VN Talk: Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly - Part 2: Kagiha

This is the first of my character arc looks for Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly. You can get my thoughts for the overall story over here.

Admittedly the main reason I chose to break out my subsequent posts by character arcs rather than routes is because of Kagiha. Since his past and his connection to Beniyuri form the climax of the main story, the main story essentially is his route. Hikage might be the love interest on the cover and the most prominent one on the title screen, but in the story itself Kagiha is the most important person to Beniyuri, and her feelings for him are the fulcrum on which the plot rests.

It's Kagiha's death in the real world that caused her to withdraw out of fear of losing other people, and it's his selflessness that saves her not only as a child, but as a teenager.

Though Kagiha has his own ending like all the love interests, it's very short and very weird (I didn't even think it was really him until the game called it the Kagiha Ending) and would not have been worth doing a full post about since it would be a few paragraphs of me asking what the hell.

Also, there are things I want to bring up from other routes, and it feels best to do this by character rather than doing a post for every ending.

When I started the game I didn't think Kagiha was going to end up being my favorite character, largely because I disliked his character design (it's grown on me since), but the game did a wonderful job of selling me on Beniyuri and Kagiha's relationship as children and when they reunite as teenagers in the manor world. As a result, I completely bought in to their feelings for one another.

It's unusual for an otome heroine to have a canonical first love, but the Best and Real World Endings makes it clear that Kagiha was Beniyuri's. Even before we get to that point, once she begins to remember who he is and what he meant to her, we see her fear of losing him, and this is before she realizes that he's already dead. It's worth noting that even if she moves on to loving someone else in an alternate epilogue where she returns to the world of the living, that doesn't change anything about how she feels about Kagiha during the main game itself.

It also helps that Kagiha is the kindest member of the cast. When Beniyuri struggles to answer whether she still wants to marry him, he doesn't pressure her, even though from his perspective this is all he exists for. And of course his sacrifice to allow Beniyuri and the others to return to life is the emotional high point of the game, especially since Beniyuri is the only one capable of shooting both him and Hikage to free everyone.

We know Beniyuri was broken by losing him, and now she has to lose him all over again, but the girl comes through (unlike a certain someone in 7'scarlet *cough*) and this time Kagiha passes on to a proper death.

With one exception in the main storyline, the Kagiha we see is the Kagiha of Beniyuri's memories; kind and compassionate, the sort of boy willing to sacrifice himself for others.

When he dives into the lake as a child to save Beniyuri, we're not surprised. When he rescues her and goes back for Monshiro, that is not unexpected either, because that is the kind of person he is. It wouldn't have been enough for Kagiha if he saved Beniyuri and left Monshiro to drown, even though that choice ultimately cost him his life.

In fact, that is why I initially didn't believe it was him in his personal ending, because it's so twisted.

Beniyuri wakes up in the middle of the night to the sound of rain and an odd voice that pesters her about how she can't trust her companions since they're withholding information from her. (The laughing voice sounds like her own, implying that she might be going insane.) Trying to get away from the voice, she leaves the greenhouse the group is currently using as a hideout and bumps into Kagiha, who seems to have escaped Hikage.

Though she's initially doubtful it's him (with good reason, seeing as he was dragged off as a hostage), his behavior is of the Kagiha she remembers, not just in the manor world, but also the real one. As part of her internal argument with herself, she pictures a dream world where she and Kagiha are married and live a happy life together, and she becomes lost within it. Reluctantly the voice pestering her gives up, seeing that this is what she really wants.

Which I was fine with as a bad ending. But Kagiha plays along with her hallucination and there's a super creepy image of them in the dream world that transitions to the two of them in the manor in the exact same pose, making it clear that nothing Beniyuri is seeing is real and Kagiha is aware of it. He even calls her his wife and says he will protect her.

That was my what the hell moment, because that's not the wish of a guy who's kind and always looking for the best for those he cares about.

But it turns out, he's actually a darker character than he initially appears. It's just easier to overlook on first playthrough.

When Kagiha died, his soul and Monshiro's arrived in the manor world at the same time. Kagiha agreed to work for Hikage in exchange for the chance to return to life, even when the work became despicable (as we learn on Monshiro's route). More than anything, Kagiha wanted to return to Beniyuri, and that desire never changed.

By the time Beniyuri arrives in the manor, he's working as the master's assistant, and pretends to have amnesia even though he recognizes her. At some point he modifies the deal he has with Hikage to bring them both back, but he recognizes that what he's doing is terrible. He's become willing to sacrifice anything and everything for the future he's been dreaming of ever since he was a kid. He knows it's wrong and he's afraid Beniyuri will hate him for it, but he can't bring himself to tell her.

Later in the game he even convinces her to give up her mother's ribbon, which is a protective talisman, so that Hikage's plans can proceed. Though he regrets it relatively quickly when he sees Hikage has no intention of keeping his promises, he still did it, knowing that Hikage could not be trusted.

As Hikage points out, Kagiha never believed him, but working with him was his only hope so he had no choice.

It's easy to say that Kagiha makes a lot of bad decisions over the course of the game, and that he should have known better. Monshiro even calls him out over how he's changed since they were kids. But the thing is, Kagiha was about seven when he died, and spent the last ten years in purgatory being neither living nor fully dead.

He was a very mature seven-year-old with a good-natured personality, which maps closely with how he is when he's presenting as seventeen in the manor world, but there are a fair number of cues that Kagiha is still a kid inside. For instance, in the optional Shoujo Manga episode, Kagiha is shocked and embarrassed to see a depiction of kissing between kids at school. It made him look terribly prudish at the point in the game when I unlocked it (not knowing his backstory), but on replay it was hilarious because I realized that's because he's still a kid. In fact, most of his romantic gestures are things people do with close friends and family in general (bringing hot cocoa, cooking together, etc), which is probably because that's the best way he knows to show he cares.

Despite all his mistakes though, Kagiha ultimately makes the right choice, bringing him back the kind of person he was before he died. After holding on for ten years he finally lets go of his wish to return to life, and his final request of Beniyuri before she shoots him and Hikage is for her to smile and live a happy life under the sun; the life she'd largely been denying herself.

Notably, Kagiha is the only love interest without a kiss scene, likely because it wouldn't have fit with his chaste impression of romance.