Hello all! Welcome to Ashes to Ashes a.k.a. Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Kimochi: Demon Descending Chapter. This is an epilogue to Matsuribayashi-hen, with the story of what happened after Rika, Hanyuu, and everyone else broke through the barrier of June 1983! (hint: They all grew up and had kids XD) I know this isn't the sequel I'm supposed to be working on to When the Cicadas Cry, but really, I haven't been inspired for that sequel yet... anyways!

Enjoy!


Prologue: Welcome


Day of wrath, that day of burning,

Seer and Sibyl speak concerning,

All the world to ashes turning.

-Abraham Coles, Dies Irae


As the flames roared hotter behind me, I took my sister's hand and started to run.

The sharp branches and tree roots underfoot stung terribly as we ran through the warm air of the darkest part of the morning, my labored breathing the only sound I could hear; the screams of those trapped in the disaster had faded long ago. The fire that had consumed our village with its burning hand only minutes earlier was advancing rapidly through the forest; the atmosphere was full of smoke and ashes, making it harder to see as we stumbled along the vague path before us. I could feel my sweaty, long silver hair plastered against my neck, my heart pounding into my chest – I was so scared, so much so that I wanted to just collapse and start screaming and crying in grief – but I had to be strong for Aya. She looked up to me as her older brother, and I couldn't let her down now, even as our whole lives had been ripped away from us within a matter of minutes.

"S-Sinyon," she whispered, so low that I could barely hear her. I heard her take a shaky breath and she started coughing, a horrible racking cough that reminded me of the years she'd gotten sick with the flu. I halted, despite the burning in my legs that urged me to keep going, and pulled her closer to me in an almost hug. I rubbed her head, my fingers tangling into her red-brown hair.

"We're – gonna – die," she managed between coughs. I felt my shirt go wet with her tears; I felt like crying myself.

"We're not," I reassured her, glancing over her shoulder, seeing the flames hop from tree to tree like sprightly rabbits. "We need to get out of the forest, Aya. Standing here crying isn't going to get us anywhere."

She looked up at me briefly with a nod, her blue eyes swimming in tears. "O-Okay. I believe you."

Turning on my heel, I increased speed again – were the flames closer? – as Aya fell into step beside me. We seemed to be the only two who had escaped. My chest tightened, thinking of all the people who were probably dead – several of my friends, including Kukai and Akira; Kimiko-obaa-san, my grandmother; the old man down the street who always said hello to me as I walked home from school; my mom, Okaa-san—

Okaa-s—

It almost felt like the world dropped out from under me then; I tripped over a large root, falling flat onto my face, spasms of pain wreaking havoc within my body. This hurts worse than the stinging of the twigs as I ran, I thought, as little black dots hovered at the edge of my vision. As I turned my head to the side, I tried to breathe, and I could feel the scalding ashes running down my throat. Tears welled up in my eyes from the pain. Aya was screaming my name. I wanted to tell her I was alright, that we could still escape – but I saw the houses aflame in the distance and my heart dropped into my stomach. As the air grew ever hotter, I knew we were going to die; why hadn't I listened to Aya before and just given up?

The screams became muffled and the flames soon did a taunting dance in front of my face; so warm, so warm they were. Somewhere in the recesses of my mind I could hear a repetitive beeping sound as the burning ashes fell upon my skin, my eyes, and I could no longer see. It was almost like the ticking of a clock – each beep counting down the last seconds of my life—

5… 4… 3… 2… 1…

Wake up.


~Friday, June 18th, Heisei 22 – Irie Clinic – 5:54 p.m.~

"Oh, he's waking up."

I moaned quietly, not paying attention to the girl's voice that had just spoken. I could still feel the ashes scalding my skin; still hear the beeping in the background, though this time louder. But the ground under me felt wrong. It was soft, but still warm like the ash-covered ground had been. Taking a risk, I blinked and opened my eyes, closing them back again immediately against the sun's harsh light streaming through the window. Was it all a dream? The ashes – the sun. The beeping…?

I looked up, away from the sun, toward the ceiling, above me and a little to my left was one of the tall heart monitors you only really see on medical dramas. So I was in a hospital? But how did I…?

"Fascinated by the ceiling?" The girl's voice again made me lose my train of thought. My eyes lowered to a slender girl in front of me, a small yet bright smile going across her face as she took off her white nurses' hat, revealing jade green hair cut so short I would have thought she was a boy at first glance. Her bangs slightly obscured her dull yet intriguing blue-green eyes. At first I thought I recognized her. Did I?

She obviously noticed my look of confusion and said with a small giggle, "I guess Dr. Irie-san was right; you probably wouldn't remember me." She took a rolling chair from the other side of the room and brought it over, smoothing her nurse's dress behind her before sitting down. With a small bow of her head, she introduced herself. "I'm Sonozaki Yoko. I work here part-time as an apprentice to Dr. Kyosuke Irie-san. But you can just can me Yoko if you like. You don't have to be too formal with me."

I blinked at her, but finally found the strength to give a small smile back. "Atarashi—"

"Sinyon. I know." Yoko stood and went to the intravenous drip chamber and poured a yellow liquid into it from a test tube. I watched it flow from the bag down into the IV in my arm as she spoke. "I just wanted to know – do you remember anything from the past two weeks?"

"Two weeks?" I said, incredulous. I was in the hospital for two weeks? I remembered the fire, sure, but what was a little fire to two weeks worth of hospital time? "Um." I blinked, trying to reach back into the recesses of my memory. It was all a bit hazy, but the memories were there. I could remember how I kicked and screamed as I was dragged into here, I remembered refusing to eat for a time – boy, I was such a brat! — and I did remember Yoko. She was the only one who had the patience to convince the other nurses that I was just going through PTSD from the disaster. "Yeah, I remember a little."

Yoko finished her work and looked down at me. "You were in a medically-induced coma for that first week. The second week we woke you up and you got a little better about handling yourself, but Irie-san wanted to keep for a little while longer. Probably to check out a little more on the internal bleeding you got from running through the forest all the way here. Irie-san said you could leave today though, so that's good!"

At that time, I could only form one conscious thought: At least I'm alive. "But where is here?"

Yoko smiled again, going over to the window and raising the blinds to reveal a large plain full of trees houses, and children playing outside. The sunlight glinted off her green hair as she said, "Welcome to Hinamizawa."


~Friday, June 18th, Heisei 22 – Irie Clinic – 6:07 p.m.~

"Oh, Sinyon! Darling, I thought you were going to be in that hospital for who knows how long!"

My mother enveloped me into a large hug the second after I came out the bathroom from changing into my street clothes she'd brought. I tensed slightly from the abruptness of the embrace, but soon I found myself hugging her back. I hadn't realized how much I had missed her. She ran her hands down my ponytailed hair before pulling me back to look into my eyes. Her emerald eyes brimmed with tears and a smile rose on her face. "We've missed you. The new house is set up already, and your room is too – I just couldn't help myself!" She chuckled. "I just know you're going to love it here, Sinyon. Aya's been waiti-"

"Onii-chan!"

My mother stepped away and then I saw Aya, standing by the glass door looking better than ever. Her hair was pulled back into its trademark two ponytails, the sun behind her making it look more red than brown. She ran toward me and crushed me into a hug as well – somewhere behind me I heard our mother giggle.

"You're here! You're really here… and alive… sometimes when I miss you so much, I'd think you were dead… but you're not!"

I sighed. I liked affection, especially from my family, but this was a bit too much. Despite that, I hugged her back anyway. "Yeah, I'm very much alive, Aya."

She stepped back and smiled brightly at me. Aya was fourteen – we were two years apart – but sometimes she acted so much younger. I had to admit, I loved my sister to pieces. I was glad my whole family was alive too – I don't know what I would have done had I been the only survivor of the fire. I grinned back, feeling at right with the world for the first time in two weeks.

"Hey, Aya-chan, Sinyon-san."

I looked over at Yoko, who was hanging up her nurses' outfit by the door. She turned to us and said, "Would you like for me to show you around the village? I mean, we do all have school tomorrow, so I figure you'd want to get a feeling for the aura of Hinamizawa first."

Aya nodded rapidly. "Sure!"

I nodded and glanced back at my mom, who waved us off with her hand. "You two go have fun. I'm going to chat some more with Irie-san." She glanced briefly at Irie's office on the hall behind her, and he peeked his head out the door as if on cue; though his face was lined with age and his brown hair showing signs of gray, he seemed to be much younger than he appeared.

"Feeling alright, Sinyon-san?" He asked kindly.

"Yes, sir. Much better." I nodded at him and made to speak again, but I jolted and turned around when I felt a hand clasp into mine; Aya was bouncing up and down with excitement as she swung my hand back and forth.

"Let's go!" She said happily. I rolled my eyes. I had such a weird little sister.

Yoko smiled, cocking her head to the side slightly. She glanced right at me and said, "You sure, Sinyon? I mean, you just got discharged today and all…"

"I'm fine with it." And I was. Fresh air would do me some good, and it was the heat of the summer now; I liked the hot. I was already sure Hinamizawa would treat me well, though, but a little road trip wouldn't hurt.

Yoko pushed open the door and Aya dragged me on ahead before I even got to pay my respects to my mom and the doctor, and I nearly stumbled over myself when we ran out into the evening sunset. The gravel under my feet as we ran reminded me of my old village; the familiar sound of leaves rustling and children calling "Oni-san, come to where my hands clap!" arose nostalgia in me. Hinamizawa was going to feel just like home, I was sure.

Aya let go of my hand and turned around, smiling at me as she ran. "Come catch me!" She called, speeding up.

"Hey! Aya!" I grunted good-naturedly and took off, hearing Yoko laugh behind me. Despite having only just met her, I knew that if she, Aya, and I could have days like this all the time, then we would become the best of friends.

If only days like this could go on forever…


~Friday, June 18th, Heisei 22 – Atarashi residence – 6:58 p.m.~

I looked out at the waning sunset again briefly before lowering my eyes back to Yoko; she gave Aya a hug before turning and bowing to me.

"Sinyon-san, I hope you had a great time today."

Though it felt a little formal, I bowed back. "Thank you, Yoko-san." There was so much in Hinamizawa she'd shown us – the junkyard, the school, her house, Furude Shrine, even the path where she and some of her friends walked home from school every day – I couldn't even begin to sort out how many places we'd seen. My favorite was the bridge over the water – Aya, however fell in love with the junkyard, which I found odd. And Yoko had told me that this village only had a little over two-thousand people, which was hard to believe, since the village was quite big, in my opinion. But apparently it wasn't extremely large, since everybody knew everybody. I doubted it.

I rose and watched Yoko walk down the path from our house, waving all the while. "See you tomorrow!" She called. "I'll be waiting at eight o'clock to walk with you guys to school! I'll tell you a whole bunch more about our village too!"

Aya smiled, shouting back. "Bye-bye!"

I waved to Yoko, a smile creeping over my face. Today was great, and I hoped tomorrow was to be better. In mean, it was school. New people, new teachers, new academics – but the school was small, only thirty people, so it wouldn't be too bad…

I heard the door slam behind me, signaling that Aya had went in. I stayed out, feeling the warm summer wind blow across my bare arms and whip my ponytail back and forth. So, except for the fact that I was in a drug-induced coma for a week, nothing had changed. Village life seemed to be the same as before– rural and happy, just like I was used to. The cry of the higurashi cicadas filled my ears and I closed my eyes, enjoying this summer day – though I was sure there would be more like it. After all, the month wasn't over yet.

And I planned on making this June of Heisei 22 the best June I could ever imagine.


A few notes:

(1) Heisei 22 is the Japanese name for the year 2010.

(2) Okaa-san means mother/mom.

I hope you enjoyed the prologue! Next chapter is when we meet all of the next-generation Hinamizawa kids and when we get to see a bit more of who Yoko is~

Reviews are appreciated!

~Lukia