Game 6 of Higurashi, just like the rest of Kai so far, doesn't follow Keiichi mainly. In fact this is the first game to switch perspectives between people so much and it's great. However the real star and protagonist of Tsumihoroboshi is Ryugu Rena, who has a lot of 'atonement' to do. At first you believe Keiichi is the true narrator like in WTC1, but very shortly in Rena is focused on as her world is swallowed up. You know it's Rena because the text will turn into a light, soft pink color for her. What I really enjoyed was something very subtle Ryukishi07 does with the text as well as the story progresses...
Anyway, like in every game so far the beginning/prologue is very goofy and almost always foreshadows future events in my opinion. The opening of this game is a huge dramatic water fight that was very fun to read and included some pretty sick music to boot. At the climax there is a water gun fight between Keiichi and Rena that gets very involving with each other. Making five minutes seem like five hours. Afterwards the whole squad goes to a restaurant and that's when things start to get good.
At this point Rena takes over for narration which will be the first big surprise of this game. If you've played Meakashi (which you really should have if you're reading this) then you'll be trying to see which original question arc game this is, which you can do that's fine. However, you won't be getting far, hehehe. Anyway, the moment Rena takes over I would say is the official 'first half' of Tsumihoroboshi. I would consider this everything before the Watanagashi festival. During the first half we immediately see a new character named Rina, who no, has no connection to Rena by blood as far as I know and she seems like a kinda bad lady though.
Anyway, we then go deep into Rena's backstory which involves a very tragic story between her parents that I would say very mentally scarred Rena since I think she was having delusions. The thing about Higurashi is it always keeps you guessing. Rena says Oyashiro-sama made her come back to Hinamizawa since she lived in Ibazaki almost her whole life but was born in Hinamizawa, which means she has to go back. Otherwise blood maggots will feast on her insides, which I admit was a very disturbing scene to read. Tomitake even shows signs of this when he dies which is weird. I still don't have the answers to that.
Anyway, Rena's parents split up and Rena's Father decides it's a good idea that they go back to Hinamizawa since Rena seems mentally unhealthy and just wants to go back to Hinamizawa as well. I will note that the Mother is probably fine still and the Father is fine. This shows some evidence that Rena is just being delirious about the whole Oyashiro-sama thing but we'll see.
This is when Rina comes in. Rena doesn't like Rina one bit, she started going out with Rena's Father, which makes him happy. However Rena feels that something is very bad with Rina...which turns out true! Rina and her accomplice Houjou Teppei (yes Satoko's Uncle, the one Keiichi kills in game 3!) aren't very sincere with Rena's Father! They just plan to take all the money he has, which is quite a bit, since the Ex-Wife was pretty wealthy and gave some compensation money. This put Rena in a tight spot since she couldn't tell her Father who was very infatuated with Rina and she couldn't confront Rina directly since Rina wouldn't change her ways because of what some daughter said. Worse of all however, Rena never thinks about asking her friends Mion, Keiichi, Satako, or Rika-chan for help. The thought never crosses her mind. I felt all of these scenes to be very disheartening and sad. I felt very bad for Rena and I'm guessing that was Ryukishi07's intentions.
This is when....Rena kills both Rina and Teppei. Now, killing Rina was actually an accident since Rina tried to kill her first when Rena was able to corner her with the help of Kasai's/Shion's influence and power. Since Rena and Rina were both alone in the junkyard Rena likes to hang out at Rina tries to silence her, however this backfires when Rena grabs a nearby metal pipe and starts whacking her. In fear Rina tries running away, tries getting back to her car by climbing a junk pile back up, and then stumbled and breaks her neck as she falls from the pile. Rena is shocked at first, but then realizes this will solve all her problems. With Rena gone the only problem is Teppei, who will be concerned of Rina's whereabouts. A few days later an angry Teppei breaks into Rena's home and question her Father on where Rina is, of course the Father is completely confused and also kind of a wimp so Rena tells Teppei that Rina has been hiding somewhere and that she told Rena to tell Teppei to follow her. Teppei begrudgingly agrees since this is the only lead he has on Rina's whereabouts. Rena then brings Teppei to the junkyard and premeditatedly murders Teppei with a planted hatchet she had there. Unlike Rina this was all cold, calculated, and planned exactly. At this time you'll start to see the pink text of Rena's world slowly turn a bit darker...
Rena's friends find Rina's and Teppei's corpses before she has a chance to bury them in the mountains. When Rena comes back to the junkyard she gets in a confrontation with her friends and explains everything to them. They don't know what to say besides Keiichi, who jumps on the car Rena is on and says straight to her face that what she did was okay since they all are friends and trust each other in a pretty emotional scene. Afterwards all five of them help bury the bodies in the mountains and everything seems okay after that for awhile...
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I would say up to this point the story has been pretty good. Rena was talked about a whole damn lot the commitment her friends have is shown pretty clear. Even after finding out that Rena has killed two people they all decide to keep quiet about it and even help hide the corpses because they think what Rena did was a right thing to do even if there was better solutions. At this point you really wonder what will be happening next. I mean the Watanagashi hasn't even happened yet! In on of the tips they talk about how the mountains they buried the bodies in will be forested in some kind of event, which I thought was interesting and it does in fact come up later.
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Proceeding with the story, Rena hasn't been feeling well. She doesn't come to school as often as she should and hardly participates in the club activities. All of her friends are hoping it's just a little mental sickness that will go away. I mean they helped hide the bodies so she wouldn't have to bear the whole burden herself. The whole thing was suppose to be forgotten but Rena still isn't feeling well.
Around two days before the Watanagashi the corruption of Rena begins. Her Father is doing actually a lot better now that Rina has "left him" and he tells Rena to return a few library books for him. At the library Rena runs into Takano who is an occult freak who starts a conversation with Rena about Hinamizawa and all its history which I'm sure you've heard of a dozen times. Which involves the Onifugachi swamp or whatever the hell it's called and the "man-eating demons" that came from it. What connects the two however is Rena starts sharing her story about the 'blood maggots' to Takano who actually doesn't laugh her off as a nutjob but takes in what she's saying seriously. Thanks to this information Takano hands Rena a few notebooks to read herself when she has the chance. Takano even states that "only you will probably understand these".
Then of course, the Watanagashi festival happens. When the festival is over Takano is found burned to death (and strangulated) in a barrel way far off in the mountains and Tomitake is found sprawled on the side of the road with his throat torn out by himself. Just like every Watanagashi festival. This is when I would consider Tsumihoroboshi being at the 'second half' of the -hen/game.
Ooishi informs Rena during school (like how Ooishi always informs Keiichi during school in the first games) that Takano and Tomitake have been murdered. I think this was very foolish of him to tell a young girl like this for help, but Ooishi really wants to catch the culprits. Anyway, Rena kinda freaks that Takano has been killed and runs back to her house to read what those notebooks Takano gave her are really about. This is when everything goes to shit. If only nobody died during the Watanagashi things may have been better, no, they
would definitely have been better, but no the Watanagashi has to kill Takano and Tomitake again.
When Rena reads through the notebooks she realizes they detail a 'parasite theory' and even mention the 'blood maggots' that Rena experienced. At this point Rena starts getting wrapped up in a conspiracy that she will have a very difficult time getting out of. She tells Keiichi about it on the way home from school, which Keiichi thinks is a joke at first, but starts getting suspicious as he thinks about it. Before he can become enveloped like Rena though Mion snaps him out of it the next day during school. Keiichi tries talking to Rena about it, but Rena is pretty confident something is wrong in Hinamizawa.
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This is very interesting. Higurashi's main theme the entire time so far has always had a friend trusting thing to it which meant whether trusting your friends and living blissfully or doubting them since you sense something is wrong. Now we get to see Rena losing that trust instead of Keiichi and we can see Keiichi is having a hard time convincing Rena that "nothing is wrong" just like Mion and Rena did to Keiichi before. It really is quite mysterious. Game 6 really wants to give a trusting friends image this time around since Keiichi isn't the target this time.
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It is also around this point, as Rena keeps her distance from everybody, that Keiichi starts feeling
strange. As he talks to his friends about Rena
he starts to feel a previous memory of another game inside him. It's not directly obvious at this time, but he senses it and he knows he has to help Rena to trust her friends. Rika-chan is surprised by this actually and calls it a miracle of her own. This is when I realize Rika-chan knows too of these many game worlds. Although much more clearly than Keiichi currently.
At about four days after the Watanagashi Rena completely paranoids out and runs away from home, stealing some of her Father's money and buying loads of food. She heads to her junkyard hideout since nobody goes to the junkyard and calls Ooishi on a nearby booth phone. Rena takes her chances and spills the beans on everything she's "gathered" in Hinamizawa to Ooishi, who is taken aback by how dangerous this might really be. Apparently Hinamizawa is researching a parasite that will wipe away the whole prefecture! The people behind it are the three families with the Sonozaki's in the main control! It's really complex stuff she said so I don't remember all the details. But it involved brain levels and cryptic crap like that. Unfortunately, Ooishi falls for it since he really wants to get down to the Watanagashi murder cases and will take any leads at this point. Ooishi hears news that the Sonozaki family is searching for her (since she ran away from home) so Ooishi requests that all patrol cars are to find Rena and bring her to safety immediately before she's hurt by the Sonozaki's. It's really all a huge misunderstanding that leads to an all out manhunt for Rena, which obviously with her paranoia drives her almost off the wagon. She starts getting 'blood maggot' syndromes even though she should be fine, so she puts the blame on Mion poisoning the part of the omelette's she gave her for lunch one day during school, yeah.
As Rena hides in her junk yard car as a shit ton of people are looking for her, Rika-chan of all people comes straight to her hiding spot and starts speaking to her. Right away Rena calls Rika-chan a fake and shockingly enough Rika
admires her intuition 'this' game. Rena starts yelling that Rika-chan is an alien impostor and there are other alien impostors of people now, like even herself and crap.
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Now I believe Rika-chan has always known of these 'games'. Otherwise she wouldn't be mentioning stuff like this. Either Rika knew from the beginning or she gained knowledge of it slowly like Keiichi, either way Rika
knows and Rena isn't half-wrong with what she's said Rika is. I really do believe Rika is a very suspicious individual, just not an alien from a UFO because that's stupid. Rika also has said she always dies in every game, which I thought was interesting (since it's true so far). Anyway...
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Rika-chan leaves shortly after and Rena starts realizes that she's bloody all over from scratching herself. She wraps some bandages and towels around herself to settle herself a little bit and has the thought that she needs to move her hiding spot because Rika-chan knows where it is and it's not safe. As she's leaving Keiichi comes down and speaking to Rena, worrying about her profusely. Rena states that Keiichi is the only person she can trust, however she rejects any offers he gives of her to stay at his or Mion's house. Keiichi can't persuade her and Rena flees off somewhere.
Some time passes at this point. Rena visits Keiichi's house one more time, but doesn't accept coming inside and instead the two exchange more words outside. Keiichi can see Rena is very stressed and paranoid and she has a towel wrapped around her neck. Apparently Rena believes that Hinamizawa is going to be wiped at tomorrow and that she will have to do something soon. Keiichi tries to tell Rena to trust him and their friends, however Rena says she only trusts Keiichi (which Keiichi notices is a lie).
Here's where the crazy finale happens. On June 25th, Rena doesn't show up in school again. As the day proceeds normally Chie-sensei gets a call from Rena and drives over to her location immediately, leaving the children to be taught by Mion, the class president. Mion tells her bodyguards (since who knows what Rena will do to the Sonozaki's) to follow Chie-sensei and bring Rena back to them. As class is about to begin a student returning from the restroom comes in...
...with Rena. At this point Rena's text is completely soaking blood red. Her eyes are also permanently in that inverted mode. Rena uses the restroom student as a hostage since she has that hatchet in her hand and she forces Keiichi to tie up all the students in the class or else people will die. Keiichi doesn't know what to do so he obliges and at that point the police catch wind of the hostage situation. Mostly because Rena called them and told the police she wants to negotiate with Ooishi.
At this point Rena makes Keiichi bring the notebooks to Ooishi (who by the way isn't fooled by Rena's delusions anymore and is just playing along to handle the situation) to show the proof he needs to "raid all the buildings in Hinamizawa for the parasite research center". At this point Ooishi expertly slips Keiichi a note with information, a bug/radio receiver, and some pepper spray to help with Rena. When Keiichi walks back into the class he sees Rena smashing Mion's face with the handle of the hatchet yelling over and over about the Sonozaki family and how she's not her friend and the parasite conspiracy, which Mion doesn't know anything about. Keiichi also smells a strong weird scent and realizes Rena
dosed all the students with gasoline.
Keiichi almost loses it here. He fully regains his memories of game 1 at this point and almost breaks down at the sight of Rena, since it was exactly like he behaved in game 1 with his distrusting and paranoid nature. He even killed Rena and Mion in that game. It's here that Keiichi decides he HAS to save Rena from committing the worse sin he's ever committed and he has to save Rena in THIS WORLD. Keiichi directly confronts Rena and stops her from beating Mion. Rena yells angrily back at Keiichi and whacks him in the face with the handle of the hatchet. Suddenly Rena gets a phone call and she has to leave the room since the only working phone is in the teacher's office (she says she'll kill everyone if anybody is missing though).
Here Kumagai (Ooishi's partner) starts talking to Keiichi from the receiver and tells Keiichi that Rena has set up a timer bomb that will ignite the gasoline either way at 7pm, which is like 15 minutes. Keiichi realizes that Ooishi is stalling Rena on the phone on purpose so Keiichi asks Satoko for help then runs out into the hall looking for the timer since it's not in the classroom. He follows an extension line that goes to a normal alarm clock, which confuses him...then he realizes. Rena is standing right behind him... hatchet raised in the air.
ACTION MUSIC STARTSKeiichi turns around quickly enough to see Rika-chan tackle Rena from behind, free from her bindings somehow. Keiichi manages to take the lighter from Rena in the struggle and starts getting away back to the classroom. Rika picks up a nearby broom and tells Keiichi to free everybody as she holds off Rena. Which is exactly what Keiichi does, he unbinds everybody and frees Mion from her U-restraint with the help of Satoko, at that point everybody flees from the building. As they do they Satoko says the bomb timer must be connected to the room from the ceiling which goes up onto the 2nd floor roof (missing some context) so Keiichi starts booking it to roof to save the school from blowing up and possibly save Rena since she was suicidal from the beginning. As Keiichi heads up the stairs Rena knocks Rika away finally (Rika curses her small girl body she always has) and makes chase after Keiichi. As the sun starts to set Keiichi gets to the timer with the assistance of Kumagai and Ooishi's binocular skills and destroyed the timer 3 seconds before the school explodes from the liters of gasoline in the building.
As for the grand finale, we get to see Rena come onto the roof and confront Keiichi with her hatchet anyway. Thankfully Satoko threw him Satoshi's metal bat before he headed upstairs and the two duke it on the roof as the sun sets, just like with that water gun fight in the prologue...Keiichi talks with Rena since what the two are doing is actually enjoyable and fun and Rena realizes this. Keiichi finally starts to break through to Rena and she says that if the world does end tomorrow it doesn't even really matter since she's having so much fun right now.
...We see Rena looking up at the roof, dumbfounded because she's never seen a game like this before...
At the very end, Rena knocks Keiichi's bat off the roof and pins him to the ground. As Keiichi lays there looking up at Rena he realizes that Rena can't kill him because he's her true friend and the two of them hold their hands up together on the roof, with the moon in the background illuminating them.
...And then they all day the next day.
Yes.
They all die the next day. Just like Rena's delusions prophesied from Takano's notebooks.
Well, except Rika I guess. She dies that night somehow, she said she had to die on June 25th anyway. Then the morning of June 26th everybody dies to the 'Hinamizawa Incident' which is pissing me off.
Still though, best ending yet or what? Game 1, 2, and 3 all were pretty sucky endings. At least in this ending all the characters survive to the end and make up instead of murdering each other. Except Ooishi, Ooishi always lives.
Well, see you next time when I play Minagoroshi. Or Game 7.
