Kotori Kanbe

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Kotori Kanbe
神戸 小鳥
Gender	Female
Height	156cm
Weight	44kg
Hair Color	Light Brown
Eye Color	Emerald- Green
Affiliation	Druid (Neutral)
Voice Actor	Chiwa Saito

“	Of course [I'm not hurt]. The forest is like my backyard.	”
–Kotori, Common Route

Kotori Kanbe (神戸 小鳥, Kanbe Kotori) is the main heroine of Rewrite and the female lead in the first part of the game. She is a student at Kazamatsuri Academy and Kotarou Tennouji's childhood best friend. Kotori is a nature enthusiast and her main hobby is gardening.

Her leitmotif is Soft Windflower (ニリンソウ, Nirinsou).

Personality

Kotori is a bubbly young girl who can find contentment in small happiness. She is particularly fond of coins and discount items, but dislikes the sound of scissors. She is interested in marrying a man with good salary. She has a talent for gardening. Kotarou often describes her as a healing-type: her punches ironically have healing properties. She likes to describe herself as an idol.

However, she tends to put distance from people around her, due to her circumstances as a Druid. She is stressed by this job, but she couldn't bring herself to escape from it. She also distanced herself from her familiars, notably those created from the bodies of her loved ones, not wanting to get hurt by their eventual demise. She also fears the possibility of Kotarou being her familiar, caused by an incident ten years prior to the main storyline.

As a child, she was precocious and cold, the latter caused by bullying. She is also proud, strong, and decisive, which is evident from her usual interaction with Kotarou and her fierce resolution of leaving Martel. She also used to believe that her summoning powers revived her parents.

Appearance

Kotori is a relatively petite girl with long, light brown hair and has two braids on either side, complete with flower hair-clips. She also has green eyes.

She wears the standard Kazamatsuri Academy uniform: a light-pink ruffled dress with red trim, a red ribbon by the neck and brown laced boots. In Harvest Festa, she wears the summer uniform. Kotori also sports white knee-socks. Her casual attire consists of a pink hoodie with a long, dark red tartan skirt. While working, she wears a light brown apron.

As a child, she sported a shorter hair, only reaching her shoulders, but she keeps the similar hairstyle, except the braids are secured by a bead each. Her outfit consists of a white baseball shirt with pink sleeves and pouch and red Gao Gao Stegosaurus print, denim shorts, white calf-length socks, and red shoes with white soles. In the latter portion of Terra Route, her outfit consists of a pink long-sleeved top with red ruffled trim, a white furry vest with white-dotted red accent, and a navy blue asymmetrical ruffled skirt.

Story

Common Route

Kotori asleep

During the common route, we're first introduced to Kotori when Kotarou finds her in the middle of the forest, after Kotori's mother sends him to retrieve her. Kotori is Kotarou's childhood (and only) friend, but it's also mentioned in several occasions that Kotori is not completely comfortable around him. In the past, Kotarou asked her out, but she turned him down. If Kotarou becomes close with Shizuru, Kotori becomes particularly supportive of their relationship, but also feels awkward about it. Together with the other heroines and Kotarou, she joins the Occult Club and participates in their activities. She also participates in the Gardening Commitee, a commitee dedicated to help with the revitalization of plants around Kazamatsuri. Thanks to her abilities as a druid, she does exceptionally well at gardening, which leads the members in the committee treat her as a VIP, going as far as to almost worship her. If Kotarou becomes close with Ohtori Chihaya, Kotori helps rebuild Chihaya's garden, which the other Occult Club members assist with.

Kotori Route

To Kotarou, Kanbe Kotori is an important childhood friend as well as a potential love interest. If the requirements are met, her route unlocks after the Occult Club meets the infamous leaf dragon in the forest. It is revealed in her route that Kotori is a Druid, one who has made a contract with a magical plant that carries the planet's memories of the human race, and from these memories Kotori extracted the art of familiar creation. Utilizing this knowledge and a power spot near Kazamatsuri, she is able to create and maintain a significant number of familiars under her command, one of which is Chibimoth. The trade-off in obtaining this incredible power is that Kotori now has to protect the Key from being found by the two organizations hunting it: Guardian and Gaia. For that reason, she erects safety barriers around the power spot and constructs familiars. Due to how time-consuming these activities are, she ends up skipping school a lot and spending a lot of time in the forest.

After the encounter with the leaf dragon, all five girls of the Occult Club disappear simultaneously, Kotori being one among them. Kotarou later finds out that his memories had been tampered by Kotori and after a dramatic scene between him and Yoshino, he dives into the forest in search for her. Kotori saves him after he almost dies, and comes clean to him about her power and her mission. Kotarou then decides to join her to protect her, much to Kotori's discontent. In between, Kotori tells Kotarou of how she encountered the magical plant after her family's car accident when they were younger, and revealed that both her parents, who died on the spot, and Chibimoth, who was originally Kotori's pet dog, are soulless familiars created from their corpses.

Further down Kotori's route, Gaia and Guardian start fighting near their near their base of operation. Kotori, having been too distracted by Kotarou's presence, has forgotten to complete the replacement charms for the barriers. As a result, the barrier collapses leaving Kotori, Kotarou, and Kagari vulnerable to attacks from both parties. Kagari leaves the confines and wandered off, and Kotarou had no choice but to try to recapture her. In the process, Chibimoth is severely wounded. Even at its deathbed, Kotori refuses to acknowledge Chibimoth as something more than a familiar. Kotarou scolds her and she concedes in giving it a pet on the head. Right before Chibimoth returns to dust, it barks just like her old pet dog. That deeply moves Kotori, but she still continues to say that familiars are not the same as the people or animals they were in life. Kotori herself explains that if she didn't see them only as tools, she would simply collapse from the sorrow.

Kotori unfolds the truth to Kotarou

Having lost their base of operation the two, Kagari and Kotori's parents go on the run, but they don't get very far before being trapped in a house outside of Kazamatsuri. Having left the power spot and almost all of her familiars behind as a diversion, Kotori now has no choice but to use her own parents to defend them. While they were trapped in the house, Kotarou noticed that Kotori is getting weaker. This is due to her using her own life energy to supply energy to the three familiars she has left: her father, her mother, and Kotarou himself. Kotori then tells him of the time when they were younger, how she saved him from imminent death using a mix of the power of familiar creation (thus turning him into a half-familiar) and Kagari's ribbons (which give Kotarou his aurora) to bring him back, and the true reason why she refused his advances during their middle school years. As users of familiars have authority over their creations, she is afraid that the reason he has feelings for her is due to her subconscious desires, and she confesses that even though they are childhood friends, before his accident, Kotarou was never nice to her. Thus she concluded that his feelings are a product of her own involuntary wish.

But the words left behind by her parents before going into battle shook the foundation of her belief, and Kotarou is convinced, and assures her, that his love for her comes from his own heart. The only way to prove that (and to save Kotori from being drained of more life energy) is to undo the process which made him a half-familiar.

Kotori struggling to carry Kotarou with her own strength

The death of Kagari at the hands of Shizuru Nakatsu (which ends all responsibilities Kotori had as a Druid) further propels Kotarou to urge Kotori to sever the contract between them. Kotori is at first reluctant (as doing so will return Kotarou to his pre-existing state, one of imminent death), but finally is persuaded. At the null of the contract Kotarou instantly fell to the state of near death, and Kotori struggles to carry him into the city for treatment. The scene then closes with a treated Kotarou escaping the hospital in search of Kotori, who not once had paid him a visit since he was hospitalized.

Chihaya Route

Akane locates the Druid in the forest and forces her to hand her the Key. Kotori is not identified by name, and is never shown again.

In the epilogue, Chihaya and Kotarou receive a letter from Kotori, whose whereabouts are still unknown.

Shizuru Route

Kotarou spotted Kotori entering a bus going towards the forest, and confirms that Kotori got off the bus near the forest. He follows her into the forest, but does not find her. Later, a voice speaks to Kotarou and lends her power to wake Shizuru from a coma, who tried to save Kotarou from dying. Kotarou never identifies the voice, but suspects he was unable to make her happy. The voice also apologizes to Kotarou for holding him back for a long time, implying that the voice is Kotori.

Kotori is not shown disappearing with the rest of Kazamatsuri, suggesting that she either sacrificed herself when reviving Shizuru, or somehow survived salvation.

Moon Route

Kotori is summoned along with everyone else by Kotarou in order to defend Kagari from Sakura Kashima's wave of familiars. She is the second of the 5 female leads to die. After she loses two of her familiars, she runs to the city as a way to divert the enemy forces.

Terra Route

Kotori is once again, introduced as Kotarou's neighbor. However, in this scenario we can see that he's actually much older than her, since he's a teenager while she's a young child. After she sees Kotarou beating up some bullies who had stolen from another young boy (Yoshino), she decides that Kotarou is a good for nothing who automatically resorts to violence when he's presented with a problem. Due to this and the fact that Kotarou is not very sociable, they don't quite get along at first, although they both develop some sort of attachment to each other over time.

It is revealed here that Kotori's parents were involved with Martel, same as Kotarou's, and that she's fairly intelligent for her age. Kotarou even sees her being bullied for her high intelligence. After her bullying, she silently and proudly picks herself up, outright refusing others's helps. Despite the fact that their relationship is rough at that time, Kotarou even admits that he feels inferior to her, an elementary schooler.

Sometimes later, they meet outside a Martel's meeting. Since she has such a good understanding of the underlying anti-human propaganda Martel spreads at her age, Kotarou even calls her a genius. Kotori clearly does not agree with the Martel ideals, and so she stops going to their meetings. Because of this, her parents force her to take care of a dog that had been previously abused, Pero. Kotori takes the best care possible of him, but the dog won't trust her no matter what, which prompts his escape. After the dog is found by Kotarou and given back to his owner, Kotori can't do anything but cry happily despite the fact that she had considered how much easier it would've been on her if the dog just left for good, showing that she cared a lot about him.

The basic story of her parents' death and the awakening of her Druid powers is inevitable in this arc as well, despite the fact that the player is given an option to warn the family. Before they part, Kotarou tells her that he's running away from home, and that he'll play with her when he comes back. Kotori becomes a Druid after her tragedy so that she can one day resurrect her parents. She meets back up with Kotarou when he comes back and tries to help him hide Kagari by using her barriers and familiars. However, Kotarou deems her too young to be in that kind of dangerous situation, so he harshly tells her to go away and destroys the familiars she created with the corpses of her parents.

The Occult Club resurrects Kotarou

She is one of the survivors after the near apocalypse, and she grows up along with the other female leads under the care of Touka Nishikujou.

Years later, Kotori and the other four main leads resurrect Kotarou (then named Pochi by Lucia) as the five girls' personal familiar. Kotori is implied to be the leader of the Occult Club in this timeline.

Harvest festa!

In the Moon Arc there is a brief moment when Kotarou remembers all his possible futures, one of them being married to Kotori. "On this good day" is a telling of this possibility, as well as the after story for Kotori's route. It opens with Kotarou and Kotori announcing their marriage to the other 4 female leads and their respective associates. The story continues where the game left off in the original Rewrite. Kotarou, weakened by his hospitalization, works up the resolve to find Kotori and confess to her, but gets cold feet at the last second, since he doesn't want to jeopardize their already fragile and awkward friendship. Their normal school life resumes. 

Kotori still keeps trying to dodge his advances, but she finally accepts his feelings when he becomes anemic from chasing after her. The two then go on an awkward first date, although they eventually end up going to the 100 yen store, much to Kotori's delight. When Kotarou tries to kiss her, she says she isn't ready yet, but she will be after the 15th date. The story then fast forwards to that 15th date at Kotarou's house, where Kotori takes the initiative only to get embarrassed and run away right afterwards.

When they graduate from high school, they both decide to not go to college. Instead, they both start working to save money for an apartment. Kotarou starts working at Mr. Ansei's newspaper company and Kotori at one of the local plant nurseries. 

The two of them go to the Harvest Festival together, where they're drafted to be on a guest show where where judges quiz the featured couple to determine whether or not they should get married. Kotori has stage fright, so her answers are less than impressive, but Kotarou moves the crowd so much with his words that they pass with full marks. The prizes are fifty thousand yen and a marriage package good for until the company goes bankrupt.

On their way back, Kotarou asks Kotori to marry him. At first, Kotori is surprised and thinks Kotarou is being influenced by the show earlier, but after Kotarou clarifies that he means it, she smiles and agrees. They don't announce their engagement to their classmates just yet, fearing that they might distract them from their studies, and they get persuaded by the school and their homeroom teacher to wait at least until they graduate. Needless to say, the whole class is surprised when they do announce the news. Meanwhile Yoshino, being the first one to know, gives them a very Yoshino-like blessing.

After proposing, as a result Kotarou and Kotori get married

After their graduation and after moving to their new apartment, both Kotarou and Kotori leave town to visit the other four female leads to announce their marriage. However, it's unknown how they got the information that lead up to them. Then, they get married on the next day after returning to Kazamatsuri.

On the night of their wedding day, as they went back to the apartment, they find out that instead of it being filled with boxes as it was when they left, it's now neatly arranged. Not only that, but there's a small mountain of wedding presents from the other girls, plus Touka and Sougen Esaka. Kotori cries from happiness, surprised. Guardian and Gaia are enemies after all, but they put their differences behind to celebrate their friends' wedding day. Meanwhile, Kotarou rushes to the window after hearing a round of popping celebratory sounds, only to see two cars departing and going their separate ways. When Kotori asks him whether they're gone or not, Kotarou answers yes and puts his arm around his new bride, assuring her and himself that a day will come when all the members of the Occult Club will again be reunited.

Quotes

• "Okay, shake it now~ baby now~~~" Kotori, while goofing around.
• '' That's just running away ... The longer you spent not doing what you want, the more time you'll waste. Everytime you run away, you lose part of your life. I'm not going to run away like you.'' to Kotarou, in Terra route, regarding his lifestyle and her decision of cutting ties with Martel.
• " Occult Research Club..leader's log/ Inside the darkness of a ruined building/ We seek terrifying, otherworldly phenomena/ And we found some~~~" Kotori, common route, imitating a nice, inspiring dialogue.

Etymology

• The name Kotori means "small" (小) (ko) and "bird, poultry, fowl" (鳥) (tori).
• Kotori's surname Kanbe means "god, deity" (神) (kan) and "door" (戸) (be).

Trivia

• Kotori is the face character of the game.
• Romeo Tanaka had originally written Kotori as an ordinary heroine with no relationship to the supernatural events within Rewrite. Feeling like this way she'd be the odd one out, he made her a druid instead.
• Kotori's three sizes are:
  • 83 (Bust)
  • 54 (Waist)
  • 83 (Hips)
• Kotori is the only one of the heroines (Kagari aside) who doesn't side with either Gaia or Guardian.
• Kotori is the second of the heroines to ever meet Kotarou Tennouji, but is the first to appear and to be mentioned in the game.
• Kotori's Route is one of the two heroine routes in Rewrite which is continued in Rewrite Harvest festa!
• Kotori's Route is the shortest heroine route in Rewrite.
• Kotori's favorite flower is Anemone flaccida. Coincidentally, that's also the name of her theme song.
• Kotori's birthday is on July 26.
• Kotori got fourth place in the Rewrite popularity poll with 13682 votes.
• Aside from Moon, Terra and her own route, Kotori makes no direct appearances after the common route ends.
• The shirt Kotori wears as a child is a reference to another Key work, AIR, with it being similar to shirt that the main character wears at times, being a shirt that says "gao gao stegosaurus."