Protagonist

> *"A girl desperately searching the dark streets to find her missing sister and dog."*
>
>

The protagonist in Yomawari: Night Alone is a little girl whose name is never mentioned in the game.

However, according to one of the Nippon Ichi broadcasts and to the novelized version of the second game, the protagonist is named "Kotomo".

## Appearance

She has short, light brown hair with a red bow on a headband, and like the other characters her eyes are simple black strokes.

Her uniform consists of a white collared top with a red ribbon, blue pleat skirt, and loafers worn with black socks. She is carrying a single-strap pochette shaped like a rabbit head.

### - Spoiler -

After she rescues her sister and loses her left eye, she wears a white cloth eye patch over it.

## Plot

### Prehistory

The Protagonist lives with her Sis and her dog, Poro, inside the Town.

In the game, it is never mentioned about what happened to her parents and where they were. However, in the novel adaptation for the first game, it is mentioned that her mother died when she was too young to remember.

### Opening: Dusk

The Protagonist is walking her dog, Poro, on the road near the tunnel. Since it was starting to get dark, she decides to return home. It is possible that Poro lost his Toy Bone there. As a result, both Poro and the girl were looking for it near the Tunnel until it started to get late.

As they walked back, a Hand Spirit ran past them. But despite sensing it, they weren't able to see it and thought it was just their imagination. They then continue to walk. Suddenly, a pebble fell from above a wall next to the road, so the girl decided to play a short game of fetch with Poro by using the pebble.

However, as Poro is about to retrieve the thrown pebble, a truck came out of nowhere and accidentally runs over him. It happened so quickly and suddenly, so it knocked the girl unconscious without clear memory of what just happened. When she woke up, all she found was her dog missing, a blood pool, and an empty leash. The girl may have some idea of what had happened, but she chose to deny that Poro is killed and only believed that her dog only went missing due to her age. With no clue what to do, she returned home with the empty leash.

### Chapter 1: Twilight

When the Protagonist finally got home, the sky has started to fall into night time. She finds her sister and remains silent as Sis asks her why she only has an empty leash and where Poro was. Upon believing that Poro had run away, Sis went out to look for the dog. However, after they separated, the sister hadn't returned home for a long time. So the girl decided to go out to find her sister. On the way, she got ambushed by a Streetlight Shadow. Fortunately, she is able to escape and find her sister in a Vacant Lot. But the sister seems worried and had the Protagonist hide in the bush and tells her not to open her eyes. During the moment, Sis gets kidnapped by Mr. Yomawari, but the Spirit didn't see the other sister hiding in the bush and left with Sis. When the girl finally opens her eyes and came out of hiding, her sister is nowhere to be seen. She presumed that her sister returned home, so she went back. Along the way, she found her sister's flashlight and gets attacked by several Spirits that started appearing around her. When she finally gets back, she finds that her sister was still nowhere to be found. Eventually, the Protagonist decides to go out to find her sister and her dog.

### Chapter 2: Nightfall

During her search, she saw a dog whom she thought was Poro. She chases it into the School. After finding a way inside it, she looks for the dog. Eventually, she finds a shoe that belonged to her sister. However, the dog who she saw earlier appears, revealing to be a Human-Faced Dog. It chases after her, but the Protagonist is able to hide from it. She then remembered that she forgot her sister's shoe, so she went back to retrieve it but, the Human-Faced Dog stole it. So, after tracking it down and using a Wet Bone she found in the Pool, she is able to send the dog spirit away and retrieve her sister's shoe. However, she doesn't understand how her sister's shoe got in the School and she wasn't any closer to finding Sis or Poro.

### Chapter 3: Half the Night

During her second search, she keeps witnessing a long-haired girl on her way to search the Fields. Eventually, she finds a Broken Necklace. This leads her to be chased by the long-haired girl who is revealed to be a Spirit. As the protagonist runs from the Spirit, she finds notes saying things like 'where is it' and 'return it to me' and soon reaches the bottom of the cliff to find the dead body of the long-haired girl. She soon realized that the Spirit is that of someone who ended up dead by the cliff. Suddenly, the said Spirit appears. Fortunately, the Protagonist realizes that this Spirit wants the Broken Necklace that was found because it belonged to her. So the girl placed it next to the Spirit's dead body. Satisfied, the Spirit disappears. The Protagonist is relieved and decides to leave the Fields. Before leaving, she decides to leaves some flowers for the dead girl. As she leaves the Fields, the Spirit of the cliff victim reappears to show her gratitude for being paid some respect and peace.

### Chapter 4: Dark Night

During the girl's third search, she witnesses Poro (in reality, his Spirit) roaming around the street and chases after him to the Mountains. As she continues to chase him, she finally reaches to where she finds the dead body of Poro. She tries to wake him up, but she is eventually forced to realize and accept that Poro had died. Crying, the girl blames herself for what happened to Poro and for getting her sister in this situation by not telling her what really happened. She then buries Poro's body there and places a stone grave with flowers. She is forced to leave, accepting that Poro is gone. However, before leaving the Mountains, she runs into a ghost train and finds the Torn Collar of Poro.

### Chapter 5: Late at Night

During the girl's fourth search, she witnesses some Hand Spirits in Town. Chasing after them, she is soon led to the Shopping District. There, the Hand Spirits ruined the Salt piles set throughout the district. Without the Salt, the district becomes vulnerable and dangerous as the Hungry Ghosts started appearing to run havoc. Panicking, the Protagonist is chased after by these Spirits. She soon finds a ringing telephone and, upon answering it, she is teleported into a different world with similar appearances to the real world, which is controlled by the Centipede Spirit. The said deity attacks the girl, thinking she is responsible for what happened. Eventually, the girl escapes, only to wind up in the deity's parallel temple. This causes the girl to plead for mercy from the large Spirit. The Centipede Spirit decides to spare her in exchange for having her return the Salt piles back to the district. Using the parallel world and telephones, the Protagonist is able to return all the Salt back and drive the Hungry Ghosts away. After accomplishing it, she goes back to the Centipede Spirit's temple to report what happened, but the said spirit is nowhere to be found. However, the Spirit thanked her and gave her a Red Charm and some extra Salt.

### Chapter 6: Midnight

As the girl is about to go on her fifth search, Mr. Yomawari kidnaps her and leaves her in the Factory. As the Protagonist tries to find a way out of the Factory, she has to escape from both Spirits and Mr. Yomawari, who transforms into Meat. After having to run all over the Factory, she finds the key to the front gate of the Factory. As she is about to head to the gate, Meat appears for one more attack, only to end up falling off the building they were on and onto a pillar that pierced it. The girl is surprised at what happened, but as she inspects the area, a Hand Spirit suddenly passes behind her. She senses it and looks behind her, noticing an open shipment container that is previously closed. As she inspects inside it, two more Hand Spirits come out of it, surprising her. She then regains her thoughts and finds inside the container an Old Charm that belonged to her sister. The girl then uses the key she found to escape and as she heads Home, she figures out that Mr. Yomawari was the one who kidnapped her sister.

### Chapter 7: Dawn

As the girl returns Home, she finds Mr. Yomawari in her house. Panicking, the Protagonist runs out of the house but the Spirit does not chase after her, and instead leaves a Black Crayon Note for the girl to learn that her sister was taken to the other side of the tunnel from earlier today. She immediately heads through the tunnels, only to find the path blinded by black mist. She then notices a small shrine and finds the Old Charm to be reacting to it. She ends up activating the shrine, causing it to shine brightly and remove the mist. The girl then proceeded further, only to encounter Meat again. She quickly runs ahead and ended up lighting another shrine. This causes Meat to attack the shrine. The Protagonist tries to run, but she encounters a large Hand Spirit. However, a Meat (possibly a different one) appears and fights with the large Hand Spirit. During the confusion, the girl is able to escape. Then, she goes up the mountain, lighting small shrines and dodging Hand Spirits that were attacking her. She eventually reaches the top to find her sister and a large temple. She is quickly attacked by the Mountain Spirit, who teleports them to a different dimension to have the girl killed. The Protagonist is able to defeat the god by lighting up all the small shrines there and is able to return to her world where she proceeds to pick up Sis and return home with her. However, as she leaves the tunnel, the Mountain God steals the Protagonist's left eye in exchange for taking her sister back. This causes her to lose consciousness. While she is unconscious, she meets Poro in the Limbo World, right next to the tunnel that acts as the gate to the afterlife. The girl finally bids her dog goodbye before leaving, and Poro crosses to the afterlife.

The next day, the Protagonist wears an Eyepatch over her missing left eye. She visited Poro's grave with her sister and leave the dog some flowers before two return home. From then, Sis remains home at night as the Protagonist decides to sometimes explore the Town at night to collect Items and investigate Spirits.

### In-Between "Night Alone" and "Midnight Shadows"

Two years has passed since the events in Yomawari: Night Alone. During these two years, the Protagonist has continued to explore her hometown at night. She continues to visit Poro's grave as much as she can.

During her exploration, she would still visit the shrine of the Centipede Spirit, even after the shrine had been left in disrepair (as a result of the demolition of the Downtown area) and the deity had supposedly disappeared from the shrine.

### Chapter 6: Witching Hour (Midnight Shadows)

There is an event where Haru hides inside a bush while she is being chased by a Mr. Yomawari. The Spirit corners her, preventing the girl from escaping. Then, the sound of a thrown pebble can be heard. Mr. Yomawari proceeds to chase after the sound. It is presumably the Protagonist who threw the pebble in order to distract Mr. Yomawari away from Haru. This led Mr. Yomawari to chase after the Protagonist (preventing the Protagonist and Haru from meeting properly).

### Chapter 10: Dawn (Midnight Shadows)

The Protagonist will run into Haru during the former's trip to the Centipede Spirit's shrine. The Protagonist explains to Haru about the Centipede Spirit and what had happened to its shrine and the shopping district. If Haru uses the Salt to kill the Shadowmen that are haunting the Downtown area, the Protagonist will say that she thinks the Centipede Spirit is pleased with Haru's work. The Protagonist then rewards Haru in the deity's place with a Centipede Charm and five packs of Salt. The Protagonist and Haru then go their separate ways.

The Protagonist will run into Haru again at the railroad near the Town's Field. The Protagonist claims to be waiting for the spirit train. She adds that she would always hear crying coming from that train. Seeing that the train is taking a while to arrive, the Protagonist decides to go back home and bids farewell to Haru.

The Protagonist and Haru then crosses paths again at the Factory. The Protagonist then talks to Haru about Mr. Yomawari. Worried that she'll be kidnapped again by that Spirit, the Protagonist decides to leave the Factory. She bids good luck to Haru and tells her that she'll be seeing her again.

The two crosses paths for a fourth time at Poro's grave in the Town's Forest. The Protagonist is astonished to see Haru all the way there, so the former wonders if Haru has been following her. She then proceeds to tell Haru about Poro. It was then that the Protagonist realizes that she hasn't asked for Haru's name yet. After introductions, Haru explains how she'll be moving to another town. The Protagonist then admits that she herself wishes to move, and then tells Haru that she hopes the latter doesn't move into a town with bad spirits. But Haru tells her that she doesn't want to move, wishing to stay at her hometown forever. The Protagonist then feels guilty and feels sorry that Haru has to move. She then admits that she'll feel lonely without Haru around. The Protagonist then gets the idea of the two of them sending each other letters when Haru moves to her new home. So the Protagonist had Haru promise to give her the latter's address at the next time they meet.

The last time they cross paths in-game is in front of the tunnel leading to the mountain deity's domain. The Protagonist explains to Haru that it's impossible to cross through the tunnel because it collapsed due to an earthquake. She warns Haru that the tunnel is too dangerous to even go near. She then notices that Haru had been through an awful experience, similar to herself. So, she gives Haru a charm, a Small Flower. She then continues to warn Haru to stay away from the tunnel. She says she won't ask Haru what had happened to her, but she hopes that the latter will feel better after the former has moved. As the Protagonist proceeds to leave, she tells Haru that they should meet again one day.

## Trivia

* In the Japanese version of the novel adaption of the second game, she is named as "Kotomo". It might be based after the word "Kodomo", which is the Japanese word for "child". "Kodomo" (Child) is what she is referred to in the original Japanese script in the game.
	+ This is further backed up on Nippon Ichi's broadcast for the game's first anniversary, where it is mentioned that the Protagonist's name is "Kotomo". The people in the broadcast admitted that they didn't think of a name for the Protagonist in the first place, and simply refer to her as "Kodomo" (Child). Now that they realize that they needed a name for the character, they gave her the name "Kotomo".

## Gallery

The Protagonist starting to lose her left eye to the Mountain God.Protagonist Playstation Avatar