They Labyrinth of Grisaia: The Cocoon of Caprice

 The Labyrinth of Grisaia: The Cocoon of Caprice

The Cocoon of Caprice is a side story that is available in this particular Visual Novel. It is the log of Yuuji's life before he became the current I-9029 and friends with the girls of the school he now attends. 

I want to be upfront with you on this, the story is extremely long so I will be doing an abridged version that will leave out minor details. This particular story probably accounted for about 4 to 6 hours' worth of playtime over a stretch of 5 days or so. I would get to a point that I would have to save the game, get up, and do something else before my eyes would bleed.

Another thing I need to mention is the fact that this story is extremely emotionally driven and has plenty of things in it that some people may not want to see, know, or hear. The scenes are not all that graphic but some of the text that describes some incidents can be disturbing. There are also situations that some people may not be able to fully grasp or wish to. I personally don't have an issue with anything in this story but I can see where some might. 

This story is told as a file that Yuuki had to create and turn into his boss JB in order to get a promotion. He wrote everything down and then after doing a final draft he destroyed the original, or so he thought. The girls end up finding his destroyed copies and putting them back together starts to read about his history.

Yuuji was born two years after his sister, his sister Kazuki was a genius and was labeled so by the time she was four. Her IQ was recorded as over 160 and her ability to learn things quickly and then applying those same things to her work earned her a great deal of attention. However, because of that Yuuji who held no real exceptional skill of his own was shunned by his father and mother. 

Yuuji's father was a man that sought riches above all else and after being removed from his family for multiple reasons he found himself in need of money to complete his lifestyle. To that end, he became something of a fence for artwork. He married Yuuji's mother who was a 'working girl' after she became pregnant with Kazuki. Kazuki being who she was began to do artwork at a young age and showed a great deal of promise in the field. Her father would sell her artwork and many art colleges were wanting to sign her when she was of age.

As Kazuki grew older and watched over her brother she took an interest in his daily life. When the 'family' would go out to eat Yuuji would be left at home to fend for himself because his father didn't want him to tarnish the name of his sister. It was at this time that Yuuji noticed that his parents would not go against anything that Kazuki wanted. Their parents practically worshipped the ground that Kazuki walked on, and Yuuji was just an afterthought.

On a certain night when the family was out eating at a restaurant talking to someone interested in buying artwork done by Kazuki, Yuuji was left home with no real food to eat as his mother had forgotten to leave him something so he ended up getting some bread to eat. The bread was a bit hard so he simply ran some water over the bread to soften it up and then drank some of the water as well. Unknown to him his sister was the first to come into the house and see what he was doing. 

Completely taken aback by the treatment of her brother she went into a rage and went off on their parents. This however had the reverse effect of what she wanted as this meant that their father would do what he could take a sort of revenge against Yuuki.

As they grew up Kazuki started to decrease the amount of her work and focus on other hobbies that left her parents slightly scared of losing the money they were getting from her works. Yuuji questioned her on this and she gave a simple answer, "I just want to have a somewhat normal life, and being a genius isn't going to lead me to any sort of normal life." The simplicity of the answer was a nice contrast to what many would have thought.

Kazuki had a bit of a dark way of looking at things as well, but this was brought to the forefront when she made a comment to him after he had found a friend in a young girl in their neighborhood named Sachi. Kazuki had run off several other friends that Yuuji had that were girls and he wasn't sure why. When he talked to her about Sachi she asked him if he had feelings for her. He responded that they were just friends. 

This led to Kazuki telling Yuuji that he was already a "playboy" and that he would grow up to be one as well. But with that said she made the statement, "I am the only girl that will love you that way, no other girl can love you as much as I love you." That simple statement was the precursor of Kazuki and Yuuji having an incestual relationship of sorts. 

As was stated in Amane's story, Kazuki would later die (or so we are led to believe) in the tragic bus accident that Amane was the only survivor of. This led to the complete destruction of the family, with no money coming in any longer it led Yuuji's father into a spiral of alcohol abuse and beating Yuuji's mother and Yuuji on a regular bases. This leads to Yuuji's mother to run away from his father. Sadly after only a couple of weeks, he finds them and brings them back home.

This would last a few months before they would flee again, this time they went somewhere new where they had never been before. This however highlighted a point that Yuuji makes later on when talking to Makina about when you run. Don't run out to the countryside, people there are close and they don't welcome outsiders well. Despite everything, his mother worked two jobs and he attended a normal school and they were slowly making headway despite the neighbors treating them coldly. 

Later his father would find them, and a serious of events leads Yuuji to slam a bottle into the head of his father. His mother has him run from the house and he did so, but thinking about it he realized how much of a coward he was and decided to run back to the house to help his mother. Upon getting there he sees his father and mother both dead. 

An acquaintance of Yuuji's father decides to take him in. His mind warped by the tragedy of his parents left Yuuji in a state that he spoke pretty much never, he only done what Oslo told him. Oslo used Yuuji, though the story is vague as to what all he was forced to do and probably for good reason, but one thing it does state is he was forced to wear a wig and girls clothing.

Yuuji was then sent to a Terrorist training camp led by Oslo and trained to kill, he would show his talents when sharpshooting this along with personal training by Oslo in the art of using knives would lead to Yuuji becoming an assassin. After months of training and watching other children from broken homes and orphans live, fight, and die for Oslo he was sent on some very important missions. 

Dressed as a girl he would infiltrate places and assassinate people in power. After these events, however, Oslo would run from his mansion that was hit by the international counter-terrorist group called CIRS. During the raid the woman that would become Yuuji's master named Asako found him chained to a bed, dehydrated, lacking in food, and later finding out that he had been used to test new 'sensory enhancing' drugs he was mentally unable to understand anything going on.

Asako decided to take Yuuji in and along with JB they moved him back to Japan where he lived with Asako for several years. His rehabilitation took a while and eventually he was able to regain himself somewhat. However, some mental wounds don't heal. He was naturally a coward and weak but forced into bloodshed and murder he had created a story to keep him in check even if it was wrong. Later he would find out that he couldn't kill anything human or animal without having an adverse effect. 

Through his learning from Asako how to live a somewhat better life he eventually started doing some jobs for Asako for her 'job' and hid the fact for some time before JB found out. This led to JB too and Asako having a decent argument before Yuuji finally deciding that he wanted to do the same job as Asako no matter what. It was during this time that his 'playboy' looks and attitude were brought back up as it was apparent by how it was discussed that he and Asako had an on and off again sexual relationship.

Yuuji would eventually be granted status by Ichighya or "The Company" to attend Marine school in the US in San Diego. It is here he met one of his only friends Daniel Bone. He would make his way through the first stage of his training and then be shipped to Virginia for the second part of his training. Here he is introduced to Milly a farmer girl that is also a sharpshooter like Yuuji. They are both placed into a squad with Daniel and two other men that Yuuji met while in training. 

His 2 term of training required 'practical training'  so he was first deployed with his unit to Afghanistan for a short tour. He would later be sent to a jungle region where he would meet up with his new CO who called their small squad the Brushdogs and the "Squad of Rejects" as they were all problem people as far as the military was concerned.  It is during this excursion that Yuuji is put to the test when they are hammered by terrorists he is told that he is to hold the front. He asks his CO how many he has to kill after he had already killed several. Each kill pushed him to the brink of mental exhaustion and he had already puked more than once.

His CO handed him 9 rounds and said, "I'd like you to kill 17 but all we have are 9 rounds so, kill 9" With that, the CO acted as his spotter and using a type of field hypnosis was able to help Yuuji use up his ammo supply, one shot one kill 9 confirmed kills.  This ended with Yuuji passing out. 

Upon returning to the States he was released from the Marines and accepted into Ichighya Corp as a 'loner from Uncle Sam' until he could pass his license course in Japan. He was in Japan and had gotten his license to work in Japan when the call came in, Asako was dying. 

Years of abuse, injuries, and the use of 'sensory enhancing' drugs led to a condition that would end up being fatal. Returning to the mountains here Asako lived, he spent time with her until she passed. Upon her death, he had resided in the cabin that had belonged to them until the day that JB asked him to move in with her.

JB who had grown up with Asako at an orphanage and Yuuji both were in a state of shock and couldn't register the fact that Asako had passed. This led to an awkward relationship that was mostly sexual as a way to help each other through hard times. He then decides one day to leave and head out on his own for a while to find answers to his own life and what he is to do now without his Master.

He eventually decides to do something he wanted for a while and that was to attend school, a normal High School. That is when he is able to meet the girls. During all this time he had taken over Asaka's position and number of I-9029. 

The VN leads to a moment when Yuuji is called out on a mission and something happens, the VN ends with the girls seeing Yuuji on TV, and from here it ends which leads us to the final installment of The Eden of Grisaia.

All in all, this part of the VN leads you to believe he has at least at this point hadn't chosen a girl to be with, and without playing The Eden of Grisaia I can't say at this point how it will end. I have read that for the most part with the exception of a couple of choices it is a pretty static Visual Novel.

This particular VN also has several 'short stories' but I am not sure if I will do anything on those. I hope you all will read the next installment of this series when I have it posted. Overall this VN was well done, full of information, and really helps you understand why Yuuji is the way he is.