Night Riding Chapter – Part I

She's going to live.

Sayaka… She's going to live!

She closes her eyes and she sees her hanging there. She opens her eyes and she sees Satoshi Houjou with a shattered bottle in his hand.

Sayaka… This isn't enough.

The scenes flicker again and again, flipping like a light-switch.

On. Takakura Nana's hung corpse.

Off. Satoshi Houjou crumpled on his bed a useless mess.

On. A group of older boys surrounding her.

Off. Those same boys begging for mercy.

On. She's in bed talking to Kacchan.

Off. Playing games with her mother.

That's not right.

Let's try again from the top.

On.

It's June 2013. It's that scorching summer evening. Satoko Houjou has just had sex with her own brother for the first time. Seeing the whole thing, she flees the apartment. Love is all about giving and receiving. It goes two ways. Her neighbors are having sex too. Down the hall, across the street. She can hear it all plainly, and picture it clearly.

Maybe it's the only form of love that really counts. Maybe that's why everything feels wrong, day in and day out. Maybe that's why her mother won't take her. Because she hasn't turned her flesh over to someone else.

The gentle touch of someone's hand brushes against her back.

Off.

She's sitting in her room with the lights off. Manaka Sonozaki is sitting next to her. They're both lying in bed together. This scene – this is where she's supposed to be, she thinks.

Manaka leans against her, resting her head against the back of her neck. She looks at the two of them in the mirror. She doesn't recognize herself right away.

No. Manaka's dead.

"I'm right here." The girl reassures her, running her hands up and down her shoulders. "I'm not going anywhere."

"Promise me."

"I promise."

"Promise me you won't throw your life away."

"I promise."

"You liar."

On.

March 2015. She and Manaka Sonozaki become one. It's her first time. At first they were just practicing. She really wanted her first time to be with her cousin instead. Accompanying that time is a significant amount of pain. But there aren't any regrets. She feels it. She feels whole. That must be it. The only kind of love that really counts. Nothing else means anything. Anything else will crumble into ashes. But this, you could feel over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over -

Four days later, some of the older boys find out that they'd been together. They hold her down in the back of the Hinamizawa bus. The driver does nothing to stop them. They suck. Manaka was a lot better. An altercation ensues. The bus driver yells at her to stop. He gets into an accident. One of the boys collides with the seat in front of him and breaks his neck. The others panic and cry for help. She takes the unconscious bus driver's wallet and leaves.

After that it's with a man that she sees almost everyday, at the bus stop. She runs into him at the end of a long day working in the city. He takes her to a motel, and then every which way. He gives her his phone number. When she calls, his wife picks up. The next time she sees him, he pretends she's not there. Then as the bus approaches, he jumps in front of it before the driver has any time to slow down.

Day in and out. The need, the brief fulfillment. It's just something that everyone needs, something so simple and easy to fulfill. Does it really matter, if it's with someone she doesn't love? If it was someone that paid her? Someone that she paid? Does it even matter if it's with someone she hates? If it's in public where other people can see? If someone just walked right up to her on the street and just wanted to do it?

Manaka Sonozaki tries to show her. But all she can do is love like a whore loves. Incapable of giving, incapable of receiving. But she wasn't born that way. This village made her that way.

Maybe it'll be different.

Maybe it'll be different with Kacchan.

Maybe it'll be kinder.

Maybe it'll last.

But would he even want to touch her?

Off.

It's December 2015. The beginning of the end.

She's in the Ryuugu household, she's with Saito Ryuugu, Tenshi Ryuugu's father. From where she's been laid out she can see a range of old family photos on the floor of an open closet. She sees a picture of his wife Reina, smiling brilliantly. She sees pictures of their infant son. The man in those pictures is nothing like the man that's here now.

Old, wrinkly, overweight, embarrassing. He leaves her there on the floor and heads into the kitchen to heat up food for himself. She lies there, looking at the pictures closely. Later on he leaves ten thousand yen on the floor next to her and walks out of the room. She goes home after that, making sure she doesn't trip on the scraps of her shredded dress.

By the seventh time he's confident. He tries to see just what he can get away with.

The eighth time she's in an extreme amount of pain. He goes further than he should and he knows it. He takes care of her after that time, treats her nicely. He lets her stay the night. It's a new leaf for him.

The following night he makes her wear one of his wife's old dresses. She likes it. She asks him not to tear this one, because she wants to keep it. He agrees.

It's December 24th. Tenshi Ryuugu himself, emboldened by the folly of having barely turned seventeen, returns to the Ryuugu house to reclaim his birthright from his scumbag father. He walks through the front door, left partially open and unattended. He can't believe the sight, the sound, or the smell.

He had run away so many years ago, but he still remembers. His mother telling him stories, his mother holding him close. He remembers his father buying him Christmas presents. He remembers a man who stood tall and proud, who had to explain to a four year old boy that he'd lost his job. He remembers the many lonely months when his mother's only presence in their home came in the form of envelopes filled with money. And when they stopped coming, he remembers his father – he remembers the disgrace, and he remembers the night he lost his second job very well, down to his bones.

It's the first time the two have seen each other in ten years. His father mounts a young girl wearing his mother's clothes midst the lecherous ruin of his old bedroom. Broken by the mere sight of it, he feebly he announces that he's come to kill him. All the while his father doesn't react in the slightest. Her eyes meet Tenshi's for a moment. She's curious if he'll actually do it. He stands there, holding a kitchen knife, his arms shaking violently. His father doesn't look away from her for even a moment.

Then, with the sound of his father's groan, and the light gasp that escapes from her lips, his resolve is gone completely. His father turns around, and seeing him standing there like a statue grabs the nearby digital clock and clubs his son in the head with it. He falls to the ground with a thud.

The man is almost surprised for a moment. Then, with his son lying there unconscious, he turns back towards her and begins again.

Christmas Day. Tenshi is awake, but is sprawled out on the floor near his father's bedside, a vacant look on his face. His father leaves out a bowl of cereal for him and ask him to take out the trash before he pulls her into the bathroom with him. Eventually they return to the bedroom, where the cereal bowl is now empty but Tenshi doesn't appear to have moved.

Afterward, Saito leaves her there, and orders Tenshi to get him a drink before exiting the room. The two teenagers are left there in silence. She lies there waiting for Saito to either come back for more or cut her loose. That's all.

Eventually Tenshi stands up at the sound of his father calling for him, and leaves the room. A few minutes later he returns and lies right back down on the floor. Saito returns, ready to go again. Christmas Day continues in that fashion.

That night the three of them eat at the kitchen table, still crusty with the remnants of the many nights before. Saito cooks them a full meal. After setting out the food, Tenshi gets up without being prompted and pours his father a drink. After they finish eating, they sit in the living room and watch TV. After that it's time to go to bed. Tenshi returns to his room. Saito brings her into his own bedroom where the evening continues.

The day after Christmas. Tenshi cleans the dishes while she and Saito are still in bed. He leaves shortly thereafter. Tenshi returns at 5:30 PM promptly. Then Saito makes dinner, and the rest is all the same.

The morning of the 27th. She's pregnant. She can really feel it now. She's probably been pregnant for many days. She stares vacantly at the bump forming. When Saito notices he frowns, but that doesn't stop him from doing what he needs to do.

But then, he speaks, and he addresses her, for perhaps the very first time, as though he was remembering something important – a hazy thought, but something some part of his rotting brain demanded of him.

"Don't worry." He says. "I'll take responsibility. You'll stay right here from now on. The three of us. Just like this…!"

He finds the mere thought of her being his forever just that stimulating.

That's it. He's remembering. He's remembering what being a father is like. He's remembering what being a husband is like. He was claiming her, and the child inside of her, forever.

Aren't you proud of me, mother?

Aren't I just like all your other children now?

Tell me where this all stops.

Let me come home.

"Tenshi." The man calls for his son. The boy shifts into the open doorway. "Your mother is going to have another baby. You're going to help her take care of it."

The boy just stands there.

"Go get her wheelchair. She's been having trouble standing."

Tenshi vanishes, then returns a few minutes later with a wheelchair. Saito props her up in it and massages her stomach.

"It's alright. It was fine the first time. It'll work out this time too." He turns back towards his son. "Take her into the living room. Put something decent on."

Tenshi obeys. Eventually Saito takes a seat on the sofa close to where Tenshi had parked her wheelchair. They watch the TV in silence. Tenshi had put on a police drama.

This is it. This is where the path of unending love leads.

Children bored out of their minds.

Frustrated adults in dead-end jobs.

Every last one of them either dies achieving nothing or becomes a rapist. Often both.

Day in and day out, the same broken world. One day with Sonozaki on top. The next it's Furude. Maybe Kimiyoshi every once in awhile. But it doesn't matter. God or no god it's all the same.

The empty, loveless world.

This world has already ended. There's no need for it anymore.

"After our little girl is born I'm going to reapply."

"Reapply where?"

"I'm going to become a prosecutor. I think I can really do it this time, now that you're back."

"What does a prosecutor even do?"

"That's a silly question. After the police arrest them, they've gotta stop the bad guys from getting away with what they've done."

"Doesn't the judge do that?"

"Well, it depends where you live, but -"

"Try being something else."

"Huh?"

"Kacchan's the one who's gonna fuck up all the bad guys."

For a few moments there's silence. Then, Saito grits his teeth.

"There you go again. Keiichi-kun this, Keiichi-kun that. I thought you told me you weren't seeing him anymore."

"Kacchan's the only man I want. A fat sack of shit like you that can't keep yourself up for more than two goddamn minutes at a time can't compare."

Saito smacks her across the face.

"You didn't tell me before but you can't run away from me now – is Tenshi mine or is he his?! Tell me!" He grabs the wheelchair and flips it over. She falls out of it and hits the floor hard. She tries to move away but she can't –

Her legs are, after all, broken, as they have been. For days.

"But no, our little girl – our Hanyuu… Yes, I know. I know she's mine. I have proof. She can't be anyone's but-"

At that moment, Tenshi charges in from the hallway, armed with a massive blade. The steel already dyed red long before it finds its mark, Tenshi drives the murky blade into his father's side.

Tenshi releases the blade, his arms shaking. For a moment Saito doesn't move. Then, as though feeling nothing at all, he turns towards his son.

"Tenshi." he murmurs. "You don't understand. Your mother is -"

Sayaka grabs on to the hilt of the blade and pulls on it as hard as she can, ripping it clean out of his side. Saito hits the floor with a thud, and without even a moment passing, Sayaka drives the blade straight through his gaping mouth. It comes out the other end with a squelching sound. Blood sprays everywhere. Saito lies there motionless, afforded not even a single moment to fight back.

After that everything is hazy. The two of them simply lurk there, in that room with the dead Saito, his blood continuing to pool until it stains Sayaka's dress. What amount of will she had left had been exerted the moment she pulled on that sword. But for Tenshi Ryuugu, there is simply nothing, not even a hint of consciousness left.

The next thing she remembers is Manaka. Manaka breaking down the door to the Ryuugu residence. Manaka had come to save her. Manaka's her hero. Manaka's always going to be there for her. Manaka touches her gently, and when she embraces her, she apologizes again and again and again.

I would do anything to be your family, she says. I'm so sorry I don't know how.

And much like Saito Ryuugu had in his depraved drunken state, Sayaka remembers something important. And she weeps, there in Manaka's arms.

On.

May 2016. She stands in front of the altar with her hands folded.

The miko stands across from her. On the other side of a massive urn, filled to the brim with blood. Surrounding them is what little remains of the Sonozaki family. The lawyer is there too.

She was born an outsider.

She has lived as an outsider.

But they have nothing now. So they need her. Any blood relation will do. Even one as illegitimate as she. Anyone that can continue where Mion Sonozaki left off. Be it her sister, be it her sister's disgraced daughter.

But she still isn't pure. She understands. After all, how could she ever be?

The miko extends a frail, bony hand. She reaches towards her in kind, unfolding her hands and revealing the shriveled fetus in her grasp. The miko takes the squalid lump of flesh and crushes it in her hand. Drops of a dark pink fluid run off the tips of her fingers and fall into the urn below. The miko then takes hold of her, and a few moments later dunks her head into the urn. She imbibes the blood within. The blood she needs to become a true Sonozaki. A pure Sonozaki. She drinks and drinks till she can't breathe anymore. The miko releases her. She jerks backward, gagging hard. She throws up much of the blood she'd consumed.

"Again."

And again, and again, until she can keep it down. The urn is half full. She needs CPR. The lawyer does the honors. Kacchan tastes better. Only a quarter left. They try to feed her pills to relax her gag reflex. She refuses.

Be proud of me, Mom. Give me something. Give me anything.

This world has already ended.

Keep your head down and you end up like Sayaka.

Try to crawl out with your bare hands and you end up like Manaka.

Why? Why did she have to be born into this one? Why couldn't she have been born in the next?

Not much left. She throws her head back. She exhales. Her face is stained red. Her hair is damp with blood.

"The Sonozaki family has a new leader. One of pure blood." The miko announces. "You stand now as Sonozaki Sayaka. Oyashiro-sama, bless the child we drowned here today, and this woman that emerges from her cast-off shell."

This world has to end. They all need to move on to the next.

"There's no god at the bottom of this urn." She says. "There's just more blood."

"Would you deny the grace of our god?" The miko questions her.

"There's no god here today. There's just me."

Ryou Sekiguchi grins.

Off.

Manaka Sonozaki's room. There's a picture of her. The two hold each other as they drift off to sleep. It's an emulation of true love. An imitation.

She's not your mother. She's mine.

"We both died."

"You died chasing justice. I didn't. So I'm still here."

So am I.

Off.

Manaka's in the trunk. Manaka's in the trunk. Hey Kacchan, did you know Manaka's in the trunk?

Justice won't die. Justice can't die. Justice will crush like a mace. Pierce like a sword.

So will I.

On.

A Hinamizawa councilman is tied to a chair. She stands there with the sword in her hands. The blade is already stained with blood. Keiichi Maebara's blood. Mamoru Akasaka's blood. Tojiro Mitake's blood. Saito Ryuugu's blood. The Murky Blade, Itsumade.

Itsumade arcs along the man's neck. The man before her dies. She trembles. Rika Furude stands behind her, her white hair splattered with blood.

"This will send the message we need." Rika reassures her. "Ryou. Get in here."

The man in question slithers into the room.

"We need to hang this where they'll see."

"I'll get a few of the guys on it."

"Go get yourself cleaned up." Rika pats her on the back. "There'll be much more of this before we're done, my dearest shinobi."

Off.

Finally the present moment.

She's in a run-down bathroom. One of the ones in the bunker hidden under the Sonozaki Mandala. She throws up into the sink. She looks in the mirror. She still can't recognize herself. She runs a hand through her hair. Some of it falls out. The roots are brown. She shakes her head.

This isn't me.

Why do I look like this?

Mom…

I just wanted to come home.

Kacchan.

I'll kill you for sure next time.

Rule R. Shirakawa-go is not considered Hinamizawa by the Sword Enma or the Sword Itsumade.


Author's Note

It's now possible to figure out who everyone's parents are, as of this chapter. All the parents that have not been explicitly revealed at this point are Higurashi characters.

Sorry to give you even more to think about.