Blood Flows Black

by Crimso

Maebara Keiichi has lived a boring life, not caring about anything, grades aside. But that all changes when he moves to Onigafuchi, a village infested with demons. There, he experiences the most horrifying adventure of his life, one stained with K

37. Chapter 36: Promise

Crimso's Notes

Christmas was great this year, I got all the things I wanted and everything was happy all around. I enjoy this time of year because of the break and the atmosphere outside… it's never very dark and it's always very cheery. That's a good thing. Really, Christmas is a wonderful time and I'm sad that it won't be back until next year. But hey, we have New Years coming up soon, and that's always an exciting time. I wonder what I'm doing this year. I actually don't know.

Note: Okay, so we all know (…maybe) that it is very tough to write when there are many people in one spot and there are only a few people doing the talking. Keep that in mind, but really, I will do my best.

~~~~X~~~~

Chapter Thirty-Six: Promise

The Sonozaki Manor was now rather peaceful after the whole incident that had just taken place. Takeru could be seen scurrying away from the manor and out the gate, to who knew where. They certainly hoped what his father had said had put some sense into him, and hopefully would make him change his mind about the whole incident. A hundred… no, hundred were probably already dead. If they could convince Takeru, then they could stop the murder, and prevent themselves from having to kill him.

"He's not really a bad guy," The twins' father spoke, "he'll come to himself."

Akane nodded at her husband. "I… hope so."

The twins began to talk to each other, explaining the many things that had happened over the last few days when they were away. They were both very happy to be near each other again after a long period of being away, and they were both glad to be able to feel that warm feeling once again. They had missed it so much.

Meanwhile, Satoshi and Keiichi were discussing what was currently going on.

"So, why did you come here?" Keiichi asked.

"Well, as you know… I kind of… you know, took Shion in after the whole incident…" He seemed a little ashamed about admitting it after realizing that it was Keiichi who had had them at first, and that he hadn't returned her to him. Then again, he didn't know. But that wasn't the type of person Satoshi was. "Well… after the whole thing with Takeru happened after the ceremony, Rika got Shion and told her about everything, and as soon as she heard that her sister was being controlled… well, she kind of ran off." He glanced over to the twins, who were chatting happily to each other. "She bumped into me, though, and I promised I would find her. But before that happened, we decided to check on the Sonozaki Manor. I thought that's where Takeru would be hiding…" He rubbed the back of his head. "I didn't know you two would be here, though."

Keiichi grinned. "Well, I guess everything worked out. Mion and Shion are together again, their parents know that they are alive, we found out why Takeru has done this and perhaps convinced him to change everything back and stop this… it's all heading in our direction." He paused for a moment. "...I wonder what's going on with the others."

"Rika and Satoko are setting up some traps, and the Furude demons have arrived at the shrine and are taking down the Kimiyoshi demons. Rena… I met her on the way here. She went to go look for Takeru at the other side of the town, she had talked to him a while ago but wanted to again for some reason." He scratched his head as he tried to recall the rest. "Um… um… I think Kai is still fighting… and… that's about it."

"Then, what should we do now?" Keiichi asked as he looked around the room. There was no longer anything to do here, as all of their work had been completed.

"I think we should find Takeru. By the time we do, he probably had thought about it a little, and we can push him back in the right direction. It's good we let him go…" He looked out of the door briefly. "But I think we should find out what the others are going to do with us. I think we should find Rena, since we're both looking for Takeru. Mion and Shion can come with us, of course. I don't know what their parents are going to do, or Oryou for that matter…"

That was when the voice of Oryou broke through the room. "I will order the Sonozaki members to go fight the demons. I do not wish for very much death, but there will be more if we don't. It's better to sacrifice a few men to save more villagers." She focused her gaze on the twins' father. "You. You're going to help me with that. Akane, you go with them. They are going to find your son and I think that you will be able to talk sense into them, as you are his mother and you are part of the reason why he is doing this."

Guilt washed over Akane as Oryou mentioned that.

"Of course… but…" she turned to her husband. "Dear, please be careful. Those demons are vicious… and it appears as if we don't have any more demons."

Oryou nodded. "I never told you because you never needed to know. I killed them because I knew something like this would happen and if we didn't kill our demons, they could be taken and used in this way. Takeru could have gained access to more, so I am glad I did. I should have just told Kimiyoshi to kill his demons, too… these beasts are cursing the town." She looked at her granddaughters. "They were the only ones that I spared… and that was because of my own weakness. I didn't want to kill my own granddaughters.

Akane sighed. "I wish you would tell me this things, Mother. Even if I'm not the heiress anymore…"

The lack of demons made things more difficult. Though at least they had the members of the Sonozaki yakuza and the rest of the Furude demons fighting, which included Kaede, a great fighter who was truly skilled. Kai had also joined in, and he too was great at fighting. They would lose less people this way, even if that meant the death of many of the demons who defended the land and the people that lived in it.

"In any case, I think that we should get going," Keiichi spoke up. "We all know what we are doing. So let's go!"

A cheer coming from everyone followed this. With this, they could surely fix Onigafuchi…

~~~~X~~~~

The group of people, consisting of Keiichi, Satoshi, the twins, and Akane, were walking down the paths of Onigafuchi. Each and every one of them could hear the cries coming from the shrine and around it as demons fought, and as humans were killed. They were sure that the amount of dying humans had decreased when the Furude demons had arrived, but that didn't mean that it had stopped entirely and it certainly didn't mean that the amount of deaths were small. There would be a huge impact left from this fight, even if they were to stop it.

Keiichi clenched his fists. This was the adventure his parents had wanted to send him on. While it was much more than what he wanted, and he had been wishing it had never happened days ago, he found himself glad that he had come to the village. Sure, it was cursed, but how would things be without him? He had saved Shion and Mion, and without them, the village would never have their heroes.

He blinked at the two of them. What were they supposed to do? How were they heroes?

Well, he supposed they already were. Mion had killed Yasuo, and Shion had done a number of things to help out. Perhaps they weren't the only heroes in the legend. Maybe he was a hero too, and maybe Satoshi was as well. Maybe everyone in this tale was.

That was one of the ways that the legend was wrong again, he realized. There was not only the twins, but there was the twins' friend, who was the one who saved them both, the twins' other friend, who was the one that had saved one of them when she had been attacked, one of the twins' two good friends who had stayed with her when she was captured, their good friend who had met them by pure accident, but had grown as a hero by helping out the one who had saved them… there were many.

Yes, they were all heroes. The twins were just the center of it.

And now, that tale they were writing was coming to its climax.

"Keiichi-kun, Satoshi-kun! Mi-chan, Shi-chan!" a voice cried out, and the group of them instantly knew who it was.

"Rena!" cried Keiichi in delight as he saw the orange-haired girl run up to them. That had been easy, they didn't really need to look for her at all. "Rena!" A huge smile broke out across his face. He was glad to see that the girl who had been by his side since the moment she found out the truth was all right.

Rena smiled as she approached them. "Hello, everyone! I managed to find Takeru-kun when we split up. He told me everything."

Akane blinked at the sight of her son's ex-girlfriend. She wondered to herself if the girl had found out anything different about his motivation. Sure, they knew quite a bit about it already, but Rena would be the one who could truly reach out to the boy, the one who could find out what the real matter with him was. She was needed for this confrontation, and she could talk some more sense into him.

"What did he tell you?" Keiichi asked her.

"Well, there was a lot he told me and a lot that he didn't actually tell me, but in truth, I've known from the beginning. I just wanted to confirm a few things." She nodded, a serious look in her eyes as she stared at the group. "I don't know if you know this… but Takeru-kun has always wanted to be someone great, like a hero of some sort, though I did just find out that he was THE Hero… well, not any more, but." She shook her head. "But he felt like he couldn't be anyone because he knew that he would always be an existence that was insignificant to people close around him compared to Mi-chan and Shi-chan… who were apparently dead. But he knew they were alive, and was scared he would become a no one if people knew, so he prevented any chance Oryou got to save them." She looked down at her feet. "You know, he didn't actually tell me this, but I know him like the back of my hand. He leaned on me because he wanted someone he could love, someone that would love him, so that someone would believe that he was significant. So that's why."

They knew a lot about that all ready, but Rena had a deeper understanding of why he was doing this. She had spent so much time with him, after all, and she was the only one he would open up to. That gave him a lot more information.

Akane sighed. "I knew I was a bad mother to him, but there wasn't much I could do. If I didn't love him when he was born, then I didn't… but that changed." She looked up at the sky. "It is likely he didn't see that, though."

Rena looked at her. "Please don't blame yourself… no one could have stopped this from happening. He would have felt the same way even if you loved him when he was born when he found out about the twins…" she told her. "And there was no way that they could hide that from him. He was the heir and therefore had to know the demons…"

Rena was always the type of person who could cheer someone up by saying such things, and she was very intelligent when it came to understanding people. She really did know who Takeru was, even better than everyone else.

"He told us some of that," Keiichi informed Rena. "But that's a much deeper understanding…"
Mion and Shion were looking at each other, an uneasy look in their eyes as they stared at each other. They were clearly remembering some kind of unpleasant memory, probably relating to the topic at hand.

"Rena, do you know where he is?" Satoshi asked.

Rena shook her head. "No, I came here because Satoshi-kun told me he would look here, and I wanted to confirm." She looked at Akane, and then to the twins. "But if you could fill Rena in on the details, it would be nice."

Keiichi nodded. "Walk with us."

The six of them then set off. Takeru probably had enough time to think over himself now, and a confrontation would be good at this time. If they could put a little more sense into his brain, then everything could be over and go back to how they were… mostly. He didn't know what would happen to Takeru now that the twins returned. Mion, being the oldest, was the rightful heiress. Sure, she hadn't been trained, but it was possible that she could overtake him as the heir, especially after this whole incident. It would not go unpunished. Even if he had brought himself back together, it would mean the death of hundreds that had already been lost and the ones to be lost in the minutes coming. He could be disinherited. Still, though, they could surely heal him.

"Their parents found out. Mion and I were confronting them, and then… well… Shion walked in, and the twins' father put the pieces together when he saw that they were identical twins. He apparently saw some of Akane in Mion when she was fighting," he explained to the girl. "Oryou explained everything, and Takeru, as you know, admitted to being the one who ordered the demons to kill everyone. He had apparently tricked them into believing that Kimiyoshi Masaru was the one who ordered the demons, but that was dropped. Takeru somehow knew Shion was coming and knew that the moment she walked in, everything he fought for would die." He paused. "He shot his mother, too."

Rena glanced to Akane, who only nodded. There were some bandages on her shoulder, but the wound didn't look severe in the slightest.

"Wow. How did everyone react?" Rena asked him.

"…Well, it was a huge shock for their parents, seeing as their son had just betrayed them and then they found out their twin daughters who they thought to be dead weren't actually dead, so there was a lot of shock in the room…" He sighed as he recalled how hard it had hit Akane. That, of course, was only to be expected. "The twins' father, though, managed to talk some sense into him. He punched him and told him a few things to thing about, so I think that with that, he should be able to think things over."

Rena nodded in agreement. "Me too. I broke up with him and told him that I would continue living with him as friends if we would drop this whole scheme, and I hope that put some sense into him. But seeing as he did that, I don't know. Maybe combined with that and what I told him, we can bring him back to normal." She looked up at the sky. "I want to bring him back to normal rather than kill him, Keiichi-kun. I want things to go back to normal, and I know there will be a huge impact, but I want to continue living and having fun with Takeru-kun, without the whole relationship thing." She sighed. "I didn't tell him I never loved him, though. That was too harsh and it was not the time to tell him. Really, I realized that I could never grow to love him, even if I tried. That's not what I want." She turned to Keiichi and smiled. "And it's because of you, Keiichi-kun. Thank you."

Keiichi smiled at the girl. "I'm glad that you managed to figure that out. Rena, I'm really glad…" Everything was coming together now. Rena had accepted the truth, and things could go on just as she wanted now. When everything was back to normal, they could go on living as friends, just as she wanted from the beginning. Takeru would be heartbroken, sure, but there are other girls in the world. He could find another one. Though he doubted it after this whole incident.

He sighed. Takeru didn't have to do this. As his father had said, it would have been fine if he didn't and just brought the twins out. He wouldn't have been in danger of losing his position as heir as he had been trained and done nothing wrong to be disinherited, his parents wouldn't go against him or hate him, he would be able to find love with someone… really, the only thing Takeru had done with this whole plan was mess his whole life up for himself.

"Thank you for being my best friend, Keiichi-kun. When this is all over, how about we go back to being like before? I'm sure Mi-chan and Shi-chan won't need help with the things I helped them with before, but I want to continue being their friend. I want to be Takeru-kun's friend, too. We can all become friends. We will introduce Mi-chan and Shi-chan to everyone and then we can all have fun." She smiled at the thought. "So let's work hard for this ending, Keiichi-kun. Promise?"

Keiichi smiled at the girl. "Promise."

Rena giggled. "All right then, but you can't go back on your word, Keiichi-kun! You have to fight your hardest now so that we can go back to normal!" she said.

Keiichi laughed as well. "Of course! And you can't go back either, Rena!"

Rena nodded. "Of course I won't! Rena sticks to her word."

Yes, together, all of them could certainly achieve the happiness they wanted. They could all become friends, and each and every one of them could play together happily. Even if Takeru would suffer major side effects, they could bring him back to normal and let him slowly accept the twins and who they were. He was not a bad person. He was just upset over this whole incident. He didn't care what the legend said about him being the villain or any of that, that wasn't true. They had lied about the twins being the only hero, after all. The whole legend was just downright false.

There was no villain. Just a confused, sorrowful young boy who didn't know what he was doing.

The six of them approached the shrine, and they stopped to take a look at what was going on when they stood on the part of the shrine that was overlooking the battlefield. There were fewer and fewer people around the shrine now, most of them having run away and many of them having been killed. The ground was painted with blood and corpses, each one of them horribly mutilated. Some of them were missing stomachs, some of them missing limbs, and some of them eyes. There were many who had scars all over their body, and many with broken necks. It was a horrible sight. Not only were there human corpses, but there were demon corpses as well.

They gazed upon the demon corpses, and Keiichi took note of how many there were. There were many of them, though there seemed to be an equal amount of dead Furude demons and dead Kimiyoshi demons, which meant that Kimiyoshi had lost more demons that the Furudes had as they had more in the first place. That was to be expected, though. They had Kai and Kaede on their side.

Speaking of Kai and Kaede, the two of them were now fighting off Kimiyoshi demons who were aimlessly attacking, allowing a few villagers to get away. However, some of those villagers who tried to sneak out were then attacked by Kimiyoshi demons who were still living, then being attacked by Furude demons and getting engaged in battle.

The whole sight was just terrifying.

"We won't accomplish anything by looking," Rena informed them all. "It's a sad sight, but we have to move."

They had to listen to her. There was nothing they could do by looking. They had to move.

"Hey, Sis? Do you see Takeru?" Shion asked as she looked about.

"No, Sis. I don't think that he's here…" Mion responded.

They were right. There was no sign of the green-haired boy. They continued to look a little more, but Rena shot Keiichi a grave look, silently telling them that Takeru probably wasn't anywhere in sight and it was likely that he was hiding elsewhere. They just needed to move on.

That's when Kaede looked up briefly and saw them. She turned towards Kai and nodded, then running from battle. She ran up the stairs and towards the group of them, her lemon-lime eyes narrowed and serious like usual.

"My master has told you that she and Satoko have set up several traps around the area and forest, and that they are keeping the villagers safe by transporting them to their house. The doctor, Irie, has come with her to the house and is healing anyone who got hurt too badly," she informed the group of them. "That being said, I am sure that you are looking for Sonozaki Takeru."

They looked at each other. It was sudden that she came up and told them this, but it was useful. Satoko and Rika had been doing their job.

"We are, actually," Rena spoke.

Kaede nodded. "As I thought. I saw the boy scurry that way." She pointed a bloody claw towards the path leading into the forest. "He is hiding. I was going to fight him but I didn't have the order to attack him, just the demons. I did not wish to do anything that would make my master possibly angry. Besides, I have a bunch of work to do." She looked at the battle.

They looked at each other, grins on their faces. This was very useful.

"Thank you, Kaede!" cried Keiichi.

"No problem. Now, I have to go. Excuse me…" With that, the demon jumped right back into the battle below, her feet trampling over several corpses as she lunged for a Kimiyoshi demon who had began to attack one of the Furude demons.

They turned to each other and then nodded, heading off in the direction that they had been pointed to. Now, they knew exactly where to go.

"There are some paths in the forest, so I think Takeru-kun followed one of them and is going there. He probably wants a place where there is no one else there to bother him," Rena decided as she went down the side steps and onto the pathway once again. "He is probably working out what his father told him and what I had said to him before, about becoming friends again if he is going to stop this. I hope that he does."

Keiichi could see a clear longing in Rena's eyes, a longing to once again be with the boy like friends. That wasn't just it, though. She wanted to be with everyone again, and she wanted all of this to just go away. She was wishing that this whole thing had never happened.

"We should talk some more sense into him and see if that helps," Satoshi suggested. "It should…"

Mion and Shion looked at each other. "Should we, too? I think we need to apologize for a few things," Shion asked as she looked at the others. Even if Takeru hated the two of them, they could surely find a way to apologize for all they did to get him to accept them. That was the first step towards bringing everything back to normal, to how they used to be before this whole thing happened.

"We need all the help we can get," Akane spoke as she looked towards her daughters. "But I think I have the most to apologize to him about. You two didn't do anything besides exist…" There was sorrow in her eyes as she gazed upon her daughters. She had mixed thoughts in her head, about her children. She was thinking about how Takeru had betrayed her, and how happy she had been to see her two children again. It killed her on the inside to know that she was a cause of this, but it also hurt her to know that her daughters had been neglected because of him.

"We all need to," Rena decided. "But we don't have much time. Let's run…"

They all decided to do just this. They had only been walking before, though rather swiftly. If they were to save more lives, then they had to go fast. They all broke out into a run as they came closer to the forest path, to where Takeru was hiding.

As they did so, Keiichi noticed something very odd. In some of the trees there were nets that were containing demons who had been trapped inside of them, trying to escape. It looked like they had ropes bound around their arms, though, and they couldn't use their claws to scratch them open or anything like that.

"Hey, Number Forty? Do you think we can open the net if we bite it?" a demon in a net suggested.

"I tried that, Number Thirty-Nine!" she barked at the other demon. "It's useless. Just stay here for now. There's nothing you can do."

He grinned as he saw this sight. Satoko had really outdone herself with this. None of the demons could break free of the nets, and were caught in there for the rest of the battle. They were rendered completely useless. That's our Satoko! She's grown up from pouring buckets of water on top of my head and tripping people with ropes. She's managed to stop demons right in their tracks! Things really were going their way, all they needed to do now was to stop Takeru, which was exactly what was about to happen.

They ran down the paths of the forest. There were only two demons caught in nets there, but it was unlikely that they were really going to travel into the forest, anyway. Satoko had done the best she could possibly do and it was more than enough for this. She was really bright.

"You see, Satoshi?" cried Keiichi as he ran forward. "Nothing to worry about! Your little sister is great!"

Satoshi nodded, a smile on his face. He no longer looked worried about his little sister anymore. He had come to accept that she was a strong person, and that she didn't need to be watched over and treated like a little girl anymore. She had grown up and beyond that. "Yeah!" he called out.

He grinned at him. People had really changed over this battle.

The six of them came to a halt as the trees grew, and so did the sight of the rocky side of a cliff, creating a U shape. Sitting right there, in front of the cliff side, was Takeru, who was hugging his knees and looking at the ground below him with wide, terrified eyes as he thought about what he had done. There was a single gun at his side, probably the one that he had used on Akane before, though his hand was not touching it and he wasn't even giving it a single glance.

"Takeru-kun!" cried Rena as she ran up to the boy, stopping right in front of him as his head slowly titled upwards. His eyes grew even wider at the site of the girl, fear painting his vision. "Takeru-kun!"

"R-R-R…" He couldn't even get the name out.

The others followed, stopping right in front of them as they looked at the state he was in. He looked awful. There were tears painting his face, and a look of trauma was plastered across it.

He fixed his eyes on the twins, and he looked even more scared at that moment.

"NOT YOU TWO!" he yelled out. "I DON'T CARE ANYMORE! I TOLD YOU THAT I DON'T CARE ANYMORE AND THAT IT'S ALL USELESS! I DON'T CARE IF MOM KNOWS WHO YOU ARE!" He was practically screaming at the top of his lungs. "GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!"

Rena sighed as she walked up to the boy, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Listen, Takeru. We came here to tell you to change your mind about this whole situation. Tell the demons to stop the killing," she told him gently.

He eyed her, his eyes wide. "I CAN'T! IT HAS TO KEEP GOING! I NEED TO BECOME SOMEONE!"

Rena sighed. It became apparent that he had thought about it, but his mind was rejecting every single thing he tried to feed it. He couldn't give up on this plan after thinking about it for such a long time, was what his mind was telling him. Perhaps he wanted to go back to normal, and perhaps he had already given up. His mind and body just wouldn't allow himself to accept that fact.

"You won't become anyone if you don't give up. Listen, if you stop here, then we can go back to being like normal." There was a gentle smile on her face as she said that. "Okay?"

There was a calm look in his eyes as he thought over this. Everyone eyed him as he took deep breaths, thinking deeply about the whole situation. Could things really go back to normal if he were to stop them here? He thought about this for a long time, though his eyes were still widened.

"Sound good to you, Takeru?" Rena spoke.

Takeru breathed more and he thought hard, trying to force this idea into his brain.

But it looked as if his mind had rejected it again. "NO! I CAN'T GIVE UP!" he yelled out. "I NEED TO BE SOMEONE, JUST LIKE I ALWAYS WANTED!" His eyes returned to being full of trauma, and they were definitely not calm anymore. "RENA, YOU KNOW THAT BETTER THAN ANYONE ELSE!"

Keiichi stepped forward. "Takeru, have you thought about what Rena said and what your father said?" he said to him calmly. "Things can go back to normal!"

Takeru nodded. "Yes… but… it… is too late. I… will be hated. I messed things up for myself like my dad said… but… as I said before… too late… and there is only one chance I have now…" he spoke, his voice slow and shaky. He was pausing his words between breaths. "I HAVE TO KEEP GOING!" he barked out. "I THOUGHT ABOUT IT, AND IT IS THE ONLY CHANCE I HAVE LEFT! If I go back, I will be disinherited and will be erased by history! I can still become someone if I destroy things like I wanted!" He focused on the twins. "If only the two of you had just died when you were born. Yes… then everything would have been wonderful." He sighed. "I would be heir and Mother would have never hated me. I would be known by all the village as someone great and I wouldn't have had to do this. I would be everyone's friend and we could live together, happily…" He focused on the twins. "But you two… FUCKED EVERYTHING UP. JUST GO DIE!"

Rena placed another hand on his shoulder, causing his attention to go to her. She slowly shook her head at him.

"Listen, Takeru. That's what you want. You want a world where everyone could live together, don't you?" she told him very gently, kindly. "That's what you are wishing for in truth. You want to be someone in history, but you also want to be someone to everyone else, which is why you want this two dead so that you can be someone to your mother." He looked horrified when she said this. "But you know what? Everything can be like that."

He shook his head. "No they can't…"

Rena nodded vigorously. "Yes they can! Takeru, if you end this, then we can all go back to living together like normal. Mi-chan and Shi-chan will be there, but… you know, your mother loves you, and your father will accept you when you accept that this is wrong. When you go back to normal, the village can accept you, too! You can still become the head of the Sonozaki family and erase this from history completely!" She smiled at him encouragingly. "Everything will be like normal, but with the twins. They will be our friends too. Everything will be wonderful. So please…"

No one said a word. Mion, Shion, Akane, Satoshi, and Keiichi were all looking to Rena. If she could get him working, then they could apologize and get things back to normal.

Takeru was trembling as he focused his gaze on the girl, and his eyes were wide. "So…" he said, shakily. "Does that mean you'll be my girlfriend again?"

These words instantly caused Rena to frown, and that was when everyone realized what was truly on his mind when he said he wanted things back to normal. The friendship thing was still important, but when he spoke those words, he was thinking about his relationship with Rena. He wanted to be her boyfriend again and spend a loving life with her, but she had already accepted that something like that wasn't possible.

They all wanted things to go back to normal, but there was one huge difference. Rena wanted to be his friend, but Takeru wanted her to be his girlfriend.

Rena could only sigh. "Takeru, I don't want that," she admitted. "I want us all to be friends again, and I don't want to have any more of that relationship. I never… never really wanted it." She was shaky as she spoke those words, as she knew it hurt him.

Takeru's eyes grew wide, and it seemed as if the calmness that he had built up over the last minute or so slipped. "W-What…?"

"But you know what? You can find another girl! Listen, I know there's a bunch of pretty girls in Okinomiya, ones prettier than me!" She smiled. "I just want to be friends, Takeru! I want us all to be friends! So that's why… that's why I believe in you, and that's why I believe that we can all go back to normal if you just take my hand." She stuck a hand out for him, offering it to him. "Even if we aren't lovers, we can still be friends and everything will be okay! It'll be just like normal!" She took a deep breath, giving in a look with confidence in it and a smile to reassure him. "Believe in me, Takeru!"

Not even a second after she had spoken those words, a loud noise rang out. Everyone's heart stopped as they heard that noise, and the next thing anyone knew, Rena was falling backwards onto the ground, which was then followed by a hollow thud. There was blood pouring out from her chest, which was now staining the ground. They all looked to Takeru, who was now holding the gun that was beside him before, the same look of trauma on his face as he had had when they had first saw him.

Keiichi, Satoshi, and Akane slowly turned towards the girl, and Mion and Shion ran towards her right away. They knelt on the ground as Mion reached for Rena, grabbing her wrist.

Slowly, she looked up at Keiichi, tears in her eyes.

"She's dead, Kei-chan…" she whispered. "Rena's dead…"

Keiichi felt shock rise up within him, and a pain like never before. Tears streamed down his face as he felt the news sink in. Rena had been his partner beside him all this time. She had been accepting of him when she ran into the twins, and she had believed in him when he had explained to her about the true nature of demons. They had worked so hard to crack the mysteries of Onigafuchi, like The Legend of Makoto and Koichi and getting about half of The Legend of the Hero. She had always understood of everyone, and even in her last moments, she had tried to convince him to go back to normal. She saw the good in him until the end.

But what really killed him on the inside was when he remembered their conversation earlier.

He had promised her that they would go back to normal, and that he would fight for that.

He had broken that promise, and with that, their dream of everything going back to normal shattered into millions of pieces, never to be able to put back together again. They could never return to being normal, nothing would be the same. There would be no Rena to shout out that she was taking someone home and twirl them around, causing great laughter in the air, and there would be no one who could truly understand the depth of someone around her, no one who could be kind no matter what the case was. This was the kind of person she was. There would be a giant hole without her, a hole that could not be filled no matter how hard anyone tried.

"You…" he hissed as he turned towards Takeru, anger in his eyes. "You idiot! Didn't you hear anything that she was trying to say? !" he demanded. "She was trying to help you, she was offering what you wanted! But you fucking shot her and now she's dead. Dead, Takeru, Rena is DEAD!" he screamed out at him; rage burning within every fiber of his body. "Now no one is going to have a happy ending, and it's all because of you, Takeru! YOU!"

Takeru's eyes went wide and he backed up into the wall of the cliff as he looked at the dead body of Rena. The rest of the group was tending to her, checking to make sure she was really gone. None of them could accept it. "NO!" he screamed out, dropping the gun instantly as he stared at his ex-girlfriend, the girl who he had loved with all his heart. "No… I didn't…"

"You fucking did, Takeru!" screamed Keiichi.

"I… I…" he stared at Rena once again, and at her face which was eternally painted with a look of shock on it. That was exactly what caused him to break and shatter, possibly never to be fixed again either. "I loved Rena…"

"And you killed her. Good job," growled Keiichi.

"I… didn't mean to… I DIDN'T WANT TO!" he yelled out. He clutched his head, his eyes growing wider than ever. "I DIDN'T WANT TO I DIDN'T WANT TO I DIDN'T WANT TO I DIDN'T WANT TO I DIDN'T WANT TO I DIDN'T WANT TO I DIDN'T WANT TO I DIDN'T WANT TO I DIDN'T WANT TO I DIDN'T WANT TO I DIDN'T WANT TO I DIDN'T WANT TO I DIDN'T WANT TO I DIDN'T WANT TO I DIDN'T WANT TO…" he repeated this over and over an over again at the top of his lungs.

"THEN WHY DID YOU?" questioned Keiichi.

Takeru stopped repeated that, and then looked from the tearful group to Keiichi, and then back at Rena's dead body. His whole body trembled. "I DON'T KNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!"

This scream echoed throughout the whole forest. It was clear that the boy wasn't thinking, and he hadn't been when he shot the girl he loved right in the heart. He had been enraged by the mention of her not being his girlfriend and lying to him, and this set of a chain of reactions.

There were more salty tears hitting the ground as he stared at it. "No… No… I didn't want this… I just want this to end… TELL ME THIS IS A NIGHTMARE, PLEASE!" he begged.

Keiichi shook his head. "It's reality! Rena's freaking dead, accept it!" he yelled out. "And accept that it's all your fault!"

Takeru looked over at everyone, shaking. He didn't say anything for a few moments as he watched Mion lean over and shut Rena's eyes, hiding the look of shock on her face. He slowly nodded as he looked down at the ground. "I-IT'S MY FAULT!" he yelled out to the world. "I KILLED HER AND IT'S MY FAULT!"

Keiichi nodded with this, clenching his teeth as more tears ran down his face. "Now tell me what you really wanted!" he yelled out to him. "And be truthful!"

He seemed to calm down just a tad, enough for his volume to lower quite a bit. "I… wanted… to be happy. I wanted exactly what you were saying… But I wanted to be with Rena…"

"And now you can't," finished Keiichi. "You see what Rena was trying to tell you? She understands you. And she knew what you wanted. You shouldn't have killed her."

"I shouldn't have…" Takeru refused to take his forest green eyes off of the floor as he admitted to everything. It was only now that he was realizing what he wanted, when it was already too late to fix anything. He sobbed as he buried his head into his knees, hugging them tightly as he did so. "Rena…"

Everyone stood up to look at the poor boy, their eyes wide.

"Takeru…" Akane whispered.

"Will you all listen to me?" Takeru requested through his tears.

Keiichi blinked at him. "Why?"

"…Will you listen to my tale, and why I did everything?"

They all looked over to each other. Mion and Shion's tearful gaze met Keiichi's, and then they looked to each other. They already knew, for the most part, but it would be good to hear it from Takeru, they supposed.

And with that, they nodded.

"Good. Just listen… and… understand… me…"

~~~~X~~~~

Crimso's Corner v.2

Rena… oh Rena. So you all probably know that I don't care too much for her and that she is my least favorite of the main Higurashi characters… but… that was because I didn't get her character. I didn't see the depth. With this fic, I think I've grown to understand her a little more. While I don't think she'll be moving up too much on my list of favorite Higurashi characters, I think I finally get her as a character and I can appreciate her a little more now. And with that, I want you to know I didn't kill her off because she is my least favorite, or used to be, on my list. I was debating on whether or not to do it because of who she was in this fic, and I decided that with this fic, I could not have a completely happy ending. Someone, a main character, needed to die. And Rena was most fitting for this role. So with that, I am sorry to everyone. I liked her a lot too but in the end, it couldn't be helped. There was no way around this.

R.I.P

Speaking of her as a character, I hope to go back and rewatch Tsumiboroshi-hen to get her a little more. In truth, I don't like Tsumiboroshi-hen too much, either. The anime didn't do it very well and I couldn't really get it and just wasn't interested in it in the slightest. But maybe as the new volumes can come out, I can read it and enjoy it more. I read the first two volumes and I like it so far, so I will have to wait for the next two. It will be complete in… four months. Also, I want to bring something up. Is it just me, or was Rena not really a focus in Higurashi Kira? Okay, so each character (or two) got their own "episode" sort of and their own ending theme and cover for that episode. Rena got stuck with the first arc, but she was featured equally in that arc as anyone else was. Satoko and Rika got featured a lot in two, Mion and Shion in three, and Hanyuu in four. But Rena… not in one. She was supposed to be a big part of the plot in number three, but in the end, all she really got was a short scene of her in the bathtub and the twins took up all the other time. She was definitely the least used main character of the bunch. Do you understand what I'm saying or is it just me?

It is 3:00 and I have to go. I was hoping to watch Mirai Nikki but I have to edit this and upload it. I'll watch it tomorrow.

~Crimso