Rago

**Rago** (羅睺, *Ragō*), also know as the **Black Star of Doom** (黒き凶星, *Kuroki kyōsei*), is a legendary mononoke. He met Jiro after he was forcibly unsealed by an unknown group of evil mononoke. He fused with Jiro to save his life.

## Plot

Jiro Azuma, a ninja who can talk to animals and was raised by his grandfather, meets a mononoke named Rago. Mononoke are immortal demons with extraordinary, supernatural powers. Rago is badly injured and Jiro, who has a soft spot for the animals he can talk to, treats Rago's wounds. Another mononoke attacks Rago and Jiro dies protecting him. Rago returns the flavor by fusing with Jiro, bringing him back from death but forever changing his life. This fusion gives Jiro the power to crush his opponents with Rago's power, but in exchange, he is no longer human.

Immediately after defeating the evil mononoke, Jiro is detained by Ryosuke Shiba and Ichika Kishimojin, government employed ninja from Bureau of Espionage. The Bureau was pursuing Rago after he was freed by a mysterious group of mononoke during a raid on the Bureau. As Jiro joins the Bureau his first mission leads them to the place where Rago had been sealed. They successfully fight off the mononoke there, but it leaves them with a cryptic message about Jiro's birth father.

Days later, the squad is brought together for some anti-mononoke training. Forced into an illusion courtesy of the human-friendly mononoke Fuyo, each member of the group confronts their own individual trials. Jiro and Rago, must do battle a colossal black panther, the true form of Rago.

During an anti-mononoke training session, Jiro and Rago are shown a vision of the Edo period. There they meet a mononoke named Amagi and learn he was the one who had Rago unsealed from his prison.

Days later, a string of mysterious murders is revealed to be the work of mononoke, Jiro and Rago take out Kanawa, but in the process Rago becomes aware of a horrifying truth - in exchange for granting Jiro his powers, he has been unwillingly devouring Jiro's vital energy this entire time! Before Rago can tell this to Jiro, the two are confronted by Amagi himself. Jiro tries to fight, but is crushed in a single blow. In complete control, Amagi delivers an ultimatum to Rago - if he wants to save Jiro's life, he must swear his undying loyalty to Amagi!

With little other choice, Rago allows Amagi to undo the possession binding him to Jiro. However, Rago pulls a fast one on Amagi and leaves all of his power behind in Jiro. Enraged that he yet again missed out on getting Rago's power, Amagi lashes out, but Koga saves Rago. Cooling down, Amagi decides to leave Rago alive and put a different plan into action...

## Afterwards

Rago is over a thousand years old. In his youth, when Rago still preferred human form, he became friends with the lord of a powerful family. However, in time, having Rago's power at his disposal made that lord grow arrogant. Giving in to ambition, he started more and more wars for land until his many enemies finally wiped out his entire clan in revenge. After that, Rago began avoiding relationships, giving up human form for the cat body he wears to this day.

At least, that's what Rago believes. Most of those memories are still vague thanks to his time fused to the killing stone. All that he really remembers is a vague "fear of commitment".

After the battle with Amagi, Jiro gains at least a basic ability to control Rago's power somewhat by himself, freeing Rago to concentrate on devouring as little of Jiro's vital essence as possible. However, Rago is still very aware that he is a burden on Jiro and believes that, someday, the two of them need to be separated once again.