Otakemaru - Dark Lord of the Yokai

## Not All Who Wander Are Lost

The undisputed ruler of, strongest of and the progenitor of all Oni. Appearing in legends from long ago as a god who resided around Mt Shiroyama, he is said to have possessed great supernatural power, with the ability to fly, summon storms, or even cause fire to rain down from the sky. But the truth is often exaggerated.

Long ago, a man by the name of Kashin Koji wandered the land. Due to his innately large build, steely eyes and Bishōnen facial features, especially his white hair, he was distrusted and scorned by each village he travelled through, though never showed any hostility or angst towards the people.

Finally, he came upon a village where he was welcomed as a weary traveler, given food to eat and shelter to stay by the inhabitants, who all treated him as one of their own. While he had originally planned to move on and continue his journey, so touched was he by their kindness that he decided to stay, soon becoming one of them, living and working among the villagers and maintaining the peace of the place. So attached he became to the village and their way of life that he fell in love with a young woman, Suzuka.

Eventually the two were married, and with marriage came children. Three in total; Doji, Mae and Yamato. Together, the young family lived in harmony among their neighbours. Yet nothing good can last forever.

Suzuka became bedridden with a mysterious illness, which no doctor or wise woman could seem to cure. And so she resigned herself to death, becoming weaker and weaker by the day as she lay on what all thought was her deathbed. Apart from Kojin. Despite the objections of many around them, he beseeched Suzuka to let him administer her with strange glowing crystals. With none understanding how this would help, but with Suzuka wholeheartedly trusting her husband, she took the offering, falling into a deep sleep. All assumed she was gone, and mourned her loss, yet were stunned when not long after, she woke. Suzuka was alive, but had changed.

While she had always been pale, her skin was now a near ghost white. Her once pale purple irises had now darkened towards a dull red. And the most remarkable of all, she now had a pair of glowing amber horns sprouting from her forehead.

She was the same Suzuka as she had always been. A loving daughter, a devoted wife, a caring mother. But the villagers only saw what she had become. Warm words towards her soon become quiet whispers behind backs, and rumours became suspicion.

One night, their house was set alight. The fire consumed the building at such a rapid pace that Kashin barely had time to react. Rounding his family up, his children gathered in his arms, he led the way to the entrance, where upon escaping, they found themselves surrounded by the villagers, all armed with rudimentary tools and crying chants of 'monster'. Suzuka tried to plead to the people she had known her whole life, to her own flesh and blood, but so gripped by fear and rage was the mob, that she was cut down where she stood by several of the village men, including her own father. Kashin watched in horror, shielding his children from the sight, before the villagers turned their attention to the four of them. Having just seen the people he had grown to love and care for mow down that what was most precious to him in the world, and one of their own with such bloodthirsty ease, a darkness in him awakened.

No sooner were the pitchforks raised than Kashin revealed his true form. Standing twice as tall as the largest man in the village, with skin of a burning grey, mixed with cracks of gold and purple, evil glowing red eyes honed in on those around him. The horns that protruded from his forehead, black at the base and turning into a crystalline azure seemed to pulse with energy, with thick raven black hair having grown several times the length he had worn. Standing in front of his children, he massacred the men in front of him with ease, displaying vicious control over the elements and changing the form of his limbs to blades and spikes. But it was not enough. So blinded by rage and fueled by anger he was, that he hunted down every remaining man, woman and child in the village save his own, and put them to death, all having been complicit in the death of his beloved wife in his eyes. His three children watched on as their father wrought havoc on the village, and when he returned, he told them of his origins, and therefore their own tainted blood.

## Blood Origins

He told them of his story as a once simple man, with a life unordinary to any other. Born and bred on the island of Tsushima, he had lived a simple life as a fisherman, providing for his community as well as his wife and two children. That was until the first Mongol invasion of Japan changed everything. Kashin was one of the many young men who watched brave groups of Samurai rush to fend off the invaders, but all fell to the overwhelming numbers of the invaders. Tsushima was quickly overwhelmed and taken control of by the Mongols, enslaving the remaining population and killing any who resisted. Men were put to work or to the sword, women were brutally raped and murdered if they refused orders, and children were killed to ensure the natives' bloodlines would no longer exist. Kashin was made to watch as his wife was made the plaything of several invaders, before they murdered her for continuing to try and resist. His children were next, screaming as they were taken from him and cut down. With his spirit broken, he was put to work along with many others, with all hope seeming lost for their home, with the Mongols setting their sight even further afield to the mainland of Japan.

Yet Kashin had been brought up with tales of three holy relics deep within Mount Shiroyama, the Sanmyoken, left by the Gods themselves so that if ever Tsushima was in peril, could help turn the tide. With his friends telling him the idea was madness, he managed nevertheless to steal away in the middle of the night, avoiding the patrolling Mongols and making his way towards the mountain, and the caverns within. It was within the deepest grotto that Kashin came upon a collection of three swords, but they were not the Daitoren, Shotoren, and Kenmyoren that formed the Sanmyoken that he had been told would save his homeland. Instead, the three blades were merely old rusted tools of past wars. The cave however, was of no ordinary bearing. Its walls were covered with strange golden crystals, glowing and seeming to pulsate with power. Kashin could hear voices emanating from them, indiscernible in their speech but somehow knowing they were calling to him, to take them.

Kashin began to reach out, but he had been followed. Hands grabbed him from the back and held him down to his knees, as he was approached from the front by a Mongol commander. He spoke of how they also had known of the tale of the Sanmyoken, and had invaded Tsushima for this very reason, to take the weapons that would ensure their conquest of Japan, and beyond after that. But seeing as how the tales had not lived up to reality, they had no use for this place any longer.

It was then that with a stroke of his blade, he sliced open Kashin's throat, blood pouring and spraying upon the very walls of the cave and the blades themselves. The three men left him there to die, taking the stained swords with them, lest they could be melted down or used as scrap. Kashin slumped to the floor, his vision fading as the blood drained from him. His very attempt to liberate his beloved homeland had led not only to his death, but the demise of everything and everyone he loved. He prayed for forgiveness from the Gods in his final moments, before the world went black.

Yet he woke. He did not know how, nor when, but his eyes had opened once more. The impossibility ran through his head as he slowly regained his consciousness, as the dried blood from his wound still stained his shirt. How long had he been dead, or not as it seemed to be? He slowly made his way back to the cave entrance to see an image that forever etched into his mind: his entire village on the bay was burning.

Distraught, he cried out as he ran towards the village, calling out the names of his loved ones and friends who had remained, only to be greeted by hordes of Mongols baying for blood. With nothing left to fight for he rushed them, for sure that he would die this time, and in doing so could at least be with his family once more. But blades did nothing to him; for every one that pierced him, the wound only sealed. Even when the attackers set him alight with their torches, the flames caused him no pain. As his anger grew, a pair of glowing amber horns pierced through his forehead and his once pale grey eyes turned red like the fires of Yomi. His conscious had now become pure bloodlust and raging instinct as he took on each man, maybe ten or more armoured soldiers, and eviscerated them , disemboweled them, brutalised them. The night was filled with flames and screams as he took their lives, with more and more men joining the fray and meeting a bloody end, inflicting tenfold atrocities on them as they had on all he had known. But it was not enough. Kashin had always been a peaceful and pacifistic man, never wishing harm on another soul and even trying to humanely end the lives of the creatures he would fish. But something evil stirred within him now, and compelled him to not only take the lives of his oppressors, but to bring bloody wrath upon them. A burning fire within him stirred him on, and so he slaughtered them. It was only when none remained, and all that was left was a mound of bodies, that he saw what he had truly become, seeing his reflection in the nearby water, lit by the surrounding flames. Any semblance of a human being had vanished, and what stared back at him was the image of some evil dark spirit from tales and legends come to life. Horrified, he closed his eyes, begging for all this to be a nightmare.

Upon opening them, the flames, the bodies and the ruins of his village remained, but he appeared human once more. Remembering the swords he had found, he scoured the village, until he located them stored on a Mongol ship, taking them back. They were meant to have saved them all, yet they had seemed to be naught but common blades. Had they been the objects to grant him a second chance, or the object or his fall from humanity? Even their appearance had changed since he last saw them, but still stained with his dry blood, twisted into evil looking blades of horror.

Deciding that they were best sealed away for none to ever find, he travelled to Mount Shiroyama once more and scaled the summit, burying the blades deep within the peak of the mountain, where no human hands could ever find them. With nothing and no one left, and unable to find peace in his newly immortal form, Kashin took it upon himself to find salvation for his crimes, and serve his penance. And so began his journey across Japan as a wanderer.

## Return of the Demon

Having told his children of his origins, and of their own demonic bloodline, he shared with them his disdain with humanity, having now suffered the loss of his peace twice at the hands of those he now deemed as beneath the cruelest animals. Being of half yokai, half human blood, he implored them to follow him on his quest to rid the world of the human virus, instead replacing it with a world full of yokai, where he would forsake his name, becoming Otakemaru, the Demon King, and reign over all.

But the response to his proposal was not met with pure obedience. Doji stood in utter disbelief that his beloved father was in fact an otherwordly monster, and having witnessed both the murder of his mother and the subsequent massacre of his people, his mind broke, and he fled into the nearby woods. Yamato on the other hand, agreed with his father's crusade, vowing that the humans would pay for what they did to his mother. That left Mae, who stood her ground and outright opposed the two. Despite trying to persuade his daughter once more, and reminding her of the atrocities committed against her mother, the girl was still adamant that she wanted no part in her father's 'New World', and would oppose him in it, her reasoning being that the world and its people were not absolutes, and just as while not all humans were good people, not all were evil and filled with fear and hate. Suzuka had always taught them this and this is not what she would have wanted. In response, and to Yamato's surprise, Otakemaru commented on how he loved his daughter, but her idealism was a cancer, and of no use to him, and struck her dead, leaving her corpse along with the other bodies, before he set the village alight and disappeared, a scene so reminiscent of his own past.

Otakemaru had set off back to Tsushima, where it all started. The population had returned and was thriving since the time of the Mongol invasion, but they all fell to Otakemaru's wrath, and were turned into Yokai. From there, he retrieved the Sanmyoken and began his campaign to travel across Japan and rid the land of humans once and for all. Realising that he required underlings aside from purely his son to see his goals come to fruition, he found strong willed and skilled members of the population along their journey, transforming them with the crystals he had kept all this time, named Amrita by him, into what would become the head of his forces, starting by corrupting an elderly monk into his service as his right hand.

Their momentum seemed unstoppable, until a year had passed and they were approached by a band of warriors in Kyoto, along with Mae. Otakemaru was taken aback to see his daughter alive, and again standing in his way. He once more offered her to join him, but she again refused, her convictions stronger than ever. A fierce battle was fought, with Otakemaru convinced that the yokai would triumph with ease over the humans. But fate once more was not on his side. After a grueling attempt, Mae and her companions were able to shatter the blazing horns atop her father's forehead, the roots of Otakemaru's power. Weakened by their loss, the killing blow was to be struck, but Mae intervened, unable to go through with the killing of the only family she had left. After some deliberation Otakemaru was subdued, and along with Yamato, a ritual was sprung upon the two, where their souls were sealed within the temple of Byōdō-in. Otakemaru's right hand, who had been dubbed Biwa by this point, escaped the scene but was severely weakened by the loss of his lord.

## A New Dawn

Mae and her companions knew that Otakemaru's evil and rage could never be unleashed upon the world again, and so created keys for the vaults in which the demonic souls were sealed, splitting each key into several pieces and scattering them across Japan. Though the dark lord and his son were now confined, many yokai now plagued the land, causing death and destruction wherever they went. Though their primary objective was completed, they could not ignore this threat to the land, and being the only ones who had felled demons of renown, they agreed to form a group dedicated to the slaying of yokai, and destroying any traces of the Amrita that Otakemaru had discovered and used to warp the bodies and minds of so many.

And so the Sohaya was formed, tasking themselves with watching over Japan and protecting it from the yokai menace, as well as guarding the evil within the temple forevermore.