warning: spoilers for mastsuribayashi-hen and saikoroshi-hen.


Every time the sun set here, it reminded her of all the blood she had seen. Red ripples spreading across the water of the marsh, to pool at her feet, in its incarnadine hues. It had been so long that her emotions had near burned away, just a hollow sadness that nothing could fill.

It's been a long time.

The world kept on turning, since the nights had been disturbed with desperate fights for their lives. Everyone kept on moving since the accident with the truck. Even though they had all tasted death too many times in a century's worth of worlds, they kept charging along with an unbreakable resolve to live.

So long, I've forgotten.

She smiled bitterly. They all had their peaceful lives now, the conflict put to rest, the mysteries resolved and tucked away in the backs of their minds to ignore. Her and Rika, they had too much to really ignore for long, but the newness of this world, the freshness, everything they had fought for and won, all that was what mattered. As long as she could tell herself that, everything would keep moving.

I'd forgotten what living was like.

"Hanyuu?"

She turned, not that it mattered. Rika was the only one who ever saw her, now that her fleeting days as a human were gone. They were a chance at life again, one that she only kept for her only friend.

"Rika. You should have just called."

"I didn't feel like it." Rika shrugged, and settled on a rock. Her hair shone blue in the light, refusing to match eyes that remained purple. "Why are you here, anyways?"

Matching the shrug, Hanyuu faced the swamp again. "No reason."

They shared the silence, a quiet sense of harmony that resonated with a bond stronger than any human one. A century's friendship between a god and her priestess. Of course it wasn't human, or normal. They couldn't have that even if they wanted it.

Those things hadn't mattered in a long time, though. Not since the first June of Showa 58. Not over the century's worth of dead ends and false attempts at just trying to live, because they could.

An unbreakable bond, between them. Even though they were surrounded by others, there was only Rika for Hanyuu. No one else.

"You know," Hanyuu said, breaking the silence, "I almost miss being able to talk to them."

Rika smiled, slightly. "You have me."

"That's true." She would always have Rika. No matter what else happened, there was always her. And as long as she had that, she could tell herself that no one else mattered.

The perfect bond, a god who loved her priestess.

Too bad the priestess would never be allowed to know.


/end

Notes: Both my first Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni fanfiction and my first upload… I'd really appreciate reviews!