Fruits of Grisaia: Yumiko's Path

Compared to the previous two paths, Yumiko's path is actually pretty tamed in the sense that it's as mentally or emotionally challenging. Not to say that her story is any less interesting, I think actually of the two this one reminds me more of something you would see in a novel or in a movie. 

Yumiko is the daughter of one of Japan's largest multi-corporate conglomerate known as the East Beach Railway Group. This particular group has its hands in just about everything and even has contracts exclusively with the Japanese Government and the Japanese Self Defense Forces. As is customary with traditional family ran corporations these families seek to have sons that they can pass down their family business to. 

Yumiko's mother came from another influential and wealthy family, however, their company was feeling the effects of a recession and so in order to stay alive, her family arranged a marriage to Yumiko's father. This being an arranged marriage of exploitation for money was something that weighed on Yumiko's mother but she did as she was supposed to. However, when Yumiko was born, being a girl, meant that she had little use to her father. And her mother's health condition made it harder to have more than one child. This led to her father taking his frustrations out on Yumiko's mother. 

Yumiko's memories of her father are almost nothing, she only remembers actually seeing him maybe once or twice, and he never spoke to her. Eventually, the physical, emotional, and mental abuse was more than her mother could handle and she left and returned to her own parent's house. While their years of mental stress finally pushed her into a physical sickness that required her to be placed into a hospital. This left Yumiko in the care of her grandparents that treated her as more of a problem than a granddaughter. On more than one occasion she can overhear her grandparents say, 'if only she had been born a boy'.

With little interaction with others, Yumiko found solace in drawing and in reading. She never had any friends and she preferred to be alone. Or more so that she forced herself to put up walls to keep others out. She knew the more she tried to interact with others the more of a chance she had of getting hurt. Time passed and she entered middle school, she would spend her days going to school, then going to the hospital to visit her mother who spoke very rarely, she would then return home to her grandparents and spend her time studying or drawing. Only out of necessity did her grandparents do anything for her. Her grandparents had a servant that took care of their needs, this was the only person that Yumiko had any interaction with and they were always pleasant.

But she was an older lady and her grandparents took advantage of her when they could. Eventually, the servant passed and Yumiko was told by the woman's family she wasn't wanted at the funeral as they blamed her family for a hard time that their grandmother had to endure. Soon however another hit came from her own mother. While visiting her mother her mother made a harsh comment that caught Yumiko by surprise. "Why couldn't you have been born a boy." This single phrase she had heard time and time again was then stated by her own mother.

Months later, her mother finally showed signs of improvement to the point the doctors were discussing discharging her. Her mother had started talking to her again, showing signs of life, walking around, and overall was better than she had been. She had gotten her life back. However, this was short-lived, when heading to school one morning she was approached by a man that dealt with a local tabloid and he began to ask her questions about her father. It was the same one that would ask her questions from time to time she just told him to get lost.

However, he produced an article that was printed in a business magazine that took her by surprise. During this time her father had been implicated in an affair that left a new heir with the birth of a boy in the family, with a part of the article saying that he would be seeking a divorce with his current wife. Yumiko realized suddenly however that her mother would read this very magazine daily. She rushed to the hospital to stop the article from reaching her mother, her mother just now starting to get better, a sudden thing like this would reverse all that work on her recovery. 

The course of events that followed, forced Yumiko to place herself into darkness that allowed no one to get to close to her. By the time she reached the hospital, it was too late, her mother had seen the article, and what life was left had left her. She was even worse than when she was first placed in the hospital. Her mother would never leave the hospital. 

Eventually, Yumiko would get word one day that her father had wanted her to move back in with him. She was wary of this but with her mother gone, her grandparents treating her worse than dirt, she thought maybe just maybe things were about to change for the better. 

She went to her father's house, changed schools, and was waited on hand and foot by servants. Her father started to actually show an interest in her life and tried to spend more time with her. She held fast to the darkness and the walls she built around her, but over time she slowly started to remove the feeling that for the first time she was actually wanted. She was actually starting to become happy.  

But all good things come to an end, especially when it comes to the whims of greedy men. One day she decided to walk home instead of going with the driver. Because of this, she got home before she normally would have, in doing so she overheard the servants that took care of her. The long-short of it, they talked about how her father was just using her, how all his acts were exactly that an act. He didn't care about her as his daughter, she was in essence a tool he needed to ensure his legacy and the continuation of his business. She would find out that his only son had died and that was the reason he needed her. Despite her being a girl he could still train her to take over the business and through her run it.

This revelation, this sudden knowledge was something she had thought about, but she had allowed herself to feel happy, to feel like she was finally wanted, that she was loved. But now she realized that was a lie, she was just a tool for her father. She quickly rebuilt her walls and the darkness around her heart grew more and more. Now feeling alone again she decided she would confide into the one friend she had left, a girl she had befriended at school.

She got to school and overheard her friend with some other girls, the girl in question was the daughter of a family that belonged to the same conglomerate as her father, she stated she was only really being friends with Yumiko because her father said it would help their family get into a better position. This of course was the straw that broke the camels back so to speak. One moment she was standing there the next she reached into her art bag and removed the item she would later use as a signature item at the school she met Yuuji in.

She approached her "friend" and right as she spoke to her, the clicks of an Exacto knife could be heard. With speed, she swiped the blade and slashed the girl's hand putting the girl onto the ground. This final act pushed Yumiko into the deepest and darkest part of her own self made hell. Throwing the last of her walls up she no longer could allow anyone close to her, she had cried all the tears she had, gave of herself all she had and now she didn't want to deal with it.

Due to her actions, her father needed to save appearances and so he funded the creation of the school that Yumiko and the other girls went to, and later Yuuji. 

Things between Yumiko and Yuuji started out pretty bad, bad enough she had tried to smack him the first day he arrived, days and weeks after that she would try to stab him with her blade but of course someone with his skills and dexterity wasn't going to be hit by someone like her. As time went by they would slowly start to speak to one another and while not really friends they were friendly at least.

One day out of the blue Yuuji gets a call from his handler, "you have a job, you are the bodyguard of Yumiko until the contract is filled." With that, he began to spend time following Yumiko and keeping an eye on her. The other girls began to notice his change and eventually through snooping in his room found out he had been "stalking" her. He eventually confessed as much as he could that, as part of his job he was officially protecting her. Of course, this went over with Yumiko like a lead balloon, she was not happy. However days later a half-ass attempt at kidnapping her while out drawing startled her enough she softened up a bit.

Multiple instances of attempts to kidnap her failed thanks to Yuuji, during this time Yumiko had started taking more of an interest in Yuuji eventually through being kidnapped by the girls of her dorm she was forced to admit to them that she actually had feelings for him. Of course, she wouldn't say that to him. Just as Yuuji was putting the pieces together as to who it was that was trying to kidnap her he got another call from his handler, "You have been dismissed from your current operation. You are no longer her bodyguard. Withdraw." with that he told her he was no longer her bodyguard. 

Fear gripped her and she asked him, "can I hire you? Can I personally have you be my guard," Yuuji stated she could but he wasn't cheap, the company he worked for had no rule against personal contracts. So she hired him to be her personal bodyguard. A couple of attempts later the reality of the situation was figured out. Yuuji was injured while guarding her and with that, she decided she couldn't watch as the other girls or Yuuji was hurt because of her, she made the choice to leave.

She first dismissed him as her bodyguard, then without warning black cars came and got her. Yuuji knew what she was doing and he knew what was going on, all this time her father was bankrolling the kidnapping attempts to get her to come home on her own. He was able to track her down and through chance alone, he was able to get her back and that day he called the girls at the dorm and told them he would come back one day with Yumiko. They became fugitives and went into hiding. 

During that time they lived in a place that Yuuji had sat up as a safe house in case he needed one, he worked as a laborer to make money to pay for what they needed. Yumiko being a sheltered girl wasn't able to really do much in the way of work which he didn't mind. It was during this time that they finally admitted their love for one another and entered a relationship.

Through multiple events they eventually had to flee the area they were in, eventually, Yuuji gave her a choice. Either keep running or confront her father. When confronting him Yuuji called in the favors he had obtained through his job to get things in place. The girls over the past year were getting information for Yuuji and passing it through a middle man, his handler was providing information as well and putting things together on her end. 

This led to Yumiko's father being removed as the President of the East Beach Railway Company and loses all his power. With this done Yumiko is able to return to the school along with Yuuji and their fugitive status is removed.

With that part over with, the school that had been founded by her father that allowed them all to be together with the other girls was closed down by the Government after they acquired it. Amane moved back in with her parents to learn to run their restaurant and Makina went with her as Amane had been taking care of her through her school years. Sachi and Michiru transferred together to another school. They were allowed to live in the dorm as an apartment complex as long as they needed it. They all agreed they would meet back with one another over the years. 

Yumiko has given her father shares of the business, even with just 10%, it was an enormous sum of money. She used that money to start her own business that quickly grew. Yuuji left the company he worked for as a "cleaner" but technically is still on "Reserve Status" in doing so he hardly hears from his handler anymore. Yuuji and Yumiko marry and have a child with one another.

The story ends there, which is actually a fitting end. In the end, they describe it like this, Yumiko lived in the same darkness as Yuuji did, feeling that because of their past they were worthless human beings that didn't deserve love or to have friends. The walls they built fell only because they found someone that knew exactly what pain they were going through, the darkness soon vanished and in each other, they were able to finally find the light of humanity that had been hidden from them for so long.

So far this story is the more tamed story of the ones I have played through, I am now honestly scared of what the last two have in store, but that is half the fun I suppose.