Rin Natsume/History

Introduction

History

Gallery

Relationships

Visual Novel

[...]

School Transfer

Riki finds a love letter in his shoe locker. Riki has barely even spoken to the girl who wrote the letter, so when they meet her turns her down to the tune of "Let's get to know each other better first." He consults his friends for advice, but they tell him to simply do what he feels. Finally Rin makes the monumental suggestion that Riki starts dating her. After a short agonizing, it becomes a deal, and they go around telling the rest of the Little Busters. Riki is apprehensive, but they all approve, even Kyousuke.

Afterwards they receive one more letter from Lennon, asking Rin and Riki to volunteer next class. They do, and it turns out that they're now tasked with escorting a couple of Education Department bigwigs through the school. This is a tall order for Rin, who's almost as far removed from polite speech as a mafia member. Thus Kyousuke leads the Little Busters in giving her training and practice, though this mostly results in Rin cat hissing at Kyousuke's buzzer.

The day of the tour arrives, and Rin can not completely dispel her awkward mannerisms. Still, they manage to complete the tour, and a few days later Kyousuke tells Riki that Rin has been nominated for a special school transfer. Apparently a certain school recently faced a tragedy, so its students are all depressed. The administration wants an energetic student like Rin to enroll there and help cheer them up.

Of course Riki notices that he will have none of this. He and Rin just started dating, so he tells her not to go. She doesn not really want to go either, so she declines the offer. Their time together preserved, Riki and Rin have a happy fun couple time going shopping and playing with cats. Then one day, as Riki is about to leave the classroom, he simply faints. As he has blacked out, a disembodied voice tells him, "Alright, good job. But aren't you forgetting something?"

Manipulation

During the next playthrough, Rin is markedly less shy and awkward. In previous plays, Riki had to step in and help significantly with Lennon's requests, but now Rin fulfills them through her own efforts. Now when she volunteers to escort the bigwigs with Riki, she takes the effort to practice earnestly and speak properly when escorting them. Again the fated selection to transfer schools arrives.

This time Riki is at a crossroads. He has seen Rin mature and cannot discount Kyousuke's reasoning that this is an opportunity for Rin to develop independence. Finally he decides to persuade Rin to go. He plans to keep in touch with her and see her during the weekends, but it still pains him to push her to this path. After Rin agrees to go, Riki decides to investigate one last suspicion. Riki sees disparate evidence of Kyousuke's hand in the forces that drove Rin to mature and finally reach this point where she will leave the Little Busters. To confirm this, he goes to the school at night to stalk Lennon, the cat who brought so many missions to Rin.

Lennon leads him right to Kyousuke. Riki confronts Kyousuke, but Kyousuke replies nonchalantly, asking what Riki thinks of this. Riki offers the above synopsis of helping Rin be independent, but Kyousuke disappointedly replies that he has misunderstood the question and ask him whether he has discovered the secret of this world. A night patrolling teacher cuts the unsatisfying meeting short. The next day all the Little Busters gather to see Rin off. Clothed in austere white, Rin is silent through the whole affair despite Kyousuke's efforts to cheer her up. Riki is unable to say anything.

The Mistake

The transfer is a mistake. Rin has made many new friends since the beginning of the game, but all under the auspices of the Little Busters. The people at the other school are dour and forbidding, and Rin cannot get along with any of them. For some reason, Kyousuke has programmed her phone such that she can not even communicate with any of the Little Busters, save Riki. Riki, forcing himself to stand by his resolution, can only reply with "Do your best" when she texts him of her difficulties. What hardship she faces exactly is vague, but Riki definitely feels its gravity as he wonders if she will lose something she can not regain.

Riki watches Rin grow ever more isolated and fearful via texts until one night he reads a text that convinces him that Rin is at that very moment crying. Finding this unacceptable, he comes clean with Rin and tells her he will go to that school and bring her home. He leaves immediately. Kyousuke stops him in the male dorm hallway, but Riki's determination is unperturbed. Riki is left with a warning from Kyousuke, but rushes headlong in trying to find the school. However, no matter who he asks or how he researches, he can't. He can only wait for Rin to come home for her regular weekend.

The Rin that returns home is quiet, meek, and fearful, a far cry from her oblivious, energetic former self. Riki cannot let her go back to that school, so he consults Kengo for advice. Riki admits that he's considering running away with Rin, but Kengo tells him, that all that lies at the end of that path is total darkness. However, Kengo knows that Riki and Rin's recent troubles are Kyousuke's work, and so suggests that they defeat Kyousuke and then force him to stop.

Thus the men of the Little Busters meet on the mound under an overcast sky. Kengo and Riki versus Masato and Kyousuke. A homerun contest, first team to three homeruns wins. After a practice pitch each, the real game begins. Masato's first swing is a homerun. Then it starts raining. They can't stay long, so the rules are changed from three to one homerun. Kengo and Riki's turn begins. After some encouragement from Kengo, Riki launches the perfect pitch. For some reason Kengo's concentration flickers, and in the next moment the ball is locked in the metal fence.

Kengo releases an indignant roar, deeming the game a farce. With Kyousuke's name ripping through his throat, Kengo charges at Kyousuke. Masato barely manages to stop Kengo from tearing into Kyousuke. With Kengo restrained, Kyousuke smirks before a lightning strikes.

Running Away

At this rate Rin would return to the transfer school and likely be permanently traumatized. Riki is left with no choice but to elope with Rin. Unfortunately he has never held a job and his bank accounts are in the custody of his legal guardians. Riki and Rin sneak out of the campus, withdraw some cash before people find out they have run away, and then take the train to visit Rin's grandfather. The Little Busters once held a summer excursion at said grandfather's place, so Riki hopes he might let them stay for a while. When they arrive at his house, a great, old Japanese style building somewhat removed from the nearby countryside town, they find no grandfather. Riki buys some food at a convenience store and they decide to stay the night, waiting for the old man to return.

Although Rin is already feeling more energetic, Riki senses that she is lonely and will be more so when he goes to find work. Thus the next day he decides to catch a stray cat. He returns with somewhat of a fat, ugly cat and finds that Rin has already attracted a much prettier cat of her own. Riki is defeated, but no matter, the day after that he goes out to find work. He manages to help a nearby farmer lady gather some crops. Unfortunately he gets paid in vegetables. However the next time he goes to work he faints in the middle of it. The farmer cares for him, but he realizes that he can't really hold a job with constant fainting spells and slinks away.

Days pass and the grandfather does not return. Riki learns how to fish and forage for miscellaneous edible plants. With Rin now hosting a full complement of cats, Riki fishes every day to feed the "family." His guardian calls him one day to find where he is, but of course Riki does not tell him, though it means his money is now limited only to the cash in his pocket. Then, one day on the way back from ruminating while fishing all day, he overhears some conversation in town. Apparently Rin's grandfather's house has been abandoned for a while now. Feeling something sinister, Riki hurries back. He encounters a policeman who makes a few polite inquiries regarding the house that they live in. Riki tries to reveal nothing, but is forced to flee into the undergrowth when the questioning gets hot.

That night the cops shut off the power and break into the house while Riki and Rin are eating dinner. Riki tries to seize Rin and flee, but she does not want to leave her cats behind. She bites Riki's hand and runs back into the main room, getting promptly caught by the cops in the process. Riki returns to a school life devoid of Rin and never sees her again. At the end of the game, Riki ends up conversing with a disembodied voice in a backdrop of total black. The voice tells him he can keep running away and he will be safe and comfortable. Riki is not having any of that, since that would not be going to save Rin. In the limbo following failure, Riki makes an oath: "From now on, I'm going to live with strength."