I'm not sure whether Sakakibara is the another or not, but I think it's clear that his and everyone else's memories have been altered, and that he DID come to the town a couple years back. While his father wasn't affected by it at first, I'd say talking to Kouichi triggered this "memory correction response". I'm surprised that I was once again on the ball with this "memory correction response" thing. Meaning that when the memories of two people are inconsistent, one or both people would alter their own memories to make their stories add up again.
There is something else though. I think what they meant to say was, not that Sakakibara transferring in caused the "one-seat-short" problem, but rather, the class population increased by one at the same time as Sakakibara transferring in.
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