Kotori (Human-Faced Bird)

Kotori

### Locations

Rooftop Shrine (via the Empty Building), Around town (by the white boundary lines)

### Rarity

Unique

*For the disambiguation, and not to be confused, see Kotori (The Girl In Your Memories).*

Kotori is a human-faced bird Spirit that haunts the town of Yomawari 3.

It has the ability observe everything happening inside the town all at the same time. Apparently, it is waiting for "someone" or "something".

## Appearance

Kotori resembles a floating swirl made out of feathers of different colors: blue, green, red, pink, yellow, and black. It possesses human-like eyes with white sclera, dark irises, and black pupils surrounded by yellow eyebrows/eyelashes. It has a long black beak.

## Behavior

### Early game (after beginning)

If the player goes to the areas that have a white-boundary line (presumably a barrier), a white static will shortly flash at the screen and Kotori can be seen pursuing the player (in attempt to kill the Protagonist) and cannot be outrun at this state, meaning that it is an act of defiance to prevent the player from defying the promise. Unless the player looks at the memory of an item, the barrier will be removed, allowing the Protagonist to pass to look for the place in their memory.

### Rooftop Shrine (without the bell)

If the Protagonist goes to the rooftop where the Human-Faced Bird Shrine is, and does not have the bell, Kotori will proceed to attack the player in four phases. The fourth phase is impossible to escape or repel because without the bell, the player is vulnerable, and it is impossible to bypass the spirit at this point.

### Rooftop Shrine (with the bell, before and after unlocking true memories)

If the Protagonist goes to the rooftop again, and does have the bell, regardless of the player unlocking or not unlocking her true memories early, The Human-Faced Bird will do the same patterns of attack in four phases. The fourth phase can be now countered through ringing the second small bell's power worn by Mugi (or by pressing a specific button when the player has unlocked the true memories of the Protagonist). The four phases will repeat, until the player finally reaches the shrine to meet Kotori.

## Mythology and Theories

The Human-Faced Bird is inspired and originally based on the "Itsumade", a yokai composed of a monstrous bird, believed to roam the night sky during troubled times that screeches and cries out with unnerving sounds, bringing attention to its suffering. The Japanese folklore of Itsumade was recorded in Taiheiki, a famous Japanese 14th century epic providing a fictional account of Japanese history of 1319 to 1367. A plague in the year 1333 was mentioned as the catalyst for the creation of the itsumade.

Its form is almost somewhat resembling to the characteristics: the face of a human, the body of a snake, and the beak and wings of a bird. A large creature with a wingspan of 5 meters.

Itsumade translates from Japanese to English "Until when? Until when?", basically "until when will this corpse be left here?", hypothesized in multiple ways. Some believe it is a call out for help in times for trouble. It also means to ask greater beings how the times of suffering will last and plague the lands they live in.

In another theory, it is believed that it was previously a spirit of the dead turned into an onryo over time due to being ignored. It then took form of a monstrous bird and called out from above to ask the people how long their pain must go unnoticed.

## Plot

### Pre-History

The Human-Faced Bird used to be an observant spirit, witnessing or observing malicious people who take precious things from them. The said spirit's shrine was built on the Empty Building, which was the commercial building a few years ago until the business in that location went defunct and abandoned.

Later, throughout the years, Kotori's mother suddenly disappeared and went missing (possibly due to being cursed by the Spirit Forest's God as means of forcing her to look for the missing bells). Kotori had no other choice but to look for the whereabout of her mother, and how she lived. Just as she familiarizes herself with the said spirit, she performs the tricks that led her to the Spirit Forest, leading her to a devastating truth: Her mother's death.

With Kotori becoming cursed, she had become another extension by the Spirit Forest's God to look for the missing bells. Until her time was over, she was now a spirit.

### Yomawari: Lost in The Dark (Present timeline)

During the elementary years, the Protagonist got herself cursed after entering the Spirit Forest. Kotori gave her a pocket watch to check the time limit so the Protagonist can find her memories and find a way to break the curse.

As she searches all of her remaining memories, she could not remember one more memory and returns to the Empty Building's rooftop.

### Bad Ending

The Protagonist returns to the rooftop without her true memories and fends off the Human-Faced Bird with Mugi's help, until she reaches a displeased Kotori, that the Protagonist could not remember, and tells that her memories were lying to her. Until the Protagonist remembers, she will be stuck, dying over and over. She jumps off the building.

The Protagonist and Mugi leave the building and tells Mugi that there is still something she has not remembered. Mugi senses danger and snarls at the Protagonist, before running away. The Protagonist tries to chase Mugi, but suddenly gets affected by the curse's power, on the verge of being transformed as an extension, before her past memory flashes back.

### Mid-Climax

Continuing from the Bad Ending, the Protagonist, now affected by the curse's power, is now an extension. She goes back to her room to search her true memories by performing alternate actions such as shining a light on a dark blur and ringing a small bell in her imagination. This time, she sees the truth of her memories.

She shines the light on Mugi, finding out that Mugi was a spirit, who was accompanying her throughout the years to relieve her sorrow. The Protagonist takes a look of the Picture of Mugi, showing her past memory of how Mugi died.

With the last memory finally found, she goes to Mugi's grave and gets the bell from Mugi's collar, before heading off to the Empty Building's rooftop once more. Kotori, relieved that the Protagonist remembered, gives her the second bell and instructions on how to enter the Spirit Forest, where she will be waiting.

### Climax

Before they go further in the Forest, Kotori tells the Protagonist that the God of the Spirit Forest curses them to make them look for the missing bells, and they can only see the Spirit Forest's God and the "weird sky" at the school rooftop. Looking at the sky from there, locking their eyes with it, and turning back will get them cursed but performing a certain action from before and looking at the sky and locking their eyes with it, they will end up in the Spirit Forest. After a struggle in the Spirit Forest, they finally reach the peak to return the two bells. The Protagonist raises the two bells, and the Spirit Forest God takes them successfully.

### True Ending

The Protagonist and Kotori return to the real world via the shrine archway with their eyes closed. In the real world, Kotori is nowhere to be seen, as the Protagonist calls out to her, but no one replies.

### Aftermath: After Epilogue

With the Protagonist's curse and Kotori's curse finally broken, the Human-Faced Bird, the Spirit Forest's God, and the weird sky are nowhere to be seen or felt.

## Trivia

* "Kotori" is the Japanese name for 'bird'.
* The very first Kotori or "Human-Faced Bird" was none other than Kotori's unnamed mother, who was the first cursed individual to look for the bells and passed away due to passing the time limit of the curse.
* The said spirit is actually a servant of the Spirit Forest God, according to the lore, the said god curses them and makes them look for the missing bells. It is not known if there are more Human-Faced Bird spirits or just a few.