A/N: Written for the Diversity Writing Challenge, j40 – write the backstory of a character whose backstory is not well explored (well, the story's more than that, but it was still a good opportunity to use the prompt), and for the 100 Prompts, up to 100 MCs Challegne, #44 – unprofitable. And it's also my July 2016 Camp NaNo fic!

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Artisan
Prologue

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The others usually showed signs by now. So she knows it was Keiichi's turn again.

There was a pattern. Multiple patterns, and she was working them out one by one until chance and her interventions would give her the perfect board. Right now she had gotten a pretty good spread, and she was optimistic. Keiichi was in Hinamizawa and so was Rena. Sometimes one or the other was missing, or both. The ones where neither arrived were the darkest of them all and she'd learnt to expect nothing from them.

But Rena was in Hinamizawa now and so was Keiichi, and in those worlds she dared to hope, dared to try.

And so that was what she wa going to do. Try.

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The worlds where Keiichi was in Hinamizawa usually ended with him either dead or at the final stage by the time her own infallible death raven arrived. Sometimes it was both, but those were rare and hopeless by then anyway. Filled with regrets, ideas of what she could have done to change the passage of things, things she can try in the next timeline, or the ones after…

This time, her plan was quite simple. No-one was showing signs of Hinamizawa syndrome at the moment, which means most likely Keiichi will develop it after leaving town over the weekend for the funeral.

So all he had to do is not go, and she might be able to avoid one of her close friends being afflicted with the syndrome at all, and she'll have one more piece available to her than in the other worlds.

And once she stoppers that road, she can stopper it in all the worlds to come as well.

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The trouble, as it always did, came with trying to convince people in her ten year old body. It wasn't the first time she'd come up with this plan. Except the first time had involved her turning on her ten year old cuteness charm to full power and attempt to convince Keiichi to convince his parents to let him stay.

Keiichi would humour her, perhaps, and there was no way the magician of words couldn't convince his parents of something he really wanted. But things wouldn't go so smoothly. She knew that without even trying. Keiichi might never asked. Or he would but without the conviction that would really convince them, and they'd smile and shake their heads and say no, and he'd be off for the weekend as in those other worlds, where that parasite ate his sanity and mind. Because what was the harm of a two day trip for those who didn't know about or believe the existence of those parasites in the mind?

And he was eager to leave as well. A breath of fresh air, or the familiarity he didn't quite have in Hinamizawa because he was still so ignorant of it all. And maybe the slow country life had become too plain already. Maybe he just missed the city. Of people he was visiting. Or maybe he was worried about staying at home alone. Or maybe he just didn't believe her. All these reasons why he couldn't muster up the conviction to formulate a convincing argument – an argument she knew he was capable of if only she could light the fire properly under him. But how was she to do that? The simple pleading of a ten year old would never work.

Not that she could blame him, she supposed. At that point, he wasn't even aware that she was the priestess of the Furude shrine, or the head of one of the three great families, and that wasn't something easily remedied. It should have been: all she had to do was tell him, but the need to hide information, to give out only what was necessary and to hold the strings of fate herself got in the way time and time again.

And then it would be too late to do anything about it. Again.

In any case, that wasn't a fix at all. Even if Keiichi knew everything, would it change things? Doctor Irie knew everything. Nurse Takano knew everything. Both of them died in Showa 57 without fail. Just like she died in Showa 57 without fail. Maybe it was because knowing things wasn't enough, if one didn't act. Or maybe they simply could not believe the danger heralded by a ten year old, no matter what backed her.

No, she needed another way. More subtle changes. More controllable changes. Keiichi would learn the truth about Hinamizawa in his own time, or perhaps he wouldn't. That didn't matter. What mattered was saving him.

And if his leaving Hinamizawa, even for a short period of time, was going to cause the newly-fledged parasite in his mind to awaken, then he could not go.

She would have to stop him.

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There weren't many ways for a ten year old to stop a sixteen year old leaving town, much less stop him permanently. In fact, she couldn't think of any way, short of locking him in the Sonozaki's secret cells, that would accomplish that. Temporary was easier, and far more humanitarian. Relatively humanitarian, in any case. Injuring him, making him sick, frightening him – because the begging of a ten year old child would probably go ignored.

Though it would cost her little to try at least once. Except crossing off another attempt on her list.

Doubtful he'd be suspicious. The adorable little ten year old she was came in handy there, where it hindered her elsewhere.

So there was her plan for this world…or the first of them. And here they were. Friday afternoon, just before the club Keiichi would soon announce his absence for… and this his trip into the city and the awakening of that parasite in his mind.

She could stop it. She would stop it. Would that be enough to stop Keiichi becoming a victim of this world? Or the unintentional villain? And what would happen then? She hadn't yet succeeded in saving any of her friends once the parasites reawoke. Not one. Not once.

Hundreds of thousands of possibilities. She would find the ones where her friends were saved. She would find the one where she was saved – and, slowly, eliminate the other, undesirable, futures.

If I save you here, I can save you in every world that follows from here.

And she would. She would.

She'd save herself. And save everyone.

She would. I will.