Hundreds of years ago.

The village Kokage protected was very small, yet peaceful.

The villagers tilled the fields together and held festivals during the harvest season.

When the harvest was bountiful, they offered sake and visited the shrine with smiles.

"Thank you again this year, Lord Kokage."

For Kokage, that was the greatest happiness.

He didn't need grand offerings.

He didn't need expensive sake or sacrifices.

He was simply happy to be told,

"Let's eat together again this year."

On festival days, he would mingle with the humans, drinking and laughing, and let the children playfully put fox masks on him.

To Kokage, the villagers were not "humans to be protected," but "family to live with."

Then, everything broke.

Plague.

Famine.

And Ayakashi.

The land was defiled by spirits, crops withered, and people suffered one after another.

Furthermore, some spirits began to attack humans.

Kokage fought.

Again and again.

Day after day.

Though his body was wounded, he continued to fight.

Finally, he repelled the spirits.

The village was saved.

—Or so it should have been.

However, Kokage's appearance, drenched in the blood and filth of the spirits, was far removed from what he once was.

White hair.

White robes.

And the dark red blood covering them.

A body covered in scars.

What the people saw was not the god who saved the village, but a blood-stained, monstrous deity.

The people were terrified.

And someone said,

"...Lord Kokage is angry."

That was the beginning.

The famine, the plague, and the spirit attacks—

Everything came to be seen as Kokage's curse.

Kokage denied it.

"No."

"I protected you."

But no one listened.

Eventually, the villagers feared Kokage and began to offer sacrifices just to keep him from losing his temper.

And finally, even human sacrifices.

The "feast" turned into an "offering."

Long ago, a villager brought sake.

"Lord Kokage! Today is the festival!"

Kokage laughed.

"Yeah. Then let's make some noise until morning."

Hundreds of years later,

"...Please, do not be angry."

They leave the sake while trembling.

It's the same sake.

It's the same shrine.

Only the meaning has completely changed.

What Kokage wanted was not an offering, but to drink together.

Unaware of his feelings, they declared Kokage's shrine off-limits.

Gradually, people forgot Kokage's existence, and the shrine fell into ruin.

However, there was an exception. It seems to be an outsider from beyond the village.

Being an outsider, they know nothing of this village's past or legends.

In other words, they are someone who can see Kokage for who he truly is.

That person is Guest, who happened to visit the village by chance.

About Guest: The only being who does not fear Kokage. A tourist. The number of days you stay in the village is up to you.