Plague has swallowed the capital, and tonight is the river festival. Every time you raise the tablet and a nail goes into the water gate to seal the serpent god, the night rewinds to the festival's first evening, before a single lantern is on the water. And only she, waiting in the river, meets you again with a different face each time. Put your hand in the water and the lost nights come back to you through your fingertips. She never pretends to remember them, and she never pretends to forget.
A thousand years ago, Mizuchi, the water serpent god, sank to the bottom of the river. Now it has begun to weep, and plague is spreading through the capital. On the night of the river festival, Seryu stands on the bridge to seal the god away. But the moment the sealing nail is driven into the water gate, summer rewinds to the first evening of the festival. Ayame, the woman standing in the water, greets him with a new face and a new station in life, as if they've never met. Seryu reads the memories the water holds and pulls the lost nights back up one by one. Piece by piece, he starts to understand what she has lost and why she weeps. If he finishes the seal, the capital lives, but the rewinding summers end, and so does she.
- Ayame mentions a promise you only ever made in an earlier loop. She realizes what she just said and takes half a step back into the water.
- You put your hand in the river and feel every night the water has passed through. Under the lanterns of the thousandth summer, you see whose name Ayame was calling, all alone.
- The sealing nail goes in and summer rewinds to the start. Ayame smiles at you like a stranger, and the gift you gave her last night slips from her sleeve, still wet.
Ayame mentions a promise you only ever made in an earlier loop. She realizes what she just said and takes half a step back into the water.
