The Kidnap

The Kidnap | 誘拐事件 is a Japanese horror game about a kidnapping incident developed by Chilla's Art and published by Chilla's Art. It was released on Steam for Microsoft Windows on November 1, 2023.

Synopsis

Mom left and never returned, Renya finds himself surviving on his own after his sister disappears as well. Days pass without his sister and one day, he was abducted from home. He was taken to Sarao's house where he found out his mother's butchered corpse.

Gameplay

Prologue

The game begins and you play as Sarao who's in a room with boarded up windows, Sarao sits in a corner on the floor and you can hear an angry lady yelling at her son. The angry lady enters the room and as she yells, Sarao picks up a hammer, look up at the angry lady and the screen goes black, you can hear the sound of blood splattering from the attack.

Laundry

When Renya wakes up, he finds that he had wet his bed while asleep, he leaves the room to get help. He overhears Mom yelling at his sister because his sister brought up open class day to her. Mom says that it was all annoying, wishes they weren't there and regrets giving birth to them. She speaks cruel words as she packs a suitcase in her room. He sees his sister walk back to her room.

• If Renya approaches his mother to tell her he wet his bed, she will call him annoying and tell him not to talk to her. She will tell him to shut up and that she's busy.

Renya goes to his sister, Sakiko, who is sitting on her bed and asks for help. She tells him to gather his sheets and they go downstairs together, she teaches him how to do his own laundry. As she teaches him, you can hear Mom leave the house. Sakiko then says that from then on, he is in charge of laundry.

September 1^st

Renya wakes up after hearing his sister call for him from the kitchen, as he goes down, you can see trashbags lumped together in mountains everywhere in the house as well as scattered and empty cup noodles on the dining table, some of the pet fish are dead, dirty dishes are randomly stacked in the sink. Renya finds his sister cooking at the stove, she says that the food is almost ready and tells him to hang the laundry.

Food is ready when Renya finishes hanging the laundry, Sakiko calls him over and they eat on the table together. She made curry for them. On the table Renya sees his sister's exam sheets that had 100 on everything, his sister has been working hard to show their mother in hopes that she comes home. Sakiko really loves her mom.

September 5^th

When he wakes up, he goes to put away the laundry, he takes the clothes out of the laundry machine and puts his clothes in his drawers. He becomes confused that his sister hasn't called him, he looks for her throughout the house but isn't able to find her. He realizes that her shoes weren't in front of the door, meaning that she was still outside while it was raining hard at night. Renya leaves the house and calls out, looking for his sister. He doesn't find her.

September 8^th

At School

Renya's at school, cleaning up the classroom with his classmates, sweeping up the floor. At the end of class, the teacher stands behind the podium and asks for everyone's attention and silence. The teacher reminds the students not to follow strangers and be wary of suspicious adults on the way home. Kiyomichi, one of the students, yells to watch out for a clown that's out there. Everyone stands up, says their greetings, and prepare to go home.

Renya and his friends talked about going home together earlier but he couldn't see any of them in class.

• If you talk to Naoshige, he will give you context about the clown. He heard that the clown targets people when they're alone.
• If you talk to Sena, she will tell you that the clown Kiyomichi was talking about shows up on the way home but doesn't really do anything.
• If you talk to Tsumugi, she will say that the clown apparently follows you home and breaks in without permission.
• If you talk to the teacher, she will way that she's noticed that our sister hasn't came to school at all and ask if everything's okay, she says that she'll be there to listen if there's anything wrong.

In class, Kohime is searching for her eraser and gets Renya to help her find it, she says that Yoshima might know something about it. When you ask Yoshima, he will say that he remembers Kohime lending it to Kiyomichi who sits next her, he says that Kiyomichi never returns the things he borrows and that he might have left it in his desk. He returns the eraser to Kohime and she says that she'll be waiting by the entrance.

In class, you can find Asaka talking about never getting back the umbrella that she lent to Masahiro. When you find Masahiro near the shoe lockers, he asks Renya to help him return an umbrella to Asaka, he doesn't return it himself because he scares her. When Renya returns it, she is appalled that Masahiro makes someone else return something he borrowed and asks Renya admonish him.

In front of the shoe lockers, you can find Keiji who says that Kiyomichi thinks he's weird, he then asks Renya if he's weird. Regardless of Renya's answer, he says that they'll go home together once Kohime and Masahiro is ready.

When they're all ready, Renya takes his shoes and goes home with his friends.

On the Way Home

While walking home, Renya tells Masahiro that Asaka was mad at him, everyone talks about the umbrella that Renya returned to Asaka and why she was mad. They all tell Masahiro to apologize to Asaka the next day. They then ask about why Keiji was wearing his indoor shoes outside, he answers that switching to his regular shoes is a hassle. Everyone calls him weird and funny. Someone watches the kids walk home from behind a pole.

Hide and Seek

Masahiro suggests that they play hide and seek together in a park, they play rock, paper, scissors to decide who's it. No matter what Renya chooses, he will always end up as the seeker, after he counts from 20, he searches for his friends.

• If you look at the road, you can see someone watching the kids play together from behind a fence.

Renya finds Masahiro hugging a tree while hiding, he says that it was tough to get up on the tree. Kohime hides behind a container with yellow walls near the slides, she thought it was a good spot. Keiji likes blending in, Renya finds him sitting down, trying to blend in with the grass. When they want to play one more time, a strange man runs up to them and says that he wants to join them. All the kids are wary, Masahiro asks Renya if they should let him join.

Renya agrees to it, Masahiro tells the man that since he's an adult, he could start counting inside the container nearby. When the strange man runs in, Masahiro locks the door behind him. The children take the opportunity to get their bags and run. The man watches from the container door as they run away.

The Shop

When they think they've run far enough and lost the stranger, they continue heading home, they start talking about what suspicious people do, like kidnapping for money. Masahiro worries because his family is rich, Kohime feels safe because her family doesn't have much money. When passing by, Masahiro says that Renya needs to go the the shop.

Masahiro whispers to Renya, convincing him to try and steal something. Even if the player chooses not to, Renya will go in and steal something anyway because he's running out of food at home. Renya goes into the store and tries to grab stuff without getting spotted by the granny. He grabs chips, cup ramen, and a drink. Kohime worries for Renya because she saw the strange man from earlier enter the shop. Seeing that Renya is fine, they all continue heading home.

Different Paths

When Masahiro arrives at his home, he says that he noticed Renya being depressed recently, and tells Renya to let him know if he could help with anything, because they were best friends. Keiji also separates from the group, he says that he'll see them tomorrow. While Renya walks home with Kohime, she brings up the topic of kidnapping again, wondering if kidnappings happen in rural areas like the one they lived in. When Renya tells her he doesn't think so, she agrees and is relieved. Renya adds that it would make things more fun if it did.

In front of her house, Kohime asks Renya about his sister since she hasn't seen her recently. Kohime tells Renya that her mom works at a child guidance center and takes care of elementary school kids just like them, and that if Renya needed anything, he could come over to her house. Though Kohime also says that her mom seems very busy recently, she hasn't been able to talk to her much either. Afterwards, they say their goodbyes and Renya walks the rest of the way alone.

Now Alone/Nightmare

When Renya keeps going down the road and passes by a truck, he sees something yellow move out of the bushes, it was someone wearing a yellow suit, most likely the clown that everyone has been talking about at school. The clown quickly walks and disappears into the forest. He keeps walking and the truck wasn't moving earlier starts moving behind him. It then stops in the middle of the road. When he arrives at his house, crows caw around the area.

Upon arriving home, Renya washes his hands and places his snacks on the dining table. He goes to his room, changes his clothes, and sits down at his desk to do his homework. The homework consists of tracing the kanji of coin, knife, temple, death, Japan, and teacher, followed by addition and multiplication math problems.

• You can pet the cat, Tama.

Once he finishes all his homework, he sees a clown staring at him from behind the door, who shuts the door as Renya notices him. Renya shrugs it off. He goes down to the kitchen, gets a cup ramen and fills it up with hot water. After eating it, he goes to feed the fish, the fish food already ran out. Renya goes to the tv to play video games.

Inside the game, you have to avoid all the ghosts in the graveyard and place talismans on graves so you can enter a cave.

Renya hears someone ring the doorbell and sees a clown's face through the intercom. He also finds a suspicious note on a table.

“	I've got your sister! If you don't want to lose her Break all the balloons, loser!	”
	— Clown

A toy morning star appears, and there are balloons all over the house. The player is given two minutes, which is not enough to break all the balloons.

• In Renya's mom's room, you can see the clown hanging on the window, staring at you.

When the time runs out, Renya opens the door with a rainbow picture on it on the second floor. He sees a clown watching his sister who's inside a cage. The clown then approaches and looks at him.

After Nightmare/The Kidnap

Renya wakes up with scary dramatic music playing in the background. He awakens from Tama meowing and scratching at the door. He follows the cat downstairs and finds the living room glass door open with dirt all over the floor, trailing towards the closet. He finds Tama inside the closet, but he gets attacked and captured by the strange man.

Kidnapped

When Renya wakes up, he notices that he is in a van with his sister sitting next to him. He later wakes up in a room with blood on the floor and boarded up windows. He picks up a hammer and removes the nails holding the boards, then climbs out the window onto the roof. He finds his sister and tries to knock on her window to alert her but she fails to notice him.

Renya goes back in the house through the balcony and finds his sister wearing headphones in one of the rooms. When Renya tries to persuade her to escape, she tells him that she's the one who asked the man to kidnap her and then later Renya in the hopes it would get their mother to care for them again.

Renya is in disbelief, and decides to get out before the man finds him. He goes downstairs and finds the man passed out drunk on the floor. Renya grabs his keys, walks out the front door, but gets caught when he tries to unlock the front gate. The man comes from behind him and gets him back inside the house, saying that his sister will be worried.

Back in the room, Sakiko comes over and tells Renya to relax, and that the man does everything she says. Sakiko also orders him not to do anything weird and that this was the only way to get Mom to love her again. Renya agrees but he thinks that something's strange with his sister.

Endings

Ending #1

Renya decides that he can't rely on his Sakiko and needs to go get help. He has to get out without getting spotted by the man or his sister. As Renya moves around and hides in places around the house, he finds a way into the attic through a closet and discovers a bloody bag filled with a dead person's remains. He distracts his sister by turning the tv off and gets her to go to other rooms. While she looks for the remote, he grabs the key on the table and a battery to turn on the radio. As the man deals with the radio, Renya escapes through the front gate on a bicycle.

As Renya rides the bicycle, the man chases him in a van. Renya takes a left but ends up falling off the bicycle. He runs the rest of the way to Kohime's house.

“

I rushed into Kohime's home. I didn't know where else to go. I remember her mother worked at a place where they took care of troubled kids. Kohime's mother listened carefully to what I had to say. She agreed to shelter me and my sister for a few days and even went to the mister's home to pick my sister up. I heard my sister had resisted at first but eventually calmed down and left the mister's house. Kohime's mother also met the mister and understood that he meant no harm. However, from here on out, she firmly told us to "leave him alone". She then suggested we both go to foster care. We were happy to be given the choice.

”

Renya got help from Kohime's mother. He and his sister end up going to foster care. Sakiko resisted a bit at first but she agrees in the end and they were to leave the man alone. One day at the foster home, Sakiko welcomes Renya back from school. She admits that a lot had happened and that the foster home was comfortable. She thinks back and realizes that Renya was afraid of Mom.

Mom comes to the foster home to pick up Renya and Sakiko. She says that she'll watch over them as she is their mother. In the car, she asks about how they ended up like that and where they were. Sakiko admits to getting the man to kidnap them, which causes her mother to become angry at the man. Sakiko insists that he wasn't a bad person but is told to be quiet.

The mother drives to the man's house, furious that he had interfered with someone else's family affairs. She finds him pruning the grass, and yells at him for kidnapping her children, saying that he had no authority over them, they were her children, and that she was the only one who's allowed to do whatever she wanted with them.

The mom keeps screaming at the man for not responding, and when she pushes him, he attacks her with his sickle, killing her. The mister runs away as Sakiko shrieked and collapsed on the floor, devastated. Renya smiled.

After the credits, it is shown that the police arrived at the man's house and found the body in the attic.

Ending #2

Renya decides to escape and go get help. After switching off the TV using the remote, Sakiko goes out and wonders where the remote is. Renya goes up the attic and finds Sarao's mom's corpse hidden in a bloody bag. Renya grabs the batteries from the table and turns on the radio using it. Sarao deals with the radio and Renya sneaks out the front door. He opens up the main entrance using the key and escapes on the bicycle. Sarao catches up to Renya in the van. Renya takes a left and falls off the bicycle. He starts running. However, unlike Ending #1, instead of going to Kohime's house, he instead decides to go and run back to his own house. Once he enters, Renya starts wandering around, but after some time, the screen fades to black, and the word 'CAUGHT' appears on the screen in bolded red, indicating that Sarao might have caught up to Renya, entered his home through the front door, and killed him. The game then allows the player to try again.

Ending #3

There are two ways to achieve this ending.

Renya obeys his sister and goes back to the bed.

“

It's been two weeks. I listened to my sister and decided to live in the kidnapper's house. I didn't want any trouble, so I stopped going to school. I can't really agree with my sister's plan, but... I trust her.

”

Renya's sister calls for him to help her cook as the man sits on the floor, looking out the window. Renya helps Sakiko cut the vegetables when the doorbell rings. At the door is the police. Renya tries to explain but they do not take him seriously. They arrest the man and contact the children's mother.

“

I spoke to the police about the whole situation. I didn't want anyone to get in trouble. but they didn't take my words seriously because I'm just a child. The mister ended up getting arrested as a "Kidnapper". And the police seemed to be contacting our mother.

”

Renya escapes to his friend's house.

When Renya escapes the man's house, he chooses to go to Masahiro or Keiji's house instead of Kohime's. His friend's parent calls the police, Sakiko tries to explain but is ignored. and the man is arrested.

“

My friend's parent immediately called the police. Sis tried to explain everything to the police but they brushed her off and just took the. The mister was arrested as a "Kidnapper". And then police contacted our mother.

”

Mom arrives to pick up Renya and Sakiko at the police station. The police seem to be relieved that there were no injuries. Sakiko is happy because her mother came to get them, but when they arrived home, Mom only yells and calls them nuisances for embarrassing her. She is furious that she had to go through something like that for some kids that she didn't care about. She tells them to never trouble her like that again.

Sakiko holds her hand out as her mother left again, unable to understand.

Characters

Renya - Elementary school boy. A boy who loves his sister and depends on her a lot due to their mother's neglect. He is a diligent child, does the housework as he can and does his homework despite the lack of surveillance. He fears his mother. The smiling Renya may have taken over from Sarao. Because he too is a boy who was hurt by his mother.

Sakiko - Renya's sister. A high school girl who loves her mother a lot despite not being loved in return. She goes to great lengths for her mother's attention, from perfecting her grades to faking a kidnapping. She cares for her brother but often gets blinded by her love to her mother.

Mom - Renya's mother. An abusive and neglectful mother who holds no affection or care to her own children, leaving them to fend for themselves at home while she leaves with no sign of return. She only cares about her own embarrassment and reputation even after her children got kidnapped.

Sarao - The strange man. His mother was abusive to him, traumatizing him to the point that he'd kill her and hide her body in the attic of their house. Maybe he saw himself in Sakiko, so he helps her with her plan and kidnaps her so she could gain her own mother's attention. He kills Sakiko's mother in fear after she pushes him, possibly triggered by being yelled at.

External links

• The Kidnap on Steam

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