Gashadokuro

The Gashadokuro is a giant skeleton Spirit that lives in the Sewers of the Second Town, where Haru and Yui lived. It appears as originally sewer rats or mice. However, they have the ability to take the form of large undead rodents and even a large skeleton.

## Appearance

The Gashadokuro originally appears as a group of sewer rats or mice. These little creatures have short, gray fur. There somewhat long tail is also grayish. They appear to have black eyes due to how small they are.

When some of them join together, they can that the appearance of a much larger version of the sewer critters, but appearing more like a living corpse. Its body appears to have holes on it, revealing the red flesh inside its body. The holes' shape, size, and arrangement make its body to appear like a grayish rib cage, Its head has two holes on top of its forehead, both of its eyes have a black sclera and red iris, and its front legs are long, with large and sharp claws.

When several of the sewer rats and mice join together, they appear as the Japanese yokai, the Gashadokuro. The large skeleton only appears as a floating skull and two large skeletal arms. Its skull has long black hair and it is missing its lower jaw. Its eye sockets don't appear to have eyes, leaving black voids inside of them. However, it may have eyes deep inside, as its eye sockets can flash a red light in each one simultaneously.

## Mythology and Theories

In Japanese mythology, the Gashadokuro is a yokai created from the anger, malice, and grudges of many deceased people whose bodies aren't given proper burial and funerary rites. This is because without burial and funerary rites, the dead bodies will decay and their souls will be unable to pass over to the afterlife, leaving their souls to become hungry ghosts that forever long for what they once had. Since their negative energies outlast their decaying bodies, their malice still lingers when their corpses are reduced to bones. And when there is enough victims of this kind of tragedy that gather together, their bones form together the humongous skeletal knows as the "Gashadokuro".

It is noted that people who end up as this large spirit are soldiers whose bodies rot in the fields and victims of famine who die unknown in the wilderness, rarely receive proper funerary rites.

Now, it isn't necessary for the Gashadokuro to be created from the corpses of humans, as seen here. This Gashadokuro is created from possibly the corpses of dead rats and mice who either died from starvation or killed by humans. This is what to be believed to what created this creature.

On one hand, this Spirit retains its traits of being rodents, as seen when this Spirit is scared of dogs like Chaco and have the ability to separate into rats and mice, as well as form into a much larger version of rats and mice (in the appearance of zombie-like entities). On the other hand, these aggregation of deceased creatures appear to have developed a form of intelligence, as seen as it can communicate with Haru.

## Gallery

The Gashadokuro in its giant skeleton form.The rats and mice Spirits.The rats and mice Spirits surrounding a recently deceased brethren.The Gashadokuro breaking down into the rats and mice Spirits.The Gashadokuro trying to protect the recently deceased brethren from Haru and Chaco.The Spirits in their large rodent forms.The Spirits in their true form.