying he stopped by the hospital earlier but was told Keiichi was discharged. They go sit on a park bench and where Keiichi says he's doing fine. Ooishi says that if a nearby detective hadn't heard that gunshot, they wouldn't have been able to find out about what happened with Mion, showing relief that they could rescue Keiichi at least. Upon hearing her name Keiichi begins to ask what happened with Mion but the detective tells him to calm down and listen a bit.

Higu2020ep8 mion dead

Note the scratches on Mion's neck.

Ooishi asks if he knew about the well in the underground prison, and Keiichi denies ever seeing something like that. Ooishi tells him that at the bottom of that well, they found the bodies of Oryou Sonozaki, Kiichirou Kimiyoshi, and Shion Sonozaki. They also found skeletal remains over ten years old and belonging to three different victims, with Ooishi commenting on how dark Hinamizawa's underbelly is. He also says they found Rika: her gruesome corpse was floating in a septic tank at the school. Keiichi realizes that when he was searching for her earlier, he almost stumbled upon Rika's corpse. He then asks what happened to Mion, and Ooishi replies that Mion was found dead alongside Satoko inside a hallway in the Sonozaki mansion. Ooishi stands up, saying that the police has a whole mountain of stuff to look into now that so many dead bodies have piled up and may need to question Keiichi later. He also promises to inform Keiichi of any new developments and leaves, wishing him well.

Keiichi sits alone on the bench questioning Mion's promise that the prison was the safest place in Hinamizawa, even though Shion's corpse was found there. And when they were searching earlier for Rika, he almost stumbled upon her dead body in that outhouse. Keiichi despairs over the fact that it seems like Mion was the one responsible for everything. He wonders if Mion was really trying to protect him from a conspiracy or if something else was going on.

Soundtrack[]

The opening, I believe what you said, is not played during this episode.

The ending, Kamisama no Syndrome, is also not played during this episode.

Start Time End Time Track OST Description
2:58 4:03 Possession Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Original Soundtrack Mion starts ranting
8:47 10:23 Plan Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Original Soundtrack Keiichi apologizes to Mion
12:38 13:40 Shinkou [Submergence] Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Original Soundtrack Keiichi sees the Sonozaki torture chamber
15:30 17:38 Fate Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Original Soundtrack Vol. 2 Mion confesses to Keiichi
21:33 23:44 Main Theme - Sin ~another ver. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Original Soundtrack Vol. 2 Ooishi tells Keiichi about the bodies they found

External Links[]

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