Episode 1 · Island

Island

A man washes up on the shore of Urashima with salt in his mouth and nothing in his head. No name, no homeland, no face he can put to his own life. What he does have is a stubborn certainty: he came from the future, and somewhere on this island is a girl he has to save. Night falls. He hears someone singing, and the tune drags a name up out of the dark. Setsuna. He takes it for his own. The singer is Rinne, who knows a Setsuna already, so she brings the stranger home as a servant. She has her reasons and keeps them to herself. Meanwhile, the island is rotting from the inside. Five years ago the three great families stumbled, the mainland connections were cut, and the old culture fell apart. There is a sickness here too, one that makes daylight unbearable for anyone it touches. The key to saving Urashima supposedly lies with three girls from those families, bound by traditions that forbid them to fight each other. Setsuna digs for his past and finds the island's instead. Folklore, feuds, a disease nobody names out loud. With every answer he gets, his mission gets smaller and the mess around him gets bigger. Is he really here to change one girl's fate, or was that just the story he told himself?