--172-- (vsssshh) 30 minutes passed, and then an hour. But Umino Mokuzu didn't show herself again. Chapter 12: --173-- The warmth of our intertwined hands... The feel of her slender fingertips... The smile she had shown me as she went inside... My treasured friend. --174-- Wait here, OK? It's already been more than an hour... Mokuzu... Ah! (ka-chik) --175-- Mo... Umino Masachika!! (stagger) (roll) ...A suitcase? --176-- (crunch) Rgh... --177-- (FWUMP) (revvvv) (vwoooo) What was that...? --178-- (gulp) --179-- (ka-chik) Mo... Mokuzu? Y... Your father's gone, he drove away somewhere. It's all right now. Come out, Mokuzu. Please... Mozuku. Mokuzu, you hear me...?? --180-- (tick tick tick) Next time, no one's going to figure me out! I'll totally and completely change to foam! C- Come on, Mokuzu, cut it out. Not at a time like this... We're going together, right!? Didn't you say the two of us were going to run away!? (...p) (drip) (drip) --181-- (ka-chik) I found myself in a bathroom I remembered quite well. (drip) And just as there had been back then... in the very same place... (seep) (ba-thump) --182-- (drip) (...p) --183-- M... Mokuzu...? Mokuzu!? Mokuzu...!! M... Mokuzu...!? And what would /you/ be doing? --184-- You. Ah... What do you think you're doing in someone else's house? Eh... Um... Where is... Mokuzu-san...? --185-- She's not here. B... But her shoes are here... And I just saw her come into the house... Well, /I/ haven't seen her. Hurry up and leave. I'll let you know if Mokuzu gets home. (grab) B... But... --186-- U... Um... What do I do... I have to ask some question... I have to say something! Please go home. Y- You know... --187-- I heard about something from my older brother. It... It's a quiz, of a sort... Huh? There's a certain couple, with a child... But one day, suddenly, the husband dies... It's an answer neither I nor Mokuzu... Nor the vast majority of people, could guess. It's bad news if you know the answer to this "quiz". So they hold his funeral, and one of his co-workers shows up. And he and the man's widow start hitting it off... There's a mutual attraction, or what-have-you... Hmm. And...? S- So, that night... the widow suddenly kills her own child. --188-- Wh... Why do you think... (gulp) (ba-thump ba-thump ba-thump) she would do a thing like that...? What...? --189-- Because she wanted to see him again, right? The correct answer to the quiz is "She wanted to meet the man again." She had it in her mind that funerals were the place to meet this person, her husband's co-worker. So, in order to have another funeral, she murdered her own child. [This sort of hyper-simplistic logic typifies psychopathic personalities, hence the riddle's reputation as one only serial killers can solve.] --190-- What... happened to Mokuzu? She's not here. What happened!? (ka-chik) Where is she!? (shove) --191-- She's... turned to sea-foam. --192-- (lurch) That strange third verse from the song /Bones of a Mermaid/ echoed maddeningly through my skull. (fw-tmp) --193-- Y.. ou... liar... You liar! You liar...! (wham wham) LIAAAAR!!! Gh... --194-- (stagger) (limp) --195-- (ka-chik) Nagisa? Awful late, aren't you? And when your teacher came all the way out to visit... Nagisa!? Yamada! (yank) --196-- I c... I can't.. say.. for sure, but... Nagisa? I... I think... I think Mokuzu was... --197-- I think Mokuzu was murdered by her father...! Waughhhh H- Hold on, now... What in the world are you saying, Nagisa? --198-- Th- That's right...! The police! I have to... Nagisa!? (thump thump) Wait a second, Yamada! Nagisa! Calm down, Yamada! Calm down!! Mokuzu... Mokuzu was...! --199-- I'm sure Umino's just playing some trick on you, Yamada. She'll be at school again tomorrow, you'll see! That's right. I've heard all sorts of rumors lately about how Umino Masachika's daughter goes around telling all kinds of lies... I know you're feeling anxious about your future, Yamada. It's just nerves. E.. ugh... Ge... Hgeuh... ... --200-- I'm not allowed to fight nor to run away. And now they won't even let me tell the truth. --201-- Nobody notices. I'm the only one who knows. My precious friend, Umino Mokuzu, is... Nagisa. --202-- Is that girl... really dead? Yes. Even if no one believes me... If that's the way you feel... I believe you, Nagisa. Tell me what happened. --203-- I told him about the dismembered body of a dog I had seen on Mt. Nina. About the story of a beloved pet, beaten to death with a concrete block, then, because its corpse was too big to carry, cut to pieces with a machete. About the father who abused his daughter. About watching Umino Mokuzu go into her home, only to disappear. And about Umino Masachika, emerging alone from the house with a suitcase, driving away only to quickly return. The only thing he had with him... was that suitcase. The machete was dripping wet, as though it'd just been used... And he said... "Mokuzu has turned to sea-foam"... he told me... Rgh... It's... too crazy to believe, right? Adults never listen to anything... --204-- Not one of them ever once worried about Mokuzu... They just said she was a liar, that she was a weird girl... And they laughed at me, too, for worrying... But... But... --205-- Let's go, Nagisa. What...? G... Go where? Mt. Nina. --206-- (rattle rattle) /Onii-chan/...? [italics only if lower-case font] (jam) (swing) (sshhhh) --207-- O- (lurch) -eurghh...! /O/- /Onii-chan/!? I... It's all right. (wobble) O- uerghhh...! /Onii-chan/...! --208-- No, no, honest. I'm fine. whsh --209-- I suddenly got this feeling of having passed by someone... no, something. Something like a dark-pink fog. Something drifting away from my brother and me. And my brother, too, with his back turned against it, seemed to be walking, unsteadily, away from it. --210-- Just like this, the morning of October the fourth began to rise above my head.