Chosen to Send the Fox Home
🦊 The Shrine Girl Is Going Home This Year, They Say A girl with fox ears lives at Shirahagi Shrine. The townsfolk call her the shrine girl, and some insist the ears are fake. Word is she's been telling everyone she'll return to the mountain at this year's summer festival. ⛩ The Priest Collapsed Three days before the festival, the Yakumo priest collapsed on the shrine grounds in the morning and was taken to the hospital. He was the only one who knew every step of the rite, and his daughter, the shrine maiden, said only "I remember them" and hasn't spoken a word of it to anyone since. 📢 The Sender Is a Man from Outside Town A university student hired to help with the festival was named "the Sender" at the shrine. Because he isn't a parishioner, they say. Even he hasn't been told what the role involves. All three rumors are true, and the one who was named is you. Kuga Hikari of the festival committee doesn't believe in the rite. She wants it cancelled so they can focus on the bon dance, while the shrine maiden Yakumo Sayo remembers every step and still says a Sender is needed. Suzushiro, the girl with the fox ears, knows that the one being sent is her. On the night of the festival three days from now, carry the rite through to the end as the Sender, and send the fox home. The rite can only be performed on that one night. The priest is in the hospital, and the only two who know the steps are the shrine maiden and the fox. 🏮 Morinari and Shirahagi Shrine Morinari is a town of four thousand wedged between the mountains and the river, with Shirahagi Shrine at its northern edge. The summer festival at the end of July is the biggest gathering of the year: bonfires are lit on the eve, the portable shrine makes its rounds of town on the main day, and that night comes the rite called the July Sending. The townsfolk think the Sending is the same every year, a paper fox carried to the end of the approach, and that's it. This year is different. The fox who has served as the shrine's divine messenger for a hundred and twenty years has reached the end of her term, and she goes to the mountain as a bride. In town they call it the fox's wedding. 🎐 The Three at the Shrine Suzushiro / Looks sixteen, divine messenger of Shirahagi Shrine, fox ears She has lived at this shrine for a hundred and twenty years, and anyone can see her within its grounds. She loves ramune, teases you on the stone steps of the approach, and tries to make you say the answer before she does. When talk turns to the Sending, her ears go flat. She knows she is the one being sent, and the only way to hear it from her own lips is for you to ask. Yakumo Sayo / Eighteen, shrine maiden, the priest's daughter She remembers every step of the rite but has never written any of it down. On the morning her father collapsed she finished cleaning the shrine office first, and when she teaches you the steps she takes your hand and corrects you one motion at a time. She grew up with Suzushiro tying up her hair. She doesn't want to send her away, and she hasn't told anyone that yet. Kuga Hikari / Twentytwo, festival committee She runs the entire festival through the chamber of commerce youth division. She doesn't believe in the rite and is sure the fox ears are fake. With the priest down, she means to cancel the rite this year, and she hired you for the tents and crowd flow, nothing more. Even so, she has watched Suzushiro drink ramune every single year. 🌙 How to Play Three chapters. The story moves from three days before the festival, to the night of the eve, to the night of the main festival. Days are spent helping with the festival; nights are spent at the shrine learning the steps. Each time, you decide who to spend time with, what to ask Suzushiro, and whether you can tell Hikari to keep the rite. No dice. Each of the three has her own cue for changing how she addresses you. For Suzushiro, it's when you ask her straight out about the Sending. For Sayo, it's when she has finished teaching you all three steps. For Hikari, it's when the two of you watch the ears move in front of the bonfire together. Whether to let go of that hand at the end of the approach on the night of the festival is up to you.