V1Ch2: The beginning of the end Part 1

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Translator: Soafp

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[Haru PoV]

That day.

She discovered her father's abnormal behavior.

Autumn of her first year in middle school.

Her father was, as a parent, neither particularly good nor bad, and as a company employee, he was excellent.

After becoming a section chief in his forties, he was relied upon at work and respected by many subordinates because of his character.

The mortgage on their home was almost paid off, and the three-person family—him, his wife, and his daughter—lived without particular hardships.

Then, a terrifying series of events struck the neighborhood.

Girls her age were being found dead one after another.

She felt fear at the thought that girls of her own age were going missing, only to be discovered as corpses.

If next time it were her…

Among the victims were girls who went to the same middle school as her.

If she had taken just one different route to school, just inside the main road…

They were children from her own neighborhood.

She became afraid to go to school.

To her, her father said gently:

“Don't worry, Haru. I will never let anything happen to you.”

The fact that her father looked so reliable and cool to her—the daughter, Haru—was something she would regret from the bottom of her heart, even now.

The first sense of unease began that summer.

“Hey, Dad. Take me camping.”

Haru loved the family's annual camping trips.

Riding in her father's slightly larger car, spending nights by the river in the car, setting up tents, spending the night inside them—

Haru loved those days away from everyday life.

But that summer was different.

“That's right. Then let's go to the new auto-campground near the station a little farther away. It looks fun.”

Her father recommended an auto-campground, and it would be the only time he ever did.

“Eh—let's go like always, in your car, Dad. With the tent and everything.”

“I'd love to, but the truck bed is broken. Not enough to repair fully, but not really safe to carry stuff in it.”

At the time, her father said the truck bed was “broken.”

Middle school Haru believed him without doubt.

She could not even imagine doubting the father who had promised to protect her.

That summer, she enjoyed camping with her father at the auto-campground.

It was more fun than she expected, and the day became a cherished memory.

Now, that camping trip has turned into a painful and sorrowful memory for Haru.

The summer they went camping…

Her father had already killed several people by then.

Her name was Haru Amamiya.

The daughter of the perpetrator of the serial girl murders that shook Tochigi Prefecture and all of Japan.