Rena Ryuugu

**Rena Ryuugu** (竜宮 レナ, *Ryuuguu Rena*) is one of the main characters of the series. She is a member of the Hinamizawa after-school games club and a firm believer in Oyashiro-sama.

## Description

### Appearance

Rena has short orange hair and blue eyes. Her school uniform consists of a light blue sailor uniform with a yellow bow. Her casual outfit is a white dress with purple bows, a white hat and long black boots.

### Personality

On the outside, Rena Ryuugu is a friendly, earnest, and caring young girl, if a little strange and goofy. She has a habit of saying "hau" and "kana, kana?" which in the latter's case is translated as her repeating the last words that she said. Whenever Rena sees something "kyute" (かぁいい, *kāī*), she'll enter "Kyute Mode" and often loudly exclaim that she'll take them home ({{{1}}} (お持ち帰りぃ, *Omochikaeri*)), whether they are objects or people. Rena loves cooking and often makes many delicious meals for her friends.

Despite her silliness, Rena sometimes shows great intuition and responsibility, displaying a terrifyingly perceptive side of herself that can read people and situations to their very core at a glance. In *Watanagashi*, she correctly deduces what happened to Satoko and Rika after a cursory glance of their home, and in *Tsumihoroboshi*, The latter is an impressive situation given the revelations in *Minagoroshi*, that Rena seemed not to display any symptoms of Hinamizawa Syndrome until later. Rena is also aware of how often she goes into Kyute Mode and will use this to her advantage at times.

Rena shows hints of depression and sadness, given the circumstances surrounding her parents divorce. Sometimes she will say her own catchphrases to herself to cheer herself up.

Rena also has a secret base in the junkyard formed out of a wrecked van that she will go to for peace and quiet. Rena feels a strong attachment to the junk she brings home, thinking of them as abandoned and needing a place to live.

Whenever Oyashiro-sama is mentioned, Rena's personality changes such that she insists that he is real and becomes fiercely defensive. She truly believes in the god's existence and is thankful to him for many things. Rena also has an intense hatred for lies, often lashing out violently when being lied to, such as during *Onikakushi* when Keiichi confronts her while going home from school, accusing her and Mion of hiding things from him, only for her to respond by calling him a liar and accusing him of being a hypocrite for doing the same.

## Etymology

* **Ryūgū** means "Palace of the Dragon King" (竜宮).

## Trivia

* The design of Rena Ryuugu traces its origin to Ryukishi's fan-rendition of Lenna (レナ, *Rena*) from *Final Fantasy V* in her Dragoon (竜騎士, *Ryūkishi*, lit. Dragon Knight) outfit with a spear. In this guise, she appeared in multiple *Leaf Fight* expansion packs put out by 07th Expansion. This version of Rena has become a mascot of 07th Expansion - it is used during the intro of main *Higurashi* releases along with their logo and currently the profile picture of their official Twitter account - while this outfit later became the uniform of Angel Mort waitresses.
* In 2005, Takashi Takeuchi of TYPE-MOON and Ryukishi07 were asked to draw each other's characters. Ryukishi07 drew Akiha Tohno while Takeuchi drew Rena.
* Rena's signature weapon started out as an axe. It was changed to a nata because it seemed more stylish.
* Rena's recurring appearances on the covers of the original arcs was to show the contrast between a girl and "kyoki", which means either "dangerous weapon" (凶器, ***"dangerous weapon"***) or "insanity" (狂気, ***"insanity"***).