The Fruit of Grisaia: Michiru's Path

Michiru is a conundrum inside of a Rubix cube. She is as Yuuji and others call her, a "Bottle Blonde". She dyes her hair blonde in an odd sense to maintain what she calls her 'tsundere' lifestyle and personality. She seems to be a bit dense and comes off as a complete airhead that always finds a way to put her foot in her mouth.

Michiru's path is an interesting concept that I actually had to do some looking up to make sure I explained the theory right. I didn't want to half-ass this review so looking into the terminology that was presented in the VN I found it to be a very interesting concept. Before I get to that however I think going through the history of Michiru would be a better start. That said I need to also state that in most people's opinions Michiru's considered the 'best girl' of this Visual Novel, while I can see that I also find that I can't fully accept that. I personally think that Makina or Sachi would be a better best girl but that is only my humble opinion.

Michiru's past is that of a girl born to a wealthy family that believed in encouraging her to study hard and become an academic prodigy of sorts, or at the very least someone that was dedicated to her studies. This led to her father hiring private tutors to help her when she was younger. 

However, this wasn't as easy as that. Michiru wasn't able to understand or learn many things, the exact reason for this is up for debate in the Reddit's but common conscience is she was either Autistic or had a learning disorder that was never fully diagnosed. To that end when she showed little to no improvement her father would scold the tutors for their lack of ability to teach Michiru anything. It wasn't long for this constant scolding and verbal abuse to find its way towards Michiru.

Michiru at a young age found herself in a position where she was constantly told by the different tutors that she was, "useless, dumb, slow, and a waste of space" when she would get something wrong she would receive physical punishment. As time continued through her elementary years she would continue to get the physical and mental abuse from multiple tutors and they eventually learned to hide the damage done by the physical part. 

Eventually, she would be entering Middle School and her father decided to fire the tutors prior to this and on their way out each one would quietly tell her, "your useless, you should just not be alive" and with those words being repeated to her over and over she found herself believing it. It was at this point in her life she was diagnosed with a heart complication. It would make most physical activities hard to do.

Going into a private middle school for the rich and wealthy kids, she was ignored through school. She had no friends and no one seemed interested in her or her problems. After a while she finally hit the point she believed what she had been told her whole life by the tutors, 'why should I still be here, I don't deserve to live, I should just die.' With that thought she made her way to the roof of her school with the intention of jumping, only to find another girl already there. 

Through a sordid few moments, the two girls found a common link, the fact that both were considering suicide, even if it was for different reasons. The two girls became friends and over time they shared a lot of thoughts and feelings with one another, neither one asked why the other had wanted to jump, it just wasn't something either wanted to tell which was fine.

Michiru however noticed there were times that her friend would be gone for a day or two and return to school with bruises, cuts, scrapes, and other signs of abuse. Michiru being shy and mostly anti-social and feeling like a burden never asked what was going on afraid it would cause friction between them.

 Everything came to a head when her friend was gone for over a week. Michiru would go to the roof after school every day to see if she was there to which she wasn't...at least not until one afternoon. She was again on the other side of the rail looking down below, her school uniform was torn, she had been beaten and was bruised and battered. 

The girl, Michiru's only real friend, and her best friend told her the events that led her to the choice of committing suicide which is that she had fallen in love with an older married man. He told her he was going to leave his wife for her...but she knew that wasn't going to happen. He would take his frustrations out on her among other things. There were rumors of such but Michiru didn't pay those any real thought. 

The girl simply smiled and told Michiru that she was tired, if she wasn't able to be with the guy then she really didn't have anything left to live for. And with that, she let go of the rail. Michiru was unable to handle the loss and she went unconscious. 

Upon being taken to the hospital the doctors stated her heart wasn't going to last much longer and so she was sent to America where she got a new heart from a donor. With this, she was able to return to her home in Japan. Eventually, this is where things started to take a turn. Between the mental stress and the physical, she soon began to have moments where she would blackout. Soon however it from simple blackouts to more a dream state where she could actually see and hear what was happening but it was as if someone else was pulling her strings. 

After this occurrence happened multiple times she attempted to commit suicide by slashing her wrist but when that didn't work she began to stab through her own chest to hit her heart. This ended a failure as well. With these events happening she was sent away to the school she now resides in with the other girls and the Yuuji.

It is during this time that things start to get more in-depth. Mentioning the words 'best friend' tends to send Michiru's mind into a panic and this allows the 'other Michiru' to take over. None of the other girls at first seem to notice but Yuuji notices right off something isn't right and decides to find out what is going on. The girls do after a bit start to notice the sudden changes in Michiru and her sudden bouts of forgetting things.

Yuuji confronts the other Michiru and the two share insights into their own perspectives of life, death, and other idealism. Yuuji keeps his suspicions of what is going on to himself for a while, the other Michiru eventually confronts Yuuji and poses a serious question to him, "Do you love Michiru?" at the time he like most people are unsure. 

Yuuji eventually grasps a  better understanding of what is going on or at least what he can understand. 

This is the part of the VN that has caught some controversy due to its more 'supernatural' and 'spiritual' precedence over the more physical and mental issues posed by the other girls' storylines. The working theory is based on some interesting ideas on a phenomenon known as "Genetic Conscience Transference" which is an idea that takes information from patients that have received donor organs where they have shown new tendencies that the person who donated the organ had which were not part of their normal behavior. 

While GCT is a theory the idea that only a small amount of this transference actually happens, in this VN the concept is that the girl that died whose heart was transferred to Michiru is a fully intact Conscience Transference leading to a '2 souls and 1 body' idea. When Michiru becomes mentally drained or placed into a position where she seeks to hide the other Michiru takes over and helps her but the price is that Michiru loses entire blocks of her memory of events while the other Michiru is in control.

Eventually, Yuuji admits he loves Michiru and decides to help her with her problem. After a night of being together and other events, Michiru begins to fade in and out of the darkness eventually leading to Yuuji posing her with a question. "What do you want to do Michiru? Do you want to live or do you want to die?"

With that Michiru tells him she wants to die. And so she allows herself to fade into the darkness of her own mind allowing the other Michiru to take over. Yuuji then discusses the situation with the other Michiru and they come up with an idea to break down the darkness and walls that she has put up around herself.

With the help of hypnotic suggestion and other metal tools that Yuuji knew he was able to create a scenario that may seem heartless but one he knew would get the point across. Other Michiru forces Michiru to assume control of her body but she can only hear and see and feel, she can not move, she can not speak. When she comes to she is in a box with the lid off, she can hear Yuuji talking to the other girls telling them that Michiru has 'moved on' she is dead. 

The girls completely unaware of his plans believe she is in fact dead and as they shed tears for their lost friend she begins to realize that she had more than she thought. Eventually, Yuuji places the lid upon the box, and placing her into a truck drives her to the spot that she wanted to be buried at and bury's the box. The sound of the dirt hitting her box, the smell of earth the darkness she was almost ready to die then and there. With the trance wearing off she was able to start to move again and then a cell phone went off in her pocket. She picked it up and it was Yuuji on the other end. "I guess you got what you wanted." 

Those words stung more than anything to hear the man she had fallen for tell her the cold truth of what she had chosen. While laying in the box growing hungry and tired and somewhat oxygen deprived she decided to read the letters that her classmates had made for her. Upon reading these letters she began to decide that she didn't want to die after all. In her mind and on a spiritual level she spoke to the one best friend she had when she was young, the one that killed herself, and told her that she wasn't ready to die after all. 

With that and the purpose of seeing everyone again and Yuuji most importantly she pushed and dug her way out of the dirt, after getting her hand into the air she felt someone grab her hand. The hand-pulled her slightly from the dirt and she saw Yuuji standing there. Yuuji had taken precautions such as installing a pipe to allow air into the box, and he had sat there waiting for her to come out of the box. She asked how long he had sat there and he told her 12 hours. 

In the end, she returned to the dorm and once everyone realized she was alive there were many questions. Towards the end of the scene, Michiru and the other Michiru can switch between using the body at any moment. This leads to some comedic moments as they have what appears to be a full out conversation with one another. Yuuji also helps the other Michiru with a final request. 

This particular path is one that is a bit awkward compared to the others as it is dealing with an issue that is more of a theory, while the idea of multiple personalities is not uncommon it is mostly based on mental issues, not a more supernatural one. I don't agree with them picking Michiru to be the best girl but I accept it.