2 The Other Two
The next route I completed was Tatsuya's.
Tatsuya also had qualities of another classic, stereotypical character found in otome games. He was a cold and smart guy, which was another very popular archetype. Other qualities usually attached to this type are glasses and being in a position of leadership. In Tatsuya's case, he indeed wears glasses and is the class representative. He is also the son of a father with a famously successful company, and, as such, is rich.
In his route, as you increase his affection, he becomes infatuated with owning the MC.
No one is allowed to take up her time besides him. No one can touch her besides him. No one can hear her besides him. No one can look at her besides him.
In his ending, Tatsuya brings the naive MC to his house where we find out he lives alone in a huge mansion.
He brings her down to his basement while making light conversation. It was during this conversation we hear that Tatsuya is regularly alone at home since his parents were always busy with work.
Whenever they did come home, they leave the next day after making sure his grades were up and he was prospering in school. That's it.
Anyway, what do we find waiting down below?
Why, a cage, of course.
Inside the cage was a replica of the MC's bedroom with some necessary additions.
This cage was humongous, by the way. It was the span of half the basement, which was as wide as the mansion above. The cage contained a mini house with no walls. There was the bedroom, a kitchen, and a bathroom. The bathroom was separated by glass walls.
No privacy could be found.
There was also a metal pillar in the middle with a chain attached to it. On the other end of the chain was a collar. It was a thin metal that was loose enough to not get in the way when bathing. It also contained a GPS chip, so it could be constantly tracked.
Lovely, right?
Everything was made to be comfortable and allow no escape.
After showing this to the MC, Tatsuya would confess his love and even propose.
This is where the player's choice decides if the run will be the good ending or the bad ending. Both endings were actually similar in terms of events that occurred, though.
The only difference was consent.
Both endings leave the MC locked up.
Both endings imply sexual intercourse.
And either way, the MC becomes a broken doll.
Tatsuya's story isn't as complicated as Ryuu's.
As I mentioned before, Tatsuya's parents were never there for him. They only had him to have an heir. That was his sole purpose in their eyes. He was to be exceptional in school and excel in everything they needed him to.
Tatsuya was groomed to be the perfect heir for their company. As long as Tatsuya produced favorable results, they gave him whatever he wanted: toys, food, clothes, technology, money, and even friends. This lead Tatsuya to develop a complex of taking whatever he wanted no matter what and always expecting to get his way.
In a way, he was a spoiled rotten brat.
So, when the MC gave him the one thing he lacked and needed, he had to possess her. Even if she didn't want to be, she had to take responsibility for giving him affection that became like a drug.
She just had to.
Tatsuya was probably my least liked character. I pitied him, but I didn't really sympathize with him. I just found him to be too overbearing, I guess? Maybe I just found his story too boring and common, or I really don't like the idea of being locked up by a coddled child.
Well, everyone has their own preferences, after all.
Finally, the last target I conquered was Yuu.
Yuu's route was... fairly tamed in comparison to the others.
He's a cute boy who likes cute and sweet things. As you progress his route, he eventually becomes clingy and whiny like a child and wants all the MC's attention. Players later learn he also stalked the MC sometimes.
Yuu's actions were, in my opinion, more "normal" than being beat or kidnapped.
But, you soon realize how much creepier Yuu is compared to the others in a certain cutscene.
One day after school, the MC falls asleep at her desk. After maybe half an hour, the MC wakes up to see Yuu right in front of her face with a psychotic look in his eyes. He didn't seem to register that the MC woke up as he continued to caress her cheek with an unblinking gaze. When the MC finally spoke up, Yuu slipped his mask back on and smiled innocently like nothing was wrong.
I suppose I should explain his backstory first before revealing his ending, or it'll be too shocking.
Yuu had a normal home and childhood. Both parents were kind and loving. Everything was honestly normal and fine.
Except for Yuu, himself.
While Yuu was around 4, he went out to the backyard to play. In a corner of the yard, he found a dead bird. Yuu didn't understand the concept of death yet, so he just thought it was a weird doll. He poked and prodded it, finding it squishy and filled with substances.
He then sat down and started pulling and tearing whatever he could on the poor bird out of pure curiosity.
His mother later found him covered in blood with the bird's innards all over him and the yard.
After he was scolded, nothing happened for a few years.
When Yuu entered elementary school, his class had a class pet. It was a cute little hamster. On a day when his parents were late to pick him up, he took out the hamster and played with it out of boredom.
Then his curiosity peeked out it's nasty little head.
Knowing what he was about to do was upsetting, he looked around to make sure no one was around before pinning the hamster down.
He started poking and prodding again.
He tugged here and there. The hamster would squirm and make cute little noises. Yuu found joy in eliciting reactions from the tiny, adorable creature. Then he thought:
I wonder if Mr. Ham is the same inside as that birdy from before?
Luckily, his dad arrived and stopped any further action. The hamster got to live.
However, from that day onward, Yuu became very engrossed in cute animals.
Yuu developed a hobby of secretly dissecting dead animals he found and torturing his pets. From cats to fish to squirrels, he had fun ripping them apart. When he really became twisted, though, was when he found a cat that was on the verge of death.
His parents weren't home, so he snuck it into his room where he habitually dissected animals. The cat was covered in its own blood and clearly dying.
Yuu proceeded to do whatever he could to make the cat react.
He messed with its wound. He made new ones. He tested the limits of what he could physically do without killing the feline. When it finally did die, Yuu felt fulfilled but also disappointed.
Since then, Yuu found thrill in controlling animal's lives. He absolutely loved testing their limits. He knew it was wrong, but he was so addicted to the high of having a cute little animal's life in his hands.
I bet you're curious about his ending now?
After the MC confesses and Yuu deliberately makes her say, "I am yours," he smiles cutely and then pulls her to an abandoned warehouse. The MC is confused and turns to ask Yuu why they're here, but when she looked at Yuu, she found Yuu still smiling as he held a needle in her neck. The MC blacks out.
We wake up to see the MC on a cold metal table. Her body was numb and unable to move. It also didn't help she was strapped down, too. She yelled out for help and started crying in fear.
"Aw, I haven't even done anything yet, and you're already crying!"
Yuu steps into the room covered in a lab coat, gloves, and a mask. Yuu walks up to the MC's unmoving figure and caresses her cheek as her tears flow out.
Not being able to see his mouth, Yuu's insane stare was the only thing the player could see.
"I thought you were cute before, but now you're just too adorable! I can't hold myself back anymore!"
The last thing the player sees is a CG of Yuu with a scalpel in one hand and a needle in the other. His eyes were swirls of derangement that left a deep impression on the player. It didn't help that the voice actor completed the art with some really sinister giggling that gave the player a shiver.
...So, you can see why I said there's no way I could concoct some happy epilogue for either of those two, right?
Yuu is definitely one of the more "fun" characters. I had a blast going through his ending, and I loved the irony of the cutest character having the worst "good" ending.
While Ryuu is my favorite in terms of story, Yuu was my favorite in terms of entertainment.
Because most of his route was cute, when you caught those times his true desire peaked out, it really gave the player a chill. But, then the story continued like nothing ever happened, letting the player fall into a false sense of security every time.
The writers must've been laughing maniacally as they wrote the good ending, anticipating the players' reactions.
