[don_Durandal]

Well AC_Phoenix has a very good rebuttal above, and after thinking about it I found more inconsistencies in this part of my speculation. My suspect still stands though.

As a matter of fact Kanon found an important clue here which allows me to modify and reinforce my hypothesis (warning: this might be a major spoiler; I was personally quite disappointed not to have found it myself).


Disclaimer: Don’t read the speculation if you didn’t read Kanon’s clue first, as it might be a major spoiler (I don’t know whether I’m right or not though as I didn’t read the novel, so don’t take my word on it)

Spoiler for Another speculation v2:

Modifications to my theory: Mikami is not Ritsuko. She is still the Other though.

So with Kanon’s clue we can assume that Reiko=Mrs. Mikami. Combined with my previous post, my hypothesis is that Mikami Reiko is Another.

She would have died either in 1983 (as a student) or in 1996 (as a teacher). However since she came back in 1998 as a teacher, the later is more likely.
< as a 1983 argument we could point out that Reiko does not appear in Matsunaga’s post killing flashback, but this argument is specious and void since Kouichi does not have access to this information. >

This allows both major inconsistency groups to fit together: 1) the heavily PTSD-ed Sakakibara-inlaws family, and 2) the classroom imbalance. Things this theory would explain:
- grampa is so traumatized, and why he uttered “my poor Reiko”
- the Mynah bird is going “Rei-chan doshite?” (note that Kouichi is the one character that has been uttering “doshite?” throughout the series, and that the Mynah bird is always talking to him)
- Kouichi doesn’t remember being in Yomiyama 1.5 years ago
- Reiko suffers from headaches and memory lapses
- both Reiko and Mikami are into arts (ok, that argument is very specious I admit…)
- Matsunaga remembers meeting Reiko recently < again, Kouichi does not have this info, so it should be considered void. >
- There is no missing chair in the classroom
- Mochizuke only re-joined the art club this year (despite being both an art-junkie and Mikami-sensei fan)

Problems with this theory:
- how can Kouichi not know Reiko’s family name?
- how could he not recognise Reiko in “Mrs. Mikami” form?
- can dual personas really be that convenient? (how can Reiko not recognise and interact with Kouichi at school)
Perhaps we are supposed to consider that the phenomenon forces people to “fill in the void” in a way that makes things consistent?

There are still plenty of things that need filling in though when it comes to the phenomenon itself:
- 1) Why is it happening?
- 2) Why do people die each month when it’s active?
- 3) Why does it not happen every year?
- 4) Why do countermeasures only work half the time?

Spoiler for phenomenon speculation continued:

The answer for the fourth question is rather obvious. It fails if the Other is not a student, but a second-relation relative or a homeroom/assistant homeroom teacher.
The speculation in my previous post might answer question 1 and 3, in that the Other has to be sufficiently “missed” as a dead person to return.

That leaves us with question 2. < although the answer may be of the meta kind. If nobody dies in the novel, then there is not reason to search for the Other and the phenomenon goes unnoticed. It'd basically be an artificial way to introduce tension. But then again speculating is fun so let's assume there is a reason >