FallDown: Kikuchi Ryou

Kikuchi Ryou is a delinquent leading a routine life with his little sister until one day he starts seeing MAMIYA, who claims to be his father.
—Route description

Legacy ver.

Introduction

When Natsume Souichirou's funeral service comes to a close, Ryou stands to leave, but a ball-point pen falls from his pocket. The Protagonist picks it up and hands it back to Ryou, initiating a conversation about his relationship with Natsume. The pen used to belong to the deceased, but he lent it to Ryou during class without saying a word. When Ryou tried to return the pen the next day, Natsume was adamant he keep it, so he did. Ryou planned to return it someday, but Natsume died before he could follow through. They weren't particularly close, but Ryou remembers Natsume positively and attended his funeral to say a proper goodbye. The Protagonist tells Ryou to take good care of it, since that's what Natsume would have wanted.

"And now it's an item left behind by a dead guy."
—Kikuchi Ryou

They part ways, and the perspective changes to Ryou.

On the way home from the funeral, Ryou gets into a fight. He returns home to his apartment, where he lives with his little sister Kikuchi Midori and their abusive mother, who is frequently out of the house, either at work or on dates.

The next day, Ryou goes to school. Generally, he only attends school for one or two classes a day, and otherwise spends his days at various part-time jobs or watching over Midori. When he walks into class, the rest of his classmates instantly shut up, finding him intimidating due to his reputation for getting into fights.

On this particular day, Ryou leaves school early to pick up Midori from the playground. She says she wants to go to the beach despite it being winter, so the two of them walk down to the ocean. Midori runs off while Ryou looks out over the water, but she returns to Ryou soon after to tell him she found a person passed out in the ocean. The emergency situation reminds Ryou of Natsume's death and the last time he saw a corpse, so he drags the man out of the water while he sends Midori to grab a towel. The man wakes once he's out of the water, and he introduces himself as Suou Keito. Midori gives him the towel to dry off. Thankful, Keito asks Ryou for his name, but Ryou tells him not to worry about it, avoiding involvement with Keito for his sake. He suggests that Keito go to a hospital and then leaves the beach with Midori.

On the way home, a man who Ryou previously fought confronts him. Ryou tells Midori to head home without him while he stays back to fight the aggressor. The fight ends when Ryou is hit with a brick and passes out.

Meeting MAMIYA

After Ryou wakes up, he starts to head home, only to run into a strange boy wearing a bunny mask. The boy introduces himself as MAMIYA, and says that he's wanted to meet Ryou for a very long time. Ryou is about to tell him off, but MAMIYA disappears. Once he's home, makes dinner for himself and Midori. Their mother does not come home that night.

The next morning, Ryou wakes up and finds MAMIYA in his room, freaking him out. MAMIYA follows Ryou to school, saying that he is Ryou's father. Toujou Minato shows up and joins Ryou on the way to school, and when Ryou responds to something MAMIYA says and Minato only reacts with confusion, Ryou realizes that he is the only one who can see MAMIYA.

On his way to work, Ryou passes a man getting beat up by a bully. Ryou ignores them, but as he watches, Keito tries to help the victim by pretending to call for the police. The bully runs off, but when Keito approaches the victim, but instead of thanking him, the man says Keito shouldn't have helped and runs off. Ryou goes to work to his job at a donut shop, and, shortly after, Keito shows up as well. He tells Ryou he's been searching for him, wanting to return the towel the Kikuchis gave him. He asks for Ryou's name again, and Ryou finally tells him. As they talk, Midori shows up at the donuts shop as well, and she says she wouldn't mind seeing Keito again. So Keito continues hanging out with Midori and Ryou, and the Kikuchis start accepting his presence.

Ryou notices that Midori is being bullied at school, but as part of their mutual agreement where Midori ignores his fights, Ryou pretends not to notice her struggles at school. When they meet up with Keito later on at the playground, Keito confides in Ryou that he got into a fight with his mom and doesn't want to go home. To encourage Keito to make up with his mother, Ryou writes him a letter, telling Keito not to open it until he gets home.

As Ryou gets ready to head home, MAMIYA shows up and tells Ryou once more that he's special. Ryou hits him on the head. Ryou and Midori go home, but as they're getting finished getting out of the bath, their mother arrives home. She is extremely drunk, and she calls for Ryou to helps her undress in the middle of the living room. Their mother heads stumbles over to her room, and is suddenly enraged when she sees Midori blow-drying her hair on her bed. She kicks Midori off her bed, yelling about how she hates her and wishes her ex, Osamu, was here. MAMIYA shows up to console Ryou, telling him that while children cannot choose their homes, MAMIYA chose Ryou.

The Amusement Park

On another day, Keito gives Ryou a letter in response to the one Ryou gave him. Ryou is about to open it, but Keito repeats what Ryou told him, forbidding him from opening the letter until he gets home. Ryou mutters that he doesn't want to go home, but he does. He reads the letter and thinks about Keito's words as he gets beat up by his mother so that Midori won't have to get hurt. At the end of his letter, Keito asked what Ryou's favorite food was, but Ryou can't remember.

Keito gets three free tickets to the amusement park from his father, and he decides to take Ryou and Midori with him. They ride a bunch of rides together, although Ryou decides to sit out while Keito and Midori ride the tower of terror. As he waits for them to finish, Ryou feels like he's been to the amusement park with someone else years ago, but before he can recall who had taken him, MAMIYA appears and drags Ryou onto the merry-go-round. MAMIYA selects a black horse for Ryou to ride on, saying that this horse is ready to take him on a journey.

After reuniting with Midori and Keito, Ryou remarks that this is the happiest he's been in his life. To round off the day, the three of them go on the Ferris wheel. They watch the town as they go high into the sky, but when Ryou turns around, there is suddenly a man in a green scarf where Keito was sitting. Ryou notes that the man seems oddly familiar, and although he resembles Minato, his aura is too intimidating to be Minato.

All sorts of images flashed through my mind.

Flowing liquid...

The screeching of metal...

The taste of blood...

The man in the green scarf says that he's been waiting for Ryou. He's happy that Ryou seems to remember him, and says there's no need to be afraid, as he just wants to talk. Ryou freaks out, screaming "MAMIYA" over and over again. He collapses, and when he wakes up, Keito apologizes profusely.

The next day at school, Ryou asks if Minato went to the amusement park yesterday. Minato responds, "No."

Accepting MAMIYA

Later that day, the donut shop cancels Ryou's shift, so he decides to go to the shoe store to check out the sneakers he really wants to buy. Afraid that the sneakers will be gone by tomorrow, Ryou hurries home to get the money he's been saving to buy them, which he hid away in his desk. When he gets home, he's surprised to see his mother there, along with a new purse that seems way above what she can normally afford. With a sinking feeling, Ryou runs to look in his desk to find his money missing, and his mother laughs at him, saying that the desk was a way too obvious hiding spot.

As Ryou wallows in frustration in the bathroom of their apartment, MAMIYA appears before him, asking if he's ever felt like he wanted to kill his mother. When Ryou asks if MAMIYA feels bad for him, MAMIYA replies that he has never once felt bad for Ryou or looked down on him. Then Mamiya asks Ryou if he would kill his mother if society allowed violence. Finally, MAMIYA asks if Ryou thinks fantasy is convenient, and if MAMIYA is such a convenient fantasy.

After Ryou answers all his questions, MAMIYA summarizes that Ryou wants to run away, stating that even though MAMIYA is a fantasy, he is still the only one who can save Ryou—If Ryou takes MAMIYA's hand. Ryou takes his hand, and MAMIYA hugs him. In the bedroom, MAMIYA gives Ryou the toy car he had yearned for as a child, and Ryou feels like he finally has someone he can depend on. MAMIYA encourages Ryou's violent tendencies, saying that Ryou has the right to choose the world that's easier for him, because Ryou is special.

Uncontrollable Violence

On another day, Minato runs into Ryou and invites him to visit the judo dojo they had attended together as children, but Ryou refuses. Minato reminds him that their judo teacher taught them that strength exists for self-defense, not hurting others. Minato points out that although Ryou usually only takes down his aggressors in self-defense, recently he's been actively going after opponents. Ryou is about to swing a metal pipe at Minato, who tells Ryou to do it. Shaken by Minato's resolution, Ryou walks away instead.

Ryou then runs into Keito, who had overheard his and Minato's argument. Keito says he respected Ryou, but Ryou says Keito's hypocrisy is its own form of violence, reminding him of the victim's reaction when Keito tried to save him from a bully. Keito protests against Ryou's words, and Ryou demands that Keito admit his own faults. When Keito accuses Ryou of running away, Ryou punches him.

After punching Keito, Ryou runs away. When MAMIYA shows up, Ryou confesses to him that he didn't mean to punch Keito, lamenting that Keito looked at him like his classmates. Ryou blames it on being scum, as the child of a scumbag. When Ryou gets home, his mother is there too. He talks back to her, and she gets mad, saying that she wished she'd never given birth to him and Midori.

Finally snapping, Ryou hits his mom with an iron pipe until she stops moving. MAMIYA encourages him to land the final blow, and Ryou hopes that her death will secure a safe future for Midori. But Midori comes home, seeing Ryou covered in their mother's blood. She screams, rejecting him when Ryou tries to reach out to her.

Stunned by Midori's reaction, Ryou stumbles out of the apartment and into the rain, feeling terrible now that Midori and Keito had both rejected him. With the rain crashing down around them, MAMIYA tells Ryou to imagine that everything is a wonderland and to remember the greatest excitement he's ever felt. Suddenly, ten or so men show up, kicking Ryou and beating him up as the sound of sirens ring in the distance.

The men finally leave. On the brink of consciousness, Ryou admits to MAMIYA that he's always wanted to run. Finally, MAMIYA takes him to the Trichiliocosm.

Version Changes

The following changes were made to this route between the Legacy version and the Complete Collection: