At one point this was going to be the site of a huge development. An effort to modernize Tokimori, regardless of how much it might have changed the landscape, how many people might have had to move.
But you haven’t seen anyone go there in a while.
Maybe the adults won? You don’t really understand much about the conflict over the new building. It’s hard to say if you even know for sure if your parents were for or against it.
It’s complicated, and you’re young. It’s hard for you to think too much about this.
Instead, you’d rather enjoy evenings like this. Evenings where you can hear the cicadas crying, and watch the sunset. Where it feels like you can find all sorts of new things down by the riverbank.
That’s the reason you’re here.
Some of your friends are around too, but you’ve spread out a bit in search of the biggest prize to show up the others.
Something really unique and exciting.
Something nobody would have expected to find.
You guess that looking around near the construction site might make it easier to find something different. Not just a shiny rock or an interesting insect, but something left over by the workers, even if they haven’t been there for nearly a week now.
The rocky riverbank nearby is the perfect place to look. Maybe your parents told you to be careful, but---
Well of course you’re going to be careful, aren’t you?
Besides, it’s not like this is the first time you’ve ever been here.
With the overhanging trees providing a shady backdrop as the sun sinks lower, you navigate the rocky bank with your eyes cast downwards, searching for anything that might spark some interest.
You’re not just looking for something commonplace, after all. You have to keep your eyes peeled for something truly special that will let you beat your friends.
It’s a little bit further then you were supposed to go, but it’s fine. It’s not like this part of the riverbank is that different from the riverbank just a little further down, right?
You can’t see or hear your friends, but that’s alright, isn’t it? They’re around, so it’s not like you’re really alone, right?
Maybe that thought makes you hesitate a little. Maybe it doesn’t.
All you can hear is the softly-flowing water, and the crying of cicadas. Your friends must be pretty busy looking for their own prizes.
It’s getting a little more dark, now. But you’ve been by this river plenty.
You’re not scared, right?
Of course not.
You move a little further down, eyes still fixed on the rocky bank, looking for anything strange from the construction site that might have gotten caught up in the stones.
The quicker your find something, the quicker you can get back to your friends.
It really is getting darker faster than you expected, though.
The cicadas crying is drowning out most other sounds. There’s a lot of them this year.
That’s probably why you can’t hear your friends. Because you still have to be close by, right?
That’s why you don’t hear them.
The wind blows.
The leaves rustle.
The cicadas cry.
You’re fine. You’re safe. Nothing bad has happened to you before, so you’re fine.
You don’t want to think about the stories your friends told you right now. The legends and folklore of your hometown. The ghostly figure with a Hannya mask. The oni that lives in the swamp. The ones spirited away by things that only come out at night.
It’s getting awfully dark.
You’re awfully alone.
You haven’t done anything wrong though, so nothing bad should happen, right?
There’s no reason anyone should be mad at you. There’s no reason you should need to be punished.
So there’s no reason you should be hurt, or spirited away, or---
A twig snaps behind you, cutting through the sound of the cicadas and the flowing water.
Your blood runs cold. Your whole body turns rigid.
You can’t move.
You hear something. Something like a faint whisper at your ear.
Your heart hammers so fast it nearly feels like it’ll burst out of your chest. Your breath catches in your throat.
You don’t want to turn around. You don’t want to see what’s there.
But you have to.
Running down the bank will only take you further away from your friends, further away from town. The river is too deep, you can’t swim well.
The only way to get back is to go the direction that you heard the snapping twig.
You take one deep breath.
Then two.
Then three.
You have to run. You have to go as fast as you can.
You whole body tenses. Your heart beats even faster.
You’re going to turn.
Whatever it is, you might see it.
Above all else, the one with you don’t want to see more than anything is that black-furred, red-eyed fox.
You spin in place, and---
There’s nothing there.
For a few moments, you’re unable to move. But aside from the water and the cicadas, you don’t hear anything else.
You got that scared, over nothing? The twig snapping could have been anything!
You can’t help but feel relieved. There’s no way you’ll ever mention this to your friends, though. You’re not some sort of scaredy-cat after all, right.
It’s only when you take another step that you see it.
There’s something in the water.
From here, it looks almost like a dead fish washed up. After a moment’s pause, your heartbeat quickening again, you take a step closer.
The water around it is stained red.
It’s dark, so from this distance it’s a little difficult to make out its shape. When you take another step, though, the details become clearer.
It’s not a dead fish.
You take another step.
It’s only then that you realize.
It’s---
The village of Tokimori, near the Gifu Prefecture in Japan, is looked upon by outsiders as a place out of step with the modern world. A vacation spot where someone can immerse themselves in rural life.
By those who call it home, it’s seen as the only place for them. Surrounded by the countryside, by old forests and mountainous terrain, it’s the kind of place where everyone knows all their neighbors, where doors are left open, and trust in one another abounds.
A village with close to 2,000 people, it boasts only a single school with mixed classes up to and including Junior High level. With the population, there’s a low number of students, and thus there’s little need for anything bigger.
A town with its own beliefs and culture. The two-faced, white-or-black fox deity Shirokaze-sama, said to watch over all its residents. To come as a white fox bearing blessings, or a black fox bearing curses. Those who see the white fox are said to receive good fortune. Those who see the black fox are said to be sinners, doomed to disappear forever.
A town where traditions are a backdrop to daily life, where the town’s council and its oldest families are looked upon with nothing less than the deepest respect. In fact, it could be said that the heads of these families command more respect and authority in Tokimori than any government official could ever hope to achieve. This is how most residents of Tokimori think it should be, but outsiders can find it difficult to deal with.
Especially if one of these families becomes their enemies.
It’s not exactly surprising that the resident of Tokimori aren’t so trusting of tourists and other outsiders. Sometimes they’re seen as tourists disrupting daily life, while others they’re heralds of projects that could potentially change the entire village for the worse, at least in the eyes of many of its residents.
This is what happened four years ago. The Tokimori Revitalization Project was in the eyes of some something that would bring the village forward in time.
In the eyes of many residents, it was the destruction of all they held dear. The conflict over the project lasted for a year, until eventually the proponents relented, and the project was ultimately canceled.
Perhaps this was due to the villagers’ protests. Perhaps this is due to a change in leadership for those behind the project.
Or perhaps, it was due to the mysterious death of a construction worker, who disappeared in mid-June three years ago.
Fukazawa Takehiro had been exhibiting increasingly erratic behavior prior to his disappearance, complaining of difficulty sleeping and the belief that he was being watched. The last time his coworkers spoke to him, he claimed to have seen red eyes watching him as he returned home the previous night.
He was missing for nearly a week before a child playing near the construction site made a grisly discovery.
A severed right arm washed up on the riverbank. DNA testing was required to confirm that it belonged to none other than Fukazawa Takehiro himself.
The rest of his body was never found.
While there were many suspects, including members of the oldest families in Tokimori, no conclusive evidence was ever found linking anyone to the apparent murder.
The next year, in early June, a local family who had been proponents of the Revitalization Project disappeared. Their child was found alive but unconscious and showing signs of exposure, requiring a hospital stay to recover.
The wife was found dead, drowned in the nearby swamp. The husband’s body was never recovered.
The next year, a vacationing photographer who had been hiking near the abandoned construction site disappeared in early June.
When he was found, he appeared to have disemboweled himself on the riverbank near where Fukazawa’s arm was initially discovered.
To outsiders, it seemed to be a string of bizarre murders.
To the locals, perhaps it was the anger of their local god. Fukazawa had mentioned red eyes.
Were these the red eyes of the black fox?
In a few days, it’ll be mid-June again.
In a few days, it’s said someone is bound to disappear and die.
And yet life goes on in Tokimori. Students attend their school and play. Adults go about their daily business. The old families make decisions that guide the entire village’s future.
Everyone gets ready for the Summer and its first festival.
The fox stalks the forest. When you see it, will it be white —
—Or black?
So I’ve recently been feeling super nostalgic, and one of the main things that set this off was rewatching Higurashi. So, as you might have already guessed, this is an RP inspired by Higurashi! Obviously it’s not going to be aiming for the exact same thing(the time loops and main character murders are just not very likely to work in RP form) but at its core I want to run something with the same sort of feel. From slice of life to trying to figure out what’s going on to creepy and unsettling events and even murders, that’s what I’m aiming for.
To begin with, we’ll be playing as students from elementary to junior high-age, specifically a small number of them no more than five or six at the max. I don’t want this to be a huge RP in terms of player count, though there will be plenty of NPCs.
While it’s not mandatory, I’d like at least one player to be an outsider who recently moved in, one player to be the one who discovered Fukazawa’s arm, and less importantly one to be the child of the disappeared parents.
I’d encourage people to really integrate their characters into the village, such as being a child of one of the families in control of the village, or being related to the Revitalization Project in some way or another. I’m super happy to work with anyone who wants to play these kinds of roles!
While of course there will be mysterious elements and efforts to work out what’s going on, I definitely want to place a strong emphasis on character interaction and how these people see one another and interact. That’s just as crucial to resolving the true source of the deaths as knowing what’s happening, after all.
Also there
will be supernatural elements to the RP, I’m just not going to make those immediately apparent.
I’ll admit this idea is kind of experimental, but I couldn’t help myself from wanting to try it out honestly.
I’m looking for five to six players max, and expecting at least one post a week from everyone.
- Name:
- Age: (9-15)
- Gender:
- Appearance:
- Personality:
- Brief Backstory:
- Skills:
Member
Raineh Daze
Snowdrops
Chronic
Rezod92
Ithradine
vietmyke
Remram
Damycles
Izurich
Cao the Exiled