The man laughs. “Do you know the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice?”
You nod. Orpheus and Eurydice… a Greek legend where Orpheus ventured into the underworld to rescue his wife, Eurydice, who had been bitten by a snake. The Greek god of the underworld, Hades, had been reluctant to release her, and only did so on the condition that during their departure, Orpheus was not to look back at his wife. Unsurprisingly – to anyone who knew anything about Greek myths – he did, and she was lost to him forever. You are reminded of a story that closely paralleled this tale: that of Izanagi and Izanami.
“Yes, Izanagi and Izanami. Of course, these were not the first stories… there is an even older tale of a descent into the underworld; that of Inanna, the Sumerian goddess, but that is neither here nor there.” He smiles warmly. “I do wonder, Shinoseki Adachi, if you will play the role of Izanagi, or the role of Orpheus…”
Alright, here is my - probably mistaken - assessment of the overall plot so far. It consists mostly of assumptions and speculations.
So we have that centuries-old tree that is growing on the border between life and death, and there is a ritual explaining how to cross back and forth. The line between the worlds should already be blurred in this place. If we throw a hospital on top of it, which is a place of pain, suffering and occasional death, is it that strange that there was a string of malicious possessions and otherwise morbid occurences?
The place fell in a self-perpetuating spiral of misery and death, where the victims who died in agony returned as vengeful spirits that drove others to crime (the director) and/or suicide (the note on the roof). The cycle may have begun even before the Kaimei hospital was built, and it certainly predates the crimes of its director (the dismemberment case we read about in a newspaper, and the mention of malfunctioning lights in the basement all happened before that).
I am not justifying what the director has done, but I feel like he is just one of many lives claimed by the hospital.
Cue nurse Uehara and a man who I assume is Shinohara Juuzo. The scene from our/his memory hints at them being in a relationship, but Juuzo betrayed and killed her because REASONS that likely have something to do with the Kaimei group (and he was a nobody back then, so he would be unlikely to defy them). He may or may not have planned to resurrect her afterwards, depending on whether he knew of the existence of the Juunimon tree, but I assume he did know about it. Unfortunately, the director goes bonkers and burns down the hospital and the tree with it, stranding nurse Uehara in the lands of the dead.
Juuzo likely has a big axe to grind with the Kaimei after all of this.
He spends the next 40 years accumulating wealth and power, driving the Kaimei and its founders - the Maedas - to ruin. I don't think their decline in fortune and Shinohara's rise are unrelated. They are desperate enough now to throw their support behind anything he would propose as long as it helps them get back on their feet. They have become puppets in his hands.
He finally gets rich and influental enough to rebuild the entire hospital from the ground up, likely using the old floor plans. I assume there is some significance to the 7th floor, as it was the only one missing, but I do not know what it is. This is all a part of a bigger plan to travel back into the spiritual realm from 40 years ago and bring back the dead girl. The similarity of the buildings was to aid in this task and weaken the border separating two places.
Without the tree to travel between the worlds, the only way to do so is via a gruesome ritual. Alternatively, the literal ritual exists for the purposes of resurrection of the dead (the legend of Izanagi). Note that the ritual describes rebuilding a body from scratch, as if creating a vessel for a spirit to inhabit. There are 12 sacrifices, and there are supposed to be 12 people missing (according to Mori's note), which to me suggests that the one who benefits from this is not anyone of the 12, or as the case may be, not anyone of the living at all.
I have reconsidered my stance on the pool ghost. I think Kz3r0's assessment that that she is special and that she is the Maiden is correct, after all. There is a clear connection between her, Juuzo, Uehara and us.
I also suspect that Mitsuki is playing the key role of the soul. There were hints that she is groomed by Shinohara for some specific purpose (her treatment), and Taketatsu referred to her as to a sacrifice (which corresponds to the 12th night and the final step of the process). If someone is doing the ritual, she may yet be alive somewhere, as she has to go last in the series of killings - if the order matters at all. Though there is the fact that the thing in the first night was wearing her skin, so I may be wrong.
It may not be the first time this is happening. Unfortunately for Juuzo, none of the previous attempt succeded (or were not meant to, being just trial runs). The discovery that Taketatsu made, and the Project he is working on are likely to be funded by Juuzo, and may have provided him with an opportunity to try it again. My theory might explain why the children from Kaimei families are trapped here as well as some highly inconvenient figures like Mori. It would be ironic in a twisted way if the descendants of the ones who killed Uehara would serve as a tool to aid in her resurrection. Juuzo would have no problems throwing anyone here under a bus.
I am still struggling with how we tie into all of this, but there is the fact that 12 people are supposed to be missing, yet there are 13 of us, and unlike others, we have no memory. That suggests to me that we are not a part of the initial plan, and may have integrated ourselves into it in an attempt to sabotage the project. Only time will tell if this is true.
Funny thing is, we may be - at least partly - Shinohara Juuzo. The old man mentioned that it was our plot. The memories we are recovering might be his.
If my train of thoughts is correct, then all we have to do to leave is to perform the chant under a tree, and then we are home free. Of course, the Project would then succeed, and 12 people would be dead. Alternatively, the chant may fail, as there is no tree in 2014, so there is no other side to this portal. In any case, I am not leaving here until we understand what is happening.
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