(Spoilers) Corpse Girl's First Victim

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By the end of the story, the circumstances surrounding the death of Noriko's first victim, Ruri Hatano, from a year prior to the first act are never explicitly explained. We do not know whether she offed herself or was murdered, or what led to her being strung up in such a position. All we know is that Noriko vividly remembers it.

However, something I noticed as I was nearing the end of the story is that there is one other character in the story depicted in an eerily similar pose: Shizuko — Corpse Girl. Strung up without explanation and repressed in Noriko's psyche, what if "Ruri Hatano" is a pseudo-memory created from the former's discovery? The crows, representing death, surrounding Ruri's corpse could be a parallel to the images of corpses placed around Shizuko.

Admittedly, Noriko's plain mentioning of the news reports and work process that surrounded the event add specificity that makes the memory less likely to be fake. As an alternative proposal, what if Shizuko's body was used as the first corpse image reference?

In any case, my headcanon is that Shizuko's corpse in some way is related to the death of Ruri Hatano beyond simply inspiring Noriko to kill.

Any thoughts? I could be forgetting something.

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I just noticed that this idea has been brought up in a response to another discussion. Pardon my repeating it. I do think it's one of the story's more plausibly tangible hanging plot threads though.