Shichijou Sasara
At the local festival Asakura Souta meets a young girl named Shichijou Sasara, who appears to not know money is required to buy food. After getting hooked into paying for her, he finds that she has been in a "hospital" all her life and so lacks basic knowledge about the world around her. Thus begins their friendship as he continues to teach her more about the world around her. Around this time, he chances upon a cave deep in the woods and is acquainted with Kyougoku Fumio, the blind and frail priestess of the local shrine, and Ashikaga Sadamichi, Fumio's guardian as well as an agent of the secret service who has a crush on Fumio. Further conversation with all three parties reveal that Fumio is actually Sasara's mother. However, Fumio has avoided Sasara ever since she was young, leading Sasara to hate her own mother.
By a chance accident brought about by a sudden earthquake, Souta is seriously injured and on the brink of death. Ashikaga then brings both Souta and Sasara to the cave deep in the woods, where Sasara recognizes Fumio to be her mother. Fumio then gets Sasara to strongly wish for Souta to be healed, activating a wish-granting System of the Island and completely removing Souta's fatal wounds.
Having delved too deep into the secrets of the Island now, Ashikaga and Fumio then reveals the truth being the island of everlasting summer Tougen Island: the Island itself came into existence thanks to this System, and is the main sustaining force behind the entire Island. Should it fail, the entire Island will go down with it. Furthermore, only a select bloodline of people can act as the sustainer of the System, this being Kyougoku Fumio. However, sustaining the System has lead to her failing health, as evidenced by her now completely gone eyesight and her repeated coughing of blood. The next in line to be the sustainer would have been Sasara had Fumio not insisted to Sasara's father, Shichijou Katsumi, on leaving Sasara alone. It is because of this and her failing health that she has hidden herself from Sasara all these years. Despite all this, Katsumi continues to attempt to keep Sasara secluded from the world: it is hinted that the "hospital" Sasara has lived at her entire childhood is merely her own room.
As Fumio nears her end and Katsumi grows more impatient and overbearing, she and Ashikaga decide to have Sasara escape the Island with Souta before Katsumi makes Sasara the new sustainer. Determined to reconcile the relationship between mother and daughter before the escape though, Souta goes to various lengths to have mother and daughter convey their feelings for each other, culminating in a festival built entirely for them to have fun and remember the good old times again. Against Sasara's wishes for her mother to "stay by her side from now on to make up for everything" however, Fumio could only whisper to herself "I'm sorry".
After having successfully evacuated the entire Island (under the cover story of a imminent underwater volcano eruption) soon after, Souta and Sasara prepares to leave the Island, only to be stopped in their tracks by a deranged Katsumi, who shoots at Ashikaga and decides to have Sasara stay behind after all. It takes the combined efforts of Fumio, a critically injured Ashikaga and Souta to knock Katsumi out. However, in the struggle Fumio is left on the last leg of her life, leading her and Ashikaga to have Souta drag Sasara away and escape the Island on the last boat as they attempt to sustain the Island long enough for everyone to get away, revealing that Fumio never intended to leave the Island with Sasara.
As the Island crumbles, radios in the proximity pick up a signal generated by Fumio's last wishes to the System: a infinitely looping message of Fumio's finally words to Sasara. "I hope you will be able to walk a path of happiness from now on. Farewell, my dear Sasara."
END 1
A few days after the Island collapses, most of its people have now built a temporary settlement in a nearby island while awaiting notice of their relocation. Souta receives a call from a fellow agent friend of Ashikaga who is helping Sasara to settle into a new life away from Katsumi. The agent tells Souta to pass a message to Sasara: that she will now have a new birth certificate created for her, so she can choose to change her name if she desires to. Sasara decides immediately with a bright smile that her new name will be Kyougoku Sasara...
END 2
A year after the collapse of the Island, Souta and Sasara revisit the site of the Island to pay their respects to Ashikaga and Fumio, as well as to show that they have led a happy life since then with the introduction of their daughter, Shiono...
Oh god I was crying all the way while typing up the third last paragraph. Family love endings are beginning to jerk my tears ever since CLANNAD.
Just so I can induce some squick into the hearts of the non-eroge playing readers, the difference that decides which END you get is by one simple decision: whether Souta shoots his load onto Sasara or into Sasara. Ha ha ha.
Now Playing: Just Like Back Then by Famishin, 夏空カナタ (Natsuzora Kanata) OST (a.k.a. Sasara and Fumio touching moments theme T_T)
EDIT (25/05/2009, 04:08 AM): Refitted with spoiler tags.
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