The fourth game, released on August 13, 2004. Adapted into the 2006's anime Episodes 14-15.
A police detective from Tokyo, Akasaka Mamoru, is coming to Hinamizawa to meet his senior Ooishi, who has retired, and discusses the case they had to go through when the protests about the Dam were at the peak.
Toshiki Inugai, grandson of the Minister of Construction, is kidnapped by unknown men, who then deliver a threat right to his office. Two days later, on his way to the station, Akasaka visits his wife Yukie in the hospital as she's expecting a child. The police is planning to find the kidnappers even though the Minister is willing to obey them, and they've only found out about it through wiretapping. Akasaka is sent to check a low-priority lead in Hinamizawa. After consulting with the local police, he realizes a rookie like him happened to be at the heart of the problem.
Ooishi gives him a tour around while explaining the Onigafuchi Defence Alliance is in effect everyone in the village. On their way they get into a barricade and Ooishi intimidates the people to clear the way and Akasaka tells him of the kidnapping. With the pretense of tourism, Akasaka checks Hinamizawa alone, and Rika with a villager show him around. Rika casually shows him to the Shrine that he considers enemy headquarters. At the end of the trip Rika stops acting cute and bluntly tells Akasaka to return to Tokyo, for his own safety and because his problem is allegedly already solved. Meanwhile, the abductors check on the kid and hear that the Minister has already yielded. Also meanwhile, Oryou tells Irie and young Mion that they have to continue or they'll never be taken seriously again.
Akasaka is told Tokyo has made no progress and still don't think Onigafuchi Alliance are relevant. Oosihi takes Akasaka to a mahjong parlor to relax, including an informant and the dam foreman. Akasaka delivers a Curb-Stomp Battle and makes them focus on work. The informant tells Akasaka that yesterday Mion Sonozaki was taxing the villagers with an iron fist and Oryou has the kidnapped kid in her custody, though the informant is skeptical she was the one behind it, and that everyone already knows someone young from Tokyo is on them.
Ooishi finds the wallet belonging to the kid and Akasaka informs Tokyo of everything, who send reinforcements right away. Meanwhile Toshiki pretends to be sick to get medical attention and gets Irie. Akasaka and Ooishi go first to where the wallet was found. Ooishi recalls that his informant said that Oryou was done with the boy since he's no longer needed and speculates that instead of a trap, Sonozaki are subtly giving the hostage away. They find Irie on his way back. Ooishi finds the shed and informs the station. The two pick a fight with the kidnappers and secure the hostage, with the culprits escaping.
Celebrating victory, Akasaka tries to call Yukie from Irie Clinic and discovers the phoneline was cut off, and all payphones around are sabotaged. He finds Rika nearby, who avoids questions and escorts him to the shrine, where the Watanagashi is held, which is just a few old folks drinking. Rika somehow recaps the Curse-related deaths in the next few years and questions who've made it predetermined. Akasaka is informed his wife died from slipping on the stairs, but after the childbirth. He figures if he returned to Tokyo sooner, he could have prevented it and the hostage didn't need his help.
Back to the present, Akasaka with his daughter Miyuki meet Ooishi in Hokkaido, and the two discuss that nothing was made clear about the case since then. Akasaka finds the timing of the last murders, Rika's prophecy and the gas outbreak suspicious as it was following a script, and Ooishi and Akasaka plan to avenge her.
Tropes:
- Adaptational Explanation: The kidnappers have no sprites in the novel and their identity is left unknown. The anime shows they look the same as the people who've attacked Keiichi in Onikakushi, for a good reason.
- Alternate Continuity: Another more explicit case of not following the continuity, Ooishi was reported missing last chapter, but is okay after the gas outbreak here. Tomitake, Takano, Irie, Rika have still died as last time, and officer Kumagai went missing. One new info is that Rika was drugged before being cut alive.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Ooishi figures that even if it's just a rookie, Tokyo wouldn't send someone to investigate the protesters if it wasn't related to something major in the government.
- Bad Liar: Akasaka's "tourist" identity is not thought out, and he keeps making contradictory remarks. Makino questions why haven't he called in advance or why isn't he with his pregnant wife, and he has no comeback. He's also not shy to discuss his democratic views to people who have already resorted to violence.
- Being Watched: Akasaka feels like his identity has been exposed the moment his set a foot from the bus and imagines eyes on him.
- Bittersweet Ending: Akasaka resolves the situation (though he wonders if it was over before he had anything to do) and has a daughter, but his wife died in an accident.
- Continuity Nod: The story ends with a phrase "Why did this tragedy happen? We can't reach the truth by ourselves. If you're reading this, please uncover the truth. That is our only wish." It's the same as Keiichi's Dying Message.
- Creepy Child: Rika intimidates Akasaka along with a wide grin on her face. Her mother is also not amused she knows more than any child would.
- Cruel to Be Kind: Akasaka speculates Rika has sabotaged all phones preventing him to call to Tokyo because she didn't want him to hear that his wife has just passed away.
- Cuteness Proximity: When they first meet, Akasaka thinks Rika is his future daughter but with long hair and wants her to call him papa. By the time the "tour" starts, he completely forgets what he's here for.
- Democracy Is Flawed: Akasaka argues that the proper way to deal with the Dam is to vote for a politician who'd support the village or get elected yourself, without violence. Rika notes that there's no point if nobody outside cares and the goverment itself is already pushing the construction with illegal means as well.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Despite being the don of the yakuza, Oryou is against violence unless it pays off, honors her connections, and has a soft spot for children in general.
- Formula-Breaking Episode: Instead of being centered around Keiichi, this chapter is a Prequel and has an adult as the protagonist. It's also relatively short for a novel and has no corresponding "answer arc".
- Foregone Conclusion: Since Akasaka is retelling events in past tense, he and Ooishi make out from Hinamizawa safe, even though Ooishi was the victim last time.
- God Is Displeased: Ooishi brings up a theory that someone murdered Rika, a living incarnation of Oyashiro-sama, and the village was destroyed by swamp gases because of that. Akasaka instead wonders if someone set up an explosion in the swamp and killed a thousand people to cover their tracks.
- Groin Attack: The kidnappers kick Oiishi and Akasaka. The former dodges, but the latter gets hit right in the middle.
- Hidden Villain: The Arc Villain is not revealed in this story. There's an unknown middleman between the Minister of Construction, Metropolitan Tokyo Police, Sonozaki family and people holding the hostage, who's been trading info between all of them. It's not even clear if it's the kidnapper themselfes.
- How We Got Here:
- The story starts in 1985, after the main story, with Akasaka retelling events from 7 years before (1978), when the incidents first happened.
- The PS3 port adds another scene to the prologue, with Akasaka becoming a teacher of the police academy in 2006 and recalling the 1983 gas disaster.
- I Control My Minions Through...: As "Satou" explains, Oryou rarely gives orders. If she doesn't like something, someone loyal from the village will take full responsibility to "fix" that without needing instructions or resources.
- It's All My Fault: Akasaka blames himself for not being there when Rika was killed despite her advance prophecy.
- Jurisdiction Friction: Ooishi hints that as a member of the prefectural police, he's not obliged to cooperate with Tokyo Metropolitan Police, though does so when Akasaka covers his expenses.
- Multiple Endings: When Akasaka is held at gunpoint, a prompt appears to either surrender or to struggle. The latter leads to a quick "Bad End" screen.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: It becomes apparent Rika's cute behavior is a cover, intentional or subconscious, to hide that she has somehow Seen It All.
- Overly Long Gag: When Rika meets Akasaka for the first time, she makes cute noises and he unsure what to do repeats them. This back and forth continues until Makino meets him.
- Overt Operative: Ooishi gives Akasaka a baseball cap, sunglasses, and a mask. Even if it's to protect his identity, Akasaka comments it'd make it obvious to everyone he's a spy.
- Protection Racket: One of the sources of income Onigafuchi Defence Alliance is a propaganda newspaper, which everyone buys mainly becuase they're afraid of what would happen if they don't.
- Puppet King: Ooishi notes that Kiichirou Kimiyoshi, the supposed leader of the village and the protesters, is just a public figure, while Oryou Sonozaki is in charge of everything.
- Red Herring: Rika has sudden shifts between childish and mature personality and has a lot of clout in the village, and Akasaka comments it's like she's possessed by another person. The lack of Hellish Pupils should be an early hint that she's not a victim of the Demonic Possession as usual or the Arc Villain.
- Red Scare: Since the incident involves a member of the Japanese government, the police suspects "commies, reds and confeds" first.
- Seers: Rika mentions that the dam has just been cancelled, though it's ambiguous if she knew about the negotiations directly. But near the end she tells Akasaka about every murder in the next five years, including hers. One problem is that she decides to not tell anyone else since then and the tragedies happen accordingly.
- Shout-Out: Rika's "Meep" reminds Akasaka of "that puppet with orange hair".
- Tempting Fate: Ooishi calls Akasaka, and he wonders why, has he found a wallet with the kidnapped kid's initials or something? There's a wallet in the Lost and Found box with "Toshiki I" on it, with a dentist receipt from Tokyo. Akasaka comments how stupid this coincidence is, unless it was planted.
- Title Drop: Akasaka and Ooishi publish their account on Hinamizawa's murders as "Higurashi When They Cry", hoping someone would continue the investigation.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: After the tour is finished, Rika puts on a contralto and orders Akasaka to return to Tokyo, while he's never said where he's from, while scolding him as if she's older than him. A bonus Tip shows that Rika had a bored expression since birth, which scared her mother and teacher. She can also do any housework without being taught how.
- Young and in Charge:
- Mion isn't even ten, but is already treated as the head of the yakuza and throws orders in Oryou's stead.
- Akasaka doesn't catch it at first, but Rika being addressed with higher honorifics while she calls important villagers by First-Name Basis means in the Three Families she's not just a child. Later it becomes clear she can do whatever she wants, including getting anything for free, and not even the Sonozaki can object, which her mother blames the superstitious folks for.
