[A/N] [20th June 2021] Hello everyone and happy Watanagashi! I am Xanquine, an old fart in the Higurashi fandom that's been hanging around over a decade, and this is one of my most ambitious fanfic projects yet, Onigoroshi-hen. While this is the first time publishing any of it, this is actually a project I began back in 2012, and around 2014 or 2015 I had mostly settled all of the details and knew what story I wanted to tell. Then life happened, I got busy, and it wasn't until 2019 I was able to sit down and write again. I re-read the Higurashi VN and resumed some of my fanfics casually - and then Gou happened, Sotsu is on the horizon and I suddenly felt very pressured to tell my stories before any additions happened to the canon, haha.

Oh well. I have an entire outline laid out for Onigoroshi-hen all the way to the epilogue with an absurd amount of details that won't be changed or influenced, so I do hope that this work will be enjoyed by readers despite the new anime!

Thank you for picking up my story, thank you for listening to my humble words, and of course, a very special thank you to my two amazing beta-readers for whose feedback and support I could not do this without. You know who you are.

And with that, happy reading to you!
- Xanquine

Prologue

Her body remained asleep for longer than her mind, the weak opening of her eyes the only movement it could muster, and yet one could hardly call her conscious or aware as she came to. Groggy, confused and dizzy, she lay motionless for an indefinite length of time as her senses slowly attempted to grasp and comprehend.

First came smell. It was weak, difficult to determine, but perhaps best recognized as somewhat earthly. Not unpleasant, but nothing particularly interesting or stimulating.

Then came hearing. Or did it? It was quiet. Far too quiet to aid her grip on the situation. She thought she heard some faint rustling, but couldn't work out whether it was near or far, left or right – or if she had really heard it at all.

Next was taste. Again, weak, inconclusive, unreliable. Her tongue recognized a tad of bitterness though whatever significance it had, if any, was lost.

Sight came fourth – which was odd considering her eyes had been open for as long as she had been trying to wake up – but it was blurry. Dark. She tried to focus. Tried, really hard, really long, or so it felt. Tried to identify colors. Black? Or perhaps a very, very dark blue? Despite how it felt like she would understand what she saw, her vision was far too blurry to show her any recognizable shapes.

She contracted slightly, moaning quietly as the final sense of touch woke up and she found herself sore and stiff all over. Cold. Damp. Whatever she lay on, her front to its surface, was covered in strands that tickled her nose. Tips brushing her cheeks, brushing the skin of her arms, her legs, her sides – she was naked. Her hair was draped over her shoulders, but did nothing to shield her from the cold air. The breeze? So she was outside. On the ground, laying in foot-long grass. On an uneven forest floor, full of pebbles, bark, leaves and sticks all digging into her cheek, her arms, chest, stomach, legs. Tall trees everywhere around her limiting how much moonlight could peek in through the branches.

She was finally conscious enough to process her surroundings. Good. Her surroundings were not those of her bedroom. Not so good.

So where was she? Her longing for that answer came more on instinct than any coherent thought. She stirred, trying to get her body to move, but it was reluctant to listen to her. It was heavy. Much, much heavier than she was strong. Like she tried to lift a car with her bare hands, all her muscles tensed with effort but her body wouldn't move.

Had she been more conscious than she was, that realization would probably have her worried if not panicked. She wasn't, though. Not right now. At best it came as just a little odd.

Time had no real meaning, but she still spent another stretch of it unmoving. Breathing. Smelling the dirt and grass. Watching her blurry filter gradually easing up despite it never got perfectly clear. Thinking, every new train of thought a little more coherent than the former, yet also forgotten in an instant.

Finally her arm responded as she pulled it back to herself. The other followed suit. Sore, shaky and with a prickling sensation under her skin, but working. She couldn't really feel her fingers, but it was a step in the right direction. Hands flat against the ground, she forced the weight of her body through her arms, pushing herself up, slowly – and then collapsed back onto the ground, air pressed out of her lungs at the impact. She was still too heavy. She groaned, part in pain but mostly in irritation. This was stupid. How could she be too weak to carry her own body? She was used to walking and running around without a second thought like most people. How could it be so hard now to even sit up?

She lightly trapped her lower lip between her teeth. Sent signals to her legs to move. They didn't, at first, and when her right leg finally did try to obey her command to kick out, all that came was a pathetic wriggle. But the concept of 'giving up' never even occurred to her. She tried, again and again, to move, to kick, to haul herself up, putting in way more effort than ever before to regain control of her body.

When she finally found herself sitting on her knees, she wasn't even sure how she had managed, her memory of those struggles failing her. Lips parted and breaths heavy, she continued to work her way up on her feet, legs trembling under her. She almost lost her balance, shifting the position of her feet repeatedly to keep her footing, one hand on the closest tree trying to lessen the weight she had to carry.

Good. Progress.

Could she walk? Carefully, with short and slow steps? Yes. Even better.

She made her way forward, every step a cautious one as her legs remembered how to hold her up. A tad more conscience and awareness came back to her as her blood began to flow. Cold. So cold. She crossed her arms over her chest, not for any self-conscious reason but simply out of desperation for warmth.

Walking in whichever direction was the brightest, the trees thinned out and she soon came out of the forest. She stopped and peered up at the clear night sky. The moon was at least a few days away from being full, and yet, together with the countless stars, provided no shortage of light. It was on nights like these that sleep could be a challenge without a good curtain, but for now she was thankful because it gave her the clarity to take in her whereabouts as she continued her aimless walk.

Still, the answer didn't come to her any time soon. It felt familiar. Comfortable, even. Recognizable, even though she had no idea what was behind every corner until she actually saw it. It was an odd and constant feeling of "oh, that's right, I forgot" as her mind tried to gather all the information into something sensible.

When her brain finally managed to dig up the name, Hinamizawa, she felt like an idiot. Of course it was the village of Hinamizawa she was strolling through, stark-naked, cold and in the dead of night for no apparent reason. How could it be anywhere else?

Momentarily pleased with herself, she continued down the paths, her feet too cold to concern themselves with the roughness of the gravel. Not that she was sure where she was going; despite having a name for the place, she actually couldn't remember where anything was in relation to herself. Something about it all just felt off, and that feeling wouldn't go away. Maybe it was all in her head; but it was like coming home to find something had changed by such a tiny amount you couldn't put your finger on it. Like your dining table had been in the exact same spot for years and someone had moved it by a fraction. You come home, able to see that something is indeed wrong with the picture, but you might never figure out what it was, feeling frustrated about it until it slowly becomes the new normal.

How did she get here?

She tried to kickstart her memory with a sensible question. What had led her to this point? What had happened in the last hour? Day? Week? Month? The gears in her head grinded, digging for any pieces to the puzzle, no matter how small.

Something important nagged her at the back of her head. Something critical. Big. Stressful. It had taken up a lot of her time recently. It had mattered a lot to herself. And others. Who? Who were the 'others'? She tried to picture their faces, tried to remember names, but it was all blank. It felt critical that she succeeded in it, though. Wait. Did she already? Or did she fail? Those days of pain and despair seemed past. Hatred. Anger. She was upset with someone. Who? Why?

She let her mind wander further back. Warmth. The memory of the sun gently kissing her skin was in such a sharp contrast to her cold present, and one realization jolted through her. Summer. Summer had come and gone. An absolutely, over-the-top eventful Summer of great impact. One unlike any other, that much seemed clear to her. But much as she knew there had been many, not a single event resurfaced to her mind. She simply couldn't remember any of it, no matter how long she pressed her head to try.

Deeply occupied trying to solve the great mysteries of her memory, all of that ceased to matter in the blink of an eye as she was interrupted by a sudden and excruciating pain through her chest.

She froze. Paralyzed mid-step as if somebody had hit 'pause' on a TV show.

Pain was a curious thing. The first second, the impact of getting stabbed, felt entirely different to the next second of pain regardless whether the weapon was immediately pulled out or not. Within that first step, the brain had not quite had time to realize what had just happened to the body, and the initial impact as the nerves around the wound shot up to warn about the critical situation was different to the burning and powerful response that inevitably came right after.

It was that one first second of sharp pain the girl suffered – continuously. Frozen in time, she was stuck to endure the instant reaction her body had to getting stabbed, lasting for much longer than what was possible by simple laws of biology.

And then came an explosion of stimulation, all her senses overloading with far more information than she could possibly keep up with. The stench of rot and sweat. The taste of blood and vomit. Voices she couldn't distinguish, wailing, screaming, shouting all coming into her ears at the same time. People begging. A baby crying. Outbursts of fury. Threats. Her body became subject to pain all over, more injuries than one could possibly suffer at the same time. Gashes, sprains, broken bones. The loss of her lower first and second molars as something hard hit her jawbone. The pain of abuse, physically, emotionally, sexually. Torture. Starvation, dehydration. The mindblowing pain of childbirth. A lifetime of anger, hatred, fear and violence tore her up emotionally, cornering her, belittling her, mocking her. The voices. Still screaming at her. Still threatening her. Bloodlust for revenge boiled up in her, pride, determination, willpower. An overpowering tenacity telling her she couldn't let them win.

As if a 'play'-button was pressed, time unfroze and the girl crashed back down to the ground. Sweating, gasping, panicking, shaking. Crying over the agonizing hell her body had just endured, though no sound escaped her. She couldn't see anything. Couldn't hear anything. Couldn't move. Couldn't feel anything other than the lingering desperation of getting to safety; a survival instinct she could do nothing to fulfill. All her senses had shut down again in emergency, desperate to stop the overload and recover from the damage it had caused.

"Hey?"

A voice. This time, her ears were first to reboot.

"Are you alive?"

She couldn't answer. Part because she didn't fully understand the meaning of the words that were spoken to her. Mostly because she couldn't move.

"Hello?"

The sense of touch was next to come back. Someone had their hand on her shoulder, gently shaking her.

"Wake up?"

The girl blinked, at least a dozen times trying to clear her vision, silent tears trickling down her cheeks. Her sight didn't sharpen fully, but it wasn't the blur that made it hard to see for a while. Her brain didn't care enough about the person above her, too busy trying to remember how to move and too weak to multitask. It did, however, make a quick note of how the color of the sky had changed, signifying the sun was rising.

"You there?"

A drumming headache was the consequence of how hard her mind was working to put everything back in order. She swallowed, mouth dry. Saliva production had yet to work but swallowing had to count as a type of movement, at least.

Sight and sound disappeared again as her brain put all its resources into movement. She wasn't aware of how many attempts it took her, but when she opened her eyes and ears once more she was sitting up, arms supporting her behind her back. The pain in her body had been reduced to a dull soreness throughout and she was already forgetting the details of the trauma it had endured.

She tried to focus her eyes on the person crouched next to her. Some young lady she had never met, dressed in an old-looking black-and-red patterned kimono. The woman sought the girl's eye contact, and a bit of relief came over her when she got it.

"Oh. Good. I was starting to worry you were lost forever," the woman said.

The girl watched her, silent for several moments. It took a long time to process and understand her words. And it took even longer for her to pick a question to ask out of the countless she had. When she finally did speak, it wasn't a conscious choice, but simply the question her mind was on at the same time her lips began to move. "Where am I?"

The woman seemed surprised. It probably wasn't the question she had expected. "Why, you're in the village of Onigafuchi."

Blinking, processing, getting confused, processing some more and then settling on the only rational thing the girl could think of at the moment, she corrected her. "Hinamizawa, you mean."

"Mmm," the woman hummed. "I suppose you would call it that."

Of course the girl would call it that. She had, momentarily, forgotten its name, but hearing its old name had jostled her memory. "Who are you?" she then asked.

Now the woman looked a little more pleased. "Not anyone you know, but don't worry. We're family."

The girl pondered that. She was about to ask for a name, but the woman was quicker to talk. She put her hands on her shoulders.

"Listen. I need your help, but we don't have time to go over this right now. Besides, your mind is in no condition to take much in anyway. You'll have to wait. But I'll see you again soon. In the meantime, be careful. Don't talk to anyone about this."

The girl, very, very slowly, cocked her head. That lady said too many words, way too fast. "What?"

"Just be careful." The woman repeated.

"Careful? Why?" The girl's question wasn't spoken with any concern, only puzzlement.

The woman raised her hands to the girl's cheeks, peering into her eyes and gritting her teeth. "Because of that monster."

A confused query as to what she meant was on her lips when the girl was yanked off the cold street and shoved into the comfort of her own, warm bed, the piercing scream of an alarm rudely waking her up. She twisted and turned, frustrated as though she had been interrupted during something immensely important, but all of it had been forgotten by the time she opened her eyes. Only an inexplicable soreness and fatigue throughout her body still lingered.

[28th December 2021] Hello hello!
If you are new to this fanfic, welcome and thank you for picking this up! I hope you enjoyed what you just read and are curious for more.
If you have already read a few chapters and is wondering what's going on - first of all, thank you for reading! - but also, I'm very sorry for the confusion. I didn't feel that the "Legend" fit as a prologue, relevant as it is, because it didn't properly sell what kind of story this is. It simply isn't a good opener/first impression, so to speak. So I went back to my first idea of how to start this fanfic, rewrote it and here we are. I'm personally happier with this piece, and I hope you enjoyed it too!

Let me know who you think "the girl" is. I'm not gonna tell you whether you're right or wrong, obviously, but it would greatly amuse me- I mean, be of great interest to me to see your speculation! Ah, I promise she's no OC though. Just to get that out of the way.

Thank you, again!

- Xanquine