First Higurashi when they cry fic 2
John woke up and checked outside he was still in Hinamizawa.
'Okay calm down try to organize your thoughts before you start the syndrome.' He opened a note book and wrote down what he knew. 'Okay you're in the first arc, the cotton drifting festival will start soon don't get paranoid or that will cause the syndrome. Okay I'm in a class A death trap full of crazies that might let loose at any moment and my whole life has probably been a lie but that's no reason to get' his vision got blurry and he grabbed his arm as it started to itch a bit 'calm down it's not real calm down it's not real!' after about five minutes of deep breathing and resisting the urge to scratch the itch calmed down and went away. 'This won't be easy.' John heard an apology being given to him by Hanyu who was following him now.
John walked over to school that day trying his best to ignore her. Her apologizing when someone was losing their minds didn't help. Just for that he went back pretending he had forgotten something and packed extra food and made sure it had some spice to it.
John spied a machete nearby 'I have no guarantee others won't go mad like Keiichi, but if I get it I might get paranoid of others but then again I have the right too…no their good people it's the syndrome activated by paranoia but just because I'm not paranoid doesn't mean others won't be, but does that make me paranoid that they'll be-'
"John!" he jumped and spun around, it was just his mother "get going you're going to be late."
"Right of course" he left for school again. 'Stay calm, stay as calm and normal as possible.'
He got to school and was greeted by everyone.
"Hi John are you feeling alright today?"
"Y-yeah sorry about yesterday everyone I switched to a different sleeping medication recently and there were side effects" he said as an excuse.
"Oh that's what that was."
"Man and I was hoping he was going crazy so we could get one of those jackets" said Satako.
"Don't say that it's good that he's not going crazy" said Rika.
'By now Keiichi has heard of the murder so the syndrome might already be taking hold. If I stay the hell away then I get paranoid he's going to snap and I'll be affected and if I try to help I risk getting killed, damned if I do damned if I don't.'
"John, John!" Mion waved a hand in front of his face.
"Right that reminds me I brought breakfast for everyone."
"You did, since when?" asked Satako.
"So nice of you" said Rena.
"Almost too nice" said Mion "you're not planning a prank on us are you?"
"Of course not" 'just one of you' He could see Hanyu panic and beg Rika not to eat any of it "just doing something nice for those I like to make up for yesterday." He handed out samples to everyone but Satako.
"Hey what about me?"
"I said people I like" said John, she fumed "I'm kidding here's yours." Keiichi couldn't help but laugh.
"What's so funny?!"
"I can't help it its' just funny that you come from different countries yet you act so much like…" this time he caught John's warning signs "is something wrong?"
"These are a little spicy but good" said Rika, Hanyu was suffering behind her.
"They're not that bad, I mean these things are…are weak I can…handle them" Satako was tearing up and turning red "SPICY!" she breathed fire and ran to the garden hose for a drink.
"I couldn't resist" said John "it was only her's that had extra spice the rest are fine."
"That was a little mean, but funny" said Rena.
"You know she's going to switch from Keiichi back to you right?" asked Mion.
"Totally worth it" said John "she'll only do it for a while before switching back to him anyway" John stopped himself, since when did he know so much about Satako's character? Sure he'd watched the show but this was too much.
"Yeah that sounds like Satako" the bell rung and they got to class for the day and then met afterwards with the club.
"So there's going to be a festival?" asked Keiichi.
"Yeah the Cotton Drifting Festival" said Mion.
"So what happens at this cotton drifting festival?"
"We put cotton in the river" said John.
"And?"
"That's it" said John.
"Well that sounds boring."
"John its way more than that!" yelled Mion "there's also the annual club activities we do when we get there."
"And Rika's dance don't forget that" said Rena.
"You'll be there won't you John?"
"Of course I'd never miss that" said John.
"Yeah last year you saw it even after getting stabbed" said Rena.
"You got stabbed?" asked Keiichi.
'Apparently' thought John that would explain the scar he had under his shirt he'd never been stabbed in his world though.
"The club got attacked by a mugger on our way to see Rika's dance" said Mion "or was it a kidnapper or a rapist?"
"He wanted Rena" John reminded her, he was trying to stop being surprised at these memories he'd never lived popping up but it was difficult.
"Right and he pulled out a knife and John took a stab when we refused to get the knife away. That allowed me to beat him down" said Mion. "Yet even with the knife still stuck inside of him John still went to see Rika's dance and refused to have it removed till it was over."
"That was still too dangerous" said Rika "you shouldn't nearly kill yourself just to see the dance."
"Gave me a battle scar" said John.
"Which is exactly the kind of spirit we need for this club" said Mion "we go to any lengths to make the most of the festival."
"All of a sudden I don't know if I should go" Keiichi was sweating. John was hopeful but Mion swiftly dashed those hopes.
"You're a member of this club and more importantly a citizen of Hinamizawa you have to" said Mion "Don't worry it only happened once."
"Looks like there's only one boy in this club after all" Satako teased.
"I'll show you!"
"Good then everyone's coming" said Rena.
"I fell right into that one didn't I?"
"Don't you get stabbed this year" said Rika.
"I won't."
"And if you do you go straight to the hospital I'll be watching you during the dance if I see you breathing heavily and drinking tons of water I'm stopping the dance" Rika threatened.
"Breathing heavily and drinking tons of water?" asked Keiichi.
"The best way of preventing circulatory shock" said John.
"No" Rika turned John back to her "promise me."
"I promise" said John.
"Good boy" she patted him on the head.
"So we can all go and do our club activities at the street stalls" said Mion "a great way to really get Keiichi exposed to Hinamizawa."
"The wrong parts of it."
"What was that John?"
"Nothing just thinking out loud" said John.
He went to bed that night thinking how to stop the festival from turning Keiichi or himself into raving murderous lunatics and woke up the next day and checked and saw London.
"You must be kidding."
His phone vibrated and John checked and saw the message 'don't miss the festival John.' John put the phone down fast.
"John you need to get going" his mother shouted. John checked and saw the message wasn't there then a new message was sent 'hurry back or Rika will be upset.' John reached for his arm which was starting to itch.
"John!"
"C-coming" he got everything and left and made sure to look both ways before crossing the street this time. 'Keep calm it's just the disease playing with you. No wait that's just a show none of its real so the disease shouldn't be real either! Does this mean I'm really going crazy?'
He was greeted at his school and everyone seemed normal as he entered the first class for the day.
'What am I thinking; I just need to calm down. Everything is just in my head the result of watching too much anime that's all it is.'
The teacher came in to start Japanese class.
'In a class I'm at the bottom of that's fine for me for a change' thought John.
"Mr. Chains" the teacher directed her ire towards him "if you can't ace the test today you'll be failing this course, why don't you tell the class what I just said and respond?"
"Tell them? You said it loud enough if I didn't ace the test I'd fail" said John. There was surprise on his teacher's face.
"He probably guessed what I said of course like he'd ever learn in this class."
"Hey I can still hear I didn't guess what you were telling me" said John shocking his teacher again.
"Okay then what's 48 divided by 24 and then raised to the power of four?"
"16 but what's that have to do with Japanese?" asked John. His teacher had to use her desk to steady herself.
"O-okay we'll just hand out the test then" John prepared for it all to be in complete gibberish known as Japanese and got the test in front of him and stared in shock.
'I-I can read it?' it was still in Japanese yet it was completely clear to him as if it were written in English. 'Wait back at the school what language was I writing in?!' he'd just been doing the motions and not really paying attention to what he was doing. He tried writing in Japanese as he was supposed to and it was all coming naturally to him as if he'd been doing it for years.
He heard cicadas in the background as he was writing to try and keep himself sane.
"This…this is" his teacher looked over it "it's all right…okay that does it your coming with me no way you got this good so quickly" John saw sharp nails coming towards him and lashed out knocking her down and ran out the class room. He ran and then slipped and fell and felt his head hit a 'wet floor' sign. He blacked out.
John woke up and he was back in bed. The cicadas were still singing outside. John checked and it was Hinamizawa again.
"What's real and what's not?"
"John, Rika is here she's waiting for you!" his mother called.
"R-right I'll be down soon" he responded.