"They say this village is cursed.

The village was, supposedly, a land where demons lived and thrived—killing thousands of innocent lives throughout Hinamizawa.

Some say that some of these demons still live here, but disguised as humans.

This place… is a living hell."

"Kei-chaaaaa~n!"

A young, teenage girl yelled across a small classroom. Her uniquely bright, green hair tied in a ponytail and her huge smirk overwhelmed the teenage boy. This boy sat on the chair of the school's desk, his hand supporting his tilting head. He looked to the girl with his eyes practically half opened.

"Why do you look so down, Kei-chan? Do you know what today is?!" the girl asked enthusiastically, her breasts bounced underneath her white collared shirt as she leaned towards the boy.

"Hmph…" the boy looked away, swaying his brown bangs as he averted his blushing face from the girl.

"Ahh… well, in that case, I might as well punish you automatically!" the girl pointed her index finger to the boy's face—very, very close to his face.

"WHAT?! THAT DOESN'T MEAN YOU CAN PUNISH ME, MION!" the boy yelled, springing up and pointed back to 'Mion'.

"Now, now, Keiichi-kun. Calm down before you hurt yourself…" another teenage girl replied. She stood beside the boy, who was named 'Keiichi'. She had short, orange hair and a blue and white sailor fuku. Her name was Rena.

"Oh ho ho ho ho! But he has already hurt himself MANY times today!" the young blonde, Satoko replied, her hands on her hips.

"Stop lying, Satoko! I missed all your little tricks today!" the boy, Keiichi, yelled, then pointing to Satoko across the room.

"…Until now~" Satoko smirked, holding a string in hand and she tugged onto it. Then, water squirted out of the desk. Keiichi leaned back in reaction and slipped onto a 'purposely placed' banana peel on the floor. BAM! Keiichi had a great fall.

"Oh hohoho! What did I tell you, Keiichi!" Satoko giggled, as well as everyone else in the room. "Damn you, Satoko! I WILL GET MY REVENGE!" Keiichi yelled back, but at the same time a book fell on his head from the ceiling. In an instant, he came down falling to the floor again.

"Oww…"

"Pain, pain. Fly away~" the little girl, Rika, sang playfully as she light patted Keiichi's head.

"Thanks, Rika-chan." Keiichi smiled warmly towards Rika, then gave an angered glare back at Satoko.

"At least SOMEONE is nice enough to treat me this way!" Keiichi yelled.

"You know what this means, don't you Kei-chan?" Mion crouched down to Keiichi's level and looked to him with her intimidating, green orbs.

"Wh-What?" Keiichi asked nervously.

"You VS. Satoko-chan! Whoever wins the most prizes at the Watanagashi Festival will receive the opportunity to punish the loser to their heart's content!" Mion raised her pointed finger up to the ceiling and her other hand on her hips.

"Oh, Mii-chan! How about me?! Can I take the loser home? Kana kana??" Rena asked happily. "AND RENA-CHAN WILL TAKE THE LOSER HOME WITH HER!" Mion added as well as a chuckle.

"HAUU~ I'M GOING TO TAKE THEM BOTH HOME WITH ME! HAUU HAUU~!!"

Everyone but Rika laughed happily. The young girl smiled lightly and narrowed her violet hues.

'…Tonight… will be the night where I will die… again..' she thought, slowly closing her eyes, and laughed along to her classmates' joke.

"Maan… this place is really confusing…" complained Hige, slouching slightly.

The group of young men followed Rika to her school, not knowing much about the village. Eventually, they got lost and had no idea where to go.

"Don't worry, Hige… I'm sure we'll find that girl sooner or later." Toboe assured him, smiling gently.

"… Is that a school I see over there?" Tsume asked, gesturing his body towards the wooden building. They could see little animal paper shapes taped onto the windows. They could tell that this was a school.

"Oh yeah… You're right. Is this the school that little girl was off to?" Hige asked, raising a brow and scratching the back of his head.

"Well, there's one way to find out…" Kiba went on ahead towards the building, his expression as calm as ever.

The rest just looked at each other, and shrugged. They all followed Kiba into the school building.

"Ah…" Rika spoke out, looking out of the window as if something caught her eye.

"What is it, Rika-chan?" Satoko asked, looking out the window too while chewing onto her lunch.

"It's… nothing, nano desu…" Rika turned back to Satoko and returned a smile.

Just at that moment, Mion called for Rika.

"Hey, Rika-chan… do you know these guys?" Mion asked, pointing her thumb back to the same group of boys that met Rika this morning.

"Oh, hey. What do ya know! She really is here!" Hige peeked through the door and pointed to Rika.

"Oi… don't you know your manners?" Mion turned back to Hige, her brows furrowed- and gave him the 'stink-eye'.

"Rika-chan just so happens to be the priestess from the Furude Shrine. She has a very important role in this upcoming festival. Show your respect!" Mion poked him again, until Rika gracefully walked to Mion and tugged onto her skirt.

"Mii~ It's okay. There's no need for a respectful manner. I already understand that everyone wants to see my performance… that's why I'm going to do my best, nano desu!" Rika smiled happily. Seeing Rika this happy to see foreigners like the four boys, Mion sighed and placed her hands onto her hips.

"Ah… well, I suppose I shouldn't have 'bullied' you guys around like that. Sorry."

"Haa… it's okay." Hige replied, smiling slightly while rubbing his aching shoulder.

"Ehh?! Why are they here?" Satoko asked as she pointed her chopsticks towards the four foreigners. Keiichi and Rena looked to the same direction. Rena directed her attention mostly to Toboe, who was looking clueless and had no idea what was really going on. But to Rena's eyes, she spot a foreign cuteness. Keiichi immediately recognizes Rena's 'I-want-to-take-you-home' look and he quickly stood up from his chair. As he did so, it was already too late…

Rena had already clung her arms around Toboe's neck and spun him around, lifting his feet off the ground.

"HAU HAU HAUU~!!! OMOCHIKAERI~!!!" Rena yelled, continuing to spin Toboe around and around.

"Ahhhh!!" Toboe screamed, his eyes distinguishing that he was clearly dizzy.

Everyone watched as was Rena 'showing her affection'. Eventually, they began to laugh along.

"Come on, Rena-chan… you have to put him down…" Mion said, bringing her hands up and tried to calm the over-joyed Rena.

"Hauu… But you can't resist his innocent eyes…" Rena stopped spinning but her arms still wrapped around Toboe's neck. The look on his face seemed completely drained.

"Seriously, I haven't seen any girl do that to a boy before… Man… I wish she'd spin me around like that…" Hige whispered to Tsume, slouching slightly and scratched the back of his head.

"…Pfft… In your dreams." Tsume replied, smirking to himself.

Again, Rika just stood quietly as she watched everyone having a good time.

"…I wonder how long this happiness will last…" her tone was a bit lower, and more mature than what she appeared. "…With these foreigners around, do you think they might be able to help and stop this repeating cycle?" Her navy orbs looked to the side, as if looking for someone. As she thought, a transparent figure appeared beside her. The figure had lavender-ish hair with black horns on each side of her head. She had a childish face but wore an important, shrine maiden gown. She was seen floating in mid-air.

"Auu auu… I'm not very sure about that, nano desu. I've never seen them before…" her tone was higher, and more childish as Rika's.

"Of course you've never seen them before… after all, they are foreigners." Rika gestured herself towards the figure, her expression agitated.

"Hauu… I know that. But… I was saying that I've never seen their species before." The figure lowered her eyes innocently, while Rika's widened with a misunderstanding.

"What do you mean… 'species'? Hanyuu, are they not human?!" Rika demanded, almost yelling.

"Auu… they're not…" the figure, Hanyuu, mumbled.

"Then what are they?!" Rika yelled, and almost immediately Hanyuu flinched and disappeared.

"Rika-chan…? Why are you yelling?" Rena asked, giving a worried look just like everyone else was. Rika silently panted, and turned her head away.

"It's…" Rika's serious look faded away into her cheerful self as she turned towards them again. "It was nothing. I was just practicing my… um, singing. La la la la~" Rika hesitantly began to sing. Everyone seemed to have bought it, but for the four foreigners knew there was something up.

"Rika-chan, I didn't know you could sing… Why didn't you tell us??" Mion asked, walking up to Rika with a big smile on her face. Rena, Keiichi, and Satoko all surrounded Rika to share their reactions. The foreigners just watched as they seemed to have suspected something.

"That's funny… just a while ago I'm pretty sure I heard her talking to someone.." Toboe added, rubbing his cheeks from his strange encounter with Rena.

"What do you mean?" Tsume asked looking at Toboe with an interested expression on his face.

"I'm pretty sure she was talking to another girl, one that isn't in this classroom." Toboe turned to his friends with a bit of a scared look on his face.

"Maybe there's a lot of stuff about this place that we thought we knew…" Hige added, putting his hands behind his neck.

"… Or maybe… that girl, Rika… maybe she knows something about Cheza." Kiba added, too. The three of them looked at him, rather confused but wondering what he was thinking.

The transparent figure, Hanyuu, stood behind the foreigners and everyone else in the room. She looked at them with her big, pitiful eyes and frowned. ""Hauu… I sure hope these wolves will help us…"