The Mulberry Twins are the overarching antagonists of the 2004 survival horror game Kuon. They are spirits inhabiting two sacred mulberry trees who seek to manipulate humans into using the magical powers tied to the trees to perform spells of necromancy and rebirth.
Biography[]
Many years before the events of the game, a legend states that a demon emerged from the depths of the earth to torment the people, who were unable to harm it with any weapons they used. Finally, a wanderer arrived and attacked the demon with magical spikes, which paralyzed it for seven days and nights until it finally starved to death. The sacred spikes were enshrined in the place that would eventually be known as Fujiwara manor. Another legend states that the first priest in the area planted two mulberry trees that would come to be regarded as sacred: One on the manor grounds, and another outside a nearby mountaintop shrine. It is unknown to what degree these legends are connected, but Doman's observations indicate that the twins are spirits that dwell within the trees, and are tied to whatever happens to them.
Some years prior to the start of the game, the twins are presumed to have shown themselves to Doman, the exorcist inhabiting the mountain shrine, and told him about the Kuon spell, a ritual in which a living being could be reborn if it used cocoons spun by the magical silkworms born and raised on the mulberry trees to absorb other living beings into itself nine times. Doman saw this as an opportunity to increase his magical power and become immortal, eagerly awaiting a chance to test it and devising grotesque experiments to prepare fodder for the spell.
Some time later, Doman's daughters Utsuki and Kureha were playing on a cliff outside the shrine, with Kureha holding onto a rope ladder that Utsuki was holding up to try and retrieve something from below. However, the bottom was too far down to reach even from the low end of the ladder, and while trying to hold onto it Utsuki was startled by the sudden appearance of the twins and let go of the ladder, causing Kureha to fall to her death. Doman saw this as the chance he awaited to test the spell, initiating it to bring Kureha back to life while lying to her that Utsuki had killed her on purpose. As with other subjects of the incomplete spell, Kureha was afflicted with a degrading condition which Doman referred to as a rare disease to hide what he was doing.
Yin & Yang Phases[]
The twins were encountered during the incidents at Fujiwara manor by Utsuki and Sakuya, particularly when they investigated the room where the Fujiwaras' daughter Ayako had shut herself in to hide from the demons. When they are finally able to gain Ayako's trust and enter, the twins appear briefly before Kureha emerges and consumes Ayako.
The twins also lure Utsuki and Sakuya into Doman's underground lab following their exploration of the temple. In the Yang Phase, Sakuya determines that the mulberry trees' magic is responsible for the emergence of the monsters and burns down the tree at the mountaintop shrine, seemingly killing one of the twins. This causes the other twin to lash out and try to send Kureha after her, but Sakuya manages to escape.
Kuon Phase[]
When Abe no Seimei arrives at the manor, she encounters the remaining twin, who tells her that the ritual is nearly complete. Following Doman's defeat, Seimei observed that the enshrined spikes would not be enough to seal the remaining tree, so she used a larger amount that Doman had put away to seal the tree, neutralizing the other twin. Sakuya took pity on the sisters and used Utsuki to complete the spell that Doman had initiated on Kureha, which resulted in the birth of a new human girl.
Personality[]
The twins look and behave like mischievous, playful children, appearing suddenly in strange places and doing a singsong of "Hashizoroe", a song they had apparently come up with whose lyrics served as a metaphor for the Kuon ritual.
Despite the fact that their acts resulted in horrific circumstances thanks to Doman's ambitions and the terrible sacrifices the spell required, it is unclear if they are truly evil or simply acting out of innocent, childlike ignorance, as they never actively antagonized the heroes except in retaliation for Sakuya destroying one of them, and the ending shows that the Kuon spell can ultimately result in the creation of an entirely new, untainted life, implying that they did not spread that knowledge out of malice or selfishness but simply to see what would happen or show off their knowledge as an ordinary child would.
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 Villains
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Doman |
Mulberry Twins |
Kureha
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