Daruma

> *"A big Daruma that appears in the park. For some reason, its eyes are missing, and when it sees kids, it invited them to play..."*
>
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The Daruma is one of the unique Spirits from Yomawari: Night Alone.

## Appearance

This spirit takes the appearance of a large red Daruma, with the size of a human child (like the Protagonist). It has yellow strips, a normal skin complexion for its face, black eye brows, black mustache, and black beard lines. It has white eyes without any iris, as it is missing its eyes.

## Behavior

The Daruma randomly appears in the Park if the Protagonist gets her hands on a collectible Item called Doodle Note. Once this Item is acquired, the Protagonist can have a chance to trigger the Spirit's event every time the Protagonist returns home.

When its event is active, you can find an Item called Dull Eyeball. Once it is picked up, the Daruma will appear at the Park entrance. The Protagonist then needs to play a game similar to "Red Light, Green Light". Whenever the Daruma has its back against the Protagonist, the girl can move. But when the Daruma is facing towards the girl, she must stay still. If she moves while the Daruma is looking at her, it will move from its spot and begins chasing the girl in order to kill her.

The goal is for the Protagonist to keep move towards the Daruma whenever the Spirit isn't looking at her. Once she reacts the Spirit, the Protagonist needs to interact with the Daruma's back before it turns around to face you again. Then, when a choice appears to ask you which of the Daruma's eye socket to return the Dull Eyeball to, you must then choose the "Right" (right eye) choice. If done correctly, the spirit will disappear and it will give you a One-Eyed Daruma. If you fail to do this and it turns around, let it kill you and come back to the Park again or run out of the Park. You will lose the Dull Eyeball if you die here or exit the Park, so you can always come back and pick the item up to try again.

## Mythology and Theories

The Daruma is a Japanese doll that based on Bodhidharma, the founder of the Zen sect of Buddhism, and symbolizes perseverance and good luck as they act as a good luck charm to motivate people in accomplishing their goals. They are common as gifts for love ones and good luck charms for politicians.

The idea of the Daruma spirit having its back to the Protagonist when she picks up his Dull Eyeball and killing her when he turns around is inspired by the Japanese children's game "Mr. Daruma Fell Down" (Daruma-san ga Koronda), which is a Japanese tag game where the players (Protagonist) are attempting to tag someone who is "it" (Daruma Spirit) on the back without them seeing you move is the basic premise of the game. The fact that is it based on a children's game and it is a doll may be the reason why it is fond of playing with children and gives them a doll version of itself when its done playing with them.

Furthermore, the idea of placing the Dull Eyeball in the Daruma Spirit's right eye socket is inspired from the tradition where people paint the right eye of the doll when they are using it for good luck in achieving a particular goal, and they will fill in the other eye when that goal is accomplished.

It could also be a reference to the Daruma-san game, where you are slowly followed by a ghost that has lost her right eye in her death, and she will kill you if she catches you (in your dreams or in real life).