A few days after our arrival in the village, Mr. Kurosawa suggested that attempting to carry out my inquiries from the Osaka House must be quite inconvenient, and proposed that I stay at the Kurosawa House instead. He also granted me permission to participate in the Crimson Sacrifice Ritual. I was extremely grateful for his offer, and gladly agreed. Munakata, on the other hand, has instead moved to the Tachibana House, the residence of his late friends' younger sister. Why was I alone summoned to the Kurosawa House?
The following day, Mr. Kurosawa's daughters, Miss Yae and Miss Sae, gave me a map showing an escape route that would lead me out of the village, telling me to take it and flee this place immediately. I asked them why, but they ran off without a word. Though I somehow sense a looming peril hanging over me, I know I am but a hair's breadth from tracking down the Gate to Hell, and so elected to remain here in this village. And then, I made a significant discovery.
As I suspected, there truly is a hidden passageway deep within the Kurosawa House. Quite by chance, I found five old tomes hidden within Mr. Kurosawa's room. According to them, a place known as the Hellish Abyss lies beneath Minakami Village, connecting our world to the other. Once every few decades or so, darkness spurts forth from this "Hellish Abyss", and if action is not taken, the area surrounding the village seemingly becomes enshrouded within it. In order to ward off this darkness, a living sacrifice called the "crimson sacrifice" must be tossed into the Hellish Abyss - this rite is the Crimson Sacrifice Ritual. The elder of the Twin Shrine Maidens kills the younger, and her corpse is thrown into the Hellish Abyss... The surviving sister, known as the Remaining, is confined within the storehouse to live out the rest of her days, then buried within the Old Tree.
The Hellish Abyss is a wholly forbidden place that one must never see, whose name must never be uttered, that must never even be mentioned in written form. There can be no doubt about it - this is the Hell Gate I have been searching for. I have finally made it.
As I continued reading through the other books, I came to a dreadful realisation: if the sisters (or brothers) who act as the Twin Shrine Maidens in the Crimson Sacrifice Ritual feel too strongly towards one another, it is possible that the rite may fail. In such cases, it seems as though the Hellish Abyss cannot be completely shut, and the festival must be performed anew. This is not an issue if another set of Twin Shrine Maidens can be prepared swiftly, but if there happen to be no twins in the village at the time, or the Hellish Abyss grows unstable before preparations such as prayers can be completed, the writings say that a visitor from outside of the village shall be offered as a temporary sacrifice.
This must be why I was granted permission to participate in the festival... I should at least get Munakata out of this place while it is still possible...
Just as I had suspected, the next day I was moved to a confinement room. In stark contrast to the warm hospitality I had experienced until just a day earlier, they would not provide me with sufficient meals or bedding. Did Munakata manage to make it out of the village safely? As none but he who is selected as the "outsider" are able to participate in the festival, I believe he would most likely have been expelled even without my intervention, but still... Despite all that has befallen me, in this moment I am, in truth, terribly excited. No matter how it comes to pass, I shall finally encounter the Gate to Hell...