Rika Furude

"I shouldn't say we may change fate...We will change it."

Rika Furude (古手 梨花) is a main character in and serves as the protagonist of  and. Rika is the last surviving member of the Furude family and is revered by village elders in Hinamizawa as the reincarnation of Oyashiro. Rika plays a significant role in the research into Hinamizawa Syndrome, as she is the "queen carrier" upon which all the Hinamizawa Syndrome parasites depend.

Background
Rika is a daughter of the Furude clan, a special position that has designated her as both the "queen carrier" of Hinamizawa Syndrome and the reincarnation of Oyashiro. The village elders revere Rika due to her religious significance. Although Rika's status allows her to attend and participate in important village meetings, she is not required to attend due to her age. She voluntarily allows herself to be experimented on in the Irie Clinic in order to assist in the creation of a cure for Hinamizawa Syndrome, as the "queen carrier" is important to Hinamizawa Syndrome research.

Eventually Rika's mother becomes uncomfortable with Rika's role as a test subject and attempts to withdraw Rika from the research. During the 1981 Watanagashi Festival, Rika's father began having heart problems. He was taken to the Irie Clinic but was ultimately pronounced dead from a heart attack. On the same night, Rika's mother went missing. Her slippers and a suicide note were found in front of the Onigafuchi swamp, leading the public to believe that the she killed herself to appease Oyashiro's anger. In reality, the incident was orchestrated by the Mountain Hounds under orders from Miyo Takano. Miyo had the Rika's mother killed for interfering in the Hinamizawa Syndrome research. Rika's father was killed to maintain the appearance of one death and one disappearance every year.

Following the death of her parents, Rika moved in with Satoko Houjou in a small house near the Furude Shrine.

In June 1983, Miyo Takano kills Rika in order to cause the Great Hinamizawa Disaster. Upon her death, Hanyuu used her powers to take Rika back in time to a parallel world. Rika attempts to thwart Miyo's plans but fails, causing her death. Again, Hanyuu used her powers to take Rika back in time to a parallel world. This cycle repeated for the equivalent of over 100 years before the events of.

Appearance
Rika appears as a very young girl with purple eyes and long blue hair styled as a hime cut. She is very small, slightly shorter than Satoko Houjou. At school, Rika wears a white short-sleeved shirt with a pink bow, a navy blue skirt, navy blue suspenders, and white socks. Her casual clothes consist of white sandals and a green sundress with a white bow. During the Watanagashi Festival, Rika wears a traditional white and red miko outfit.

While working at Angel Mort, Rika wears a combination of the standard Angel Mort uniform and a school swimsuit.

Personality
Rika often seems wise beyond her years. In, Rika accurately predicts the deaths of several people including herself, to the bewilderment of Mamoru Akasaka. Outside of these moments, Rika has an overtly "cute" and childish personality, often saying nonsense words and making cat sounds. She typically refers to herself with the pronoun "boku" to enhance her "cute" mannerisms.

When alone or with Hanyuu, Rika's cute personality disappears and she adopts a much more cynical nature. She stops using the pronoun "boku" in favor of "watashi" and, in the anime, her voice drops to resemble an adult woman. She also frequently uses mature language. Seeing as this is the way Rika speaks in internal monologues, it can be assumed that this is Rika's true personality.

Rika is notably insecure about her adolescent body despite how long she has lived. The manga often uses this as comic relief when Rika compares her own breast size to that of Miyo Takano.

Plot
For the first few chapters of, Rika largely appears as a secondary character while Keiichi Maebara serves as the main character. As Rika's connection to the curse of Oyashiro is made more apparent, she becomes a significantly more important character.

Hinamizawa Bus Stop
Rika is one of only two Higurashi no Naku Koro ni characters to appear in the non-canon Hinamizawa Bus Stop, the other being Mion Sonozaki. Rika appears much older than in her canon appearance and is more prone to emotional outbursts. Rika remains the host of the "parent insect" that is said to worsen the effects of Hinamizawa Syndrome. Initially, Rika works with the Ministry of Health and Welfare to select a new host to transplant the parent insect into, seeing as Rika is too frail to continue being its host. Rika selects Mion for transplant, but later changes her mind. Rika is much more violent than in her canon appearance, and threatens to kill Mion if the Ministry of Health and Welfare comes after her.

Watanagashi-hen
Rika dies after visiting the Sonozaki residence to ask for soy sauce. Her body is found in a well on June 23, 1983. Curiously, a broken syringe is found in her possession.

Tatarigoroshi-hen
Rika mysteriously dies and ends up disemboweled. Her body is found on June 21, 1983 in front of the Furude shrine.

Meakashi-hen
Rika commits suicide by clawing out her throat after attempting to kill Shion Sonozaki.

Minagoroshi-hen
Rika serves as the protagonist of Minagoroshi-hen wherein she reveals her ability to travel between parallel worlds. At the end of Minagoroshi-hen, Rika discovers that her killer in every fragment is Miyo Takano. In order to ensure that she remembers this information in future fragments, Rika requests that Miyo disembowel her while she is awake instead of knocking her out first.

Trivia

 * Rika's appearance and name bear great similarities to Erika Furudo from.
 * It is implied in that Rika has yet to have her first period.
 * Rika has attempted to avoid her fate by running away from Hinamizawa and living in the forest. She managed to live until mid-July before the Mountain Hounds found and killed her.
 * Rika's favorite wine, as seen in the manga, is "Bernkasteler B...". The full name of the wine is probably "Bernkasteler Badstube", a riesling wine produced in Bernkastel-Kues, Germany. Curiously, the label of the wine says "Riesling Spätlese" (late harvest riesling in German), and Riesling wines are white, however the wine that Rika drinks is red. There do exist red Riesling wines, but they were not commercially avaliable until 2006, well after when Higurashi takes place.
 * Rika was BT's favorite character.