Minagoroshi-hen

(Redirected from Universe Rules)
Minagoroshi-hen
Developer07th Expansion
Publisher07th Expansion
Arc TypeAnswer
ReleasedDecember 30, 2005
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Chronology
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Matsuribayashi-hen

Minagoroshi-hen (皆殺し編, Massacre Chapter) is the seventh chapter in the Higurashi no Naku Koro ni series and the third of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai. It is told primarily from the perspective of Rika Furude and introduces the existence of the character Hanyuu. Its corresponding question arc is Tatarigoroshi-hen.

Plot

The arc opens with an conversation between Rika Furude and an unseen character, seemingly taking place in the Meta-World. The two are surrounded by "shards", each of which represent the various summers of 1983. Rika sees the shards for Onikakushi-hen, Watanagashi-hen, Meakashi-hen, and Tsumihoroboshi-hen. After seeing these, Rika decides to move on to a new universe along with the unseen character. As they enter the new universe, the unseen character tells Rika that there is nothing she can do to change the outcome of the new shard.

The club decides to hold a tournament at Yoshiroh Sonozaki's toy shop. Over the course of the beginning of the tournament, Rika laments how she has lived through this exact scenario countless times and thus knows exactly how it will play out. Rika remembers that Keiichi Maebara started to show awareness of parallel worlds during Meakashi-hen and decides to confide in him her lamentations, hoping that Keiichi would again remember the existence of parallel worlds. Unfortunately, Keiichi makes fun of Rika's claims of parallel worlds and insists that there is no such thing as "fate." In order to prove herself right, Rika accurately predicts how the club members would be split up in the tournament and which games each group would be playing. Though initially surprised by Rika's apparent clairvoyance, Keiichi shocks Rika by sending back the game his group was meant to play, thus changing the his "fate." This turn of events inspires hope in Rika that she might be able to solve the mysteries of Watanagashi during this timeline. After the tournament, the shop owner distributes dolls to the club members with the exception of Mion Sonozaki. Rika, in an attempt to avoid a repeat of Watanagashi-hen, attempts to influence reality by telling Keiichi to give Mion the doll. Rika is then surprised when Keiichi gives Mion the doll before she can actually intervene. Keiichi claims that the reason he gave Mion the doll was because of a dream in which he saw awful things transpire from not giving her the doll. Rena Ryuuguu reveals to the group that she too has had strange dreams which led her to confront her father on the state of the Ryuuguu family after her parents' divorce. Keiichi wonders internally about how Shion Sonozaki and Satoko Houjou have become so close recently, implying that Shion also had dreams that have led her to become close to Satoko. Rika becomes filled with hope after seeing that all of the club members are beginning to be influenced by parallel worlds.

When night falls, Rika speaks with Hanyuu, a young girl in a shrine maiden outfit visible only to Rika. During this conversation, Rika reveals that her ability to go backwards into parallel worlds has diminished to the point where she can now only go back to a mere two weeks before the Watanagashi Festival. Her waning powers have caused Rika to lose hope in her ability to discover who consistently manages to kill Miyo Takano, Jirou Tomitake and then herself. Rika also reveals that she has lived through so many realities that she is technically over 100 years old. Rika concludes that this fragment is likely going to be her last chance as she believes it is unlikely that she will stumble upon a scenario where the club has been influenced by parallel worlds again.

After some time, Ritsuko Mamiya ends up being killed by Sonozaki yakuza for attempting to steal money from the Sonozaki family. This results in her lover, Teppei Houjou being forced to return to Hinamizawa. Upon returning, Teppei finds Satoko and forces her to stay with him. Teppei's return crushes Rika's hope for the world of Minagoroshi-hen as everything prior to this had been going surprisingly well. Furthermore, Rika has never been able to save Satoko from her abusive uncle in any prior world that Rika has been in. Unlike prior worlds, however, the rest of the club decides to take nonviolent action to save Satoko and ends up organizing a protest group that repeatedly visits the child welfare office demanding that Satoko be taken into protective custody. After rousing the support of all of the Hinamizawa school's students, several attendees of Angel Mort, over 100 villagers from Hinamizawa, and the Sonozaki yakuza, the child consultation center caves to the group's demands and prioritizes Satoko's case. After a lengthy phone call, Rika manages to convince Satoko to admit to the abuse, allowing the police to raid the Houjou household and save Satoko.

Following this turn of events, Rika is filled with determination to change her fate and discover who is behind her death as well as the deaths of Jirou Tomitake and Miyo Takano. Rika makes several requests of Jirou, Miyo, Kyousuke Irie, and detective Kuraudo Ooishi to protect her. Miyo, who controls a high-end security team known as the Yamainu, promises to have a team of bodyguards protect Rika and Ooishi does everything within his power to accommodate Rika's requests. Despite her warnings, Jirou and Miyo never take Rika's warnings of their deaths seriously.

On the night of Watanagashi, Rika has Ooishi put a squad car near the border of the village, the place where Jirou's body is always found. After the Watanagashi Festival, Jirou and Miyo drive to the Irie clinic and discuss Rika's condition as well as her warning. During this conversation, Miyo calls in 6 Yamainu members and has them hold down Jirou. The Yamainu chloroform Jirou and Miyo injects him with H-173, a deadly strain of Hinamizawa Syndrome which escalates the symptoms of the syndrome to its final stage, L5, which causes extreme irritation of the lymphnodes. Following this, Miyo loads Jirou into the trunk of her car and drives back to Hinamizawa in to dump his body. She dumps Jirou near a rice field after seeing the squad car in the area where she originally wanted to dump him and drives off. When he wakes up, Jirou claws out his throat and bleeds to death.

Later, Ooishi talks with Rika about Jirou's death and Miyo's apparent death, both of which Rika had predicted and informed Ooishi about in advance. Ooishi becomes suspicious that the body burned in the Gifu mountains isn't actually Miyo which leads Rika to become suspicious of the Yamainu unit that is protecting her.

The following night, Rika asks Ooishi to send a group of policemen to protect her. In addition, the club members all go to Rika's house to help her. Ooishi, who had gone to Gifu to verify the supposed body of Miyo, promises Rika that he would arrive at her house that night. On his way to the house, however, he and his partner Katsuya Kumagai see a suspicious van and a group of men messing with the telephone lines. After confronting them, Kumagai and Ooishi are both gunned down by the Yamainu. Following this, the Yamainu unit around Rika's house moves in and takes out the police guarding the first floor. Rika and her friends escape into the forest where they are intercepted by a van full of Yamainu members. After fighting off a number of Yamainu, Miyo steps out of the van and shoots Keiichi, killing him instantly. The rest of the Yamainu manage to restrain the rest of club members, whom Miyo shoots and kills one by one. After everyone except Rika is dead, Miyo has the Yamainu tie up Rika and take her to the Furude shrine where she is disembowled and killed.

A few days later, Miyo has the Prime Minister approve of Emergency Manual #34 and incites the Great Hinamizawa Disaster, killing off the entirety of Hinamizawa and solidifying the legend of Oyashiro-sama forever.

Characters

Villagers

Outsiders

Mentioned

Deaths and Disappearances

All deaths and disappearances are listed only as they are told in Minagoroshi-hen and apply only for the individual arc, not the overall series.

Deaths

  • Rina Mamiya, killed by the Sonozaki yakuza.
  • Jirou Tomitake, died of blood loss after clawing out his own throat June 19, 1983 on the night of the Watanagashi.
  • Katsuya Kumagai, shot in the head with a sniper rifle June 22, 1983.
  • Kuraudo Ooishi, shot in the chest with a handgun June 22, 1983.
  • Detective Komiya & his partner, electrocuted with modified stun guns June 23, 1983.
  • Keiichi Maebara, shot by Miyo Takano June 23, 1983.
  • Mion Sonozaki, shot by Miyo Takano June 23, 1983.
  • Shion Sonozaki, shot by Miyo Takano June 23, 1983.
  • Rena Ryuuguu, shot by Miyo Takano June 23, 1983.
  • Satoko Houjou, shot by Miyo Takano June 23, 1983.
  • Rika Furude, disemboweled alive June 23, 1983.
  • Everyone in Hinamizawa not listed otherwise, died June 24, 1983 of gas poisoning or from being shot during the execution of Emergency Manual #34.

Disappearances

  • Satoshi Houjou, disappeared June 1982, one year before the story.

Poem

I wanted to know the world that was outside of the well.

So I tried hard to get out from the bottom of the well.



I wanted to know the world that was outside of the well.
So I climbed up numerous of times despite falling down over and over again.



But then I realized it.
The higher and higher I climb, the pain increases when I fall down again.



When my interest in the world outside of the well began to equal the amount of pain,
That was when I finally realized the meaning of the story to Der Froschkönig.


Frederica Bernkastel

Trivia

  • In the opening scene of Minagoroshi-hen, Rika establishes three rules that govern each fragment she enters:
    • Rule X - One of Rika's friends will become possessed by a darkness
    • Rule Y - Jirou and Miyo will die on the fifth Watangashi and Rika will be dead by mid-June
    • Rule Z - Ooishi and/or Miyo will discuss with the one who is possessed the malicious nature of the Sonozaki family and the possessed one will always believe them
  • In the opening scene, Rika claims "we're not detectives, this is not something that a small girl like us, Furude Rika, can figure out". This could possibly foreshadow the creation of Erika Furudo as a character designed explicitly to fulfill the detective role that Rika never could.
  • While inside the shrine storage building, Miyo begins to insult Oyashiro-sama, which causes Hanyuu to become upset. In her frustration, Hanyuu jumps on the floorboards, causing a fairly loud sound. This sound is likely the noise that Shion hears when infiltrating the shrine storage building in Watanagashi-hen/Meakashi-hen.
  • An interesting thing to note is that the club tournament at the beginning of the arc actually happened a week earlier than it normally does, so it is completely possible that Rika hadn't done anything to "change fate", she was just in a particularly unusual fragment.
  • Ryukishi07 has cited Minaogorish-hen as his favorite arc in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni.[1]

Media

Chapters

Volumes

Episodes

See also

References

  1. ↑ "ACen 2015 07th Expansion Panel #3: Ryukishi07's Latest Work TRianThology Unraveled for the First Time". Wordpress. Archived from the original on 18 August 2016.
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