Alright, I am done with the route, and I guess I’ll paste down all my points here now
Sacred Mountain / Ryuuya
- After a month of traveling, they reach the mountains
- Trying to find the correct temple, uraha sees some sacred rope marking a barrier of some sort
- They approach the barrier and reach a primordial forest filled with mist, and Ryuuya senses a battle going on
- They are suddenly attacked by six-feet tall monks, but Ryuuya easily fends them off, and keeps his promise not to kill
- Despite seemingly struggling with the spell inside the barrier, he finds two monks cornering Uraha and Kanna
- While fighting the monks, one of them mentions “Yaobikuni” before Yuuya stabs him in a non-vital point.
- The monk murmurs something, and Ryuuya is suddenly hit with a sharp headache, and suddenly remembers his childhood, where he encountered a dead monk and he should have been killed
- He’s suddenly pulled back to reality and the other monk retrieves his sword and charges at Ryuuya
- Ryuuya could have one, but in order to keep his promise, he ends up getting slashed in the back before rendering the monk unconscious
- Kanna and Uraha return to treat him and carry him, but the monk warns them about not releasing the Yaobikuni
- Ryuuya falls unconscious and dreams about a bird flying, and he can’t reach it
- He awakens and Uraha informs them that they are already inside the barrier, and should be safe
- He goes to a nearby spring to treat his wounds, and meets Kanna there. She feels guilty about ordering him not to kill and is afraid of Ryuuya dying
- She tries to say that he should kill, but Ryuuya stops her. Instead, she requests for him not to die
- Ryuuya then tells her his story. He was abandoned as a child, and a monk found him, but the monk was killed by bandits when he was 5 years old, while he was spared
- He then did all he could to survive, and ended up not believing in prayers… until he met Kanna
- Kanna starts to profess her feelings to him and starts undressing. Ryuuya asks her about it, and she says Uraha instructed her exactly what to do
- As Ryuuya is about to “sink his poisonous fangs into her”, he realizes Uraha is watching and calls her out
- They stop, and rest before traveling during nighttime
- They reach the top of the shrine and see a mirror, which may denote a curse, but they decide to all go inside the cavern there
- Suddenly a voice talks to them, warning them not to fight
- They introduce themselves as Kannabi no Mikoto and her protectors, but the woman refuses to believe, until Kanna decides to show her wings
- She admits being her mother, but is stuck behind iron bars
- She tells them to take Kanna away from this mountain, but Kanna says she wants to stay with her mother, so they think of a way to free her
- She instructs them to return the mirror to the water, and Ryuuya stabs the center of the mirror while in the spring
- The mother escapes, but instructs them not to touch her as her body is already tainted
- As they are walking away, they hear a whistle from an arrow, and Ryuuya senses a battle coming
- They reach a clearing and are attacked by arrows. Kanna’s mother is shot, and she retaliates at the attackers
- However, one arrow hits her heart, and she tells Kanna to remember these words: “Power. Wind. Our ancestors. Now is the time. For one to succeed the stars. Tenfold. Eternal. Whatever befits. Thou must, in thy wings, in they soul, find a way.” and the rest are a rush of words in many languages
- Kanna asks if she can talk to her, and she tells her the story of her life and her travels with Ryuuya and Uraha
- Uraha tells her that she should show her mother what she was planning to show, and Kanna brings out the beanbags
- Kanna fails to juggle the beanbags, and continues as her mother slowly passes away
- She tells Ryuuya not to bury her, and her final words remain: “Now I have no regrets. I simply wanted to share my wings with thee. This summer sky… As… Thy heart”
- They leave her with the beanbags and Kanna cries into Ryuuya’s arms.
- They try to escape but are constantly impeded, so they stop to rest as Ryuuya’s wound is opening again
- They huddle up and Ryuuya finally admits to them being like a family, and Kanna asks them what their wish is
- After imagining a life as a family by the sea, Ryuuya and Uraha silently prepare to fight the enemies surrounding them
- However, Kanna starts to reveal her wings and gives her final order: “Live happily forever”
- She unleashes a powerful wind and slowly flies up, as the enemies start shooting her and succeed
- Her wings suddenly burst into feathers and she disappears
- The next morning, Ryuuya vows to take revenge, but Uraha stops him
- She confesses her love to him, and they leave the mountain
A Dream of the Sky / Ryuuya
- They leave the mountain and end up living in the capital, trying to gain information
- They find out that there was a political struggle happening: “A group court onmyouji joined with another family to try and seize power. To make that happen, they had to get rid of the winged ones that Emperor Kazan worshipped. But the eastern mercenaries they employed to do the dirty work betrayed them whent they saw the winged one’s power…”
- They hear rumors in the west and head there, but it seems Ryuuya’s wound never fully heals, having him to walk with a stick
- They are recognized by a Monk as they are traveling, having them follow him into a run-down temple
- They are met by the elder monk, Chitoku, and says he knows about the events. They ask where Kanna is, but he says she is not in this world anymore.
- The monks originally thought that Yaobikuni (Kanna’s mom) was immortal, but it seems their own sealing techniques made her live longer
- He says that winged ones originally have pure souls, but people started keeping them as weapons. Thus, all the souls she killed ended up cursing her
- He says “Winged ones are said to inherit dreams. That is why they are pure and innocent.”
- He brings them to a sealed cave at the back of the mountain, which is were the winged ones supposedly used to live
- They were called “kumari” and were not demonic. They gave humans a great deal of knowledge
- The imperial army intended to destroy all worship of winged ones, and they plan to erase them from history
- Uraha says she can still hear Kanna’s voice, crying. She asks Chitoku to teach her their mystic arts (the Japanese says “Houjutsu”)
- He accepts and they live at the temple. She learns “Houjutsu” which includes
- Reading people’s minds
- Making them have visions
- Moving objects without touching them
- Curing illness with the wave of a hand
- Making people forget what they heard
- Even summoning the spirits of the dead
- Ryuuya ends up at the cavern, doing nothing at all and is practically incapacitated, and spends his time trying to understand all documents about the winged ones
- After two years of training, Uraha attempts to channel Kanna’s soul, but it overpowers her and she passes out
- She contacts Kanna’s soul, and says she is still in the sky, and she is still sad
- She transfers what she saw to Ryuuya, and it is an image of Kanna crying to Ryuuya’s corpse
- This vision that Kanna is constantly seeing is an effect of the curse directed at her
- It seems that curse is also draining away at Ryuuya’s life force, as it was also targetted to all who become close to to bikuni, and Kanna inherited that curse
- Uraha expects Ryuuya to only last one more year, and he asks how to save her
- Uraha says that, after time, Kanna’s soul will then return to the earth, and transmigrate for eternity, however the curse will never disappear
- The “inherit dreams” seems to imply that they can pass down their memories to the next generation, and this includes the curse
- Having her soul and all those memories transfer to a human vessel will cause the human to break
- Since it will take at least one hundred years for her soul to reach earth, Uraha suggests to father a child, and continue their legacy
- He accepts her offer, but only on the condition that he spends all his remaining time for her
- They spend the rest of the year together, and Uraha creates a cotton-filled doll
- Ryuuya dreams about their time traveling with Kanna, and upon waking up, he requests to see the sky
- They spend the time trying to listen/feel Uraha’s child, Yayako, in her stomach
- Ryuuya says “You can forget everything and be happy. You can forget about Kanna. You can forget about me”, but Uraha refuses
How do I feel about this route? I thought it was nothing short of amazing. It was exciting, it was interesting, and it was heart-wrenching. I had a total cry count of 4 in this route (some more tears than others). I also think it explains soooo much, not just about Misuzu’s route, but about all of the routes. I guess I’ll save most of my thoughts for the podcast, and just reply to the current posts here
I guess, to respond to others first…
YOU SLY DOG! You read summer in advance, and you knew didn’t you? YOU KNEW! Dammit @EisenKoubu! XD
This is how I understood it: Kanna had been cursed to forever remain with horrible dreams (or something like that). However, upon leaving the world, she was left with those memories. Now, dreams are something we usually can’t control, and they are built up based on our own memories. Since those were the memories that Kanna was left with, those are what ended up construing her dreams. Those memories are things that Kanna cared deeply about, but, because of the curse, those ended up becoming the nightmares that would haunt her for all eternity.
The strength here probably refers to her strength to fight off the curse. She wanted to keep these memories that were dear to her, and fought the curse that was harming her, but she lost strength, and the curse caused her precious memories to turn against her.