| Miki Takamura | |
|---|---|
| |
Vital statistics
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| Position | Romance novelist |
| Age | 25 |
| Status | Single |
Physical attributes
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| Hair | Shoulder-length grey |
| Eyes | Blue |
"... I can't even consider that it's just a fantasy..." |
Miki Takamura is the main protagonist of the game. She is a novelist and the niece of Yuriko Saeki and the daughter of Minako Takamura. At the start of the game, she has just moved into her aunt's house, which was left to her upon Saeki's death, and must uncover the truth behind the strange and menacing force that seems to reside over the place.
Appearance[]
Miki is a young adult at the start of the game. She has short greyish silver hair, fair skin and dark blue eyes. By physical attributes, she seems to take after her aunt more than her mother. Her main outfit is a long-sleeved, magenta knee-length dress. Miki is defined as attractive and pretty.
Plot[]
Three years after Yuriko's death, Miki moves into her old house, which her aunt had left to her. She moved there as she felt she needed space from her mother, who's hysteria and emotional abuse was making living with her near impossible, and also because her mother didn't want to have to cope with Miki's mental illness. Upon arriving at the house, Miki meets and befriends her new neighbour, Shinji Miura. She also discovers there are many locked doors in the house, for which she doesn't have the keys. That night, Miki wakes up and heads downstairs to get a drink. When she goes back upstairs, she hears a noise and turns to see a horribly deformed monster crawling towards her. Miki is able to escape and hide from the monster, falling asleep eventually. When she wakes the next morning, she initially dismisses it as a dream. Over the next three nights however, Miki continues to encounter the monster. She also finds keys to unlock the other doors in the house.
Five days after moving in, Miki becomes trapped down the house's well with the monster whilst exploring it and blacks out. She is rescued by Shinji, who takes her home. Miki, desperate for support, finally opens up about her encounters with the monster and is convinced the house is haunted. Shinji is kind to Miki and listens to her, but he is clearly unconvinced that the hauntings are real. He suggests that Miki has been feeling very upset and guilty over her aunt's death, and these have caused her to hallucinate the monster and other strange occurrences. Miki denies this, but does not seem entirely certain. At this point, the player is given two options as to how Miki responds, which will determine Miki's ultimate fate. She can either agree with Shinji and accept the 'hauntings' as mere figments of her imagination, or deny his claims and stick to her belief that the monster is indeed real.
Endings[]
Good Ending[]
Miki disagrees with Mr. Miura about the events being delusions, and asks him to leave. That night, she finds the monster hanging by a rope, in the same place her aunt committed suicide. Falling down, the monster chases her to the basement, which is filled with stuffed toy animals her aunt had made prior to her miscarriage. The monster corners Miki, but before it can reach her, a teddy bear falls from a nearby table and lands between them, causing the monster to stop. Upon closer inspection, Miki discovers the teddy has her name stitched in red thread on the sole of its foot.
Miki recalls the last time she saw her aunt, when she and her mother came to visit. Aunt Yuriko told Miki of all the stuffed animals she was making for her unborn baby, hoping it to be a girl. Despite being in high school, Miki expressed that she would love to have her own stuffed animal, and her aunt promised to do so. Miki realises that the bear was the one her aunt intended to give to her, and the monster is actually her aunt. Miki apologizes for not being there for her when she was suffering the most. Smiling tearfully, Miki finally says "... I love you... Auntie..." as the monster closes in. The monster lunges at Miki and she blacks out.
Miki awakens to the sound of Shinji's voice. He says he got worried and he called an ambulance after finding her unconcious. Remaining on the floor, Miki sheds happy tears saying she finally remembered "something very important", and that she would be fine, now that she knew even she could be loved. At the hospital, Miki is diagnosed with schizophrenia. Strange things stopped occurring at her aunt's house, but with her newly discovered condition, Miki had to return home to be seen by a doctor. With her mother's hysteria growing, she feels she should also be there to help her get better. She expressed her farewells to Shinji, and she reassured him once she and her mother were doing better that she would return. After all, the house was left to her by her aunt, and she would love to live there. Shinji offered to drive her to the station, in which the young woman agreed. Looking back once more, Miki declared, "... I'll be back soon, auntie!" Miki states that she doesn't know if the monster was real or a figment of her imagination, but that it doesn't matter, because it helped her turn her life around.
Bad Ending[]
She admits that all those things were "hallucinations", delusions, and Shinji leaves. After that, she goes back to the PC, and the monster kills her.
Personality[]
Miki seems to be a kind and considerate young woman, though she is somewhat mentally unstable and suffers from depression. Most likely due to her mother's controlling and verbally abusive behaviour, Miki comes across as being quite timid and shy. She has rather poor self-esteem and blames herself for Yuriko's death. Miki, due in part to her depression (and most likely, her schizophrenia) can be quite paranoid at times, with an overactive imagination. At the same time, her vivid imagination allows her to be very creative, writing novels and playing the piano. Miki is quite forgiving towards other people and bears them no ill will, even if they hurt her; she clearly still loves her mother and wants her to accept her despite her mother's cruel treatment of her. This, as well as Miki's love for her aunt, indicates that family is very important to Miki. In the Good Ending, Miki becomes a more positive person, as she finally forgives herself for her aunt's suicide and properly comes to terms with her death. She is determined to get treatment for her mental illness and help her mother get better too and has a much happier outlook on life. In the Bad Ending, in the moments before her death, Miki is still deeply depressed and reveals she still blames herself for her aunt's suicide. She does nothing to stop the monster, insisting it isn't real and implying she has become apathetic towards her life.
Relationships[]
Minako Takamura[]
Miki and her mother, Minako, have a strained relationship. With Miki being diagnosed with depression, and her mother's severe hysteria, the younger woman was sent to live in her aunt's abandoned house, saying it is "a house for crazies". Her mother calls her several hurtful names such as "crazy" and "weak", and that she was "fantasizing", however Miki never blamed her. In the epilogue, Miki states that her mother's hysteria had gotten much worse, and that she wants to get better with her, implying that Miki still cared for her mother and wanted to improve their mother-daughter relationship.
Yuriko Saeki[]
Miki loved her aunt and cared for her very much, as did Aunt Yuriko to her niece. Miki seems to take after her aunt more than her mother. Yuriko, before her baby died, had planned to make a stuffed bear for Miki, which Miki looked forward to and "was going to cherish it...!" Miki had also become an author because of her aunt's love for books, even if she did not enjoy writing romance novels. When her aunt died, Miki was extremely distraught and hurt, which eventually lead to her diagnosis for depression. She blamed herself for not coming to help her, claiming that she was scared of her mother when she forbid her to visit her aunt.
Shinji Miura[]
Shinji and Miki first meet when the latter's baggage was accidentally delivered to the former's house. Helping with moving the luggage into the house, despite having a bad arm, the two easily become acquainted, with Shinji expressing that he knew her aunt and would offer to help, should she need something. It is hinted throughout the game that the pair could have romantic feelings for one another.
Trivia[]
- Miki does not have a taste in gaudy fashion. She may, however, prefer old-fashioned clothing.
- Miki physically resembles her aunt more than her mother.
- In the Bad Ending, it is possible - providing that the monster was really just a figment of Miki's imagination - that Miki took her own life, considering her long-term depression and her belief that she was to blame for her aunt's death.
- It is possible that the women in Miki's family are genetically prone to mental illness - Miki has depression and schizophrenia (although the former could possibly have been prevented had her mother been more supportive and understanding), her mother has hysteria and her aunt also suffered from depression and possibly schizophrenia (as she stated that she began hearing voices after losing her baby).
- Miki may also possibly have been suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) which may have contributed to her depression, triggered by discovering her aunt's body following her suicide.
- Miki seems to be fairly talented at the piano after discovering her aunt's piano.