Yasuda Haruka is walking home with her mother in the afternoon after shopping for groceries. As they walk past the Totaka residence, Haruka's mother happens to look up to the second floor where the curtains are not drawn and stops in her tracks. Haruka wonders what has gone wrong as her mother is in a trance while a courier man emerges from the Totaka residence. Unknown to them, Mrs Totaka is looking at Mrs Yasuda with hatred in her eyes.That night, Mrs Yasuda is not her usual self as Haruka helps her with the preparations for dinner. She tries to pretend that nothing is wrong and goes to see who is at their doorstep when the bell rings. To her horror, Mrs Yasuda finds the same courier man who was in the Totaka residence bringing a plate of cherries at Mrs Totaka's orders. The man threatens Mrs Yasuda that she will be in deep trouble if she dares to reveal what she had seen in the Totaka residence earlier in the afternoon. Mrs Yasuda is so freaked out that she throws away the cherries which makes Haruka feel weird about her action.
The next day, Mrs Yasuda bumps into Mrs Totaka when she takes the rubbish to the common dumping ground and the latter asks how the cherries tasted. Mrs Yasuda lies that they were delicious. However, Mrs Totaka deliberately mocks Mrs Yasuda for making gyoza which were very smelly due to the latter's over-usage of garlic. The neighbours also join in by saying that Mrs Yasuda has no consideration for her neighbours since she just moved in from the rural area. When Mrs Totaka mentions that Haruka is in the same class as her daughter, Yuriya. Mrs Yasuda shudders to think what will happen to Haruka as the neighbours caution her about Mrs Totaka being a dangerous figure to offend since her husband is the manager of the branch which their husbands are working at.
In school, Yuriya gangs up with her buddies to mock Haruka for smelling of gyoza. When Haruka asks her mother if she has offended the Totaka family in any way, Mrs Yasuda freezes with fear and doesn't go to open the door for her husband because she's scared of the courier man turning up again.
Mr Yasuda complains that he was scolded by Mr Totaka for no reason and questions his wife if she had done anything to Mrs Totaka. Mrs Yasuda tries to explain that she isn't in the wrong but her husband tells her to stop making trouble so as to make his work life easier.
Mrs Totaka calls Mrs Yasuda and says that she has sent a guy to "entertain" the latter and that she should enjoy herself. Mrs Yasuda is shocked to see a gangster-looking man turning up and banging on the door so loudly that it attracts the attention of the neighbours. She can only slump to the floor and cry as the man continues to be a nuisance.
On the way home, Haruka is stopped by Yuriya and her friends where they accuse her mother of being flirtatious and inviting a man into her house. She also finds the neighbours gossiping about her mother. Haruka is horrified to find her mother committing suicide and doesn't understand why Mrs Totaka has a part to play in her mother being so distressed.
At night, Haruka accesses Jigoku Tsuushin to seek help. As she looks at how the Totaka family is enjoying themselves while her mother is hospitalised, Haruka is seething with rage. Ai appears before Haruka who asks her to find out what had happened between her mother and Mrs Totaka. Ai gives her the drill as usual and shows her the reason for Mrs Yasuda's suicide.
Haruka finds out that her mother happened to see Mrs Totaka having an affair with the courier man which led to a series of bullying actions. Mrs Totaka even got a man to rape Mrs Yasuda and took photos of the act. She threatened to deal with Haruka next if Mrs Yasuda tells anyone about her affair.
Ai says that it was unfortunate for Mrs Yasuda to see something she shouldn't have but Haruka refuses to accept this because Mrs Totaka is in the wrong. As such, Ai explains that this is the reason for her existence i.e. to seek vengeance for the wrongs in the world.
Haruka goes home to find her father scolding her mother for making a cuckold out of him and refuses to hear his wife's explanation. Upon seeing her father beat her mother, Haruka makes the decision to take revenge on Mrs Totaka by pulling the red string from the straw figure.
Ai and her associates spring into action with Ichimoku Ren appearing before Mrs Totaka as a courier man. She is immediately smitten by Ren and invites him into her house. However, Mrs Totaka is shocked to see her husband and tries frantically to explain herself. She finds herself being surrounded by people mocking her for being the loose woman in the neighbourhood before Ai sends her to hell.
After the ordeal is over, Haruka wonders if she had done the right thing especially seeing how Yuriya is mocked by the neighbours after the latter's mother was said to have eloped with a man. However, seeing that her mother has returned to normal, Haruka can only assure herself that the decision has not been made in vain...
Mrs Totaka is certainly obnoxious but somehow I feel that sending her to hell is just letting her off too easily. She deserves more than that. However, the job of Ai and gang is to send people to hell so I doubt there will be any variations to the treatment of the bad guys in the story other than Ai rowing the boat personally headed for hell.
It's normal for Haruka to feel undecided over the choice she made because she sees the same thing happening to Yuriya. Having been through that, I don't think she wishes the worst for Yuriya who did nothing particularly wrong except to follow her mother's lead in bullying Haruka. However, when I saw how Haruka's mother joined the neighbours in the teasing, it just makes me wonder if she deserves to be rescued from the mental torture with her daughter's after-life because this seems like she was taking revenge on Yuriya for what Mrs Totaka did. I can't blame her for feeling this way but it made me a little uncomfortable to see Mrs Yasuda behaving this way. It just goes to show that there isn't always a fairytale ending after taking revenge.
No comments:
Post a Comment