Koichi and Reiko
AnotherThis flow follows the tragic aunt-nephew relationship between Koichi Sakakibara and Reiko Mikami.
increasing
Bearing strength in each event
decreasing
A Substitute Parent

Reiko’s Maternal Care
Family Protection
Reiko Mikami watches over Koichi Sakakibara and tells him she would take him in if his father ever treated him cruelly.
A Quiet Attachment
Koichi grows up seeing Reiko only intermittently, but her care gives her a parental importance beyond that of an ordinary aunt.
Separate Names

School and Home
The Fourth Principle
Reiko Mikami instructs Koichi Sakakibara to call her Ms. Mikami at school and Reiko at home.
Protective Distance
The distinction appears formal but becomes emotionally significant. The phenomenon later exploits the gap between the public teacher and the private aunt.
The Teacher’s Absence

Concern Behind Silence
Reiko’s Strain
Reiko Mikami becomes visibly distressed by the class’s deaths and by the demand to ignore Koichi Sakakibara.
Koichi’s Questions
Koichi wants her to explain 1983, but Reiko’s memories fail. His investigation brings him closer to learning that the woman protecting him is already dead.
The Familiar Face

Mother’s Shadow
Recognition Under Ash
Koichi Sakakibara sees Reiko Mikami trapped near the shed and notices his dead mother’s features in her face.
Love Against Evidence
Mei Misaki identifies Reiko as the casualty, but Koichi cannot separate supernatural evidence from family memory. The execution becomes a choice against his own emotional history.
Grief Without a Grave

Reiko Rewritten
The Restored Story
Everyone remembers Reiko Mikami as having died two years earlier in Yomiyama River. Her months as teacher and chaperone disappear.
A Private Wound
Koichi Sakakibara and Mei Misaki retain enough knowledge to feel the loss, though they expect even that knowledge to fade. Reiko becomes both remembered aunt and erased casualty.
Koichi Sakakibara’s childhood
April 1998
June and July 1998
August 9 1998 before dawn
August 1998 after the massacre