Chapter 1

Reborn Hope

A/N. Alright, so I've never made a story about something like Higurashi, but damn it I just love the show and fan content (and yes some fanfics). So I wanted to come up with a story that would be interesting (Hopefully).

No more can we stand to watch as this village is doomed by a curse of an unforgiving soul. No more shall we let this spirit linger onto the innocent who thrive. But no longer can we continue on, as we have been embraced by the spirit itself. In my last breath, I pass a part of this spirit to you, Keiichi Maebara. May you protect our goddess with your will and courage...may you bring the light that this dark, cruel path needs...let this next Hinamizawa be their's, and your last...

Keiichi woke up in a shock, sweating and panting as he lay upright on his futon. From what he thought as a nightmare, he had now woken up into the real world. Well by that, his bedroom at least. He held his head, running his fingers into his hair as he attempted to process through his mind what had recurred. "Jeez, what kind of dream was that?" He asked himself. Of course it was something he didn't even know the answer to at the moment. So instead, he shook it off as just a weird dream. He looked around his bedroom, calming himself down as he got up from the futon and went over to his window. He opened it up, peering outside.

Hinamizawa, such a peaceful place that he and his family moved to weeks ago after well, that incident. It seemed like a new change, and a fresh start for him to make new friends and make this place home. Hell, It would be any surprise that things like curses and deaths had even occurred here. It was one of those good days too, a bright day out with the birds tweeting around, the sun bright with it's rays shining on the village.

He peered over to look at the clock to see what time it was. Apparently it was already 7 AM. He sighed as he closed the window. Wandering over to his door to leave the room, he could already smell the delicious scent of breakfast from where he was. "I wonder what mom must be making right now, Smells real good" He thought to himself as he opened the door.

Before he took another step however, he suddenly felt a strange feeling, something odd from inside of him. It felt weird to say the least, almost like it was in his soul or something strange like that. "Or maybe I'm just super hungry. Yeah, that's it." Considering this as a valid reason, he rushed downstairs, wandering into the living room and going straight into the kitchen. On the table was breakfast; iso soup, grilled fish, some pickled vegetables and a small salad, a typical balanced breakfast in Japan. He was eager to get into the delicious food in front of him as he sat down at the table.

His mother came in with a sweet smile on her face as she greeted him, "Morning Keiichi. Slept well I see?" He thought about his answer a bit before he said anything. "Did I?" he asked himself. Last he remembered, he woke up a sweating mess from an odd dream he was having. He shook it off anyhow with a simple reply to her. "Yeah I guess so." As he dug into the food.

As he left his house, Keiichi went on ahead to school as he usually did. He was wearing his usual school wear, a white collared-shirt over a red t-shirt, black pants, a belt and black shoes. He went onto the usual path that he took to school. Well to be more precise, the path where he met Rena about halfway to walk to school together, considering she's always waiting for him. Not that it's creepy or anything, it's just Rena stuff after all, and she did care about him, even if it was in an odd way. To be fair, Rena was the type of person to seem weird at first glance. I mean just look at all of the junk and such she thought was cute, never mind that colonel statue. At this point, she'd probably find a corpse adorable. Well...hopefully not.

Though as he thought to himself these ridiculous remarks, he looked over to where Rena was usually waiting for him. But there was something odd...something out of place to him. Rena wasn't there at all. "Huh, that's odd..." He thought to himself, "She's never 'not' here. Is she late? Or maybe for once she took my advice and slept in? Heh, yeah right." Keiichi stood there a bit, almost dumbstruck as he rubbed his chin.

The worst case scenario would be that Mion had a mischievous little plan, and had her and the others with her to make something terrible up to use on him later in a club game. He shuddered at the thought of that, They'd better not. Even so, he'd make sure to beat them for sure. Or maybe that's not even the case. Maybe instead she was hiding in the bushes, ready to scare him. Well ok, that wouldn't be true. Because first off she wasn't that type of person to him, and second she'd just look too cute to be scared of. Give her a butcher's knife and she'd be even more funnier looking.

For today, it seemed like he had to go on without her. Not a big deal but whatever. As he continued on his journey to school however, his luck just turns out even worse than before. He had completely forgotten that there was road work being done onto the path, something to do with making repairs or something. This could probably explain the absence of the ginger not waiting here in the first place, though it didn't give her any good reason not to be here if so. He thought to himself of how else he was supposed to get to school.

He stood there for a while until he noticed a second path, one that he and Rena never took. It lead through what looked like a part of the woods, and probably took longer to get to the branch school, which explained why they don't use it. But the thing is, he does indeed remember that the only person he knows who's used that path is Rika, though he had no idea why. Either way, It seemed he had no other choice but to take this 'detour' onto this path leading through the forest.

The sound of cicadas could be heard throughout the forest as he continued walking through. He could tell he was already late, sighing to himself as to imagine the scolding he will get from Mion. He thought to himself all of the annoying things he could think of her saying. Remarks, teasing, snarky comments. The thought of them made him grind his teeth in annoyance over how much of a pain it'll be to experience it. Though on the other hand, it actually seemed nice to take this path for once, it really did bring out the peaceful look of the village after all. In-fact, it gave him a comfortable, relaxed feeling.

It was no wonder why Rika probably took it occasionally. Hell, maybe he should take it more often and tease Rena that he's abandoned her just to see her cute reactions. At this thought, he grinned with malicious intent, "Heheh, Yeah that's a great idea." He thought to himself as he rubbed his hands together menacingly.

"~Hmm, hmm, hmm~"

"Eh?" At the moment, he heard the voice of a little girl humming nearby. It was calm and had a smooth rhythm to it. But that wasn't what caught most of his attention, it was the sound of the girl's voice, It for some reason sounded familiar to him. He looked over to where the noise was coming from, seeing a figure crouched at the grass looking at flowers as they waved their hand over them, gently petting them with their small finger. He quietly went over to the figure to get a closer look without alerting her. Now he had a better chance to look at her, he was intrigued at how her appearance seemed...unique. For instance, She was wearing to what seemed to him a shrine maiden outfit, with red long, split trousers, a white kimono jacket, and a pair of long, pink furisode-like sleeves. She also had long, violet hair. At first he could have almost mistaken this girl for Rika with her small size, mixed with a weird sense of calm around her, that is, if it wasn't for the hair colour, of course.

In fact, Keiichi couldn't help but get a feeling that her appearance reminded her of Rika for a second, with their hair and the cute sounds that is. But before he was able to do anything else, the girl he was somewhat entranced by turned around, looking straight at him with curiosity in her eyes. He got a better look at her. She had purple, glistering eyes that you could daze into with their own beauty. They matched quite well with her hair and...horns!? This girl had dark purple horns on her head! (though he took note that the left side was slightly chipped). But still. Horns! Yep, this was it. Keiichi was fully dumbstruck in amazement. He was seeing a little girl, with demon horns, on her head.

The little girl in front of the stunned boy then spoke with a smooth voice, giving a bright smile, "Ah, it's only Keiichi. he must be looking at these lovely flowers." She giggled to herself a bit, turning back her attention onto the said flowers.

As for Keiichi...he stood there, shook by what he had just heard from her. What did she just say? Did she just ignore his presence? She acted as if he couldn't see her or something. As if she was invisible to him. But wait a moment...how does she even know his name? And again...why did she act like she wasn't there to him? He gave a bit of a glance at her, and asked her, "...How do you know my name?"

She suddenly stopped humming, soon realising what he just said. as she turned to look at him, the girl's face had turned to a pale, shocked expression, falling back a bit as she kept her gaze right at him. He too himself must have been surprised at her reaction, he somewhat had the feeling of goosebumps on his skin. "Y-You can s-see me?" She asked, stuttering at her words. Now Keiichi was not just freaked out by the weird horned-girl, but completely curious as to what she was saying to him.

"Yeah, I can." He answered her, raising an eyebrow. "But er, just who are you?" he asked her with curiosity. As he waited for her to say anything else, the girl was panicking inside her mind like crazy.

"How is this possible?" She thought to herself, "This has never happened before. Only Rika can communicate with me, no one else can. Au au, how is he even doing this!? But, Could this mean..." Of course, she was just pulling at strings, but this was just so unique to her, really unique. The fact that Keiichi Maebara, was able to communicate with her, a spiritual god who has never been seen by anyone else in Hinamizawa. She briefy calmed herself down, butterflies still in her stomach as she then answered, "I-I suppose that since you can see me, it's only fair that I tell you who I am, right?" Keiichi nodded in agreement, obviously adamant into wanting to know who this stranger was. " Well, m-my name is Hanyuu. Hanyuu Furude."

Wait a moment, hold the phone! Was he hearing something wrong? Was his ears blocked? Or did he just hear that her last name was the same as Rika's!? Like, as if they're related? Now he definitely knew why this girl indeed reminded Keiichi of Rika so much. They have the same vibe to them.

"Woah, just hold on a moment" he quickly said, putting his hands up to stop her. "Are you telling me you're Rika's cousin or something?"

She stood there twiddling her thumbs, almost as if embarrassed. "Au Au...well um, not really."

He paused. "So you're not related to someone like Rika?"

"I mean well, yes, I am related to her. In a way" She said,

He was confused, folding his hands, looking unamused. It's as if she's speaking riddles. "So you're her sister or something?"

She thought to herself if it was a good idea if she should tell him on the spot. After all, he has no idea just who she is, her past or anything. Right now, he's just been thrown into it, and she doubted that he was fully calm on just what was going on right now. But then, she thought to herself that it would be best that he knew who she was now instead of later. So...she rubbed the side of her cheek with her thumb as she prepared to tell him,"You see, I'm more like her...1000 year old ancestor."

...

"Whaaaa!?" He shouted, breaking the silence. "Ancestor!?" That was all he could do really to reply with from hearing those exact words. "B-But y-you're...you know, young!" He exclaimed, gesturing his hands exageratedly at her small figure. "How on earth can you be her ancestor or something!? You should be dead then! Unless.." He stopped there, as he already knew where this was leading to.

He was dumb. He was so dumb right now. How could he have fallen for such lies? In fact, how could he be so gullible!? All of a sudden he had a smirk on his face, a look that made Hanyuu kind of anxious. "Oh, I get it..." he began. "this is a joke, right? You've just been playing with me the whole time." Hanyuu was however confused, as if he was the one playing jokes. "There's no way you're that old." He retorted. She however began to realise now that he definitely thought she was lying, which felt awkward to her. "I'm not that gullible you know, unless..." He rubbed his chin in thought, conjuring up an idea as Hanyuu looked curiously at him. He surprised her as he snapped his fingers. "Unless you do have proof that you're a ghost or something, then I'll believe you 100%, but I highly doubt it."

Hanyuu thought to herself about this. There was no going back, he knows about her, and they can both talk to each other. That, and she couldn't just miss this one in a lifetime opportunity. So she gave a soft sigh to herself, as she put her hands together and stood in one place. Keiichi looked at her, still smug as he was wondering what she was attempting to do at the moment. Was she gonna use some sort of ritualistic spell or something? Hell he didn't know. Or maybe she was trying to fool him again? Who knows. Instead though, she made herself translucent, almost like a ghost to be exact as you would see on TV. Immediately, he was amazed, yet at the same time he was shocked at what just transpired in front of him. She stopped her translucency, then spoke to him, "You see, I've been dead for over 1000 years. So Practically, I am a ghost...heh."

Now it was his turn to compose himself before he said anything else. But what was in front of him and just told to him at the moment was a hell of a lot to take in. Hell, missing arms and crazy people probably couldn't even come close to what this was at this point. "So what I'm getting here...is that you're name is Hanyuu, and you're a 1000 year old ghost and past relative of my friend Rika Furude?!"

She thought to herself for a moment, before looking back at him and simply nodding her head.

...

He suddenly threw himself down as he bowed apologetically to her. "I'm so sorry for mocking you! Please forgive me!" He apologised. The last thing he wanted right now was a curse from a spirit of Hinamizawa. Especially after the stories he's heard of the place about Oyashiro-Sama.

Hanyuu however let out a small laugh, "It's alright" She said to him, raising his head up. "I wouldn't expect you to believe all of that immediately. Especially since it all sounds...crazy"

He admitted, that was a fair point. He stood back up, sighing in relief at her forgiveness. She was so cute, like Rika but...much more cute he'd dare say. He shook out the malicious thoughts in his head. He decided that since he had the chance, he might as well ask her some more questions. After all, this wasn't something you just said gave away so easlily. "So, how do you know Rika?" That was the first thing he wanted to know, if she knew her, or hell, if Rika knows Hanyuu."

"Of course" She replied, "I've been looking over her for her whole life, and we speak to each other like we are right now." Well that was interesting to him. But now that raised the question to himself, if Rika's ever been talking to Hanyuu when they haven't noticed. After all, the fact that she has a secret like this for someone like her is odd to say the least. Either way, he moved onto another question.

But this time, he decided to mess around with her a bit more. After all, it's only fair if he had a bit of fun messing around with a spirit. "So then, are you also the spirit that curses people and kills them? Oyashiro-sama was it, your nickname or something? Pretty cruel you know." He waited for her reaction, smiling to himself.

At what Keiichi said, the little spirit looked as if she was hurt from those words, turning her face into a puffed-cheek blush at him as she flailed her arms around. "Auu, Auu! Don't say it like that! I would never do those things!"

He flinched back, surprised at her reaction, yet still smiling to himself in amusement. "Welp, you did it now Keiichi, you pissed off a loli spirit" the brunette thought to himself. Though he had to admit, her reaction was just...adorable. Perhaps he had a new target for punishment games. Again, he shook off the thoughts for the moment as he attempted to diffuse the situation, putting his hands up defensively. "Hey now I didn't mean it like that, I was only joking. Besides I doubt someone like you would do things like that, right?" She calmed down, though she still had a noticeable light blush. He wiped the sweat off his brow, sighing in relief. For a second there, he though he was going to be the next sacrifice or something.

"I just don't like being compared to...that name." She said, somewhat saddness in her eyes. He suddenly felt bad now, he didn't mean to hurt her feelings. He was always up for jokes like he did with his friends, but if those said jokes hurt them, he'd be sure to stop. She noticed this and decided to reassure him. "Oh but it's fine, really. I didn't mean to make you worry about me Keiichi."

He shook his head. "Nah, it's fine if you don't want me to make jokes about that again if you want. I'm not that much of an ass." He slightly went over to her, somewhat attempting to pat the ghost-loli' head gently. She smiled softly, looking at the ground.
Seriously though, so cute.

For a moment though, he thought to himself about Rika. If it was true that this spirit stuck around with her, then where was she right now? Wouldn't she be close by? He looked around him, curious as to where the blue-haired girl was at. "So uh, where's Rika?" He asked her casually, to change the subject.

Hanyuu briefly didn't answer him, a look of uncertainty, before replying, "She's sick today, so she wont be in. That's why I wandered a bit by myself today."

"Huh? Really? I've never known her to be sick." Which was exactly true. Almost every time Rika was there at school with him and the others, playing their games and making all sorts of mischief, with her calming presence and moe voice. For her to be ill was one of the rarest things in Hinamizawa ever. Though while Keiichi thought this, Hanyuu knew the real answer that she was keeping from him, but was best not to let him know for the time being...

For now, Keiichi had yet another question. "Alright then, so if you follow around with Rika or something like that, then does that mean you're like...apart of her or something like that?"

Hanyuu answered the question easily, "Of course, wherever she is I can sense her there. That is how strong our bond is."

He thought to himself for a second. "So let's say she had spicy curry, would you feel the spice from that?"

She trembled at the memory of that. Spicy curry. She was reminded of how Rika would punish her by eating that, with extra spice. Her tastebuds wafting away, her mouth burning up from the heat of it. The fact that any normal human could eat something so spicy freaked her out, yet impressed her. "Yes, definitely." Was all she answered.

Alright, now this was getting interesting to him. So all this time, Rika has had this somewhat of a spirit by her side, and not a single person even knows of this, let alone if she's even told anyone, or just kept this secret. Well, except from him now of course. It was just so odd that someone like Rika would be keeping a secret of talking to somewhat of a God of Hinamizawa. Suddenly, Hanyuu was right in front of him, in fact oddly close to his chest with her own curious look. He looked at her with confusion and unease for a moment, just what was she going to do now? "Er, Hanyuu? You alright?" He asked her, but she didn't respond.

She was wondering something to herself as she looked up at him. "If he can see me, does that mean that maybe he...Well there was only one way to find out." She thought to herself, as she raised her hand to his chest, hesitant to touch him. He somewhat blushed, unable to process what was even going on, let alone what she was thinking of doing to him.

"H-Hey! What are you doing?" he asked nervously, but again, no answer. What was her game here? What on earth was she doing?

"Now it's my turn for answers" Was all she said, immediately touching his chest before he could even say anything against it.

All of a sudden the two of them got an unusual spark from the inside of them that bolted, both flinching back from each other, the exception of Keiichi falling to the ground, barely catching himself with his hands behind his back. For a moment, it tickled them both, a tingling feeling in their bodies. Something had just happened, something remarkable yet not understandable at all. Something new. Keiichi had no idea what had just occurred, but was the first to ask forgetting about what she did a couple seconds ago. "W-What the hell was that!? Did you feel it too?" He exclaimed in confusion.

Hanyuu looked at him, then back down to her hand. Even she didn't understand what happened, as this was completely new to her. But then she realised, this was a similar feeling she had once shared with Rika herself, though how it's happened with someone else was now...odd. She then said to him, "Y-Yes...I did. This feeling, it's odd."

Keiichi touched where she last put her hand on his chest, still having that unusual feeling he had gotten as she had at the moment. "Y-Yeah, it's almost like..."

Hanyuu looked at him, somewhat amazed as she spoke, "We're bonded?"

"Eh?" Was all he said looking at her in confusion.

"Er-nothing!" She exclaimed, turning her back on him. He rubbed his head awkwardly, as he sat there looking at her.

She rubbed her head, trying to think of how this could possibly be true. How this has all transpired. Or even what to do. Then she had an idea. Without saying anything, she began to hover off of her feet, as if she could fly. Keiichi just looked in astonishment. "She can fly too!? What other crazy powers does she have" He thought to himself. All of a sudden, she dissipated out of his sight. "Wha!?" "She's just disappeared, completely gone!" He thought to himself. He looked around in a panic, trying to find where the little spirit had gone to. "Where the hell could she have gone?" He said out loud to himself, as he stood back up.

"Don't worry, I'm still here"

He jumped at the reply he was suddenly given out of no where. That was definitely her voice, but it came from...inside his head? How did that work? She then reappeared in front of the dumbfound boy, as he looked back to her in awe. She was intrigued herself, in fact interested "It's true...you somehow have a spirit soul that connects us." She said to herself.

He gave her a confused look, since he had no idea what mumbo jumbo she was even saying. "A...spirit soul? What are you talking about?" He asked.

She nodded, replying to his question, "Oh, right! Well, a spirit soul is what keeps me and Rika together, and it's what's binding us two together as well. It's also why Rika can only see me. Though for some reason you have one as well. But well, it's similar yet different." She explained "This has never happened in other worlds though, except this one..."

"Other worlds?" He asked.

She quickly covered her mouth with her hands from what she blurted out, "It's nothing important."

He gave her a curious look, one that knew she was hiding something suspicious. Instead though, he decided to leave it for now since he had been asking her a lot of questions today. Besides, he probably has other important things to think about, like school and how late he is...wait a moment.

"Oh crap! I just realised I'm late for school!" He had been standing here for so long talking to this spirit and overfilled with what he was learning from her, that he hadn't realised that he was wasting time. Though the sight and existence of Hanyuu was cool and all, being tardy wasn't. "Listen, I've gotta go, so if you wanna talk again or somehting er, I don't know, teleport to me or something." He quickly said as he was about to go running straight off into the direction of the school, but was stopped by her.

She smiled, "No need" She simply said. Without a second thought, she disappeared again. To where he guessed was in his head or something? "I can just be with you in here and still talk to you. That's...not weird, right?"

He shrugged casually, at this point accepting this weirdness as the norm as he continued his journey to school, running as fast as he could to make up with lost time. Meanwhile, Hanyuu was thinking to herself, as she watched the boy's journey. "This is such a new experience." She thought, "Keiichi Maebara, able to bond with me through an unknown spirit bond...maybe this could be the world we've been looking for. But for now, the best way to be sure is to learn more about him. Don't worry Rika, maybe this time...maybe..."

End of Chapter 1

Apologies if the chapter seemed short, but it was pretty much a prologue or such of how it's starting off as.

For the second chapter will be of course seeing more of the other characters and such.

Hope you enjoyed and have a good day/night.