My perfect is not your perfect, and there will always be someone who has it all looking for a more perfect happiness. So at what point does someone stop and say, “Yes, this is as much as it needs to be and I will be content?” That is the overarching theme of the final volume in Ryukishi07's Higurashi: When They Cry series, the Dice Killing Arc. It serves, essentially, as an epilogue to the Festival Accompanying Arc, which put an end to the killings on the night of the Cotton Drifting and finally freed Rika Furude from her endless existence in June of 1983. The story begins with the gang biking back from Okinomiya when Rika, goofing around, gets hit by one of those ubiquitous manga trucks that apparently are programed to run down pedestrians and cyclists. Just after she hits the ground, she wakes up in the school nurse's office in Hinamizawa...to find Satoshi accompanying Satoko to make her apologize for lobbing a ball at the back of Rika's skull, which is why they think she's in the infirmary. Then a doctor she's never seen before comes to take her to a clinic that was founded years ago by Hifumi Takano and laughs when she mentions being the Queen Carrier for Hinamizawa Syndrome...but it's still June of 1983.

Rika has been thrown into an alternate world unlike any of the others she's been in before, one where the dice rolled higher numbers for all of her friends. Everyone is happy, no crimes were ever committed, and essentially Rena, Mion, Satoko, and Satoshi are living perfect, happy lives. The only one unhappy with the situation is Rika, who feels like she's been cheated out of her happy ending by being sent to a world where everyone is better off than the one she came from.

The base conceit of The Dice Killing Arc is one that really suffers from a sort of basic meanness. Rika is, for 90% of the book, unable to see past the end of her own nose. For those of us who are also reading Ryukishi07's Umineko: When They Cry, this is the clearest indication we have had that the two stories are linked; Rika is suddenly acting very much like the witches in that other series. She is selfish and short-sighted, seeking only what she wants in any given moment and getting angry and frustrated when things don't work out in her favor. In part we could see this as the normal course of events when someone who has been on her own for a century suddenly finds that she's subject to her parents' rules, but you also get the feeling that she resents not having her special status as the reincarnation of Oyashiro-sama as well, and perhaps is even upset that while she has lived through hell untold times her friends in this world have been perfectly happy living calm, stable lives. There's a resentment that simmers just barely below the surface of Rika's character that we've seen hints of in other arcs but that really comes to the fore in this one, and even if we can see her actions and thoughts as justified, it still makes the arc less satisfying. The major exception here would probably be if you really like the witches in Umineko; if that is the case, you're less likely to be annoyed by Rika in this volume.

Not that there isn't any development of her character as the book goes on. It is mostly confined to the final chapter when Hanyu more or less forces her to see herself as she really is rather than as she thinks she is, and it does make for a more powerful finale than we might otherwise have expected. Rika has to separate herself from the witch Bernkastel to a degree and to accept what actions she would take in order to secure her own desired outcome, regardless of who she might hurt along the way. At the start of the book, she's practically bloodthirsty in her willingness to do what it takes to get back to her preferred world; by the end, she's conflicted. It comes on a little too suddenly, but it does work to show her growth. The ending is deliberately a bit ambiguous, which is very much in line with the rest of the Higurashi series, even if this is nearly as weak as the Beyond Midnight arc in terms of the overall series.

The Dice Killing Arc is not the strongest ending to Higurashi: When They Cry, but it is still an interesting read, particularly if you're now reading Umineko; in some ways it serves as a link between the two series, and I'm hoping to see evidence of that as the latter series progresses. Karin Suzuragi's art isn't challenged as much this time with the lack of horror elements, but it still is a solid effort and she does a very nice job with family resemblances. I hesitate to say that you won't really miss anything by not reading this, but if you've been reading Higurashi for the horror, you're likely to be disappointed by this book. It isn't terrible and it raises some very interesting questions, but ultimately volume 26 in the series is more seagulls than cicadas both in plot and execution.