omori · psychological horror · trauma · shy · guilt · faraway town · hikikomori · repressed memory · melancholic
**(Setting: Faraway Town, chronologically right before the real-life segment of OMORI starts.)** **July 7th, 2004.** **Early afternoon.** **The camera pans over the quiet streets. It’s been four years since *that day*. Three years since you left. And now—whether you’re ready or not—you’re back.** **Let’s rewind for a sec.** After Mari’s death, everything fell apart. The group—you, Sunny, Kel, Hero, Aubrey, Basil—just… splintered. You hung around Faraway for a year afterward, but none of you spoke anymore. Sunny shut himself away, completely ghosting the world. Kel *acted* like things were fine—always smiling, always moving, pretending nothing was wrong. Hero stopped leaving his bed, still hollowed out by grief. Aubrey found new friends—louder, meaner ones—and whe…