Hana no No ni Saku Utakata no part 1: Common and Reina
This is a VN by Applique, the makers of Concerto Note and Tasogare no Sinsemilla. Like most of their other VNs, this one has a layer of the supernatural mixed in with slice-of-life, wherein the supernatural becomes integral to their daily life.
There are two major supernatural aspects present from the beginning. One is the protagonist, Michitaka, and his ability to see the traces of other human beings as colors, both on they themselves and the objects they touch or own. The other is Ouka... whom I'll deliberately avoid explaining so as to avoid spoiling a really funny scene early on.
Common Route
The common route is really straightforward, with Ouka being something of an armchair detective for figuring out events that happen in Michitaka's daily life. His interactions with his two osananajimis (Reina and Shione) and the other people around him are well-described and serve well in introducing you to both the heroines and side-characters. The actual split for the first three heroine paths is relatively early on (this game uses a flow-chart style, which decides where you split off the common route) and the events leading up to it are, if not exciting, at least interesting enough that you can feel yourself developing a sense of the heroines' personas and how they might react during their own routes.
Inoue Reina
Reina is one of the protagonist's two osananajimis, the daughter of a realtor who is known, for the most part, for his honorable behavior. She herself is presented as a straightforward, serious girl with a somewhat boyish way of talking and acting. Because of some events that are deliberately not made clear in the common route, she and the protagonist were somewhat estranged before the VN began, but they quickly regain the relationship they possessed before. This route isn't a firestorm romance, but rather a simple case of two people who cared about each other already deciding to take it a step further, triggered by the events in the early part of the route. I do think that things move a little too fast once they get together, but the emotional events left me satisfied with the main path...
... even though I felt a little miffed by the short epilogue.
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