Rena Ryuuguu

"Uso Da!"

- Rena Ryuuguu, translates to "You're Lying!"

"Friends. Those companions you speak of are only friends during those fun, yet unimportant times. When painful times come, they won't be your ally."

- Rena Ryuuguu

Rena is one of the protagonists of Higurashi. On pare for insanity with Shion Sonozaki, she kills 17 people throughout the whole series, plus herself.

Backstory
Rena was born in Hinamizawa under the name Reina. Until her parents broke up, and her mother (who cheated on her husband and got pregnant with another man's baby) took her in from custody. She went to school in another school, and ended up getting expelled for beating three students with a baseball bat, as well as breaking many of the school's windows. She also cut her wrists at this point during her life. After she was expelled she went to live with her father in Hinamizawa, changing her name to Rena. Here she met Satoshi, Mion, Satako, and Rika. Her and Satoshi were experiencing the same things in their heads, always hearing footsteps behind them, when nobody was there. At one point Takano gives her some of her notes, and she is convinced that the curse is actually a virus, as it is, which guides her to try and blow up the school. In the first arc, she is constantly terrorizing Keiichi, but it is difficult to interpret this arc, making it possible that all of her and Mion's doings were in the mind of a very paranoid Keiichi.

Personality
Rena is a typical shy girl. She often talks mainly with Keiichi and Mion. Despite this, she will break from her usual shyness whenever she sees something cute, little, or beautiful, shouting "Kaiiii" (Short for the Japanese word, Kawaii, meaning "cute"). Her penalty games often involve forcing the losers to do something adorable while still demeaning.

However, like most Higurashi characters, this is usually her main character on the surface. Whenever faced with a personal subject, she will instantly switch to a very blunt, mysterious, and even intimidating personality. When she feels backed into a corner, she will often reveal disturbing information about other characters or past events to scare the person into submission. She can spot lies very easily, and doesn't appreciate it when people do this. She will often yell "USO DA!!" out of nowhere in a very aggressive manner when she spots someone lying to her. This translates to "You're Lying!" She is one of the series most cruel and tactical characters, once going as far as to attempt burning down her school while she and all the students in her class are trapped inside, all because she had a small hunch that Mion may have betrayed her. She even sets up a homemade bomb that was set to go off without her control on the school rooftop.

She often compared to Shion Sonozaki as the series most mentally unstable. The two also share several characteristics:
 * Both have put much time into studying "Oyashiro-Sama's Curse" and Hinamizawa Syndrome. Though Rena has come further into these studies than Shion.
 * Both have a very distinct hatred towards lies. Rena's case of which is mentioned above.
 * Both have gone on killing sprees.

Weapons
Rena's main weapon is a machete that they call her "Hatchet", with a single edge, the back of which which she uses to non-lethally take down an enemy. Rena also constructs a firebomb using a gasoline-filled rain gutter, a kitchen timer, and a pair of wires, which she places on top of her school in a couple of the arcs. Finally, Rena sometimes uses other weapons at various points in the series, including a baseball bat seen in a flashback, a needle placed in ohagi during the first arc, a glass shard and a metal pipe while defending herself from Rina Mamiya. Rena also wields a bolt-action hunting rifle briefly in the Higurashi Kaku OVA, but never fires it, instead giving it to Keiichi's father to defend himself.