hirukowashi (day-breaking chapter)

its an adaptation of one of higurashi daybreak's routes (the fighting game)

reading time: 01/10/26 - 02/09/26 its short but i lost interest and read a book and other vns

• no voice acting, over-the-top writing
• a brief comic relief story about rena being afflicted by a love potion type ancient artifact made by hanyuu. the holder of the red magatama (rena) falls uncontrollably in one-sided love with the holder of the white magatama (baton pass). she falls for jirou, then miyo, then ooishi, then almost for keiichi. at the end, she uses the charm as an excuse to genuinely confess to keiichi, who doesn't get it. rika and hanyuu dispell the charm. the next day, jirou and miyo harass rena at school
• the setting is ambiguously pre or post matsuribayashi; hanyuu is a ghost only visible to rika. rika in the middle of the story narrates "maybe next fragment i'll try this other pairing" ... and there's a blink and you'll miss it moment of her having cat ears and tail, with keiichi noting "did she always look catlike? wait, what am i thinking?" so basically its my best friend freddy messing around with timelines
• also of note is it's presented frivolously but miyo's lesbian awakening realizing she doesn't need jirou... should've been real just without the creeping on teen girl component
• there's an extended rant about contemporary touhou's difficulty
• theres a dramatic segment about how rena puts her all devoting herself towards people she's crushing on (suggesting she has attachment issues) but it concludes with "wow she'll make an amazing wife!" just super awesome

alternate console version

• voice acted
• starts out the same but is overall written more polished ("polished" by main arc standards). seems re-ordered to be read after tatarigoroshi which causes continuity problems (but sets up hanyuu as a goddess of unity/marriage a lot better than the main arcs)
• rather than try to undo the charm with hanyuu, rika teams up with satoko using a magic detection device
• shion is present and is given most of satoko's lines as satoko is now playing rika's role (with rika as hanyuu)
• mentions of miyo destroying the village are toned down
• some allusions to hanyuu remain, but as rika being affectionate towards her rather than that she truly exists
• jokes about shion having a tickle torture device in her dungeon (which is crazy so soon after ch2 but before ch5 reveals it was all shion)
• direct mentions of touhou removed
• the order is instead jirou then miyo then irie as mamoru and consequently ooishi's mahjong career presumably hasnt been revealed yet at this point in time. irie's segment is a baseball game with the desserts pervert kameda rather than ooishi's mahjong game
• irie's creepy intentions are made clearer than before and treated even more frivolously than before it's aggravating
• satoko plays baseball again tho :D
• the resolution is the same. miyo and jirou harass rena at the shrine rather than at school
• post credits scene: the club plus shion at school discuss that it's important for romantic love to be mutual. shion teases mion about the latter's crush on keiichi; keiichi is clueless
• continuity problems
the freddy jumpscare is retained but doesn't make proper sense as this version of the arc is meant to be read pre saikoroshi (aka freddy's awakening)
during the baseball game rena's eyes frequently glaze over the way and she speaks in her "distant" voice like in onikakushi... which is extremely messy, the whole point was the girls acting creepy was an unreliable pov situation