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Rena is on the run from the cops and her friends; having completely been absorbed by her delusions and conspiracy theories. Believing she has been poisoned, Rena takes her friends and classmates hostage; threatening to blow up the school and burn everyone alive if Detective Ooishi doesn’t deliver the antidote.

This volume really cemented it for me; some sort of time loop is taking place and the characters are becoming aware of it. This arc ended on a more happy note than the others, as happy as one can be in a hostage situation and having to fight your cleaver-wielding friend on the roof of your school but in this series; an ending without someone scratching their own throat out in madness IS happy. I’d have to give this particular volume a 3 since it felt like it went a little hard on that ‘gotcha’ ending but the characters are amazing and the art is still on point. I’m willing to see what the characters will do from here.

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Rena tries to convince Keiichi about the parasites and a conspiracy to enforce the “curse” by fanatic believers in Oyashiro-sama but Keiichi is hesitant to agree. Without him, Rena becomes increasingly paranoid. The stops coming to school and believes everyone, even her friends, are part of a plot to kill her; going so far as to think there are human clones around her and one will eventually replace her.

Going along with my time loop theory, it’s looking like those timelines are intertwining, since Keiichi is getting flashes of murders he committed in previous volumes. The only one who seems to really know about these alternate events is Rika and as such, I’m getting some Madoka Magica vibes. I think they are all stuck in a loop, Rika is the only one fully aware of this loop, and is trying to end the loop in a way that saves all her friends. Interesting… 4 out of 5.

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Having done what she believed she needed to do to protect her father, Rena’s shocking deeds are discovered by her friends. All of them band together to help Rena since they regret not being able to save Satoshi in the past. They help cover for Rena and decide to forget everything so they can go on as normal. That is until the local nurse, Takano, stirs up Rena’s interest in Oyashiro-sama’s Curse then Detective Ooishi comes to investigate the murders of Takano and Tomitake on the night of the Cotton Drifting Festival.

With all these cycles, it’s Takano and Tomitake’s deaths which seem to be a fixed point. They end up killed the same way on the same night every time.

In this volume, we learn every resident of the village is infected with a parasite and that’s what’s making them hallucinate and kill people. Rena puts it together by reading this scrapbook Takano gave her before she was killed and now Rena believes there’s a huge conspiracy to keep it all quiet and the same people who murdered Takano are after her.

While I like that as a possible cause of all this, it all seems too perfect. Maybe I’ve had some of Rena’s paranoia rub off on me but I do have some doubts. Better keep reading to find out. This series it really good at leaving you enough questions to keep grabbing up the next volume. 4 out of 5.

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