Any ideas/wishes? Looks/height/personality/all bells and whistles?
know i wasnt asked, not trying to butt in, but imo I think there's probably room for another warrior. Takahiro I believe is supposed to eventually be kinda a option, but from what I've seen Nakano is more safely popular among people, but is locked to Kinu, as far as I know. I don't think if she gets with one the other would be a option eventually. A clone wouldn't have the best potential, but there's a few options to not step on their toes. Tak is a super jaded vet-type, and Nakano is basically a tough guy who hasn't seen real war and the prices it has yet. Options I could see could be a younger soldier that's a bit runty, abandoned for being weak and going down a bad path, you take under your wing and train. Your relationship could blossom into trust, maybe he has a crush on your for all your help and aid, and maybe it culminates in a dramatic confession trope moment where you choose to curb it to bromance, like with Brint's platonic, or romance. There's been a couple npcs who've done that now and been dropped, temporarily or not, like Shar, but it would still be a possibility. Maybe Nakano and takahiro get involved plotwise and you clash/get assistance over teaching/not teaching him as a proper warrior kitsune from them respectively. Possibly kinda similar to Etheryn where he starts maybe shy, but possibly more like berwyn, angry at the world and unable to be as strong as he wants, and as you help him get stronger, in his portrait he stands taller, his dialogue becomes more fluid and confident, and possibly if you were to spar with him solo to train he goes from being a push-over to a close to equal match. could satisfy people wanting more males to romance and also people not interested in that with a new character that's a loyal friend, and possibly room to have a (slightly maybe) better friendship with nakano or takahiro.
secondary option, much less happy, is the miko scene where she's starving or whatever, and she starts losing herself essentially, kinda opens the door for kitsunes who lost themselves completely. maybe rare to the point it'd be a one off, but a new encounter post winter city where you have keros, or nakano, submit a new request. few different possible setups but essentially, they'd approach you much more somberly than the other requests so far, to find and kill a completely feral kitsune, maybe they accidentally killed a lover and decided to not feed, or maybe they went overboard and liked it too much, and so you wind up with the duty to track them through lands the kitsune can't freely travel, and have to fight one in a very difficult encounter. probably in appearance they'd look like a rabid tailed humanoid, and you finally find them over a anonymous dead body. they communicate very primitively and would have a bit more of a domination bad end scene, possibly to remove snuff they just leave you on the brink and disappear, causing the quest to fail. i feel like something like that could really put the kitsune in perspective, why they are feared by a lot of people, and what they fight against. possibly create more friction between the player and them as a faction, and maybe a scene with kiyoko where she asks if you're afraid of them (her) now. and makes room for a solid emotional dialogue. if done as a particularly hard one off, possibly could have keros promise you a favor.
might be cheating but a final fun possibility is to remove the door puzzles to get kiyoko, and instead meet a cat person salesman. again several different possibilities but either through a simplified convocation of mirrors type moral questionaire or through suggesting or denying support of his tales of kitsune, he either suggests you look in a cave he marks (kiyoko's locket) or he misdirects you, making it unobtainable. probably decently obvious but it would be a avatar of keros and also kinda a poke at ambra, and would also be a bit more fitting possibly than 3 puzzle doors that disappear afterward. might have to adjust some of his dialogue later, but also has room for if he points you to the cave and you earn his interest, possibly before or after Evergreen's request, the merchant shows up again. maybe that time he talks about how he has "good friends" up there at the den and hopes you won't hurt anyone, and if you say you will if you need to, he acts disappointed and it proceeds as normal, and if you ask if there's a way you could go without harming anyone, he'll say "let me go first and I'll ask my friends to let you in". you then arrive at the entrance to the den, this time met with the maidens at the entrance, very on edge and untrusting, but willing to let you meet their elder. from then on it mostly plays the same with having to earn their trust, but it functions as a peaceful route to bypass the boss rush, possibly bonus points to keros or to some of the relationships, and the ability to become kitsune earlier and cleaner, while keeping all the trust building plots without having to change that much dialogue besides first encounters. work kept to a minimum with kinda the illusion created of a choice that matters and might make people feel more in control.
