Confession Tree

Confession Tree
Location	North part of the school
Purpose	Confessions place Art Club gathering place (on Fridays) Unlocking the secret ending (202X Only)

The Confession Tree is a cherry blossom tree in the back of Akademi's campus, where rivals will confess their love to the protagonist's Senpai.

There is a myth at school that if someone confesses their love to their crush under the cherry tree behind the school on a Friday, the two of them will love each other forever.

Appearance

The tree is a tall and asymmetrical cherry blossom tree with pale pink flowers. The tree's petals are perpetually lightly drifting to the ground. Before the December 1st, 2024 Build, the confession tree was the same as other trees. Before the November 15th, 2015 Build, the tree was located on behind the school, ever since the early debug builds. As of the November 15th, 2015 Build, the tree is located on a steep hill behind the track. Around the end of the day, the tree becomes slightly tinted with the gold of the setting sun.

As of February 14th, 2020 Build, the back of the hill has what appears to be a cave, although the entrance is blocked by large boulders. The boulders can be removed with the pickaxe, though though it will take some time. Inside, there is Inkyu and Sakyu's mother's body tangled with roots, with a red sword stabbed into it.

Background

The tree was planted more than 240 years ago, at some point before 1780, as it pre-dates "The First Aishi". The person who planted the tree isn't important.

The tree didn't become "mythical" in any way at all until the year 1797, because Sakyu and Inkyu's mother was slain there; the confession version of the myth has existed for around 100 years. YandereDev made this myth because "a girl confessing to a boy underneath a cherry tree" is a common trope in anime. However, the myth isn't gender-specific.

In the 50s, people living in the region of the tree observed that an abnormal number of love confessions were taking place under the tree, these confessions were accepted.

Gameplay

In 202X Shiromi Torayoshi patrols this area. In 1989, Joze Shiuba patrols this area of Akademi. They patrol the area at 7:22 AM, 7:57 AM, 1:09 PM, and 3:49 PM.

Both Sakyu and Inkyu visit this hill and are seen looking for their mother.

Every girl who falls in love with Senpai plans to confess their feelings for him at 6:00 PM on Friday. Currently, only Osana and Amai have been confirmed to believe in the myth about the cherry tree, but not all rivals believe in it. Some rivals are non-superstitious, but they will confess under the tree anyway because they will have a specific reason for choosing the tree, aside from the myth.

The protagonist has until 6:00 PM on Friday to eliminate the current rival. If the protagonist fails, Senpai accepts the rival's confession, which leads to a "Senpai Lost" Game Over. If the protagonist successfully matchmakes the current rival, she will confess to her suitor instead. If the protagonist successfully sabotages the rival's interactions with Senpai, he will reject her confession.

Ayano would love to confess to Senpai underneath that tree one day. It's likely that it will happen in a few of the game's endings.

A Mysterious Tape is located near this tree.

• Ayano entering the cave.
• Discovering the Heartender.
• Attempting to pull it out
• Trying again, this time with two hands.
• Looking at the weapon in confusion.
• Shielding herself from weapon transformation.
• Touching the blade with two fingers.
• Hearing two voices of students.

1/8

As of the October 31st, 2024 build, the player can acquire a Pickaxe from Buraza Town and break down the rocks behind the hill to unlock a secret ending between the Basu sisters. It will take the player 17 times to fully break down the rocks with the pickaxe to see the shrivelled corpse of the Basu mother. They can break down the rocks in-between 3:30 PM to 5:30 PM. This process can be accelerated via upgrrading the physical education stat.

Trivia

Ayano wearing the red uniform.

• There was a red uniform that Ayano would wear running under the confession tree before being removed due to numerous reports claiming it was a "bug".
• In older builds, Sumire Saitozaki used to float right by the tree for testing purposes, but was moved to the third floor bathroom near classroom 3-2.
  • If Ayano ran into her in past builds, her uniform would turn black and red.
• Hanako Yamada, unlike other rivals, will not confess her love to her brother underneath the Confession Tree. She will instead force him to remain single so she can have all of his attention.
• Ayano would most likely never deface this tree.
• In the March 15th, 2017 Build, red spider lilies were implemented around the tree. However, as of the May 1st, 2017 Build, they have been removed due to causing frame rate issues.
  • In the May 6th, 2020 Build, the flowers were re-implemented, as YandereDev attempted to restore the flowers using an optimized shader that wouldn't harm the FPS. In the future, the flowers' size, shape, and movement will be changed.
• In the February 14th, 2020 build, if one decided to look inside the cave, they'd find a white box with the following message "Peeking? Naughty! It's not ready yet". It was later removed.
  • As of the March 1st, 2020 build, the cave first appears to be empty, but if the player uses cheat under the map, looking at the right angle, you can see what appears to be the Confession Tree's roots.
  • A tree closely resembling the confession tree is featured in one of the dreams. There's a dead body of an unknown character buried in its roots.
  • As of October 31st, 2024 build, the character is revealed to be Inkyu and Sakyu's mother.
• If you kill someone under the tree, no blood will come out of the body. This is due to technical reasons; blood pools are unable to spawn correctly on uneven surfaces.
• If Ayano steals Sakyu Basu's ring and then goes to the Confession Tree, Inkyu and Sakyu's mother will say "...that...ring...".
  • The tree's upper branches will then start wiggling.
• In an unknown update, if the player drops a weapon on the hill, it would spawn on the track and a HUD would tell the player that the weapon rolled off. This also applies to any liquid, especially blood.
• The original script for Ayano talking to the Basu sisters was going to make Ayano appear more curious about demons and ask the sisters questions regarding themselves. One of the questions related to the amount of demons like them was going to be asked by Ayano. Sakyu mentioned that she has encountered a few handful in her lifetime, but also encountered one running a restaurant in Buraza Town.
  • This idea was scrapped, as it mischaracterized Ayano to be talkative and curious about demons, but YandereDev says that it is still canon.
• Ayano destroying the back base of the hill is only canon in one timeline.
• The tree being asymmetrical and thicker than other trees is due to Basu Mother's body being tangled in the tree's roots.

Gallery

Cave entrance, blocked by boulders

Confession Tree before December 1st, 2024 build.

The third Confession Tree. March 15th, 2017.

The tree at sunset. November 15th, 2015.

The first school's Confession Tree. May 15th, 2015.

The Confession Tree from the other side. November 15th, 2015.

A bird's eye view of the tree. November 15th, 2015.

The Confession Tree as seen from afar. November 15th, 2015.

Lycoris Radiata (red spider lily) flowers.

Closer views to the blocked cave.

TheBasuSistersEnding

A video of the animated ending, dialogue between Ayano and Basu sisters not included.