May 13, 2026
Pretty interesting chapter, as we're discovering new clues with Hayate's last encrypted message (more suffering!). What's more, we're finally witnesses to more supernatural happenings with the doll taking centreplace! And honestly? They make a damn fine duo, they're pretty funny even xD
Though, it marks a relatively important tonal shift within the story, as you're moving from a lone man suffering and shouldering everything within his own right to a somewhat comedic duo. It breaks the isolation, and makes Ryota less unreliable as a narrator since the doll is now present.
However, this also breaks the horror you would typically see in Silent Hill, Resident Evil, etc. – as the horror of isolation is lessened. It's now less about Ryota himself, but more about the environment, about the horrors that lie insidiously so closely to him, hehe
Speaking of the devil: the environment. The more I read, the more I realise that there is a lack of a clear established space-time continuum. I honestly feel myself lost sometimes as I can't pinpoint exactly where Ryota is, and at which point of the day they are. Why?
To me, it seems that you don't describe the locations enough – which makes things really confusing to me as a reader. Which is even more confusing when Ryota moves from place to place, from Hayate's burnt home to the desk, to finally outside; it's confusing because you establish a location, but we, the readers, can't make out a plan of that very same location as it lacks details.
And another last remark, some descriptions are kinda corky with for example: “Its voice was cold – cold as porcelain, cold as the night wind striking my face”.
I don't know if it's intentional but it definitely gives a comedic undertone to this chapter. I like it, but it feels more a corky shounen adventure with horrors undertones, rather than a psychological horror thriller O_o
