Part 34: Chapter 4, Part 11
Video: 1973This video covers the entire update.
If you only watch one video in this entire thread, make it this one.
What...happened to me? Didn't I...pass out? So why am I fully aware right now? I can't see a thing...and I can't move... It's like that feeling you get when you're really tired... Sleep paralysis, I think.Background Sound: Hum
Ah! Where...? Why can't I...move...?!
Following the incident, Sachiko's family fled from the area, moving to another prefecture to escape the frightful memories that remained here. Strangely, however, I've been unable to locate any other records of the Shinozaki family. No matter where I look, the only information I can find about them comes from newspaper reports on the Heavenly Host murders.
Granted, when an elementary school becomes the stage for a grisly incident such as this, perpetrated by none other than the principal's own son...it stands to reason that the scandal would serve as the primary focus for public interest, with all other details fading into the background. So of course, after learning the Sachiko was safe, further news of her whereabouts was largely ignored in favor of the media circus surrounding the school.
Background Sound: None
Music: 1973
(I can't move my body because of sleep paralysis, I guess... But I can see the room I'm in now. There's one boy and two girls in here, aside from myself. I recognize them...)
(Unfortunately, they're all bound hand and foot, and just sprawled out on the floor. And so am I. That's the real reason I can't move...)
*: Waaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaah!!
A large man approaches the children.
*gasp*
No...stop... NO! PLEASE, NO!!!
(Now I'm blindfolded. I can't see a thing that's happening to me. And since my hands and feet are tied up, I can't remove the blindfold, either. That just makes everything so much worse... I guess because I can't see, I begin to listen more intently.)
(The helpless cries of the other children echo off the walls of the cramped room. I'm so scared, it feels like my head's going to explode...)
Untie me! Cut the ropes! I want to be able to use my hands and feet! Please!Yoshikazu retreats to the corner of the room.
Please!!
("In order"...?)
Sound Effect: Splort
(I've never heard screaming like this before. It's pure, primal terror, cutting through the air like a perfect sine wave. It's the boy at the end...)
Sound Effect: Murder
(It feels like he's been screaming for an eternity. I think...he's being killed, right now!)
Sound Effect: Murder
(My God, what the hell is he doing to him?! No one deserves this! Why isn't God allowing him to fall unconscious so he doesn't have to suffer?!)
Sound Effect: The First Victim
(It's been at least a half an hour now. Those inhuman screams of a young boy being ripped apart from the inside...have finally come to a halt.)
(Without even a single moment of silence, the first of the girls in line is the next to scream for her life. And the symphony goes on...)
Sound Effect: Splort
Sound Effect: Splort
(God, I can't take any more of this! I'm losing my mind! Stop it stop it stop it, STOP IT!!!)
Sound Effect: Bloody Murder
(..."Die already"? God, what is wrong with me...?)
Sound Effect: The Second Victim
(Finally, after hearing a sound like a heavy object being dropped...the noises stopped, and the room grew quiet again.)
(Those footsteps are getting closer... All my hair's standing on end at this point. Everything below my stomach feels like it's frozen...like I've suddenly been stricken with severe diarrhea.)
(Which means it's my turn now! Aah!!)
(Someone's got me by the hair. They're pulling my head up.)
When authorities entered, they were greeted with an inhumanly horrific sight. Based upon the evidence at hand, the murder weapon was determined to be a pair of large sewing scissors found in the hands of the accused. Investigators suspected some hesitation on the man's part, however, as the deceased victims' wounds did not indicate that his full strength had been used. Nonetheless, he had clearly acted with extreme malicious intent.
But the actual state of affairs was not quite so clinical, nor even so "pleasant" (if you can believe it).
The following details have been extrapolated from information previously unreleased to the public -- or at least, previously unreported by news outlets. These details of the crime are based on the official police testimony of Sachiko Shinozaki herself.
Evidently, the victims were bound, blindfolded and spaced out on the floor...then killed, one by one.
His discarded innards were found partially buried beneath the earthen floor of the basement room.
(...the sight that appeared before me was more horrific than anything I could have possible imagined. The person staring back at me, brandishing a blood-soaked pair of sewing scissors, wasn't the large man from earlier at all...)
(It was a little girl, her face dyed red with the blood of her victims. She was staring intently at me with soulless gray eyes...and then...)
(...she just started giggling.)
Background Sound: Scissors
Yoshikazu: Ahh...aauuu...aaahhaaahh...!
(She was opening and closing the bloodied scissors over and over again, and the sound kept echoing through the room... Then, she took those dull, rusty, thoroughly blood-soaked blades...)
Background Sound: None
(...and slooooowly brought them closer and closer to my left eye.)
How... Why... Why is it you?!
No... Noo... NOOOOOOOOO!!
...until her eyeball became soup-like in consistency. She was eventually just left like that, slowly bleeding to death in horrible agony. Strangely, it was only after these mutilations had already been inflicted that the killer went back and severed the victims' tongues.
Learning the truth about these proceedings is shocking even to me, and makes it nearly impossible to accept the murderer as anything but a monster.
But it was through her tearful, frightened testimony that Yoshikazu Yanagihori was officially charged.
Now, going back to the hunt for information on this unfortunate girl's whereabouts, it was her words that ultimately led to Yoshikazu's sentencing. Therefore, it comes as no real surprise that sensitive information pertaining to her and her family would be withheld. That's to be expected.
Therefore, I cannot help but consider alternate possible explanations...and I remind you, this is mere conjecture...
Is it possible this crime was not actually perpetrated by him at all? Think about it. In his final days, Yoshikazu was incapable of communicating with others through speech. And despite his childlike reversion, he'd always been a personable and friendly man. As the saying goes, he wouldn't have hurt a fly. All his relatives, friends and neighbors confirmed as much, shocked to hear that such a kindly man could commit these unconscionable atrocities. He certainly had no motive for the crime, either. There was nothing for him to gain from it.
It was around this same time that Principal Takamine Yanagahori began speaking in tongues and acting in a most peculiar way...not to mention scribbling incomprehensible gibberish all over his walls, as if possessed. He seemed frightened of someone and would often be found crouching in the corner of his office, moaning and thrashing, when visitors came by. If he could wind up in such a beleaguered state with no warning, then perhaps so too could his son...
From the time it opened its doors to the day it closed them forever...
...Heavenly Host Elementary School's sealed basement rooom has existed as some form of cursed ground. And to find the underlying cause, we must go back beyond the infamous kidnapping and murder incident.
I believe I may have found a clue that could shed some light on the situation. It may be a bit far-fetched, as leads go, but it's a lead nonetheless. Regrettably, since Heavenly Host was not only closed down but demolished altogether, and another school build in its place...it's no longer possible to investigate the basement room directly.
Something that could make the impossible possible once more. Preparations are being made to pursue this lead even now. Be sure not to miss the next installment. It may be the scoop of a lifetime...
-Kou Kibiki (2003-7-22)
Music: End of Chapter 4
