Iwaihime

Iwaihime (祝姫) is a Japanese horror visual novel written by Ryukishi07. Unlike his other games, Iwaihime uses ADV style, as opposed to Ryukishi07's typical NVL style and is not published under 07th Expansion. The game was released on January 29, 2016. On September 7, 2017, a port for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita was released under the name Iwaihime: Matsuri (祝姫 -祀) by Nippon Ichi Software. This port included the additional arc, Musubihime.

On October 23, 2020, an English release of Iwaihime was added to Steam.

Premise
It is said that each generation, upon reaching a certain age, all boys of the Susuhara family leave home and become independent. Then, relying only on themselves, they train body and soul until they are accepted as adults. And so I prepared myself for this day, learning a great many things so I'd be ready to live on my own.

Susuda Prefectural High School. My new school. Originally, I planned to enter in first year rather than transfer in second year. Life at school is carefree, and even pleasant. Everyone has a great time in class 2-A. There's just... her, Toe Kurokami. "Weird" doesn't begin to describe her. Always holding that Japanese doll against her chest, never letting go for a second. Some whisper it is a cursed doll, whose hair grows when no one is looking. But it's just an uncanny doll, with nothing special about it. Yet, perhaps my meeting that girl was fate... No, it was fate.

Gameplay
Two menu options are locked upon starting the game.

Noroihime: Curse Princess
High school junior Suzumu Susuhara transfers to a new school in Susuda, meeting up with his distant relative Tsubakiko Harumiya. Upon joining class 2-A, Susuhara learns of the troubled existence of Toé Kurokami, a quiet girl who always carries a Japanese doll in her hands. Classroom rumors indicate that she is cursed, though Susuhara is quick to dismiss these.

While Susuhara is asleep, an unrelated narrator named Yuuto Akagawa tells the story of his time being bullied in high school, culminating in Akagawa making a contract with a demon to take revenge on his bullies. Owing to the effects of a monkey's paw, Akagawa is kicked to death by his bullies until his body is a deformed lump of flesh.

Some time later, Susuhara attempts to befriend Kurokami, though Harumiya warns him against doing so. After saving Kurokami from the delinquent Sho Kamenuma, Susuhara begins to experience strange dreams involving an amorphous blob of flesh. When the blob maims Kurokami and Susuhara in the dream, the two awaken in the real world with significant injuries.

Susuhara goes to the hospital to tend to sore joints, owing to his experience in the dream. While in the waiting room, he finds Kurokami being pushed in a wheelchair by her father. As he attempts to reach out to her, the two are again pulled into a dream world. The pair discover that Kamenuma has been pulled into the dream as well. The blob of flesh reappears, crushing Kamenuma and further wounding Susuhara. When Susuhara awakens back in the hospital waiting room, Kurokami abruptly stands from her wheelchair and slices open his neck with a box cutter before doing the same to her own neck.

Susuhara awakens in a hospital bed, happy to have survived Kurokami's attack and escaped the violent dreams. When he looks outside, he finds the city on fire.

Maboroshihime: Illusion Princess
Kanae Minobe has a dream taking place in a world akin to Alice in Wonderland. In the dream, Minobe (under the name of Elice) faces off against a large man named the Ssech King in a spin-off of chess, named ssech. In order to put more pieces on the ssechboard, Elice has to have her partner, Mr. Rabbit, remove her body parts with torture implements. While her body parts are removed, Elice attempts to refrain from screaming or acknowledging the pain but ultimately fails.

Suzumu Susuhara is goaded into joining the Local Community Service Club by the school nurse, Mayu Hinagata. In his first outing with the club, Susuhara and Minobe pair together to run a fundraiser. While there, Minobe tells Susuhara about her "other self", Elice of Wonderland. Meanwhile, Elice and Mr. Rabbit lose their game of ssech, meaning that Elice will be forced to join into the Ssech King's family. As part of this, she is horrifically mutated into a grotesque caterpillar.

The next day, Susuhara meets one of the other club members, the mysterious Toé Kurokami. Kurokami is startled by Susuhara's presence and avoids him. That night, Susuhara is woken from sleep by the sound of knocking. When he opens his door, he finds Elice's Wonderland outside. Elice/Minobe insists that Wonderland is reality and the other world is the dream but also tells Susuhara not to think about it too much. The two bond, leading Susuhara to claim he will accept her no matter what. Elice/Minobe begins to undress and reveals her caterpillar form. Before she can turn Susuhara into a caterpillar, a gigantic monster with wooden horns rips open the ceiling. The monster kills Elice/Minobe and lifts Susuhara into the sky.

Susuhara wakes and finds Minobe's remains strewn across his room. He runs outside but finds that the world has been plunged into darkness. He is approached by Kurokami, who embraces him.

Utahime: Song Princess
Riria Nunokawa, a popular idol, returns to her high school club, the Local Community Service Club, after some time away. She meets Suzumu Susuhara and is upset to find that he knows nothing about her or idols in general. That night, Nunokawa vows to win over Susuhara as a fan. Just before bed, she finds a series of sooty footprints around her room, though these vanish by the next morning.

The LCSC goes to Iwaimoto Shrine for an event, which Nunokawa decides to use as an opportunity to promote herself. While there, she wanders into the doll memorial hall and encounters her clubmate, Toé Kurokami. Kurokami warns Nunokawa to stay away from Susuhara and leaves. Nunokawa briefly hallucinates that Susuhara is berating her appearance. Some time later, Nunokawa gives a performance alongside her idol group, Flower High School. While at a fan meet and greet, she hallucinates a fight with her younger self, Magical Lily.

Over time, Nunokawa becomes romantically involved with a doppelgänger bearing Susuhara's appearance. Once the pair are sufficiently close, the doppelgänger offers Nunokawa a medicine that will allow her to reverse her aging and become Magical Lily once again. A week later, a photo of her smoking in a park is published in the news, though in actuality Nunokawa was taking the medicine, giving the appearance of smoking. Nunokawa is suspended from school and from her idol group in the ensuing days. The medicine begins to break down Nunokawa's body, to her horror. The doppelgänger visits her to harvest her decaying body, though he is attacked and killed by a number of Japanese dolls.

Nunokawa wakes in the hospital with Kurokami at her side. She learns that her life force is partially tied to a Japanese doll on her bed; if she pushes the doll away, she loses consciousness. Realizing her condition, Nunokawa calls for the real Susuhara. When he arrives, Nunokawa explains her relationship with the doppelgänger and how she ended up this way. Nunokawa's stomach then bursts open and a demonic form of Lily emerges.

Kizuatohime: Scar Princess
The Local Community Service Club set up a rummage sale at the Iwaimoto Shopping District. Tsubakiko Harumiya, Kanae Minobe, and Riria Nunokawa organize a cooking contest to win the affection of clubmate Suzumu Susuhara. Harumiya despairs over her lack of "feminine" qualities; she spent much of her youth as a violent delinquent, a history that embarrasses her. Several days before the rummage sale, she confesses her love to Susuhara after he rushes into her room to "save" her from a nightmare. He returns the confession and the two begin dating.

The cooking contest takes place the day before the rummage sale. The food is judged by Susuhara, Natsuya Atsuta, and Toé Kurokami. Unfortunately, Minobe and Nunokawa's rice bowl dishes are ruined due to Susuhara and Atsuta making rice pilaf instead of white rice. The contest is called off, though Harumiya privately decides that she has won Susuhara's heart and announces that the pair are dating. This greatly upsets Minobe and Nunokawa, who feel that she had played their contest unfairly. Kurokami warns the three girls against being with Susuhara and returns home.

That night, Susuhara has a nightmare. In it, he attends a concert held by Magical Lily, however the concert ends when Lily employs a series of guillotines to massacre the audience, proclaiming that Susuhara is the only one for her. Immediately after, Susuhara finds himself in Wonderland, having tea with Elice/Minobe. Susuhara is distracted by a jar in Elice/Minobe's cupboard that continuously shakes. He opens the jar and is surrounded by a cloud of soot, which transports him to a dark world covered in soot. He finds a large metal bell and hears Harumiya screaming inside. Kurokami sits on top of the bell, mocking him. Using his martial arts training, Susuhara punches a crack into the bell and saves Harumiya, who promptly devours him.

In the ensuing days, Susuhara, Harumiya, Minobe, and Nunokawa are all plagued by nightmares. Mayu Hinagata comes to believe that Susuhara can relieve these nightmares, which is confirmed when Hinagata and Susuhara visit each of the girls. The pair attempt to relieve Kurokami's nightmares as well, however Susuhara's presence only causes Kurokami intense pain. That night, Harumiya tells Susuhara he isn't allowed to talk to Minobe or Nunokawa when she isn't around. Shortly after, both Minobe and Nunokawa send him disturbing text messages; Nunokawa's is laced with insults about Harumiya and Minobe's includes a picture of her own leg with a gaping cut on her ankle. Susuhara has a dream wherein the three girls rip each other apart, with Harumiya being the last one standing. When he wakes up, the concerned Susuhara runs to the LCSC clubroom and finds it on fire, with the bodies of the three girls in the room's center. He embraces a figure similar to Kurokami as the flames surround him.

Rokugamihime: Rokugami Princess
This story takes place shortly after the rummage sale as it occurred in "Kizuatohime: Scar Princess"; in this version of events, Susuhara catches a cold that forces him to leave the sleepover wherein Harumiya would announce that they are dating. He has a dream involving the events of "Kizuatohime: Scar Princess" and rejects Harumiya after she confesses to him. While this upsets Harumiya, the two remain friends and their time at the LCSC continues unabated.

LCSC supervisor, Mayu Hinagata, tells Susuhara of the history of the Iwaimoto Shrine. The story flashes back to a time roughly 1000 years prior, wherein a group of hunters led by Mutsu are attempting to hunt for food near a mountain belonging to the deer god Rokugami. During the hunt, Mutsu runs into a wandering priestess, Suzunome, and the two fall in love. Suzunome stays in Mutsu's village due to her grandmother's wounded leg and the villagers ask her to channel Rokugami to save them from an inadequate autumn harvest. Suzunome performs a ritual at a dilapidated building that would one day become Iwaimoto Shrine. Her body is possessed by Rokugami, who declares that he will send deer to the villagers for seven days after the full moon to serve as food for the village to survive autumn. Furthermore, the deer's golden antlers could be sold to nobles for high prices. The villagers followed Rokugami's instructions, which allowed them to prosper.

Hinagata explains that this story is an abridged version of the truth; after surviving autumn, the villagers grew greedy and began hunting deer on Rokugami's mountain in search of more golden antlers. The villagers massacre the deer on the mountain. As punishment, a snowfall of black soot rains over the village, destroying their crops, irreversibly staining all of the golden antlers black and tarnishing their meat. The only way the villagers can save themselves from the soot is for one of them to be sacrificed; the sacrificed's bloodline must carry the soot for eternity. After some deliberating, the villagers attempt to minimize the curse by using Suzunome as a sacrifice. They capture her and force her into the village's large bell, along with all of the soot they could gather. Mutsu attempts to save her but is unsuccessful and is banished from the village. By the 17th century, Suzunome's descendants had accumulated so much soot that there was a danger of the seal breaking; to combat this, the villagers invoked a magical spell that would induce multiple offspring, splitting the soot among several bloodlines. Suzunome's 17th century descendant had quintuplets, the descendants of whom are Hinagata, Kurokami, Harumiya, Minobe, and Nunokawa.

Meanwhile, Sho Kamenuma is at a karaoke with Kurokami. While there, the two get into a fight that ends with Kurokami's doll breaking. This causes the spirit of Rokugami to possess Kurokami; Rokugami proceeds to brutally kill Kamenuma. Kurokami, now possessed by the spirit of Rokugami, encounters Susuhara at the Iwaimoto Shrine. After a short conversation, Rokugami ignites all of the soot in Japan, causing most of the populace to catch fire and die.

After the credits, the player is given the option to choose the "bringer of calamity", which decides the next chapter. The bringer of calamity can be Kanae Minobe, Tsubakiko Harumiya, or Riria Nunokawa.

Kanae Minobe
Kanae Minobe has a nightmare as Elice, wherein she has a tea party with the Hatter and Mr. Rabbit. She learns that the secret to the Hatter's wealth is pension fraud; his mother died a year prior and he lives off of her continued pension checks. When the police discover this, the Hatter bursts into flames.

In the real world, Minobe is drugged by her stepfather, Mr. Tanaka, who forcefully tattoos a caterpillar onto her body as part of a cultish initiation ritual. Minobe escapes soon after and stays with her clubmate, Tsubakiko Harumiya. That night, the spirit of Rokugami's curse begins to appear to Minobe.

In Wonderland, Elice loses her game against the Ssech King when she runs out of available body parts to offer as pieces. The spirit of Rokugami's curse attempts to goad her into joining the Ssech King's family, however Elice is saved by the sudden appearance of Suzumu Susuhara. Using his Divine Tribute Style, Susuhara destroys the spirit. In the real world, Mr. Tanaka attempts to lead Minobe towards the home of his cult family but is assaulted by Susuhara. Mr. Tanaka escapes but is quickly caught by Mayu Hinagata, who blackmails him into leaving the Minobe family alone. Hinagata explains to Minobe that she had been having an extended nightmare; Minobe had never actually been tattooed.

In the epilogue, Minobe has an enjoyable time with her clubmates and rekindles her relationship with her mother. During a club meeting, she confesses her love for Susuhara and kisses him.

Tsubakiko Harumiya
After a dream, Tsubakiko Harumiya reflects on her childhood desire to be the "perfect wife", which was hampered by her proclivities towards violence when growing up. This inspires her to visit Suzumu Susuhara and bring him breakfast, which she overcooks. The pair meet up with Natsuya Atsuta at the Iwaimoto Shopping District and come across a classmate being bullied. Enraged, Harumiya assaults the bullies and forces them to leave. Immediately afterwards, Harumiya becomes embarrassed and avoids Susuhara for the rest of the day. However, Susuhara finds her after school and expresses his admiration for her actions. While walking home, Harumiya decides to confess her love to Susuhara, however she freezes when she sees a grotesque figure in the distance. A concerned Susuhara leads her home.

Susuhara puts Haurmiya to bed and contacts Mayu Hinagata, who refers to the incident as a "haunting". Hinagata recommends he remove all sharp objects from the room. When Harumiya wakes, the two talk briefly and Susuhara leaves. Afterwards, Harumiya locks her door and shuts her curtains. She is plagued by a vague fear of a person from her past, though she is unable to recall exactly who.

The next day, Harumiya experiences another haunting; a grotesque blob breaks into her classroom, chanting her name. Susuhara attempts to cheer up Harumiya by taking her to the arcade after school, however she sees the arcade as being infested with more blobs. Harumiya runs home and realizes that the person from her past had been in her room while she was at school.

The next time she goes to school, Harumiya sees all men as blobs. This leads her to accidentally vomit on delinquent Sho Kamenuma. Kamenuma attempts to fight Harumiya but is overwhelmed by a series of primal attacks. Hinagata appears and leads Harumiya into the infirmary. Susuhara visits Hinagata and learns that Harumiya is not experiencing the typical daydreams; she is experiencing emotional trauma resulting from a past experience with a sexual predator.

Meanwhile, Harumiya has a daydream wherein she is attacked by a blob who turns her into a ball-jointed doll. Susuhara appears in the daydream and reveals that the sexual predator who assaulted her had died in prison two years prior. Harumiya destroys the blob, an entity manifested by the spirit of Rokugami's curse. Using his Divine Tribute Style, Susuhara destroys the spirit.

In the epilogue, Harumiya is welcomed back to school, having impressed everyone by beating Kamenuma and his fellow delinquents. She confesses her love for Susuhara and kisses him.