Some believe that we live in dreams while others believe that dreams choose to let us see them?~

"You lose Keiichi. You gave me the last card I needed." I said with joy. Keiichi lost all four games. He lost to Satoko twice, me once and to Jewl once.

"Since Keiichi has lost, his punishment will be... to let us draw on your face with this marker. And you can't take it off until you get home. " Mion said.

"Aw man, how do I always lose to you all!" he said as Mion started to draw on his face. We all laughed at the cat face Mion had drawn.

"Well, see you all tomorrow. I got to get home." Mion said as she left.

"We got to go too." Rena said as she and Keiichi left.

"I'll get you next time!" Keiichi shouted at us. They left and now it was our turn to depart.

"Hey Yuno, Jewl. Would you like a tour of the village?" Rika asked. I nodded.

"You guys go on ahead, I'll go home and make dinner." Satoko said as she left.

We first visited the shopping district or the place with all the stores. I thought that I saw Mion in the distance. But her hair was down. Rika walked over to her and we followed.

"Hey Shion, what are you doing in town?" Rika asked.

"I came for the cotton drifting festival." she replied. She looked at me and Jewl. "So who are you two?" she asked us.

"I'm Jewl." Jewl said.

"And I'm Yuno." I told her.

"Its nice to meet you. I am Shion, Mion's twin sister." Shion said.

"Hey Shion, why don't you stay here and come to school. It would be so much fun with you there." Rika asked.

"I may, School in the city is getting to me. I'll try to, so keep your hopes up." she said. Then walked off. "See you later." she said as she walked away.

We then visited the main shrine. "This shrine is where my family used to live before they died." Rika said as she showed us the shrine.

"How did they die?" I asked without thinking.

"Lets just say that it happened unexpected." she replied with that chilling adult voice. Then she went strait back to her normal childish voice, "That's mainly the whole village."

We walked back to the house and Satoko had dinner ready on the table. We ate then I went upstairs. So much had happened today. I sat in the corner, trying to figure out what the girl was trying to tell me. What does Rika need saved from. I was so deep in thought that I never noticed Rika sitting beside me.

She was looking at me, then in her chilling voice she said, "You said that you were from another world right?" I nodded. "And you don't know why you came?" I shook my head.

"I did have a dream earlier while school was in session." I told her.

"And what was in that dream?" she asked.

"There was a girl. I couldn't really see any of her features, but she told me to help you." I replied.

She stared at me for a moment then said in her sweet voice, "Tell me if you have that dream again." then she got up and went back down the stairs.

The day of the cotton drifting festival had arrived. The club will be playing games at the festival. But I can't wait to see Rika do her dance. Shion was at the festival to and she even wanted to play the games with us. The first game or contest we played was who could eat a snow cone the fastest. I somehow won that. We hit every food stand and we all had a blast. And like every time, Keiichi lost most of the games. The time came for Rika to perform the ritual dance. Jewl was up on my shoulders so she could see. We watched as she cut the cotton. We all got a piece of cotton and put it in the river. We watched as they drifted down the river.

As we stood there a woman with blonde hair down past her shoulders a little with light brown eyes walked right beside us humming a sweet tune. A man was with her. He had Brown eyes and hair that matched them. They put their cotton into the river and turned toward us. I had a bad feeling when she looked at us. Rika and Satoko stood beside us and Mion, Shion, Rena and Keiichi stood behind us.

"Hello there Rika and everyone else." said the woman.

"Hi Miss Takano and Mr. Tomitake." Rika replied sweetly.

"Hey, whose the two others with you today?" Takano asked, looking at Jewl and me.

"They are Jewl and Yuno. They just moved here about a week ago." Satoko said with a grin and looked at Keiichi. "They can even beat Keiichi at the club games." She finished.

"So, who do you guys think the curse will hit this year?" Takano asked out of the blue.

"What does she mean by curse?" I asked confused.

"So you haven't heard of Oyashiro's Curse?" She asked. Me and Jewl shook our heads. "Well, 4 years ago the curse started with a dam worker who was cut into 6 pieces. All the culprits were caught except for one. Then the next year, a couple fell off a cliff. The husbands body was found, but they never found the wife's body. Then the year after that, the Shrine priest came down with a mysterious illness and his wife left a suicide not and they never found her body. Then last year a house wife was found beaten to death and a young boy named Satoshi disappeared without a trace. There is a pattern with all these deaths. Every year, one person dies and another disappears." Takano said. It was all so weird. I looked at Satoko who looked like she was about to cry. Shion wrapped her arms around her.

"You don't need to bring Satoshi up you know!" Shion growled.

"Oh, sorry Satoko. I guess I better leave. Coming Jiro." She said as she looked at Tomitake.

"Yea, see you kids later." he said as they walked away. I looked at Satoko again and she was crying. I felt bad now that I know why she lives with Rika. We all went home.

As we walked I asked Rika out of Satoko's hearing range, "Was it Satoko's parents who had the accident on the cliff?" I asked in a whisper. She nodded.

"And Satoshi was her brother." She told me. We then walked in silence again.

We got back to the house. I noticed that Rika had a grim look on her face. I walked over to her.

"Could I ask you something in private?" I asked. She nodded and followed me upstairs. "Why do you have such a sad look?" I asked.

She looked up at me and said, "Its nothing. Just remembering my parents makes me sad sometimes." she said. I knew by her voice that that wasn't why she had a sad look. She went down the stairs and I just went to bed. I had that dream again. This time the girl was visible. She had long light purple hair gown to the middle of her back. She had what looked like horns of some sort on her head. Her eyes were a mid-shade purple. A little lighter than Rika's.

"Time is short. Soon Rika will die if fate isn't changed." She said.

"I understand, but how can I help her?" I asked.

"I'm not sure but always follow her." She said.

"Alright. And may I ask your name?" I asked.

"I am Hanyu. I am the god that the village calls Oyashiro." She replied. I just stared at her. Fear ran though my body as she said that she was Oyashiro. The dream began to fade. I a woke to Jewl shaking me. She looked worried and was about to cry.

"What's wrong?" I asked. She just hugged me. Rika and Satoko looked relieved.

"You weren't breathing. Jewl yelled for us, thinking that you were dead." Rika said.

"What? How was I dead when I was dreaming?" I said. Rika expression changed, her voice became chilling.

"What was the dream?" she asked.

"It was the same dream from before and this time I saw the girls features and got her name." I said.

"What was her name?" Rika asked.

"She said her name is Hanyu, the god Oyashiro." I replied. Rika's expression again changed to shocked. I then saw her look to her left at nothing. At first it was nothing, then Hanyu appeared. I was a little confused by this.

Hanyu then looked at me and said, "Can you see me?" I gave a slight nod. She then looked at Rika, who was looking at me. Rika walked over to me and whispered into my ear.

"We need to talk later when we are alone." Then Rika and Satoko went back down the stairs. Jewl held onto me still, tears were running down her cheeks.

"Don't worry about me Jewl. I won't leave you." I told her as I petted her head, trying to calm her down.

The next week passed and a few people have disappeared without a trace. Soon Shion moved to our school then she also disappeared. At school Mion was acting a little different, but no one really noticed. One night as dinner was being prepared, Rika noticed that we had no soy sauce. She asked me to come with her to go get some soy sauce from Mion. That night Jewl was staying with Rena because they became such good friends. So it was just Rika, Satoko and me.

As we walked over to Mion's place Rika said something that wasn't good.

"Mion has gone crazy. She has had to much stress and now she has been infected by the Hinamizawa Syndrome." I stared at her.

"What is the Hinamizawa Syndrome?" I asked.

"No one really knows. All we know about it is that it affects the way people see things." Hanyu said. She was following us while we walked. I know that I have seen this in an anime, but my memory is so hazy about the real world. I honestly can't tell the difference in worlds anymore. I wonder where Lucy is right now. Did she make it to the real world or did she get sent to another world like Jewl and I. I hoped that she is ok. We arrived at Mion's house.

"This is were my fate will be decided." Rika said as she knocked on the door.

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It took me a while to think of a way to introduce the curse and the Syndrome, but i got it. Thank you to all the people that are reading. Please review and give this story as a recomendation to your friends if ya like my story. Thank You! :D