A Mystery of Light and Dark

Disclaimer

I do not own Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni. It is a product of 07th Expansion, Studion Deen, and Geneon Entertainment. That's a mouthful.

Shawn's an American so him speaking in english will be in bold.

Chapter 3 The New Student

It was early in the morning when Shion, Rika, Satoko, and Hanyuu awakened. Upon looking around they saw there was food on the table that had been prepared and smelled quite good. As they look around they saw Shawn was gone but noticed there was a note pinned to the wall.

"Hey where's Shawn?" asked Satoko.

"I don't know but he left a note." Shion said pulling it to read it out loud.

Dear um, uh. Dear everyone,

Sorry about being rude bt it takes me a little while to learn the names of people I've just met. Anyway I left early because there's something I figured I should do so I woke up early. I've prepared breakfast and some bento for all of you. I hope you enjoy it. By the Minori no Kami no Shoujo I left a school uniform from my previous school since I figured you probably didn't have clothes to change into. I'll see you later.

Shawn.

"Well looks like Shawn had something to do." Shion said. According to this he left some bento for us as well as breakfast." she said.

A few hours later the four headed to school to school with Shion wearing the uniform Shawn had left for her which consisted of a plaid green skirt which had yellow lines, a white long sleeve shirt, and a green jacket. Although it was different she did like it. She also wore it with the jacket open.

"That looks good on you." Satoko said.

"Really?"

"Nano desu." Rika said. A short walk later they met up with their friends. Keiichi, Rena, and Mion couldn't help but notice the uniform Shion was wearing.

"Where did you get that?" Mion asked.

"It was a gift." Shion replied. Once they got to school they hung out like every other day before the sensei entered.

"Well hello class. It seems that today we have a new student transfering in from America." Chie-sensei said excited. Upon hearing this everyone around the room started talking. "Come on in." The student in question was wearing a uniform with brown slacks, a white dress shirt with a red tie, and a green jacket which resembled the one that Shion wore. As soon as they saw him Rena's and Keiichi's eyes widened.

"Hajime mashite. I'm Shawn Garrett desu. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu." he said with a slight bow.

"Now I'm sure you all have questions for him so I'll give you a few minutes to get to know him." Chie-sensei said. After sitting down Shawn's desk was swarmed.

"So what's America like?" asked one kid.

"It's not bad but there's always both good things and bad things like any other." Shawn replied.

"What's your favorite food?" another asked.

"I can eat just about anything except spicy food because of a chemical reaction it has in my body." Shawn replied.

"What do you do for fun?" a third kid asked.

"I do a lot of things. I practice martial arts, I play the violin and the guitar, I cook, and I do illusions to name a few." Shawn replied.

"Like magic?" asked the same kid.

"Pretty much."

"Can you show us a trick then?" asked a young girl.

"Sure. Does anyone have a deck of cards?" Shawn asked.

"Oh hear you go." Mion said handing Shawn the deck they used to play.

"Thanks." Shawn said as he started shuffling the deck before extending the deck to Mion. "Alright now pick a card and show it to the others." Mion did as instructed expecting what she believed what the trick was. "Alright now I just shuffle and..." he said as he shuffled the deck before he approached the window and threw it at the window causing all but one card to fall. The card that hadn't fallen seemed to be stuck to the window. "Is this your card?" he asked pointing to the King of Spades.

"Yeah it is." Mion said surprised.

"Why don't you try to get it." Shawn suggested. Unsure Mion went to the window and tried to get the card but found the card was actually on the other side of the window. (Guess where I got this from.)

"How did you do that?" Mion asked.

"That's something I can't reveal." Shawn replied with a smile.

"So where are you living?" asked Mion.

"Actually Rika, Hanyuu, and Satoko are letting me stay with them." Shawn said. "In exchange for doing some jobs around the house."

"He kept insisting." Satoko said with a smile. "By the way breakfast was really good."

"Arigatou gosaimas." Shawn said with a smile.

"So did you give Shion that uniform?" Mion asked pointing at the jacket Shion was wearing.

"Well she wound up staying there late and I figured she didn't have extra clothes so I left her a uniform from the academy I went to. I usually carry a few spares for both genders in various sizes just in case." Shawn replied. "That's one of the reasons I left early in the morning. I had lost the briefcase I kept them in within the forrest." he explained.

"Do you play any sports?" asked Keiichi.

"Yeah. I play anything from Football, Tennis, Soccer, and Basketball. I also practice Archery and Fencing among other things." Shawn replied.

Once class Shawn seemed to understand everything very well. At lunch Shion, Rika, Satoko, and Hanyuu went to Shawn's desk.

"Hey you wanna eat lunch with us?" Shion asked.

"I..." Suddenly Shawn heard something that sound like coins hitting each other. "Actually I have something to do right now." he said with a small smile. "I'll be back as soon as I can." Shawn said walking out the door. Hanyuu and Rika looked at each other before slipping out of the classroom to follow him. What they didn't notice was that Satoko noticed them and followed them along with Shion.

As Shawn ran to the village he couldn't hep but wonder how this creature could be there. Once he saw several people running he figured out where to go. As Rika and Hanyuu followed Hanyuu told Rika about them being followed.

"Damn I hope it's not too..." Shawn began until he saw a large monster with a spider's body for legs, and a mantis body with six addition scythes for arms. "Oh God ******* Dammit!" he cursed. "Well I suppose there's no point in waiting around." he said as a flame lit up in his right hand.

"Inferno Blaze!" he called out closing his fist which caused the fire to engulf his body before he waved his right arm causing the flames to disappear. Upon seeing this Rika, Hanyuu, Satoko, and Shion looked in shock.

"I hope I can take this thing out without being able to access my rider powers." Inferno said to himself as he drew his sword. "Well then let's rock and wreck!" he called out charging at the large creature as large red feathered wings sprouted from his back allowing him to take flight.

"What was that?" asked Satoko.

"I don't know." Shion replied amazed as the teen started slashing at the creature. He wasn't doing too much damage but coins seemed to be falling out with each hit.

"Do you know what that thing is Hanyuu?" Rika asked.

"No. I've never seen something like that before." she replied.

"Damn this sucker doesn't wanna go down." Inferno said to himself as he dodged hit after hit from the monster's scythes. Suddenly he heard something behind some tree which caused his eyes to widen as the monster used its scythes to send a wave of wind to there. Seeing this the four girls froze. As it went Inferno cursed his luck and flew in front of them and placed his wings in front of him as shields. As the wind slash him sever wounds started opening. The girls were too shocked to actually move until a bright flash of light snapped them out of it. Upon opening their eyes they saw the same warrior floating in front of them wearing a red and gold armor with his sword becoming about four times bigger with a handle that was red and gold which extended with the handle the extended to about an eighth of the blade on the left side of the blade.

"Knight of the Phoenix." Inferno said holding his sword over his shoulder. "I should've asked Ankh ot teach me how to sense these things better." he said sighing. "Well then I should probably end this before someone gets seriously hurt." he said as his pupils became cat like and the white part became covered in black. Then the lines formed on the sword before it changed into a bow with an arrow on it. "Now then..." he said as a dark red aura surrounded his body. "Eat This!" he said firing the arrow at the creature. The monster then tried to block it with one of its scythes which caused the arrow to shatter into several smaller arrows. "Dakishimete eien no moegara." he said as the smaller arrows pierced throught the monster's scythes. As the monster howled in pain Inferno focused his energy into his wings before he started spinning rapidly and peirced through the monster with his sword. "Scanning charge." he said before the creature exploded into several large silver coins which started falling. Then his right hand started glowing in white before he waved it causing the coins to disappear. Afterwards he started walking towards the girls who were still staring at him. "I don't suppose any of you are willing to go with a hallucination story, are you?" he asked in a nervous tone. Rika and Hanyuu smiled the fact that he could be making a joke while Shion and Satoko stared at him dumbfounded. "Well in any case..." he began before returning to normal. "...we should head back to school." On the way back Satoko and Shion stared at Shawn from behind still wondering. "If there's anything you want to ask you might as well ask me now."

"How did..." Shion began.

"I know you were staring at me?" Shawn finished. "It's not hard to tell."

"What was that thing?" asked Shion.

"It's called a Yummy." Shawn said.

"Yummy? What kind of stupid name is that?" Satoko asked.

"I didn't name them." Shawn said.

"Yummy?" Hanyuu repeated.

"Yes, that thing was a human's greed personified." he said.

"Wait so how does someone's greed turn into that?" Shion asked.

"Well they usually feed on whatever their origin's desire is." Shawn explained. "A good example would be someone who is absolutely obsessed with anime. If that person's greed is let out then the monster will go after nothing anime related things. In which case they'll probably consume those things. That will allow them to grow. The more of what their origins obsession is they consume the bigger they get until they become like the big one I had to fight."

"I see." Rika said. "But how do those thing gain their own form?"

"Greed." Shawn replied.

"Yes you already said that those things were people's greed but what..." Shion began.

"No. What I mean is that a Greed needs to go up to a person to unleash the person's greed." Shawn explained. "I don't know how many of them there are but I know five of them. Mezul, Uva, Cazali, and Gameru."

"Wait but that's only four." Satoko said.

"Yes. They are what you might call the bad guys." Shawn replied. "The fifth Greed doesn't have his full form yet. His name is Ankh."

"So that Ankh is supposed to be a good guy?" asked Satoko.

"More or less." Shawn replied. "He just wants to collect cell medals like the ones you saw fall when I took out that Yummy. I'm not entirely sure what or if they serve a purpose other than making cell medals though." Once they got back to school Keiichi, Rena, and Mion started questioning the five. After class the Hinamizawa Gaming Club met to do their usual business when the door opened.

"Hey Shawn what's up?" asked Keiichi.

"Well I figured I might as well ask if I could join your club." Shawn said with a shrug. "So can I join?"

"Well that's quite bold." Mion said with a smirk. "Alright then we'll start you with an easy game. We'll play Old Geezer!" she declared pulling out the deck Shawn use earlier. "I should warn you that these cards are worn out from constant use so we can tell what card is which by the back."

"I've had worse." Shawn said. "Besides it should be fun learning to play a new game." he said moving a chair.

"You've never played Old Geezer?" asked Rika.

"Never even heard of it." Shawn shrugged. Upon hearing this Keiichi's eyes lightened up.

'Finally I'll get the chance to deal the punishment game.' he thought excited. Unknown to him Shawn had actually listened to his thoughts. (Shawn can listen to people's thoughts as an alternative to get information. This however only works for things thought of in the moments so he can't listen to someone's inner most thoughts.)

'We'll see about that.' he thought to himself. As they started. As they started playing Shawn started smiling when Mion tried to take one of his cards but saw it wasn't what she suspected.

"No way!" Mion said surprised.

"What's wrong Onee?" Shion asked.

"This isn't possible." Mion said shocked. Everyone thought the card she took from Shawn was the seven of hearts but when she turned it everyone saw it was the three of clovers. Shawn simply smiled.

"As a friend of mine once said: "Sometimes that which we believe we know is in fact that which will play tricks on us."" Shawn quoted.

'So you used your magic to scramble the marks on the cards when you did that trick.' a female's voice said to him before she appeared in a transparent form. She was revealed to be wearing a blue and pink outfit with a long matching hat, had long blond hair, green eyes, matching boots, and a staff. Rika and Hanyuu's eyes widened as they saw this girl whom no one else seemed to have noticed. 'So does that mean you know what cards are which?'

'Of course not. If I did then what would be the fun in playing.' he replied mentally. The girl noticed Rika and Hanyuu were staring at her and smiled at them. "Hi it's nice to meet you." she said floating in the middle of the table. "You can call me DMG." she said. The two looked at each other a little confused before looking back at her and smiling. They waved because no one else seemed to be able to see her. After about forty five minutes of playing Rena, Rika, Shion, and Hanyuu were out. Shawn had two cards left, Mion had one, Keiichi had four, and Satoko had two. On his turn Shawn took a four from Keiichi and tossed his four of hearts down. Needless to say, after another ten minutes Keiichi lost and was forced to wear with an addition Shawn made of having him wear a purse with the maid outfit.

"I can't believe this." Keiichi fumed as he reentered the classroom wearing what humilated him most.

"It looks quite good on you Keiichi-san." Satoko said with a confident smile.

"Shut up." Keiichi said angrily. As everyone laughed Shawn walked to the door of the class before turning to them with a serious expression.

"If might have your attention there's something I need to tell all of you." Shawn said. Everyone looked at him and he explained everything he could simplify. About what he was, his abilities in both his human and vampire halves, about the Greed and Yummies, Fangires, other Kaijin, and about what he fought. After explaining everyone looked at him taking in the information they had just been given.

"So you're half human and you've fought monsters traveling from world to world." Mion summerized.

"In essence but could you not just say "monsters" so casually. I have some friends who are Youkai." Shawn said. "I also have something to give of you in case you're ever in trouble." he said pulling out a few green and silver striped cans that were about the size of a Red Bull can before passing one to each of them.

"Thanks for the drink but I'm not thirsty." Mion said.

"They're not drinks." Shawn said holding the can on the palm of his hand before pulling the pin on it. This caused the can to turn into a grasshopper. Everyone looked at him in awe. Rena just got her usual 'I gotta take it home' look before pulling the pin as did everyone else allowing all of them to turn into grasshoppers that started jumping around the room. "Alright now if you're ever in trouble these little guys work as communicators so you can call me." he said snapping his fingers which merited all the grasshoppers to jump onto the shoulders of each one of them. "Like I said just carry them with you anywhere you go so you can contact me if you're ever in danger." he said. On the way home they just asked him typical vampire quiestions which ranged from "Can you fly?" to "What's it like being half human?" until they had to split and head to their own individual homes.

"By they thanks for the grasshopper can things." Mion said a little uncertain of what exactly to call them.

"No problem." Shawn said before they all parted ways. Once they arrived home Shawn figured he should start cooking dinner while the girls did their homework. As he started chopping some vegetables Satoko entered.

"Is something wrong Houjou-san?" Shawn asked her.

"Could you just call me Satoko?"

"Hai Satoko-chan." Shawn replied. "Now what do you need?"

"I wanted to see if you wanted help making dinner." Satoko said.

"Sure just get started chopping the vegetables while I drain the meat and get the seasoning." Shawn instructed.

"Hai." Satoko said excited.

"How long have you had the meat boiling for?" Satoko asked.

"A few hours at an extremely low heat in order for the meat to be be nice and soft." Shawn replied.

"By the way I wanted to ask do your parents know you travel around so much?" Upon hearing this question Shawn dropped the spoon he was using to check the broth. When she heard this Satoko froze as Rika and Hanyuu watch from the entrance. Satoko slowly turned to see that tears started falling from Shawn's eyes.

"My parents died." Shawn said.

"I'm sorry. Both Rika and I know what that's like." Satoko said trying to make Shawn feel better.

"No you don't." Shawn said. Hearing this caused Rika to be a little outraged and she went in with Hanyuu. As she was about to say something Shawn continued. "My parents were killed by my uncle when I was five. He used a paralysis spell to keep them from moving as Nii-san and I escaped out the back before his men made our house explode." When they heard this the eyes of all three widened. "After that Nii-san and I started traveling around in order to find a place to truly live. Two years of searching took us to San Francisco where he gave me a card in order to find the man who was going to become my master. As I ran I heard an explosion in the place where I had started running from." he finished explaining. The three girls just stared at him unsure of what to say.

"But I'm sure they have watched over you." Hanyuu said trying to comfort the teen.

"I know." Shawn said with a smile before turning to the three girls. "That's why I try to live life to the fullest and protect people. I know that if a person dies the real victim is that person's friends and family. I fight so that no one has to know the pain I've felt for almost ten years. This pain is what pushes me to fight and become stronger." he said wiping his tears. "Now then why don't we finish making dinner before the meat is overboiled." he said with a smile. After about an hour and a half the stew was ready and Shawn served everyone a bowl. As he placed the bowls in front of each one of the girls he noticed how Satoko seemed to be staring at her's. "Satoko-chan what wrong?"

"Satoko doesn't like Kabocha." Rika explained as Satoko made a bit of a face.

"I figured that you might not like some of the veggies I put in it so I added a special seasoning to change the taste of them. Go ahead try it." Shawn said. Uncertain she tried some and found that she actually liked it.

"Wow this is tasty. What did you put in it?" Satoko said.

"That's my little secret." Shawn said winking at the three. After eating Shawn helped the girls with their homework before they went to bed. Rika and Hanyuu were outside with Rika drinking a glass of wine while talking to Hanyuu about what they had seen. At the same time Shawn was standing on the roof of the house looking to the village. As he looked he pulled up his left sleeve allowing a machine to appear on his forearm before he pressed a button which allowed it to open.

"Phillíp." he said into the machine.

"Ahh. Who's this?" a voice asked from the machine.

"It's Shawn."

"Oh. What can I do for you?" Phillíp asked.

"I wanted to know something. You told me the gaia library hold all the information and memories on earth but does that mean you can access the information in the other earths?"

"I'm not sure. I've never tried it." Phillíp replied. "Why?"

"I need you to do a search." Shawn replied.

"Very well." Phillíp said.

"Keywords: Houjou, Hinamizawa, and Nightstalker." Shawn said.

"There are still many books." Phillíp said.

"Try Dam Construction."

"I've found something. It seems that there was a man who was quite it seems that he left the village of Hinamizawa after his wife was murdered." Phillíp explained. "It seems he was returning but was killed in the middle of the night. However according to this it says that he made some sort of deal to become something called a bangling."

"So it wasn't my imagination." Shawn said seriously.

"There's something else you should know." Phillíp said. When he heard what Phillíp told him his widened.

"Are you sure?" Shawn asked.

"I'm afraid so."

"Thanks and say hi to Shoutaro and Officer Terui."

"I will."

"Damn. Looks like I'm gonna have to keep a close eye on her." Shawn said to himself.

Meanwhile in the front of the house.

"This isn't good Au Au." Hanyuu said worried.

"Yes. Whatever these creatures intend to do looks like there will be trouble ahead." Rika said in her adult voice.

"As a good friend of mine once said To worry constructs a path but to follow it with it's own accord proves whether or not you have the courage to make the journey." Shawn quoted. "Unfortunetly there's no way to stop Yummies from being created but I can sense them well enough." he said pulling out a green and silver can. "For now I have to fight them here and if you find one or are attacked by one I want you to use the Batta candroid I gave you to contact me." he said as he walked close to the two girls before hugging both of them. This caught the two by surprise and caused them to blush at the embrace they were now in. "Just promise me that if you see any type of kaijin you won't try to fight it or take it out." he said as his voice started to crack and some tears fell from his eyes. "As a child I couldn't help protect my parents or my brother. That is something that has filled me with guilt for a long time but now that I have power I use it to protect." he said hugging them a little harder before letting them go. "Please promise me."

"Okay, we promise." Rika said.

"So you really don't sleep?" Hanyuu asked curiously.

"No. I usually just watch how peaceful a place is during the night. It gives me the chance to figure certain things out." Shawn said looking at the moon. "Plus it gives me the chance to remember my family." he said with a sad smile as he looked up. "I don't know where they are but I've seen how the moon is the same in every world so I look to it in order to remember them." he said before looking at the two. "Anyway you two should go to sleep it's getting late." he said with a smile.

'Although he's felt tragedy he continues to fight. Whatever those creatures maybe I feel as though I have a brother. I guess this is what Satoko must have felt with Satoshi around.' Rika thought blissfully.


Well that's how it continues. If you've guessed the answer to the question in chapter 2 then send it in. Though this isn't a contest I'll tell you if you right or not. Other than that send in any questions you might have about the story. I get I tend to mix things that don't make a lot of sense because of either my explainations or the face that I sometimes forget to actually explain things. Later!