Sae Kurosawa - Story

Story

The game opens with twin sisters Mio and Mayu Amakura, who are visiting their favorite childhood place before it is cleared out for a dam. Mayu, who walks with a limp after a childhood accident, follows a mysterious red butterfly deep into the woods. Mio, concerned for her older sister, follows, and they soon discover a village at night. While it seems abandoned, the twins soon realize that the village houses the tortured souls of the dead, forever reliving the event that trapped them in this state.

Mayu soon falls under the village's spell and, beckoned by the crimson butterflies, is led deeper into the village. As Mio follows, she slowly learns of the Crimson Sacrifice Ritual, the failure of which caused the "Repentance", a disaster which shrouded the village in darkness. The village also houses a system of tunnels, its deepest point home to the "Hellish Abyss", a deep hole that collects the souls of the dead. To keep this hole from unleashing darkness, a pair of twins born in the village are required to perform a ritual approximately every decade, in which the elder twin strangles the younger, after which the soul of the younger twin stays to guard the village as a crimson butterfly. The last pair of twins, Yae and Sae Kurosawa, tried to escape this fate, aided by Itsuki Tachibana, the Remaining twin of the previous (unsuccessful) ritual. During their escape, Sae was caught and brought back to the village, while Yae found herself at the Himuro Mansion. Desperate, the villagers hanged Sae to try to satisfy the Hellish Abyss; the attempt failed, causing the Repentance to occur and the village to disappear.

Throughout the game, several ghosts refer to Mio as Yae and seem to expect her to perform the ritual with Mayu, who becomes possessed by Sae. Itsuki, however, tries to help her - believing the two to be the Kurosawa twins, he tries to aid their escape from the village again. Near the end of the game, when Mio is finally reunited with Mayu, she discovers a document left by a visiting folklorist concerning the twin order. In the village, the twin born second is considered the elder, as they let the weaker, "younger" twin be born first. This completely reverses Mio's intended fate: instead of being sacrificed herself, she must strangle her twin sister, a fate which has driven many previous Remaining twins to madness and suicide.

Fatal Frame II has three potential endings. The Crimson Butterfly ending sees Mio and Mayu proceeding with the ritual, where Mayu becomes a crimson butterfly. The Lingering Scent ending sees Mio escaping from the village without Mayu, which leads to an automatic game over. The Hellish Abyss ending sees Mio rescuing Mayu from Sae, only to become permanently blinded from looking into the Hellish Abyss. The Promise Ending, added to the "Director's Cut" version, sees Yae and Sae performing the ritual and freeing the villagers' spirits, thus sparing Mio and Mayu. Two new endings are included in the game's Wii Edition. The Shadow Ritual ending sees Mio unable to stop the Repentance in time, but chooses to stay with Mayu together in death over fleeing the village alone. The Frozen Butterfly ending sees Mio refusing to proceed with the ritual, resulting in Mayu strangling her instead (thus allowing another Repentance). According to the events of Fatal Frame III: The Tormented, the direct sequel of the game, the Crimson Butterfly ending is the canonical ending.