Rieko Hinaga (Hinaga Rieko 日永 梨枝子) is an old lady, and the grandmother of Airi, who lives in the countryside. Rieko is very caring for her granddaughter. She is currently the only conquest target that was never conquered by any romantic means. Instead, she was "conquered" with reasoning and understanding by both Keima and Elsie.
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 (wooden 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.
She is like any old grandmother of the countryside, kind and gentle. 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 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.
After Keima 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. She is called by her grandmother, Rieko Hinaga.
At night when Keima and Elsie 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 Keima's grandfather, Denma Katsuragi. Airi gets reprimanded about saying such eerie things, the cause of her having no friends.
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 fro 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.
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.
It is here that Reiko understands that she Rieko as a child running off
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."
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.
Her spirit is the only one out of Keima's targets to be released not by a filling the gap in the heart, but through reasoning with the spirit.
She is also the first target that Keima can't capture by his ordinary method, the second one being Akari. Nevertheless, she is listed in the Captured Girls Database as the 10th card rank for some reason.
She is currently the 'oldest' "captured" target of Keima in the series.
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.)
Rieko and her granddaughter Airi appear briefly (cameo) at the end of Flag 24.0.
She was also one of the fastest captures in the series for the time being. Keima only needed 2 days to finish her "capture".
(To Airi) "Airi! No one comes to you because you say such things." (Chapter 67, p.11)
(To Keima) "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)
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