she is looking for a hole shaped like herself. Owaki dismisses the idea, stating it to be ridiculous, but another hiker, Nakagaki, overhearing their conversation and siding with Yoshida, claims he has found his own hole. He takes them to his hole, pointing out that it is precisely his size and shape, and that he fits into it exactly. After removing his clothes to his underwear, Nakagaki disappears into the hole before Owaki can stop him. Scientists cannot find any trace of Nakagaki inside the hole, and a rescue squad composed of people small enough to squeeze into the hole has to retreat after barely getting deep. Later that night, Owaki has a nightmare about Nakagaki trapped inside the hole because it has been deformed by the earthquake. He wakes up to find Yoshida claiming she has found her own hole, located near the foot of the fault. Meanwhile, Nakagaki still has not been found. Another man claims a hole is made for him, and disappears into it in a panic, leading to an outburst in which several other people descend into the mountain, much to the horror of the scientists, who flee the scene. That night, Yoshida feels that the hole is calling her name and luring her into it, and she knows if she goes there, she will be trapped. Owaki tries to calm her down by stuffing her hole with rocks, and stays the night with her. Owaki has another nightmare. He dreams that he is in the distant past, and, having committed a horrendous crime, is sentenced by a tribe living in the mountain's caves to enter a hole carved in his likeness, forced to keep walking deeper into the mountain's interior in the ever-narrowing tunnel. Owaki enters the hole and after some time moving forward in it, he can feel his neck and limbs being tortuously stretched and distorted, but he remains alive and in agony. He wakes up screaming and finds out that Yoshida has unblocked her hole and disappeared into it. As he sits mournfully in front of Yoshida's hole, he drops his flashlight and discovers his own hole, much to his horror, located near Yoshida's. Mesmerized, he strips off his clothes and enters his hole. Several months later, the scientists are informed of another fault on the other side of the mountain, revealed during the same earthquake which exposed the first fault,