Rika Furude and Mion Sonozaki wait out a sudden downpour at a lonely bus stop in Hinamizawa, sheltering alongside a handful of strangers stuck there too, a freelance writer chasing local folklore among them. As the group trades stories to pass the time, talk turns to the Ministry of Construction's dam project and the string of unexplained deaths that has followed it, deaths locals blame on Oyashiro's Curse. What starts as idle small talk edges toward the same unsettling legend that would later become the core of Higurashi. This manga adapts an unreleased stage play Ryukishi07 wrote before creating the Higurashi franchise.