"Warning" - Ichiko Yagura
Bright Win / Boarding Gate / -31:20:44
Siren 2 is a story that includes a complex mix of characters from three time periods: 1976, 1986 and 2005. Since "Mystery of the Bright Win", a side story reflecting the game, is a strange tale telling the story of Ichiko Yagura and Noriko Kifune as they are passengers on a ferry sailing off the shore of Yamijima, it is based in 1986. It is important to note that overall the story is constructed as a loop (where the start and end are connected; for particulars see decoding: chapter 4).
At the start of chapter 1, as Ichiko Yagura attempts to board the Bright Win she is given a warning by a bizarre woman whom we will refer to for now as "Offshoot B". The beings sent by Mother, living in the World of Nothingness, to this world are called "doves", the first dove being born as an offshoot of Mother (Offshoot A = Kanae). In this sense doves are offshoots, but since at this time the doves were born as twins, we will call them this to distinguish from the other dove (Offshoot B'). (Also, the experience of Offshoot B giving the warning to Ichiko is touched upon in decoding: chapter 4.) In the cafeteria Ichiko's classmates talk about the rumour that two drowned bodies have been recovered by the Bright Win; these two bodies are Offshoots B and B' themselves.
Ignoring Offshoot B's warning and boarding the Bright Win, Ichiko worries about the unseen Noriko (Noriko Kifune). In actuality Noriko is in a relationship with her classmate, Ichiro Nakajima, and is pregnant, and complaining of feeling unwell after boarding she is taken to the nurse's office. On the night of 1 August 1986, Ichiko worries too much about the unreturned Noriko to sleep, and it is at this time that she writes archive [No.040] School Uniform-Shaped Letter to Noriko. Noriko, realising that she is showing symptoms of pregnancy, writes a letter ([No.045] Heart-Shaped Letter) to Nakajima and arranges to meet with him secretly on the boat. Their meeting is captured on [No.078] Ferry CCTV Monitor. A white shadow flashes momentarily on the monitor - this figure is that of Offshoot B'. After being brought aboard the boat as a drowned body, she reawakens. As she begins to move about the boat, she is by coincidence captured by the camera. As previously mentioned, Offshoots B and B' were sent to earth as "doves", but were unable to sufficiently adjust to life here and were found floating off the shores of Yamijima when they were picked up by the Bright Win. At this point their activity level dropped and they turned into "corpses", but displaying their toughness and resilience they reawaken. However, the one that awakens first (Offshoot B') is influenced by Otoshigo while floating in the sea, resulting in abnormalities, and begins to absorb the nearby humans one by one as it gets its hands on them (a rampaging dove). This appears to be in order to repair its own body, but is closer to simply going mad and rampaging.
When boarding for the second time on the afternoon of 2 August, Ichiko becomes exasperated by Noriko not returning and goes to the boat's sick bay, and there she witnesses the tennis club adviser Tomoyuki Watanabe being absorbed by the rampaging dove (Offshoot B'). (The reason for Professor Watanabe being in the sick bay was that, shocked at realising that Noriko was pregnant, the doctor called him there.) The doctor and Watanabe were most likely attacked while they were talking (at this time, Noriko had managed to slip out). Seeing Professor Watanabe being absorbed causes Ichiko to faint. This is an unbelievable scene. From this point on, the Bright Win becomes a hellish, scream-filled pandemonium.
"Don't get on"
The warning Offshoot B gives to Ichiko - "Don't... get on." There was actually a report that, warned by a mysterious old lady, "Don't get on this train," a woman avoided the JR West Fukuchiyama Line derailment (26/4/2005 "Sports Hochi").
"Disposable camera"
There is a scene in which one of Ichiko's classmates uses "a disposable camera I saw in an advert on TV" on the front deck. This gives the scene a 1986 feel in this age of the digital camera. Ichiko also uses old words reminiscent of the time.
[No.040] School Uniform-Shaped Letter
A letter written by Ichiko Yagura to her friend Noriko. Though it shows that Ichiko is worried about Noriko complaining of feeling unwell, she doesn't imagine for a second that Noriko is pregnant. She worries that she may be seasick, writing, "I guess it's because this ferry is super wobbly".