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THE KIRYUU FAMILY
桐生家
Ki: paulownia tree :: Ryuu: life
The Kiryuu family lived in one of the "twin houses" on the northeast side of All God's Village. They successfully performed the Crimson Sacrifice many years before the Repentance. Since the master of the house was a dollmaker, this is the house where you go to get your Cursed Doll fix. There's a room full of dolls hanging from the ceiling by a rope around their neck, doll parts all over the place, creepily realistic life-sized dolls that operate door mechanisms, and, of course, twin ghosts that attack you.
 | KIRYUU AKANE ( 桐生 茜 )
"Akane" is a sort of strong orangish-red color, like madder.
The older of the Kiryuu twins (and "the Remaining" for that family), she strangled her younger sister to death in a Crimson Sacrifice many years before the Repentance. She became almost catatonic from grief afterwards, so her father, a skilled dollmaker, built a life-sized doll that looked like Azami to comfort her. But an evi spirit possessed the doll and eventually began to control Akane too. When her father tried to destroy the doll (by hanging and then throwing it in the Abyss, mimicking what was done to Sae; I guess that's what they do if there's only one twin in a Sacrifice), Akane got afraid that she'd be forced to "kill again," and therefore broke the mechanism of the door leading to the underground passages. When this didn't work, she strangled her father (you know, I'm not quite following her logic here, but okay.) She died soon afterwards when the evil spirit in the Azami doll completely sucked out her soul, and she and the doll haunt the Kiryuu house, which I imagine was abandoned after this disaster.
| | | KIRYUU AZAMI ( 桐生 薊 )
"Azami" means "thistle," like the plant.
The younger Kiryuu twin, who died (successfully) in the Crimson Sacrifice Ritual. She returned to the earth to warn her father about the evil spirit possessing the doll-Azami, and told him where the hidden pieces of the doll mechanism were so that he could reopen the passage to the Abyss. She still lingers in the house, trying to help people destroy the evil spirit in the doll. (She'll randomly appear in the house - I often found her by the save point - and just stand there. I'd scream like a little girl and grab my camera, but she wouldn't move, and after a minute, she'd fade away. It's just a random encounter.)
| | | KIRYUU YOSHITATSU ( 桐生 善達
)
"Yoshi" means virtue, and "Tatsu" is skill or excellence.
Azami and Akane's father, a skilled dollmaker. Since dolls were used as the mechanisms for the underground passageways connecting the houses in the village and to the Abyss, he was probably responsible for maintaining them. After his twin daughters performed the Crimson Sacrifice, he used his skills to create a perfect replica of the dead Azami. But the doll gained a life of its own - perhaps from Akane's obsession and guilt - and started to walk and move on its own. Yoshitatsu realized that he had to destroy the doll and return the evil possessing soul to the underworld, but Akane and the doll worked against him, hiding the pieces of the doll mechanism for the underground passages. At this point Azami's spirit appeared to him, trying to help him, but it was too late, and Akane and the doll strangled him in his workshop.
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