Miyako's stopped talking at all, damn it.
I've got absolutely no clue about what I should be doing now.
I think I'll head home.
Come on, it's still early.
What's wrong?
The old woman from the back lot was there...
The what? Oh, don't be ridiculous!
But, she was standing right there!
Excuse me...
Who's the woman from the back lot?
Don't worry about it.
She died in January, is all.
Thank you very much.
Check, please!
Yes, of course. Right away.
Hometown Journal?
Oh, I'm sorry.
That's the wrong one.
This is the real one.
I have some information on the body found at the dam, though I'll ask you to keep it quiet.
It seems he was a foreign spy.
He came to the facility as a contractor.
Since much of his work was in your department, I thought I'd ask if you had any knowledge of this.
My work here is essentially basic research, and it's nearing its completion.
I see, I see.
What are those?
Hey, where's your mother?
A guy from Public Safety's Investigation Division showed me his card.
He's either an idiot or...
Yeah, that's probably it.
I'll be careful.
Looks like he got fingerprints, too.
Yes, if he checks the foreigners database...
Maybe he's not here.
The main family's brewer...
So you are here.
There aren't many convenience stores or anything around here.
What have you been doing for food?
Kaibara-san asked me to bring you this.
Lunch.
It's still warm.
II wonder if there's tea in the fridge. I'll go check.
What was that for?
How do they know I'm here?
How should I know that?
I was just asked to come.
So that woman knows, too?
That woman?
You shouldn't talk about your mother like that
You can't eat that now.
What a waste.
After I went through the trouble of making it...
Wait, you made it? Not her?
Please put your futon out in the sun each morning.
I know it's a bit of extra work, but I hope you'll be considerate.
I died eleven years ago.
So why am I still here, living as a ghost?
Even as a ghost, I've loved you.
And for that, I am truly grateful.
You've helped me so much in such a short time.
In a way, I'm a ghost as well.
So, I'll go...
That cannot be allowed.
I go merely to be punished.
Why should you accompany me?
The Construction Workers, huh?
Oh, Chief.
Didn't you quit smoking?
Well, yeah...
Doesn't do you a bit of good, you know.
Chief...
What about Kyoushi Hazei's faction?
I've been seeing them in the area I'm investigating.
But, just in case...
About the kidnapping case that took place around there about ten years ago...
Over the course of the preceding year and a half or so,
all across western Japan.
a large number of children went missing
Right. I did look into that, but...
Because they seemed to be individual missing persons cases,.
the cops were slow in figuring out the pattern.
But, the string of disappearances came to a halt after the Suiten incident.
The Suiten incident was a kidnap for ransom case that ended with the suspect's death, though.
It wasn't just a missing persons case, right?
Yeah, that's just it.
Strange, isn't it?
Very strange.
So, what you're saying is, the Suiten incident should've been just a missing persons case,
but by some fluke ended up a ransom case?
I don't really know.
We're not the cops, after all.
But there's something about that case that's different from the others.
Himeko Ogami.
In recent years, she was nothing but an old country woman,
but in her youth she even had cabinet ministers among her followers.
There are even rumors that she was involved in the post-war U.S.-Japan Security Treaty.
Ogami Worship Circle
I assume her connections with the Construction Workers stem from that time.
I see...
The Workers may have been negotiators.
Maybe they tried to negotiate with the group behind the kidnappings.
But, why would that group only go after kids?
The situation might be different now due to advancements in biotech.
I hear a decent number of them were coming in from East Asia up until a few years ago.
You mean illegal organ donors?
Before those outside routes were set up,
underworld organ traffickers had to get their supplies somewhere.
Missing
Please help us find her!
They used children.
Miyako.
Chiho?
Hey, come play at my place.
Sure, but why?
I want to be friends with you.
Will you come?
Sorry.
You could've come right in.
It's all right.
That Makoto kid was there.
I made sure he ate lunch.
Thank you.
See you, then.
Kei, wait.
Forgive me. I need one more favor.
One more...
I've always wanted to invite you over, but I just couldn't say it.
Miyako, this way.
Okay.
The Workers on that list... It looks like they're in Kumada now.
Kumada?
We received some information to that effect.
Kumada's where the wife of the disowned eldest son lives.
Don't just stand there, sit down.
I know you don't like me.
There's not much I can do about that.
But, I understand you better than anyone else.
Aren't you thinking, "What are you talking about, old woman?"
I wasn't born an old woman, you know.
When I was a child, the gods came into me as well.
I'm not lying.
They came into me, but they weren't great gods like those who enter you.
Yes...
When I was your age,
the princess came to me.
She'd been waiting for one such as myself to be born.
She taught me that I was born into this world to be her saniwa.
The word "saniwa" is written as "one who judges a god".
Note: A fundamentalist movement in the 19th century that tried to establish Japan as the world's spiritual leader and remove Buddhist influence from Shinto.
The term comes from so-called Koshinto, doesn't it?
Soul calming and god returning are methods of divination where a vessel and a judge act as a pair.
god has indeed entered the vessel.
The first thing they do is verify that a
That seems to be the saniwa the woman from the Ogami Worship Circle spoke of, yes.
But, that would ordinarily be impossible.
Well, Taro Komori has said that he believes she's the reincarnation of his dead sister.
Was that why he was asking me about rebirth?
Did the stupid brat tell Miyako that?
Actually, I think perhaps the one who feels most strongly that the Lord of One Word entered Miyako is you.
Why me?
It's entirely possible that she was indeed speaking a line from the Kojiki.
And yet am I wrong to presume
that you cannot bring yourself to discard the possibility that she might really be possessed?
Am I wrong to presume that ever since that day in my office,
you've been investigating the Lord of One Word even more fervently?
Perhaps you began to look at her with not just fear of that possibility,
but also a slight inkling of unconscious hope.
Miyako is a bright child.
I'm sure she has sensed that intuitively.
Perhaps I've overstepped my bounds.
My apologies.
It's just that I felt compelled to give my professional opinion.
If there's anything else, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Doctor Hirata...
Are you leaving this place?
When I'm here, I feel that I'm no longer myself.
To be honest, what initially drew me here was to observe Taro Komori as part of my research.
Of course, I wished to help remedy his PTSD as well,
but my private desire to discover how his unique experiences were taking shape in his brain was definitely stronger.
I'm really no different from you, am I?
Miyako...
I just can't say her name.
Mi...
When did I start projecting?
Huh?
Where am I?
Makoto's mom?
That is a holograph.
Kaibara-san... I mean, Snark...
This is a world that i visualized,
but you always come in here without asking first.
I'm sorry.
No need to apologize. I'm just a bit surprised.
At the coincidence, or rather, the implicate order, that you and I are thinking the same thing at the same time.
Implicate order?
It's a school of thought that says there may be
forms of consciousness and principles of matter at work in the universe that we humans don't perceive.
The psychologist Jung interpreted it as a phenomenon he called "synchronicity".
Is that the Unseen World?
Nope.
The entirely of the universe exists inside you, though you are only a very small part of it.
A part contains the whole?
I've heard of that!
Like, memories aren't in just one part of the brain) they're more like a code spread out across the whole thing.
LTP right?
Yes.
That's it.
Both this place and the real world
might be holographs reflecting consciousnesses from different dimensions.
Daddy!
Something's been bothering me.
The night before I left your place, Makoto's mom's face was really scary.
She made her decision that night.
But, there's no need for you to feel responsible.
She was merely waiting for the time to come.
What does that mean-
Now I get it! Perhaps the reason you're here is because the implicate order wished to tell you that.
Snark...
The coming days will be painful for Makoto but she's survived much worse.
I hope he understands that.
Snark, what about Makoto?
What about his mom?
Where is he?
Kumada?
Is he still in Kumada?
I want to go there!
Why can't I?
Hurry! Faster!
Who's that?
Mizuka?
I cant project to Kumada?
Taro, get up!
The last thing Kaibara-san wanted me to do was give this to you.
I considered reading it first many times.
But...
Please read it now.
He says we need to find Makoto!
But why...
I've been talking to that Suzuki guy.
He told me what could be the truth about your kidnapping!
Are you saying it has something to do with Makoto, then?
Yeah.
Suzuki said you might've been kidnapped as a substitute for him!
that old woman, is his mom!
The only one who knows the truth, besides
Makoto's still in Kumada, right?
Those "Workers" are in Kumada, too!
Hold on, I don't understand. Tell me more!
That's the last bus!
Hey!
Stop!
The first child to be kidnapped was you, Makoto.
But, Mother used her old connections to make contact with the criminal.
She told them the daughter of the main family would be worth a lot of money.
Your father discovered this, and that's why he simply could not go on living.
I wanted to go with him
but I had you...
I couldn't stand to be in that house a moment longer, so I left.
But I never forgot about you, not even for a second.
Forgive me.
If I chose never to tell you the truth, you would only suffer more.
But I...
I knew it!
Let's go to my place and have my dad get the car.
We don't have time for that!
Hurry!
Wait!