Considering both Gaia and Guardian have been around for years and work at a global scale, I really doubt Kotori would have the power to create an army to rival either of the two
Though, IMO, I think Kotarou will stay by her side, Gaia and/or Guardian will eventually snuff her out, and it will end the same way as it did in the VN 
Are you sure? Sometimes I’m wondering if Gaia is even making progress with their familiar creation techniques. I mean, the Earth Dragon has been around for centuries, and he’s still the strongest familiar. Even though there’s more fuel-efficient models like Kilimanjaro and Fuego (which we don’t know when they were made), they still can’t hold a candle to him. And Krivoy Rog is not a new product either: He’s been created long time ago and only recently dug back up.
Then Kotori has the advantage of an infinite amount of Aurora thanks to her power spot. No matter how many familiars Gaia can crate, there’s only so many familiars a single summoner can control at the same time if he’s expected to fight ever again. Kotori has no such limit.
And let’s not forget that she has the Mistletoe’s database, containing the knowledge of all her predecessors. Techniques such as barrier stones are only known to her.
Speaking of barrier stones, Kotori could produce tons of those within 10 years and place them all around the forest. Then Gaia and Guardian would have a hard time locating Kotori’s real hideout and their forces would get whittled down by her familiars (and each-other) while they’re at it. Replacing broken barrier stones that the Key destroyed would be easier as well if she has plenty of those in storage.
Kotori doesn’t necessarily need an army that could take on Gaia or Guardian head-on in order to push them back. She’s an invisible enemy that will always have the initiative and the ability to launch surprise attacks. In 10 years, the forest would be her home ground.
The reason why she lost so badly in her route was because she didn’t dedicate 10 years to her druid job and the Key kept messing up her work.
If Kotori was alone, it could possibly lead to something, considering the internal conflicts of both Gaia and Guardian… however this is a teenage girl versus a woman who can transcend time and space, and a worldwide organization of super-heroes.
It’s pretty pointless to wonder what Kotarou would do, because his moral code is so malleable that he could end up fulfilling any of the specified questions. For example, after the amnesia thing he is pretty much a blank-slate socially, so he could easily side with Kotori; He could just so easily go back to living a normal life.
Despite having vast knowledge and access to the database, I believe it was mentioned that most of the familiars are made for scouting and protection, not for battle. Sure, maybe 10 years will let her do that, but I think, at most, she would only be able to rival out the Earth Dragon. You also forget Gaia’s most efficient and most powerful familiar: Ohtori Sakuya
And then there is Guardian who, while will not work together with Gaia, I am pretty sure would slowly put down many of Kotori’s familiars.
I guess the best she would be able to do would be to prolong her hiding, but eventually, the Key would decide to end the world anyway, so that might give a more interesting ending afterwards.
Well, as luck would have it, that particular woman is way too busy transcending time and space to give a damn about what happens in her own spacetime. She did nothing during the five girl routes.
Yet strangely, he didn’t make an appearance in Kotori’s route because either Tanaka was pretending he didn’t exist or he was just too busy fighting Guardian somewhere else because the only Guardian member who managed to catch up with Kotarou, Kotori and the Key was Shizuru. And it makes sense: if Gaia sends out both of their strongest familiars to get the Key, Guardian would annihilate the rest of their forces and catch up to them pretty quickly.
And let’s not forget that Kotori would have Kotarou this time. How strong would he be able to become with her help and knowledge?
The possibilities range from “Somewhat stronger than how he was in Kotori’s route” to “Kotori’s strongest familiar”.
AND she can heal him!
Again, Kotori would not march out of the forest and declare war on Gaia and Guardian. That would be the most stupid thing to do.
Her most effective weapon is being in an unknown location. She can sit back and watch Gaia and Guardian fight against each-other while looking for her. All she’d need to do would be to send out her troops to ambush the enemy and launch surprise attacks. That’s like the most efficient way to fight. She can do that for as long as she has troops to send out and scouts set in place.
A head-on battle is what will happen once she’s found (if ever). Then it would depend on how much she has decimated the enemy’s troops and preserved her own.
One more thing: In Kotori’s route, the Key started singing half a day after the base was discovered. So Kotori would only have to hold out half a day longer. I’m pretty sure that with an advantage of 10 years, buying half a day more should be easy.
Aaand, what would stop the Key from marching out into the forest?
Either more barrier stones or ‘nothing’.
In that case, Kotarou would have to take a few familiars along and retrieve her. Even the weak Kotarou in Kotori’s route SOMEHOW managed that much, so it should be fine ^^
It would be a really huge spoiler if he did appear. That and it was Tonokawa Yuto who wrote that character. IIRC, the writers wrote the routes individually and thus had almost no idea of what was happening in the routes of others. I really blame it as a writing problem, rather than as a story issue.
If we want to make it a story issue, though, perhaps Gaia did not need him as a means to obtain the Key, but would, without a doubt, use him if somebody else threatens the existence of their own organization.
The only time that Kotarou was able to beat the Earth Dragon even was when he spent years fighting real-life wars in some unknown area. Sure he came close in Akane’s Route, but not quite close enough, I wager. While 10 years is a pretty long enough time to hone his combat abilities, I doubt he would be able to garner enough real-life experience just with random encounters in the forest.
But after she does that… Then what? That’s pretty much what she did in her route anyway. Her only advantage in the proposed story is that she is much more adept in handling threats from Gaia and Guardian. Even if she successfully defends herself from all threats or is able to remain hidden, the Key would start singing eventually unless she starts dabbling in rocket science , and by that time, well… You know what happens to the world then.
Honestly, I think this kind of story causes less drama because it makes Kotori a much stronger character. The conflict of her story lies in her own human weakness. While it is a possibility, it’s not something I would prefer.
The drama has already been reduced in her route (which is a shame because Chiwa Saito’s Voice Acting was amazing) by terrible directing as the mood keeps alternating between utter desperation and neutral mood way too often. Also, Tanaka sacrificed some of the feels of this route as he used it as an introduction to the game. He put the emphasis on the wrong places and made it difficult for some people (such as myself) to understand the actual point of the route, namely being normal, having your normal life destroyed by the supernatural and fighting in order to get it back.
So while we’re at it, what do you think will be Kotori’s personality and attitude in this alternate route?
10 years ago, she started off as a cocky genius girl who then lost her parents and wanted to revive them at all costs. Kotarou, being the only remaining person she cared about, almost died and then stayed in a coma.
So how would her personality develop after spending 10 years in the forest by herself? How would she feel about her parents still not becoming human after all this time? Would she wish for the Key to chant her song and end the world?
Isn’t that essentially what happened anyway? o.o
Tanaka isn’t very good with drama, but he does make pretty profound stories. That is kind of what irks me about him haha.
Why do I have this brooding feeling that her personality would end up similar to Akane.
It’s SO not. There’s a difference between having some human interaction on a relatively regular basis, participating in school life with children your age albeit not having real friends
and
not having seen a human being with your own eyes for 10 years while spending 100% of your time in a forest!
That kind of thing leads to completely different ways of thinking.
Come on, man, that’s like a dude who’s been trapped on an uninhibited Island all alone for 10 years telling you his story and you reply with “Yeah, I know how that feels. After all, I live alone and I don’t have any friends at school…” xD
Kotori’s quite possibly my favorite Rewrite girl. The easy way that she and Kotarou talk remind me of myself and my own best friend. Their dynamic just felt so natural right from the start.
Also, I loved the reveal that Kotarou was something like a familiar. I feel like that point wasn’t stressed enough in other routes. Kotarou being somewhere between a human and a familiar is a cool idea, especially when you put that in the context of Sakuya Chihaya’s route. You don’t even have to be explicit with it, just have summoner’s, who are used to dealing with familiars, comment that there’s something off about Kotarou, but they can’t quite put their finger on it, and have Guardian’s doctors wonder why he’s not quite like the other superhumans.
This is perhaps my biggest problem with Rewrite, in general. There weren’t many hints dropped between routes that hinted at eachother. It’s intensely satisfying when you see something in another route that makes you grin and say “Ahhh, that makes sense” in a way that wouldn’t spoil people playing things in a different order. It takes some added effort, but Key should have it in them to do it right!
It’s not like the nods to different routes don’t exist, but they’re definitely a bit scarce. And yes, a lack of cohesion between the different writers is the most common complaint made against Rewrite, even here.
Shake it now, baby now!
Add to that that in most other routes, they hinted at Kotori being killed off 
Happy Birthday Kotori! Let’s bump some discussion up for her birthday.
As chance would have it, there’s something I’ve been wondering about ever since completing Kotori’s route for the first time. In the very end of the route, when Kotarou was hospitalized, Kotori, for some reason, did not visit him even once (Despite going to school normally and all). When Kotarou asked his female classmates what the reason might be, they just told him he doesn’t understand women. And so, Kotarou had to leave the hospital and take it upon himself to go meet Kotori.
So, what was Kotori’s reason for avoiding all contact to Kotarou after all that’s happened? Does it have anything to do with what she said to that hound familiar while carrying the dying Kotarou, about how she won’t run away anymore? Does it get explained in HF?
The HF route is a direct follow up to that, and they do explain it in Harvest Festa (eventually. ) She was really embarrassed, scared, and just didn’t know how to answer him… until a certain event happens partway through the route. It’s a fairly realistic (and clichéd) childhood friend- turned romantic interest story.
One thing that still confuses me about Kotori’s route is the actions of The Key are rather inexplicable, especially when compared to other routes she appears in. Like that CG where she shows an uncharacteristically menacing smile because I don’t know why. Seems very odd to me.
Maybe she just developed in a different way to the other routes, and acquired some sort of psychotic personality.
I assumed her personality was based on what she saw around her. In Kotori’s route, she’s trapped in an enclosure between two warring factions, and has seen lots of death. To contrast it, in the Terra Route she goes around to lots of different places and becomes kinda human-ish.
