Haruka Saigusa/History

Introduction

History

Gallery

Relationships

Visual Novel

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Prefect Trouble

Haruka argues with prefects over her innocence near some vending machines, yet Riki defuses the situation. Later, Haruka fixes some short garden fences for the Maintenance Club and Riki helps out. Then Haruka flees, once again, from the prefects and Riki gets dragged along. As the two become closer, Haruka invites Riki to her house on a day when her parents aren't home. It turns out they are and Riki ends up having dinner with Haruka and her parents. The conversation is unsettlingly artificial, with Haruka even commenting that her parents were saying exactly what they said last time.

The next day Haruka is not at class. She used to be a chronic skipper, so it is not surprising to the others, but Riki is worried nonetheless and goes to look for her. On the way he is confronted by the head prefect, Kanata Futaki, who warns him not to get further involved with Haruka. Riki is undeterred, and late in the afternoon he finally finds Haruka in the corner of an empty classroom, listening to music. Haruka seems as happy as normal and they listen to music together until evening. Riki continues helping Haruka with her maintenance work, the next project being an old courtyard bench. Right when they finish mending it, Kanata arrives with the rest of the prefects and reminds Haruka that the bench was scheduled for replacement. Haruka tries to argue back, but Kanata insults her judgment and calls her stupid, then proceeds to have the bench demolished and taken away.

In the afternoon Riki finds Haruka at the blackboard of an empty classroom with an eraser in the hand. Haruka laughs behind the guise of preparing to do some blackboard prank. Kanata appears and confronts Riki wide-eyed, asking him if he saw anything of it. Riki tells her that he saw nothing, so she lets it go. The next day the player finds Haruka sitting in on a student council meeting for the ostensible purpose of knowing thine enemy. Riki accompanies her, but Haruka ends up getting provoked by some trash talk by Kanata. She tries to physically attack Kanata, but Riki restrains her which garners him a mob assault by the student council. Both of them are also given cleaning duty, at the end of which Kanata arrives, talking more trash, and then revealing to Riki that the Maintenance Club Haruka is supposedly under does not even exist in the school records. Haruka is insulted that Kanata implied she was a liar without telling the whole truth and says that Kanata herself disbanded the Maintenance Club and had the Disciplinary Committee take on all its duties specifically to take away the thing that made Haruka happy. Just like with the bench, Kanata dismisses her but doesn't deny it.

Riki later discovers the blackboard graffiti that Haruka had been trying to hide before. "Murderer" and other accusations smother the blackboards of several classrooms, related to an old newspaper article from years back detailing a Saigusa murder incident. Haruka finally tells Riki what she knows of her family situation.

Family Traditions

The Saigusa family had followed an ancient tradition of two husbands marrying one wife. It is suggested that the young husbands and wives were merely tools to the Saigusas' heartless family planning, perhaps implying some sort of primitive eugenics at work. In any case, Shou Saigusa, a bridegroom under this system, realized the inhumanity of his family's ways and attempted to escape the system, which somehow led to him committing murder. Shou was put in prison, but he left behind a bride who was pregnant with both, Shou's and the other bridegroom's seed. The result was a pair of twins, each of half-unknown parentage.

In the aftermath of the murder incident, the Saigusa family's honor was blackened, so it was usurped by the Futaki branch family, who raised the twin daughters, Haruka being one of them. Knowing that one of them was the daughter of a murderer, the Futakis sought to weed out the black seed and make the decent one their heir. Through an upbringing of constant tests, Haruka was marked as inferior and constantly beaten and abused. It was only later that Haruka's biological mother and her remaining husband took her back in.

Searching Clues

Haruka tells Riki that in order to reach closure on this past, she needs to find out which man is her father. So together they begin investigating, going everywhere from the library to the shed at Haruka's house to the town records. Everything seems to be going their way. Haruka bakes a delicious chiffon cake which they eat together in the courtyard, though without Riki's preferred marmalade. Kanata doesn't block their quest, though one day Riki sees her arguing unhappily with people in the car that sent her. Riki even spots a man he's convinced must be Shou, bumming around the shopping district.

Later, at lunch, Haruka mentions that due to pressure from the student council, she has been banned from using the cafeteria oven that she used to use before. Riki has more important matters in mind, and brings her to see Shou. They try to interrogate him but he does not even admit that he is Shou. Haruka bitterly drags Riki away, saying that Shou is not the kind of person who would help. The next day she brings over another chiffon cake for lunch in the cafeteria. Riki remarks that it is a bit drier than before. Haruka is a little confused, but replies that she had to relocate to the cooking club's facilities. Then Riki suggests that they ask Kanata about their parentage. Haruka ardently refuses.

Still, they are making little headway on the investigation, so Riki himself goes to speak to Shou again. He reveals nothing, so next time Riki brings Kanata over to ask him. Kanata recognizes him, so he does grant that he is Shou, but not an inch more. The next day Riki and Haruka eat another delicious chiffon cake in the courtyard. There Haruka admits to Riki that maybe it is time to give up, as they have not found anything, and even if they do, all that will do is solidify the dichotomy of one daughter being worthless. If they find that Kanata is Shou's daughter, all Haruka can do is take Kanata's place and foist her former suffering on Kanata. Haruka asks him to give up.

Riki declines. The discrepancies begin coming together for him during this conversation, and he realizes that this is not Haruka. Just as he is realizing this, Haruka arrives on the scene, leading to a chilling confrontation between the two Harukas. The imposter who baked the delicious chiffon cake flees, and Haruka gives chase. Riki catches up to them to find Haruka facing off against Kanata. Like always Kanata is verbally lashing Haruka, laughing that Haruka was an idiot for trying to cook egg dishes, and that Kanata was never even allergic to them. The distraught Haruka asks why Kanata needs to take everything from her, even Riki, and demands she give it back. Kanata rebuts that she is worthless and does not deserve anything anyhow. Haruka shrieks "DIE!" but Riki restrains her from violence.

Hatred and Love

Haruka is still quite upset, so Riki escorts her back home. There they decide to confront Haruka's parents about her parentage. Haruka asks them over dinner, but all the parents say is that they loved each other, even Shou, so Haruka and Kanata were born out of love, not coercion. This is not Haruka's immediate concern, though, so the parents leave her with one more clue - If Haruka and Kanata confront Shou together, he will say whatever he knows.

The next afternoon at school Riki tries to persuade Haruka to try it, but Haruka refuses. Instead Riki tries asking her what Kanata meant about faking an egg allergy. Haruka reveals that as kids one of the contests the Futakis forced upon them was to cook an egg dish. During that contest Kanata chose to cook miso soup instead, telling Haruka that she had an egg allergy. Haruka ended up burning her dish, losing by default, and getting beaten anyways. It still inspired her to focus on cooking egg dishes as a path to overcome Kanata, but ultimately that was born from a lie.

After this conversation Haruka asserts a deep-set hatred for Kanata, repeating her belief that Kanata's existence is simply to torment Haruka and plunder everything she values. Riki helps her reframe this belief, analyzing that from the beginning Kanata occupied a place where she was safe and loved, a place that was basic, and a place that Haruka felt was stolen from her. He tells her that she no longer needs to hate, or to steal back the right to be loved. With Riki she already has a place and already is loved. The powers of Riki's love and persuasions help Haruka forgive Kanata. She thus resolves to confront Shou together with Kanata.

Of course Kanata apparently still detests Haruka and parries her entreaties at every turn until finally she demands that Haruka get in dogeza and beg. Haruka does so, and Kanata stands defeated. Her cold facade crumbling, Kanata reveals her own troubled history with the Futakis, who could never discount the possibility that she might still be a murderer's daughter. She was literally whipped into perfection, and coerced to be as far removed from Haruka as possible. The sisters reconcile, and together they confront Shou, who offers to let them have a blood sample. They decline, however, as they have both matured past the point where it is relevant.