Akaneiro

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**Akaneiro** *(Ah-kah-ne-ee-roh)* is a fox yōkai who serves as host of the materialization of despair, **Azrael**. Acting as Arcadia's Grim Reaper, they exist to balance the eon as death.

Akaneiro wields a crow feather coated scythe, which allows him to wander in between the world and its surface, called "The Abyss".

## Appearance

Akaneiro is a handsome, physically well trained male of Japanese heritage, appearing in his mid-twenties. Naturally black hair layers past his shoulder blades, usually messily worn, with tendencies to longer growth. Its strands turn red through out the month, resembling fox fur, and is accordingly thick and silky. As any other kitsune yōkai, his eyes are golden, dyeing crimson red upon Azrael's control. Tail and hair match in texture and mainly black and red hues, with exception of the characteristic lighter tip, while his ears are a common dark black with soft pink insides. Instead of human feet, he features digitigrade paws replacing his toes, which graduate into a black similar to his fur. His body is marked by several scars gained from the torture endured in captivity, such as a large mark running across his chest, a gunshot mark on his right side and small stab marks at his neck from injected needles. A scar from a torn out earring is visible on his left ear.

## Personality

As the self proclaimed devil and grim reaper of Arcadia, personifying death, Akaneiro meets a high level of intimidation by default. Anything but fond of strangers, the fox will come off as a deceptive, apathetic killer, who cares little about the value of the life of others. A facade he holds up to maintain respect towards his person, as well as protect himself. In reality, Akaneiro is a rather kind hearted and caring person, who thinks twice before forcing situations that could cause harm to the innocent. He reaps strictly for the cause of cleansing the world from potential misfortune and despair, however, does not seem keen on the idea of this knowledge becoming common. Akaneiro firmly believes that fear and ignorance assist in maintaining balance, though should not be exclusively used to exploit.

Despite his scary appearance, Akaneiro has a way with words, that even despite forward flirtatious approaches often proves quite charming. His bold language often juggles between insulting and almost attractively honest. Whether he says things for personal amusement or genuine attempts to socialize remains rather unclear in most interactions with strangers.
On a deeper level, those he believes trustworthy and loyal, can enjoy a vivid personality ranging from utter annoyance with their person, to genuine exchanges of affection with the fox. While often prone to cursing and short tempered tendencies, he proves to be a selfless and loving person, who to much surprise of the people he interacts with, is often found trying to comfort and support friends through rough patches. While not showing it openly to just anyone, Akaneiro is extremely emotional and empathetic, which results in him loving strongly, but also to suffer greatly from negative impact such as guilt. He is a natural leader and will overcome most boundaries to protect the people dear to him, even go as far as putting his own life in danger to assure their safety. Due to repeated abuse in his history, he values loyalty and mutual honesty and respect more than anything.

Change of emotion is expressed through his ears and tail, and sometimes incoherent fox noises, rather than facial expression.

## Abilities

**Fox Magic**

As kitsune, Akane can create fox fires from claws, tail and breath. An inner flame boils in his chest, allowing him to light fires without requiring a starter. This flame makes his body resistant to fire and heat to high degree. If exposed to freezing temperatures, he will lose this ability and be even threatened with the possibility of dying to hypothermia. Additionally he can use regular fox magic to trick the appearance of objects to appear to his likes. He is able to switch between fox and human form by transforming into smoke

**Madder Red**

Referred to as ‘Madder Red’, Akaneiro’s body is inflicted with a curse, triggering the hellbound canine, should his vitals deplete rapidly. Standing tall at around 7 feet (above 2 meters), the demon is a powerful replica of Akaneiro’s basic fox form, however during transformation fractures and reforms bones, its mask being entirely forged from its skull, making the safety measure a painful ordeal. This form will stay intact for as long as the fox suffers unbearable pain, which would put a risk to his life. Fueled by rage and despair, Akaneiro is incapable of controlling his actions in this form, leading Azrael to only trigger it in absolute emergencies.

**Hide and Seek**

Azrael’s vision is gifted with clairvoyance, allowing their host to perceive “despair” inside an individual. This allows the grim reaper to chase down ‘fallen ones’, people who will eventually bring misfortune over the innocent.

**Summer Haze**

A dreaded ability Akaneiro fails to maintain control over. If plagued by mental instability or depression, the ability enables the fox to pull a victim into a false reality, an illusion of their darkest fears, torturing them until they break from the spell through their own willpower. He refuses to use this ability, as the mental harm inflicted could prove devastating.

**Spirit Drain**

Originating from kitsune heritage, Akaneiro is capable of draining or gifting previously stored life source of an individual through a kiss. This temporarily empowers him or the recipient, however, returning life source requires physical involvement past a mere kiss, which is why the fox avoids to use the power until an emergency occurs.

**Key to the World**

Gifted with the power of creation, Akaneiro possesses the key to the world, allowing him to travel past world borders, into the universe surrounding Arcadia, a world which he created through a pact with the goddess of Fate. He usually takes rest inside the Abyss, a rift between worlds where all living ceases to exist.

## Azrael

Azrael is a gender less manifestation of despair, a phenomenon including depression, hopelessness and other unbearable negative thoughts. They reside as a secondary soul inside Akaneiro's body, but can not take control unless granted by the dominant host. To the self proclaimed grim reaper, any individual, humanoid or feral, will appear in a black aura if plagued by the symptoms, which can be located by their host. If they declare a target doomed, which simply means they will eventually succumb to their negativity one way or another and potentially harm others in the process, Azrael will be allowed control by his host Akaneiro, and will then infect the victim with The Black Plague.

**The Black Plague** is an incurable sickness cast upon a person plagued by despair, which will lead to their death. Whether this process is slow or instant depends entirely on the level of corruption within the victim. If infected but capable of maintaining an inner strength against struggles, the plague will not trigger until an emotional low or breakdown. In animals is it usually seen rotting a body from the inside until the animal succumbs to their pain. Azrael can take form as the plague, corrupting the host body, marking Akaneiro’s right arm entirely in black. The further the corruption, the more of the host’s right body side will turn black, eventually affecting even Akaneiro’s mental state. When in control, Azrael can become Akaneiro’s weapon, either as his claws, or form a sharp blade.

## Strengths - Weaknesses

Strengths
✔ **Physical Advantages →** The fox features representative animal instincts such as sharpened sight, scent and hearing. During sleep, his ears will remain intact and pick up even the smallest alarming noise. In general his body is tougher than a humans, able to endure deep cuts fatal to regular humans. Thanks to his paws, tail and trained limbs, agility, balance, and flexibility are nowhere out his range. Adding his stamina, the fox hardly struggles with weak enemies, naturally however is not invincible to greater enemies or manmade weapons.

✔ **Wits and Trickery →**The wit of the fox knows no limits, expressing through smart moves and trickery. Fooling him proves rather difficult, as he overthinks situations preferably too often than carelessly. He deems himself a quick learner, with the exception of reading.

✔ **Aura Sensitivity →** Slight changes in behavior and aura are not going unnoticed by the fox. Eon rich creatures in his general radius or individuals affected by despair are easily sensed from afar.

✔ **Cooking →** Akaneiro is no amateur in the fields of cooking. Being rather skilled in the kitchen his meals turn out delicious, despite not knowing much about the eating habits of non animalistic cultures. White Rice is his favorite ingredient to work with.

Weaknesses
𝙓 **Loss of Control →** Due to a past of being a reckless hunter, the smell or taste of blood, whether human or animal, combined with adrenaline, can wake the fox's preying instincts. Once control over his mind is lost, he loses any common sense and even temporarily grows blind from rage.

𝙓 **Short Temper →** Being overprotective and easily worried, Akane has trouble with his temper regarding dangerous incidents followed by bad decisions, or vice versa. If an incident involves a loved one, whether they got hurt or close to, he usually has trouble calming from anger and worry. He will occasionally scold, though hardly ever means to harm.

𝙓 **Freezing Temperatures →** As a flame rests inside Akaneiro's chest, temperatures close to or below freezing render him vulnerable, posing a threat to his life, as the fire fails to heat his body. Since he needs warmth to survive, he generally avoids cold areas and is terrified of ice skills. Exposure to low temperatures for too long may cause him to fall ill.

𝙓 **Poison →** Direct poison of any kind, no matter how small the dose, will cause seizures for the fox as his body can not process it.

𝙓 **Alcohol →** As a weak form of poison, alcohol sickens the fox. The smallest amount will get him drunk, confusing him and tampering with his common sense. He is not a happy drunk.

𝙓 **Sweets →** As any carnivore, his body reacts repulsive to any form of sweets, especially chocolate, causing illness. Despite his awareness, he has a sweet tooth and will try to get his hands on chocolate when possible, regretting the decision ever so often. To make up for it, he developed a certain fondness of fruit, especially ume, which are known for their sweetness.

𝙓 **Mating Season →** Spending his past life seducing any female close to him, mating season is an especially frustrating time to the fox, as the amount of physical attention needed is none a single partner can keep up with. Being truthfully and loyal to his lover however, he usually spends the off time of these months scratching trees, picking fights and pitying his existence.

𝙓 **Eggplants →** As ridiculous as it sounds, eggplants are one of Akaneiro's most notable weak spots. Alone the stench of the plant, especially when cooked, scares him to his bones and he avoids them like the plague.

𝙓 **Seeing Girls Cry →** One of his incurable weak spots. Tears of girls make his knees weak, especially when liking them. It's a sure way to break any resistance.

𝙓 **Flowers →** The smell of flowers causes allergic reactions such as uncontrollable sneezing.

## Extra

★ Spotify Playlist

★ His Tarot Card equivalent is **"The Devil"**. Greek mythology equivalent is **Ares**

★ Both his ears and tail are sensitive spots only his loved ones may touch.

★ Akaneiro suffers from PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder).

★ Though he is able to write and read, he is terrible at both and generally lacks motivation to study.

★ His fox magic allows him to use his hair as a brush. He is a surprisingly skilled painter.

★ Dogs frighten him. If called a dog, he reacts with intense offense. However, he adores cats.

★ While not homophobic to others, he is absolutely reluctant of the idea of getting involved with another male.

★ Akane refuses to cry in front of others and will simply walk away if he feels tears coming. If he cries in someone's presence its a huge proof of trust.

★ Akaneiro is unable to grow facial hair and cannot die of old age, due to a curse resetting his body in time endlessly.

★ Like a calendar, Akaneiro's naturally black hair will dye into strands of red with each passing day, until no black remains at the end of a month, a side effect of the mentioned curse. This affects his humanity, showing more vulnerable human traits and weaker instincts the less red stains his hair.

★ His name originates from a title once given to him by frightened humans, which roughly translated to “Madder red of the bloodstained dawn”, referring to the killing sprees the fox would commit at sundown.

★ A song about chickens is coded into his head, triggered by the phrase 'The chicken laid an egg'. If triggered, Akaneiro will break into repeated song until handed an egg, a safety measure implanted in the past.