[Note: In order to get the good ending, you actually have to go to another connecting corridor or the calligraphy clubroom, before calling Aramata. I decided to go to the latter.]
YUKARI: "......"
MIKA: "Uuuhm..."
MIKA: "Why... did that just open by itself...?"
YUKARI: "Just don't... think about it."
CALLIGRAPHY ROOM MIKA: "Whoa, it's pitch black in here. Maybe we shouldn't have gone inside..."
MIKA: "Wh... what is that...?"
YUKARI: "My flashlight went out...!"
A: "Let's run!" B: "Chisato..."
A: "Let's run!" B: "Chisato..." [X]
YUKARI: "Chisato..."
CHISATO: "Hold on. It seems like he's trying to say something."
YUKARI: "Huh?"
CHISATO: "Excuse me?"
«I'm suffering...»
«I'm suffering...!»
«I...»
«I want to go back...!»
«I just want to go back...!»
«But I cannot get out...»
«The...»
«The exit...!»
«Open...»
«Open the exit...»
«Open it...!»
MIKA: "Was that..."
MIKA: "...a ghost just now?"
CHISATO: "Yes."
CHISATO: "Yukari, did you hear what he said?"
CHISATO: "He said he wanted to go back..."
YUKARI: "Yeah, I heard it."
CHISATO: "All those ghosts that are appearing in the school... I don't think they're coming out from the other side, because they WANT to..."
YUKARI: "What do you mean?"
CHISATO: "They're here because of the summoning ritual we performed. It caused their world to get connected with ours."
CHISATO: "And I think, what he just said means, that they all cannot go back anymore to where they came from..."
YUKARI: "But what on earth can we do to help them?"
CHISATO: "We have to find a way to return them to the place they came from."
CHISATO: "But I do not know how we could do that, yet..."
MIKA: "Well, he said something about opening an exit."
YUKARI: "Chisato, any idea what he could've meant by that?"
CHISATO: "No..."
YUKARI: "I see..."
YUKARI: "It seems we really need help from someone outside."
NEW SCHOOL BUILDING, 3F
NEW SCHOOL BUILDING, 2F
NEW SCHOOL BUILDING, 1F
YUKARI: "There it is."
MIKA: "We finally made it."
A: "What's Aramata's number?" B: "I'm calling the police!"
A: "What's Aramata's number?" [X] B: "I'm calling the police!"
YUKARI: "So, Aramata is the one who paged you earlier, right?"
MIKA: "Yeah."
MIKA: "He's a total night owl, so he always pages me at times like that."
MIKA: "Wait, let's switch places. I'll call him."
MIKA: "Ah, Aramata? I... Ah. Yes."
[I cut out the initial conversation, since it's the same as last time.]
MIKA: "...I haven't got the slightest idea what these lyrics even mean."
ARAMATA: "Let me know which parts exactly you do not understand. Perhaps I can be of help."
A: "What does «son of the woodworker» mean?" B: "What does «Inari» have to do with anything?" C: "What does «hasn't done her hair up» mean?"
A: "What does «son of the woodworker» mean?" B: "What does «Inari» have to do with anything?" C: "What does «hasn't done her hair up» mean?" [X]
MIKA: "What does «hasn't done her hair up» mean?"
ARAMATA: "In old times, girls would put up their hair when reaching a certain age as a coming-of-age ceremony."
ARAMATA: "So if she hasn't done her hair up, yet, it means that this refers to a young girl."
ARAMATA: "I wonder who exactly is meant by this here... My best guess is that it refers to the «young lady of the village headman» and is some sort of metaphor."
A: "What does «son of the woodworker» mean?" B: "Why does it say «turn around three times»?" C: "What does «Inari» have to do with anything?"
A: "What does «son of the woodworker» mean?" B: "Why does it say «turn around three times»?" [X] C: "What does «Inari» have to do with anything?"
MIKA: "Why does it say «turn around three times»? That wasn't actually part of the ritual this time."
ARAMATA: "The number 3 is associated with the meaning of «many» or «a lot»."
ARAMATA: "And have you ever heard of the belief that spinning around in circles MANY times in the same spot will bring you closer to the spirit world?"
ARAMATA: "In other words, even though it literally says «turn around three times», what is meant here is turning around MANY times to get closer to the spirit world. That is, it is telling you of a method to access the world beyond."
ARAMATA: "Although in this context, it probably signifies the opposite of that: Here, it is a ritualistic method of the central figure, the deceased son of the woodworker, to get closer to our world."
A: "What's the deal with «eat soybeans»?" B: "Why does it mention a «hairpin»?" C: "What exactly does «gate pine» mean?"
A: "What's the deal with «eat soybeans»?" [X] B: "Why does it mention a «hairpin»?" C: "What exactly does «gate pine» mean?"
MIKA: "What's the deal with «eat soybeans»?"
ARAMATA: "At the beginning of February, there usually is a bean scattering ceremony, right? It's similar to that." [Look up "Setsubun", if you want to learn more.]
ARAMATA: "It serves as a ritual with spiritual meaning."
ARAMATA: "Together with other lines that serve as a key to bring the world of the living and the world of the dead closer to each other, it..."
ARAMATA: "... Oh? Hello? Hello... Mika? ...Can you still hear me? Hello?"
ARAMATA: "Mika?"
MIKA: "Aramata? Are you still there?"
MIKA: "Hello? ...He's gone."
YUKARI: "......"
YUKARI: "Well, with or without him, we have to think of something to resolve this mess."
MIKA: "If I understood him correctly, we'll have to do a sealing ritual in some place that, uh, carries the... opposite meaning of the place in which we did the summoning ritual..."
YUKARI: "The opposite meaning...? And what meaning exactly did the art room carry?"
MIKA: "Well, it represented the demon gate, a place that is closest to the spirit world and filled with spiritual energy."
CHISATO: "The opposite meaning of that, huh..."
CHISATO: "We don't have enough clues."
YUKARI: "Hm? Chisato, what's wrong?"
CHISATO: "Yukari, think back to that spirit in the calligraphy room earlier..."
CHISATO: "He told us to open the... exit. Right?"
YUKARI: "Huh? Well... Yeah, he did..."
CHISATO: "All those spirits were yanked into our world by the ritual we performed."
CHISATO: "Perhaps they have nowhere to go now and are suffering greatly because of that...?
MIKA: "But... where would they even want to go now?"
CHISATO: "I'm not entirely sure... But that spirit in the calligraphy room clearly said that he wanted to «go back»."
YUKARI: To «go back», huh... Maybe they just want to return to where they came from? To the other side?"
CHISATO: "Yes... At least that spirit seemed to wish to do that..."
CHISATO: "But he is tied to this school building by something."
YUKARI: "......"
CHISATO: "So, maybe we can learn more about how to perform the sealing ritual, if we find out what is tying them to this school building?"
MIKA: "That's it!"
MIKA: "Aratama said, we might be able to find out where to do the sealing ritual by analysing the lyrics of that temari song."
YUKARI: "That song, huh..."
YUKARI: "Mika, show me that note of yours with the lyrics again."
MIKA: "Ah... Sure. Here!"
YUKARI: "And...did he say which part of the lyrics was important?"
YUKARI: "Where are we supposed to look?"
MIKA: "I don't really know... The connection broke up just when he seemed to be getting to the important part."
CHISATO: "It appears we'll have to think about this for ourselves..."
YUKARI: "......"
CHISATO: "What about the very first line of this song? This «young lady of the village headman»... Who might that refer to?"
A: "Perhaps that ghost girl with the bobbed hair?" B: "She hasn't done her hair up, yet, so...a young girl?" C: "Is this even referring to a living girl?"
A: "Perhaps that ghost girl with the bobbed hair?" [X] B: "She hasn't done her hair up, yet, so...a young girl?" C: "Is this even referring to a living girl?"
YUKARI: "Maybe it's referring to that ghost girl with the bobbed hair? The one we tried to summon."
MIKA: "That's gotta be it! We were bound to that girl since the beginning through some kind of fate!"
CHISATO: "Hm, but..."
YUKARI: "Hm? What is it, Chisato?"
YUKARI: "Is something bothering you?"
CHISATO: "Yeah. I don't know how to put it, but... Well, I just feel like all these lines of the song aren't referring to anyone in particular. They're more... metaphorical."
A: "Let's rethink this..." [X] B: "No, it refers to that ghost girl. No doubt about it!"
YUKARI: "If Chisato has her doubts about this, then it's probably wrong..."
MIKA: "But... Then... What else could it mean?"
A: "She hasn't done her hair up, yet, so...a young girl?" B: "Is this even referring to a living girl?"
A: "She hasn't done her hair up, yet, so...a young girl?" B: "Is this even referring to a living girl?" [X]
YUKARI: "Is this «young lady of the village headman» even alive?"
MIKA: "Eh?"
YUKARI: "Well, I mean, everything in this song seems to be about the dead, doesn't it?"
YUKARI: "And the girl we met at the girl's restroom back then... And all these spirits that are pouring into the school grounds now... They're all coming from the world of the dead, right?"
YUKARI: "So maybe this «young lady of the village headman» also refers to someone who's dead?"
CHISATO: "No, I don't think that's the case..."
CHISATO: "If you look at the rest of the lyrics, it sounds more like this girl is the one that the dead person wants to go to..."
YUKARI: "You mean, the «son of the woodworker»? He wants to get to her?"
MIKA: "That's what «go up the stone stairs» means? He goes up the stone stairs to meet her?"
CHISATO: "So the stone stairs are actually a metaphor for..."
A: "...a ghost coming towards the world of the living?" [X] B: "Well, they're just literal stone stairs, right?"
YUKARI: "It refers to a ghost coming towards the world of the living..."
YUKARI: "He «climbs up» from the world of the dead towards our side."
CHISATO: "That's what I think, yes... The stone stairs represent a portal into our world."
CHISATO: "By performing that ritual in the art room, we have opened a portal to their world, through which they were pulled out and put here..."
CHISATO: "So what they are looking for now is definitely an exit!"
YUKARI: "An exit..."
CHISATO: "The main question is: Where exactly is this exit?"
YUKARI: "Well, wouldn't the portal that brought them here also serve as a way to bring them back?"
YUKARI: "We performed the summoning ritual in the art room and opened the portal by doing so..."
YUKARI: "But as I said, that should also be a way back, shouldn't it? So isn't the exit also in the art room?"
CHISATO: "It could be..."
YUKARI: "To sum up: All those spirits that are currently appearing in the school building essentially just want to go back to where they came from, right?"
YUKARI: "And since they came out of that portal, that portal can also be considered their way back, their exit."
CHISATO: "Perhaps, yes..."
A: "Or could there be a different place that will become their exit?" B: "Let's perform the sealing ritual in the art room!"
A: "Or could there be a different place that will become their exit?" [X] B: "Let's perform the sealing ritual in the art room!"
YUKARI: "Chisato, you don't sound convinced."
YUKARI: "Is something still bothering you?"
CHISATO: "I'm wondering, if we haven't overlooked something in these lyrics..."
MIKA: "I know, you like to overanalyse things and listen to your sixth sense or whatever, but we don't have time for that this time around!"
MIKA: "If we don't hurry the hell up, things will get really bad real soon!"
YUKARI: "But that also doesn't mean we should rush it and risk failing altogether!"
YUKARI: "Chisato, what exactly is bothering you?"
CHISATO: "Hm..."
CHISATO: "The mentioning of a «barrier mountain» and a «guardian»..."
YUKARI: "That «barrier mountain» line, huh..."
CHISATO: "Yes."
MIKA: "Is that line really so strange?"
MIKA: "If you ask me, the whole shtick about turning around three times is much more suspicious, now that I think about it again!"
MIKA: "That's a ritual we did at the girls' restroom in the old school building, when we summoned that bobbed hair ghost girl for the first time!"
YUKARI: "True, we did turn around three times there."
MIKA: "That's gotta be it! Don't you think?"
MIKA: "The place for the sealing ritual must be the girls' restroom."
MIKA: "I'm sure of it!"
YUKARI: "......"
A: "The «barrier mountain» line seems important..." B: "Maybe the girls' restroom is the correct place?"
A: "The «barrier mountain» line seems important..." [X] B: "Maybe the girls' restroom is the correct place?"
YUKARI: "That «barrier mountain» line... It does seem important somehow."
YUKARI: "I wonder what it could mean?"
MIKA: "As far as mountains go in this area, the only noteworthy ones are the ones behind our school. I at least can't really think of any other."
YUKARI: "But do they really have anything to do with this?"
A: "Maybe it's a reference to Hakone Sekisho?"* [X] B: "Could be the mountains behind school." [Hakone Sekisho was a huge barrier/checkpoint during the Edo period to keep Edo (former Tokyo) safe. Its name contains a Kanji that is also used in the «barrier mountain» line, which probably made Yukari think of it.]
YUKARI: "Maybe it's a reference to Hakone Sekisho?"
MIKA: "Dude... Hakone Sekisho? That ancient checkpoint? Come on... Is this really the right place for jokes?"
MIKA: "We've got no time for witty jokes now!"
YUKARI: "I wasn't trying to make a joke!"
YUKARI: "But I guess you're right. That's too far-fetched, isn't it..."
CHISATO: "... No. Actually, Yukari, that might be exactly the hint we needed."
YUKARI: "Huh?"
CHISATO: "A checkpoint... is a place that lets people pass through to their desired destination..."
CHISATO: "But it's also a place that doesn't let people through who are not supposed to go through..."
YUKARI: "What are you getting at?"
CHISATO: "In this school, what would be a place like that, that lets people come and go, and also regulates who's allowed inside and who's not?"
CHISATO: "It's the main entrance of the school!"
CHISATO: "And try to remember, Yukari."
CHISATO: "Whenever we met a spirit in this school building tonight, it was in front of some sort of entrance or exit."
CHISATO: "The ghost at the door of the connecting passage... The one at the window... The one at the emergency exit... These are all places that mark the borderline between inside and outside!"
YUKARI: "......"
CHISATO: "Yukari, we've been misunderstanding this all along. The place these spirits want to use as exit..."
CHISATO: "...is the exit into this world! And in the case of this school, that's the entrance!"
CHISATO: "It's NOT the world of the dead that they all want to «go back» to!"
CHISATO: "They want to go back to the place they once were a part of! They want to spread into the world of the living!"
CHISATO: "This is even worse than we thought, Yukari!"
CHISATO: "To think all these spirits might get released into our world..."
YUKARI: "So what should we do?"
CHISATO: "We do the sealing ritual at the school entrance."
CHISATO: "That is the exit they all are looking for. That is where soon they all will go!"
YUKARI: "......"
CHISATO: "Quick!"
CHISATO: "We cannot afford to waste any more time!"
YUKARI: "Hey... Are you really sure, this is the right place?"
MIKA: "It's a little late for doubts now!"
MIKA: "If this is the wrong place, we--"
CHISATO: "It'll be fine."
CHISATO: "This is the exit they're all looking for."
MIKA: "If you say so..."
CHISATO: "You know, we..."
CHISATO: "We showed something to these spirits that they never should've seen..."
CHISATO: "We showed them the light of the world of the living."
CHISATO: "The one thing they will never be able to regain..."
CHISATO: "That is why they are all suffering so much..."
MIKA: "......"
YUKARI: "Okay, are you two ready? Then let's begin..."
"Young lady of the village headman Fine-patterned short sleeve"
"Bobbed hair girl hasn't done her hair up yet"
"Son of the woodworker on the other side of the bridge"
"Buy a hairpin Go up the stone stairs"
"Give fried tofu to the Inari"
"Turn round and round Turn around three times"
"Make a prayer Eat soybeans"
"Gate pine, check pattern Crouch down, pass through"
"Guardian of the barrier mountain"
"Please hear my wish and let me be with that dear child"
YUKARI: "......"
MIKA: "......"
CHISATO: "......"
YUKARI: "Did it... work?"
MIKA: "Don't ask me!"
YUKARI: "Let's turn around. Okay? On three..."
YUKARI: "One, two..."
YUKARI: "Nothing really looks... different compared to earlier."
MIKA: "Hm, so... did it actually work or not?"
YUKARI: "Chisato? What do you say?"
CHISATO: "I don't feel any presence anymore..."
CHISATO: "It seems, it worked."
YUKARI: "Really? We were succesful?"
CHISATO: "Probably... They have all returned to the place they belong."
YUKARI: "So we've fulfilled our duty, huh..."
MIKA: "But in the end, we never really met that girl with the bobbed hair."
YUKARI: "True."
YUKARI: "Let's just go home......"
CHISATO: "After having finished the ritual in front of the school entrance..."
"...we eventually all hurried back home."
"But even though I had reassured her that the sealing ritual had been a success, Yukari didn't seem to be able to truly calm down."
"An uneasy feeling that we might have been wrong after all appeared to keep nagging at her."
"I could understand how she felt, though. After all, if our sealing procedure had been even slightly wrong, those...lost souls – I'm not even sure, if I should call them terrifying or sad – would have been forced to wander the school grounds forever without any means of ever returning to their eternal slumber."
"When we went to school the next day, we immediately headed to the third floor of the old school building."
"Even now, I clearly remember the deep sigh of relief that came over us without anyone really noticing, when we finally confirmed that the portal to the other side had been sealed again."
"In the following days, I kept my ears open, always afraid I might catch people talk about ghost sightings or other supernatural phenomena, but since none of that happened, I think it's safe to say now that the sealing ritual had been truly and completely successful."
"The dead and the living..."
"What exactly is it that separates these two, I wonder?"
"It cannot be denied that each and every one of us will one day join their ranks... and yet, we are frightened, scared of them and keep our distance."
"When those spirits were pulled from their side, from a different world, so clearly separated from ours, and were drawn back into our world, I wonder how they saw this side?"
"The bright light emenating from that portal, that we had opened... What did it look like to them?"
"When I think about these things, my chest feels tight."
"This deep emotion that grips me then... It might be that I feel it, because that night we have gotten far too close to the dead..."
"And... Ever since that night, Yukari has begun showing a brooding expression on her face more and more often."
"When we all got separated and she fainted in that biology class prep room... I still wonder what it was that she saw in there that made her actually lose consciousness..."
"But whatever it was, she does not make any attempt at talking about it, not even with me."
"She may not want to show it, but Yukari is very sensitive – and so, sometimes I worry about what those spirits might have shown to her that night in that room..."
"The thought keeps crossing my mind, that we truly might have gotten too close to the world of the dead."
"And maybe some day we will get involved in another incident like this... If so, I wonder when? And what kind of incident?"
"But... Most of all, I simply wonder, for how much longer we will be able to slumber within this dream called "life", this gentle scenery of the living...?"
GOOD ENDING
Rumour 10 «Reverse Town»