In the Hinamizawa payphone on the side of the road, Rena listens to Ōishi confirm that the Sonozaki family is looking for her specifically to recover Takano's scrapbooks. Ōishi asks her to confirm that she still has them in her possession and that they contain Takano's theories that explain the serial murders. She does as well as adds that the group seeking to revive worship of Oyashiro-sama plans a "large bio-terrorism attack." At his desk as he reaches for his pack of cigarettes, Ōishi promises to see what he can do.

Ōishi then reveals "something strange" to Rena. He asks her to confirm that she and her friends saw Takano and Tomitake Jirō on the night of the Watanagashi Festival. When she does, he reveals that the Gifu Prefectural Police located Takano's body more than 24 hours later after her death: "Then that means she was killed the night before the festival." He then suggests that the person she met on the night "could've been a zombie." A large tanker truck drives by Rena as he dismisses this as a possible mistake on the part of the investigators.

Rena asks him to continue his investigation as she will go into hiding. She promises to contact him again before she hangs up the phone. Kumagai Katsuya approaches him to report that the Sonozaki operative Kasai Tatsuyoshi is looking for Rena. Ōishi remarks that he is Shion and Mion's mother Sonozaki Akane's "elite assistant." Kumagai continues to explain that rumors exist that Rena possesses something "highly inconvenient" for the Sonozaki family. Ōishi orders undercover officers to watch her home, but Kumagai reveals that Rena stole "tens of thousands" of her family's money and gone into hiding. Ōishi explodes over the fact Kumagai did not inform him of this earlier.

At night, Mion stands by her bike talking to Keiichi. She explains to him that Rena has gone into hiding, and the police are looking for her. Keiichi asks if the police could have discovered the corpses. Mion smiles a bit embarrassed and admits that she had the bodies disposed of at a Sonozaki "secret area." Over a flashback of them carrying the packaged dismembered bodies in a wheel barrow, Mion explains in the summer there is a plan to deforest the mountain forest where they hid them. Keiichi wonders why, then, are the police looking for Rena. Mion shakes her head and admits that she does not know. Nevertheless, she has told her Okinomiya family to ensure Rena's safety: "The main house can protect Rena from the police 120%." Keiichi asks her to promise to contact him if they locate Rena. Mion agrees and cycles away. Outloud, Keiichi wonders where she could have gone. Then it suddenly occurs to him.

The abandoned van in the dump has a light in it. Rena sits in it huddled. She hears the sound of a car stop and its doors open. Rena leaves the van to investigate. She sees Atsushi and his partner start investigating the area since he learned that she "liked to play here." She quickly returns to the van to extinguish the lantern. Atsushi contacts his superiors on a walkee talkee and is ordered to go immediately to the storehouse based on a witness claiming to have seen her. As the two complain, Rena wonders how she could be at the storehouse. She suddenly flashes back to her conversation with Ōishi who suggested that the Takano she met at the Festival "could've been a zombie." Rena stares at Takano's scrap books and concludes that her theory proves correct. Vowing not to give up, she scratches at her throat. She sees blood land on her thigh, and little blood-covered worms start to scurry away. She looks up at her hand and sees more parasites squirming along her fingers. She gasps in panic.

Keiichi arrives at the dump with his bike. He makes his way towards the abandoned van only to find Rena standing outside holding her axe. She has two pairs of bandaids on her throat. Very calmly, if not childlike, Rena remarks that "Keiichi-kun" has also arrived. She explains that the dump is no longer safe and she plans to leave. She frankly tells him that she does not want him to know where she will go and orders him not to follow her. Keiichi asks her what happened, then notices the bandages. Rena claims that they mean nothing. He calls her name again, but she interrupts to reveal that that afternoon she went to the place they his the bodies and found them missing. She stares at him wildly. Keiichi tries to explain, but Rena interrupts him to remind that only they knew where they hid the bodies.

Keiichi stammers a reply, but Rena concludes that it must be "Mi-chan" who "betrayed" her. Keiichi protests, but Rena grits her teeth and asks why Keiichi supports Mion. Keiichi tries to explain why Mion had them moved. Rena laughs and says Mion's explanation must be a lie. Keiichi asks what else they should do, but Rena responds that it does not matter because of the "real truth that I haven't told you." She claims that the parasite is an alien. They control the human body by living off of it. She then explains that "someone," implying Takano, discovered the truth, so the parasites arranged to have her and Rena removed and replaced with copies. She claims that she will fight and never forgive Mion as she resumes scratching at her neck.

Keiichi declares that he does not care about "aliens," and tells her to trust Mion and the rest of them. Rena quietly tells him to shut up. As he reminds her of their promises, she repeats "shut up" progressively louder and faster until she drops her axe, grabs her head, and falls to her knees. When Keiichi tries to help her, she slaps away his hand. She quietly asks him if friends do not hide things from one another. When he affirms they do not, she calls this a "lie (嘘だよ・usodayo)!" When he protests, she screams it repeatedly. She then doubles-over laughing hysterically.

She looks up at Keiichi and darkly tells him that she knows "what you were doing before you moved here." She explains that she had Ōishi investigate everyone. Keiichi looks up at her stunned. Rena continues to note that he was "only after young girls." She sarcastically cannot believe that "such a dangerous person" lived so near. Keiichi repeatedly protests that she is wrong. He calls it a "coincidence," but Rena asks him what sort of "coincidence that could be: "the Serial Child Shooting Case." She reveals the details: he only targeted children, and he shot them with a model gun as they passed. His home city went into a panic. Keiichi looks away ashamed.

Rena continues to denounce his "perverted nature" of targeting only children. Since he found it "fun," he continued it  "for a long time." Eventually, she explains, his conscience forced him to turn himself into his parents. She laughs that Juvenile Law is "kind" since the identity of a juvenile criminal is not revealed to the victims. Since his father is very rich, he could settle the matter financially, and Keiichi only received probation. Once the matter settled down, his family moved.

Rena kneels down to bring herself face-to-face with Keiichi: "Why didn't you tell anyone about this?" She reminds him that he affirmed that friends do not hide things from one another. She declares that he is not her friend, stands, retrieves her axe, and leaves him.

In school, Keiichi sits depressed while Mion remarks that she wonders where Rena went. She complains that some claim she has been "spirited away." Satoko approaches him and sadly observes that he is not doing well. Rika adds a concerned "Mi." Keiichi then tells the three that there is something he wants to tell them. Outside, Keiichi sits on a pile of logs with his head down. Mion admits that she had no idea about his past. He apologizes for keeping it a secret. Mion gently asks him what made him want to confess now. He replies that he felt he was not being a good friend by hiding things from them. Rika asks Keiichi what he expects from them now that he has told them. He denies that he wants anything; he simply does not wish to keep secrets from friends.

Mion asks if it is actually wrong to keep secrets. She suspects that they all have stories they do not want to share. She does not want a friend who cannot accept this. Rika adds that things he does not need to share are different from things he must reveal. Satoko kindly adds that since Keiichi is a good person now, he has no reason to feel ashamed. Rika continues that nothing will change their usual fun relationship they have. This, she explains, is friendship.

A single tear falls from Keiichi's eye.

He has a sudden flashback from Onikakushi-hen where he angrily tells Mion that he does not know anything about Hōjō Satoshi. Mion in the flashback protests that they did not mean to hide anything from him, but he retorts that friends do not hide things from each other. He declares they are not his friends, and Mion begins to cry. He then sees his door open to reveal Mion commanding him not to be absent. He then sees a needle in the remains of the ohagi.

The flashback continues to Mion's hand removing the cap from the syringe. However, the syringe transforms into a marker. With a smile, Mion holds the marker and wishes that Keiichi "get better soon!" The flashback continues to Keiichi using Satoshi's bat to kill Mion. Unlike as depicted in Onikakushi-hen, hands weakly raise towards him, and Rena smiles and begs him to believe in her. Keiichi screams and brings the bat down on her.

He screams in the present and falls to his knees crying to the shock of Mion. As he cries he keeps asking what he did. He finally exclaims: "Mion and Rena! I killed them!" Concerned, Satoko ask him what is happening, and Mion insists that he see that she is alive. Chie Rumiko walks by carrying a box and ask what is happening. Mion quickly tries to laugh it off and runs towards her to make up an explanation followed by Satoko.

Rika stays with Keiichi without changing her expression. She asks him if he remembers that he killed Rena and Mion. Keiichi answer.png.pngs that he does, "not here, but in a different world!" He experiences another flashback to events of Onikakushi-hen which reveal to him how he grew paranoid of his friends and killed them. Keiichi realizes that Mion and Rena, in Onikakushi-hen, were trying to help him. Rika places her hand on Keiichi's head and says, "Let's forgive Keiichi." He stops crying for a moment and looks up at her. She explains that he was able to realize his "sin (罪・つみ・tsumi)." While the others cannot understand it, Rika says she can forgive him for his sin. She continues that she can understand how "amazing you are."

To herself, Rika's voice becomes more serious: "I understand that this is a miracle," as the wind blows. She speaks to Keiichi in this serious voice to explain that Keiichi "should now know what is happening to Ryūgū Rena." Keiichi recognizes that she is acting like he did "that time." He knows that Rena wants to trust her friends but cannot. In frustration, he pounds his fist on the ground as he realizes that, in that other time, Rena tried to help him and died. Keiichi vows that he still has time and will not give up: "Tragedy can be avoided! Fate can be resisted!"

In her Adult Voice, Rika states that, "I learned how the will to battle can be so beautiful and divine and even have the power to overturn fate. For this reason, I will fight with you." Keiichi accepts this, but both are interrupted by the return of Mion and Satoko. Mion complains about how "Chie-sensei is pretty persistent!" She is surprised by Keiichi's expression, and even more surprised by what he does next: he takes her into his arms. Satoko looks shocked, blushes, then slowly walks away as Keiichi holds the stunned and blushing Mion. He apologizes to Mion repeatedly. As she continues to blush, she asks why, but Keiichi replies that it does not matter if she does not know: "I will never again doubt you, Mion, nor any of my friends." Mion finally relaxes in his embrace and replies, "Kei-chan."

With the sound of a hyōshigi the scene changes to the outside of a traditional Japanese restaurant Kichi Ichi: 日本料亭吉一 ( にほんりょうていきちいち・Nihon Ryōtei Kichi Ichi). A sign indicates that it is reserved for the evening as the voice of Ōishi explodes: "You call us to this nice restaurant and tell us to believe this gossip?!" He sits on one side of a traditional table between Komiyama and Kumagai. Opposite sits Sonozaki Akane with her daughter Mion to her left, and Kasai slightly behind her right. Kumagai adds that, "Basically, this is a personal problem between your daughter and Ryūgū Rena, so the police shouldn't intervene?"

Akane simply responds, "Yes (はい・hai)." Kumagai insists that the police must take care of Rena. Mion ask him the reason. Ōishi responds that it is simple: because the Sonozakis are after Rena. Akane asks him why he thinks that. Ōishi retorts that she should ask herself. Akane calmly addresses Kasai, and he produces a briefcase. He opens it to reveal a number of scrapbooks. Akane identifies them as Takano's. "Unfortunately," Akane explains, the ones she gave to Rena remain missing. Kumagai asks if they can look through them, and Akane politely requests that they do.

Outside a shishi-odoshi tips to mark the passage of time. Ōishi sighs and puts down his scrapbook as Kumagai and Komiyama continue to leaf through theirs. He asks if they are really Takano's. "Of course," Akane calmly replies. Kumagai asks if all of the scrapbooks mention the things he is reading. Akane assures them that they do, and she pleasantly invites them to look at all of them until they are satisfied. Kumagai turns to Ōishi and remarks with disbelief: "Ōishi-san, it says that the 'other' world and 'this' world clashed and there was an inflow of spirits." He cannot see how they may use it as evidence. Ōishi replies that his scrapbook claims, "it was caused by underground inhabitants."

Ōishi puts down his scrapbook, produces a cigarette, and announces that he has a number of questions. He starts by asking, "Why did Takano Miyo, . ." but Akane interrupts him to insist that the Sonozaki family does not know about her or Jirō's deaths. Mion genially asks if he thinks if he searches their house he will find the bodies. Ōishi then asks her why the Sonozakis are after Rena. Akane apologizes that, "it was our mistake" the it appeared that the Sonozakis were. She bows and apologizes again. Mion adds that as "proof" of their friendship, they will give the police the scrapbooks.

Ōishi gets up, looks down at his subordinates, and leaves "the rest up to" them. He confesses he drank a lot and wishes to get some air. Kumagai asks her to promise two things: first, that if the Sonozakis obtain the other scrapbooks they will turn them over to the police, and second, if they find Rena, they will also hand her over. Akane agrees to these terms but adds, in order to protect Rena's rights, the Sonozakis will assign a lawyer to her who shoulld be present at all interrogations with her. Kumagai agrees. She then "requests" that they do not waste the Sonozaki courtesy, and bows to them again. Outside, Ōishi sits, smokes, and becomes irritated as he thinks. Ever the gentleman, he tosses his butt into a small fountain.

Above Hinamizawa, Rena walks with her axe.