Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni Fan Fiction ❯ Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Reversed (Onikakushi-hen) ❯ Chpater2-suspicion ( Chapter 2 )

♪ BING! BONG! BANG! BONG! ♪

All the children in the Hinamizawa Branch School packed away all their homework.

“Don't forget!” Mr. Irie called, “Math sets numbers 13-24 due Tuesday!”

All the children left the school to go home for the day. All except Kai, Keiichi, Satoshi, Riku and Rena. The five pushed their desks together to form a square, with Renas desk as a appendenge.

“I'll leave the school unlocked for you. “Mr. Irie said, leaving, “Kai, I trust you to lock up when you're done.”

“No problemo!” Kai saluted.

Irie shut the classroom door. Kai sat down at his desk.

“Who votes Rena-chan should be in the club~?” he asked.

Riku, Satoshi, Keiichi, and even Kai raised their hands.

“Wait, where's my say in this?” Rena asked.

“IT'S UNANIMOUS!! RYUUGUU RENA IS PART OF THE CLUB!!” Kai shouted, throwing his arms in the air.

He put a fist to his hand and blew a fake trumpet fanfare.

“Ok, since I was forced to join,” Rena said through clenched teeth, “What does this `club' do?”

“Explain, guys.” Kai said, standing up.

He went to the far wall where the children's locker-like cubbies were and opened up his.

“It's a fun club, Rena.” Keiichi started, “Even though all we do is sit around for two hours and play games.”

“The games are simple, so no worries!” Riku smiled.

“We have only two rules. 1) The loser has to do whatever the winner wants and 2)you can do whatever it takes to win.” Satoshi said smugly.

“Since you're new, we'll play something easy.” Kai said from inside his locker, “Aha! How `bout Old Maid?”

He emerged from his cubby with a beaten up deck of cards. Kai took his seat and delt them out. Rena picked up one of hers so the back faced everyone else.

“Wow, these cards are really beat up. I bet you can tell which card is which just by looking at the backs!” she joked.

Her smile dropped as evil, demonic aura filled the room. The area around their eyes had darkened—almost pitch black. Their eyes turned to yellow glimmers.

“Remember the second rule…?” Satoshi said creepily.

“Do what ever it takes to win…” Kai added in the same tone.

“H-h-hey! That's not fair…!” Rena stuttered.

Hand after hand after hand, Rena lost again and again and again.

“This isn't fair…” Rena sobbed, losing her fifth hand.

“Kai, maybe we should open a new deck. This isn't fair to Rena-kun…” Keiichi said, picking up his sixth hand.

Kai ignored him.

“Rena, I'll read your cards left to right.” He sneered, “Diamond 3, club 5, spade 10, spade Jack, heart king.”

Rena looked at her hand. Kai was exactly right. Rena did a quick check for any mirrors. None. Rena lost two more hands. It was the final and eighth hand. Kai had won three times, Keiichi twice and Riku and Satoshi once each.

“There has to be some way to win…” Rena thought in despair.

The light bulb went on in her brain. It was a brilliant trick!! She kept her glum expressionand placed one hand casually on top of her cards.

“You guys won. I don't see how I'll ever be able to win…” she sighed, removing her hand from her cards.

“My turn.” Kai laughed,” Let's see…the dog-eared card is the two of diamonds, right?”

Kai picked the card out of Rena's hands. Rena smiled at this. Kai's smug expression turned to disbelief. Keiichi peeked over at the card Kai had drawn.

“9 of hearts? But Kai never makes a mistake! That must mean…” Keiichi said quietly.

Rena started laughing softly, then she erupted into a full semi-evil laugh.

“REVENGE, KAI, REVENGE!!!” she cackeled.

“She dog-eared the 9 of hearts to make it look like the 2 of diamonds.” Riku smiled, “A very good strategy! Pa-run!”

Satoshi marked the final results on his mini-chalkboard. He drew a losing X in Kai's final box and a winning circle in Renas'.

“That was a good trick, but it came too late. You've lost the most, Rena.” He smirked, “And that means punishment game.”

“Well, at least I got Kai….wait, punishment game?” Rena asked, confused.

Blue-purple demonic aura swirled around her. Before she knew what was happening, Keiichi had yanked her up from her chair. He got behind her and held her arms in a vice-like grip.

“Kei…Keiichi…?” Rena asked nervously.

Riku and Satoshi dove and secured Renas ankles.

“Wh-what are you doing?!” Rena half-screamed.

All three of them chuckled evilly. Rena attempted to move. Her limbs were locked. The more she struggled, her “captors” tightened their bonds.

“Th-thi-this isn't funny!!” Rena said, terrified.

“Ok, Rena…” Kai said quietly, “Since it's your first punishment game….I'll go easy on ya….”

He reached into his pans pocket and pulled out a black, washable marker. He pulled the cap off, revealing the ink-soaked velvet. He swayed side to side, slowly advancing.

“What are you doing?!” Rena squeeked, “Stop!!”

Kai got closer…closer. Tears welled up in Rena's eyes. Three feet….two feet…Rena started to shake uncontrollably. One foot…six inches…

“N-N-NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!” Rena screamed.

***************************************************************** *******

“Aww, cheer up, Rena! You look cute!” Kai smiled.

“This is humiliating…” Rena mumbled.

Kai had drawn whiskers on Rena's cheeks and colored in her nose. He had attached black cat ears to her head and a cat tail to her waist. Riku tied a small golden bell around her fake tail which jingled with each step she took. Satoshi fastened a red bell-collar around her neck while Keiichi slipped on black cat gloves.

“It's not that humiliating! You look cute! I, for one, would love to take you home tonight. You know.” Kai purred.

BAM!!!!

Rena's fist met his face.

“OW! Hey, I was joking!” Kai yelled.

He regained his composure and ran to catch up with her.

“I'm sorry. I didn't mean that…” he apologized, then he grinned, “I'll take you home for an hour or two. The time depends on you, kitten.”

He started to play with the bell around her neck. Bad move.

BAM!!!! BASH!!!!

Rena socked him in the stomach with her school bag. While he was bent over, she elbowed in the back of the head.

“Jerk…” she muttered, walking away.

Kai got up and brushed the dirt off him.

“Re-chan~! I was kidding! Wait up!” he called.

Rena ignored him.

“No more jokes, I swear!” Kai yelled in desperation.

Rena thought for a second, then stopped and allowed him to catch up.

“Since there's no more jokes, “she started, “I have to ask you something that's been bugging me.”

“Shoot.” Kai said, placing his arms behind his head.

“Well, was there some kind of accident that happened here a while ago?” Rena asked.

Kai stopped walking. Rena stopped and turned to look at him. Kai looked her straight in the eyes.

“No, nothing.” He said monotonely.

“Are you su-?” Rena started.

“That's just a rumor.” Kai interrupted in the same monotone voice, “Someone on the pro-dam side started it up during the construction war.”

“Construction war?”

“It started a while back. Around when I was ten.” Kai explained, “The government wanted to build a dam for power for other cities. Problem was, Hinamizawa would have been wiped out. The towns leaders fought for a long time about it. Eventually, the project was cancelled.”

The two approached the fork in the road that separated Kai's and Renas ways home.

“Thanks for clearing that up.” Rena smiled.

“no prob. And don't forget you cant take that off until you get home!” Kai laughed,” and I haven't been hearing that -nya at the end of your sentences.”

“Yeah, yeah-nya.” Rena grumbled, “See-ya, Kai-nya.”

Kai headed off the path to the Sonozaki household, way up in the mountains. Rena continued down the path home.

“What are mom and dad gonna say if they see me like this…?” she asked herself.

Eventually, Rena made it home. She snuck in and darted to her room before her parents could see how she was dressed. As soon as she shut her bedroom door behind her, she removed the embarrassing cat get-up and her school uniform. She then put on her favorite white dress that stopped just below her knees. This was Renas favorite because it had a huge purple decoritave bow on the chest and a slightly smaller bow on the back that rested right above her tailbone. She then pulled on her black stockings and fastened her knee-high brown boots. She would never let her favorite shoes leave her room, lest they get damaged. Finally, she put on her big white artist-like hat, checked her appearance in her mirror, then headed downstairs. She zipped right past her dad and almost knocked the middle-aged man over.

“Hey! Wheres the fire, Rena?” he chuckled.

“I'm going to a friends. Be back `fore nightfall!” Rena smiled.

Before her father could tell her to be careful, Rena was out of the house and half-way down the street. She made her way through Hinamizawa and arrived at her destination: the garbage dump. Rena climbed down into the gigantic pit of junk and searched until she found what she was looking for. There was Keiichi, struggling to move some heavy objects.

“Hey, Keiichi!” she greeted.

Keiichi jumped a little then turned and smiled when he saw it was Rena.

“Evening, Rena-kun!” he greeted.

“Rena smiled and saluted, keeping her back straight like a solder.

“Corporal Rena at our service, sir! I'm here to help you dig out that dead body, sir!” Rena said in a military tone.

“B-body? What body?” Keiichi asked nervously.

“I'm kidding about the body!” Rena laughed, “I'm here to help you dig out that shiny like I promaced.”

Keiichi blanked for a moment.

“Oh right! The big shiny! When you said “body” I thought you were talking about tha…….” Keiichi trailed off.

Rena stared quizzically at him.

“Never mind. The shiny is over here.” Keiichi said, changing the subject.

He turned back to where he was digging before. Rena started over to look at it but she caught something in the corner of her eye. It was the discarded Kenta-kun that used to stand in front of the KCF.

“The Kenta-kun!” she squealed, “It's cute!!! Keiichi, can we dig this out first, pleeeeeeeease?!”

“Rena~! The shiny~!” Keiichi whined.

Rena made a mental note to come back for the Kenta later. She continued over to where the shiny was.

“Keiichi, that's a doorknob.”

“It's shiny!”

“It's just an old doorknob.”

“YOU'RE A DOORKNOB!!!”

“Keiichi…”

“Sorry…”

Rena kneeled down to examine the doorknob. She wiggeled it around a little.

“Hmm…it's still attached to the door…” she muttered, “If only we had something strong enough to bash apart the wood to get it loose…I'd use one of the many rusty pipes here, but I think they'd break…”

“Oh, I got something for this!” Keiichi exclaimed, “Rena, guard that shiny with your life. I'll be right back!”

He jumped through the discarded items as easily as a squirrel hops across branches. Out of the corner of her eye, Rena spotted a couple stacks of newspapers, the string still holding them together. She grabbed a large shard of glass and cut the string. The front page caught her attention. Rena picked up the newspaper and turned to the page instructed for the article.

“Murder in Hinamizawa…a construction worker beaten and chopped up…no motive found…the mans right arm and one of the six culprits haven't been found...” she half-whispered, reading the article aloud.

The newspaper fell from her shaky hands. Rena flashed back to when Keiichi said nothing happened, and to when Kai dismissed it as a rumor.

“They lied….they lied to me…” Rena whispered to herself, “There was a murder…”

The second the last syllable of the word “murder” escaped her lips, all the cicadas around the dump started buzzing ferociously, as if trying to warn her of approaching danger…