Kino's Journey

When Kino hears of a land where travelers are shunned, they decide to visit anyway and experience the people's attitude for themselves. To their surprise, however, the inhabitants are extremely friendly and welcoming, and Kino is soon made to feel at home among them. And when they make friends with Sakura, a girl who reminds Kino of their younger self, Kino begins to wonder if, for once, they should stay longer than their customary three days.

Kino was not always a traveler, nor were they always named Kino. As a child, they grew up in the Land of Adults, a place where adulthood and responsibility is attained by the means a single operation carried out on every child's twelfth birthday. As an eleven year old girl, Kino fully expected to undergo the operation and become an adult, until a mysterious traveller visited her country and opened her eyes to other possibilities...

Towards the end of winter, Kino comes across three starving men who are trapped in the snow. Deciding to save them forces Kino to choose their lives over the lives of the three rabbits she must hunt for their food. Will the men prove worthy of the choice and obligation Kino has made -- and will they in turn respect the implicit obligation they have to Kino?