Summary
Being sprayed by her little brothers water pistol, Liz wishes that she could be home preparing for the upcoming summer festivals with her friends then a forced beach trip with the family. She attempts to drown them out while they head into the cheap Inn they will be staying at but her mom puts a quick stop to it, telling her that this trip is for them to enjoy together. Liz storms out of the room in a huff and she thinks about how difficult things have been as of late; if she isn't arguing with her mom, she's cringing at her dad's corny behavior, and her little brother is a nuisance.
Liz prepares to message her friends until realizing her battery is low, and unwilling to return to her room she sets out in hopes of finding another outlet. She finds a room forbidding entry but curiosity gets the better of her and she steps inside. It's coated in dust and packed up, but she found a socket and prepares to plug in her phone, only to bump a vase, spilling water on a small box. She cleans up the mess when a child's picture diary catches her eye, and with time to kill she decides to read it. But the cheerful first entry regarding the little girl visiting the zoo with her family sours her mood, and she tosses it into the trash.
That evening, Liz awakens to the pounding rain outside and looks to see its only two am. Her vision clears to see a soaking girl standing by the door and sits up in fright, by now the figure has vanished.
The following day Liz repeats what happened to an elderly lady and begins describing the girl, who the woman addresses as Minako-chan. Minako was her granddaughter who went missing ten years ago after leaving the guest room her family resided in. She was only six and she spent a lot of time wandering around the Inn with her picture diary. Shortly after Minako's disappearance, her son and his wife killed themselves. She feels so lonely now that she can't bring herself to throw away their belongings, which is why she left their place as-is and off limits.
Liz returns to her family with the thoughts of the room and girl still on her mind, and she considers telling her mom what happened when she comes by to tell her that breakfast is ready, only to reconsider. She worries that by messing with the diary she might have caused something to happen, even though it was just an accident. She is startled by the ghostly girl again, and she notices her mouthing the words "find it".
Freaked out, Liz attempts to convince her family that they should go home, but a man informs them that its impossible right now due to bad weather. As her family continues to enjoy themselves she is terrified out of her mind, and she rejects her mom's offer to join them in the onsen. Instead, she decides to head to the Lobby where she may be more safe, but with the storm raging on outside the power cuts out suddenly. She feels a cold hand on her shoulder and turns to find the girl again, and she demands to know what it is she wants. The girl says nothing, placing her hand on Liz's face.
The power returns as Liz's family run into the room to find her extremely anxious and worked up. Her parents explain that the innkeeper told them what happened, and how Liz came to see her earlier and assure Liz that if she ever feels alone and scared, she can always rely on them to help her feel better. Her mother apologizes for not realizing Liz was upset, and as Liz recalls a past event that made her see how loved she was, she begins to sob as they console her. Her dad remarks that it would be scary and mentions that he thought he saw a ghostly couple at one point, but her mom believes fright made him hallucinate the whole thing.
This leads Liz to wonder if she imagined it when she notices something off about the ceiling. They contacted someone and they lift the panel to discover Minako's remains. The cause of death was theorized to have been starvation, but they wonder why it took this long for someone to notice. Her bones were collected and placed into her parents graves.
The following day Liz returns to the room to revisit the picture diary. She feels at ease knowing Minako must be in heaven now that she has been reunited with her parents. However, she comes across a concerning entry in the diary, in which Minako makes a remark about her parents behavior; lately they are always arguing over money. Then one day she saw her mom put something in the rice they had for dinner. She was frightened and didn't eat it. Liz continues to read the chilling entries as they become more frightened and aware, and Liz comes to the conclusion that Minako's parents were planning a family suicide. Minako desperately sought out a safe place to hide and begs for someone to take her place; and to Liz's shock the picture seems to come alive.
She throws the diary in fright and attempts to leave, just to find Minako's ghost and realize that she wasn't telling her to find something, but that she "found it". Behind Liz, the disturbing spirits of Minako's parents appear to announce that they have found her. Now they can finally go through with their plans...
Liz's family is packing up to leave for home when her mother wonders what could be keeping her. Yuuta, who was goofing around just a moment ago stops in place as he feels something in the air. He thought he saw a little girl run by, but nobody is there.
The spirit of a little girl happily runs away from the Inn.
Tropes
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Liz's little brother.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Liz wished for a different family, but she didn't specify what kind...
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Liz has some behaviors of one, such as losing her temper over trivial things the family does, storming off to avoid them or ignoring them through distraction, complaining about spending time together, etc. But unlike most cases, she acknowledges her behavior, she just doesn't know how to handle it. Learning she isn't alone starts to help her feel better.
- Cruel Twist Ending: Liz reconciles with her family and finds Minako's remains, allowing her to rest in peace; happy ending right? Nope! Before leaving, Liz gets the idea to revisit Minako's old home and finish reading her picture diary. This leads her to learn what actually happened and she gets cornered by Minako and her parents.
- Dead Person Conversation: It's one-sided, but still present.
- Death of a Child
- Downer Ending: Liz has rekindled love for her family, who will either discover she's gone missing or find her dead.
- Driven to Suicide: Minako's parents were so miserable that they were planning a family suicide. Then, after discovering she ran away, they went through with it.
- Kill and Replace: Not in a traditional sense, but Minako's spirit was trying to find someone to replace her so that she could be at peace.
- Missing Child: Your child goes missing at a location that not only has several strangers residing there, but an ocean nearby. Then for ten years nobody hears or sees anything.
- Never Found the Body: Originally happened to Minako until Liz discovered her remains in their hotel room. In the epilogue, Yomi wonders what happened to Liz.
- Nightmare Face
- Wham Line: "Three people were supposed to die together. I know those two want to kill me."
