MIKA: "Hey, isn't that a shopping district over there?"
MIKA: "Let's try and go there."
CHISATO: "There's a police box, as well."
CHISATO: "Maybe an officer can tell us where we are."
A: "Let's go to the police box." B: "Let's go to the shopping district."
A: "Let's go to the police box." [X] B: "Let's go to the shopping district."
YUKARI: "You're right."
YUKARI: "Let's ask the police officer."
POLICE OFFICER: "Hello there... Do you need something?"
POLICE OFFICER: "Are you by any chance... lost?"
YUKARI: "Uhm, we..."
POLICE OFFICER: "Everyone gets lost here."
POLICE OFFICER: "All the people that come here, they all get lost here..."
YUKARI: "What...?"
A: "Where are we here?" B: "What year is it?"
A: "Where are we here?" [X] B: "What year is it?"
YUKARI: "Where are we here?"
POLICE OFFICER: "This place here?"
POLICE OFFICER: This is... the town."
YUKARI: "But what town?"
POLICE OFFICER: "What town?"
POLICE OFFICER: "Who knows... I forgot."
YUKARI: "How can you just forget? You're a police officer!"
POLICE OFFICER: "Who knows, I feel like I've been standing in this spot forever now..."
A: "What year is it?" B: "Which way is Hinashiro High School?"
A: "What year is it?" B: "Which way is Hinashiro High School?" [X]
YUKARI: "Well, then which way is Hinashiro High School?"
POLICE OFFICER: "Hinashiro High School?"
POLICE OFFICER: "Who knows. Never heard of that."
YUKARI: "But... I mean... This IS Hinashiro, right?"
POLICE OFFICER: "Oh? Is it...?"
POLICE OFFICER: "I guess it could be..."
YUKARI: "What do you mean? Where is Minamichou, then?!"
POLICE OFFICER: "Sorry... I forgot."
POLICE OFFICER: "So, what did you want again?"
MIKA: "What's up with this guy?!"
A: "Are you really a police officer?" B: "Have you seen a little girl?"
A: "Are you really a police officer?" B: "Have you seen a little girl?" [X]
CHISATO: "Excuse me, have you perhaps seen a little girl, about 4 years old, passing by?"
CHISATO: "Her name is Chikako."
POLICE OFFICER: "A little girl, huh..."
POLICE OFFICER: "Who knows... Maybe I've seen her...?"
POLICE OFFICER: "But that sounds sad. Little girls can get lost easily."
POLICE OFFICER: "A little girl..."
POLICE OFFICER: "Oh, maybe I did see her...?"
YUKARI: "And where did she go?!"
POLICE OFFICER: "I think... towards the shopping district..."
POLICE OFFICER: "Then again, that's where everyone goes who comes to this city..."
POLICE OFFICER: "That girl probably went there, too."
CHISATO: "Yukari... It seems Chikako came here and lost her way."
MIKA: "Even if she did, that's of no use to us right now!"
MIKA: "I mean, we're just as lost right now, ourselves!"
YUKARI: "For now, how about we try the shopping district?"
YUKARI: "It's not like we got any better leads, right?"
YUKARI: "So... yeah, let's do that."
POLICE OFFICER: "You are going to the shopping district?"
POLICE OFFICER: "Well, the experience might be scary for you at first..."
POLICE OFFICER: "But just give yourself up to the beautiful light of this twilight..."
POLICE OFFICER: "If you do that, the city will surely accept you..."
YUKARI: "The city...?"
POLICE OFFICER: "...will accept you. I am sure..."
YUKARI: "......"
CHISATO: "Thanks, we'll be leaving then..."
MIKA: "Asahi-doori Shopping District..."
YUKARI: "Asahi-doori? That kind of rings a bell somehow..."
CHISATO: "Maybe it belongs to the Asahi Sunmall?"
MIKA: "That huge shopping arcade? This doesn't look anything like it!"
CHISATO: "I've heard that it was called Asahi-doori in the past."
CHISATO: "Maybe that's still its official name."
YUKARI: "...Hold on."
YUKARI: "If this is supposed to be THAT Asahi Sunmall, then where... no... WHEN are we?!"
CHISATO: "......"
MIKA: "It's so quiet..."
YUKARI: "......"
WORKER: "What should I do... I'm so hungry!"
WORKER: "I gotta go to work, but I... forgot where that is."
WORKER: "With the economic slump and all... I was so happy to have finally found work, but..."
WORKER: "Man, I haven't eaten for days. I feel kinda sleepy..."
YOUNGSTER: "I went shopping, but I dropped my money..."
YOUNGSTER: "And it just rolled away with a clattering sound."
YOUNGSTER: "I jumped after it. Out into the road..."
YOUNGSTER: "I remember I was in a hurry..."
YOUNGSTER: "There was somewhere I needed to go, but I'm not sure anymore where exactly that was..."
YOUNGSTER: "I must've forgotten."
CHISATO: "Yukari..."
YUKARI: "What?"
CHISATO: "I feel uneasy..."
MIKA: "Huh? Why?"
CHISATO: "For starters, the people here are all strange..."
CHISATO: "They look like they're from a different time..."
CHISATO: "And they've all forgotten some really obvious, commonplace things..."
YUKARI: "......"
CHISATO: "Actually... I've been trying to remember this for a while now, but..."
CHISATO: "What day is today?"
CHISATO: "I know that it's August, but... other than that..."
MIKA: "Oh, come on!"
MIKA: "Today was School Day, so..."
MIKA: "......!"
YUKARI: "I can't remember..."
MIKA: "But why...?"
CHISATO: "I don't know..."
CHISATO: "Maybe we, too, are slowly losing our memories..."
MIKA: "Why are all these people watching TV in such a place?!"
CHISATO: "Is this one of those old...street broadcast systems?"
MIKA: "Those are, like, a million years old! Why would people use them nowadays!"
CHISATO: "I don't know... Then again... is this even 'nowadays'?"
CHISATO: "Can you really call this place the present day Hinashiro that we know?"
CHISATO: "If we truly ended up in another world, then maybe..."
MIKA: "What... What should we do..."
YUKARI: "......"
A: "Let's go back to the shopping district." B: "Let's try talking to someone."
A: "Let's go back to the shopping district." B: "Let's try talking to someone." [X]
GENTLEMAN: "Hello, young ladies."
YUKARI: "Uhm, sorry, but where are we here?"
GENTLEMAN: "You seem taken aback."
GENTLEMAN: "So you have noticed this plaza? Many people's memories whirl around here."
YUKARI: "People's... memories?"
GENTLEMAN: "Yes. Indeed."
GENTLEMAN: "We row out into the sea of oblivion. A journey with no return."
GENTLEMAN: "We say farewell to the world of thunder and disruption, and steer for the land of the pure soul."
GENTLEMAN: "Do you not sense it in this place, young ladies?"
GENTLEMAN: "The numerous recollections of countless people who have lived various lives..."
GENTLEMAN: "Happiness, sadness, hatred, love..."
GENTLEMAN: "If you grow as old as me, you may give up on a lot of your memories."
GENTLEMAN: "But young people, or people who lived happy lives, they carry plenty of pleasant memories they would not want to throw away."
YUKARI: "Pleasant memories, huh..."
GENTLEMAN: "Exactly. See for yourself."
GENTLEMAN: "That television... Everyone is watching their most important memories on it..."
GENTLEMAN: "Little by little, they are rewinding their very own history, lost in their past with great affection..."
GENTLEMAN: "And so... they eventually disappear. They part entirely from the time that belonged to them."
YUKARI: "I have no idea what you're talking about..."
GENTLEMAN: "I see... At first everyone finds it hard to accept."
GENTLEMAN: "But that meager trace of resistance... that, too, will melt away in this evening sun..."
GENTLEMAN: "See, you, too, are beginning to slowly... slowly... fade away in this town."
YUKARI: "What...?"
WOODEN FENCE PATH MIKA: "What the..."
MIKA: "What are we doing here?"
MIKA: "Where did all those people watching TV go?"
YUKARI: "I don't know... Chisato... What is going on?"
CHISATO: "I... have no idea... I have absolutely no idea..."
YUKARI: "......"
MIKA: "Hey, doesn't it feel kinda, uhm... nostalgic here?"
YUKARI: "You think so?"
MIKA: "Yeah... This scenery, I feel like I've seen it a long time ago..."
YUKARI: "Well, how would I know of that?"
YUKARI: "You're probably just having... uhm... that thing..."
MIKA: "What thing?"
CHISATO: "Déjà... something?"
YUKARI: "Uhm... maybe..."
MIKA: "What was that again? I can't really remember..."
YUKARI: "Me, neither..."
CHISATO: "Yukari?"
YUKARI: "Hm?"
CHISATO: "There's one thing I might understand now."
CHISATO: "This place here... it might be the memory... or recollection... of our town."
YUKARI: "Of Hinashiro?"
CHISATO: "Yes. Well, maybe not just Hinashiro, I'm not sure about that, but..."
CHISATO: "This old townscape, it feels so nostalgic, like watching pictures from an old photo album, right?"
YUKARI: "......"
CHISATO: "The people here – and that includes us, too... Everybody carries their own version of their town in their memories, and all of them contribute to the shape of this place."
YUKARI: "I don't understand..."
CHISATO: "Earlier, that man in front of the TV spoke of the evening sun melting something..."
CHISATO: "I think the memories of the people there are melting... They melt, and then pour out to create this town."
CHISATO: "That's what it feels like..."
YUKARI: "......"
YUKARI: "Uhm, excuse me?"
WOMAN: "Yes?"
YUKARI: "Where are we here?"
WOMAN: "...... I don't know..."
YUKARI: "What?"
WOMAN: "I... don't know."
WOMAN: "I don't know what year this is... I don't know what place this is..."
WOMAN: "But it feels like I've already been here for a long, long time."
WOMAN: "I need to go home..."
YUKARI: "......"
WIND CHIME PATH
YUKARI: "Is that a wind chime ringing?"
MIKA: "That feels kinda nostalgic..."
MIKA: "I've heard this before..."
CHISATO: "......"
YUKARI: "Chisato? What is it?"
CHISATO: "I'm... scared..."
YUKARI: "Huh? Why?"
CHISATO: "Let's go... Somehow, I feel that we shouldn't stay here for too long."
PATH WITH PRIVATE HOUSES
CHISATO: "Huh?"
CHISATO: "Isn't that the smell of incense sticks?"
MIKA: "You're right!"
YUKARI: "It's coming from this house."
MIKA: "I also hear sutras. Maybe it's a funeral?"
YUKARI: "Could be."
MIKA: "Oh? She's sleeping!"
CHISATO: "Perhaps the cool of the evening made her fall asleep."
CHISATO: "Let's leave her be."
BACK ALLEY
YUKARI: "Uhm... Excuse me?"
WORKER: "Haa, I'm exhausted... I'm so exhaused..."
WORKER: "Hey, girls, you wouldn't happen to know where I need to go to get home?"
YUKARI: "What...?"
WORKER: "I want to go home already. Go home and rest..."
WORKER: "But I don't know how to get home..."
[I tried many times, but it seems you cannot talk to this person.]
WOODEN FENCE PATH
WIND CHIME PATH
YUKARI: "......"
MIKA: "Is something wrong?"
YUKARI: "Hey, this might be a weird question, but... do both of you remember what our homeroom teacher looks like?"
MIKA: "Is there any particular reason for you asking that?"
YUKARI: "I just started thinking about it and have been trying to remember ever since, but..."
YUKARI: "I can't remember..."
MIKA: "......"
YUKARI: "What about you?"
MIKA: "I forgot..."
CHISATO: "Me, too..."
YUKARI: "Why are there so many things we cannot remember anymore?"
YUKARI: "If this goes on, we might forget everything we ever knew..."
«Oblivion...»
PATH WITH PRIVATE HOUSES
YUKARI: "H-hello..."
OLD WOMAN: "Hello, children! Isn't this twilight a very pleasant one?"
YUKARI: "Uhm, yes..."
OLD WOMAN: "I've been sitting here like this for a long, long time already."
OLD WOMAN: "I see many people walking by, but I feel like I have not seen you lot here before."
YUKARI: "Uh, do you know about this town?"
OLD WOMAN: "This town? Oh, yes, I know it well..."
YUKARI: "It seems we've gotten lost here..."
OLD WOMAN: "Lost? Ahh... You are lost, huh..."
OLD WOMAN: "Well, there are many more like you."
YUKARI: "There are?"
OLD WOMAN: "Yes, yes. Just keep walking and you will see lots and lots of people who are lost."
YUKARI: "......"
OLD WOMAN: "You should try and just sit down and do nothing, like me."
OLD WOMAN: "Then someday, things will surely work out..."
MIKA: (Yukari, this might be pointless...)
MIKA: (I think she isn't right in the head...)
YUKARI: (You may be right...)
MIKA: (Let's just go on.)
YUKARI: "Thank you for the advice. Well, we should be going..."
OLD WOMAN: "You're leaving?"
OLD WOMAN: "Is that so... Well, may you enjoy the pleasant twilight..."
BACK ALLEY
WOODEN FENCE PATH
WIND CHIME PATH
BACK ALLEY
WOODEN FENCE PATH
YUKARI: "Excuse me..."
WOMAN: "Why am I all alone in a place like this?"
YUKARI: "What?"
WOMAN: "Have I always been alone here?"
WOMAN: "It feels like I have experienced some terrible loneliness, but I just cannot remember..."
WOMAN: "Will I be crossing the bridge already?"
YUKARI: "......"
WIND CHIME PATH
PATH WITH PRIVATE HOUSES
MIKA: "Yukari..."
YUKARI: "What?"
MIKA: "I cannot remember who my classmates are..."
YUKARI: "......"
MIKA: "I can't remember my teacher, and I cannot remember my friends' faces... or their names..."
MIKA: "Yukari? Can you? Can you remember anything about anyone in your class?!"
YUKARI: "I... can't..."
CHISATO: "Yukari... Little by little, we are losing our memory...!"
«Loss...»
BACK ALLEY
WORKER: "It's kind of warm here... but in a very pleasant way... Don't you agree?"
YUKARI: "R-really?"
WORKER: "I'm tired, you know..."
WORKER: "If I close my eyes now, I feel like I might fall asleep and not wake up again."
WORKER: "I'm beginning to think that that wouldn't be too bad, though..."
YUKARI: "......"
WOODEN FENCE PATH
WOMAN: "I'm... lonely."
YUKARI: "Excuse me?"
WOMAN: "I don't want to be alone anymore."
WOMAN: "I didn't want to be alone anymore, so... so I... But it's the same here, isn't it..."
WOMAN: "Being all by yourself is really lonely..."
YUKARI: "......"
WOMAN: "I want to cross the bridge as soon as possible."
WIND CHIME PATH
PATH WITH PRIVATE HOUSES
OLD WOMAN: "Oh, it's you again! How was the town?"
CHISATO: (Yukari, maybe we should talk some more to this old woman, after all...)
YUKARI: (About what?)
CHISATO: (I'm not sure, but of all the people here she's been the only one so far who properly talks to us.)
YUKARI: (I guess so...)
OLD WOMAN: "Is there something I can help you with?"
A: "Why are sutras being sung?" B: "This smell of incense sticks..." C: "What exactly are you doing here?"
A: "Why are sutras being sung?" [X] B: "This smell of incense sticks..." C: "What exactly are you doing here?"
YUKARI: "We couldn't help but notice the sutra chants, but... may we ask what they're for?"
OLD WOMAN: "Well, we are all reciting sutras here to help the spirits of the dead."
OLD WOMAN: "We are celebrating Higan." [Higan = Equinoctial week in which Buddhist services are performed.]
YUKARI: "Higan?"
OLD WOMAN: "Yes, indeed. Yesterday, today, tomorrow..."
OLD WOMAN: "In this town, we are always, ALWAYS celebrating Higan."
YUKARI: "Isn't Higan usually just... one week long?"
OLD WOMAN: "It cannot be helped. This town is filled with innumerable spirits of the dead, after all..."
A: "What exactly IS this town?" B: "About celebrating Higan..."
A: "What exactly IS this town?" [X] B: "About celebrating Higan..."
YUKARI: "You seem to know a lot about this town, right?"
YUKARI: "As you know, we have become lost here, but..."
YUKARI: "What exactly IS this town in the first place?"
OLD WOMAN: "Hahaha... This town is the town of Higan."
YUKARI: "What... do you mean by that?"
OLD WOMAN: "It is simply a town in which the spirit of the dead bathe in twilight..."
A: "About the fact that you're celebrating Higan..." [X]
YUKARI: "But... Wasn't the purpose of Higan to console the spirits of one's ancestors?"
OLD WOMAN: "Well..."
YUKARI: "Is that different here? But then whose spirit are you--"
OLD WOMAN: "Everyone's spirits."
OLD WOMAN: "The sad and lonely folks that populate this town... They are lost souls who cannot yet cross the bridge."
OLD WOMAN: "So these chants are consoling all these pitiful spirits of the dead, making them forget everything, the good and the bad..."
OLD WOMAN: "It is returning them to a state almost comparable to a newborn, so that they can cross the bridge without resistance."
OLD WOMAN: "That is the role of this town."
OLD WOMAN: "And that is why this town always celebrates Higan. Forever and ever..."
YUKARI: "Wha... what the hell..."
YUKARI: "So all the people in this town are... actually dead?!"
OLD WOMAN: "They are indeed. You know, not everyone's spirit is cabable of crossing the bridge immediately. That is why they are here."
OLD WOMAN: "There are many that do not even know that they died, instead clinging on to the memories of past times when they were still alive."
OLD WOMAN: "But this is a gentle town."
OLD WOMAN: "Liiiittle by little, it is washing off the colour that is your own past life."
OLD WOMAN: "It washes away all the obsessions that have clogged your heart..."
OLD WOMAN: "So you become clean and can finally cross the bridge..."
A: "How can we leave this town?" B: "What bridge?"
A: "How can we leave this town?" [X] B: "What bridge?"
YUKARI: "So this is a town for the dead...?"
YUKARI: "But we're not dead yet!"
OLD WOMAN: "That cannot be. Living things cannot enter this town."
OLD WOMAN: "After all, this town exists for the sake of the spirits of the dead."
OLD WOMAN: "If you stay here long enough, you, too, will be washed clean of many things until you can finally cross the bridge..."
YUKARI: "I don't want to! I just want to leave this town!"
YUKARI: "Please! How can we leave?!"
OLD WOMAN: "Leave this town?"
OLD WOMAN: "What odd things you say..."
YUKARI: "But it's true! We're not dead! We really just got lost and ended up here!"
YUKARI: "So please..."
YUKARI: "Tell us how we can leave this town!"
OLD WOMAN: "You cannot. There IS no way."
OLD WOMAN: "No way, except one: The only path that leads out of this town is... across the bridge."
A: "What kind of bridge is that?" [X]
YUKARI: "What kind of bridge are we talking about, anyway?"
OLD WOMAN: "A bridge across the river."
OLD WOMAN: "If you cross the river, you can go to the other side."
OLD WOMAN: "The spirit of the dead... One day they all have to go there."
YUKARI: "The... other side?"
OLD WOMAN: "Yes, the other side of the river."
YUKARI: "Don't tell me that bridge you've been talking about leads across... the Sanzu River*?!" [*Buddhist equivalent of the River Styx.]
OLD WOMAN: "Who knows? I don't know the name."
OLD WOMAN: "A river is a river."
YUKARI: "And where is that river?"
OLD WOMAN: "That I do not know. After all, those that have seen it are the ones that cannot come back here."
OLD WOMAN: "I do think it is somewhere in this town, though."
YUKARI: "Wait a second... So... you, too, are..."
OLD WOMAN: "Me? Well, let us just say that at my age there are things I just cannot bring myself to forget..."
YUKARI: "......"
OLD WOMAN: "Originally, I thought I'd just wait here for my darling husband, but..."
OLD WOMAN: "If he really came, could I still remember his face, I wonder...?"
YUKARI: "This is... insane... Can you believe any of this?!"
CHISATO: "The people we met did look sad, all of them, but..."
CHISATO: "To think that the cause was..."
MIKA: "Hey, Yukari... Chisato... What will happen to us...?!"
CHISATO: "We... We've been forgetting more and more for a while now..."
YUKARI: "......"
CHISATO: "If this goes on, we might become like the rest of the people here in this town..."
MIKA: "I don't want that...!"
MIKA: "Thunder...?"
MIKA: "N-now what?!"
YUKARI: "What is the meaning of this?"
CHISATO: "......"