TURNS OUT super cool new AIM doesn't keep logs of what I do anymore, so this is going to have to be mostly from memory.
Ran wakes up in the back seat of his car, hearing thunder off in the distance. Its very late, and he has no idea where he is. [Ran had been kicked out of his house recently and was sleeping in his car]. He's not sure how, but someone towed his car or something without waking him and now he's in the middle of a large parking lot in front of a Home Depot-esque store. He scrounges together his possessions (wallet, car keys) and starts to evaluate the situation.
The store is a large building, but clearly not part of a chain. Its located way off in the boonies, with only a small 2 lane road running past it (Ran never notices any traffic on this road). Ran tries to start his car, but his battery is dead. He decides to try to walk the small road, and goes over his car to find anything that might be of use. He picks up a tire iron, and makes a discovery in his glove box. There is an envelope, with a knife and a picture of his car in front of his house inside. On the reverse of the photo is a note saying something like 'I wouldn't stay here long
'. The storm is catching up to where Ran is, and its starting to rain softly.
Abandoning his idea of walking a road for an unknown period of time in what's looking to be a very serious storm, he moves towards the store to investigate it further. As he draws closer, he notices the sliding door is slightly ajar already, and pushes inside. As he slides the door, a loud DING DONG sound plays through the whole store.
There is no light inside of the store, other than the natural light coming in through the glass of the sliding door. Ran locates a flashlight display nearby and uses his knife to retrieve their demo light. Its only a small flashlight, designed to fit in a glove box but its better than nothing. He moves further into the store, and is immediately drawn to a color palette section. Taped near the bottom of this he finds another photo, this time of himself in his room as viewed from outside. The note part reads 'Number 1 or number 2?' [This was a goof on my part, assuming Ranmaru would have an idea of the general kinds of stuff you could find in a Home Depot as well as assuming that every Home Depot has the stuff mine has. The idea here was to get him to look in the bathroom area where he'd find another hint.]
Ran wanders the store for a bit, and hears the sound of a piece of metal falling over towards the back right corner of the store. He rushes over to find out what caused it, and eventually finds a shower curtain in the middle of the floor had caused it [spoiler I had to get him to move to the bathroom area so I had my murderer bait him over there]. The note on the curtain promptes him to think back to the last hint he got, and he checkes out the toilet section. Of the toilets, only one has its seat down. He lifts the seat (and finds another smiley face painted under the lid) and notices the bowl is filled with a red liquid, with another note floating on top [Ran never asked but yeah its blood oooOOOOOoooooOOOh].
This note asks 'Are you spinning around in circles?' [Meaning to direct him towards the ceiling fan section], but as Ran starts to leave the area he notices someone moving into an aisle further down. He also hears the soft hum of a motor starting [the ceiling fan in question, which is somewhere between Ran and the guy]. Ran opts to pursue the movement instead of the puzzle, and manages to locate the our murderer friend. He is surprised to see Ran, and very dirty in appearance. Wild, long hair, missing teeth, the works. He grins at Ran and talks about not wanting to stop playing just yet, and tries to flee. He runs with a slight limp, so Ran manages to catch up with him fairly quickly.
Ran chooses to drop his tire iron [what] to grab onto the back of the guy's collar and pull him down to the ground. The man falls backwards, and tries to slash Ran's arm that is holding his collar. Ran pulls back, and shines the light into the guy's eyes causing him to shield them with his knife arm. Ran disarms him, and throws the knife off into the store somewhere. He also manages to roll the guy to his stomach and pin him using one of the guy's arms.
And then things start going not so good for Ran. Ran asks the guy what he's doing to him, and the guy responds with stuff like 'HE demands it!'. Eventually, the guy offers to show Ran what he's talking about if he lets him up.
...
And Ran lets him up.
So then the guy asks Ran if he still has the knife he gave him at the beginning of the game. He tells Ran 'its the key' and that he needs it [all complete bull****, he just wants to stab Ran]. Ran.... gives him the knife and then anticipates a punch. The guy puts his hand on Ran's shoulder, thanks him, and then starts mercilessly stabbing him in the stomach until Ran dies.
Plot summary: Ran is kidnapped by a deranged cult member looking to put him through an trial and eventually sacrifice him. Ran manages to foil the test by spotting the guy, but stumbles in that he for some reason trusts the dude and gets killed.
