Go For It! Uptown Girl (目指せ！都会っ子 Mezase! Tokaikko) is the third chapter of the Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kizuna manga.
Summary[]
Natsumi wakes up late and rushes to get ready for school. Her mother asks her to eat breakfast but Natsumi refuses. Her grandmother says she needs to pay her respects before she goes, but Natsumi says she has no time and leaves home. Natsumi thinks that she's made a lot more progress in her new school than in the Okinomiya one and is having trouble keeping up with everything.
At school, Natsumi is greeted by her friends Chisato Saeki and Tamako Makimura. They ask Natsumi about her part-time job, and she says she wants to get a wedding anniversary gift for her parents. Chisato and Tamako offer to help her anytime when Akira Toudou arrives and demands Chisato give his book back. As Chisato retrieves it, Natsumi looks at Akira with a flustered expression.
Natsumi and her friends plan to go to the ice cream shop later. Natsumi narrates that she's enjoying her life, but she feels like she's suffocating. She thinks she may not be cut out for city life and may have had an easier time if she were born in Kakiuchi City from the start, resting alone on a bench as she wonders this. Tomoe then shows up and offers her some juice. Natsumi thanks her for her help the other day and introduces herself.
Tomoe and Natsumi talk on the bench. Natsumi says she moved here last year, just like Tomoe did, but she doesn't feel at home. She used to live in Okinomiya and had dreams of living in the city, but it's not what she expected. Natsumi recounts how she entered a high school her mother recommended and had to study hard in order to get into a good college, and Tomoe relates a similar experience. Tomoe moved from Tokyo to Ibaraki and had to help her grandmother work her fields instead of studying and hated it. Once she got a taste of the vegetables she grew however, she started enjoying it. Tomoe says that change isn't bad and that she felt obliged to fit in.
Natsumi realizes that that's what her problem is and asks what she can do. Tomoe says she needs to change her way of thinking from "I need to be" to "I want to be". Natsumi says the new friends she made are good to her, but she can't do anything for them. Tomoe asks if friends really become friends based on what they can do for each other, and suggests that Natsumi's friends will enjoy it if she thanks them sometime. Natsumi says she still can't get used to it since she wanted to be worthy of her friends and wonders if they'll still get along if she's the same as before she moved. Tomoe tells her to just talk to them and get to know the better. Natsumi remembers her friends offering help earlier and takes them to heart. Tomoe hopes she can talk to Natsumi another time since they're friends now.
Characters[]
- Natsumi Kimiyoshi
- Haruko Kimiyoshi
- Touji Kimiyoshi
- Aki Kimiyoshi
- Chisato Saeki
- Tamako Makimura
- Akira Toudou
- Tomoe Minai
Comparisons to Source Material[]
- This chapter adapts a similar scene in Tokihogushi Chapter 7. The visual novel version took place in 1982 and in a hospital.
References[]
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