Yuiko Kurugaya/History

Visual Novel

 * [...]

The Victim

 * Yuiko&apos;s personal route begins with Riki finding a thumb tack in his shoe locker. Yuiko could easily fix this problem, but Riki decides not to burden her and tackle it on his own. As he investigates the perpetrators and considers how to reconcile with them, he also tries to hide the bullying from Yuiko. She is too perceptive, however, and easily reasons what is going on.


 * With Riki not yet making a move, the bullying escalates into filling his shoe locker and desk with sticky trash. Riki finally settles on three suspects and decides to call the shyest one out for a private talk after school. This, Suginami, suggests the other two coerced her into it. Said other two soon arrive on the scene, taunting both Riki and Suginami while revealing their culpability. In comes Yuiko with freshly recorded evidence, replaying it to the classroom via the school&apos;s broadcast system. She lectures the three bullies, but the two combative ones put on a tough front and threaten more bullying. Yuiko calls their bluff and threatens immediate violence, kicking a nearby door in two for good measure. The bullies flee, and so do Yuiko and Riki, leaving a bemused scapegoat Masato in their wake.


 * On the way back, Riki faints. Luckily Yuiko takes him to her room, takes care of him, and generally dotes on him until he wakes up. The night, hanging out with the male members of the Little Busters, Riki admits to Kyousuke, Masato, and Kengo that he has a crush on Yuiko. They all regard Yuiko as the most fearsome, both in love and otherwise, so they decide to help Riki out. Thus initiates Operation: Love-Love Hunters.

Operation: Love-Love Hunters

 * First they conduct training. Rin helps by bringing the other girls in the Little Busters over to practice. Then Kyousuke, Masato, and Kengo take turns wooing them. Despite Kyousuke&apos;s elaborate scheme involving an imaginary conspiracy and not so imaginary land mines, all of them strike out. Riki proceeds directly to asking Yuiko out on a date and is accepted. One rainy afternoon they go to a tea shop together, sharing a single umbrella. The date proceeds well, but Riki catches a cold from being out in the rain. However, the ever reliable Yuiko comes to his room, takes care of him, and even peels some apples for him.


 * Operation Love-Love Hunters continues. Next mission is a gift. At Kengo&apos;s recommendation, Riki unveils a box of manjuu arranged to spell "love," except that they instead spell "evol" after getting dropped. Instead, it is time for the trump card. Riki takes Yuiko to the school hallway at night, where she sees a dazzling display of fireworks prepared by Kyousuke and the Little Busters. With hopefully enough love points built up, Riki visits Yuiko at her usual haunt, the broadcasting room, and confesses his love.


 * At first Kurugaya does not understand, but when she does her eyes grow overcast and she answers regretfully that she may be incapable of answering such emotions. Riki retreats, dejected, but ultimately decides not to give up. The next day he finds her in school backyard and confesses again. When he elaborates his feelings, Yuiko finally answers that she probably felt the same sorts of feelings for him. Now an official couple, Yuiko dotes on Riki even more, baking him cookies and cleaning his ears.

Farewell

 * As they grow closer, Yuiko tells him a little of her past, such as how she grew up overseas, called by her original name Elizabeth. Strangely, when he speaks to his friends of the romance, they assume it is friendship. They are confused when he asserts that he is dating Yuiko. One day in the broadcast room he finds a journal where Yuiko is apparently keeping records, but they are uncannily simple and obvious things like "started dating" or "baked cookies for Riki today." Riki tries to believe that it is but an innocent diary, but he can not shake the sense of something gone awry when Yuiko proposes that they go on a date to the tea shop, where they went on their first date. He begins feeling deja vu far too often, and decides to closely watch the date as it passes midnight. He sees the calendar advance, sleeps in comfort, then awakens to find that it has returned to the day before.


 * Riki asks Yuiko about this state of affairs, and Yuiko turns away, facing the window regretfully. She tells him to forget her. She confesses that the twisted looping of the world happened because she wished for their romance to continue forever. So to return this world to its rightful state, they must part here. Riki does not understand, so Yuiko embraces him one last time and tells him a secret: "This a place that can make wishes come true. Yes... it is a place of dreams." Then Riki&apos;s consciousness fades to white.