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I help a little. Kozue’s father was a very earnest man.
He hated lies and betrayals. He was passionately attached to photographs, which could cut off truth.
Dad, what kind of photos did you take?
Do you remember the earthquake from a while ago?
Yes. It was very scary.
At that time, it was terrible that buildings were destroyed and burnt?
Yeah Yeah.
People living there put so much efforts to rebuilt the town.
Ohhh, is this the town? Very pretty. Amazing.
But, one day he did what he was not supposed to do.
He made a lie with photos. He fooled people.
By using this sacred darkroom.
A lie with photos?
A fabrication of press photograph.
Hey sad, what is it doing?
Kozue, don’t come here?
What is this photo? What did you take this time?
Shout up and go away!
Father on that day seemed to be a different person.
What he was creating at that time was a composite photo that twisted facts.
Of course, he was not willing to do it. He had to respond to a strong request from a press company, which wanted to make articles of one big business incident among the government. But, he was frustrated and angry at himself after accepting it for money.
The photo was widely released in society as a scoop news and tortured him even worse.
And on a rainy day, the matter happened.
The matter?
A suicide of a person concerned.
Ironically, the real truth stood out in relief because of the fabricated photo. A back-scratching alliance was proved, and a deputy secretary committed suicide.
What the….
Dad? Why are you going to the basement?
Kozue, I did a bad thing. So, I need to be sorry in the basement.
A devil acted violently in my heart. The devil hurt a person.
So, I will be praying there for a little longer than you always do.
Dad said, “If something scary happens, call your grandma.”
Dad said, “No matter what happens, never come to the basement.”
Dad said it. With his kind and sad eyes.
Dad said, “Don’t do anything bad. Be a good girl.”
Kozue…Kozue!
After many hours, he did not come back from the basement. And…
Kozue!
And, I went down to the basement.
I desperately ran down the stairs.
I desperately opened the heavy door that I usually could not open by myself.
In the real darkness, I smelled something was burning and developing fluid.
I desperately called him. Dad! Dad!
But, I heard nothing. I reached my hands forward and stepped out in the darkness. And, I felt something.
That was my father. Father was laying down on the floor….still warm a little.
I noticed that father was dead. Then, I felt that I started falling down to the deeper darkness than the basement.
That’s enough. Enough, Kozue.
That’s when she was 7. Since then, she started staying in the basement.
But, her relatives and people in society did not allow her to stay there.
She was pulled out from here to the ground. For her, the outside world without her father was like a hell.
When she could not stand it, she created us as different personalities.
Kei, who protected Kozue from cold eyes and heartless words in severe school.
Hijiri, who looked after her and cherished her like a mother.
Ryo, who has a cool judgment and strong ability to protect her from the outer world.
And I, Satoru, who keeps order and stops conflicts in her inner personalities, was born.
How about her?
Kyo is Kozue’s trump card.
She enters into a person’s mind. Then, she eliminates anyone who tries to invade events in the basement. I mean, she takes all Kozue’s memories about the person away.
In that way, the person would be a complete stranger for her.
Exactly. If Kyo loses her control, Kozue will forget everything.
Why you didn’t….
In your eyes, Kozue was there. And she was happy and laughing. So, I did not eliminate you.
Yes. Kozue I know of was always laughing. I had no idea that she had such a tragedy in her past.
When Kozue was 15, she remembered about photography that her father loved.
By looking into a viewfinder, she regained her energy to look at the world on the ground. It gradually became a hope for life.
At that time, she regained love and affection. As its symbol, I was born in the end.
At the same time, she had been cured at a psychiatry and slowly regaining a peace in her mind. I mean, we disappeared once.
Kozue forgot everything about the basement.
We took all the memory she could not handle, sink it into the basement of her mind, and locked the door.