Boundless Kakera

by Finley the Penguin

[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni] An anthology of stories. In the Sea of Kakera, there exists innumerable fragments that explore the lives of the Higurashi cast. With romance, tragedy, slice of life and more, the possibilities are boundless! Pairings vary.

11. Birds of a Feather

Title: Birds of a Feather

Series: Boundless Kakera, Chapter 11

Fandom: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni

Synopsis: In the earlier years of the Loop, Maebara Keiichi and Furude Rika have been on the threshold of a pursuit for freedom—a longing for a world they wish to happily be part of.

Notes: Looper!Keiichi; Pre-Dark!Rika; Occurs prior to the start of the series

Pairing: KeiRika (Keiichi/Rika, M/F)

Posted: December 8, 2021

---

She roams through the meadow freely, admiring how the whites, pinks and yellows dance around her. Towering grass tickles her from head to toe. Whistling wind tugs at her billowing, long hair. Her innocent laughter spreads through the summer scenery.

Barreling out the field of wildflowers, much at bliss in exploration, she notices the obstacle dead ahead too late and bumps into it.

She lands on her bottom. "Meep! Owwie..."

"Are you all right?"

An outstretched hand appears before her. Curiously, her eyes trace the palm, then up the arm.

She meets a face nothing like the two thousand she is able to identify through eleven years of living here. Skin tan with the caresses of the sun, short hair dark and messy like hot fudge on a scoop of ice cream, his deep blue eyes shimmers with concern in such a way reminding her of water from the purest rivers she has ever witnessed. She blinks as if her face were splashed.

Unconsciously, she takes the hand proffering to help her up.

"Sorry," he apologizes sheepishly, "Didn't mean to get in your way."

She continues to stare up at the boy wordlessly.

His height surpasses her to where her head only reaches his chest, and the slightly diminished baby fat in his cheeks tells her he's a couple or few years her senior.

The boy must misinterpret her silence for seething hostility, judging how he puts his hands up in surrender and panics, "I had no intention hurting you like that. Honest! Please don't be upset. I—I..."

She suddenly bursts into giggles, adoring how he looks like a startled chicken.

"Don't worry, sir! I'm not upset!"

He relaxes. "Oh, but aren't you hurt?"

There has been a dull pain throbbing where she landed, though nothing severe enough to bruise. She can barely notice now.

"Nope!" she chirps, imitating a kitty curling its paws by raising her hands adorably. "I'm tough! Tough from exploring every day!"

"I will take your word on that," he chuckles, "So, you know Hinamizawa quite well then?"

"Hinamizawa is small and cozy but beautiful with forests and fields to make it a big enough place to live in. Not too many people live around these parts, so that just makes it bigger!"

"I hear ya! Even the air wafting about is special. Something about it; the serenity, the life, the purity—told in its whispers. Tokyo doesn't have Mother Nature to lull me like this."

She adopts the quirk of an owl, eyes curious and head tilting. "Tokyo? I figured you weren't a local, but Tokyo? You live there?"

"Lived there," the boy corrects. "I'm living here now. Just moved in."

She applauds merrily. "Yippee! The more the merrier! And you can bring things we don't have in this village, too."

He rubs the back of his head, wearing an abashed smile. "Ah, I doubt I have much to bring. Doesn't mean I won't try, ha ha! Though I am still adjusting at the moment... oh, maybe first you can show me, the things here I can't find in the city?"

"More than that. We can explore!" she whoops, not missing a beat.

His tiny smile widens into an amused grin. "I'd like that."

"...meep. Sir, you look better like that. You should do it often."

"Eh? Do what?"

She skips around the boy, takes some steps toward the evening horizon, before twirling around to face her company again with her hands behind her back.

"Grin big! Like this," she beams with as much warmth as she gets from the hot rays of sunlight showering her. "Nipah~!"

He looks at her wide-eyed and bewildered for a few seconds.

Then the blues of his eyes sparkle as they resume normal size. He flashes a bigger grin. "Aren't you a bundle of joy!" he heartily laughs.

"I gotta be, good sir! That is the unspoken rule in Hinamizawa. If you aren't happy, you aren't truly living here."

"And I'll owe it to you for helping me out with that. Thanks, uhmm..."

She introduces with a bow, "Furude Rika. At your service!"

The boy returns the favor. "Keiichi. Maebara Keiichi. And I'm gonna do my best!"

A whisper of air coos in her ears, reminding her that Hinamizawa waits to be fully introduced as well. So Rika takes his hand before dragging him on the road to the horizon. "C'mon, Keiichi! Let's explore!"

Keiichi matches her giddy pace as he cheers, "Let's!"

The cicadas sing where wind guides the pair.

---

In acquainting herself with Keiichi throughout the weeks of June, Rika develops a stronger thirst for adventure. Often, she stares into those blinking oceans that have seen a bigger world, and, often, her flaming passion to see the sights flare up and dry any satisfaction she gained from exploring Hinamizawa.

One day, believing he has fully adjusted in the humble village by now, she finally asks Keiichi about the vast wonders outside it.

"Tokyo's got an abundance of everything," he tells her, "malls, burger joints, record stores, ice cream parlors, arcades; many, many kinds of stuff. Big and bustling with people! Even some beaches to play in!"

His words flow to her like the shallow river beside the big rocks they sit on, and her mind swims in thoughts of the things he speaks. Few of those places sound like stuff that she might find at the nearest town, Okinomiya. However, Keiichi makes it seem luxurious in comparison and Rika has a vague idea on what a beach is from books and pictures.

"Amazing!" she glows with excitement. "Have you been to all of them?"

Keiichi shakes his head. "Afraid not. Never even went to an ice cream parlor, and I didn't really hang out much at the other places. However I do remember going to the beach many times when I was smaller."

"Really? What is it like?!"

"Ahaha! Well..."

He leans in closer to Rika with a smile and speaks in a manner like he were relaying a fairy tale. What he discusses might very well fit that description. Seas that spread far beyond the unknown, a temptation for young explorers to unravel its secrets. Sands that can take shape into kingdoms, mythical beasts and more, merely requiring deft hands of the creative to realize the imagination.

His irises enlarge and shine a brighter blue as he makes many gestures hinting at sculpture, boasting his skills in the art. She sees through his eyes again, this time learning of the world he discovered.

When Keiichi is finished, Rika wastes no time in applauding. "Wow, the beach sounds so much fun! I wanna go now!"

"Maybe not now," he laughs, "but maybe someday. Once you're old enough to travel the world, you can check it out on your own."

She pauses. "On my own? You mean, you don't wanna join me?"

The grin on his face falters. "Sorry, Rika-chan. I'd rather stay in Hinamizawa."

Rika deflates, her shoulders slumping. Her buddy's never had any issue journeying the deep recesses of trees and rock with her. That is where they are, in fact; they rest at one of the spots where they can listen to the tune of passing water near, her feet taking a dip even.

What makes visiting the beach problematic then? Has it something to do with her?

She does not realize that she is wearing her heart on her sleeve until noticing Keiichi flinch.

"Hey, hey, don't cry! It's not like we are gonna stop being buddies or anything. We'll always be buddies, through and through. I promise," he pats her head reassuringly.

"So why? Why reject the big world waiting for us?" she sniffles.

Much to her shock, Keiichi smiles. "I have not. If anything, I've long since embraced it."

"But you told me you'd rather be in Hinamizawa..."

"Exactly. That is the point!"

"Huh? Keiichi, what are you saying?"

Keiichi leans back, arms folding as hands hide behind his head, before letting out a wistful sigh into the skies. "Tokyo was a big world, yet it wasn't. It never had any room for me. I could never fit in. So when my family and I moved to Hinamizawa, that was the first time I felt... free. To me, Hinamizawa is a far bigger world. I have you to thank for helping show me that."

This causes her to blink owlishly. How is it that something can be big but not big simultaneously? It should be one or the other and the city ought to be much bigger than the village. But somehow Keiichi believes otherwise. How he's cryptic about it doesn't help matters...

Suddenly, the river squeezes her feet and the breeze coos louder right when her lips begin to curl down. Her mouth straightens back to a line as she blinks.

Hinamizawa tells her that Keiichi has his reasons for choosing to live here over Tokyo, and the least Rika can do is respect that even if she can't understand why.

Begrudgingly, Rika accepts her wisdom.

---

Watanagashi is in the air on the third Sunday of June. It is when Rika and Keiichi thoroughly breathe in the magnificence that Hinamizawa has to offer.

Swarming villagers chatter with excitement, festival booths make their yearly visit to cater to everyone and strings of lanterns shimmer over the scene like stars. Likewise does the very night rejoice; its heart, the full moon, beats with brightness out of its dusky body of blue.

Rika does a twirl. Her robes entertain her friends with a dance of red and white. "How do I look, sirs?"

"Hauuu!" Rena glomps her. "So cute! Omochikaeri~!"

Satoko, though looking amused, pulls Rena away. "Now, now. Don't cling so tightly onto your friends, Rena-san. You know we need Rika fighting fit for the ceremony."

"Do not forget our annual Watanagashi Festival Battle of Evils!" Mion glances at Keiichi with a smirk. "Battle of Five Evils."

The expression on Keiichi's face is akin to a child having witnessed a butterfly emerge from its chrysalis first hand. "I still can't believe the village has this kind of festival every year! Wow!"

"This is a time when we commemorate Oyashiro-sama, the guardian deity who watches over all around these parts. It is a custom Hinamizawa must follow earnestly. As the miko, I perform the offertory dance and appease Oyashiro-sama. It'll happen soon..."

Keiichi nods, understanding Rika's explanation. "Ah. That explains the attire," he smiles crookedly, "Feeling confident, Rika-chan?"

Nervous, she squirms. "Dancing before the entire village will be like wandering in the heavy snowfall we get during winter—it gives me cold feet."

He rubs her head. "You'll do great, I know it. You got the heart of an explorer. The toughest at that! Just venture through it. It's just one more area to get past."

Listening to his words of encouragement makes Rika feel enchanted. She wonders if Keiichi is a magician; the way his lips flap and his silver tongue casts the spell that imbues her with confidence.

"...meep," Rika tenderly grasps the large hand atop her head with both her own, humming in bliss.

"We do have plenty of time before the ceremony. No worries, Rika-chan, we'll get you fired up or my name isn't Sonozaki Mion! And what better way than beginning the Battle of Five Evils!" the leader of their club pumps a fist over her head.

Everyone mimics her gesture. "Yeeeah!"

The Battle of Five Evils is a night to remember. They strut from stall to stall testing what each offer by playing games Mion proposes. Speed eating contests for instance. Her taste buds tingle from drowning in takoyaki, shaved ice, and cotton candy.

They even hunt for big prizes at a shooting gallery, the biggest being a stuffed bear. As a team, they each take their turn getting the bear to fall off the shelf.

It is only after Keiichi delivers the coup de grâce with a cork bullet between its eyes when the bear wobbles and falls! They celebrate their collective effort and the fruit it reaped.

Alas, every good thing must come to an end. The time for the offertory dance beckons her to commence the finale of Watanagashi.

"Rika-chan!" Keiichi calls.

She stops moving up the steps of the altar to give him a bemused look.

"We won that bear because we were united against the odds, and it will also be like that when you head up there and perform. All of us are in this together," he winks, flashing a thumbs up. Behind him, the others vouch for him with big smiles and affirmative nods.

Her response is silent yet telling—a mirroring of Keiichi's gesture of encouragement before the pitter patters on stone where her feet bounce unlike previously.

Taiko drums beat in the rhythm of her racing heart as she takes a step forward, standing before heaps of futons on top of the altar. Her body trembles slightly in apprehension, but her mind enforces its will upon it to keep proceeding. There are people counting on her to do this.

Once she finishes reciting the prayer to Oyashiro-sama, her hands grip the wood handle of the ceremonial hoe.

Rika enacts the ritual. She circles around the altar in intricate choreography while swinging her hoe. This is to purify the cotton in the futons that contain evil energy so it can harbor new sin from the villagers once they get hold of it later. She calls upon weeks of practice to guide herself, knowing she cannot afford to mess this up or who knows what might happen.

Perspiration runs down her forehead; like rain on walls, she imagines. This ceremonial hoe is certainly no feather, and the burden of bearing this particular responsibility as a miko makes it harder to wield.

Her heart skips a beat when she feels air promptly kiss her sweaty palms.

The moment happens fleetingly, as slippery as her hands. Reflexes come into play, however. Rika manages to snatch the hoe back before it even begins plummeting. All in a second.

Stifling a sigh of relief, Rika resumes performing the offertory dance as if nothing happened. The villagers, still and without any response, seem to encourage the notion.

This day will definitely take some years off her life. But she goes on nonetheless, reminding herself over and over that Keiichi and the club are in the crowd supporting her.

Eventually, she draws the ritual to a close. She raises the ceremonial hoe over her head before plunging it down upon the offering, the blade sinking into the futon.

Cotton flies into the air along with the hoe and along with the chorus of cheers.

Loudest is the voice from Keiichi.

Now, having left the Furude Shrine, everyone gathers at the place near the bridge. The stream gushes and the bonfires crackle as if cordially conversing among themselves. That may well be the case. Fire and Water are both expressive, both inclining to their respective serenades that help soothe their audience.

Pieces of cotton are distributed to all by her as well as the festival committee, each and every to be set adrift in the flow that leaves and never returns. As any sin burdened by Hinamizawans should be treated.

Rika makes it her mission to hand her friends their cotton balls.

"Thanks, Rika-chan," Keiichi readily accepts the last piece she gives him. "and I have something to give you!"

He shoots something into her arms like passing a basketball.

Luckily, she reacts quick enough to catch it. She inspects the stuffed bear fleetingly, before glancing back at Keiichi with an incredulous look.

"I thought this bear was for the club..."

"Someone's gotta keep it, and after the performance you did today, the club and I reached a consensus on who'd deserve it most. Rika-chan, we are all so proud! I doubt anyone could do it the way you did!"

"Even if I had messed up? I did let my grip slip on the ceremonial hoe halfway..."

"I know, I saw," he admits. "but ya kept going. You didn't let it stop you. That is why, at the end of the day, you succeeded. And really, it isn't like one setback ruins everything, now does it?"

Rika responds with a head shake and a small smile. "Thinking about you all did help." Knowing that they are there for her, especially in time of need. No setback can ever change that.

Keiichi gives her a pat on the shoulder. "Let this bear be a symbol of that then—of the close bond we share, and how that contributed to your success today. Keep it close to your heart."

"Will do, good sir! Nipah~!"

The night feels more like daytime when Rika beams, sunny as she is.

Two thousand cotton balls ride the water moving under the bridge, then off into that faraway place Hinamizawans are unlikely to tread. Cotton Drifting comes to an end.

Crowds disperse, retiring late for the day and readying themselves for the next which shall surely come too early after this very long night. The Gaming Club says their goodbyes among themselves before heading their separate ways.

Rika, last to depart after aiding the festival committee with cleanup, merrily strolls the pathway running through the grove leading to home. Trees as old as this village have lived more than a century loom over her, but she isn't scared. She knows they are like the elderly looking out for the young.

Her gaze lingers on the stuffed bear in her embrace. On that face is a smile oozing with warmth, as if pledging its devotion to forever be at her side for however long her whims demand. She thinks about the boy who bestowed this gift upon her, noting the similarity between them in that regard; so profound Rika must consider if he hadn't just given her a part of himself as a memento. To keep close to her heart...

"...Mmph?!"

Something latches onto her mouth from behind. Suddenly, Rika is unable to breathe.

Her head swirls from the inside and she can feel something pulling her away. The world around her blurs.

It doesn't matter how loud she screams for help, the tightness against her face stifles whatever escapes her mouth into muffled sobs. At some point, her voice dies away entirely.

Kick, kick, kick go her legs in its tangle of air until they slip into a dangle of numbness.

Before long, shadowy, hulking shapes appear and converge on her. Then, black consumes all.

The bear falls from her arms.

---

A young bird awakens, ever frantic. It finds itself in its nest, safe, unharmed, not drifting in the space of the heavens that seem more like a sea.

When it emerges from its home, it can hear Hinamizawa whistle. That is its cue to start this new day. Heeding the calls, the young bird takes off. The wind doesn't tug at its body as much because it moves slowly, as if hesitant about something.

The singing cicadas are oddly louder than usual.

---

Keiichi stops by a field teeming with wildflowers, having yet another intake of country air since his arrival. It feels like Hinamizawa is hugging him as a way of welcome.

He listens to its whispers, learning the big, new world it can provide for his comfort, and sighs blissfully.

His parents have made the right call to relocate here. Tokyo, flocking with people and tight with nondescript skyscrapers, holds no candle to this languorous, open village before him. So quiet and tranquil he can actually think for himself.

Hinamizawa gives him something he has yearned for, freedom.

"It was an accident!" he sobs to Mom and Dad, dropping the airsoft gun that causes permanent blindness. "The academics, the stress—I had only wanted to escape that! I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to do it. All I ever wanted...was to be free..."

His breath hitches as tears threaten to spill, but Keiichi manages to repress that pain.

This will be a fresh start, a clean slate. Hinamizawa is the answer to his call for help and he shall do his damndest to comply. Here, he can become the Maebara Keiichi he wanted to be, not that hopeless imposter who failed at being the better man.

Keiichi vows to start by acquainting himself with the new faces. Show them the kind, responsible, and outgoing guy he can—no, will!—be with this newfound freedom and hope to leave a good impression.

Remembering what Dad told him about this place, there are two thousand people. So many options leaving Keiichi little decision. Who should he choose first?

"Meep!"

Something comes barreling into his side. Not able to see it, much less expect it, he jolts.

Curiously, his eyes trace his arm, then down the small arms which coil over it like tendrils.

He meets a face nothing like the two thousand he thought he would ever meet in what little time he has spent here. Skin light with the breath of a pale lunar glow, her long hair falls straight and blue—a hime cut flaunting the magnificence of midnight sky—and her eyes vividly purple flare with zest. In them, the violet flames burn, and his aching heart warms from the glee shining between every blink.

"Hi!" her lips etch a wide grin on that face chubby and round like the full moon.

Keiichi stares blankly at the bluenette. "Erm... hi..."

She pulls away. Her hands hide behind her back as she chirps, "Why the lack of emotion on your face, good sir? Don't you know that you should always wear a smile in Hinamizawa? That is what makes it easier to be happy. If you aren't happy, you aren't truly living here."

He chuckles over her innocence. "I wouldn't know. I just moved in from the city."

"That I can tell. There is an air of sophistication to you not like we villagers. You have seen things Hinamizawa is foreign to."

"I guess you're right about that! But I'm blind to the things Tokyo is foreign to, which you have seen here."

"Let's be buddies then! We'll have each other to enlighten, and we can explore!"

Buddies? Already? How sudden. But Keiichi grins and gives her a thumbs up, anyway. He is not the type to look a gift horse in the mouth. "I'd like that," he bows. "Call me Keiichi. Maebara Keiichi."

The bluenette giggles before bowing as well. "Furude Rika."

They travel the dirt roads, passing houses and trees and paddy fields. Rika-chan shows him all these things and more. He even learns of the school he shall attend starting tomorrow, along with Rika-chan and the other kids who live around here as well.

Small in size to where there exists only a single class, providing for all ages and grades. But big enough for him to get to know more people than he had back in Tokyo. Just as Hinamizawa, as Keiichi sees it, is a bigger world.

The cicadas sing where wind guides the pair, and he happily listens to their therapeutic tune. From what he knows, cicadas symbolize rebirth; they shed their old skin and wear a new one. Fitting, he thinks. These cicadas must be celebrating the new Keiichi.

"Ah..." Rika-chan holds her head, discomfort contorting her features.

Noticing this, he frets, "Rika-chan, are you all right?"

She musters a faint smile. "It's nothing, sir. The cries of the cicada are just a teeny bit hard for me to bear, is all. They are louder than usual."

"Maybe you should go home and rest. Let's stop exploring for now. We can continue another time."

"Hmm... okay. The sky is beginning to get dark."

Keiichi doesn't tear his eyes away from her. He notes the genuine pain that she inadvertently reveals to him through countenance, which gives him pain, too. In a way, this hits too close to...home.

"Will you be okay walking on your own like that?" he worries.

"I'll manage. We are not far from where I live. But thanks for asking, good sir!" Rika-chan giggles despite herself. Just when it looks like she is about to turn her back and leave, she pauses. "...meep. Before I depart, can I ask something?"

"Whatever you want!"

She doesn't mince words. "Why did you move here? What compelled you to abandon Tokyo?"

Her screams are like thunder, loud and ripping through the gray above, and he reacts as if lightning has struck down upon him. He cannot move and everything becomes lucid to him now. Like the obtrusive leakage of crimson from the left eye this weeping girl clutches.

There is a slight shift in his bearing that makes him go rigid. Either he is growing deaf or the cicadas have stopped singing.

"I..." he drawls with hesitance, "I wanted to be free. I came to start a new life," Something about his answer doesn't come out right. Truth be told, he finds it harder to feel like himself with how he speaks.

"I'm afraid I do not understand, Keiichi. What was wrong with your old life? Was it really that bad?" Rika-chan tilts her head.

Flashes of that girl sting his eyes as her wails echo in his ears. His eyes screw shut, but fail to block out the visions. His palms plug his ears and that does nothing to mute the anguish. He cannot help the few shaky breaths which slip off his lips.

Time is lost to him for a while, and he isn't sure how much he missed, but everything eventually settles back into place when a pair of small hands grip his shirt. That is what helps pull him back to reality.

His teary eyes snap open to witness glowing purple flames in her wide, innocent gaze.

Rika-chan is staring up at him sadly. "I am sorry to have asked. I had no idea it was painful."

"No," he croaks instantaneously, because how can he ever blame someone for not knowing of the skeleton he keeps in the closet. "It isn't your fault, it's mine. I brought this burden upon myself."

"So tell me. Tell me, then I can ease your pain," she insists, looking and sounding as if ready to learn something she has wanted to hear for the longest time. Her purple eyes blaze, licking his tears dry by stare alone until none remain. He can feel the melancholy stinging his eyes begin to wane because of that.

Keiichi can't look away, her fire consuming him. But he does not burn. Rather, he finds himself blanketed in warmth where his heart pulsates. The longer Rika-chan observes him, the more that he becomes reassured. Something in her gaze speaks of mercy and inspires freedom. For him.

He feels inclined to embrace this warmth, before, ultimately, he feels inclined to speak. "I committed a grave sin—one that got someone hurt. All because I wanted to escape such a restrictive place, because I was so stupid I...went around shooting people with a BB gun to rob them of the happiness I never got..."

Rika-chan dons an indecipherable expression. He stares deeper into her eyes; they continue to glow, but he doesn't feel colder or any warmer. That makes it all the more terrifying. There is no way of knowing what she will do. No way of knowing what can happen next.

His stomach drops when she takes a few steps back, the rays of evening sunlight above bathing her from behind.

"Nipah~!"

"Huh?" Keiichi blinks, not expecting a face that bright beaming before him.

With a grin, she winks. "No need to worry!"

"Wha...What do you mean?"

"It's true. You indeed sinned. But sins can be forgiven! Especially if you are willing to rectify them by improving yourself as a person. And I can see it, Keiichi. You have changed. Even if that was not the case before, you're a good person now and you will slowly grow to be better from then on."

The glint flashing across her eyes convinces Keiichi enough to believe that this girl knows what she is saying. Rika-chan sees so much out of him. More than he may even realize. What she notices entirely, though, he doubts he'll ever learn from her. Yet, he at least knows that much.

"Do you think I can start a new life? Here?" he asks.

Her response is instant and true. "Of course, sir! Hinamizawa welcomes all life and forgives all life! We are in the hands of a humble mother with great appreciation for such things. I should know."

Hearing those words touch his heart. "Rika-chan, I...I don't know what to say..."

Rika-chan giggles before approaching him. She extends a hand up to his head as if reaching for something. Getting the message, Keiichi kneels down to help her out. He gasps when she starts patting his head.

"So don't. Simply let me help you to truly live here. Like this I'll pat away your sadness so you can be happy, which will bring you closer and closer to what you seek," she says sincerely.

"Yeah... okay..." he replies, voice soft and tender.

She retracts her hand. "And Keiichi?"

"Hm?"

"Should your sadness ever return to bother you in your head again, you come straight to me. I'll pat it away as many times as needed. I also wish...for you to live a life here in Hinamizawa. As my buddy."

There aren't any more words after that. Just pitter patters retreating in the distance. Her long hair flutters like a flag helplessly chasing the breeze, spreading a strip of indigo and a scent of shampoo where she happily skips.

For the first time in a long time, Keiichi grins. Honestly grins. This is his second chance, a new world with new people not yet tarnished by his undoing—and a girl eager to guide him through it with a smile warm for the sad and the sinned, whose eyes he'll stare long into again and again so that he can be reminded how lucky he is.

This is a moment for which Keiichi will make certain to never forget, a memory to transcend other memories.

That's why, he promises for himself and for the girl who calls herself Furude Rika, I'm gonna do my best!

Now he's beginning to sound like himself.

---

Watanagashi is in the air on the third Sunday of June.

Among the crowd, he watches the offertory dance and its dancer. Poetry in motion. Rika-chan sways everyone like she sways with wind, charming and meticulous. She circles the altar sustaining stacks of futon while she swings her hoe.

The corners of Keiichi's lips, curling up, stretch so broadly he feels it might cut open his cheeks. Never has he bear witness to a momentous ceremony such as this until now. Breathtaking is seeing his buddy here assume quite a prominent role, flawlessly so at that!

He can tell how much effort Rika-chan is pouring into this dance based on her sweating and the way she arduously heaves an object that heavy. She must have practiced a lot.

But at the same time, Keiichi notices the fatigue settling on her face as she starts to wobble and he worries Rika-chan might mess up sooner or later.

His fears, fortunately, never become reality. Rika-chan simply secures a tighter grip on the ceremonial hoe when it seems she's about to slip up. She doesn't break rhythm at all. After some time, she ceases the dance without failure and his heart relaxes.

The only mistake here is his lack of faith in his buddies, especially in a pivotal moment like this.

Rika-chan plunges the hoe into the offering. Cotton flies into the air along with the hoe that she rips out, along with the cheers. Being the loudest of all, Keiichi leads the chorus of praise.

Two thousand cotton balls ride the water moving under the bridge, then off into that faraway place Hinamizawans are unlikely to tread. Cotton Drifting comes to an end.

"...Meep. Good sir?"

Keiichi stays behind as the other girls take their leave, looking down to see a demure Rika-chan cradling the stuffed bear he gave her in her arms. "Yeah? Need something?"

"Would it be all right if you wait for me to finish cleanup and escort me home after? Normally, I would ask Satoko, but she seemed exhausted. Please? It will get super late by that time. And anything can happen," she asks him this...apprehensively?

This throws Keiichi for a loop. A small, rural village like Hinamizawa doesn't give off the impression of being dangerous. He knows, in fact, there are no creeps or criminals living here that can deem it remotely comparable to a cesspool of corruption. There... shouldn't be.

Even so, the normally happy-go-lucky girl before him seems to believe otherwise. She's darting glances left and right, acting as though the nearby stream will reach a hand out to grab and engulf her or that the trees will move to drag her into a deep, inescapable den. It upsets him seeing his buddy perturbed like this.

Keiichi crouches down a bit to her level, then claps a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "I'll do ya one better!" he says in a perky tone that he stresses out for her sake. "I'm gonna be by your side until you get home! I'll even help you with the cleanup!"

A grin plays on Rika-chan's lips. "I knew I could count on you."

He watches the purple of her eyes dance. Deep within the center, where it flits most, resides his reflection. And he thinks how glad he is to be associated with this compassionate spirit embracing him.

Warmth rising in his chest, Keiichi thanks her.

Cleanup involves a great deal of undoing decorations and tents as well as lifting heavy stuff, but they manage. It is not so much challenging as it is time consuming. Time which they have plenty of to spare, and, along with the aid of many members in the festival committee, the work goes by smoothly.

Eventually, everything has been put away and the two can finally leave for the night.

They journey a dirt path running in the mouth of the grove. Presumably to Rika-chan's house. Keiichi notes how the trees tower over them, and he shudders at the mere thought of these big, forbidding trees keeping him under a watchful eye. He can understand why Rika-chan asked him to walk with her now.

"I see you aren't as scared," he remarks at the blissful girl cuddling the stuffed bear close.

Rika-chan croons, "How can I ever be scared if I am with a good person I trust to protect me?"

"I will always be at your side when you need it, you know. Simply call me so you won't feel scared and alone."

"And if I cannot? If I am caged, and have no way of...asking you help? Or if something goes awry..." Her voice is laced with uncertainty.

"Keep me close to your heart," Keiichi answers without missing a beat, "and should things really get bad, keep me closer. Do not forget why I gave you that bear."

Hearing mention of the animal in her arms, she brings its brown, fuzzy face tighter into her chest. Rika-chan stares down at the buried head, appearing pensive with those distant eyes, and he catches sight of the tiniest smile she wears.

That look on her face is quickly engraved in his memory. A souvenir to keep in this life, Keiichi decides.

He pats her head and opens his mouth to say more.

"...AAAUGH!"

"Keiichi!" Rika-chan cries out frantically.

Something smashes into the back of his skull. He does not get the time to dwell on how painful it is, not that he can, because he's instantly sent plummeting face-first on the terra firma. Everything he hears is muffled by the sharp ringing in his ears by this point.

His head swirls from the inside. A throbbing pain bursts from where he was hit, and Keiichi inwardly panics when he discovers he is unable to move.

Only for his troubles to subside when the feeling in his limbs shortly return. Picking himself up, the throbs worsen and there is this sudden weight trying to push him back down again. His knees buckle under the pressure. The world around him is spinning as it blurs, eliciting his groan. Good lord, what hit him?

Fully on his feet, Keiichi whirls around to check up on Rika-chan. His heart races like a bunny.

Shapes. Plural. Not one but four shapes. Three shadowy, hulking shapes that cluster together, seizing the other smaller shape. His ears perk when he hears muffled screams and shuffles of feet attempting futile escape. Something drops from its arms, giant and brown and landing lighter than a rose.

R...Rika-chan!

"Hey!" he shouts to the unknown in the blur, "Bastards! Stay away from her!"

One of the shadows turns to him, baring what looks like the teeth of a hungry wolf.

A flash of white before black consumes all, then Keiichi knows nothing else.

---

Come the days when the young bird finds itself rising with the sun and come the nights when it finds itself resting under the moon.

If only this bird can find enjoyment in those days and nights, if only its cage ever allows it the privilege. Repetition without the right to change instills within the bird a need for freedom—thus it strives for exploration outside.

But its cage never strays beyond this perpetual summer of small, small Hinamizawa, and its birdkeepers are much too vicious to grant it the wish for new things. Often, it is punished for its defiance.

So sing the caged bird does.

---

Furude Rika, as of late, puts up her facade of a smile during the day, yet she wears no mask when weeping in the night. Everyone else will be too busy sleeping to notice.

This happens to be one of those very nights at her house. Rika perches on the cushion set near the window, her eyes wandering Hinamizawa with a distant look. They water from their torture of not being allowed to uncover what wonders lie beyond the once-wondrous trees that have long since become an eyesore.

She shudders when the night breeze ghosts through her body. Hinamizawa whispers in her ear.

"Not now, Hanyuu," Rika murmurs.

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry..." intones the gentle voice of compassion for all life.

The words have an undesirable effect on her. "Why do you say that over and over like a broken record?" Rika frowns at the spirit.

"You, my child, are singing. I cannot help grieving when I hear such a loud, passionate voice calling from this birdcage. What else can I do? I am unable to free you."

"Your remorse does not relieve my pain! I want freedom, I want help to obtain it. You lend me your eyes and ears, yet you are unable to help me figure out what has been ensuring my death. You lend me power, but not a way to use it against the Shadows!"

As Rika gripes, whispering and only getting as loud as a hiss when she must, her emotions are seeping out like leaks through cracks of a dam. She can hardly curb her breakdown and she is a mess even so. But she tries her hardest not to fall apart entirely. She doesn't want to stir Satoko, her only other roommate.

Hanyuu hangs her head. "Although our senses are linked, I am merely a spirit. I have no physical body unlike you. What I learn is what you learn and not vice versa. If you can't identify the problem through your senses, then neither can I. Or should something disorient you, I would also suffer a similar pain. It is the same in the case of memory loss. And we both know my power is limited. I'm sorry."

Rika can only squeeze her eyes shut in response, refusing to look.

Thus far, she has made many attempts to get home on that night, taking different detours; only for the Shadows, whoever is killing her, whose Will enforces her fate in this Loop, to intercept her all the same.

It incenses her how she can vividly remember her gradual death—how the world around her clouds over as her head spins until darkness consumes her, yet never the faces of the Shadows who instigate it. They move in places where night is darkest. Where she is blind to is where they are all-seeing, where she stumbles through is where they slip through like wind or water.

As her sort of guardian angel, Hanyuu enables her to live in loops and fight for the chance of a better future. That is it, repeating June of Shōwa 58 in Hinamizawa without success to elude Fate. Merely nothing more than a cage.

Why? Rika contemplates in agony, Why must I be this helpless?

"If you seriously desire help from a mortal with a physical body, then how about Keiichi?"

Incredulous, her eyes snap open and she looks at Hanyuu like she heard the spirit screaming bloody murder. "Why Keiichi? He did not have the answer I seek."

"Rika... you say he didn't have the answer you seek, but how do I know that you haven't asked him the right question?"

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"What kind of help do you expect from that boy if what he gave was not enough? What do you want?" Hanyuu presses.

"I...I want him to guide me out of this nightmare. But how can that be possible if I constantly die, if I traverse through different kakera? Meeting other Keiichi, none who are able to do this! "Keep me close to your heart," he says, except I already had and nothing worked! So what should I do?"

Satoko lets out a tired groan in the pregnant silence following Rika's outburst, though remains asleep otherwise.

"...Keep him closer," Hanyuu finally offers. "Remember why he gave you the bear. Try and remember."

With downcast eyes, Rika pulls her knees to her chest and curls into a ball. She thinks about the bear—a symbol of the strong bond she shares with Keiichi and their friends. Despite how it is currently not in her possession, oddly, Rika feels she still owns it; simply as a cherished piece of memory she stores in her mind, thanks to living in the Loop.

Rika pauses. Suddenly, there is something of a clarity in those words. More in the sense that she has discovered a new layer of meaning under the surface.

She understands now. What she should do and fast.

Because tomorrow night is Watanagashi.

---

When Keiichi stirs, he quickly comes to the startling realization that his body is untethered; no ground he touches or lies on. Panic swells within him.

He finds himself drifting in the space of the heavens, which seem more like the underwater of a sea if anything. Ominous purple churns around him without sound as what appears to be crystals swim in the expanse.

Keiichi flails, thinking he'll fall, drown or wind up in anything else harrowing, but nothing ever comes. He carries on floating without end.

Composure is eventually regained and Keiichi stops swinging his limbs. Growing curious about his surroundings, he clambers in breaststroke towards the nearest crystal for scrutiny.

Many images play and overlap each other similar to what one finds in a kaleidoscope, except all the images come from the faces of the crystal making it relatively easier for him to decipher. Most in his center of interest, though, are the subjects in the images which he recognizes.

Keiichi can see himself and his friends engaging in certain moments of their lives—particularly on that night of Watanagashi. Their Battle of Five Evils, Rika performing the offertory dance, and Cotton Drifting.

What the hell?

"Keiichi!"

A familiar voice beckons him, and, heeding the call, he turns around.

It happens so fast Keiichi needs a couple seconds to register the fact that it did. Something has barreled straight into his chest. Glancing down, he discovers a trembling head of blue with arms wrapping around his waist, and he gasps when the head reveals her face.

"Rika-chan?" he whispers.

"I need you! I need your help!" Rika-chan pleads, speaking like water gushing out of a dam. She nearly looks the part. Tears are streaming down her cheeks in large doses and it is a mess. The purple flames of her eyes where her tears pour out are about doused as well, parting a gloomier color to eclipse its brightness.

Her melancholy tugging at his heart strings, he kneels down to console her with a comforting hand atop her shoulder. "Rika-chan, what's going on? Why are you sad?"

Rika-chan gives him no response. Not verbally at least. A languid lift of an arm and index finger points behind him. His eyes trail along the invisible line it draws.

The crystal, Keiichi recognizes. This time, there are different images unlike before. Disturbing images. He sees his buddy unconscious, along with three large, hulking shapes.

No matter how hard he strains his eyes, Keiichi fails to identify them as anything else other than darkness taken form. As though an unknown force is intentionally preventing him from figuring it out, especially since Rika-chan appears clear as day to him. They don't give off the impression of being human, whatever they are.

His blood boils as he watches those monsters drag Rika-chan into their den for who knows what, a space with forbidding trees and without light. He wants to bash their heads in.

"The Shadows hunt for me on Watanagashi, lurking near my house in wait to strike. They reside in where the moon and her smile are unwelcome," Rika-chan says in a tone that reminds him of a light breeze collecting leaves. Faint to the ears while sadness rumbles in her voice.

"But you are a good girl. Why? Why are they like this to you?!"

"They are my cruel birdkeepers... They cage me and torture me... It is because of them that I am to be killed again and again in every one of my rebirths! I cannot leave June, I cannot leave Shōwa 58 and I cannot leave Hinamizawa! I cannot be free!"

"Rika-chan..."

She holds him tight again. "Please, Keiichi, oh please..." her request hangs from her lips unfinished and unbidden. Though Keiichi listens to those little bits and understands enough. How can he not? Her heart is singing to his own; this voice that brims with passion is reaching out for him.

Only those without heart can ignore this precious girl, and luckily he still retains his.

"I shall help. Let's escape this and fly together."

The light in Rika-chan's eyes reappear, and she musters a teary smile. "As birds of a feather..."

"My children, your alliance brings me the utmost joy!"

In alarm, Keiichi turns to find another girl enrobed with the standard red and white garbs of a miko. Similar is an appropriate word to spare for this person, he can't help bring himself to feel, given her strong connection to Rika-chan in appearance and size. Except her hair is but long flames of lavender draping down to her back... and are those dark horns on her head? Who is she?

Rika-chan seems to have read his thoughts. "This is Hanyuu, mother of all that live in Hinamizawa. She'll be supporting us in our endeavor."

Not sure what to make of that introduction, Keiichi scratches his head and gives a confused smile at the girl clearly too young to be a mom.

"Au~au~au! Keiichi, I humbly welcome you to the Sea of Kakera!" Hanyuu chirps.

"Eh?" he tilts his head. "You mean this place? What exactly is it?"

"The Sea of Kakera is an infinite space that holds many opportunities, many second chances envied by those with hearts regretful and unlucky. It is here where chapters to your story are composed and where you can try to make a difference," Hanyuu gingerly extends a balled fist out before opening it up like petals of a flower unfurling; in it reveals a light giving birth to a crystal not dissimilar from the rest around him. "Here starts the sequel, a new kakera."

He is just inches from touching the kakera before Rika-chan clasps his wrist, stopping him. "Hold on."

"What is it, Rika-chan?"

"While it may be a new world, the story always concludes with tragedy. I cannot elude the Shadows no matter what I do to get past them. Help us, Keiichi. How can we change my death in the night of Watanagashi?"

Keiichi looks over to the other kakera that he had observed before and contemplates. The woods are a shelter for the Shadows, where seclusion makes for perfect accommodation, where screams fail to escape past the trees, and where there's a promise to blind even the sun and moon from shedding light on any misdeeds which may occur within.

There's no denying it—Rika-chan won't survive should she try venturing through the area, not as long as the Shadows lurk there where darkness reigns.

...But who says she has to try?

Returning his gaze back to Rika, he cracks a grin. "How would you like to meet my parents?"

---

When Rika wakes up following a good night's sleep, she grows startled upon discovering the vacant, white room larger than where she normally sleeps in with Satoko. Speaking of whom, her fanged friend is nowhere present.

As sunlight filters through the neighboring window and paints her with its radiance, it dawns on her that she's still clad in her white haori and red hakama from the festival. Rika wracks her brain for answers on how she ended up like this.

It is like a light switch being flipped on when memories come flooding back all at once.

I... I chose to stay here on that night of Watanagashi. Because no way will the reclusive Shadows dare an ambush at a house exposed to fields and friendly folk.

Keiichi's parents, owners of said house, are also outgoing. They treat her kindly during the festival, and they don't regret having her sleep at their place just for the night.

Of course, they do hesitate a bit initially when Keiichi asks them for approval of her stay, though his magic spells of persuasion as well as her cute mannerisms convince them enough. Even the apprehensive Satoko cannot bring herself to object—the blonde instead promises she'll bury Keiichi alive should he try anything on Rika. Ultimately, everybody in the Maebara family decides Rika sleep alone in a spare room they never use, and they vow none will intrude while she does.

So here she is in a futon, safe and sound and not dead.

The sun is exceptionally bright today and she beams just like it, even feels a great warmth of joy growing in her heart, for she has done it; she has managed to live past Watanagashi!

What sounds like the rapping of knuckles on wood repeats from the door to her room thrice, causing her to jolt.

"Rika-chan, dear!" Aiko, mother of Keiichi, calls out. "Would you like breakfast? Keiichi and Ichirou are already eating."

"Meep~! I'll be there!"

Onto her feet in seconds, Rika skips towards the door knowing that the Shadows won't appear in a place this bright. There is nothing to fear.

When Rika arrives at the table, she finds Keiichi and his father Ichirou fighting over the last piece of grilled salmon with their chopsticks. Keiichi notices her and gives a wave, giving Ichirou the golden opportunity to steal the food for himself.

Rika stifles a laugh as Keiichi sulks in defeat at his slip up.

"There there, good sir! You'll get it next time without me distracting you," she pats his head in consolation.

He shakes his head with a smile. "Never mind that. How's it going with you?"

"I am happy...really happy! I barely remember what that feels like. It almost seems foreign. I never could have guessed what everything after Watanagashi would be like."

"We can only move forward from here on out. You'll get used to it," he ruffles her hair, much to her delight.

Rika closes her eyes and thinks about what there's to do today—meet up with Satoko who will likely have an extra randoseru and school clothes prepared for Rika at the campus, attend class, eat lunch together with her friends, engage in the usual Gaming Club activities, then go home to the house she and Satoko share and rest for the next day.

The next day, then the next... What types of days await Rika, a normal day like any other? Or will there be something special? Might this day be that special day? Many questions with little answers.

What wonders the future has in store!

---

The bird escapes its cage and flies. For a time, it crows with delight in its freedom.

One day, as if waking from a dream, the bird finds itself again in the cage. Missing the taste of freedom, it sings once more.

---

Rena merrily twirls within the spiral of flames, as if she were seeing butterflies flit around her. That may be the case judging how cheerful she is, welcoming what she believes is the omen of purification.

The same cannot be said for the horrified screams slowly succumbing to silence in the classroom.

In the madness, Keiichi cries in terror. Not through eyes or voice but something aching deep inside his chest. He stares at the person vastly dissimilar to the Rena he had drifted cotton alongside on Watanagashi, who has changed in the days since.

"Why, Rena... why?!" he can't resist crying, this time with teary eyes and a cracking voice.

Rena makes her way over to him in a sort of waltz, a large billhook in hand as fire billows where she moves as though they have been a duet all along. "This is for the best, Keiichi-kun! Our salvation is here and now! The flames shall purify the sin we share—the sin we harbor!"

Keiichi turns around and prepares to run, hoping that he can escape if not rescue the small few of his peers still clinging to life. But Rena thrusts the sole of her boot into his back, which sends him tumbling down with a yelp.

"Bad Keiichi-kun!" Rena kicks his side, causing him to roll over, and presses her foot down on his chest. "We are all in this together, as friends..." she chides him like a parent would to an insolent child.

Smoke chokes him like a snake and its coils, except much worse because it happens from the inside and there is nothing he can do to resist as his lungs tighten. His eyes sting, nostrils burn, and mouth pleads for oxygen silently.

"The parasites, the parasites!" Rena raves as she claws at her throat, visibly unhinged.

That is the last thing he perceives before fire blinds what helps him see, roars in what helps him hear, and gnaws at the flesh and bone he is into ash.

But in his last moment, Keiichi decides he will remember this.

---

The girl holding Keiichi prisoner licks the sharp end of a nail like a lollipop, as though testing a particular flavor; or lack thereof, more like, judging from that perverse glint of reverie in her eyes telling him nothing pleasant. She does this while sauntering over to where he is—on a restraining table with his fingers, neck and ankles secure.

He stares more into her gaze, the turquoise skies clouding over with a storm that flashes with hatred and malice—within manifest such evil to have compelled this person into kidnapping and murdering Rika-chan and Satoko long before he found out. A far cry from the Mion he considers a friendly but formidable rival in the fun games they have played. He isn't certain if 'Mion' is really her name anymore.

"Why... ion..." he whispers, his voice as ephemeral as ghosts crossing over; subtle, and quiet, and so fast details don't linger. Part of the name that slips off his lips somehow gets lost, even. Keiichi does try reiterating the name after the first time, but, when he sees the smirk of his captor spread, he just can't do it for some reason.

Miraculously, she hears him. "This demon had been living inside me for quite a while. It awoke because of you, Kei-chan. You, my twin, Rika, Satoko... you all are the catalyst of this sin. That is your undoing," she puts a nail on the tip of his pinkie using one hand—Keiichi feels the sharp end prick his finger—while readying the hammer to be dropped with the other.

"NOOOO! PLEASE, DON'T KILL HIM! DON'T KILL HIM!" another voice shrieks from the distance, somewhere in a deep, dark dungeon.

"Shut up, Shion!" she whips her head around and barks out that name as if it's a dreadful curse. "Quit sniveling! Let the real Mion have her fun!" the demon redirects her focus on him again. Her mouth forms a grin far wider than her vicious teeth and perhaps her cheeks, and it's a true nightmare to behold. "Oh, yes. Real fun!"

The hammer strikes down.

Cold steel stabs into his pinkie, then the ring finger a moment later, then the middle finger and so forth. Pain runs through his digits from inside like blood coursing through veins. He feels bone shatter and he can probably hear it too if not for him screeching his head off.

By the time that she finishes with his tenth and final finger, Keiichi sheds enough tears to fill up a basin while his throat becomes dry and scratchy. Agony and sorrow, no matter their expression, is dehydrating and makes him yearn to quench this searing pain.

His eyes have been squeezing shut the whole time, and for that he does not see, though he can sense something pointy and made of wood lightly jabbing his chest.

Finally bringing himself to look, Keiichi cranes his head forward and locks eyes with his captor.

Her countenance matches that of a Cheshire Cat. She steadies the stake upright, raising her hammer again. "Time to put the final nail in this sad, miserable coffin."

Again, the hammer plummets. No words perfectly detail the pain Keiichi suffers this time; not that Keiichi can give any at all. He's too busy dying horribly.

The last thing he sees briefly before black consumes him is his killer furiously clawing her throat out, raving, "I really have become a demon! Just like them from the stories!"

Keiichi decides he will remember this moment.

He knows nothing else after that.

---

"Why...? Why is this happening? Why are our friends doing this?!" Rika sobs, her hands burying her face. Throughout this perpetual nightmare, in parallel do the questions with 'why' never end—for she always fails to understand the cruelty of Fate.

Keiichi, who she knows is sitting beside her at the front of her home, says just as mournfully, "Rena, Mion... they believed we did something wrong."

She rounds on the boy, "But that isn't true! It simply cannot be true! We already took part in the Cotton Drifting on Watanagashi. Any of our sins committed before then should no longer burden us! Despite that... despite that..." Rika just barely collects herself with a sharp intake of her nose. As her eyelids laboriously squeeze fresh tears into nothing, she breathes, "How can our friends be so cruel?"

"Rika-chan," a big hand clasps her shoulder.

Through stinging, blinking eyes that can't stay open for longer than a few seconds, Rika regards him curiously. "Y-Yes?"

"Let us try...try to have more faith in them. Even if what our friends do is ghastly, I am sure there's...a reason for that," he says softly. The tone that he uses is intended to persuade her into believing those words, though she has this hunch he is also trying to convince himself if the slow cadence in his voice insinuates anything.

Rika drops her gaze, wrestling with her emotions.

"I don't know, Keiichi. I'm not sure I can even look at them."

"But you must."

She flinches when Keiichi cups her cheek and gingerly turns her head to face him.

Their eyes meet and he manages a smile not bright and vibrant like the sun but faint and calming to watch like the moon. "Please, Rika-chan, look at our friends with forgiveness in your eyes. Smile if you really can too. Don't turn away. Help them see, help them understand, just as you have done for me. Maybe then we can all find a way to fly out of this cage and be free. To be truly happy."

"Keiichi..." she whispers the only word she is left with when this boy steals from her all others.

"And don't let this nightmare tear you apart. Should your bones break, then fight on. Should your heart ache, then fight on. Stand against Fate, spit at it for each time it tries pushing you down... and stand taller! Keep doing that even if it costs you a century. Remember what you are doing this for," he urges.

She watches the way his blue eyes dance. Deep within the center, where those oceans that have explored places outside Hinamizawa sparkle most with life, resides her reflection.

That reminds her why she must go on.

"I suppose," Rika says at last with a growing smile, "I have only been going through the motions."

Keiichi pats her head, joking, "If it is any consolation, at least you are poetry in motion."

Her buddy throws his head back chortling, and she is unable to resist doing the same because, when Rika thinks more about it, Keiichi speaks truer than what he knows.

While she does favor the notion of being poetry in motion, in reality, just as all poetry comes with words, Keiichi's motivational speeches are the cause for that. His incantations work their magic and help get her moving.

That is what adds great credence to his stature as Magician of Words. Fervently, Rika feels this is his important role to play, how much it means to her, and how it impacts her when he succeeds.

"Rika, Keiichi-san."

The dead, hushed voice scarcely passes through her ears. For her, it's surprisingly difficult not mistaking that voice for the breeze.

Her gaze flickers over to where she is called, as does Keiichi's.

Satoko approaches them languidly, her rubies for eyes dull without the light of life shining across them.

Rika's reaction is instantaneous. Legs straighten, feet start kicking dirt behind her, and hands seize the hunched shoulders of the blonde. She spares Satoko ample concern through every detail of this action, same as she does next with attentive eyes and the crack in her voice. "Satoko, what's wrong?!"

"I have come to pick up my belongings. As of now, I will not live here anymore," Satoko reveals solemnly.

Once again, Rika believes she must have misheard, except this time the breeze isn't the issue.

Keiichi chimes in with similar disbelief, "But, Satoko, where else are you gonna live?"

The next words from Satoko slip out her lips in a whisper, appropriate to her current disposition; weak and weary. "In the house I share with my Uncle Teppei."

Her roommate drifts past them and into the house like air, and that is saying something because Rika has suddenly become incapable of feeling the actual breeze run through her skin right now.

But most astonishing is how Satoko manages to send a chill down Rika's spine all the same by bringing up that man.

---

"You little brats!"

Following that malicious sneer, Keiichi gets sent flying, smashes into the nearest wall, then violently lands onto the floor.

Is this what it is like for a soccer ball when hit? The swing of that kick unleashed upon him makes the thought seem believable.

He glares up defiantly at his assailant despite his helplessness.

Towering over him, Houjou Teppei returns the look in kind. "Sure got a lotta nerve breakin' into my home! To think this hick village had such damn pests! What more should I be aware of?"

"The one that you see when you look in the mirror with no one around," Keiichi snipes.

Teppei gives off the impression of a crocodile out for blood when his features contort. "What'chu say?! Maggot!"

Stomping feet rain down upon Keiichi, though he doesn't back down from the storm of this irritable monster. His body assumes a fetal position to shield anything vital and he accepts the blows everywhere else, yet he refrains from crying uncle. Bad people do not deserve satisfaction, or anything good for that matter—certainly not the guy responsible for the abusive upbringing Satoko suffers.

Speaking of whom... Keiichi steals a glance behind Teppei.

Satoko sits on her knees close to where they are. It pains him greatly to realize the resemblance between her and a puppet without its master pulling its strings. She stays still and silent; lingering on them are those eyes vacant of zest, as well as that never-changing visage which proclaims no other emotion but tearless weeping.

"Satoko!" he sees a pleading Rika-chan repeatedly tug at Satoko's arm, attempting to drag the blonde away—either out of the fight or out from whatever limbo she's stuck in. Possibly both. "Please! We must escape! Come on, while we have the chance!"

No reaction. Satoko almost seems dead, in fact, given the way she only moves—and limply, at that—on account of Rika-chan shaking her. Keiichi almost believes he really is looking at a puppet.

"Come back to us! Don't resign yourself to this!" Rika-chan cries out.

...No reaction.

The longer Keiichi observes this display of despair, the less and less Teppei's attacks hurt.

Rika-chan cradles Satoko's hand and keeps it close to her heart, maybe as a way to help their dear friend regain one of the five things she's lost grip on. The bluenette closes her eyes and hangs her head as one might do if they were praying. "Satoko! Satokooo!"

"SHUT UP, YOU NOISY BITCH!"

Keiichi barely has time to register what happens next. Teppei abandons him, rushing towards Rika-chan before making a swing of his leg.

At Rika-chan's head.

Her small body hits the floor in a heap—neck at an abnormal angle.

Blood-curdling screams erupt from Satoko, finally showing life after a witness of death. Keiichi's heart nearly stops in his stunned silence.

Teppei grabs his head, freaking out, "Shit...Shit! I hit her too well! I wanted her to shut up but not like this! As if the cops aren't on my ass already... I can't afford to let 'em find out. No, I ain't gettin' caught!" the man rushes across the room, a cacophony of panic in his footsteps.

Keiichi starts seeing red. All he can think about is how Rika-chan had just died at the hands of Houjou Teppei, this knowledge echoing in his mind like a mantra—he killed her, he killed her!—and making his entire body tremble with great intensity that grows in each chant.

Festering in him is the might of a thousand punches not yet unleashed, each fist feeling like they can dent even the strongest of steel, for which he intends to deliver upon Teppei without fail. Every last one.

As the boy gets back to his feet, he notices his enemy rifling through a nearby drawer for something. "Where is it, where is it?!"

Keiichi wastes no time. He charges straight at Teppei like a bull when it succumbs to its rage, reckless and roaring. Cocking the fist of his dominant hand, he prepares to swing and bust as many teeth possible in one fell swoop.

That's when Teppei wheels around to face him. An inhumane roar deafens his ears.

Pain burns in his torso, blood clogs his throat, and he plunges to the floor. A puddle with the reek of iron already begins to form under his front side after landing.

Straining to raise his head, he looks up and finds Teppei looming over him with a handgun trained at him.

"No witnesses," Teppei grunts. "Now..."

Bang!

The bastard tenses, halting his next course of action, and abruptly turns to the side. "What the hell?"

Bang...bangbangbangbangBANG! What sort of beasts attempt to break into the house? Beasts, Keiichi believes, because the sound of wood getting battered seems much too savage to come from anything else. It persists somewhere near, whatever be that 'it' they fear, not in the room they currently occupy but not too far from them either.

Then, wood breaks apart in a scream.

Keiichi tries to scream as well, only to cough out blood and screw his eyes shut over the sudden explosion of pain in his chest.

Drowning. That's what he feels right now; he's drowning, gargling with his own blood, pleading for gulps of oxygen in vain, burning from the inside and getting dizzy. Loud noises, many kinds blending together, flood his ears. Keiichi can feel himself slipping deeper and deeper into the sea of darkness; going so fast because the pain rushes to him all at once, yet going so slow because it doesn't seem to end.

Realizing his death will prolong, he cracks an eye open just to...just to see. Surprise returns him enough life that he stares, eyes big with attention, in the darkening blur.

The Shadows.

Two of them pounce on Teppei like wolves on deer. The terrified scream and lowly growls convince Keiichi that the Shadows really are going to maim Teppei, or possibly eat the bastard. He doesn't know and he sure doesn't want to know, so he averts his eyes from the sight.

This action introduces him to the third Shadow. It ignores the wailing Satoko completely and inspects Rika-chan's corpse.

Keiichi readies a command, "Stay away from her!" he wants to bark, but expels a violent cough of crimson instead. Nevertheless, the impromptu result yields the intended effect when that cough draws It's attention away from Rika-chan to greet him.

It begins advancing toward him, surely curious. Death pulls him closer to oblivion as if ensuring that he and It do not acquaint. But Keiichi resists. He squints through this growing shroud of black mist swimming before his eyes, if for no other reason than to learn.

His curiosity demands the identity of the enigma—the culprit of sorrow upon Rika-chan, and his Will enforces that.

Slowly but surely, he succeeds. Then, pain lets him go at last and his consciousness drifts away in the next second.

But that second is all Keiichi needs to not forget the Man in Gray.

---

That guy, those guys. Keiichi knows them.

A memory once dormant now rings in his mind upon resurfacing—from that one world where two of those men drove around in a white van, stopping when they saw him to ask if he knew anything about Rena.

Lady Luck turns her smile away from him often when he strains himself to recall the whole context behind that memory, only to draw a blank with displeasure. That unknown force yet again conceals what he seeks as it had with the Shadows way back at his first entry in the Sea of Kakera, revealing emptiness like a puzzle without all its pieces put together.

Selective memory loss is a constant in his journey as a looper. He can pick up certain memories and lose grasp of others just as easily. Most frustrating is that there exists no criteria on what he can and cannot know, thus causing inconvenience in the rebellion against Fate.

In this case, he can only make little sense of the Men in Gray's chase after Rena. He remembers how they had wanted her for something, though cannot recall why. The lack of memories on everything else during that day doesn't help matters.

However, he does know all this occurred some time before...that day at the school. Even now, Rena haunts him with her raving of parasites and savage clawing at her neck.

Also unsettling is knowing how Mion behaved similarly when madness had struck, tearing her throat as Rena did. Except, Keiichi realizes, Mion obsessed not over parasites but demons—beasts of the supernatural that condone sin.

Sin...that's how Rena described the parasites. Has this been what Mion meant in her boast, the parasites that supposedly made her a demon? He won't know for sure sadly enough. His knowledge in the world with Mion is blurrier than the world with Rena. Oddly, when he thinks about that other Mion, it feels like he is really thinking about someone else who he knows less about. He can at least say she did not become a murderer and dwell upon demons without some kind of cause.

Parasites, demons, the group of men. It's connected somehow, it has to be! Coincidence simply can't explain the parallel symptoms of insanity from Rena and Mion, nor for the odd presence of the guys who knew Rena enough to pursue her before that time. The same men, he remembers, who stormed Houjou residence and checked on Rika-chan for whatever reason back in the previous world.

It makes him wonder if the group also had a hand with Mion's fall from grace in some way, her behavior seeming out of the blue when he thinks more about it. But if they know Rena, Rika-chan, and possibly himself, then that may be a feasible assumption.

Which means someone has to be orchestrating these tragedies.

Possibly someone human.

There's little he can interpret about the parasites or demons, though, deep down, he believes they hint at the men's involvement somehow.

Keiichi speeds out of his room, down the stairs, then leaves the house riding his bike to visit Rika-chan, confident in having thought enough of this through.

The cicadas entertain Hinamizawa through their customary chorus. Quite an exceptionally lively bunch they are on this wonderful afternoon. He pedals fast. Sunlight kisses his skin and clothes, wind whips his face while soothing the places where the burns are too much, and he wallows in the pleasures of this most recent world.

That is, until he discovers the Men in Gray hanging around Irie Clinic on his way to Rika-chan's house.

---

"I've seen the Shadows in their true form. They are human."

Rika freezes at the drop of Keiichi's cold words upon her, though this ceases none of the other chilling revelations to ensue from there. She learns that her old tormentors, real people, were involved in whatever happened with Rena, and how they made their reappearance moments after Teppei killed her.

There is also mention of demons and something about parasites, feeding her imagination on what may have made Rena and Mion seem possessed and how the bad people use such things to pull it off.

When Keiichi concludes his account of the tragedies, Rika bombards him with questions mirroring her perturbation. "What do they want from me? What are they trying to accomplish? Why?"

His hands rest on her shoulders and grip them firm to put her at ease. "Worry not. I plan on seeking the answers to your questions tonight."

"Tonight? What is tonight?" she asks, calmer but growing inquisitive.

"The perfect time for me to figure out why the hell those guys were at the clinic," he grimaces. "I saw them there, Rika-chan, on my way over here. I'm not sure whether or not that is their hiding place, but it's a lead—probably our best one."

The boy rises from the front step of her house, intent on carrying out his intention.

She gets on her feet as well. Her hand snatches his own. "I want to go with you."

Keiichi looks back at her, eyes revealing his reluctance quicker than the reply. "I think that's too risky."

A frown settles on her face. "You know how much I abhor the idea of us separating, for in this torturous Loop..."

"I won't neglect that, Rika-chan, though I won't neglect what happened in the last world when you were with me. Before Teppei killed you when you...and Satoko..." His breath hitches, preventing him from finishing that sentence, something she instantly pays heed to.

"Keiichi..." Rika whispers in concern.

Then, more from worry than a bad temper, he blurts out, "I don't ever wanna see you suffer like that again!"

His outburst hangs in the air for a moment.

Shortly after, Rika takes a silent breath, almost tasting those words, before proceeding to speak from the heart. Her voice flows much like a river slowly moving along, so calm, so faint; yet her words sting with conviction in the sharpness behind them.

"That is something I wish not upon myself either, Keiichi. But my pain will double should you, who I keep close to my heart, end up suffering in my stead. Neither of us want such a fate for the other. We're birds of a feather after all. Do not neglect that."

He flinches at the stress of her last statement, lapsing into silence.

Seeing this, she softens. Her hand reaches for the top of his head and pats it. "We both desire freedom, a world where we can be happy and at peace. That is what brings us together. Never must we separate. And if danger awaits us, then let us at least be there for one another in the moment. Besides, who is to say that the bad people won't come and hurt me as you are away? Anything can happen."

That pensive expression on Keiichi's face betrays his consideration of her comments. He stares mutely into her eyes after that.

Rika responds in kind. Despite how no mirror presents itself to reveal her own face, she pictures in her mind with ease the earnest look that she can feel herself wearing. My decision is final and non-negotiable, her gaze tries to tell him.

The moment Keiichi finally closes his eyes while sighing is when Rika realizes he's got the message and will grant her wish.

"I'll get my baseball bat before we break into the clinic. When we get there, you stay near me at all times. No wandering off alone," he adds sternly.

Her lips curve into a smile as she fondly presses his hand. "No... Not from you."

Together, they depart. Keiichi pedals along the path that runs through the trees. Rika follows after him with a bicycle of her own as well as pepper spray on her person for self-defense.

The sun begins its retreat to where it hides when the moon takes over, and Hinamizawa slowly becomes blanketed in darkness, though Rika does not dither. How can she when she isn't alone and is guided by the one who helps her?

So long as Hope resonates with her, she can afford to persevere.

---

Get in, search for any information, get out once acquired, then decide their next move from there. It's all so simple, it's supposed to be.

But not when they get caught.

Neither her nor Keiichi see it coming. Despite their stealth, they get ambushed from behind after having discovered a strange room and only find out the moment it occurs.

Time spares not even a second for self-defense. Next thing Rika knows, she's forced down to the floor on her back, her limbs secure with big hands pinning them. The hand which feels more like a rag applies more pressure over her mouth and nose.

Her head is spinning, senses numbing. Rika makes out shapes and color through her blurry vision—all larger than her and uniformly gray in the dim room.

"Oh, dear," sighs the distorted voice, no hint of familiarity Rika can detect in her current state. "These children are a nosy pair, snooping around the basement and coming across my specimens. To think R, of all people, would venture through this place. Our position is compromised. This won't do, this won't do at all."

"Ri...Rika-chan..."

Hearing the weak call of her name, she groggily lays her eyes upon the shape held by a couple others. This one appears smaller than the rest of the shapes, limp and with a head of brown.

Keiichi...

The distorted voice speaks again, "We'll execute our plans prematurely then. Keep R in check until I begin her demise. As for her ineffectual bodyguard, take him to the treatment room so that I may...prepare him. He shall serve the purpose of being our scapegoat for what I intend to inflict upon R."

Scraping of floor and cackles of a hyena fill her ears. Keiichi's limp shape leaves her view alongside the two shapes beside him.

Then a new shape appears before her between the ones holding her down, large like them though slimmer and showing vast white among pendulous gold on an oval of peach. The laughter intensifies around this shape.

Rika strains her eyes for the identity of this living riddle, a feeble attempt to seek the blur beyond the thickening darkness which consumes her bit by bit. Emphasis on feeble for much that she lacks—the ability to breath, the opportunity to fight for her future in this world, and the Will inclining her to endure this ongoing despair.

A string of white emerges from the oval once the laughter ceases, wide in a long upward curve, gleaming sharply. "Sweet dreams, little one."

Heavy lids hood her eyes after she gives up trying to see. Rika chokes silently in this sensation of drowning.

At some point, oblivion takes her.

---

When Rika comes to, she finds herself drifting in the Sea of Kakera.

Her head throbs and she grabs it to knead away the pain. Very long has oblivion kept a grip on her, Rika figures, for the ache resulting from that lingers even now.

Suddenly, a pair of arms wrap around her shoulders from the side. Rika turns to see a relieved Hanyuu.

Tears are hanging from the spirit's eyelashes like dew on the end of a leaf. "Oh, Rika! Thank goodness you are all right!"

She reciprocates the affectionate gesture. "I know, Hanyuu. It is good to see you as well."

Hanyuu draws herself away, separating the both of them. "You slept far longer than you should have, child of mine. I fret something went awry somehow from my bringing your spirit over here when I believed that to be the case."

"But what of Keiichi?" Her eyes dart around the otherworldly expanse, finding not what she has asked.

Her ears do not hear what she has asked either.

Rika makes eye contact again, staring in an anxious, silent demand for the answer Hanyuu hasn't yet given, causing the spirit to shrink.

"Au~au~au..." Hanyuu taps together her index fingers, a bridge opening and closing at the tips. Discomfort crosses her features. "I spent the majority of my time looking after you here while you were unconscious. You were in immense pain and I could do little with our linked senses, anyway. So I do not know much of Keiichi's whereabouts, but I have been keeping track of his spirit and its condition."

"How is he? Will he come soon, can you bring him?"

Hanyuu squirms and says, "It...remains tethered to his vessel of flesh and bone, and it will not be long before it separates so we can simply wait until then. But..." The spirit resembles something of a skittish gerbil barely poking its head out of a hiding spot as she hesitates in her next words. After a moment, she concludes, "I sense extreme agony. Both physically and mentally."

Cruel sympathy ties up and tugs Rika's heart like thorny tendrils that converge and squeeze, yet she keeps herself hushed and bears with this sensation of pity.

Nothing about this is new. She imagines if there were a lesson to this Loop, it'll be that their torture before their way to the afterlife is as frequent as their trial through the living. After all, fighting for a peaceful future cannot be without pain from the harsh present they have now.

She knows her and Keiichi's deaths are and will be rough, and they can only put up with it for the time being. This case is of course without exception, given what has happened in the world she left.

What has happened back there anyway?

Rika thinks about that. Tries. But gathering her memories goes as well as piecing together a puzzle with sections lost, never to be found.

She can recall a room filled with jars holding human brains and spinal cords, but not where it is exactly and not how she came to be in there in the first place. Rika can at least figure out why; it has something to do with what Keiichi discussed with her, the parasites, the demons, Rena and Mion, and...and...

And what? She again thinks long and hard, only to end up drawing a blank. Irritation stirs within her. It's something important; Rika feels it's important, feels it's something most responsible for keeping her caged in this Endless June. Something that can potentially lead her to the culprit, or even be the culprit.

Alas, Rika fails to remember. She cannot even recall just how she died or who caused it either, though her gut feeling says it was a horrible death because of whatever went wrong. Perhaps she shall ask Keiichi.

The notion of checking on the kakera barely enters her mind, and Rika does not go through with it even so, knowing that all she would find is vague, black shapes and blurs in her desire for the missing pieces of her memory.

Folding her arms and sighing, she waits with closed eyes.

Time is nonexistent in the Sea of Kakera, yet she feels she has waited uneventfully for a minute or so until Hanyuu abruptly announces, "The spirit of Maebara Keiichi has now become untethered from his vessel."

She opens her eyes and looks at the spirit. "So let's not delay things any further. Bring him here."

A look of worry settles on Hanyuu's face after the demand. Through the shared perception between them, Rika discerns apprehension over what might happen should Keiichi be brought here. Strange. She wonders if this has to do with the 'extreme agony' Hanyuu mentioned him having.

The thought will remain a mystery sadly enough. Right as she considers questioning the spirit's concerns, Hanyuu does a snap of the fingers.

A whirlwind instantly appears, spinning before them mist and shadow—an appealing pair—and out of it emerges Keiichi prior to its evanescence.

Rika doesn't think twice about launching herself at the bewildered boy and locking him in a tight embrace. Bliss overtakes her, eclipsing the wonder she had over Hanyuu's inexplicable troubles earlier. "Keiichi!" she cries in relief as she buries her face in his chest.

His hand rubs her head at last. "Rika-chan."

Releasing Keiichi from her hold, Rika studies him. "Will you be okay? You seem drained. What...What happened?"

"...a lot," he answers after the short pause, his faint voice matching the fatigue creasing his features. "I'll tell ya later. I wanna go and get settled in the next world already."

She frowns slightly, having hoped to gain information out of him right now, though refrains from voicing any protest. Consideration helps her consider that the boy might possibly wish for some time to rest after everything, which does sound like the most prudent approach to take when she thinks more about it. For both their sakes.

Rika hides her arms behind her back. Perking up, she flips her frown upside down.

"If that's your wish, Keiichi, so be it. We will head to the next Hinamizawa when the moon is awake and smiles brightest from the stars, so may we be soothed to sleep under its watch. Our conversation today can be reserved for tomorrow when we shall meet again well-rested."

Keiichi nods unconsciously. "Yeah. Sure..."

As it has again and again each trip they make to this realm, once more does a kakera fresh with birth bloom from the fist Hanyuu unfurls. The spirit extends this piece out to them, an intricate shape of multiple colors hovering above her palm.

Observing Keiichi again, Rika heeds his solemnity—visible in his tense form and palpable in his silence. Wanting rid of what disturbs her partner, which she presumes an upset over their recent tragedy, she brings a hand out and seizes his own just when he makes a grab for the kakera.

"It's okay," she pacifies when their eyes meet. "We have each other as partners in this nightmare—you and me."

Keiichi tilts his head, a wistful look in his gaze of shrunken pupils. "You and me..." he murmurs.

In further reassurance, Rika squeezes the hand held by her own before beaming, "Nipah~!"

This evokes a faint smile from Keiichi. He returns a squeeze, causing her to coo in delight.

Light bathes them instantly when their hands jointly touch the kakera. Rika closes her eyes, keeping herself free of struggle in this trip to the next Hinamizawa, slowly settling in her new vessel which fills her with breath and blood.

She clings to the sensation of the grin playing on her lips throughout this process, as her way of telling herself 'may they again start over because there exists many chances for them to get it right'.

The feel that she has on Keiichi's hand, despite leaving her grip when their souls go to their respective places, never departs from her mind and strengthens further her beaming disposition.

There is nothing to worry about. Not when they're together as partners who keep each other going.

---

When they meet again the next day, part of Rika feels that they never actually meet—for she sees someone difficult to recognize.

A storm of chaos reigns in their classroom. Messy, pungent and wet are the floors spilled greatly upon by blood. Loudly in her ears the howls rumble. She trembles with feet rooted to the spot and wide eyes unable to avert from the scene taking place. Close by, her peers edge away in similar horror.

Lying on the floor in a stupor, Mion doesn't expect the large billhook when it drives its lone fang into her chest. The class representative lies dead among a few other corpses.

Keiichi rips out the weapon with a sudden jerk. "That's one more outta our way," the boy huffs as he hunches over.

"K—Keiichi..."

The ghost of whom Rika believes an epitome of courage acknowledges her breathless whisper with a turning head in her direction. How it haunts Rika, his eyes wild and dreadful like rough seas in a storm.

She can barely bring herself to return his gaze.

He advances toward her and crouches slightly to be level with her. His shoe presses down on the back of a dead Rena between them. "Everything will be okay, Rika-chan. We'll attain our freedom from this nightmare soon enough. You and me."

His voice sounds ever so sweet, as do those words, though so lacks the magic he no longer has in his lack of wisdom to win her heart with a spell.

"But why like this? Why murder Rena and Mion, our friends who we learn are only victims in our plight? Even our principal and Chie-sensei," she laments in a soft, shaky voice.

"I had to, Rika-chan! We can't risk any repeat of their tragedies, not with those infernal people pulling the strings so effectively. They're always watching, always conspiring...always lurking until that moment! Maybe right now! And we saw for ourselves how easily evil seeped into Rena and Mion, deep in their very essence! Our friends became demons, and they remain as such!"

"Keiichi, what are you saying? What people, what—!"

"The evil carries over. I should know, I...I got infected," His sharp fingernails scratch red lines on his neck. "But I'm gonna resist this! For us! I'll get us outta this by eliminating every threat before they get the chance to eliminate us! We only have each other, Rika-chan, we can't trust anybody besides ourselves!"

Rika claps a hand over her mouth, stifling a sob.

"WE WILL FIND A WAY!" he screeches as he throws his head back, all the raw, negative emotions clouding his judgment and reason suddenly thick in his utterance.

Her fellow classmates emit a cacophony of whimpers, this sort of "air" moving around her in a way. Their voices touch not her skin but her hearing, and in succession communicate a pang of despair nearing to devastate them entirely.

Rika shares the sentiment. Too well in fact. Her dainty hand falls off her lips and rests on her chest, where, inside, she can feel her heart hammering repeatedly at this very moment. In no time, the heavy pulses grow deafening, the agony too much within, and she believes her heart crying with little care to know better.

I'm losing Keiichi, she realizes, hence this festering dread and growing ache of loss.

Keiichi then glances, suddenly, sharply, in a certain direction.

Tracing his line of vision, Rika finds a quaking shape no smaller than herself curled up in a ball and announcing terror through transparent countenance. Short waves of gold flow down her nape and her bangs hang at the front of her head, barely reaching her large, ruby eyes.

Satoko.

Rika's gaze darts back and forth from Keiichi to Satoko, then once more to the boy. That wild look across his face intensifies with a growing, menacing conviction. He grips the handle of the billhook more firmly.

'Oh, no. Not Satoko, not her please...' Rika pleads with him, tries to rather. Her heart persists loudly in its lament to her ears, confusing her on whether or not she has become mute. Though the feel of her lips moving hasn't been lost, the sound of her voice eludes her. Whether it goes through feebly or not at all in reality remains to be seen. Agony eclipses much of her sensations.

Her attempts seem to not draw his attention either way. At this, Rika suddenly empathizes with Hanyuu's dismay on the many occasions where very few can perceive the spirit's presence. It is unpleasant getting ignored.

Soon, his feet proceed to move away from Rika. Her heart almost stops upon the sight of Keiichi slowly approaching Satoko.

Ruby eyes contracting, Satoko pulls her knees closer to her chest and makes an apparent surrender to hyperventilation.

Stop him, stop him, stop him! goes the frantic chant—playing in Rika's mind, racing in her heart. Her petrified body doesn't react to this as quickly.

Keiichi brandishes the billhook as he makes it halfway towards Satoko.

She can't let him continue like this, can't let him kill Satoko, can't let him drift away from her any farther! Keiichi is the poetry to her motion, her source of healing to her hurting; the one she depends most on. For him to fall under madness or add up his body count of murders proves unbearable. She can't lose him, she will not lose him!

Rika makes a last attempt to move. Her willpower resurfaces at last.

A sudden surge of speed now overtaking her, she runs after Keiichi. In doing so, she undergoes a moment of empowerment—something she imagines the fastest of land animals able to understand with their habitual haste through howling winds.

Reaching Satoko, the boy draws his weapon over his head. Her legs move even faster.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Rika lets out a bellow so loud it sounds nothing like herself, a voice unnatural and even feral. If not for awareness of her own actions, she might have been fooled with the illusion of a monster about to attack.

This certainly fools Keiichi, however. He furiously swerves around and swings.

Letting instinct take the reins, her feet abruptly come to a halt while trying to pull her back.

It is as if she never gets the chance.

The sharp blade makes contact with her in a haphazard slash going down her neck to under her shoulder.

She gags, staggering sideways for a moment, before dropping to the floor on her back in a sprawl of limbs and long hair. The torture preceding her trip to the afterlife arises, this echo of drowning come before a deep sleep in the sea of darkness.

With oxygen no longer a luxury, Rika burns. Her insides feel like meat when stewed and her blood like water in an active boiler—both stinging sensations. The gash in her neck ensures an agonizing, messy demise which her current pain strongly proclaims. Her futile gasps for breath become gargles of liquid sharp with a metal taste as she flails in her fight for life. Rika feels her head spinning, heart throbbing rapidly. Terrified shrieks flood her ears.

A familiar shape comes into view without warning, distress profound on his face.

"Oh, God! Rika-chan!" Keiichi cries out the loudest. "I didn't know, I thought it was something else! No... No!"

His cerulean eyes shine lively in regret, refreshing Rika's memory of the vast beauties outside Hinamizawa that Keiichi revealed much about; the seas promising an unknown world of wonder, teasing her to explore. For a moment, Rika sees the treasure of a soul whom she cherishes.

"Please no! Don't die! I promise I won't hurt you ever again—I promise I'll really do my best for you! Forgive me, Rika-chan! Forgive me!" he implores.

Unable and unwilling to resent Keiichi despite today, Rika's immediate thought is to react in reassurance at his plea.

But time, a moment for words, and energy, an opportunity for a cordial gesture, are lacking on her part. Her life is reaching its duration as well. It won't be long before she at last drifts away from this world, and from Keiichi, like a soft wind passing by and not turning back.

So she stares intently in his watery eyes, and keeps staring. The mind can gather many thoughts even in pain and little time, and eye contact speaks most of it better than mouth or movement. Speaks enough, Rika believes, to tell him what she wants him to know...

With eyes misting but not averted, Rika shows a beaming expression and makes her message clearer.

More tears well up in his eyes, but his gaze does not linger for long. Keiichi throws his head back again before unleashing a scream suitably frantic. His fingers claw at his throat.

The ongoing symptoms of lightheadedness and blurry vision worsen. Pain soon overwhelms her as if it hadn't been torturous enough already—this time like a cocoon made of fire and smoke enveloping her, even digging into the slit of her throat. She suffers an unbearable heat and chokes without fresh air to breathe through a ravaged throat. It hurts and proves too much to bear.

Soon her heart stops when there is no longer sufficient blood to pump, and she blacks out with pain extinguished.

---

Following the final hour of Furude Rika, her smile never wanes and her tear-filled eyes remain open.

---

Abrupt perfectly defines everything that happens so swiftly yet brings so much to comprehend, which, to Rika, is especially true at this very moment; her release from oblivion, her return to perception, the round face of Hanyuu greeting her, and this ache lingering in her heart that she finds inexplicable because it inflicts a pang of sadness.

Not that such instances are a first, though this seems...different.

There's something not right here.

"Hanyuu," she calls for her guardian, capable but only with difficulty of subduing the strange woe threatening to burst from her voice. "What happened in the last world?"

For once, there is a resemblance between Hanyuu and her own indigenous statue in the shrine when she merely sends a silent, somber stare as a response. The spirit retains a stiff bearing, not showing a fidget—nor showing reassurance, much to Rika's dismay.

"Hanyuu, don't scare me and speak. How did I end up her—"

Rika pauses, freezing in a glance and motion of her hand to her right, having noticed a startling sight—or lack thereof.

Searching feverishly, her eyes swim around the Sea of Kakera. Amethyst spreads everywhere infinitely, engulfing her in its many murky shades, as crystals representing the doomed worlds express themselves in their slow dance around her like sparkles of water under a moonlit night.

How familiar this unworldly sight is and yet eerily unsettling to Rika with the absence of something important, similar to what she felt last time before she had learned that he would arrive later. Except somehow worse. Her hand unconsciously rests on her chest.

This terrible feeling...

Rika redirects her focus back to Hanyuu. "Where is Keiichi? How is he this time?" the slight quaver in her voice betrays her festering dread as she asks.

Whether from the empathy they share together or from the melancholy in her tone, Rika manages to bring about a reaction out of the other girl who shifts uncomfortably.

A hint of sorrow flickers across Hanyuu's face before quickly changing into what Rika can only describe as a tentative regard, as if the spirit thinks to be observing something fragile. Rika's worries skyrocket.

"I'm sorry, my child. Madness took Keiichi away as it did with Rena and Mion."

Despite the voice from Hanyuu sounding so gentle it passes to her like air, this response shatters Rika.

A whirlwind of recollections hit her at that moment, further tearing her apart little by little, rendering her a bigger mess once her mind assimilates everything.

The one time selective memory loss does not become an inconvenience is when she wishes it did.

How it devastates Rika, knowing the moment Keiichi showed up unusually tardy to class with that bladed weapon, knowing how he had decapitated Chie-sensei at first chance, knowing of what monstrous strength he had unleashed against Rena and Mion when he aimed to murder them next; all in a rampant display of insanity.

"No. No, no...no," she balks the moment her voice returns.

Hanyuu hangs her head. "I know, Rika. I also mourn for Keiichi. Such a bright soul should not deserve a fate so dark. I...I sincerely wish it could have been dif—"

"Stop talking like that!" Rika snaps, forceful in her contempt for the blather defiling her ears. "Keiichi isn't gone, he can't be gone!" She knows he came back in the end, singing loud pleas for forgiveness in a rush of regret swifter than the teardrops rolling down his cheeks, and vividly she recalls her own reassurance as she saw it from him.

His eyes brimming with promise—those beautiful, bright blue seas...

"I'm sorry," Hanyuu whispers, scarcely able to speak under the stormy waves of misery hitting them both. "Deeply, deeply sorry."

"Bring him here! You've done it before, haven't you? You can certainly do it again!"

"Rika..."

"Do it right now! I want Keiichi back! Him with me, here! HERE!"

She squeezes her own chest as if trying to seize something inside. Her fingers firmly grab her buttoned shirt, forming a cyclone of wrinkles.

Hanyuu doesn't dare meet her piercing gaze. "Madness leeches on the boy tighter than you've clinged to him. It shall never let him go, and it...it won't let him near your heart again. Even if I bring him here, he won't really be...here."

Rika shakes her head desperately. The word 'no' parrots from her lips, feeble and pathetic as it is in the calls of a caged bird yearning for anything else but the worst.

Then out of the blue, radiance splashes them, silvering their skin and clothes. Throwing side glances at the source collectively, they find a kakera brighter than the rest.

Hanyuu stays but Rika decides to drift towards the light, before her a pulsating star, a contrast to the gloomy amethyst cast everywhere. The kakera beckons her, albeit mute, blinding, and without arm or hand—yet mesmerizing regardless, and she approaches it for the promise of being shown what she desperately hopes is a miracle.

When Rika finally reaches the kakera and her digits gingerly trace its edges as she grabs hold, the illumination subsides before subsequently displaying a mess of colors.

She sees the different hues meet, how they mingle with each other, how they soon produce a clear image miraculously devoid of blurs and vague silhouettes.

If not for death having done it already, the discovery to behold might have stopped her heart.

Keiichi...and herself.

They lay on the classroom's bloodstained floor like koi fish and their respective chase after the other; a pair in a circle, though eternally motionless now with their dance ceased and never again to resume. Deep crimson fluidly escape their necks from wherever ravaged.

As they both share unblinking gazes, the two communicate to each other different conclusions of their interwoven story. Her weak, teary smile tells about a girl with hope in the face of everlasting despair, frail and yet persistent, in torment but ever thoughtful for those she holds dear; whereas the other face she sees permanently contorted in anguish tells more about a boy plagued with misery, captive of his own regrets and hysteria, a lone, unfortunate victim ailing with no chance for help or escape.

Although not instantly, a terrible realization dawns on Rika upon this sight of them frozen in time to be engraved in her own memory—upon the missing glow of their souls which once lit the abysses in their eyes.

There they are near one another, yet there they are no longer.

Similar to a dam when it has collapsed, Rika breaks down into sobs and her tears begin spilling out.

A pair of arms, not her own, wrap around her torso from behind. Hanyuu commences the usual comfort reserved for Rika in times of deep sorrow, a gentle song flowing off those lips like a calm river to lend her ear to. The soothing effect is lost on her forlorn self, however, for that cold truth hits harder.

The tale they shared together is over.

---

As it bears a sting of failure unlike any other, the bird sings in its cage continuously, loudly, painfully.

There finally comes a point when the bird tires from its struggles and stifles the prolonged song. But still it retains its voice deep within its heart as it continuously stares outside, watching the other birds starve and act wildly. Half-conscious in cages of their own.

For years and even now, the bird waits for long-awaited freedom from a growing tree that holds its cage. Weary it may be, it is patient.

---

The Loop continues and continues unabated, and Furude Rika drifts from Hinamizawa to Hinamizawa searching for a miracle. Her soul abides this burden of eternity, amassing scars that run deep in her very existence and adopting a jadedness no child or adult should own.

No one else beside herself and Hanyuu know anything about her changes, for every vessel that she would inhabit always shows them an ignorance of the decade beyond its own age. A decade, though not a natural lapse of time, which she has counted in her mind thus far. So surreal is how the years for her add up despite never straying past Shōwa 58, and how she matures yet doesn't truly grow simultaneously, though this eternal confinement manages somehow to pull it off.

Her closest friends can almost be considered lucky to have been spared from such a curse, that is if Fate was really any more lenient on them than on her. None the wiser of the hell they were all thrust into long since, they remain the same as they have been; victims who will sooner or later engender their undoing before finally meeting a predetermined tragedy.

Unable to know the pattern, let alone change it, they relive their sin over and over in the subsequent worlds. Neither are exempt from this, especially not Keiichi.

Even having mastered control over her fickle emotions, the sore from that time proves ever profound upon her to this day. She can't help it knowing she will keep trying to find a way whereas he will long suffer in the clutches of madness.

Like a critic analyzing a piece of literature, Rika lambastes her past self as a fool—the character who wears her heart on her sleeve, thinks with emotion over intellect as she presents herself naively. Hindsight reveals enough for her to realize everything could have been different had she handled things better back when they were partners, or had she acted less recklessly and more pragmatically, if only to prevent the outcome that befell Keiichi.

The boy is "half-conscious", in a way. Unaware of the Endless June and his alliance with her (both which he recalls no more) yet awake to the numerous tragedies against him, to be harrowed by sins of others... or sins of his own.

A pitiful irony, dare she admit. Keiichi's greatest sin is placing his faith in his distrust above everything else. He distances himself from those closest to him—a gullible listener to each and every lie madness tells him in his head. A servant of its callous and deceitful commands to which he helplessly follows.

In some worlds, he kills Mion and Rena with the false belief that they were conspiring to do him harm. In others, he murders Houjou Teppei in desperation to rescue a helpless Satoko, believing no one else but him can solve the matter regarding their friend's abuse.

Worlds like these are manifold, with Keiichi or someone else spilling blood, and each one turns out the same no matter how differently they are narrated. Anguish prevails, happiness ebbs away slowly but surely into a desolation that aches to be filled, and calamity consumes the characters before long.

But she nonetheless immerses in the repetition, if for no other reason than to always find that sliver of hope from reading between the lines in some of the stories like Keiichi's.

Such as the promise he has not reneged since that day.

"Please no! Don't die! I promise I won't hurt you ever again—I promise I'll really do my best for you! Forgive me, Rika-chan! Forgive me!" he implores.

It keeps Rika sane, the reminder of a chance as everlasting as however long she is willing to try pursuing it; when Keiichi keeps his word by never again laying a finger on her once madness compels, regardless if he cannot ever recall saying it.

Rika has learned about this echo of the boy she once kept close to her heart, and since then has been making sure that this knowledge repeats incessantly in her mind—to help her keep going, and to ease her aching heart.

Keiichi is still there. Disoriented, distressed, distant, but has yet to disappear. The same can be said for her other companions who share similar fates, and maybe, just maybe, a miracle might occur somewhere down the road to help change things for the better. Not only bringing them all back together again but closer to a world devoid of woe. Come that day, Rika will want herself present.

She won't tempt Fate though. No making more Loopers or drastic changes to any of the stories. Such actions will only merit further punishment as it did the first time that she and Keiichi defied Fate, from Rena, from Shion (who she at some point learned is the true murderer and not Mion), from Teppei, and eventually from Keiichi himself.

The last thing she needs is for worse tortures to arise and strain her mental health—potential dangers that she plans to ensure are minimized as much as possible.

So her best course of action, she believes, is waiting for the miracle to come to her, like rolling a 100-sided die with a single 6 and every other side numbered 1. With patience her virtue, Rika shall persevere for deliverance despite the odds against her. Even should her efforts take a century to succeed.

Failure is inconsequential, merely a number coinciding with the misfortunes of death from every throw thus far. Rika can always go again and again. Eternity courses through her being, and the infinity of retries are at her fingertips. All she need do on her part is roll.

Her fingers cradle a new kakera. Rika grips it tight, before letting it go. An ocean of light engulfs her soon after.

Next thing she knows, life comes into her lungs, and she finds herself on her bottom. Rika can't help wincing at the sudden but familiar pain throbbing around that part of her body.

"Are you all right?"

An outstretched hand appears before her. Curiously, her eyes trace the palm, then up the arm. She meets a face that floods her mind, drowning her in a sea of fond memories. His blue eyes wash over her with worry, and she swims in them wistfully.

"So sorry," Keiichi apologizes sheepishly, "Didn't mean to get in your way."

She takes the boy's hand before he helps her up. Once on her feet, the corners of her lips slowly rise. Innocent glee radiates from her sunny disposition before the one in her studious watch.

"You don't need to worry, sir. I accept your apology. For the sins you commit, I shall return this smile every time we meet," she tells him.

He returns a benevolent smile of his own. "Well, aren't you admirably compassionate! You sure have an interesting way of saying such things, too."

This is the calm before the storm, Rika keeps in mind while thoroughly observing Keiichi's eyes—sparkles across the clearness of calm oceans. The tides of tragedy shall soon stir, sending this sight for sore eyes wild, and she is bound to hence be swept away by the chaos. Unless the miracle acts soon and puts a stop to the storm, that is.

Something will unequivocally transpire, making this semblance of peace ephemeral either way. For that she shall live in the moment as best as she can, no matter how blasé or repetitive, until it ends, and she can start over afterwards.

"When you live in Hinamizawa for so long, sir, you gain an interesting outlook on life. You can also learn to appreciate the little things. I know I do, though I would like a change someday."

Keiichi rubs the back of his neck. "Well, you could consider me pretty new. I'm gonna be living here starting today, actually. Away from city life."

Rika nods unconsciously, a knowing look on her face.

"You could contribute to that change, or you could accompany me when it presents itself. I'll wholeheartedly welcome your presence all the same."

Hearing her very response, Keiichi brightens. "That would be an honor, Miss," he bows. "Call me Maebara Keiichi! I'll do my best!"

I'm sure you will. Even if you've no clue.

"Furude Rika," she introduces herself. The sound of her name resonates with the cicadas commencing their constant chorus upon her croon. Her voice wafts on the summer wind wandering through Hinamizawa as it has for years beyond her current flesh, soft and faint but loud enough to be heard by listening ears.

Keiichi beams with delight, "I look forward to learning the ways of a Hinamizawan, Rika-chan."

An involuntary titter kisses Rika's lips. Sincere amusement sweetening her tongue, she speaks tenderly, "You won't need much guidance from me for that. Already you are following the most important rule here—the unspoken rule."

"Eh?" Keiichi blinks blankly. "What kinda rule is that?"

"The kind that determines your place in the world of Hinamizawa, sir," she answers. "If you don't follow this rule, you'll be lost forever."

He gulps, taken aback by such dramatic information. "Just what is this rule exactly?"

She skips around the boy, takes some steps toward the evening horizon, before twirling around to face her company again with her hands behind her back.

"Grin big!" Rika beams with as much warmth as she gets from the hot rays of sunlight showering her. "Nipah~!"

---

Author's Notes:

Oh, wow. This definitely took a lot longer than it should have. You can only write so much with school and writer's block, but I did make a promise that I would get this done no matter what and I wanted to keep my word on that.

Hope you enjoyed this super long one-shot!