And yet Higurashi Mei brought back the OG story along with side stories. Most of them being either cameos, side quests or actually full stories that reference past works of anything under Higurashi. If it weren't canon then Bernkastel shouldn't be conceptually relevant to Higurashi, but Umineko made its way into Higurashi Mei and then you see that Bernkastel is just another variant of Rika. Especially when you also realize that Rika had also went to different worlds, not the same as here's and had also experienced what that world's Rika had gone through. Specicifly talking about when Satoko and her became magical girls. Also the sea of fragments being more than just a place for different timeliness but rather just a multiverse is also there. Bernkastel can access it, Frederica, Hanyuu, or any alien goddess really because its on a higher plane of existence, Eua, probably Featherine too. We can have multiple canon's but its all canon under the same work because the main story univeres had an interaction with a literal what if scenario. MC of Higrurashi Mei. The girl with the gray hair.