Whoo, back again! Higurashi Month 2019, because it has become one of my lowkey life goals to keep perpetuating this until it becomes a proper tradition for all three-and-a-half people in this graveyard of a fandom. And then keep doing it anyways, because tradition. If you wish to check out the prompt list, its on my tumblr page under the same username.
June 2nd, 2019
Rena tries to brand the words into her mind.
Rena Ryugu is a happy girl.
She is happy.
She is happy.
Rena repeats it late at night, her futon pressed against the corner of her room with a large, old box of her treasures at the foot of it, so she has only one open side to face, that she faces every night, because of the lingering fear that Oyashiro-same will loom over her bedside once more.
One the bad nights, Rena doesn't sleep, and doesn't look away, from the empty spot that had once held a presence, just beside her pillow in the open air.
Rena Ryugu is a happy girl.
She is happy.
She is happy.
She tries to scar that into her thoughts, cut each and every separate character into the grey matter of her brain so they stand out in bold, bloody words.
Rena Ryugu is a happy girl.
She is happy.
She is happy.
Because she has so much to be happy for. She has her friends, and the treasures from the junkyard, and the halcyon days that never, ever seem to end, one blissful summer day after the next, all pattering after each other like the rain from the thunderheads that roll over the mountains. The days of happiness that extend on forever, like the shining light of the sun that stretches on for longer each day, melting everything into a golden haze of joy.
She has nothing to be sad about. Her mother is gone, and the "i" in her name and all the ickyness that came with it. She is Hinamizawa, and Oyashiro-same has taken the filthy maggots in her blood away, because she was sorry, oh god, was she sorry, and she was forgiven and everything was all right now, and it would be all right forever, just as long as she was good and repeated her mantra to herself.
Rena Ryugu is a happy girl.
She is happy.
She is happy.
She repeats it, every night upon sleeping and every morning upon awakening, like a prayer, which it is, in her own way. She repeats it over and over again, every day, until she starts to forget.
And then the junkyard rings with the screams of Rina Mamiya in the golden light of the halcyon day, and Rena's treasures are rained with blood.
AN: I'm still mildly irked they didn't go into so much detail about Rena's deep-seated mental scarring in the anime as they did in the manga, but hey, there was an obvious reason to condense and they did great with what they put in.
11.40 AM, USA Central Time