Title: Cat's in the Cradle || Series: Boundless Kakera, Chapter 9
Fandom: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni
Synopsis: Satoko has disappeared and the mistakes catch up to Rika. It all goes downhill from there.
Pairing: SatoRika (Rika/Satoko, F/F, vague)
Posted: April 27, 2021.
It starts with five cats playing together in their old cradle. Exactly like the good old days when they were kitties.
They've aged considerably, yet eternal youth enchants their spirits so that in their club games they compete against each other with the same bloom from years back. There's a certain nostalgia doing this—reliving a life unburdened with responsibility, dictated only by their childish whims to have fun, a retreat to paradise.
But good things come to an end eventually. They're paid the inevitable visit, by the duties known as school and adulthood. Reality yanks them out their cradle and they return to their acquisition of knowledge and skill to brave its cruel, expansive world.
Four of these cats prepare to leave their cradle. They want to go to a restaurant in Okinomiya, the neighboring town of Hinamizawa. They plan to meet up with another cat they are well acquainted with named Shion. There, the group will grab a bite to eat before heading their separate ways again.
One cat, however, wishes to stay behind longer.
"I'd like to walk around Hinamizawa on my own, if that's okay," Satoko says.
Mion nods. "Well, when you're done call Angel Mort. I'll come pick you up."
Rena and Keiichi wish Satoko the best and hope she stays safe.
Rika approaches her dearest friend. Neither of them have been spending time with each other lately. In their given duties, St. Lucia Academy is, by far, the most demanding. Rika manages fine on her own.
The opposite applies for Satoko, however, who is noticeably facing the academy and its schoolwork as a constant battle. She still clings onto Hinamizawa, refusing to grow up, avoiding to fit in with their society now. Thus she frequently lands herself in a heap of trouble. Rika does not mean that harshly though. Time can be authoritarian in its course, and she knows how much Satoko despises those types so it's been harder for her to adjust.
Considering this, Rika smiles at Satoko warmly. "I will see you at the restaurant then."
Something flickers across the blonde's eyes.
She hasn't the chance to decipher it for Satoko closes her eyes before she can get a better look.
"Yes. I will see you there," Satoko replies as the corners of her lips curl up as well.
Jaded orchids peer through the window. Rika sits in the backseat of the moving van that Mion owns, feeling bothered. She watches Satoko waving a hand goodbye, standing beside the old schoolhouse they used to attend.
Her smile is not at all genuine. It looks half hearted and less cheery than what she normally finds on that face. Rika taught herself to pick up these kinds of subtleties in her years, especially when it involves Satoko. She and Satoko have both lived under the same roof long enough to read each other.
Does it have something to do with that argument they had some time ago before Satoko got herself sent to solitary confinement?
Or is it what Rika caught briefly in her eyes?
"Rika-chan?" she glances to a concerned Rena, observant as always. "Is there anything wrong?"
She shakes her head. "No. Nothing."
"You're worried for Satoko-chan. You don't want her to be alone," Rena fusses.
Dropping the matter is not easy with this girl. Rena, who doesn't like secrets and detests lies, proves persistent to get the truth.
"If you want," Rena gestures to a bantering Mion and Keiichi, "I could convince Mii-chan to turn around."
"Don't. That isn't necessary."
"Are you sure...?"
"Satoko is a big girl and can take care of herself. Let's simply enjoy our dinner at Angel Mort," Rika feigns childlike innocence. "Meeep~! I can't wait to nom nom those cream puffs. Nipah~!"
Her cutesy pretense does the trick. Rena glomps her in the blink of an eye and swoons, forgetting whatever they were discussing. Their cheeks nuzzle. Ryuuguu Rena can be an on-off switch occasionally. She changes dispositions at the flip, which Rika finds favorably in this case. She does not need Rena, or anyone else for that matter, stressing out from her worrying.
While Rena goes into her 'Cute Mode', Rika considers using this chance to think more about the Satoko observations—only to then shrug off the thought.
Perhaps she's overthinking things. Satoko is merely under a foul mood. Her friend simply needs a while longer to cope with living a life that doesn't revolve around Hinamizawa, something she has to figure out how to do herself.
Rika glances at the rear window. Satoko has long since blurred and integrated with the trees, village homes and warm colors belonging to post meridian. Distance has erased the blond girl from her field of sight.
With that Rika looks away. 'Cute Mode' hasn't reached its duration for Rena, so the redhead cuddles her some more, to which Rika allows.
The four cats leave Hinamizawa, while the last stays behind in the old cradle.
Alone.
Something is wrong.
Satoko doesn't contact them. Not while Rika nibbles at her cream puffs in tribute to Hanyuu, not after everyone finishes dinner.
Rika isn't the only one to notice.
"Is Satoko-chan still going on her stroll?" Shion worries. The twin of Mion has been looking forward to reconnect with her surrogate sibling, after all. Naturally Satoko's long absence puts her on edge.
Keiichi inspects the restaurant window by their dining table. Outside, the sun has retired to wherever it sleeps. "She probably lost track of time."
Shion shakes her head. "No. That's unlike her."
"It is gettin' to be pretty late now," Mion agrees, "and Satoko hasn't phoned Angel Mort either..."
"Satoko-chan and Rika-chan's house got ravaged by a nasty hailstorm in the previous year, so Rena heard. The only payphone that is accessible in Hinamizawa also doesn't work anymore. It's possible she cannot find a way to call us," Rena cuts in with a frown.
"Or that something happened!" Shion shoots up from her seat, beginning to tense.
Mion grimaces, "It's too soon to file a missing person report."
"Right. Best we shouldn't jump the gun. Satoko-chan might just be lost on what to do. Let's return to Hinamizawa, then try finding her," Rena supplies.
Even if there are mixed views on Satoko's whereabouts, the group reach a consensus.
Shion vacates the restaurant at the first opportunity to scurry to her car.
Her ponytailed twin, although similarly eager in finding Satoko, keeps a level head as she walks calmly. Rena and Keiichi tag along with her on the way back to the van. They copy her cool and collected exterior.
Rika stays behind. She stares languidly at the lone cream puff sitting under her nose, the last of the pastry that hasn't been eaten.
Satoko...
"Oi, Rika-chan?" her thoughts disperse and she glances at Keiichi in a blink. Having split from the trio of their other friends, he waits for her by the entrance. "You coming?"
Her response is a brisk nod and a rise off her seat.
She gives the uneaten cream puff a final look, wondering if she should bring it along.
Then priorities beckon when Keiichi calls her again. So Rika saunters, and her escort tends to her, like a benevolent subject would when they pamper a princess needing to pass. She plays the part, too, by glowing and being the center of attention.
Rika doesn't think much about the cream puff after that.
The first place everyone checks is where they've last seen Satoko, the Hinamizawa Branch School. Disappointment is the outcome they get. They mark the campus on a mental list of locations Satoko isn't staying for the night.
As the Club Leader, Mion issues the order that they scatter into pairs to cover more ground. Their odds of tracking down Satoko exponentially increase this way.
Of course, their group of five leaves their numbers uneven, but that's really a minor inconvenience. Shion stubbornly takes the initiative to go solo. No one objects. They know that she can be intensely tenacious whenever she decides upon a goal, and they choose the better judgement not to cross her. Her surrogate sibling relationship with Satoko isn't something to question either. But with her stun gun she can look after herself just fine, anyway.
Rika chooses to partner with Keiichi. Firstly they go to where her old house was. Just to check.
Rena hit the nail on the head about it being razed to the ground. That vicious hailstorm has intruded, has mangled, has left the ruins of her lifelong abode for soil and earth to claim, for grass to bury the leftovers. Dirt from the footpath nearby look disturbed by footprints that hint at prior visitors, so they're on the assumption Satoko dropped by to mourn but did that some time ago judging from the fading traces.
It doesn't feel like they've left square one. Even when they scour the shrine grounds where they tail the footprints to, they're met with the high vantage point that provides a panoramic view of Hinamizawa.
"Great, a dead end. We got nothing on Satoko," Rika grunts.
"Never say never, Rika-chan," Keiichi interjects, "Hinamizawa has only so many spots. We'll find her."
She emits a pensive hmm and marvels at the starry heavens. Purified souls above wink at her in greeting.
Reminiscence reminds her of the last time that she did this. Back when she was Rika of Shōwa 59. Yes, she used to admire the stars like this, whenever she wanted to bid adieu to the day that came before she head off to sleep and rouse to meet the day that would come to transpire—relish what novelties that life had to offer without her death impending.
That's why she left Hinamizawa to start: to experience life's luxuries outside the village that Shōwa 58, or the Endless June, denied her for centuries. Also for Satoko to join her. St. Lucia and its high society would be the stepping stones to that cause.
She remembers that day. Satoko was with her. They had promised to work together and realize her dreams. Their vow had been solidified, not by a pinkie swear but by fingers knotting their linked fists into a ball of intimacy that made a much stronger promise in itself.
The hands from Satoko were as cordial as that smile she had given her, a smile brighter than even the shooting star that arched over them and strewn light. It was that handhold which brought great joy in her heart because it told her how Satoko would be with her every step of the way.
Neither of them backed out, even if Satoko did have some hesitation in her capability to keep up with the studies.
"...Wait, she did?"
"Hm? Rika-chan, ya said something?" she jolts when her companion pipes up, forgetting that he has been standing next to her.
Rika offers a head shake. "No, it's nothing."
He drops the matter and nods. "Then what say we resume our search?" he motions to where they came.
"Fine by me."
With that settled, they travel silently in darkness permeating the trees and dirt roads.
However, that little nag of confusion in her head persists. Hesitant doesn't describe the self-confident Satoko that she knows, even if it comes to studies. Satoko put her trust in her. That was why she accompanied her to St. Lucia, did she not? Rika mulls it over.
...Of course. Satoko had wholeheartedly supported her dreams. The pair worked on all sorts of problems from the study guide, like Algebra and English to name a couple, to prepare for the entrance exam. Every day, every night, every passing autumn, and winter, and spring, and summer, until the year they finally got into that boarding school. Satoko never abandoned her side throughout that, willing to assist her in any way.
There's no way Satoko could have...could have...
Could have what?
Drawing a blank, Rika resolves to stick a pin in that tangent and focus on the search with Keiichi.
But she won't remember to return to that thought either.
Satoko becomes famous days later. Her face raids every street, invades the posters that pedestrians would find pasted on the streetlights and supermarket exits in Okinomiya.
She's the talk of the town now, documented in the newspapers, shown on television, discussed among the populace of Okinomiya and Hinamizawa.
A woman of her pride, Satoko would've adored the attention.
If she were still around.
The sudden, overwhelming resurgence of interest from everyone does not faze Rika. It's been years since the last disappearance, and the curse of Oyashiro-sama had been debunked by Mayor Kimiyoshi, Oryou, and Rika herself later on.
For something like this to turn up makes one hell of a bombshell. Rika can't blame anyone for being startled.
And her friends are on edge. Worse off is Shion who believes haste and aggressiveness to be necessary tactics. The disappearance of Satoko is already beginning to take years off her life, and it shows. Dark bags, wrinkles. Shion enters her decades prematurely as she looks everywhere for Satoko, following whatever leads she had without delay. At some point, she implies that she might wish to personally hunt down Teppei to interrogate if he knows something.
Rena fares much better in body, but not in mind. Old wounds reopen the moment the disappearance is confirmed officially. Part of the minority who stubbornly believed in the curse of Oyashiro-sama even after Rika's admission in Shōwa 59, she takes the situation rather poorly. She sees this as someone incurring the deity's wrath somehow and it cost Satoko's life and that eventually it'll get traced back to her. Taking Ibaraki into consideration, Rena's scars never did fade away.
Keiichi and Mion are equally frantic, but they have eminently improved at handling their emotions. They hope to be patient and meticulous in the search for Satoko. It's easier to find more clues this way. Shion misinterprets the caution as indifference though, and suddenly it's become routine to watch them lash out at each other. The raving Rena doesn't help matters either.
In the midst of this fracas, Rika can only dwell on Satoko.
Even as she wanders near the entrance to Mandai Books.
This bookstore...this is where Rika had picked up the exam preparation manual. Satoko was with her at the time so there she made her proposal for a life outside Hinamizawa. Her friend thought she was thinking too far ahead into the future, though Rika brushed it off as a disdain for studying.
Not that it mattered, Satoko agreed to join her soon after and it made her heart melt.
Rika closes her eyes, recalling how they have walked out the bookstore wreathed in smiles and giggles.
Then opens her eyes to see a scowling Satoko storm up to her, pointing a sharp finger in her face, angrily demanding Rika choose St. Lucia or her best friend.
She blinks with a slight jump in her heart.
Nothing?
"I told you to pick one, didn't I?" Her head swerves. She finds Satoko planted on top of the guard rail to her left, apathetic, shadowy under the sun. "But you always have to be so stubborn."
Satoko lets herself slip backwards. But wouldn't hit the ground.
Orchid eyes barely catch the giant blur streaking across where Satoko was before a billow of crimson engulfs them.
Rika lets out a shriek, staggering then falling to her bottom. Her voice drowns under the screeching of the truck. Blood drenches her to the skin and seeps into her retinas.
She screws her eyes shut, knuckling them in hopes of erasing the blood within. Her head vigorously shakes side to side.
When she finally feels the reprieve of stinging in her eyes, she opens them and gives a once-over of her surroundings.
No trace of blood anywhere, no truck, no...no...
"..."
Rika wonders why she's sitting on the ground.
She trudges up the steep path, her footsteps crunch the leaves and dirt beneath. Black spills over her slouching, groggy form, but so too does orange the closer she nears the exit of the forest. Dawn peeps through gaps of the trees' dense crowns towering her, a sure sign that morning fast approaches.
Dry sweat dampens her skin and pajamas. Last night, Rika was tormented by a nightmare. It wasn't horrible initially; Satoko guided her to the precipice that overlooked Hinamizawa, gushed over its beauty, told her not to take the sight for granted should Rika depart. Though it didn't take long for Rika to notice something off. Held in Satoko's grasp was something reflective and gray, a blue star gleaming off its surface.
Rika cannot recall the nightmare after that.
Well, not completely at least. Only the miasma of blood and caterwauls of horror.
When she roused in the guest room of Mion's manor tossing and turning, Rika almost immediately snuck out with this inexplicable compulsion to enter the forest undetected.
Finally she reaches the summit, the precipice.
Hinamizawa is a sight to behold when it bestirs. Rika sees the houses, trees, and rice paddies thriving from the rolling lush fields. The sun pokes up from the plant-invested mountains that border the rural land, illuminating the scenery. What Rika admires most about the view is its glistening snake river, how it slithers into the outskirts and beyond to seek the unknown wonders.
Rika can almost hear Satoko whisper how arresting Hinamizawa is in the wind.
This village has been Satoko's world dating as far back as infancy. Rika reminds herself that her best friend never really became detached from the village despite when they were attending St. Lucia.
So, is that it, did she run off when the opportunity presented itself? Because she couldn't bear the new life she had? Rika wouldn't have put it past Satoko. She started acting up when her grades slipped and grew withdrawn in turn. Withdrawn to the point where she would be all alone avoiding everyone, even her closest friends.
Even Rika.
This notion causes a pang of betrayal to stab Rika's heart. Satoko did not support her dream, did not support her. The distance between them, their fight, her absence shortly after their return—the signs might as well have been the neon kind for how painfully obvious they were. Then that promise they made to share a life outside Hinamizawa, was it null and void?
Rika knows she might be getting ahead of herself but these affairs are too coincidental and add up all too well.
Suddenly, she calls to mind that glint in those eyes, the last she saw of Satoko at the old school.
The resentment...
She takes a sharp intake, then mutely expires air. It is way too early in the morning to mope like this.
Rika walks back into the forest, starting a long trek back to Sonozaki Manor. Mion and her family might still be asleep. Hopefully they'll be alright with her using their kitchen to make breakfast.
The thought of kitchen knives crosses her mind for some reason.
Chills run up her spine.
Little of the camaraderie among the Gaming Club remains to barely glue them together. Rena succumbs to further bouts of hysteria, frustration inflames the spitfire in Shion, and Keiichi and Mion are at the end of their ropes in their progress to locate Satoko. Rika does nothing save brood and permits this pandemonium to ensue whenever it occurs.
They still have nothing on Satoko's whereabouts even after combing the entire area for who knows how many times. No traces of Satoko anywhere, no witnesses, no accidents, no hints of any struggle. Nothing. Satoko has just...vanished into thin air. As if she were a ghost. Akasaka Mamoru, a police investigator and trusted ally, is also stumped for answers as they are.
The disappearance takes its toll on her. She knows, she feels it—the memory lapses. She keeps finding herself at random locations, or feels something missing in her mind, sometimes both without knowing how or why. A gut feeling tells her that it has something to do with Satoko.
Rika strolls the pathway leading to the water wheel. She and Satoko did this often back then, but with her best friend now missing, Rika makes do with Keiichi as her substitute. He, Mion, and Akasaka are about the only three she can tolerate being around, the aforementioned two after Keiichi being preoccupied at the moment.
Shion has given her a hard time earlier. Not that Rika didn't see that coming, she knew it was a matter of time. For Shion knew that Rika was closest to Satoko, and the ire in desire of someone to blame was bound to redirect to Rika. Though that doesn't make the accusations any less wounding.
That Rika should have been there for Satoko more; that if something had been bothering Satoko that made her vanish, Rika should have confronted her about it beforehand. Then they would not have so much trouble on their hands. Things along those lines.
Rika feels conflicted. Nothing Shion upbraided her for isn't false per se. This mess might have panned out differently had Rika stayed behind with Satoko at the old school, or if she reached out to her. But could it ultimately be preventable? Satoko is someone who does things on her own and needs an extra nudge to call for help and Lord knows she's too strong-willed for that. What's to prevent Satoko pushing Rika away and alienating herself like she was doing anyway? Yet, still...
"Do not listen to Shion," Keiichi reassures unexpectedly as if hearing her current thoughts, "She didn't mean that. Satoko's disappearance is getting everyone on edge. It's something that couldn't be helped, no one is really at fault here."
"I know—" but Rika knows better, it is her fault. "—it's just, Satoko, she's been aloof before all this."
Keiichi hmms, "Yeah, I noticed. Satoko did not seem as spirited as she usually was."
"I can't help feeling that I could have done better for her. I should have taken more responsibility as her closest companion. That way, we wouldn't have fought and she wouldn't had vanis—"
"Fought?" he chips in by echoing. "When was this?"
"At St. Lucia. Satoko and I weren't seeing eye to eye..."
"Oh. Wow, didn't think that was possible. I do not recall a time where you two were fighting."
She gives him a funny look. Her head tilts. "What are you saying? This wouldn't be the first time Satoko and I have disagreed. You were there with us, back in Chie-sensei's class. I was studying algebra for entrance exams when Satoko started to get riled up. She caused quite a scene and even took a pencil to—"
They stop by the water wheel.
Rika senses it again, the dead end of a tangent just after climbing up the details, then a memory lapse which makes her slip off the edge.
"...I can't remember."
"Because that...never happened," Keiichi claps a hand on her shoulder, eying her tentatively. "Rika-chan, are you okay?"
Then something comes up. Screams, smell of blood...and choking noises? The sensory input goes by instantaneously. She can't be certain whether or not her mind is playing tricks. It is giving her a headache, though. She clutches the side of her head and wobbles, rocking like the ocean.
If Keiichi wasn't worried before, he is undoubtedly perturbed now. "We should return to Mion's manor."
The suggestion makes her back away.
"N-No need for that, I am fine," Rika sits atop the retaining wall near the river. "I simply need a breather."
When she gets a good look down, she gasps.
That's when everything she sees suddenly becomes hazy and disorienting, before...blank.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"Rika-chan? Rika-chan!"
Misty orchids meeting vivid periwinkles, Rika makes eye contact with Keiichi.
"Mmmmhuh w-wha?" she garbles. Her clothes have thinned and stuck to her creamy skin, her bare legs are gripped by the cold touch of water, her eyes bathe in hot tears, and she is crouching down in the river with the boy whose hands weigh down her shoulders. She can't remember what had happened for her to be like this.
He releases her. Rising to his feet, he pats his chest. "Whew! Good ya settled down. Nearly gave me a heart attack with that stunt!"
"Stunt? Keiichi, I don't understand what you're saying..."
"You seriously don't know?" Keiichi is taken aback.
She shakes her head.
There's a sigh before his face grows serious. "You jumped in the river and made the water splash like wolves tearing their prey. Not sure why but you were screaming Satoko's name as you did. Was one helluva panic attack."
Rika recoils at the recount. The description he provides doesn't match her idiosyncrasies and seems like it would fit a polar opposite if she has one, but she can tell Keiichi isn't fooling around.
Her head drops. Lack of willpower prevents her from lifting it up. Her downcast gaze takes a fascination with the undulating, blue expanse of liquid that swallows her lower half.
"Oh...is that so...?" she says more to herself than Keiichi.
"Yeah, though I won't judge," he helps her up. "Things aren't the same without Satoko. It's understandable that you'd be pining over her. I'd be shocked otherwise."
"We should try searching for her again."
She only manages to advance two steps before Keiichi grabs her arm.
"No, not now. Best you call it a day," he advises.
Rika purses her lips. "It's barely past noon."
He shuffles, earning a questioning look from her. "...ah...about that, Mion and I were thinking you got back to St. Lucia later today."
"What?!" her eyes nearly bulge out their sockets. "But I can't go this soon! We haven't even found Satoko!"
"Exactly. There's no way of knowing when we do. Over a week has passed thus far. More weeks, or months, or years, who knows how long it could take to find her. Don't forget you have other priorities to undertake, such as your schooling."
She hesitates. Her education. St. Lucia, the foundation to her dream of living a non-Hinamizawa life.
Keiichi leans in and meets her at eye level. "Satoko wouldn't want you to waste your life for her. No one in the club would. We'd never be so selfish to ask you that. Your life is as important as ours."
It would seem his silver tongue hasn't rusted in the least because she can not bring herself to argue. Rika wishes to reunite with Satoko, to resolve their differences; that much hasn't changed. But Keiichi makes a fair point. He does remind Rika that Satoko would hate for anyone to sacrifice themselves out of her own benefit. No matter what.
That explains why Satoko had not once confronted Rika about abandoning her dream. Satoko wanted her to be happy...
Aware that Rika isn't going to talk further, Keiichi guides her out of the river and she doesn't resist. "Come. You might wanna freshen up at the manor first before Mion drives ya back. It'll be a long ride."
Rika sneaks a glance past her shoulder as they move.
A blond head emerges from the water and stays afloat.
The funny thing about coming to terms with something unpleasant is how it...simply happens. You can curse, despair, bemoan the desolation but there comes a time when you then move forward in your life whether you want to or not. That's how it is. Reality is a fickle thing and as its inhabitants we are meant to adapt and accept.
Satoko's disappearance hurt hard, but that is something Rika learns to embrace, even if she detests the change. This world submits to nobody. It does not freeze time over something tragic that comes up for one or a number of people, it presses on like in any other day for the reason that it just does and she is expected to follow it in its hurdles.
Upon her return Rika did have to make up a bit of work from being gone longer than she should, though she quickly caught up. St. Lucia became smooth sailing from then on. The classwork satiates her appetency for knowledge, the debates at the salon hones her social skills as well as her critical thinking. She excels in these activities.
Rika steadily matures, a prim and proper woman. She slots herself into this high society world where everyone from students to teachers value her presence. The friends she has made welcome and applaud her for her accomplishments. Not one student exists that does not recognize her as the shining example of the academy.
The spring days glide by, and Rika enters another passage of time, the official beginning of summer.
She and the trio in her clique make their way to the school building.
"I hear Rika-sama has become the top student of St. Lucia."
"But of course."
"Naturally. Rika-sama achieves the best in everything. Our lady should be rewarded nothing less than that."
Rika dons a good-natured smile. "No need for the adulation. All I have done was trust in the results of the die that are cast. They cannot be changed; rather they give the chance to favor the roller. This was not my doing, this was fate, that which has given me this perfect world."
"So modest, Rika-sama! I, for one, am delighted you attend this school and grace us with your arcane wisdom. Unlike that Houjou delinquent."
The smile on her face inverts. No one here knows what has happened to Satoko but word got around that she would not return. The few people that care are who celebrate her truancy, her clique particularly. They have not forgotten the trap Satoko made which injured one of them. Not that she can't fault their justifiable anger, though grudges like this are an unhealthy obsession.
Rika gave up on getting the three to bite their tongues long ago. They would not lay off no matter how many times she reproaches them. Be that as it may, how they diss Satoko rubs her the wrong way sometimes. Even if her friend does go overboard, she isn't the swine they presume her as.
Satoko... Rika reflects as they shuffle in silence for the rest of the trip. She hasn't stopped remembering Satoko; she could not, would not. That knowledge is what keeps her going—the knowledge that Satoko would want her to live her life and be happy, that Rika shouldn't give up on fulfilling her dream even if Satoko won't remain beside her. Somewhere out there her dear friend is probably thinking about her.
Satoko's birthday is right around the corner. Four days from now. Rika vows to honor her memory when that comes.
They enter the hall. Rika lights up with glee as she struts with regal bearing, the trio clustering around her do the same.
The assembly of girls inside cease their murmurs and provide her their undivided attention, to which Rika returns by saying, "good tidings to you". Her peers swoon and coo among themselves. They bask in the honor of receiving this manner of address from the top student, just as Rika basks in their warm reception.
Moving down the rich carpet, Rika picks up the sound of loafers coming to a stop ahead of her.
She glances away from her peers to eye the source. Her voice sticks in her throat.
Satoko.
Standing before Rika with a wide grin, upright in a confident posture, appearing just as she did back when she was attending this school. But there is no mistaking it. Arrays of sunbeams draw translucent stripes over her shapely figure.
Rika lifts the commissures of her lips. Her eyes twinkle.
"Satoko," the syllables flow in a deep, whispering breath, rolling off her tongue so well she can almost taste them.
"Rika-sama," one of her friends interrupt, "who—"
Her hand reflexively raises for silence as she comes face to face with Satoko, keeping five feet apart. This sudden blast from the past blows up in her face as a bombshell. Rika does not recall receiving any mail from the club members or Akasaka that inform her of this reappearance.
Then again, why look a gift horse in the mouth? Satoko is present, and attending St. Lucia again if her school uniform suggests anything! Her intuition that Satoko had been unwilling to support her dream just may be untrue, it would seem.
There is much Rika wishes to open up to Satoko about, much to catch up on. She itches to welcome this girl back, take her hand, then show her through the parade of their future, guiding her out that dark alleyway known as memory lane where Satoko was lurking in for the longest time. Together.
But Satoko stops her before she gets a chance to speak. Her forefinger points up abruptly as she smirks.
Curious, Rika looks above.
The chandelier swirls down upon her.
Its bottom finial drills into her spine as terminal velocity presses her four limbs back against its wheel.
She's weighed down but doesn't make contact with the floor. Rika keeps falling and falling. Vertigo stirs her perception and equilibrium like yogurt, her thoughts and her blurring vision gyrates in intensity that rivals the thick consistency of the dairy product.
Rika flashbacks to this morning— of Satoko, the good tidings, her walk to the main hall, her getting dressed, her waking up in her dorm room; all rewinding. She watches the images melt with each other. They blend into this strange concoction of violet and ebony, with shards of white strewn everywhere tracing luminous circles around her as she spins.
Something is stirring her brain as well because nausea rattles her senses. Rika can't think anymore at this point. Only feel.
She turns round and round counterclockwise, and falls and falls. Dizzy and dizzy.
Her back is pushed far deeper into the still spiraling, still spinning chandelier. The finial worms its way into her chest cavity.
This hurts...this hurts...!
Everything stops. Rika doesn't so much as land, more so that the world finally clicks in place. Bile remains suppressed and is gulped down in her throat from the sudden shift.
She lies on her back tucked inside a futon, facing a wood ceiling with leaky water stains. The faint aroma of a familiar incense pervades the inside air.
Rika does a double take once it hits her. Her old house!
As she sits up straight, she ponders the existence of the home she and Satoko used to share. Rena mentioned that a hailstorm razed this place to the ground. So how is it that she resides here now?
And has this room always been this spacious?
She bites back a blood-curdling scream at the mere sight of her hands. Particularly her tiny digits that grapple nothing. When her palms slap her pudgy cheeks a few times, Rika connects the dots: she is no longer sweet sixteen. She has reverted to her child form.
It takes some doing for Rika not to get in a fit of hysterics. Nothing makes sense. She should have woken up in her dorm room, not here! Rika clutches her head, ransacking the recesses of memories from within for answers.
Finishing homework, turning in before midnight, and...a nightmare. She was falling, spinning; dark, depressing colors swirling in her vision, then constant pain.
Nothing else beyond that. Just a thick fog.
A startling realization springs to mind. Rika is here, body shrunk, physical age reduced to a number that she deduces is 'ten' based on observation and century's worth of memories. That would mean—
Panicked eyes whip to the calendar plastered on the nearest wall.
Shōwa 58.
The Endless June.
Author's Note:
I really loved how this one-shot turned out! Honestly one of my favorites so far. It is short, though I never intended for this to be super long. Anyway, I wanted to write out what Rika was doing in the Satokowashi-hen world, outside of Satoko's POV. Perhaps I might do the same for the other worlds of the second loop.
Also, I just noticed a slight contradiction from this one-shot to Episode 2, particularly where Rika and Hanyuu have their discussion about the start of another loop. Though the placement of that scene was already confusing to begin with. It seemed like a sort of flashback, but the show makes it seem as though Rika was conversing with Hanyuu while she stood above Keiichi and Rena.
Definitely preferred the manga version where this scene made more sense by taking place after the events of Onidamashi-hen, which my work follows more on. The manga even explained why Hanyuu disappeared, which the anime cropped out apparently. Something about her leaving the mortal realm to go into a deep slumber for Rika to live a normal life.
Anyway, June is nearing and I think it's about time I get to writing a 2021 Special. On that note I'm also going to be fulfilling a certain request in doing so, involving a certain nurse. Sanitel, your idea is up next.