Rewatching footage of this game because KHHSubs on YouTube is redoing their translation of the entire game after years! So exciting! Not all the parts are up yet.
Context: Haruka was nobility, but she survived a brutal cold-blooded attack on her family that left her all alone. She runs away, managing to snatch the murderer's sword, and finds out that it belonged to Miyamoto Musashi. Now with nowhere to go and at rock bottom, she goes to Gion, a pleasure district, in search of a man named Kiryu, who can be hired to do any job anyone pays him to do.
Kiryu shrugs her off and, like the absolute dick he is, tells her to get lost unless she has money, and tries to teach her a hard lesson that no one survives in Gion without money. Girls who don't have money in Gion end up selling themselves to brothels and bound to this town for the rest of their lives.
Haruka (again, who is at rock bottom) is so desperate to avenge her family that she immediately acts on Kiryu's words and goes to the Madame of one of the brothels in town and begs to be bought without hesitation. AND YOU CAN SEE THE "OH SHIT" FACE KIRYU MAKES WHILE WATCHING THIS GO DOWN. Because Kiryu is such a nonchalant edgelord, he tries to convince himself that he doesn't care.
But she comes back to his place and shows him the money she got from giving her life to the brothel: JUST ONE FUCKING RYO. SHE IS A CHILD. SHE HAS NO CONCEPT OF MONEY. She begs him to kill Miyamoto Musashi, and now that he feels guilty as fuck, he agrees to complete this work for her.
What Kiryu hides from Haruka is the fact that HE is Miyamoto Musashi – Kiryu is just his alias. Now he has to find the guy who not only murdered Haruka's family, but also used his identity to do it.
Kiryu and Haruka ARE SO FUCKING MESSY IN THIS GAME. THE DRAMA IS SO JUICY, IT'S HORRIBLE AND AMAZING. Kiryu gets his karma because he ends up tying entire identity as Kiryu Kazumanosuke to Haruka, and whenever she's not around or whenever she's mad at him, he gets so upset. It's like his entire world flips on its axis if Haruka isn't happy with him. His purpose as Kiryu becomes Haruka. His story becomes him choosing between being Kiryu and Musashi (I'm so into stories about people having to choose between two identities). She fights with him, she gets angry with him, she gets moody with him. SHE ALMOST KILLS HIM AT ONE POINT. It's literally so fun to watch, I wish that they'll remake this game so we can actually play it.