Rieko Hinaga

Rieko Hinaga
日永 梨枝子 Hinaga Rieko
Character Information
Gender	Female
Age	Unknown (17 as teenager)
Status	Alive
Date of Birth	21 June
Job	Grandmother
Family	Airi (granddaughter) Masao Hinaga (husband; deceased)
Seiyū	Masako Nozawa Ai Kayano
Manga Debut	Chapter 67
Anime Debut	Episode 24

Rieko Hinaga (日永梨枝子, Hinaga Rieko) is the tenth "capture" target in the series the grandmother of Airi, who lives in the countryside.

Appearance

Present-day Rieko.

Both in her childhood and present, Rieko wore a purple colored yukata with a red obi (color was in the anime) and wore traditional Japanese geta sandals. During her teenage years, Rieko wore a white shirt and and a blue medium-length skirt. In her "ghost" form, Rieko apparently have long, blue hair that flows freely. The Rieko in the present have white hair tied up in a bun.

Personality

Rieko is like any old grandmother of the countryside; kind and gentle who is also very caring for Airi. At her age, she felt lonely, as her friends and family have moved away or passed away over the years. This created a gap in her heart, where the spirit entered. However, the spirit left easily on Elsie's plea, after learning that Rieko cannot have children anymore. Accepting the loneliness, Rieko continues her days.

While Keima Katsuragi confronts Rieko's spirit, he encounters her child-self and her teenage-self. Her child-self looks exactly like Airi, while the teenage self looks more beautiful.

Character History

Family Reunion Arc

Rieko calling Airi.

After Keima Katsuragi arrives in Yamaguchi village and meets his grandfather, he meets a little girl. This little girl starts saying many disturbing and eerie things such as "If you don't play with me, I will cut your limbs off." At first only Elsie heard it and had asked Keima if he said anything. Suddenly, the little girl appears in front of them where she is called by her grandmother, Rieko Hinaga.

At night when Keima and Elucia de Lute Ima are sleeping, Elsie wakes up needing to go to the toilet. As they are going to the toilet, they see the same little girl. Although, they only believe that this is a ghost. In the morning, after eating breakfast and Keima insulting Elsie, they see the girl yet again, saying the same eerie things as before.

After threatening Keima, she makes him succumb to her wish to play House. Initially, it starts off okay, but after only a few moments, the grandmother stops her from breaking the pot made by Denma Katsuragi. Airi gets reprimanded about saying such eerie things, the cause of her having no friends.

Ghost floating around.

Keima then starts to speculate that the sensor did not go off the night they saw the 'ghost.' The host might have been too far away from the Sensor to go off meaning that the 'ghost' might actually be a spirit. As night falls, they see the "ghost" yet again. After the spirit sings the same eerie song, Keima recognizes the "ghost" as the same little girl, confirming that it she is not a ghost, as there are no district chiefs in the countryside. They go to Airi's house, invisible, the place where the ending lies.

It is here that Keima deduces that it is not Airi that has the runaway spirit, but instead, Rieko, the grandmother. This is due to him seeing two pictures which he initially thought was Airi in both pictures. He believes this, because if Airi had worries, she would have changed her way of life. Elsie is still confused as both the runaway ghost that was wandering around and Airi looked the same but Keima realized that Rieko also had a similar face (from another picture of her marriage.) Keima decides to let Elsie persuade her.

Keima seeks out the spirit while Elsie checks if Keima was right. Elsie's sensor goes off towards Rieko while she is sleeping, confirming Keima's suspicion. As Rieko and Keima were playing demon tag, Rieko states that it is unfair why she is always the "it" in tag. Keima suggests that she thinks about turning into an adult. Suddenly, Rieko turns into a teenage girl. Due to the variance in the appearance, she proclaims that as a child, there was nothing to eat causing her to be skin and bones. The others judged her for her big eyes and even nicknamed her; 'Fish-Eyes' instead of Rieko. The ambiance changes when Keima asks her when the others (those deceased) would come.

Rieko stating that she had a wonderful life.

She becomes saddened and faces the truth of her reality. She proclaims that slowly, all of them were deceased. She only wanted someone to play with. Keima starts saying things about the real world and how he does not understand these trivial matters. At this same time, Elsie convinces the runaway spirit to leave her body as Reiko is too old and cannot reproduce. Suddenly, many little children, probably her childhood friends appear asking where 'Fish-eyes' is.

Rieko as a child running off.

It is here that Reiko understands that she might be lonely now, but she did not live lonely as she had a "wonderful" life. She states that though there are bad times, her life was not bad at all. She created the crevice in her heart as she was lonely and missed her deceased friends.

As Keima did not conquer her, the crevice in her heart still remained. However, she learned to move on with her life and take care of the most precious thing to her: Airi, her grand-daughter. She becomes a child again running off with her "childhood friends."

Quotes

• (To Airi) "Airi! No one comes to you because you say such things." (Chapter 67, p.11)
• (To Keima Katsuragi) "Ahh...young Katsuragi? That bowl, please treasure it. Your grandfather has worked on it for more than a month. Old people have no joy other than their grandchildren, ne... Goodnight." (Chapter 67 p.14)
• (Ghost to Keima) "When you're back to living alone, everyone becomes lonely. But...I just realized...I might be alone now, but it's not like I've lived alone." (Chapter 68, p.14)

Etymology

• The name Rieko means "pear" (梨) (ri), "branch" (枝) (e) and "child" (子) (ko).
• Rieko's surname Hinaga means "sun, day" (日) (hi) and "eternal" (永) (naga).

Trivia

Rieko and Airi's Season 2 appearance.

• Rieko and Airi made a brief cameo at the end of Flag 24.0.
• Rieko is currently the 'oldest' captured target and the only one that was never conquered by any romantic means. Instead, she was conquered with reasoning and understanding by Keima Katsuragi and Elucia de Lute Ima.
  • Rieko is also the only "capture" whose heart's crevice hasn't been filled. Instead, she has accepted the loneliness in her heart. On the other hand, Elsie was able to persuade the escape spirit within her to leave her body.
• Rieko was also one of the fastest captures in the series for the time being. Keima only needed 2 days to finish her "capture".
• Rieko's spirit is the only one in the series to have been "misplaced": it was at first believed that Airi was the holder of the escaped spirit.
• Rieko is also the first target that Keima can't capture by his ordinary method with the second one being Akari Kurakawa.
  • Nevertheless, she is listed in the Captured Girls Database as the 10th card rank for some reason.
• The cause of the crevice in Rieko's heart was her loneliness created by the disappearance of her loved ones and the wish to return to her childhood (filled with fun times and happiness).