Chapter 20: Old Man Hiroaki

Keiichi and the three older men hopped into Tony's very expensive looking, black finish Benz after loading the car with a small blue cooler that separated Keiichi from Eric in the back seat while Akasaka sat in the passenger seat next to Tony who was driving the car. Keiichi decided he'd show Eric Ryuu's the letter now.

He glanced at it briefly with disinterest. "Well, can't say I'm surprised," he said as Tony was pulling out of the school grounds, "But this does raise a few interesting questions."

Tony glanced at him through the rear view mirror. "Like?"

"Like: how did Ryuu manage to escape from the asylum?"

"I found a pocket knife sealed in one of the letters," Keiichi informed, shivering a bit as he recalled the bloody scent it had given off, "It was covered in blood."

"That's interesting. Was it attached to this letter?" queried Eric.

"Yeah, the paper was wrapped around it like wrapping paper or something so I'm guessing the guy writing the letters gave him the knife."

"Probably," agreed Eric, "I'm guessing you don't know who wrote them though."

"I know his name- it was on the bottom of every letter. It's Masato. Have you ever heard of him?"

Eric shook his head. "Can't say that I have."

"In most of his letters he seemed pretty friendly," continued Keiichi, "He would ask Ryuu how he was and stuff like that but the last few of them were weird. He still acted friendly but he started preaching violence to him and stuff. Told him it was the only way to get out of the asylum."

Akasaka twisted his waist around in his seat to face the two of them. "Yeah, but there's still the question of how he was able to kill four-hundred people. That's just not humanly possible."

Eric's mouth cracked into a thin smile. "Well then the only conclusion is, we're dealing with someone who isn't entirely human…"

"What you mean Ryuu?" Keiichi said with a disbelieving chuckle, "Do you think he's an alien or something like that?"

"Well no. I don't believe you're an alien and since the two of you are twins that means neither of you can be aliens," he said bluntly.

Keiichi stiffened. That wasn't the kind of answer he was expecting at all.

"No… something happened to your brother in that asylum," Eric said in a thoughtful tone, "…Something that changed him completely."

Tony made a low whistling noise and looked at Eric with a disbelieving look in his eye. "God damn conspirator," he scoffed in his mousey voice, "If you're serious about this Eric than can we please remain practical? We're dealing with a psychopath not the antichrist."

"I never said he was the antichrist," chided Eric, "But he isn't a normal teenage boy. How else would you explain his miraculous escape from a high-security facility?"

Tony shook his head on an incredulous laugh, staring at Eric through the rear view mirror with an amused expression. "I don't know!" he chortled exasperatedly, "But I'm not going to start jumping to half-assed theories like that! It could have been an inside job or something."

"Why would someone help Ryuu escape from prison and then let him run loose?" Keiichi pointed out skeptically.

"Look, just save all your questions for Dorian," said Tony irritably, "In the meantime, would you please just stay quiet for the next two hours."

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The sun began to set over Hinamizawa as Ryuu sat alone in the junkyard, staring absently at a peculiar piece of junk inside Rena's trailer where he lay. He had come here in hopes of finding her scavenging for more garbage or maybe just sitting inside the trailer. But alas, he was quite alone inside the trailer's confines with nothing but a lone cicada to keep him company. In his hand were the incriminating letters Keiichi had stumbled upon and no doubt had already read.

Keiichi had not come home today… and Ryuu thought he knew why. He had run away from him. He was scared of him just like everybody else in the world. When he had returned to the village two months ago he had received nothing but terrified looks from other villagers he met on the road. Perhaps those were the villagers who recognized him and remembered what he had done. If so, they had a right to fear him. He had after all killed over twenty people in one day and butchered one innocent young girl.

He could hardly remember what had happened, he had tried so hard to forget and he found himself suddenly envying Mion's stroke of luck in losing all memory of that horrid day. He had gone to see a movie with Mion and one of their other friends, a young girl whose name he couldn't remember. She one of Mion's few friends. She didn't have many back then since her grandmother spent most of her time keeping her shut up in her house, training her to be the perfect Japanese woman.

What movie was it again? He couldn't remember the name; all he could remember was that it had been a terrifying one. That's why he had killed all those people. He was scared. The movie made him feel threatened. He could remember the voice in his head commanding him to kill everything that moved. He remembered the voice telling him the people sitting in the seats around him were out to get him. He did what he thought he had to to stay alive.

He could hear their tormented screams bounce off the walls of his memory. Echoing in his head in one shrill chorus of dying shouts. But loudest of all were Mion's pleas for mercy.

"Stop it!"

"You're hurting her!"

"You're hurting me!"

The 'her' she had spoken of was that young girl, her only friend aside from Ryuu. He had killed her too just before he slashed Mion's back open. He felt something warm and wet splash on his forearm, waking him from his memories.

He soon realized the streams of hot tears rolling down his cheeks and cascading down onto him. He wiped his eyes, snuffling as he tried to keep himself from crying out in anguish from what he'd done. Now that Keiichi had seen those letters, he knew it was only a matter of time before he told Mion about them which would surely jog her memory a bit, causing her to remember what Ryuu did.

Suddenly, he heard a soft voice call to him from out of his surroundings, causing his heart to skip a beat. "Ru-kun…" Rena said timidly from outside the trailer door, peering in at him while biting her thumb nervously.

He quickly grabbed the letters in his hands and shoved them in his pockets before she caught site of them. He took a deep, shaky breath and wiped his face of tears before speaking to her. "Hey Rena…" he said, trying to mask his trembling voice with a few coughs, "Sorry if I'm intruding or anything."

She smiled at him fondly. "But Rena told Ru-kun he could come and visit Rena's second home whenever he liked." He exchanged her warm look as she stepped into the trailer, dragging along a fresh piece of junk for her "treasure trove". "What do you got there?" he asked, trying to take his mind off of his painful memories.

"I don't know," she said proudly, holding up her latest treasure which looked like a lot like an iron lampshade, "But isn't it the cutest?!"

Ryuu laughed half-heartedly. "If you think so," he agreed with a forced smile. Rena's warm and cheerful face faltered when she saw Ryuu's troubled look.

"Ru-kun… what's wrong?" she asked in a caring tone as she neared him, looking down on his sad face.

"Nothing," he lied, trying to avoid her compassionate gaze. The warmness and softness of her eyes made him feel like he could tell her anything. He wanted to tell her exactly what he did, just to get it off his chest. But he couldn't.

Rena regarded him with suspicion. "When people say nothing, they really mean something. Don't they Ru-kun? Don't they?"

"Well, how should I know?" he asked, a little more angrily than he intended, causing her to recoil at the harshness of his voice.

She bit her thumb nervously again and looked away sadly. "If I'm bothering you Ru-kun, I'll leave," she said apologetically.

Ryuu shook his head. "No. It's not that. I'm just thinking about something that's been bugging me for… for a long time."

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked with sincerity, making herself comfortable next to Ryuu.

"Well you see… have you ever done something kind of bad that nobody found out about?"

Rena paused a moment before answering with a thoughtful look on her face. "Uhhh… yeah!" she exclaimed in an almost proud fashion, "I've uh… took home Mii-chan's stuffed dolphin toy home once without asking and she still doesn't know it was me. Does that count?"

"Well… I meant something really bad…" Ryuu said, trying to think of an example other than "murder" so she wouldn't start getting suspicious, "like… stealing a lot of money or… beating somebody up real bad."

"I don't think so…" she said honestly.

"Well… I've done bad stuff like that…" he confessed, avoiding her eyes, afraid to see her reaction, "Worse stuff actually."

"Like what, Ru-kun?" she queried curiously.

Ryuu still didn't meet her gaze. "I can't tell you…" he said miserably.

"Why not?"

"B-because you'd hate me if I did."

"No I wouldn't," she stated simply, as if that were the most obvious thing in the world.

"You don't even know what it is I did yet," he chided.

"I don't have to," she said, "I like Ru-kun no matter what. Ru-kun's special to Rena."

That last sentence was enough to get him to look at her. He came face to face with her honest looking eyes and her comforting smile, suddenly making him aware of the red hot blush that was glowing under his eyes. "Are you sure you want to know?" he asked slowly.

She nodded to him and eagerly awaited his answer.

"Okay…" he took a deep, trembling breath, still not feeling sure about this, "I did a really bad thing. I k-k-k-killed a lot of people." He winced, half expecting her to run away at this point. But to his surprise she was still sitting next to him, her smile now gone but her eyes still held their compassionate look. "I killed over four hundred…" he continued, now feeling a bit more comfortable, "and I feel really bad about it. The first time I… I was just scared. I felt trapped and cornered and I had to do something even though now I know the people I- I hurt never meant me any harm. The second time I did it to escape from a really bad place. A place where I got hurt almost every day by bad people… But some of them were actually nice to me. I killed them too though. I can't even remember most of it… it was all a blur. It's not that I liked killing. I hate it! It's just whenever I feel scared it's the only thing my brain knows how to do!" His voice started rising. "And not only that! I did terrible things to Mion too! I hurt her really bad! I hurt her so bad she had to go to a psychiatrist for two whole years until one day she forgot all about me!" he grabbed a fistful of his hair and began pulling on it until it was in danger of being yanked from his scalp, "And now I think Keiichi knows and he ran away! He still hasn't come home after his meeting with Akira-sensei! I don't know what to do! My brain is telling me to… to do bad things again and I don't know what to do!"

There was a shot silence. Ryuu sat there with his eyes shut tight, just waiting for Rena to hit him or leave him like she should. He was dangerous and she knew that now. But… he heard no noise but the always relaxing cries of the cicadas. He couldn't hear Rena make any move to get up or hit him at all. Slowly he opened his eyes and saw Rena still staring at him, her eyes still full of the fondness and care for Ryuu they usually had.

"Are you sorry?" she asked after she and Ryuu sat in silence for a moment.

"Of course I am!" he exclaimed.

"Then why are you worried about it?" she asked, "You're sorry and that's all that matters."

"It's not that easy!" he argued, "These people are dead! They don't know that I'm sorry!"

"But you do," she pointed out, "Ru-kun knows what he did was a no-no and he'll never do it again. Right?"

He didn't know how to respond to her. How could she be so calm right now? She was sitting in an enclosed space with possibly the biggest mass murderer of all time and she didn't seem to care.

The sun began to set around them, casting a radiant orange glow as its bright light shone in from the trailer window and illuminated Rena's outline. She looked like an angel right now… and she had the heart to match.

"You really are a remarkable girl, Rena," he said, his voice trembling as he fought back tears of joy.

______________________________________________________________________________

Akasaka sighed in relief when he saw his destination coming up on the rough dirt trail that the three men and Keiichi had been hiking on for the past hour or so after parking the car a mile down the hill they were standing on now. He saw a traditional-styled Japanese gateway that was surrounded by a bunch of barren peach trees at the very top of the hill.

"Oh my God, yes!" he exclaimed exuberantly, raising his hands in the air in victorious praise, "At last! You guys! I can see it at the top of the hill!" He turned around and saw his other three traveling companions practically climbing up the hill with their tongues dangling numbly from their open mouths, panting like dogs left to lie out under the sun.

But when they heard his good news they immediately began clambering over one another to reach the top of the hill to where Akasaka was standing proudly. "You guys really need to run more," he chided as they ran past him to the gateway, "I hardly broke a sweat."

Tony rolled his eyes at him irritably. "Oh! Forgive us oh great one!" he begged melodramatically, "We are not worthy to stand in your mighty presence. Please forgive us and our puny little muscles, your manliness!"

Keiichi made an odd chocking sound, earning him a few concerned looks from his companions. "I'm trying to laugh but my lungs won't let me," he explained as he slowly trudged up the hill, leaning on his walking stick for support. "I wish you had told me this guy lives on top of friggin' Mount Fuji! I would never have agreed to come with you if I knew that."

"Oh, stop being a little baby girl," chided Akasaka, "This is nothing compared to the real Mount Fuji. You guys have only walked up like a mile."

"Oh! Only a mile?!" exclaimed Eric in half laughter, "Only a mile… uphill?"

"Sh!" silenced Tony, still panting heavily, "We're here."

They finally crossed under the gateway, discovering that it led into a large stone courtyard that was completely surrounded by a thick barrier of barren peach trees. In the center of the courtyard was a lone peach tree standing separate from the others, also bare of its normally colorful pink leaves. And at the far end of the courtyard was a traditional Japanese style house with a simple patio in the front that sat in the shade of the green roof.

Keiichi's jaw dropped in amazement. Even now, in the middle of winter, this place looked absolutely beautiful. He could only imagine how breathtaking it must look when the peach trees were in full bloom.

"Are you sure we have the right place?" Eric asked in an astonished whisper.

Tony looked just as awestruck as the others. "I think so…"

Keiichi began walking forward absently, his eyes darting in all directions as he took in the beauty of the courtyard. As he approached the peach tree in the courtyard's center, he heard a relaxing gurgling sound, like rushing water washing down a rock. He soon discovered the source of the noise, a little pond that was hiding in the cover of the trees above it towards the edge of the courtyard. He glanced back at the older men who were currently arguing amongst themselves if they were sure this was the right place or not, the three of them crowded around a large traveling map with meticulous looks on their faces.

He decided there'd be no harm in taking a closer look at the pond. He stepped closer to it, quickly glancing at a small stone statue of Buddha that reflected in the water's surface. He looked into the waters and saw a pair of Koi-fish swimming about in the water.

Crack!

Keiichi heard the sound of a breaking twig, followed by something that sounded a lot like a silencing "Shhhhh!" coming from the trees around him. There was a rustling of leaves despite the lack of wind and Keiichi could have sworn he saw movement coming from beyond the trees.

He slowly retreated back to where his companions were still hovering over their map, arguing in hushed tones. "Hey… guys," he whispered urgently, lightly tapping Eric on the shoulder to grab his attention, "I think there's someone else here…"

"Well we figured that," retorted Tony sourly.

Akasaka's eyes suddenly became very acute and he made a silencing gesture with his hand. "Wait," he hissed, "...listen…"

Once the four of them had fallen silent the world around them became much louder, including the occasional sound of a breaking twig or of rustling leaves.

"Do you hear that?" whispered Akasaka.

"Probably just some squirrel," reasoned Tony, not sounding very confident about his explanation himself, "Just don't worry about—"

Zip!

Something just zipped right past Tony's right ear, missing his skin by less than a centimeter. That something was a wooden arrow. And it wasn't the last of them. Another one just like it flew right under Keiichi's arm from a completely different direction than its predecessor.

"Holy hell!" yelped Keiichi as he felt the arrow buzz right by him. "Run! Run!"

The other men didn't hesitate to take his advice. The guns they carried in their jacket pockets were useless when they couldn't see their enemy. Another arrow brushed past Eric's inner thigh, causing him to leap into the air in shock.

"Don't move!" bellowed a very forceful voice echoing from somewhere inside the trees. Suddenly, about six or seven men in dirty brown and gray kimonos and sheathed katanas slung around their waists emerged from the forest with their bows strung in their hands, ready to fire.

The four of them froze where they stood as they were ordered.

"Hands on your head," ordered one of the men, an older man with a shaved wrinkled old head and a wispy silver moustache that drooped down from above either sides of his mouth. He had fierce, youthful looking black eyes that made him look about twenty years younger. He was clearly the leader of the bunch considering he was the only one who showed his face, all the other men wore brown linen clothes that wrapped around their heads with a tiny gap in them so they could see.

Keiichi was so busy looking over these oddly dressed men he forgot to comply with the old man's most recent demand.

"Put your hands on your head!" barked the old man once again to Keiichi, pulling back on his bowstring threateningly. Quickly, Keiichi did as he was told, still keeping a wary eye on the men who were enclosing around the four of them.

The old man lowered his bow but his comrades kept theirs aimed readily for each of their heads. He slowly began moving towards Tony, looking at him with his white eyebrows raised skeptically.

"An American…" he observed, prodding Tony's face with the blunt end of his arrow, "What is your business here?"

Tony didn't answer him, he looked so terrified Keiichi thought he may pass out on the floor at any minute.

The old man grew irritated and flipped the bow around in his hand so the pointed end was facing Tony. "I asked you a question!" he bellowed.

Tony seemed to snap awake and immediately unintelligible words and sounds began tumbling out of his mouth. "Well I-I-I just… and I ran… down- I mean up the…"

"And what's this?" interrupted the old man as he felt a heavy lump in Tony's jacket pocket. He removed Tony's gun and looked at it with the utmost loathing. "Ah… so that's how it is…" he said in a dangerously low voice, "You came here to assassinate me haven't you?"

Tony looked at him pleadingly. "Oh! No, no, no, no, no, no!" he sputtered helplessly, "No! I don't even know who you are!"

"Are you telling me you and your friends here go around killing complete strangers!?" exclaimed the old man in outrage, "Have you no honor?!"

Tony seemed to only be making things worse for himself. "No! I meant I didn't come here to kill anybody!"

The old man laughed dubiously as he reached out and swiped Akasaka's pistol from his jacket pocket as well. "Ha! Then tell me why all of you are carrying weapons!"

"It's just for—"

"No!" spat the old man, "I will hear no more of it!" He grabbed a fistful of Tony's black, untidy hair and forced his head to the stone floor, placing his boot on his back while hovering over him with his wrinkled old hands rested on the hilt of his sheathed katana.

Immediately, Keiichi saw what the old man had in mind. "No!" he cried in terror, feeling for his pistol but Eric shook his head at him with a grim face, silently telling him to be still.

Tony whimpered as he heard the sound of the old man ripping his glistening silver katana from its sheath, poising himself to swing down the blade on Tony's neck. The sun was just beginning to disappear behind the horizon, plunging the courtyard into a deep blood red. Keiichi watched with baited breath as the old man raised the katana high in the air and Tony seemed to be praying helplessly in his last moments of life.

There was the sound of the blade cutting the wind as he swung down his sword downward on Tony's exposed throat. Much to his surprise however, the blade stopped only a hair's breadth away from Tony's skin.

A wicked old smile appeared on the old man's wrinkled face as bent forward to meet Tony's terrified eyes, his boot still pressed firmly on Tony's back.

When the old man spoke again, it was in a much friendlier tone. "Gotcha'!"

Tony's eyes opened wide, as if he were just now realizing where he was. "Dorian…" he whispered in amazement, "Dorian Greene?"

"Bout' time you recognized me," he laughed as he sheathed his katana again, "Maybe I should've have cut off your head as punishment for not greeting me properly."

He stooped down and helped Tony stand up. "Oh well, I'm sorry," said Tony, his voice lathered in sarcasm, "I can't really think straight when arrows are zipping by my head and when some old loon has his foot on my back, about to chop of my head with a God Damn katana!"

The sun finally set around them, marking the end of the day and the start of the night.

Keiichi, Eric, and Akasaka all exchanged confused looks.

"I guess I went a little too far but you can't blame an old man for having some fun," he chuckled, "And by the way, my name is no longer Dorian Greene. It's Hiroaki! That's the Japanese name for strength!"

Tony scoffed at him. "Yeah, I'm just gonna call you Dorian," dismissed Tony.

The old man's eyes lit up with a fresh fury as he unsheathed his blade halfway. "It's Hiroaki!" he bellowed.

Tony leaped back in terror. "Okay! Okay! Whatever you say Hiroaki!" he squeaked in his little mousy voice.

Hiroaki sheathed his blade again, pleased by Tony's response. "I'm glad you have learned to show proper respect to your superiors, my old friend," he said with sudden congeniality, "Just for that, I'll let you and your friends come inside my house." He signaled to his men and they lowered their bows obediently. "Come, I'm sure you and your comrades have come here with questions for me."

"What gives you that idea?" asked Akasaka.

Hiroaki shrugged. "I can't think of any other reason why this guy," he motioned to Tony with his thumb, "would spend the past three years tracking me down."

Tony looked at him with wonderment. "How did you know I've been looking for you for that long?" he gasped.

"A friend of mine told me." He motioned to one of his men to approach and he obeyed silently.

Keiichi noticed something slightly familiar about his build.

"You all may reveal yourselves now," said the old man to his companions.

All of the men began undoing the linen cloth strips wrapped around their heads, slowly revealing their identities to them with each unraveling motion. And in addition to that, about a dozen other men began emerging from the trees, unraveling their masks like everyone else. The biggest shock though was when Keiichi noticed the face of the man Hiroaki had summoned.

"Tomitake!" Keiichi exclaimed, pointing to him with his mouth agape. It was in fact Jiro Tomitake standing before him a brow kimono. He suddenly looked a little awkward after revealing his face to them. Akasaka recognized him as well, which took him a while since neither he nor Keiichi had seen Jiro without his usual green hat and glasses, both of which were absent.

Hiroaki smiled at the two of them. "Yes, Jiro-san was taking a walk through the woods when he saw you coming up the hill," he said, "He alerted me first thing and me and a few of my friends hid in the trees and awaited your arrival."

Keiichi shot Tomitake an angry look. "You told him to shoot arrows at us?" he demanded crossly.

Tomitake shook his head with an uncomfortable grin on his face. "Now come on Maebarra-kun, what do you take me for?" he said with his usual chuckle, "Master Hiroaki doesn't like intruders so I had to tell him something."

Tony looked at Hiroaki with a raised eyebrow. "Master? Did he call you Master? What kind of sick place are you running here Dorian?"

"It's Hiroaki!" he corrected, unsheathing his katana halfway again in a threatening manner.

"Sorry! Sorry! Hiroaki!" yelped Tony, scurrying behind Akasaka's massive figure, "Just… what's going on here?"

"We'll have time for questions later," he said, once again sheathing his blade along with his fiery attitude, "We have time for that tomorrow. Tonight is a night of celebration!" He patted Tony on the back roughly with a hearty laugh. "Tonight, you are my guests! If I recall, Tony, I owe you a great deal for stepping in as my decoy for the past decade so as payment for your selfless deed you and your friends may stay as long as they wish."

"Well, we wish to be gone as soon as possible," Tony said irritably, "So if you could please just answer our questions and we'll be out of what's left of your hair."

Hiroaki laughed as he and Tomitake led Tony, Keiichi, Akasaka, and Eric to the front door. "No, but I insist!" he said pleasantly, "Plus, I'm afraid you will not be able to leave for at least another week."

The four of them looked at Hiroaki with astonished looks. "Why the hell not!?" they all exclaimed simultaneously.

Hiroaki's friendly face faltered, becoming suddenly very sullen and grave. "Lanyon," he answered simply, "He's been coming by here a lot lately and I don't think it's a good idea for too many people to be coming up and down the hill so frequently. He'd notice for sure and soon we'd have his men storming the place."

Tony sputtered indignantly. "But—"

"And don't even think of trying to leave before my saying so," Hiroaki interrupted sternly, "You've seen how my friends can work a bow. Don't give them a reason to shoot you."

Tony rolled his eyes at him as they stepped up onto the patio. "Don't flatter yourself. Not a single one of your arrows hit us."

Hiroaki turned to him with a sly smile on his face. "If we had actually been aiming at you, you wouldn't be around to make those snide remarks of yours."

"You weren't aiming for us?" implored Keiichi in amazement.

"No of course not. We were aiming near you," sniggered Hiroaki, "Whenever some hiker or nosey kid comes climbing up that hill we always shoot stray shots like that to scare em' off. It works every time."

"Wouldn't they go tell the police after something like that?" Eric questioned.

The old man simply laughed at his query. "Are you kidding? People these days don't believe anything without seein' it first. No, policemen have never really been a bother for us."

Tony sneered at him while his back was turned. "Whatever. I still say your men are just bad shots."

"Believe what you want, Mr. Gilliam," he said grimly as he unlocked the front door of the house, "I just pray I never have to prove you wrong."

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A/N: I know what you're thinking. "Where's the disclaimer? Where'd it go?" The disclaimer is dead folks. I killed it with my own two hands. I got tired of trying to be clever every time I wrote one so I decided just to stop all together. So just know that I don't own Higurashi and that'll be enough for you.

Anyway, YAAY another OC! I'm sure some of you aren't too pleased about that. Sorry if you think I'm adding too many characters to the story. And I'd like to say that Hiroaki/Dorian is the last one I'll be adding but that'd be a lie. I think there will be one or two MINOR characters added. And don't you worry, I'm not just adding these OC's for my health. They actually have something to do with the story.

Don't forget to leave a comment.