Review by Ian Keogh

Hikaru as Yoshiki knew him from childhood is dead, but there’s a form of replacement Hikaru using the body that still wants to be friends with Yoshiki. Knowing the original Hikaru is gone, Yoshiki has agonised over his feelings, and has been warned by others aware of the situation that he shouldn’t dive in too deep, but in Vol. 3’s final chapter he arrived at a definitive decision to stick by Hikaru.

With the decision made, there’s a returned bond between the pair, and Hikaru’s handed over a small piece of himself. Together they begin delving into the history of their hometown, making some surprising discoveries, not least about some form of god named Nounukisama believed to inhabit the woods on the mountainside. Is that what Hikaru now is? Meanwhile, after the spooky encounter she can’t quite remember, Asako seems more attuned to the weirdness around the town.

She was the cover star of the previous volume, each of which features a portrait of someone different. This time it’s Rie Kurebayashi, who’s wandered in and out of the story, but here reveals an ability connected with the dead.

The disturbing undercurrent of the series is superbly sustained, with Mokumokuren revelling in his cast running into each other and interacting at odd moments. To outsiders they’ll seem like ordinary meetings and ordinary conversations, but the sinister undertones resonate. The conversations also drop small snippets of bigger pictures, such as Yoshiki noting how the Hikaru that currently exists is in some ways more pleasant than the teenager who died.

For all that, Mokomokuren knows how to deliver actual horror rather than just creeping threats and ends this volume with a shocker. You’ll be back for Vol. 5.