ika seems like little mais than a secondary character for much of the first half of Higurashi. As the story progresses, however, viewers learn that she is actually at the coração of most of the strange events, as her death is the trigger for the Great Hinamizawa Disaster and following incidents. Despite only being killed five times on-screen, dialogue eventually confirms that she has been killed once for every arc (excluding Matsuribayashi-hen and Miotsukushi-hen) and all other unseen worlds.
The villagers of Hinamizawa hold Rika in high esteem, as not only is she the only daughter of the Furude clan, one of the three great houses of Hinamizawa, she is also believed to be the reincarnation of the local deity Oyashiro-sama.
Although Rika is entitled to attend and have a voice in village meetings due to her family status, she is not required to attend because of her young age.

Rika lives with her classmate and friend Hōjō Satoko in a small house por the Furude Shrine.

Role as the queen CarrierEdit
As a daughter of the Furude clan, Rika is thought to be a "Queen Carrier". Early theories on the Hinamizawa Syndrome hold that the queen Carrier is a necessary part of the village's survival, and that without her the villagers would go mad in 48 hours. This theory is later proven to be untrue in Watanagashi-hen, in which when Sonozaki Shion kills Rika, and Meakashi-hen, in which Rika commits suicide. In both instances, the villagers do not react and life for them goes on normally, even through the middle of the Heisei Era and past the ano 2000, as shown por Meakashi-hen's endgame TIPS.
However, some of the deference shown to Rika por the villagers may be an unconscious acknowledgement of her role as queen Carrier. How exactly the status of queen Carrier is handed down is unclear, though it appears that it is passed down through the females of the Furude clan. It is because of this inheritance that Takano Miyo pursues her as a research subject. Her parents refuse to allow Rika to be used in this manner, and in order to get her way, Takano is mais than willing to get rid of them. Rika's father dies after being drugged por the Yamainu, and Rika's mother was vivisected for being the queen Carrier before Rika. Eventually, Takano decides that, after years of observing, she needs to kill the queen Carrier as well. Rika's death is the pivot point for each of the scenarios of Higurashi; with her death, Takano is able to wipe out the entire village using the forces at her disposal, in order to "prevent" the "doomsday scenario" her grandfather predicted for the village, while at the same time achieving "god" status for her and her grandfather.
AppearanceEdit

Added por Sparkadillia
Rika has long purple/blue hair in a hime cut, fitting her image as a miko. Her eyes are fairly droopy and purple, and she is the shortest character of all. On school days, Rika wears a white short sleeved camisa with a rosa, -de-rosa bow, a navy-blue skirt, navy suspenders, white socks and red or brown shoes. On free days, she wears a green sundress, with a white bow in the front and white sandals. During the Watanagashi Festival, she wears a traditional miko uniform, complete with a ornate enxada topped with tassels.
Personality and MannerismsEdit
Rika often seems wise beyond her years. As a very young child during Himatsubushi-hen (which is set in June of 1978), she predicted her own death in June of 1983 to the visiting Akasaka Mamoru. Childish Rika has a tendency to speak using "cute" phrases; including sound effects and nonsense words such as "nipaa", "mii", cat sounds and saying "pachi pachi" (clap clap) while clapping her hands, all of which drives the cute-loving Ryūgū Rena wild. To add to her "cute" and feminine manner, Rika refers to herself with the pronoun "boku", which, although generally used por boys, is considered extremely cute when used por young Japanese girls. She does not address anyone with honorifics, and always greets people using their first names. In Japanese culture, this would be considered incredibly rude and even sometimes degrading, but being the Furude miko, no one seems to mind much.
Rika enjoys drinking wine and eating spicy things, to Hanyū's displeasure.

True PersonalityEdit
When revealing her True Personality, Rika's cuteness disappears and she turns cynical and mais mature. She switches pronouns from "boku" to "watashi" and her voice drops to something mais resembling a grown woman's than a child's. This is the persona Rika uses when thinking and when speaking to Hanyū, so it can be assumed it is her real personality, which she keeps under wraps to avoid scaring her friends. Rika's segundo character song, S.A.G.A. ~Rinne no Hate ni~, is sung almost entirely with her True Personality. This personality is also considerably bold and occasionally rude to people.
The first time her True Personality is shown is in Himatsubushi-hen, when she warns Akasaka to go back with his wife and save her from dying. It appears that over the hundreds of worlds she has been through, Rika's True Personality has become understandably somewhat distorted and sly, as she seems to derive some pleasure out of taunting people, such as Akasaka, with knowledge that she should not have.
Rika used to resist her fate with much greater enthusiasm, but over time she was mentally worn down and eventually resigned to her fate. As a result, she seems to have almost no interest in anything, as she has been through everything many times already (save for Sonozaki Mion's whimsical club activities, which seem to be one of her few pleasures in life), and she welcomes any kind of change, good or bad.
The TIPS reveal that when her parents were still alive, she showed no emotion, only reacting to something unexpected. This greatly concerned her mother, who couldn't understand Rika no matter how hard she tried, and made their relationship difficult. However despite her cold personality she still cares for her friends and most importantly Hanyū, it is shown that she also cares for her mother, when after she woke up from her coma, she cried thinking that she killed her mother to get back there.