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Flashback warning! A flashback will take up most of this chapter!

Chapter 4 Reunion of Old Friends

"Shiichan?" Rena asked, wanting to believe it, but thinking it was all just some crazy dream.

Shion paused on the other end, then said, "Rena? It's really you? You're really...alive? I thought you were dead!" She said, sounding stunned.

Rena was too shocked for words. She stared over at Kudo, and Mori. They were both smiling at her. They did this...for me? That's just too nice...

Shion's voice snapped her out of her thoughts. "Rena? Are you still there? Tell me this is not some crazy dream!" She said, still stunned.

"Iya, Shii-chan. It's not a dream. You're hearing me. I'm real. I'm alive as well. Tell me, how did you escape the disaster?" Rena asked.

"Well, if I remember correctly, I just fled. But, what about you? How did you escape?" Shion said.

"Well, where should I start? There's so much to say." Rena said.

"Just tell me one at a time. No need to rush it all, Rena-chan." Shion said soothingly.

"I guess I should start then. It all began when..."

Flashback: 23 years ago

"Rena, it's okay! We're here for you!" Keiichi said, hugging a crying 14-year old Rena close to his chest.

"I know, Keiichi-kun, but I-I think something terrible's going to happen!" Rena said, tears running down her face.

Keiichi just smiled and patted her head reassuringly. "I promise nothing bad will happen to you."

As they got down from the roof, all of Rena's classmates came pouring outside, all glad to be free.

"Rena!" Mion cried, rushing towards Rena, her dried blood still on her head.

Rena stared at Mion, then fell into her arms, sobbing. "I'm so sorry, Mii-chan. I hurt you so badly. I tried to hurt you all. I hope you'll forgive me."

Mion smiled warmly. "Don't worry. Satoko and Rika are fine as well."

Satoko and Rika came out and hugged Rena.

"You scared me, Rena-san! I thought you were going to kill us!" Satoko cried.

"Don't worry. That Rena is gone. I'm myself. I won't hurt you anymore." Rena promised.

"Nipah! I hope you're right." Rika chirped.

Rika's face turned serious. "It's the beginning of the end." She said mechanically.

Everyone stared at her. "What do you mean?"

Suddenly, screams and cries of panic could be heard. "EEEK! Gas! Somebody help us!"

The whole town seemed to be filled with an eerie silence, then the children ran past them, screaming in pure terror. "Someone help us!"

Keiichi looked worried. "Guys! What's wrong?"

"Gas! There's some weird purple stuff in the air! Sensei collapsed, and now everyone in the village is going to..." Suddenly, the child who said that collapsed.

The gas drifted over to where all the houses were. The residents struggled to run. Everyone in the village panicked and tried to flee from the gas.

"Satoko! Rika! Kei-chan! Get Rena and let's go!" Mion cried, taking action. Mion grabbed Satoko and Rika and pulled them close to her.

Keiichi grabbed ahold of Rena's hand. "Don't worry, Rena. I'll be here with you until the end."

"What are you talking about?" Rena said, puzzled.

They all started to run, and all the other children and villagers joined them, all stampeding in a mass panic.

Kimiyoshi and Akane fell to the ground, dead. The youngest children and the elderly all started choking as they struggled to breathe. They too fell dead.

The sounds of choking, screaming, and crying and moaning could be heard everywhere. It echoed through Rena's ears.

"Guys!" Rena cried desperately, and she turned around.

Mion was choking from the gas. "Rena, you must live. Take Rika and get out of here. It's over for Satoko and I. Kei-chan, give that to Rena."

Keiichi nodded, panting. He put a hand on
Rena's shoulder and put his lips against hers in a kiss. "Suman, Rena. Sayonara. You and Rika must live."

"But what about you? You're all gonna die! It's gonna be all my fault!" Rena cried, tears streaming down her face.

"Rena-san, reme...m...ber... we..." Satoko said choking.

"We...are...your..." Mion said, but before she could finish, she fell over, dead.

Rena screamed. "MIIICHAN! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" She tried to grab Mion, but Keiichi shoved her aside.

"Hurry...Rena...you...must...l...i...v...e... I...love...you..." Keiichi uttered, before he, too fell dead.

Satoko also fell dead.

Rika grabbed onto Rena and said, "Rena, we must go!"

Rena nodded. She and Rika ran through the forest and saw all the villagers still running. Everyone was dying.

Rika and Rena came onto the bridge.

"Rika, we must get across this bridge! We have to live!" Rena said. She then noticed Rika was still. "Rika!"

Rika said, "No, Rena. You must live. I must die. It is necessary. You have to survive."

"But, you have to live! How will I live without you all?" Rena said, tears streaming violently down her face.

"You must live! We will meet again, Rena!" Rika said, and the next thing Rena knew, she was falling. Rika had pushed her off the bridge, to the river below.

"Rika! NO!" Rena cried.

Rika was choking and gasping. The last words she uttered were, "It's better...that...I...die...this...way. This way...will...be...more...peaceful..." She fell over, dead too.

Rena lost consciousness.

She awoke the next day. "Was it all a dream?" She asked herself.

Suddenly, she saw that she was down where the river ended. She looked around. What she saw terrified her.

All the villagers were lying dead. Everyone had wide eyes and rigor mortis was already starting to spread. Their mouths were open in a last attempt for air.

She started running, not knowing where she was going, not caring where she went, as long as she was living.

Suddenly, she fell. What she saw when she got up made her nearly go crazy.

She saw every single child of the village dead, their faces all in the same twisted expression all the other villagers had.

Satoko, Rika, Mion, and Keiichi were all around her, their bodies lifeless.

"Guys? This is just a crazy dream, right?" She said, a nervous smile on her face.

She nudged them. They didn't move.

"This this has to be a dream! It can't possibly be happening!" She pinched her arm. It hurt!

Tears started to come down her face again as she realized what happened.

"Guys...? Guys...? Guys..? Guys! Guys, please, wake up! GUYS! THIS HAS TO BE A GODDAMN DREAM! THERE IS NO WAY IN HELL THAT ANY OF THIS COULD HAPPEN!" She shouted at the top of her lungs.

She collapsed, crying hysterically, her sobs growing louder and more uncontrollable by the second. Suddenly, she heard a footstep. She turned around. No one was there.

"Who are you?" She demanded.

Silence.

Then, another footstep echoed, this time louder.

The footsteps grew heavier like rhinos in a herd, and seemed to be coming right at her.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" She screamed, and she began frantically tearing her bandages away, and started violently scratching her neck. Blood poured down, and more maggots fell into the grass.

The footsteps didn't stop. They continued to follow her.

Blood poured down her neck, but Rena continued to run, all the while tearing at her throat. She stopped when she found herself near the Furude Shrine.

"Who are you? Are you...Oyashiro-sama? IT'S YOUR FAULT, ISN'T IT? IT'S YOUR FAULT!" She screamed.

"Hauu..." A sad voice echoed, much like a child's, and she heard strange sobs. Then she heard a voice say over and over again.

"Gomen nasai."

"Gomen nasai."

"Gomen nasai."

"Gomen nasai."

"SHUT UP!" Rena screamed, tearing away at her arm furiously.

The last thing she heard was more Gomen nasai as she blacked out.

"Miss Ryuuguu? Please, wake up."

"Ughhhh..." Rena sat up in bed, wearily. Her eyes widened as she took in the doctor before her. "Where am I? Where's that child?"

The doctor stared at her in confusion. "Miss Ryuuguu. You are the only survivor of The Hinamizawa Disaster. Everyone else is dead."

Rena's eyes widened in terror. "Then, it wasn't just some crazy dream!"

"!" She screamed.

End of Rena's flashback.

Shinichi and Ran and Shiho had left so Rena could tell Shion her story. When Rena finished, she heard Shion sobbing over the phone.

"Rena, that's so terrible. I was there, too. I should tell you what happened."

Rena nodded her head. "Please, do tell me what happened to you."

Shion cleared her throat. "Alright, it all started when..."

Shion's flashback (A/N: Sorry for the long Flashbacks, but to those who aren't familiar with Higurashi or its characters, I needed to explain the character's pasts, and what happened to them. So, for the most part, this is a Higurashi-centered chapter.)

"So, Irie-sensei, he's really alive?" Shion asked.

Irie nodded his head. "Hai, Shion-chan. He is, but his mind is damaged. The symptoms are at Level 3. He's not going to get better for a while."

Shion shook her head. "Satoshi-kun. I promise you will get to see Satoko-chan soon."

Irie patted her on the shoulder. "Shion-chan, he will be fine. You should get going now. Kasai-san should be waiting for you."

"But..." Shion started.

"Don't worry, Shion. Just go!"

Suddenly, a nurse came rushing in, coughing.

"What's wrong, Miyo?" Irie asked.

"The gas... Get Shion-chan and Satoshi-kun out of here. Otherwise, they will both die. Everyone else is choking. The volcano is spewing toxic gas. Even underground, it won't be long before you three will all die. Take them and go, Doctor." Takano said, choking.

"Miyo?"

Takano fell, dead.

Irie turned to Shion. "I'll turn everything off. Hurry, Shion-san! Take Satoshi and go! There's a tunnel underneath my clinic! Take the door to your right and hurry down those stairs! It will take you to a safe spot."

He unplugged everything, and lifted the covers off of Satoshi, and handed him to Shion.

She took Satoshi in her hands. "Irie-sensei?"

Irie started to cough and choke as the gas entered the room. "Go! Live, Shion! Live! I think your friends made it out, too!"

Shion nodded, tears falling down her face, as she crawled down the hallway quickly, holding her lover on her back and she found the door. As she pushed it open, she saw the tunnel. She quickly stood up, and held on to Satoshi tightly, and ran down the dank, dark tunnel. Her only thoughts were to get out alive.

"Hold on, Satoshi-kun! I don't know what's going on, but I will make sure you will get to safety!" She said. "And everyone else will be fine! Kei-chan, Rena-chan, Onee, Satoko-chan, and Rika-chan probably escaped."

She saw a light at the end of the tunnel. When she ran through it, she found herself outside, near the forest, away from Hinamizawa.

She sat down, and, shielding Satoshi, she quietly ran into the village. Everything was deserted, but there were lights on in the schoolhouse.

"GUYS! You're safe!" As she rushed down there with
Satoshi, she saw guys in white.

"Huh?" Shion said in bewilderment.

White hospital vans were everywhere, and the men were carrying white gurneys filled with...bodies.

She saw Keiichi on one of them, his face lifeless. "Kei-chan?" She whispered, in disbelief.

Then, she saw Satoko was on one, also. She was also dead. "Satoko!" She cried, a little louder.

She saw Rika's limp body on a gurney too, and saw her parent's lifeless bodies, and Oryou-san's body too.

Then, she saw her Onee. Mion was dead.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! ONEE! THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!" She cried, crying on the ground, tears spilling rapidly.

Satoshi started to stir, his pink eyes opening in confusion. "Huh...? Where...am...I?"

Shion snapped out of crying and turned to stare at Satoshi in shock. "Sato...Satoshi...Satoshi-kun? You're awake?"

Satoshi stared at her in confusion. "Mion?" He said.

Shion shook her head. "No...I'm Shion, Mion's twin sister."

"Mion? Why are you crying? That's not like you. Stop crying." He touched her face with his fingers.

She smiled. "Satoshi-kun..."

Then, bright lights shone in their faces and they looked up to see the men in white standing over them, with expressions of shock.

"We have survivors! It's a miracle! Take them to the ambulance, and give them treatment!"

"Mion? What's going on? Where's Satoko? And Rena? And Rika?" Satoshi said, bewildered.

The men picked the two of them up and led them to the ambulance. "You two are lucky. No one else survived the Great Hinamizawa Disaster...except for Rena Ryuuguu-san."

"What's going on, sir? What's going on?" Satoshi said.

"Well, see for yourself. These are the bodies we recovered." He said, showing the bodies of Rika, Satoko, Mion, and Keiichi.

Satoshi's eyes widened. "Satoko? SATOKO! Mion! Wake up! SATOKO! SATOKO, WAKE UP!" He cried, tears falling down his face.

He stared at Mion's corpse, then back at "Mion." "Mion? What is this?"

"I'm not Mion. I'm Shion, Mion's younger twin sister. I survived the disaster. Everyone else died except us. And Rena-chan." She added.

"Everyone else is dead?" Satoshi said.

"Come with us, Ms. Sonozaki, and you, too." he said, taking their hands, and placing them in the ambulance.

Satoshi sat, crying. "Why? Why did this happen?"

Shion said, "I'm here for you. I survived too. And Rena is here too."

"Rena? She's alive?" He said.

"Yes, according to what that guy said." Shion said.

A week later, Shion and Satoshi were allowed to leave the hospital. They moved to Okinomiya.

By the time Shion was finished, Rena was crying.

"But, Satoshi did survive. You can thank me. He never disappeared. He was with Irie all that time."

Rena smiled. "He's alive, as well. Thanks, Shii-chan. Do you think you and Satoshi can come see me?"

Shion said, "Yeah, he can. Goodbye for now, Rena." Shion hung up, and Rena closed the cell phone.

Shinichi and Ran and Shiho came out where they had been listening.

"We're sorry, Ryuuguu-san. We didn't know." Ran said, her eyes red with tears.

Even Shiho looked sad.

Shinichi said, "Are you going to stay with us in the room, Ryuuguu-san? It's still open."

Rena smiled. "Sure. I'd love to."

Heiji and Kazuha also appeared. "Ready?"

Everyone nodded.

"Yeah. Let's go out somewhere for dinner. I'm starving!" Shinichi cried out, noticing the stares Heiji, Kazuha, Ran, and Shiho were giving him. He rubbed his hair. "I just got carried away. Gomen."

Rena laughed. "Let's go."

Everyone nodded.

Oh, this was such a long chapter! And so sad, too! TT

Poor Rena and Shion!

R&R!