Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Reflection
Following the events of Tsumihoroboshi-hen; Rena returns to Hinamizawa, learning the horrific fate of the village. Broken and alone, she continues where no-one else in Hinamizawa had the chance. A chance to live beyond the fateful June.
Chapter 5 - Morning
Rena gazed at each of the buildings standing at each side of the road in awe. Never had she seen so much life in one street before, Hinamizawa had been well populated for a small village, but the towns much larger impressed her. She didn't smile externally; the thoughts of life outside Hinamizawa reminded her of her own days away from her birth village. And Keiichi's life before them. What she had said to him...she tore him apart, she never did get a chance to really apologize. She sighed, letting her own breath mix with the fresh air of a new beginning; Jou's head had turned away during her moment of doubt, focusing on the variety of shops and cafes on their right. Rena glanced back at him, seeing his lack of attention on her; it brought a smile to her. He reminded her of everyone she had lost, not just him; but Mion and Satoko too. And the words of wisdom he had spoken, it was like Rika was standing within him, talking back at her again.
"This Hinamizawa", what had she meant? Why was she tired of it? Of them? Rena's eyes dropped; perhaps she had just given up in trying to win Rena over to their side before the Watanagashi. But at the same time, she had said something similar to Keiichi, that the confrontation against her "wasn't the first time"; there had been another; a "last time". Rena's head was swimming trying to figure out what Rika had meant. She had spent many of the days in the hospital trying to figure it out, trying to mourn her loss of time and what she had done. She missed the days when someone could make up for their mistake, take it back, do something to apologize. She glanced at Jou who watched her, smiling gently; Rena mirrored the look at him. Together they had suffered, alone they had suffered; if time was a healer; then it had its work cut out for it with the two of them. Rena's eyes lifted towards the clear blue sky, few cotton clouds drifting separately, swimming in the sea of bright blue. For reasons unknown to herself; a blue sky alone was enough to lift her mood, such small and lone clouds also lifted her spirits; she envied the vast space, watching down over the entire world; seeing every move, every person, every event. It understood the entire planet, but individuals themselves couldn't learn everything, they could visit everywhere, but they didn't help someone to learn like living would. As for herself, she had seen very little of the world, it saddened her, but without Oyashiro continuing to glare down on the village, she would be free to move across where she wanted.
Jou's hand lowered, grabbing her own gently; her head whipped around to look back. He continued to smile at her. She slowly began to smile on her own, back at him, thanking him without words for reaching out to her. She gripped his hand back, she wouldn't make the same mistake of letting someone slip away and lose them completely. She could see her saviour standing in Jou, he had been there for her when she had returned to Hinamizawa, Ooishi could do little for her; only speak of that horrifying night and the sights he had witnessed.
"Do you want to go find somewhere to eat?" he asked discreetly.
"I'd like that" Rena answered with a nod. "Do you know a place called 'Angel Mort'?"
"I'm sure we can find it" Jou replied, quickening his advance through the street.
"It's a place I used to go with my friends, it hopes many fond memories" Rena added. "The last time I went there; both Keiichi and I had won the water gun-fight challenge. The penalty for the losers, we decided, was to work at Angel Mort for the afternoon, dressed in the uniforms. Keiichi-kun and I were standing in front of Rika-chan, she looked so cute".
Rena's smile widened at the memory of her friends in such adorable costumes, Keiichi and the other boys had thought so. Even when Irie joined in the excitement, it was all still merely fun and games; even chasing him who followed Satoko.
"Then Mi-chan looked so kawaii too" Rena giggled. "And then Satoko-chan was just as cute. I wanted to take them all home. I always took cute things I found home; if I couldn't take them there, I'd take them to the dump and store them in the caravan I found, it's filled with cute things. I wish I could show you".
"I'm sure it's the cutest place in the world" Jou chuckled.
Rena looked up with a smile; Jou didn't doubt her about anything. He couldn't; she returned the belief, they were all the other could see, nothing else remained for them in the world. The buildings standing shoulder-to-shoulder along the edges of the wide road continued to stand proudly without any sign they would fade away ahead; different colours, different purposes, different promotions. People continued to slip in and out of them without a care in the world, just wanting to see what they could find, curiosity and the love of retail exchange. Jou continued to look out for a cafe he wanted to take Rena to, not a simple restaurant filled with people ordering large plates of various meals, somewhere quiet, luxurious that he and Rena could sit and get to know each other better. He hoped the Angel Mort Rena had spoken of would fit his ideals.
Rena didn't seem to mind pacing down the edge of the path, close to the dipped road, she seemed to be enjoying herself strolling down the streets of the town she had visited in her previous life with her late friends. Jou's spirit sank when he thought about what Rena had said in her room, that she believed he was trying to replace Keiichi in her life. It had driven her mad so easily, he worried about that. Would it become a common practice for her to breakdown into that mad state? He prayed that wasn't the case; Rena was fragile, but from what he had learned, she was stronger than any other person he had known. To see her so damaged, it hurt him. They may not have been as close as he wanted to be, they hadn't know each other for too long, but he wanted to be there for her through her dark time and when she could walk back into the light. The light like the sun of a new day. His eyes lifted towards the sky, squinting more the higher they rose, the clear blue sky was the same he envisioned Rena walking towards in his mental interpretation of her struggle.
"Jou-kun, there it is" Rena's voice called, a chirpy tone he never imagined he would have heard after Rena's hopes had been dashed at Hinamizawa.
His eyes fell to her instantly, following her arm which extended to a large building in a space of its own, two halves of a brief staircase laid before it, one connected to the other via a large space without a step ahead, rather to the left. Jou smiled, it wasn't how he had hoped for the place to be, but Rena cared for it all the same. He followed her lead; her grip had strengthened around his hand, her pace quickening to a jog. His smile softened, a real smile; Rena clearly cared for the place, the memories it held. Together, they raced up the steps, the steps that Keiichi had told Rena he had met Shion, a smile plastered on her face. She wanted it all to be nothing more than a dream, to walk inside and find Rika, Satoko and Mion dressed in the various costumes they had, Keiichi grinning smugly at avoiding having to endure a punishment. The doors flew open before her, the place remained quiet, the waitresses strolling between customers and the kitchen. Rena's bright beaming shrank into a subtle smile. Jou gazed around, his eyes falling on the same sight, the place certainly seemed quiet enough, more so than he had imagined.
"Rena, is something the matter?" Jou asked, glancing back at Rena.
She didn't look at him, her eyes floated above the tears that had formed, reluctant to let them part and travel their own way. Just as she had been them. But her expression remained one far from sorrow or regret. She was still smiling. The memories of Rika standing before Keiichi and herself, of Satoko swearing revenge, of Mion glaring at them for their choice of punishment games. Even of Irie chasing Satoko, forcing Rena herself to hunt him down to reclaim what she had declared as her own. Fun times; times without care, if only she could live them for just one more day. If she could be granted one wish, that would be it. Nothing more.
"Rena?" Jou echoed, catching her attention.
"Hai?" Rena sounded; her throat tight from forcing down the form of a cry or a sigh at the loss of life the place had. Perhaps they had been in mourning for Shion; she had worked in the place before. The tears slipped down her cheeks, provoking her to wipe the damp trails from her face quickly. "I'm fine, really. I was just thinking about the last time I was here. That had to be the best day of my life. Until we separated and went home. Keiichi-kun and I had a wonderful talk about our lives before and in Hinamizawa. After we went our own ways, I stopped by the junk yard, watching the rain fall inside the camper van, thinking back to the days I had spoken of vaguely with Keiichi-kun. That was when my favourite day ended".
"I'll take you wherever you want. If you don't want to stop here, we could find somewhere else" Jou muttered in a sympathetic tone, his brow creased worriedly.
"No, I want to stay here" Rena answered with a combination of shaking her head and the same smile. "I want to talk about what we did and where. And I can learn more about you".
"There isn't really much to learn" Jou sighed. "I was normal until the crash killed my parents. I didn't have anything interesting like your club or your friends".
"But you had a life" Rena protested with a light giggle.
"Alright, alright. You win" Jou chuckled, raising his empty hand in surrender.
Rena led him towards the tables by the window, seating herself opposite him. When their hands broke apart, the warmth of Rena's hand remained fixed upon Jou's; it had been what she had given to him throughout the squeezing of both joy and pain. He picked up the menu, looking through it.
"Are you hungry?" he asked.
"Not enough for a full meal" Rena answered, pointing to a small display; shelves stacked behind a glass window. "There's a selection of cakes and treats over there, I'd rather just have one of them".
"I'll have one too. I'll get us a couple" Jou insisted, pushing himself towards the edge of the table and standing at the edge, briskly making his way towards the display. "Rena, which would you like?"
Rena blinked sharply, for the first time since exploring the city; her smile had faded into a neutral expression. Before the counter, she could see Rina. Ritsuko. That bitch. Standing there, watching her, smiling.
"Hey, Rena-chan. Which would you like?" Rina asked, smiling gently at Rena.
"What? Me? Are you sure? Are you sure? Hauu~" Rena cried happily, balling her fists at the base of her chin and hopping forward.
"Choose whichever one you like" Rina insisted, her hand open directing towards the wide selection of cute cakes and pastries.
"Uh...um...Ah, this one. Hauu~" Rena called, pointing to a small cake directly in front of her with a bright smile.
"Then two short-cakes and one Petit-Trianon. To take away, okay?" Rina asked of the man standing over Rena, almost as if putting emphasize on the "omochikaeri" that appeared in her request.
"Rena" Jou called again, snapping Rena out of the memory.
"I'll just have a short-cake please, Jou-kun" she answered in the same semi-shout across the room.
Jou nodded, his smile faded when his face had moved out of Rena's sight, her softening expression and daydreaming had caught him off-guard, he began to wonder if Rena had really told him everything about her last visit to the restaurant. He stepped up to the counter, glancing up at the man standing at the side.
"I'd like two short-cakes please?" he requested, his hand diving into his wallet for the money.
"Yes, sir" the man answered, bowing slightly before he tuned to the back of the display, removing two of the minuscule cakes.
Jou glanced over his shoulder at Rena who sat, staring out of the window silently, likely to have drifted off into another daydream or memory. Jou sighed; it must have been difficult no matter what the place meant to her, her wounds hadn't healed. Maybe she had pushed herself too soon. When the man's voice broke through his train of thought, asking for the money Jou owed him, he gave him the coins, taking a plate in each hand, each holding the requested cakes. Jou smiled, he could take the first step in really treating Rena the way he wanted, for them to move on together. He returned to the table, laying Rena's plate before her first, catching her attention and drawing her back from the window. Her hands had come together atop the table, fingers slipping between the gaps between those of the opposite hand, clutching each other.
"Arigatou, Jou-kun" she chirped.
"Rena, are you sure you're alright?" Jou asked, seating himself opposite, laying his plate down at the same time. "You seemed to drift off while I was over there".
"I'm fine. Really" Rena answered brightly. "I was just remembering something else. The day I was here with the others, my dad's girlfriend appeared. She wanted to have a place to eat, but it was full here. So she wanted to take a cake home for him and asked me which one I wanted".
"Did you take the same?" Jou asked. Rena simply nodded. "Why don't you tell me about your dad's girlfriend? I'm sure she was nice if she wanted to buy you a cake like that".
Rena's eyes turned from the cake, falling towards the empty seat beside her, the meek smile that she had put up had faded, her expression had fallen to one of regret.
"I'd rather not..." she muttered sadly. "There was more to her than that one day. The next day was when I learned more about her than any other day she had spent with my father".
"Gomen. I didn't mean to touch upon a sensitive nerve" Jou replied regretfully, accompanying the apology with a sympathetic smirk.
"It's fine. You would have wanted to know about my family eventually" Rena sighed. "You already know that my mother and father divorced after we found Hinamizawa in ruins. She had a boyfriend, claimed she was pregnant and wanted to move further away. She was taking me from my dad and my home. I couldn't stand for it. It was all just a stage of the downwards spiral Oyashiro-sama created for me. One leading to self-destruction. If it weren't for my father taking me back..."
"Hey, hey. It's alright" Jou intervened, even without the emotion in Rena's words, clearly she was still distraught about the past. The fists that had laid themselves together beside the plate before her felt the touch of Jou's gentle hand gripping them. Rena's eyes lifted up to his face, seeing his smile encouraging her to remember about them, about the present, the future. "I'm here for you. If you ever need to get anything off your chest or you want to feel upset and cry, you know I'm here for you. I won't let you find that spiral inside of you again, you won't feel like the whole world is against you, that everything is out of your control. Life is full of things we can't control, but I don't want you to feel like you're going to subject to the Hinamizawa Syndrome because of that".
"Arigatou...Jou-kun" she breathed, her eyes narrowed softly, grateful for the hand he always reached out to her with.
His hands retreated to his own side of the table, Rena wiped her eyes of the imaginary tears, while her spirit had dropped, the absence of tears showed progress, it was a sign to her. Jou picked up the cake laying forgotten and raised it to his mouth, carefully catching any falling crumbs with his other hand laying beneath like a net, Rena watched with amusement as the precautionary measure proved useful, several crumbs fell upon his empty palm. He bit into the cake slowly and carefully, Rena chuckled at the measure, he seemed almost afraid it would fall apart right before him. Jou glared playfully at her with a grin whilst chewing on the mouthful, glad that she could change her mood back so easily. He swallowed quickly, wiping the few crumbs hanging on his lips without taking his eyes off of her.
"Your turn. I'd like to see you do better" he challenged.
Rena's gentle laughter came to an end. She reached for the treat in the same way Jou had, a hand hanging beneath it. She bit into it as she would have anything else, without hesitation. Jou stared at her hand, her quicker approach had left her hand clearer than his own. When she swallowed and marvelled the taste of the treat, she locked eyes with him.
"You shouldn't be too cautious, Jou-kun" she laughed. "Looks like you lost".
"This time" Jou interjected. "I won't lose to you again".
They continued in a similar manner, chatting about the city and what they planned to do before the sun would set, challenging each other, laughing over the misfortunes of each other and watching the others around that entered. They left the building an hour later, their own shadows of doubt and sorrow missing completely. Now Jou could see why Rena enjoyed Angel Mort, even without her friends by her side, he would have like to have met Shion, the girl she had mentioned had worked in the restaurant.
Rena directed Jou to places she had travelled to before, enjoying each spot with him for some time. They largely avoided the shops and the crowds of the city. At eight hours past noon; they stood on a bridge, staring down at a narrow river of water running beneath them. Flickers of the sun that had finally descended far enough for the sky's colour to change over the opposite horizon sparkled in the water. Rena looked up at the rainbow sky before them, pale reds fading into yellows, greens and then the vast blue; scenes had been common in Hinamizawa, but even with the memory of the desolate village fresh in her memory, the scene was enough to keep her smiling. Jou turned to her.
"You really like your nature, don't you?" he inquired.
"Ah. It was all around us in Hinamizawa" Rena answered. Much to Jou's surprise, she continued to smile without any trace of tears building in her eyes. "Keiichi-kun and I would walk along the dirt road to school, we didn't even lay concrete down because it would just cover up what the village had to offer. The cicadas were always chirping sadly in each new day, flowers could blossom wherever they pleased. There was this pond that I liked to visit a lot, the river running through that we would use for the Watanagashi Festival was the same; life was everywhere around it. It made me feel much happier than anywhere else would have because the places I cared for hadn't been touched and damaged, the forests around where we could play games, the garden of the Furude Shrine. It may have been a simple place compared to huge cities like here and it may not have been as active or had as much to do, but it was beautiful. It was somewhere I loved".
"I'm glad you take such pride in where you come from" Jou replied, smiling at Rena's recollection of such a tranquil village, she still seemed far form sadden about its fate. "We should head back soon, don't you think? The sun's started to get low, the sky will turn orange soon and then it'll be dark. I'm not so such that many of the places in the city stay open throughout the night".
"We should" Rena answered with a nod.
She took another glance at the river, the sakura trees standing over bank to the right continued to shed petals which floated innocently to the river, floating upon the water with minuscule ripples expanding from their touch. She wished there had been sakura trees in Hinamizawa, if she could; she'd plant seeds in memory of her friends and those lost in the Great Disaster. She turned her back on the glorious scene, smiling at Jou.
"One day..." she started with a deep intake, forcing down the want to shed tears. "I'm going to do something for the remains of Hinamizawa. When they allow access, I'll plant some sakura trees or make a mural for everyone that remained in the village on that night".
"I'm sure they'd love that, Rena" Jou replied discreetly, his tone fitting with the aura of the river and the bridge around them, laying his hand on her shoulder. He glanced down at her attire, she had worn the uniform she had used for school in Hinamizawa, he started to worry that the night air would be awkward for her. It was only Spring, but Winter hadn't long passed. The nights remained cold.
He held his hand out for her to take once again, she slipped her hand into the opening, gripping his hand firmly. Their eyes met, mirroring smiles at each other. They turned away from the river, the sakura trees, casually making their way back into the shopping district of the city and heading towards the apartment Ooishi lived in. The streets had emptied drastically compared to their first venture into the streets in the late morning, it made their slow stroll towards their home much easier. Rena watched the shops across the streets, some closing, some still serving the customers that wandered in. The clothes shop that Rena had wandered into the day after the last game with the group that made her friends had played came into sight, remembering the woman speaking about her father's order; that the shirts hadn't come. Rena's eyelid fell slightly at the thought of the day; the beginning of the end.
Jou continued to lead her in the direction of Ooishi's home, the trail slowly returning in Rena's mind. She had taken the route before, a reason she couldn't recall. She looked around to see what would remind her of what she had done, where she had gone. Moments after her search for answers had begun, a familiar sight met her eyes, she froze, staring at it. Jou reached the limits of their hold, turning to her when he couldn't move forward anymore. His eyes widened upon seeing Rena, her free hand hovering before her mind, staring in horror across the street.
"Rena?" he asked cautiously, rushing towards her when she didn't respond. "Rena, what's wrong?"
"That place..." Rena muttered, almost stammering. She pointed towards a cafe opposite them, Jou was at a loss until Rena continued. "That's where I met Shi-chan...the last time I saw her. And...and that's where I-I learned about Rina".
"Your dad's girlfriend?" Jou asked for clarification.
"Hai" Rena answered slowly, nodding. "Rina was working with Satoko's uncle. They were draining men of their money...and she had chosen my father as the next victim of their plot. It was there...there that the spiral Oyashiro-sama had set for me began. I swore revenge because of what she had done. And I left Shi-chan...on such a cold note. I yelled when Kasai, her bodyguard, tried to avoid answering. And I completely forgot".
Tears slid down her cheek, her hand trembling just in front of her face. Her entire body began to tremble, she tried to speak, but her words came as nothing more than single syllables followed by sharp intakes of air. Jou wrapped his arm around her, slowly forcing her away. She continued to sob in distress, her guilt over that day, for Shion, overwhelming her. He continued to encourage her to move forward, insisting they would have something to drink and talk about what she wanted when they returned to Ooishi's home. After all the times they could talk about the past and she would speak and act as though it hadn't affected her, Rena had broken down so easily.
Chapter written to: "Higurashi Main Theme - Ai"
The sun that shines upon your body. The wind that blows though your soul. The warmth that burns within your heart. Remember who you are.
"Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Reflection, Chapter 6 - Horizon".