「お姉ちゃんは今日からうちの子じゃなくなったの」
I’m re-reading this week’s section, and this phrase struck me as interesting and odd. It might provide some interesting clues as to different possible reasons for Ayano’s disappearance.
“Starting today, your big sister is no longer our child” or something like that
One thing that occurred to me is that Yuzuki’s mother still seems to be referring to her affectionately (姉ちゃん), and seems (to me) to be implying that Ayano is now the child of someone else.
I think that counts against theories that Ayano had herself done something terrible. (Which also would seem not to fit with how she is described by her sister)
Why would she become someone else’s child suddenly and irrevocably? One possibility might be that she was originally adopted or fostered (or stolen?), and the real parents suddenly returned? Another possibility would be if the parents were threatened - for example if there were a threat to Yuzuki, and they had to give up one child or lose them both (in a sort of Sophie’s choice dilemma). A dilemma like that might give rise to the sort of psychological trauma that would send the father into alcoholism? Yet another thought is that there is some sort of cult in the background, that perhaps the parents were part of. The cult might require members to be willing to give up a child to the cult? That could perhaps fit with 栗原’s suggestion of a 首謀者?
