closed ❀ nekodamashi-hen divergence

[miirai]

[...to be honest, Furude Rika -

- if she can even be allowed to call herself that anymore, really -

her heart has basically... been torn to shreds to the point where she just wants to give up. If she can just get thrown back into Showa 58 - to 1983 - at any given moment, then what's the point?

Is it just her fate to experience these loops, over and over...?

That no matter what happens, she can't reach that happy ending?

Even in a world that was meant to be a perfect one, she died. That's why she suggested the game of hide and seek. Nobody would find her here, in the saiguden. It's a game of life and death. If even one of them finds her, then she'll reconsider. But if they don't...

...

It's not their fault.

She doesn't blame them in the slightest bit. But if they have to get hurt in each and every Fragment because of her - isn't it obvious what her choice should be?

Shouldn't she leave the stage early?

......It hurts so much, to make a choice like this. That is why she'll wait, and bide her time.

Because there's still a fragment of her that wants to still hope, in spite of her heart basically buckling under.

Come and find me, if you can, she thinks to herself, her eyes wet with tears, her voice breaking into hollow, broken laughter, alone. Because that what she truly is... right...?]

Comments

[keichan]

[ Keiichi had to hand it to Rika: she was very good at hiding. He'd checked the school, the waterwheel, and countless other places. But there was still no sign of Rika.

He'd seen a couple of older villagers and asked them if they'd seen her. They hadn't, but...

"Rika-chama...? Perhaps she's practicing her dance for the Watanagashi Festival."

"Oh? I wonder if she's using that heavy ritual hoe right now... but they keep that one locked up in the Saiguden, don't they?"

That gave Keiichi somewhere to check. It seemed like a red herring, but it was worth a shot.

When he arrived at the she'd, however, it did look like someone had unlocked the door. So, perhaps he had found her after all. ]

Rika-chan? Are you in here?

[ He pushed the door open slowly, peeking his head into the dusty shed. ]