Chapter 8

The Town Without Me: February 1988 is the eight chapter of Boku Dake ga Inai Machi manga.

Summary
The chapter starts with Satoru thinking that he may be able to find the killer by being with Hinazuki. He then wonders what she meant when she said that they both were impostors. He states that he always played the role of the person he wanted to be so he could adapt to the close-knit community he lived in.

He sees Hinazuki walking home from the window when his friends ask him if he asked her out and ask him several questions about their relationship. Kenya then steps in and stops them from asking many questions and tells Satoru to take things seriously as they would be in the same class till graduation. Satoru wonders about how much time he has left till Hinazuki goes missing. Osamu asks him about his gloves and he remembers that he left them at their hideout. He suggests going there but his friends remind him that one of their rules were not to go therein winter in order to avoid leaving footprints. While leaving, he thanks Kenya for stopping them from asking any questions and Kenya tells him that his interest in Hinazuki was important to him and offers to help him. He then suggests that Satoru read their class anthology.

In the anthology, he read an essay written by Kayo named 'The Town With Me'. The essay described how she wanted to go to a place without any people so she could do whatever she wanted. whenever she wanted. He deduced that her essay was a S.O.S. signal and decides to dig deeper.

While eating, he asked his mother if he could call his friends over for his birthday and tells her that there would be five people coming. Before he fell asleep, his mother asks him if he had a girlfriend and he calls her a youkai and states that he always hated his mother' sixth sense. The next day, Satoru goes after Hinazuki and finds her at a park. He tells her that even though he wants to be her friend, he cannot be a murderer. She tells him that she was joking and asks if he's pretending all the time and says that she can't see his true face. He confirms this and says that he does this because he wants to make friends and that he started by liking everyone and that doing that helped him with his acting. Hinazuki states that she feels that if she kept acting, someday she'll become real.

He realizes that Hinazuki is pretending to be apathetic and pretending not to feel anything. After that, he gives her an invitation to his birthday party and tells her he wanted her to be the first one to receive it.

Characters

 * Satoru
 * Hinazuki
 * Osamu
 * Kenya
 * Kazu
 * Sachiko