Finally I finished writing up my summary of Human!Rin’s common route!~
In this route Rin is very reserved and doesn’t get along with others very easily. So she’s pretty much the complete opposite of her Ayakashi counterpart. I should note that as long as you make the right choices, you don’t have to reload and start over. At one point there’s one more choice that involves choosing a name; so you just pick the name of whoever’s route you’re going for pretty much. I already finished Uta’s route so I’ll probably have a summary soon.
September
——-
In the start of this route, Rin is quiet and always tries to keep to herself.
Rin lives alone since her mother had died and she did not shed a single tear for her. Gin visited her. He asks her to come live with him but she is reluctant since she says she’d be fine living on her own. Later on she does eventually decide to stay with him. As she arrives in the village she feels somesort of presence so she goes towards the forest. There she encounters Uta and Yomi who are telling somesort of demon to go back to the mountains where it came from. It then leaps at Rin and Uta manages to get rid of it. Uta then asks if she could see it and she says she could and he tells her she should head home since its dangerous around there. Uta then grabs her arm and takes her out of the forest.
They ask if she’s around here and she doesn’t answer. They tell her to be more careful since they notice that she can actually see Ayakashi. Uta and Yomi start arguing a bit and Uta accidently shows off his ears and tail, clear showing that they aren’t human, but Ayakashi. They explain to her that they are brothers and Guardian Dog Ayakashi that protect the shrine of the village. Haginosuke then appears introducing himself as the son of the priest of the shrine. She asks him for directions to Gin’s place since he seems to be a normal human unlike Uta and Yomi. He then insists for her to follow him so he’ll lead her there. Rin tells Haginosuke that she’s moving in and Uta is surprised since he clearly had no idea. Rin realizes that Uta and Yomi are also living there and feels pretty uneasy about living with Ayakashi.
Once inside, Gin gives Rin a tour of the place. He then suggests a “welcoming party” but Rin says she’s tired and wants to go to bed early today. Uta gets pissed but Gin tells him to calm down and its fine since he understands she’d be tired. Once she’s in her room she notices it looks the exact same from 10 years ago. She also sees a cat from outside her window staring at her.
Later that night Rin gets hungry and wakes up to go downstairs to get a drink. There she spots Uta and Gin making rice balls for Rin. Uta is annoyed making them for someone like her but Gin says its only natural for her to act the way she is when suddenly in a unfamiliar environment. Yomi then notices Rin listening to their conversation and takes her into the kitchen. There she makes rice balls with the rest of them. Once they finish making them she says she’d prefer to eat alone in her room. Uta gets annoyed by this but Gin again says there’s no helping it. She then goes up to her room but doesn’t finish eating it.
The next day Rin gets ready for her first day of school. Along with Uta and Yomi who will attend with her. Rin doesn’t like the idea of them coming with her but has no choice for it. Gin also asigns the task of protecting Rin to Uta since there are many dangerous Ayakashi the village. He gives them both a bell to ensure that it keeps they alerted for each other if she’s in danger. Uta doesn’t like the sound of this but Gin says he’s got to be the “older brother” figure here and he relunctantly agrees. Just as they’re about to eat breakfast Rin says she doesn’t usually eat breakfast but Uta forces her to eat it anyway.
On their way to school Uta asks why Rin is reading since she can just do it at school and Rin tells him to leave her alone. Uta and Yomi start bickering at each other and Rin goes and ahead and tries to get to school ahead of them. Once at school they all introduce themselves. Rin and Yomi just state their name while Yomi goes on a rant saying he loves meat and hates vegetables. He also doesn’t like to study and kinda likes to sing. Before he can go on the teacherstops him there ((heheh)). Later in class a lot of girls bombard Rin with questions and Rin gets overwhelmed since she’s not used to talking with people much and says she has to leave. Although Uta gets a lot of praise from students for being so athletic like and Yomi gets compliments from girls saying he’s cool.
Once Rin leaves the class she finds Haginosuke who says he’ll show her around the school. He shows her around but during the tour she spots the cat she saw not too long ago near the school courtyard. But under the tree she sees a boy sleeping there instead of a cat. He notices Rin has the girl from Gin’s food shop. He asks about classes and she tells him they’ve already ended today which tells her that he’d been sleeping through them the entire time. He then leaves and Uta appears saying he found the “silent woman”. Rin tells him not to call her weird names and then he proceeds by calling her “gloomy woman” instead and asks why she suddenly ran off. Rin tells him to leave her alone but Haginosuke tells him not to get so angry. Rin doesn’t understand why he’s protecting her in the first place since she doesn’t want him to anyway.
Later that day Rin is reading alone in her room since she always feels at peace if she can read. Since she finished her book already she decides to go find the bookstore and buy another one. She sneaks out of the house so no one will notice her and try and follow. While searching for the bookstore she gets lost and encounters Asagi who asks if she’s lost. She says she is and he says he’ll guide her there. She finds him very easy to speak to but for some reason feels a bit sad when talking to him. He then takes her there and then says he’ll guide her back as well and she thanks him. She grows fond of his how mysterous he is and stares at him. He notices and she apologizes. He then tells her taht he likes the way the wind feels near the river so he often takes walks around there. Rin agrees and decides to walk along with him. As they’re walking Asagi notices its getting late and asks if she wants to head back. She says she’s fine since she doesn’t want to return home yet. Once they admire the shrine together Asagi suggests to Rin she should head back since its getting late and he’ll send her home. Rin then tells him she doesn’t want to go home since she finds it unpleasant there. He then asks if she’ll go if he goes with her and streches out his hand to her. Before Rin can answer a loud voice screams out “gloomy woman”. Uta finds her there clearly pissed and wondering why she’d wandered off by herself like that. Rin says she’s not alone and looks to the direction where Asagi was but he’s no longer there. Uta and Rin continue to bicker and she says if looking for her annoyed him so much he should leave. But he tells her that Gin told him to look for her so he didn’t have a choice. She says she didn’t ask for him to look for her in the first place so he should stop complaining. Uta tells her that Gin is worried about her but Rin thinks its annoying and she wants to be alone. She the says she’s leaving and calls him an idiot while telling him not to follow her. Soon Haginosuke appears and asks why they’re fighting. They won’t tell him whats wrong so he takes them both home.
Both of them keep silent as Gin asks whats wrong and Rin storms off to her room. There she encounters Yomi and he asks her why she came to the village in the first place. Rin’s all confused and he says it doesn’t matter either way and leaves. As she sits in her room she ponders the thought to herself. Why did she come to the village?
The next morning Rin is eating breakfast with everyone. Or rather, she’s at the breakfast table but isn’t eating much. Uta makes a snide remark and says Gin is too nice to her. Rin wants to hurry up and get to school but Gin pleads her to stay and walk to school with both Yomi and Uta. Relunctantly she agrees to. Though on the way to school Uta is straying too far from them and Yomi gets on his case for this. Haginosuke meets them part way noticing the atmosphere between Uta and Rin is pretty omnious. Once at school they encounter Hana who’s lounging around. Yomi tells Haginosuke to go on ahead which leaves Uta, Yomi, Rin, and Hana. Hana notices Rin as “the daughter of that shop” and she says she’s not Gin’s daughter. He then says she looks like such a boring person and Rin decides to just stay silent. Uta asks why she’s being so quiet and she asks “Who are you talking to?” and he’s like “Who else would I be talking to?!” then Hana leaves saying classes are about to start. Rin wonders if they’re acquainted with him and Yomi tells her his name is Hana Suou and he’s an Ayakashi. Soon the bell rings and they head to class late.
During lunchtime Rin is asked by some female classmates to eat lunch together but Rin declines their offer saying she wants to eat alone. Meantime Uta and Yomi are surrounded by others noticing the delicious food Gin had made them. Rin then decides she wants to go eat someplace more isolated so she can eat alone. She goes over to a hillside behind the school and encounters Haginosuke there. He says he’s not really good at eating lunch with others and slips out of the classroom to eat lunch here. Rin realizes he’s the same as her and finds it to be pretty unexpected for someone so positive and high spirited as him. Rin then tells him she also was going to eat lunch but she’ll leave so that she doesn’t disturb him. Ibuki then laughs and realizes she’s a bit different from usual. Rin says thats not true and she also doesn’t like to eat with others. She tells him ever since she was young she’d always eaten by herself.
After a while both of them finish their lunch (though Rin didn’t eat hers much) and Ibuki suggests that return together. During which Rin is not sure what they should talk about on their way there and Haginosuke says the same thing she was thinking. Rin then brings up him being the son of the head priest of the Shrine and asks about the Cherry Blossom tree there. He then gets pretty excited and mentions its the Cherry Blossom tree that blooms out of season. Rin finds it strange that it does so and he agrees saying the reason is unclear. He then gets all excited saying he’s an Ayakashi enthusiast. He asks her if she knows about them and she says she does. He goes on about saying he’s really interested in them and wants to meet one. Though Rin decides to keep quiet about it. He then asks her to go see the cherry blossoms with him after school and she agrees to. He tells her he’s glad he was able to talk to her today since most would find his conversation strange.
Just as Haginosuke is about to leave after class, Uta interrupts them saying he can’t allow her to leave so freely so he has to join them under certain circumstances. Rin says she doesn’t like it but she’ll agree to him coming. Once they arrive there Haginosuke is going on about the unusualness of it and believes the cause definitely has to do with Ayakashi. Uta just grins and mutters “Ayakashi, huh?”. As Rin stares at the tree in awe she starts to feel really sad all of a sudden so she keels over. Uta thinks its cause she hasn’t eaten anything so she’s probably feeling dizzy. When Haginosuke hears this he rushes off to go find her something to eat. She then starts crying all of a sudden and Uta freaks out and mutters to himself that he has no choice but to take her hand to go to the shrine since it’ll be dangerous otherwise. He tells her to say something if she’s feeling sick otherwise he’ll worry. Though he corrects himself that he won’t be worried but Gin or Haginosuke would. As they’re walking to the shrine he asks since when she felt sick and she mentions its when she saw the cherry blossoms. He makes a questionable face and Rin asks him about it but he says its nothing.
Once they arrive at the shrine Uta calls out for Kami-sama. Rin thinks its a child but Uta says he’s no child but a god. He introduces himself as the God of the shrine thats worshiped in this village. Apparently he had already heard of Rin through Gin. Uta then explains that she felt sick after witnessing the cherry blossom tree and asks for him to do something about it. Rin then asks if he’s an actual all mighty god and Uta says there’s nothing that special about him and Rin then asks him about the cherry blossoms. Kami-sama tells her she’ll understand it when the time is right and it all depends on her actions. Not to long after Haginosuke appears with some manju. Kami-sama gets all excited saying he loves manju and Haginosuke gives him some too. Rin notices he’s acquainted with Kami-sama but he just thinks he’s a cute child whom calls himself “Kami-sama” and won’t tell him his real name even though he had said it as a matter of factly.Somehow though Rin is able to manage eating the manju Haginosuke gave her. Kami-sama asks about her relations with Gin and she mentions they haven’t been so great for a while.
Once they get home Rin claims the lunch Gin made her was delicious though she didn’t even eat it and Uta points this out. Gin tells her to say if there’s something specific she’d like but she says she’s fine. Rin goes back to her room in thought about the cherry blossoms. While thinking so she sees the cat appear and disappear again.
The next day Rin is eating lunch where Haginosuke is again. He asks if she likes it there and she says she does since its the most quiet place for her. After eating he asks if she wants to return together, but then notices she has a pretty small appetite since she hadn’t touched her food. Rin says she’s not sure why but she doesn’t like to eat much and can barely eat one meal a day. He then mentions the manju she ate yesterday and says if she eats something she’s sure to come to like it eventually. Just as she’s about to return to class with him she hears a sound and tells him to go on ahead and decides to leave into the forest to check it out.
While searching in the forest she finds a woman sitting by a tree who looks like she’s in a bad condition. She asks if she’s alright and the woman notices that she’s a human and Rin in return notices that she’s an Ayakashi. She wonders why she’s such a condition since she looks fairly thin. She claims she’s lived long enough already so she doesn’t mind if she disappears. Rin then offers her food to her apologizing that its already somewhat half-eaten. The woman takes her food saying its delcious and she must be a great cook. Rin tells her she didn’t make it, and if she wants more like that food she should visit the shop called Ponpokorin. The woman claims she heard of it before but she cannot go there with the body she had now. Rin wonders why and she claims she cannot move her leg anymore. Rin notices there’s some sort of charm on her leg. She says a human that disliked Ayakashi put a curse on her leg and she cannot move anymore. Rin thinks its horrible and expected from humans. She notices she must have a lot of hate towards others and Rin tells her she doesn’t get along well with other people (or Ayakashi) and she prefers to be alone. She wonders if its hard for Rin to speak to her but Rin says she’s easy to talk to. The woman then says that she’s always alone so she’s glad she’s able to talk to someone. The woman claims she feels her and Rin are alike and says her name is Sagiri and hopes she’ll come visit again. Rin says she will and goes back to class thinking about her and how well she feels she understands her loneliness.
Once Rin gets back to class she tells Uta she’ll be returning home by herself today. Uta gets pissed but she tells him not to follow her and she walks home by herself. There she sees Suou who says he could smell her and she’s all pissed cause she just wants to be alone already.
Soon Rin decides to visit Sagiri every day during lunch to give her lunch to her. Sagiri thinks she can truly empathize with her and Rin asks if she’s lonely where she doesn’t answer but asks Rin the question instead. Rin says she’s not sure since she’s always been alone. Ever since she was young she had been alone since her mother worked and her father died. Sagiri tells her not to worry because she’s here for Rin now and she doesn’t have to bear being alone anymore.
Once Rin gets home Gin notices Rin’s lunch is completely empty so he believes she must have been eating all of it. Uta doesn’t believe it for a second though and asks what she’s really doing since he notices her always leaving to go somewhere during lunch. Rin tells him to leave her alone and leaves to her room. When she’s asleep she has a dream of a spider chasing her as she’s in her younger self’s body. She wakes up in the middle of the night and decides to read a book the entire night since she can’t get back to sleep.
The next day Rin is dozing off in class since she didn’t get much sleep the night before. Haginosuke comes over to her wondering where she’d been since she’d stopped coming to her usual spot with him to eat lunch. Rin says she never made any promises to go with him there and he’s like “oh, that’s true.” and laughs it off. He then asks if she’s been eating properly since she looks a bit frail and she says she’s fine leaving him to himself.
During lunch Rin brings Sagiri her lunch again. She tells Rin she feels she has a lot of meaning to live now that she’s met Rin. She felt all humans were nothing but trickery and lies but she feels Rin is different. She thinks she’s a very strong human. Rin says thats the first time someone ever told her that and Sagiri says its the same for her since its the first time she was able to trust someone. Rin says its because she’s so kind and she thanks her saying no one has ever told her that before. Rin starts to recall her mother and Sagiri asks if those were good memories where she tells her they weren’t and she’d be much better off if Sagiri had been her mother. Sagiri asks her why and she tells her because Sagiri would’ve been a much kinder mother to her and wonders if she would’ve come to love her. Rin apologizes for saying something weird and Sagiri says its okay and tells her if she wants her love she’ll give it to her. She tells her she understands her pain and she doesn’t need to shut herself alone anymore. She feels if she has Sagiri she doesn’t need anything else.
The following night Rin has the same dream with a spider chasing her. She wakes up and notices the cat outside and talks to it asking if he has someone to make them not feel lonely too. Rin says she found someone who finally understands her. The cat then leaves and she goes to sleep. The next day after school Gin introduces Manatsu to Rin. He says to call him “Manatsu” but Rin just calls him Serigano-san clearly not showing much familiarity. Gin then notices that Rin’s lunchbox is empty but its confused to why she’d eat during lunch but not in the morning during breakfast. He notices she looks so unwell and seems more skinnier than usual. Rin tells him not to touch her and he apologizes. Uta says its obvious she’s not really eating her lunch. He tells Rin she leaves during lunch but doesn’t know where she goes. He thinks she’s probably dumping out her lunch somewhere. Rin gets pissed at him and then Manatsu notices a spider web in her hair. Manatsu then asks if she met a Ayakashi in the mountains. Rin then explains to them about the woman she’s meeting who’s an Ayakashi. Gin tells her not to visit her anymore and Manatsu explains that Sagiri is an Ayakashi that feeds on humans. People who were charmed of her beauty were bound by her threads and eaten. Because she was so dangerous Gin had her sealed to a tree in the mountains.
Rin goes back to her room and clearly doesn’t believe this at all since she trusted her a lot. So she attempts to leave but bumps right into Uta who’s outside her room. Apparently he was keeping watch because Gin told him to and had a feeling she wouldn’t believe him. Rin tells him to not get in the way since she wants to believe in Sagiri. Uta gets pissed and asks if she even heard what Gin had told her. She’ll definitely get eaten if she goes to see her. Rin tells him that she was the only person to understand her loneliness. As Rin tries to leave Uta grabs her arm. He asks her if she understands how much Gin worries about her. He cooks for her everyday and she never eats his meals. He even had Yomi and him protect her because she was so important to him. She says that Sagiri is important to her but she won’t look at the people in front of her who’ve already cared about her. He tells her to stop running away from everything thats troublesome for her. She should stop hiding in her own shell and look properly at the people who try and value her the most. He asks if she was even listening and she says she is. Uta doesn’t want to have to watch her all the time so she should speak freely to him what she feels. He asks her what she wants to do and she says she wants to confirm it for herself. She wants to see if Sagiri really is the way they say she is. Uta reluctantly agrees and says he’ll be coming with her.
Rin goes to see Sagiri and she notices she brought along Uta too. She asks whats wrong and before Rin can ask her anything she realizes she can’t move. She’s bound by Sagiri’s threads. Rin tells her to let her go since she just wants to talk with her and Sagiri says she wanted to talk to her too to give her thanks. Thanks to her she has regained her power despite being bound to the root of the tree. Sagiri then begs Rin to take off the seal that was placed on her. Rin’s body begins to move without her own will. She explains she was bored every day with this seal placed on her. She wanted to escape so badly so she could eat more humans. Then Rin appeared and she realized that was her chance and decieved her in no time. She intended to eat Rin right away but realized she was all skin and bone and didn’t have much meat on her so she didn’t bother since it was so unappetizing. She treated as if she was her daughter and was finally able to regain her power. She tells her to take off her seal and calls her a foolish human for believing her.
Rin unwillingly takes off the seal as Sagiri controls her to do so and is free while regaining all her power. Uta then rips free of the threads Sagiri attached to him and tries to attack her. Rin begs her to return to the mountain and not go to the village. She tells her she always believed she was important to her and empathized with her lonely feelings. She felt she was truly a gentle person. She doesn’t want to see someone she cares about get hurt. She’s doesn’t want any more people precious to her to die anymore. Sagiri calls her a foolish child in a small voice and a light appears. Manatsu appears telling Uta and Rin that its okay now because she returned to the mountains. He used a charm that drives away Ayakashi. Rin then falls to the ground with her energy drained. Her stomach growls which proves she’s so hungry she can barely move.
It shows a flash back with Sagiri speaking. She was always alone. She was envied by others by her looks but no one ever loved her. Since her true self was a huge ugly spider. She was deceived by humans all her life and so she ate them. But she believed Rin was different. She was going to just use her to take off her seal, but she realized that she was the same as her. She had a deep hole in her heart full of loneliness. The more she talked with her the more she felt they were similar. She wanted to be loved by someone but drove everyone away. She saw her true ugly form yet she still felt she was precious to her. She says she feels the same way about her as well. Rin then wakes up and realizes it was a dream. It was as if Sagiri had spoken those feelings in her own dream.
Once in Rin is more focused on her surroundings she notices Uta is carrying her and wakes up scaring Uta. She asks why he’s carrying her and he says cause she fell, obviously. Rin wonders about Manatsu and apparently he has the blood of a Onmyouji so he can use charms to dispell Ayakashi. Uta then asks what Rin she meant when she said she was sick of people close to her dying. Rin wonders why he’d get all nosy all of a sudden but he says its in his nature to be curious. Rin tells him her mother died last summer which Uta notices was pretty recently. She says thats the reason she came in the first place. Gin never mentioned this to him but Rin never wanted him to. Rin never said she was ever lonely in the first place. He asks if she was sad and she says she doesn’t know whether or not she was sad or lonely. She never understood her feelings well so she never considered whether her mother was important to her or not. She never had any special memories with her in the first place. She didn’t cry nor feel sad but just aknowledged she had died. Uta asks if thats all she remembers about her and Rin says she also remembers she wore pink nail polish and had a perfume that made her head hurt. So all her relatives avoided her, thinking she’s strange for being so calm when her parents died. Thats when she became alone and then Gin picked her up. She also mentions that when she talked to Sagiri she was reminded her of her mother. Though she thought it was strange at first since Sagiri was nothing like her mother as she remembered her. But when she gave more thought to it she remembered some old memories with her mother. When she was really young, her mother had a kind “motherly” gentleness to her. She acted like a real mother to her. She died so suddenly and she wonders why she’d forget something like that and starts crying. Uta says he won’t watch and tells her to cry all she wants.
After Rin stops crying they finally reach the house and Uta puts Rin down. They encounter a very worried Gin and Rin says she’s okay. She then tries to tell Gin she’s hungry but her stomach does the talking for her and Uta laughs. She then hesitantly tells Gin that she wants to eat something. Gin then runs off to make something. Yomi asks what the heck he did to her but Uta’s all “Who knows?”.
Gin is then cooking up in the kitchen (he goes on about how to make it but there’s no way I’d put a full blown description of it all). And makes a delicious looking pot-au-feu. Rin is in awe of how wonderful and delicious it looks and eats it all up. She feels suddenly really satisfied and less lonely than before. Later she notices Gin outside by the balcony and sits down with him. She says the food he made was really delicious and Gin is very happy she liked it. She said when she ate it she was reminded about a dish that her mother made a long time ago though she doesn’t really remember what it tasted like. Though she does remember saying it was really good. She realizes she had actually been sad that her mother passed away. She heard a voice call out to her in the dream she had before and she believes it was probably her mother. Gin agrees and says she’s probably looking after her from heaven. Rin then suddenly apologizes to Gin for avoiding him 10 years ago. She used to be very scared of him when she found out he wasn’t human. She’d been thinking about it the entire time and regretted it a lot. She’d been avoiding him all this time and kept to herself for so long always keeping herself emotionally locked up. Gin tells Rin that she’s not alone anymore and they’re all now a happy family. Gin grasps Rin’s hand while she cries and thanks her.
The next morning everyone is staring at Rin surprised that she’s actually eating breakfast. She greets Haginosuke in the morning and he’s surprised to see she and Uta getting along. Slowly Rin is opening up to everyone.
Later Rin visits the forest where she used to encounter Sagiri. Uta notices her and wonders where she wandered off to without telling him. She apologizes saying she forgot to tell him. He notices she left to see if Sagiri was still there and which she obviously wasn’t. He says he’d drive her away if she did come back though. This reminds Rin that when he first met him he was trying to drive away a different Ayakashi then too. She asks him why he’s protecting the village from Ayakashi when he’s an Ayakashi himself. He says the reason isn’t dependent on whether its an Ayakashi or human. But rather how the person or Ayakashi her mistreats or attacks others without any reason. Rin never thought of him that way and says he’s actually pretty kind. Uta gets all flustered and freaks out telling her not to say such weird things. Rin gets irritated saying she’s trying to talk seriously and Uta starts laughing since she’s being so serious. She never once tried to explain how she’s feeling so its surprising for her to say she’s angry and say whats going on in her mind. Uta tells her she should be able to say whatever’s on her mind instead of keeping it all to herself. Since he’s a noble guardian dog she should consult to him anytime. Rin says she’ll do that in the future from now on. She then gives him a remark saying…
Rin: “When I think you’re being an idiot I’ll be honest and say so.”
Uta: “WHAT? No way! That’s a totally different situation!”
Rin: “I can see why Yomi is always having a hard time.”
Uta: “What are you talking about?! And here I was being all kind to you!”
Rin: “I know you were. Thank you.”
Uta: “Y-Yeah.”
Uta blushes mentions how they’ve never actually called each other by their names before. He tells her he’d prefered if she called him by his name “Uta.” He mentions he’d prefer “Uta-sama” but he’ll allow her to call him just “Uta.” He then blushes saying he’ll call her by her first name too. He mutters it at first and she can’t hear him so he blantly yells it out. Rin is surprised and smiles while saying he really is an idiot where Uta screams out he’s not.
Rin then starts thinking about how she felt her memories with Sagiri were never fake. Just while thinking this, once she gets home she’s in for a huge surprise. There to greet her is Sagiri herself. Apparently the power of the charm has influenced and caused her to change. So she has promised not to deceive or eat people anymore. Instead she’s decided to only eat the food of ponpokorin. Apparently after eating one bite of his food she wouldn’t even dare to go back to eating humans. Apparently its also because she wanted to see Rin again. She then hugs Rin saying she’d like to talk to her again. It afterwords shows Asagi talking with Sagiri outside of the house. She mentions how the food was delicious and Asagi notices she seems very happy.
October
——
Rin, Yomi, and Uta are with Kami-sama whom mentions that fall gets really noisy this time of month because of “that.” Rin is confused on what “that” is and Haginosuke pops out of nowhere mentioning that he must mean the cultural festival. He goes on to explain that the cultural festival is a big event in their village since all schools are involved. He starts wondering if maybe he’ll spot an Ayakashi during the festival and once Uta starts to say they’re in front of him, Yomi punches him to keep him quiet. They then mention that they’ve noticed Rin has finally been eating proper meals now. Uta makes a comment saying she may end up eating like a pig at this rate. Though he says it was supposed to be a compliment to see that she’s eating again she says he has no delicacy. Noticibly to Yomi and Haginosuke, Rin and Uta have finally been calling each other by their own names. Kami-sama is stuffing down daifuku’s that Haginosuke gave him. He asks why he isn’t eating together with him but he says he’s okay since he already ate. He then mutters under his breath gloomily about eating meals.
The next day at school, Haginosuke is in charge of the decision making of the cultural festival. He decides he wants to do a play this year. Everyone agrees to his idea and he decides the play they’ll be performing is “Snow White”. Apparently instead of the regular story, Haginosuke wants to give it a comedy touch. Haginosuke will be writing the script, Rin’s in charge of the wardrobe, Yomi’s in charge of setting up the stage, and Yomi claims he’s the “main hero” since he’ll be playing as the prince. Though Yomi doesn’t actually even know the prince’s role in the story and Rin asks if he’s okay with that role. Uta is confused and suddenly Suzuri appears with a picture book of Snow White. Once Uta looks through the story he finds out that in the story, the Princess is waken up by the Prince’s kiss. And apparently the Princess is played by Hana Suou, whom is a guy. Uta then flips out and screams “WHY DO I HAVE TO KISS THAT GUYYYY?!”
Later they decide to make Gyoza in the kitchen together. Uta is flipping out the entire time while making it though. That night, Rin is looking through the picture book of Snow White in order to plan for the clothes she’ll be making. She then hears the cat outside her window and wonders if he’s here to listen to her talk again. She asks if he knows about the cultural festival and hopes everything will go alright considering the situation with Uta.
Rin goes to her usual place where she ate lunch with Haginosuke and spots him writing the script for the play. He notices she looks pretty happy while eating her lunch and she says she is cause its really good. She asks if he already ate his and he says he did since he buys his food. She asks if his mom ever makes him lunch and he tells her his mother died when he was young so now it’s just him and his father. Rin is surprised and says she’s just like her since she came to live at the shop because her mother died. She mentions her relations with her weren’t very good and she always ate alone. That’s why she’d always eaten by herself and had trouble eating with others. Haginosuke mentions she’s like him too. But before Rin knew it she had started to eat with everyone normally at ponpokorin. Though in school its a bit different and she still hasn’t been able to warm up to everyone yet to be able to eat with anyone in class. He asks what about him since she’d been eating with him but she says she feels okay eating with him though she doesn’t really understand it herself. He asks if she’s actually the type of person to get lonely very easily. He thinks she really doesn’t like to be alone but doesn’t know how to approach people very well so keeps to herself. She asks how he knew that and he says it’s probably because he’s the same way. He doesn’t say any further than that and says he’s sorry for intrupting her meal time and goes back to writing the script. After a bit of silence Rin asks Haginosuke why he decided on a play. He tells her it’s because he’s hoping that if Ayakashi come to the cultural festival they’d be interested in seeing it.
During class Haginosuke is preparing the class for practice of the play. Uta begs him to take out the part of the “kiss scene” but Haginosuke tells him “Nope!~ It’s the highlight of the play!~” Uta is in despairs and asks why the heck his first kiss has got to be stolen by that guy. Rin is then talked to by other girls and says they’ll helping with the wardrobe too and that they should probably focus on Snow White’s clothes.
After school Rin asks Gin where sewing supplies are since she wants to sew Uta’s prince clothes. Gin says he’ll help too since its okay for her to rely on him because he’s family.
The next day the girls that are working with Rin in making clothes for the play want to complete the Snow White clothes but need to measure Suou in order to do so. Rin says she’ll do it since she’d already talked with him before. While measuring him, Hana mentions its such a hassle but she says he’s the one who wanted the role in the first place but apparently he only wanted to do it cause Snow White sleeps the whole time. The teacher then brings in drinks and apparently there’s one missing so Suou gives up his because he wanted milk instead anyway.
Afterwords, Haginosuke begins practice for the class from the scene where Snow White is found by the dwarf. They begin acting though start off pretty rough and theire acting isn’t that great. While performing Rin notices an extra dwarf too the already seven. But it’s not someone from the class but a child Ayakashi. Later that day Uta is complaining about the play and Haginosuke catches up to them mentioning that he felt there was another person present in the class room. Hence why there was a missing drink earlier. He of course, believes it was an Ayakashi. Rin is about to say she saw it earlier but Yomi tells her not to bother.
Though once Haginosuke leaves Yomi mentions that Rin is right and what she saw earlier was a zashikiwarashi or “room child”. Which are like children spirits that that appear and may cause mischief but should be cared to as if its an actual child. Rin mentions this but they believe it should be satisfied with the cultural festival itself so shouldn’t cause much harm.
The next day the students are practicing for the play again though their acting still needs plenty of work. Rin notices that the Ayakashi child is still there and Yomi is keeping an eye on them to make sure they don’t do anything.
While at home Rin is sewing the clothes for the play and is making good progress. She then mentions to Gin there’s something else she’d like to make, which is more clothes but not for a student but the child zashikiwarashi ayakashi. She believes she can make it happy if she makes him some clothes. Uta mentions that he thought she hated Ayakashi but Gin tells him not to say weird things. Rin is surprised but is starting to realize what her Grandma was talking about when she told her of Ayakashi.
The next day during lunch Rin thinks back on when Haginosuke invited her out to eat with him before and she told him she never promised him she would. She felt really bad about it and when he appeared in the usual spot she immediately apologized for the way she acted back then. He says he didn’t mind at all since he was more worried about her during that time. Rin thinks he’s really amazing for not being angry for that but he says at that time he was actually angry with himself. He wanted to help her but wasn’t sure how to at the time. And is just glad if he was able to help her. She then says she’d like to help him this time with preparations of the cultural festival since he’s already doing so much for it. He’s relunctant at first but he’s actually having a bit of a hard time so appreciates she wants to help more.
During class, Haginosuke is having a hard time getting Uta do actually do a good performance. Later on Rin encounters the Ayakashi child and gives him her clothes she made for him. He’s really pleased and gives Rin a pretty nut of some sort in return for the clothes she gave him. Rin is relunctant since she didn’t really need a reward but they tell her its a way to give thanks and she should accept it. She’s not used to that sort of thing and then she suddenly thanks Yomi and Uta while their all “WOAh you okay???” since its probably the first time she’d ever thanked them.
Finally they reach the day before the cultural festival. Rin had thankfully had the clothes prepared in time for it thanks to Gin’s help. So they’re about to do their last practice together. Once they enter the classroom though they’re in for a surprise. Apparently the whole set that was prepared for the play was ruined. Haginosuke is appauled to see this and wonders how the heck it could’ve happened since the doors were locked.
The Ayakashi child then runs out of the room upset. She confirms whether or not he was the one who did it but he wasn’t. Uta then appears saying he can smell the scent of the broken stuff nearby and yells out for someone to come out. Apparently its a one eyed goblin or a Hitotsume-kozou. He’s actually the one who ruined it apparently because the Ayakashi child stopped playing with him recently because he was so involved with humans. Rin asks if he was actually lonely where he’s all “別に” but she asks if they played together a lot where he says they did but lately he’d been hanging around humans a lot. Rin then tells them that the festival is tomorrow so they’re in a bit of a bind since he broke everything. She then asks if he’ll help them fix it. He’s reluctant at first but Uta threatens him and he immediately complies. Uta then realizes they’d have to work to fix it in one day but Rin says she knows he can do it since she’ll help too.
Then then go back to the classroom and notice everyone is already working hard to fix it up. Apparently Haginosuke encouraged everyone to work mentioning that Ayakashi shouldn’t be falsely accused just as humans shouldn’t. So then everyone began to start fixing up the set and props for the play. Including the two Ayakashi. It starts getting pretty late and they are finally able to finish fixing it up. Just as everyone is about to leave Rin tells Yomi and Uta she left something behind in the classroom and goes to go back and get it. There she bumps right into Haginosuke. He was about to lock the door and didn’t expect to see Rin there. Since he locked the door she thought it was fine but he insisted and he grabbed her hand and took her into the classroom. He asked what she left and she tells him she left the ribbon for Snow white that she wanted to wash at home. Rin hesitantly tells Haginosuke to let go of her hand so she can search for it and he immediately does so and apologizes while blushing since he didn’t notice. Rin doesn’t mind though and feels relaxed around him. He also noticed its easy to get along with her because of their similarities. He mentions he likes her “honest way” about her and she for a second is surprised to hear the word “好き” even she knows it doesn’t hold that certain meaning but cause you know feels and stuff.
Finally, its the day of the cultural festival. Everyone is nervous about the performance and so they decide to go get something to eat around the festival stalls. Suou immediately smells something with fish and there they find one of Haginosuke’s juniors holding a stall with Okonomiyaki with fish. Apparently his were really broken and messed up so Haginosuke decided to help make them instead and of course they turn out wonderfully. Everyone enjoys them but once Uta suggests that Haginosuke eats it with them he’s relunctant. Rin obviously knows why but Uta shoves it in his mouth anyway. They ask how it is and he smiles saying its good. Rin is relieved to see him that way. Rin then shares her’s with the two Ayakashi that came to festival as well. The little one eyed ayakashi asked if the blond hair one made it and Rin says he did.
Once they return to the classroom to prepare for the play, apparently Suou is nowhere to be found and left a note saying they leave the rest to them. They then suggest they should have a substitute replace him. The student girls immediately suggest Rin, thinking she’d fit the part perfectly. Haginosuke protests and they ask if he wants to see Rin in that costume. He says he does but isn’t so keen on the idea. Everyone then agrees that the matter is settled and Rin will play the part of Snow White.
Uta is all nervous entering the stage since he’ll have to kiss Rin instead of Suou. He hesitantly jumps out on stage asking for the princess who is in the coffin. Just as he opens up the coffin to wake up Snow White he’s in for a huge surprise. Rin isn’t the one in the coffin but Yomi instead.
Uta: “That’s strange. It’s probably because I’m nervous but…this princess looks a lot like Yomi.”
Yomi: “Hey!”
Uta: “Ouch! Your foot!”
Yomi: “Thanks to the kiss that was filled with your love, the poison apple effect is gone. I was able to wake up.”
Yomi: “As gratitude, please accept this kick of thanks.”
Uta: “Why is it Yomi and not Rin?!”
Yomi: “Please be quiet, Prince.”
Uta: “Why are you kicking me?! Talk about a violent princess!”
Uta: “Everyone, please give us your blessings. The prince and I shall marry.”
The audience starts congradulating them and throwing cherry blossom flowers. Uta is in despair saying he didn’t want an ending like this. Afterwords, Haginosuke meets Yomi and Uta saying they did a great job. Though they’re still sour about the whole thing. Uta asks why Rin wasn’t there in the first place and Haginosuke said its because he changed it at the last minute. It was supposed to be a Snow White with some comedy so it’d have been the original story with Rin involved. Haginosuke says he’ll make it up for them somehow and Yomi suggests that they bury Suou since it was him who left them in that predicament in the first place. Uta agrees and Rin tells them to calm down. Then Gin appears claiming they saw the play and thought it was interesting. Yomi immediately tells him to erase it from his memory. Though Gin says Suzuri was surprised at how beautiful Yomi looked as a princess. So he just pardons it and tells him to forget he said anything.
Later that night Rin notices Haginosuke hadn’t appeared at the campfire and roams the classroom where she finds him alone there. He had a lot of fun and was spending some alone time to himself. He then suggests they look at the campfire together since they can see it directly from the classroom.
Haginosuke then goes on about how the festival was fun and he’s glad he was able to experience some new things and have some mysterious things happen as well. Just then he hears a sound and notices a nut and with a flower on the desk. Rin mentions how he wanted Ayakashi to come enjoy the festival too and she tells him that its a reward from them for the fun time they had. He’s really happy and never would of thought he’d get something from an Ayakashi. He asks if she believes in Ayakashi and she says she thinks there are Ayakashi that are able to make you feel happier and less lonely. He thinks its strange she’d say something like that but not because she believes in Ayakashi, but because her words really impact him and have a lot of meaning to him. He believes its probably because they’re similar, but he’d never been able to eat with other people until now. He’d always wanted to be alone when eating and self-loathed himself for it. But when he eats with Akane on the hillside he feels a lot happier than he did. Also when they ate Okonomiyaki together. He really feel it tasted better when they were all together. So little by little he wants to get used to eating meals with other people. Rin says she’ll help him overcome it as well. He thanks her and says he’d like to know her better and become her friend. She says she’d like too and he gets kind of embarrassed and says he’s happy. He then looks the other way all embarrassed and is about to say something but says its nothing.
Just then Uta, Yomi, and Suou arrive saying they should head home since the campfire ended. They notice the Nut and flowers that was left and Haginosuke mentions that an ayakashi left it there. They all agree it’s probably true and Haginosuke is surprised that they all believe that Ayakashi did it. He then says they should form together as an “Ayakashi search party.” A group that aims towards meeting Ayakashi with him as the leader. He then goes on that they should deepen each other’s friendship by calling each other by their first names. Rin then suddenly asks how Haginosuke was able to reverse their roles so quickly at the last moment during the play. He then says “hm? what do you mean?” avoiding the question while laughing.
The next day during lunchtime Rin takes Uta and Yomi to the spot she eats with Haginosuke. There she and the rest of them eat lunch together.
November
—–
Rin, Yomi, Uta, and Haginosuke have all been enjoying spending their lunch time together. One day Suou randomly appeared there too sleeping butHaginosuke told them to just leave him. Rin was lost in thought thinking about Suou and suddenly had Haginosuke talking about how they were discussing in homeroom today about viewing the Autumn leaves together. Suddenly Suou starts sniffing around Rin and she’s all “What are you doing?!” but apparently he just wanted to steal some of her fried shrimp.
Haginosuke is then talking to the class about viewing the Autumn leaves together while eating lunch. Haginosuke had a plan that they’d all travel to their destination by bike, but apparently Rin, Yomi, Uta, and Suou have no idea how to use one. Haginosuke then has an idea to teach them all to ride one by having practice sessions in the area by his shrine.
After school they begin their practice session. Uta and Rin are clearly having a hard time balancing on it and have to use training wheels at first, heh. Haginosuke teaches Rin about the basics and Uta rides off saying “Oh, I’m doing it!” and a kid on a tricycle passes him by noticing he’s faster than he is. (lol)
Once they return home the shop is busy with people so Gin hadn’t had time to make dinner yet. So they begin to make food in the kitchen and Gin goes on his recipe rants (or so I’ll call them) on how to cook takikomi gohan and kenchinjiru (which Uta is disappointed with since its all full of vegetables.) Once at the table they discuss to Gin how they’re learning to ride bikes after school and Uta bit his tongue after falling down on one. Gin says he’s happy she’s made so many friends and Rin realizes that she has. They then ask Gin to make lunch for them when they view the autumn leaves together. After dinner Rin washes
dishes with Gin and takes that opportunity to ask him to help her learn how to cook since she wants to make her own lunches for viewing the autumn leaves together.
The next day they’re all practicing together again. Well, everyone except for Suou that is. While Rin is practicing her tire runs flat so Haginosuke has to put some air into it. While doing so Rin asks Haginosuke what he likes to eat since she wants to make a boxed lunch for him. He thanks her and says he’d be fine with anything she makes. Uta then teases her for it and Rin says she’s only making it for him because he’s been teaching them to ride a bike.
Once at home Rin goes through a cookbook to look for recipes. Suddenly that cat appears again by her window and she talks about how she’s going to be making boxed lunches. She wonders what he’d like and obviously thinks cats would prefer fish. The cat then leaves and he she’s left thinking how mysterious it is.
On the next day of practice Rin is finally getting the hang of it. Although Uta and Yomi still have some issues to tweak up on. While Rin is taking a break she notices Suou asleep next to her and decides to call out to him, waking him up. She asks after all their practice sessions why he hasn’t been practicing as well but he just ignores her and leaves saying he’s going for a walk. Rin then thinks about he really is like a cat and is reminded of the cat that visits her house and actually looks quite similar to him. She thinks it’s probably a coincidence but is still anxious about it and decides to go follow him to the top of the mountain. Since she knows Uta would probably be anxious about this since he guards her, she tells him she wants to go up the mountain for a bit. He says she shouldn’t go there since she felt strange the last time she went there but she says it should be fine now since back then she wasn’t in a very good condition to begin with. So he finally agrees to it but on the condition that he’s to accompany her.
While on their way there Uta asks why she wanted to go in the first place. Rin actually wanted to follow Suou but lies and tells him she was a bit curious about the cherry blossom tree. Once they reach there Rin feels the same sadness she felt before and suddenly sees a glance of a boy there (Or rather, Asagi) but he disappears quickly. Uta feels anxious and grabs Rin’s arm saying they should go back. Rin tells him not to pull her arm so suddenly and he apologizes saying he was a bit worried. On their way back they encounter Suou who says he was on a walk. Suou then tells a lie to Uta so he’ll leave the two alone. He wonders why she followed him and she asks him if he likes fish dishes. Thanks to his reaction Rin confirms that he must be the cat that often came to visit her. He wonders why he kept silent about it this whole time and he dodges the question and leaves.
On their way home Rin is talking about Suou and thinks its probably her fault he won’t return to practice now. Uta tells her not to worry about it since he never participated in it anyway. But Rin felt he’d probably be motivated to do it sooner or later. Yom and Uta talk about how they don’t get him at all. Especially the reason of why he even goes to school in the first place and that he’s always been alone doing what he wants. Since he’s always been alone, Rin asks if he has any friends or family. But Uta says Ayakashi like them are always alone and don’t have friends or family. Rin feels upset about this and wonders what she was to them in the first place if she was never their friend or family. She then leaves and goes on ahead clearly annoyed. When Rin gets home she’s in a lot of thought and Gin asks what’s wrong and Rin then hands Gin a list of lunch ideas she had and also asks if she can add a fish dish. Uta notices she’s talking about the boxed lunches and asks what she plans on making. Rin ignores him and calls him an idiot. Uta gets mad and Gin wonders why they’re fighting all of a sudden but Uta says he has no idea why she’s suddenly mad. Gin asks why she’s mad and she tells him that Uta said that he doesn’t have family or friends and that made her mad. Uta doesn’t get it at first and Gin tells him to apologize since he’s in the wrong. He explains that its obvious she’s mad because she considers Uta her friend as well as family. Uta gets all embarrassed (or rather turns on his tsundere) saying she’s stupid and walks away. Gin noticed his face was red and says Uta’s a shy person.
The next day Suou hadn’t come to school nor practice. So while everyone else is practicing Rin decides to go look for Suou. Though he’s not there, she calls out to him asking him to come practice riding a bike so they can go view the autumn leaves together. She says she knows it’ll be fun since the food will be really delicious. She also says she plans to make whatever fish dish he’d like and asks him to please come out. Just as she’s about to leave since she gets no answer, she trips over a dog like Ayakashi creature.
As soon as he’s about to charge at Rin, Suou appears in his Ayakashi cat form hissing at it and lures it away. Rin thanks him for helping her and he says he doesn’t want her flattery though she was only giving a word of thanks. He says she’s pretty helpless to be caught by a “Okuri-inu” or a send-off dog. Which is a dog like Ayakashi that shoo away people who pass by on mountain passes or roads by aggressively attacking them. Rin then asks Suou to come back and practice with everyone so they can view the autumn leaves and ride bikes together. He asks if he goes she’ll have food and she says of course since she intends to make anything he wants. After some silence Suou says he wants horse mackerel.
Soon after Suou appears with the others to practice. He gotten the hang of riding a bike pretty quick thanks to his wish to eat horse mackerel. Though Rin is just happy to see him participating with everyone and unintentionally laughs out loud with everyone pretty surprised to see her laugh.
The next day is the final day before viewing the autumn leaves. Everyone seems to be doing fine and they’re finally all set to go. Haginosuke apparently got some rice crackers from a parishoner and wanted to share it with everyone, so he left to go get it. Once he leaves everyone gets serious all of a sudden and then that Okuri-inu pops out. Apparently it was watching them and waiting for a chance to come out. Suddenly, many more start appearing and are aiming for Rin. Uta and Yomi fend them off but they keep climbing in numbers and it starts proving difficult. Soon after they’re able to fend them off. Apparently they appear to attack a human when they’re knocked on the ground. So when Rin tripped before on the mountain path, they claimed her as her prey and appeared in numbers to try and attack her again. While Uta notices that Yomi was a bit hurt they realize Suou has disappeared. Rin ran after to go look for him and finds him telling the Okuri-inu that the human they’re after is his prey and not to touch her. They start fighting each other and Rin can take it no longer so she steps in front of him and blocks Suou.
She apologizes for falling in front of the ayakashi and tells it to stop. Suou tells her to move but she doesn’t. She goes on begging the Okuri-inu to forgive Suou and that she’ll do anything as long as he leaves for today. Thankfully, it finally flees. He asks why he stopped her since it was idiotic of her to basically make a contract with it by saying she’d “do anything”. Plus it would’ve been done and over with if he just killed them instead of negotiating with them. And she just asks him if she went after the Okuri-inu for her sake. He doesn’t answer but she says she doesn’t regret what she said. She also tells him to not use the word “killing” so casually. They all have equal lives just as they do. While saying this she thinks to herself how she’s tired of seeing people die. He tells her she talks big for a human but she doesn’t believe what she said is wrong. She then notices his injury and grabs his hand saying she’ll treat it at Ponpokorin. He tells her to let go but she says no since he got hurt because of her.
Back at Haginosuke’s shrine, Uta and Yomi are worried but know that if she was in danger she’d sound the bell. While waiting Haginosuke wonders where they are but then Rin and Suou finally appear. Haginosuke doesn’t know what happened but wants to treat both Yomi and Suou immeditately. Though Rin quickly says it’ll be fine if they return home and treat them there.
Once they reach Ponpokorin Gin says that their injuries aren’t serious and since they’re Ayakashi, they’ll be fine. Gin insists that Suou stay the night and so he does. He also asked Suou to put a bandage on Rin’s scrape and he pretty much slaps it on her. She sits there awkwardly with him so she asks if there’s anything he’d and he says there isn’t. She suggests getting him clothes, towel, or a meal but he says he doesn’t want anything to do with a human. She says he may say that, but she thinks he’s similar to a human as well. She believes he’s lonely and hates being so. Which is why he attends school. He asks what makes her think that and she believes she understands him. She used to always be alone and never associated with others until she visit this village. But she was able to warm up to everyone and could never imagine parting with the happiness she found by being together with everyone. She says she wants Suou to understand what it feels like to warm up to people. He declines but she says she understands since it takes time for certain people. But, if he ever feels lonely she’ll be sure to make sure he isn’t alone anymore. She hopes he can warm up and become friends with everyone. Suou is silent for a moment but then says he initially thought she was a very boring human but now can see she’s pretty cheeky herself. She wonders if that’s a compliment and he says its not calling her an idiot.
He then lays down and goes to sleep while Rin says she’s looking forward to viewing the autumn leaves together with everyone. She leaves him by himself where he mutters to himself “I’m not alone anymore?”
Later, Gin tells Rin she has a call from Haginosuke. He wants to confirm if everything was okay and she did. She said they’re well enough to go to their trip tomorrow and Haginosuke is pretty surprised thinking it’d be impossible but Rin says they’re stronger than he thinks. He says he’s relieved then and they’re all valuable friends to him and Rin says she’ll tell them he said so.
The next day Rin gets up early in the morning to have Gin help and make food for the boxed lunches.
They notice Suou come back from an “errand” of some sorts. She wonders what it’s about and Gin explains that he sent Suou to leave give the Okuri-inu a cooked dish and in return to leave Rin alone. Apparently if you ask them preoperly they’ll understand since they’re pretty wise Ayakashi. Rin thanks them both and Suou says he may have just eaten the food on the way there and Rin says if that’s the case, they’ll probably eat her instead. He then sighs telling her not to worry since that won’t happen. She thanks him again for helping her yesterday.
Soon they all bike ride to their destination and have lunch after viewing the all the trees together. They all enjoy a nice lunch together while forcing Suou to join in on their hand gesture before eating.
December
——
Soon winter arrives and it’s colder than ever. Uta isn’t phased by it much though and insists on both Rin and Uta having a snowball fight. Haginosuke greets them on their way to school and starts having a snowball fight with Uta. Once at school Uta and Haginosuke declare another duel with each other while Suou is shivering due to the cold. He’s more fragile to it since cats aren’t too fond of it. So Rin decides to give him an extra disposable heating pad she had. Uta asks why he didn’t give him one instead since he throw snowballs barehanded and Rin says its consequences of his own actions. Suou asks if he’s jealous and Uta gets pissed they go on arguing and Suou goes on name calling.
During lunch Rin can’t go outside to eat lunch since it’s winter now and Haginosuke calls out to her asking if she wants to eat lunch with him in an unused classroom. Though some girls huddle around asking Rin to eat lunch with them. Haginosuke insists she go with them and Rin agrees to eat with the girls instead. It’s her first time eating lunch with them and secretly thanks Haginosuke in her thoughts. During lunch, the girls begin to gossip and ask Rin if she’s dating Uta or Yomi since she’s always hanging out with them. Rin chokes on her food when hearing this and wonders why they’d ask that. They tell her because they always notice her going to and from to school together and she says that’s normal since they live together. They’re surprised and Rin explains its because they’re all indebted to the same person she’s living with. They think its still the start of something like “love” but Rin thinks to herself that besides Haginosuke, the rest are Ayakashi so there’s no way that’d happen. They then go on teasing her and have girl talk until lunch is over.
During class Rin is very much in thought about the whole “love” ordeal and is called on by the teacher while absentmindly not paying attention.
After school they’re staying late to turn in some print outs. Haginosuke helps them out while Suou is complaining about how cold it is. He stole Rin’s muffler since his heating pad was cold now and then tells Rin to take responsibility for it. He then snuggles up to her using her as a heater and says her temperature is just right. Uta gets pissed and yells at him that he already got a heating pad so he should stop getting so close to her.
[[At this point you get a choice for whom or who you want to help; You’ll automatically go into the route for whoever’s name is chosen]]
Afterwords they finally finish with their after class work and Haginosuke and Rin are walking back to the classroom after turning in their print outs together. He notices Rin looks a lot happier these days and is glad she is. Before they can enter the classroom, Rin and him see a light coming from the unused classroom. Haginosuke immiedately believes its the cause of Ayakashi. They decide to check it out before telling everyone else and there Rin sees a man standing there.
Though to Haginosuke it looks like a firefly. Rin then tells Haginosuke they should probaby get Uta since he’s an expert in talking to souls. Once he leaves Rin speaks to him. He says his name is Kei and he’s looking for someone with the name “Yume” who’s a human girl. He tells Rin that he was originally a mere firefly that lived near the mountain stream in the upper area of the village. He was just an ordinary firefly, but one day he decided to leave the small river. He explored the vast world, but unfortunately ran out of energy before long and fell to the ground. There was a girl that found him named ‘Yume’. She saved him by sending him back to the river while giving him the name Kei. Whenever she came to play nearby he’d always fly by her to see her. Though since fireflies can only live about 5 days, he reached the end of his lifespan. She made a promise that she’d visit him again so on the last day before his death he prayed to the moon for more time. And his wish came true and he awoke alive again. He waited for her to come but she never did. He prayed to the moon again for more time, and it came true but Yume never came to see him again. Before he knew it he’d stopped aging and he’d become an Ayakashi still awaiting for Yume to return. He then came to Rin’s school believing she’d be around that age at this time. Rin asks if Yume is important to him and he says she is a very important person to him. Rin felt really bad for him so she told him she’d help find her for him.
Next it shows Haginosuke trying to get Uta to come with him but he’s half asleep and barely paying attention. Rin then comes back telling Haginosuke that it was just their imagination and it wasn’t actually anything.
Rin begins her search the next day. Apparently there’s no one with the name Yume in her school grade. Uta and Yomi eventually notice that Rin looks like she’s thinking hard about something and she asks for their help in finding them. Soon Haginosuke hears as well and decides he’ll help too. They try and narrow down who to look for and think they could probably be a junior high school student. The child Ayakashi that occassionally visits conviently brought them a list of junior high students. They look through the lists but to no avail. And even when they try and gather information they’re left with none.
Back at Ponpokorin, Rin and the others are still struggling to figure out his this ‘Yume’ is. Though once Rin tells Gin about them, he immediately knows them as Yume-san who lives in the outskirts of the village. Haginosuke then remembers them as well since they used to visit his shrine often. Apparently during summer, Yume planned a marriage with her fiance. Though she wasn’t really interested in her marriage and wasn’t really in love with them. She wished to the moon that she’d fall in love at least once before she die. Then she encountered the firefly that she saved by the river. It showed a human form as it thanked her and she immediately fell in love with him. As preparations for her marriage were going on in the day time, she spent the night time with the firefly. Soon her fiance had become worried and noticed she was gone. So she was confined to her home since she was “seeing things”. So her promise to come see the firefly again never came to light.
Rin wants to see Yume but Haginosuke tells her that’s impossible since she’d died summer of this year. It had been 50 years ago when she had gotten married. The next day Rin tells Kei she found Yume and that she’ll take him to where she is. Soon in the middle of the night she guides Kei to Yume’s grave. There he realizes she must’ve passed on. Eventually a woman appears claiming to be Yume’s daughter. Kei takes over Uta’s body in order to speak with her and asks what kind of person Yume was. She tells him that she was a very kind person. Apparently Yume married into a family because her family was already quite poor to begin with. It’s different today but back then arranged marriages weren’t unusual. Yume wasn’t in love with her husband but apparently she was very much in love with her. So when he saw her with the firefly he felt very worried about it and felt he’d lose her forever. So she ended up keeping her feelings to herself until she died. But told that story to her daughter and she says she believes in it.
Rin invites Kei to come eat with them together at Ponpokorin and he agrees. He enjoys potato gratin with everyone for dinner. Though after dinner he’s nowhere to be found. Rin finds Uta and apparently when he took over his body his consciousness flowed into him. So he found out that he doesn’t have much time left. It’s the same as when he was a firefly, when he leaves the river stream he weakens. Which he had been doing for a long time to look for Yume. Rin and Uta find him back by the river and he tells Rin about when he left the summer he met her at school. He left because he had a uneasy feeling, Rin realizes it must’ve been because Yume died then. He already had a feeling she was gone but he didn’t want to come to terms with it and decided to leave to search for her. She thanks Rin for showing him the truth he was too afraid to see. He feels he has no meaning in living anymore now that Yume is gone. Rin tells him that she doesn’t understand her reason for living either, but that doesn’t mean she wants to give up on it. She’s found many fun and happy things to live for. She tells him to live and make many more happy memories. A light then glows and Kei sees his old firefly friends that died and
also Yume and then regains his power.
Once they return home, Haginosuke immediately hugs Uta and Rin saying he was worried about them since they left so suddenly. (and have done it before tool) Later, Rin tells Gin about what happened. Gin explains that when the moon shines in the river where the beautiful water flows, it grants wishes due to the moon’s energy. He was able to recover because Rin wished for it.
The next day Rin goes to visit Kei. Apparently he feels fine when he leaves the river brook, so he says he’d love to visit ponpokorin again to eat with them again. Rin mentions that Kei was in love with Yume and asks if “love” is a happy feeling. He thinks its a happy but painful feeling. But in the end it really is a wonderful thing. Rin says she doesn’t really understand it well but he says she will someday.
—
After Thoughts:
Truthfully, playing Human!Rin’s route felt longer than Ayakashi!Rin’s IMO. Though it might just be me. Her human common route was definitely more focused on her events at school with humans while the ayakashi common route was more focused on ayakashi’s issues and helping them. Which I guess makes sense when you consider that they’re Human!Rin and Ayakashi!Rin. Anyway, this was certainly a refreshing change from Rin’s energetic personality. There’s lots of loneliness and death involved, so this route is muuuuch more depressing in a sense. But Rin does warm up quite a bit throughout the route so its nice to see that. It pretty much had no Asagi & Manatsu though. Which makes sense since they aren’t routes in this one. Though I gotta say, Rin and Haginosuke seem to have a sort of relationship that sorta seems genuine when playing the common route. Which is probably because of their similarities I suppose.
Otome Adventures 