Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kage

Baragoroshi-hen

Author's Note Before Story

Hello! My name is Blaze, and I'm re-writing a Higurashi fanfiction I started a couple of years back. I guess you could say it was somewhat popular and many people asked me to continue it. I'd forgotten about Higurashi for a while, but I've gotten back into the fandom lately, and I really want to see this story completed. So, I'm re-writing what's been done so far (on my old account) and then finishing the story.

I'll explain the dialogue a little bit, so that no one gets confused. As in most stories, a word or two that is italicized is being emphasized if it's in speech. If there's a whole sentence or so in italics, it's a thought by a character. When a word is emphasized in thought, then that word is not in italics, so that it will stand out from the rest of the italicized thought. Whole sentences that are in italics and quotation marks are dialogue from Hanyuu in her spirit form. Her sentences will look different because Rika is the only one who can hear her in that form. When Hanyuu is in her human form, she will have normal-looking dialogue. Rika's speech will be similar to the anime, in which her childish voice is an act, and her true voice is the deeper, more adult one. I'll explain which voice Rika is using if needed.

Also, each chapter (excluding the prologue) will say at the beginning whose point of view the chapter is told in. I'm planning to go through the viewpoints of all the "club members."

I've added the "Kage" to the title of the story because kage means "shadow," and this story goes more in-depth of things that lay in the shadows of the canon Higurashi series – things like romance, mostly, and also conflict between the club members that is based on that romance.

"Baragoroshi-hen" is something I also came up with, and it means "Rose-killing chapter." There is a metaphor behind this that I hope you will figure out on your own as you read the story.

This fanfiction takes place about half a year after the end of Matsuribayashi-hen. This is not one of the worlds trapped in the cycle of June, so time is progressing normally. All characters in this world remember everything they'd been through in the four question and four answer arcs. I don't consider the Rei or Kira anime arcs to be canon here, nor am I taking into consideration any of the manga-exclusive arcs. That being said, this fanfiction will contain spoilers for the main game series.

I'm very excited to continue writing this fanfiction that I loved dearly at the time I started it. To those who read the first version of it years ago, I hope that you'll enjoy this new version more and see improvement in it. The events you'd read in the first two chapters in the old version will be slightly more spaced out in this one, by the way. To those who are reading this for the first time (probably most of you), I hope you like it! Please review, if you can. If you have anything negative to say, please do so in a mature and constructive manner.

Now, on to the story!

-Blaze