0:55 Why is this repowriter doing this in this ghetto-ass room.
6:22 3 figures buried under sand, hmm...
6:24 What the hell is this landmark for?
6:28 Distorted so hard to find out but there’s three people staring at them, hmmm...
7:00 The guy says something like ““I should be heading out soon” or “it’s almost time to open” according to different Japanese comments.
12:09 They find the doll made out of string.
14:52 The torn pieces of paper with words on the ground.
18:20 Cave entrance closes behind them
21:30 They find the water cavity with music playing.
24:35 Music piece being heard is S. Rachmaninoff - Symphony No. 2 III. Adagio, all the other classical music faintly heard is G. Verdi - Aida Triumphal March.
27:38 The argument and the Polaroid photo reveal
28:50 No-face Tohko. Also there is an X with an arrow pointing somewhere, while the Tohko baits the guy into coming the other way, hmmm...
32:58 A frame showing the X-sign but it seems to be pointing a different way now.
Details from translated portions of the companion piece book (
L/
A):
One person recognized one of the striped shirts on the floor of the cave where the couple was trapped in. He linked it to a story during his mountaineering days: one of his friends, Harumoto, fell off a cliff during a terrible blizzard and expired from his injuries. Harumoto happened to have a camera with him as he had recently bought one to chronicle his hikes. The recovered camera showed footage of him after he fell off. Apparently, there was someone who was just standing over the injured Harumoto recording him while ignoring his pleas for help. He filmed Harumoto until he died then returned the camera to Harumoto’s belongings.
The camera caught a shot of him as he walked away...it didn’t make sense how anyone wearing just a striped shirt without any other gear could’ve climbed that mountain under such harsh conditions.
The second story was from an editorial reporter for a magazine which wanted to talk about paranormal experiences and publish them. One of the contributors stuck out to him: a Ms. MT, or Ms. M for short, who seemed hesitant to share her story but needed any information that could help her. He took her script and promised any information they could find but the editor-in-chief rejected her story and it was never published. Here is what can be gleaned from a hard drive containing her manuscript:
Ms. M was busy one holiday season working when her family went on a 4-day 3-night vacation to a destination in a specific prefecture. When she was finally less busy, Ms. M realized that there’s been an uncharacteristic silence from her parents as they should’ve called her about their vacation or sent her souvenirs by now. No matter how many times she rang the home phone, no one answered. She asked a friend to check on her family and he did confirm that the lights were on in the house and that her parents and sister were visible from outside. Since it was the age of the telephone back then and there were still not much mobiles, she decided to go back home to check. To her horror, her family were acting strange and didn’t seem to remember her. They wouldn’t reply to her nor would they say anything to her that made any sense. All she could make out from their murmurings were the destination they came to and the word
‘rokuiten’ (singularity in English). She freaked out and ran. She returned on her next day off and found a single note in the living room saying ‘we’re on a trip.’ They never returned and the police wouldn’t investigate as it seemed like adults voluntarily going missing. She visited all the tourist spots in that specific prefecture but found nothing. The only clue she has found so far was
a polaroid picture of what feels like her family despite the unfamiliar clothes and the blurry faces. It was found in her mom’s suitcase which they didn’t bring along with them on their ‘trip.’
The third story comes from a newspaper clipping which details a man who thought he heard someone asking for help from inside of a deep well so he contacted the authorities. A fire brigade came and they tried to pull the string attached to the well but after an hour and 100 meters of rope, they were still not done. One of the firemen said that ‘it felt like they were being pulled in by something like a tug-of-war.’ They stopped after 130 meters and still no end of rope and called in reinforcements. The rope was reeled in with heavy machinery this time and tied to a nearby tree for safety but still no end of rope. The next day, they found the rope completely gone as if it had been completely pulled back into the well. There was no evidence of anyone actually falling into the well so they just concluded the entire operation without any further investigation.
The fourth story is about a woman recalling a tale of her third-grade daughter one day suddenly taking her hand, tugging gently, and repeating “This way, this way” a lot. She had no choice but to follow as her daughter lead them through winding alleyways into an abandoned house where the daughter finds an ever-replenishing mountain of rolled-up papers with pictures of people printed on them. When asked at home, her daughter admitted that she found this place while taking a detour, took home some of the pictures, and then felt compelled to keep coming back to take more of the pictures. She got the daughter to promise to never go there again and throw away all pictures except one: a crumpled up one with a picture which looks a lot like her. She still can’t bring herself to throw it away to this day.
The last story comes from a Seiichi about what his father, Masataka, told him. Masataka was a no-nonsense fisherman of over 40 years which makes his story even more believable to Seiichi. In 1992, Masataka spotted a small island he doesn’t recognize during his routine early morning fishing. As he approached, he saw three people on the island (a married couple and a younger woman) staring at his boat. He found it odd as it was not the season for tourists to be visiting islands and the three seemed to be dressed too formally for island hopping. He tried to wave to the three but got no response so he uneasily just went on with his fishing. On his return route on the afternoon, he saw a single woman standing on the beach who also just stared motionlessly. When he reached port, he asked other fishermen about this island and none of them have ever seen it before nor have they heard of anything like it. When he saw the island again on a different part of the sea a few days later, he decided to drop anchor and swim to shore as none of the people he previously saw were there. He spotted what looks like a recently-made grave under a tree and was unnerved. As he turned back to his boat, the woman suddenly appeared out of nowhere there, staring at him blankly. Horrified, Masataka made a run for it and jumped straight into the sea to swim back to his boat.
Masataka would keep seeing the island over the years but he stopped talking about it to the other fishermen after a bit before as they started to question his sanity. He would see more things on the island like more figures, a rusted-out van, and what looked like the ruins of a Japanese-style house. He would also hear music, buzzing sounds, and screams from time to time. Curious, he started plotting out on a map the locations where he would find the island. The island seems to be following a semicircle pattern approaching the coast of their town. It was as if it was tracing the arc of a whirlpool centered around where they lived.
Seiichi’s final conversation with his father happened during his mother’s first death anniversary. It would include Masataka telling him the full story and saying with a brave face that he intends to face whatever is coming while warning Seiichi to get far away from the town as a precaution. Seiichi remarked: “If it’s a whirlpool, won’t it go all the way around? Wouldn’t the island be on the land side too at some point?” Masataka, startled by this realization, thought that his son was right. Seiichi couldn’t bring himself to talk further after he seems to have made his father fall into deep, troubled thought. He regrets not taking the story more seriously as his father disappeared shortly after this conversation. The only clue Seiichi has about his father’s whereabouts is
a photo he found tucked inside a photo album which showed what looks like the three-person family Masataka first described.
