Story

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## Day 1

### **Prologue ~A Story Begins~**

After Claire talks about various iterations of Witch's Heart stories, she can be seen playing around in a flower patch. Unfortunately, it starts to rain and Claire has to find a temporary shelter until it stops. She wanders around for a bit before discovering a mansion and meets Ashe. Once he sees her, he runs to her and promptly asks if she is a resident, to which she replies no. After checking the grave near Ashe, Claire decides to check the door, only to be pushed aside by Wilardo. Ashe comments that Wilardo may be a resident of the mansion, so he proceeds to follow him in and ask the owner to let them stay until the rain ceases. Claire says she'll check inside too and enters as well. As she enters the mansion, Claire has a splitting headache and finds herself face to face with a multi-eyed monster. It then disappears.

Upon noticing Claire's disoriented expression, Ashe asks if she's okay. After Claire dismisses the matter, he decides to find Wilardo and the resident of the mansion and climbs up the stairs, leaving her behind. He's then found near the blue room asking if anybody's home. Once Claire locates Wilardo on the second floor and goes back to talk to Ashe, he'll immediately go to the second floor and interrogate him.

Wilardo will say that he's not from the mansion. Ashe would then say that he's trespassing, but since he and Claire are there with him, they count as trespassers too. Just then, a red monster creeps up behind Claire, and they run back to the lobby and try to open the entrance door in vain. Wilardo then confronts the monster with his gun, confirming physical attacks work on them. After doing so, the red monsters increase in number and Wilardo suggests they hide in the dining room.

### **Welcome to the Monster Mansion**

Once they enter the room, Ashe and Wilardo decide to barricade the door, but stop when Claire points out the fact that the monsters aren't following them inside. As it turns out, it was because of the magic circle drawn on the door.

They proceed to the dining table in the kitchen and discuss about how they should get out. Ashe says that there are windows on the second floor, but it would be a bit dangerous. They proceed and try to open a window, but it won't budge. Claire then brings a frying pan from the kitchen and goes back to smash the second floor window, only to find out that there's no ground below after throwing off a pebble she found by the riverside.

After returning the frying pan in the kitchen, Wilardo comments on how he can hear noises in the next room and speculates that somebody's in there, but it's locked. Claire ends up looking around the house and finds a shiny path near the storage room that did not exist before. Upon entering, she finds herself walking through what seems like a room of ice, and meet Charlotte. Charlotte then says "she found Claire before her", and tries to kill Claire. Claire makes a run for it (failure to escape will trigger a game over screen) and escapes. After escaping, the path disappears and a black screen with the text "Aww... That's too bad..." fades in. Heading to the lobby will lead to her first encounter with Noel, who tells her that he was only taking shelter from the rain and that his house is not too far away from the mansion. When he tried turning the knob, it wouldn't open, and Claire explains that it's why she's in the mansion as well.

Ashe then comes out to tell Claire that they found the "lord of the mansion" and that she should go to the dining room, while taking notice of Noel as well. They arrive at the dining room, where they meet Sirius for the first time, who's talking to Wilardo. Sirius stares at Claire briefly before Noel walks over to Sirius, telling him he wants to talk to him, but it is something that he can only discuss with Sirius. Sirius is against talking to him privately at first, due to him being suspicious of townsfolk. It isn't until Noel tells him that he wants to ask about the witch Dorothy that Sirius agrees to talk alone.

After Sirius and Noel leave the room, Ashe mutters Dorothy's name, prompting Claire to ask if he knows who she is. Ashe is confused at first, since he thought that everyone in the country knew about her. He then goes on to talk about her. He talks about how she was legendary for her extreme, inhuman cruelty, and how that she kidnapped and murdered over a hundred people at least. He proceeds to describe her as "a most terrifying, terrifying witch," and questions why she would be mentioned. He also wonders why Sirius reacted to her name the way he did.

After that, everyone is gathered back in the dining hall, and Sirius tells everyone that he has decided to let everyone stay in the mansion. Sirius starts off introductions by imploring everyone not to bother him. Noel follows after him, telling everyone his age and how he got to the mansion. Ashe introduces himself after, not just revealing his age, but continuing on to tell everyone a lot of facts about himself and oversharing quite a bit. Claire chooses not to tell everyone her age and talks about how she loves cute, pretty and girly things. Wilardo is the last to share, telling only his name and nothing else.

Once everyone has introduced themselves, Sirius shows everyone to their rooms. They first go into the purple room, which he gives to Noel, and gives a small explanation about the warding circle on the door. Sirius then gives the green room to Ashe, the red room to Wilardo, and the light blue room to Claire, saying that the room used to belong to a woman and that it's suited for one. After everyone has gotten their rooms, he tells everyone that his room is the dark blue one on the second floor, and that everyone should stay away from it unless it's necessary. He also asks everyone to never trade their room because it could easily lead to trouble and excuses himself after that.

Wilardo and Noel return to their rooms, but Ashe hangs back to ask Claire if they could trade rooms and keep it a secret from Sirius. The player then gets to decide on whether they say yes or no, and the story will change depending on the answer.

Agreeing to trade rooms will lead to **a bad ending**. Refusing to do so will continue the story.

Claire asks Ashe why he wanted to trade rooms, and he tells her that he wants to investigate the room and that the witch Dorothy once resided in the mansion. Claire asks if it is true, and Ashe reveals he is a researcher looking into witch Dorothy, and that's why he's really there. He believes that Claire's room might have been Dorothy's in the past, and asks if he can look another day After Claire agrees, he excuses himself.

You now get free time to speak to all the characters. The player will have three options, to talk to them, play a minigame or give them a gift.

* Ashe's minigame is a tile slider, where you have to move the tiles to complete a picture. Ashe will reward coins if it's completed within the time limit.
* Wilardo's minigame is where you have to match flowers by using the arrow keys. Once time is up, Wilardo will give reward coins based on the amount of flowers sorted.
* Sirius' minigame has you cleaning a normally locked room. You lose either by going over the same space twice or running out of time, so plan your route beforehand. Sirius will still reward coins no matter if you lose or not.
* Noel's minigame is a card game called High-Low, where you have to guess if the next card will be higher or lower than the card currently revealed. Coins are earned by betting, and with each successful guess the amount doubles (e.g: 5 turns into 10, which turns into 20, and so on).

In Sirius' room there is two books that must be read to progress the storyline.

* One is on the entomology of demons, which explains how demons prefer places with strong magic energy due to magic being nourishment for them. It goes on to say that humans should stay away from those areas due to the fact demons will attack humans on sight.
* The next one talks about how to form demonic pacts. By offering 1 square kilometer of land and a part of their body, humans can borrow a demon's power. The land must be offered before the power is used, but the body part is collected after. This means that if the pact is ever broken, the land will be kept but the body part will not be taken, and that humans usually keep the contract.

Once you have talked to everyone and read the books, returning to Claire's room will trigger Zizel to appear through a circle on the floor, complaining about Claire's lateness and saying that she nearly withered from waiting. She asks Claire to take a seat. While confused at Zizel's sudden appearance, she quickly becomes relieved that she isn't the only girl in the mansion. Zizel tells Claire that it isn't the time for cheesy remarks and asks for the her to return the contract. Claire is confused due to the fact she wasn't the one who made the demonic pact, simply because she wasn't the person who made it in the first place, a third party being the one who signed her up. Zizel then informs Claire that the person who originally made the pact was dead and that the contract is somewhere in the mansion, so she should do her best to find it.

Just as Zizel is about to tell Claire what type of pact it is, Sirius comes into the room, saying he forgot something in the room and that he was there to retrieve it. He takes a diary from the bookshelf, and Claire tells Sirius that she isn't the only girl in the mansion, and tells him about Zizel, but due to the fact that only she can see her, Sirius thinks that she is just messing around. Sirius gets annoyed at Claire's outfit, claiming that just seeing it makes him shiver, and that there is clothes in the dresser that she can wear. Sirius leaves the room after that.

Claire then asks Zizel why Sirius couldn't see her. Zizel then explains that she isn't human, and the pact between her and Claire is demonic one, leading Claire to recall the book in Sirius' room. Zizel says that she is a demon with whom she has a pact, meaning she is able to use the power of a demon, but that she will pay a price for using it. Claire rejects the idea of using it, not wanting to give up a body part, and Zizel repeats that the only way to get out of it is to find the contract, and that she'll be watching Claire.

Talking to Zizel will offer the option of either trading coins with her or playing a minigame called Hit-and-Cover Rock Paper Scissors, a game that has been gaining popularity in hell with origins in the human world.

* The game follows the traditional rules of rock-paper-scissors, with the addition of hitting and covering based on what the player and Zizel chooses. Successfully landing a hit will give you a point, and whoever gets three points first wins.

After beating Zizel, she will give the pretty bottle as a reward, an item essential for helping out troubled demons later on.

Clicking on the dresser will trigger a small scene about Claire trying on the dress, which makes her happy since she was never able to afford anything like it. Once the cutscene ends, the player will be able to go to bed and progress the storyline.

While sleeping, it's revealed that Claire has frequent dreams about Patricia, where it always ends with Patricia disappearing and her younger self sobbing.

After waking up, Claire complains about her bad night's rest and Zizel informs her that it is only dawn. Noticing that Zizel has become slightly transparent, Claire asks her about it, and Zizel tells her that demons are weak to sunlight, and that demons tend to take a break during the day due to the struggle of keeping a proper form. Once Zizel disappears, Claire decides to get some water before going back to sleep.

Stepping out of her room, she discovers the multi-eyed monster from the entrance. Freaking out, Claire runs back into her room and decides to just go back to sleep. The game opening will play, and after that the player will be able to choose which scenario they want to continue with.

## Scenarios

The game's plot continues through four scenarios centered around the four main characters trapped in the mansion with you. Two are unlocked by default (Ashe's and Wilardo's) and can be played in any order, while the other two are locked. Sirius' route can only be unlocked after completing Ashe's and Wilardo's routes, as well as the bad ending. Noel's route can be unlocked after completing all other routes.

**Find the Legendary Witch's Heart! (Ashe)**

Claire attempts to befriend Ashe while learning about the legendary treasure, and pursues it to make her dreams of endless sweets come true.

**Beautiful Flower & Demon's Curse (Wilardo)**

Wilardo's past is revealed, how he got his curse and what he wishes for in the end.

 **Unknown Past, Dorothy's Secret (Sirius)**

Claire's and Sirius' pasts are further explored, and addresses the question about what really happened to Dorothy and how Sirius got into his current situation before Claire and the others got into the mansion.

 **Mansion Riddles & Fantasy Worlds (Noel)**

Claire's past with Patricia is unveiled, how Noel got stuck in the mansion and his connections to demons, and elaborating on the loop especially as to when it started, who started it and their association to it.

## Bonus Stage

### **Day 1**

The bonus stage starts off similarly to how one would start a new scenario in the previous game, only this time the demons have decided to appear in front of everyone else. They've fabricated a flimsy story about exploring the mountains, and with enough persistence they eventually convince Sirius to let them room in with Claire, much to Noel's objection.

After doing introductions and everyone goes into their rooms, it's revealed that Claire has been in an continuous death loop for 9999 times.
With each loop, the mansion gets more messed up, which is why the demons have decided to intervene and give Claire tips on completing the witch's mansion.

They suggest Claire to develop the ability to see through others, and decide to tell the stories of Ashe, Wilardo and Sirius over the next few days in order for her to understand the motives behind their wishes, and eventually choose which one she wants to fulfill. Days 2, 3 and 4 focus on the three's backstories, and if you want to read about them, feel free to look at their character pages on the wiki.

### **Day 5**

Time is running out, and Rouge asks Noel on what he decides to do. Outside of the mansion in the stars, Lime reveals that she'd hidden the word "negative" in the contract she'd shown Ashe and has the contract in her possession, both of which are against the rules. She also reveals that she'd stolen the contract from Susie Elford 100 years ago. Meanwhile, Sirius and Noel scramble to Claire's room while Ashe and Wilardo are in the dark blue room, looking at something in the back. Although they seem to be working together, Ashe informs him that whoever's fastest and kills Claire first wins.

Once Ashe and Wilardo are in Claire's room, Ashe starts throwing scalpels at Sirius, Claire and Noel, and misses the latter. Ashe demands Claire be handed over, and when Noel refuses, Sirius throws a smoke bomb and tells them to escape while he stays behind, saying that Claire's the one they're after, not him. Once they're gone, Wilardo questions why Sirius didn't escape, to which he says that he couldn't run if he wanted to, thinks to Ashe injuring him. Sirius recalls the day from twelve years ago, when Nicholas demanded for Dorothy, and tells the two that he's not fully incapable of understanding their feelings. However, he thinks that the Witch's Heart is foolish, and wishes granted by killing have no worth at all.

As Ashe kills Sirius in retaliation, Wilardo's affected by his words and turns against Ashe, saying that although he has no right to criticize him, he'll prevent him from getting to Claire. Ashe then reveals that Claire will die anyways because he added highly lethal poison to the scalpels, and there's no point in stopping him. He then throws Sirius' body at Wilardo and runs out of the room, determined to get his wish and bring his family back. As he's out the door, he thinks to himself saying that a wish that large can't be achieved without first going mad, and that he'd rather endure the guilt than live with everything lost.

Meanwhile, Noel and Claire are looking for a place to hide. As Claire is starting to get affected by the poison, Charlotte and Lime appear and send them to a dystopian-themed fantasy space they've made personally for them. When teleported into the fantasy space, Noel gets hallucinations about the servants that his father killed, which claim that Noel had killed them. As Noel starts to break down, Claire holds his hand, saying that she'll be with him and there's nothing to fear. Going through the maze, Noel takes note of how Claire always acted as his hero, and when Claire starts getting weaker because of the poison, Noel says that although he's not reliable, he'll hold her up.

Once they've reached the end of the maze, they find out it's a dead end. Rouge then appears, telling them that Sirius has died, and Noel won't be able to save Claire. She tells Noel that killing Claire now would be a good time, since at the rate they're going, it would end up as Ashe killing Claire. Noel hesitates, since he wants everyone to escape. Claire speaks up, saying that even though she doesn't know what's going on, there must be a reason for it, and that Noel must have a wish he'd kill her for too. Noel denies the statement, saying that no matter how much he tries, it always ends up the same way and he doesn't want Claire to die anymore. Upon his response, Claire realizes that Noel's the one looping time. Noel states that they're rules to the loops, and due to the fact that his memories of Claire's death causes are erased, the next loop would be the final one. He doesn't know what to do anymore, and decides on killing Claire so he wouldn't forget the memories of the loop.

Hearing the fact that only memories on causes of death disappearing, Claire decides to take the knife and kill herself in order to remember what she'd learn about everyone from the demons. She says that she feels bad that Noel couldn't in this time, and before plunging the knife into herself, she vows to him that they'll break the suffering and sadness in the witch's mansion to pieces.

Upon appearing in the pink room after her death, Zizel congratulates Claire on the bonus stage. She says that Claire's wonderful, and that even she didn't expect the scarcely sane twist that she pulled. Zizel continues, saying that this could be the first time she'd had so much fun, and brings her to her room while offering Earl Grey.

As Claire takes a seat, Zizel explains that the demons only did what they did to have Claire choose what story ends the loop. Zizel explains that depending on what route is chosen, she'll let Claire remember the pasts of its principal characters, as well as memories of them in the current story. However, there was a catch- in order to keep the memories, Claire has to play a game of Russian Roulette with Zizel. If Claire didn't accept, Zizel wouldn't allow her to keep her memories. Seeing Claire hesitate, Zizel asks if she's afraid, to which she says yes, since she dies if she loses. Zizel says that Claire doesn't have to do it, even though she's essentially dying already. Claire asks Zizel what she'd gain out of the game, to which she says it's just entertaining, and that she'd always wanted to battle her.

Claire accepts the challenge. Zizel lays out the rules, saying that she can pass, but the person passed to can also refuse. As both of them take turns with the gun, Zizel notes that she enjoys the expressions of humans betting their lives, saying that they're dazzling and beautiful. During the second-to-last shot, Claire hesitates, which prompts Zizel to question the disappearance of Claire's powerful will shown at the end of the bonus stage, and reminds her of the vow she made to break the suffering in the mansion to pieces.

Hearing this, Claire regains her composure, and questions why she was afraid now when she'd been losing the whole time. She says to herself that if things are going to end the way they are, she wanted to at least be looking forward. As she pulls the trigger and doesn't land on the bullet chamber, Claire is relieved, but is quickly dismayed when she realizes that it's Zizel's turn next.
Claire attempts to stop her, but to no avail. Zizel insists on pulling the trigger, saying that pulling out then wouldn't do in the realm of battle, and she couldn't die anyways. As she puts the gun to her head Zizel compares Claire to Noel, noting on how they hate to hurt others. Continuing to talk, she tells Claire that an ending where everyone's happy is inconceivable. The mansion is made to always have someone hurt, and there are times where one must draw the line.

Closing her eyes with a peaceful expression, Zizel pulls the trigger. To Claire's shock, no bullets come out. Zizel is amused by Claire's reaction, and apologizes for lying about the bullets. She tells her that anything she did during the battle had no particular meaning and that she greatly enjoyed seeing her agonize over the situation.

As Claire is fed up with the turn of events, Zizel adds on, telling her she was planning to let Claire keep the memories regardless and just wanted to see her resolve. Claire retorts, saying that Zizel has the worst taste in things.

Zizel then brings out the five colored shards and asks Claire which story she chooses to end with, saying that she wants Claire's heart to decide. As she tells her to look at the world and feel it's happiness and misfortune, Zizel asks one last question:

".....What should the ending to this story that surrounds the Witch's Heart be? .....Please choose. Witch Claire...!"

## Endings

The story's main ending will be based on whose routes you go with after the Bonus Stage. IZ plans on releasing the endings one at a time. Ashe's and Wilardo's endings are planned to have two branching endings, while Sirius' and Noel's will only have one ending.
To learn more about what happens in each main ending released so far, you can view the pages that correspond to each route above.
As of now, the common bad end, along with Sirius' route conclusion, are the only endings in the game, asides from a "game over" screen.

### **Common Bad End**

Following the night after Claire trades rooms with Ashe, Wilardo knocks on Ashe's room saying that there's a bad situation. After Claire responds to him, he questions why she's not in her room, but pays no mind since it's "neither here nor there".

Upon exiting the room, Claire takes note of the blood and Wilardo mentions that she's the only one who responded after he knocked on all the doors. Claire suggests they look for the others. After knocking on the light blue room and getting no response from Ashe, Wilardo shoots down the door.
Once inside, Ashe is seen lying on the ground with his head split open.

Wilardo decides to stay and look around for clues, while Claire tries to find the others. Following the blood trail leads to Sirius' room, where he can be seen standing near his bed. When Claire goes up to him and asks what happened, Sirius claims that Ashe attacked him out of the blue and he only tried to defend himself. As Claire tries to calm him down, he says that Ashe died on his own and that it was all his fault. He continues, saying that there's no Witch's Heart in the mansion, and that he doesn't know a thing about it, as well as saying that he shouldn't have let anyone stay in. He even says that Noel tricked him, and proceeds to blame everyone.

Continuing with his ramblings, he says that Claire is most at fault for trading rooms with Ashe when he specifically said not to. He says that's she's to blame for this and so many else, to which Claire admits on trading rooms and questions if he's going too far with his accusations. Sirius tells her to shut up and asks her if he wants to meet the same fate as Ashe. He then picks up the ax and threatens to kill everyone before everyone kills him, proceeding to attack Claire while laughing maniacally. Once he realizes that she's dead, he breaks down and profusely apologizes to Dorothy. He says that he was scared that Claire was going to kill him, and that he really didn't know anything about the Witch's Heart.

Completing this ending will reward the player with the light blue shard, which is necessary to unlock Sirius' scenario.

## References

1. ↑ http://vgperson.com/games/witchheart.htm