Akaneiro/History

History
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I. Crimes of a demon
It all began with a fox - a yōkai, one who never experienced the love of a parent. Driven by the desire to follow the footsteps of a father who detested humans, Akaneiro settled in a sacred temple, aiming to disturb the offerings of the villagers of a mountain village. Soon known as a pest, a soldier was sent to deal with the nasty animal that had settled. Akaneiro was known to use greatest fears against anyone who opposed him, though aware of the trickery, the soldier tricked the demon into revealing his own worst fear and proved successful in chasing away the fox. But when he ran, he unwillingly was invited to a world much greater than his own.

Fabula, a world created by a little girl’s imagination, a new playground for the mischievous candiae. Without hesitation in his blood, Akaneiro was quickly known as intruder of farmer villages, where he would devour chickens and set fields ablaze. However, as the news reached the ears of the world creator, she would be quick to intervene. Colette, who had power over three mighty gods, sent two of her companions to capture the beast and Akaneiro was successfully chained to yet another temple, sentenced to fall into a deep slumber. Pitying the creature, Amaterasu, one of the gods, decided that the fox deserved another chance. On this day, to teach him a lesson, she gifted him the body of the creature he hated most - a human.

II. Being human
The person he last expected to teach him was none other than the ten year old, whose title seemed Colette. Hating his new form, Akaneiro at first refused to adapt to his new life as a servant to the god of creation, expressing his displeasure through frequent attacks on villages, arguments with the gods and isolation in places they could not reach him. Despite his refusal to cooperate, Colette’s smile never faded when with him. Strange as she was, the fox eventually allowed the girl in his presence. And one day she told him something he would not understand - for now.

The group spent several hundred years together, in which traumatic events would transpire. What first blossomed as a loving friendship between Akaneiro and Colette, soon became a thorn in the eye of Tsukuyomi, the brother of Amaterasu and another god, who sought to claim Colette’s creation powers for himself. Opportunity for his malevolent plans soon occurred, as the heart of Akaneiro, who had not been exposed to human emotions for too long, sparked with the dreadful feeling of jealousy.

As it turned out, Colette had not been an only child in her life before she had become a god of creation. Wishing her brother to join her inside her newly formed world, the girl prepared to open the door for her brother to enter, which was located inside a mansion reimagined from her childhood. “Why am I not enough for you?” Akaneiro thought in bitterness. Unfortunately for the two friends, these ill feelings were approached by Tsukuyomi, who convinced the fox that, even after all these years, there was no place for him inside the heart of his beloved friend. Desperate to suffocate the painful feeling of rejection, Akaneiro agreed to become Tsukuyomi’s weapon, a host for relentless despair, ordered to rid the world of its god. In form of a scorching tornado of flames, the hurt demon set Colette’s mansion aflame, destroying her only chance to reunite with her brother. “You ruined everything”. And so he really had.

Unable to watch her friend suffer, Colette silently decided that her own love would not suffice to heal the wounds inflicted onto Akaneiro over years. In order to help him, she decided to go past the borders of her world to find someone to guide him. The fox faced his crimes during a dark summer night, unaware of his friend’s plan to vanish. When confronted about the fire, Akaneiro’s patience crumbled and the fox admitted to his hatred for humanity once more, wishing for a world without a human god.

But he hadn’t expected her to vanish. Akaneiro hated the ability she had given him when they had first met; to allow him to see inside her chest and witness her heart. Because as she stood before him that night, darkness swallowed her heart and her body weakened, sinking into the demon’s arms.

Muttering those words, Colette died that night, leaving her creation powers and the ability to open doors to the world inside Akaneiro’s hands. And just in this moment Akaneiro realized: he had murdered the person he had loved the most. And having left the world, his dear friend could no longer correct him.

III. To be loved
Peace faded with Colette’s death, yet love blossomed between Amaterasu and Akaneiro. As the lovers had no blessing of the remaining gods, the two felt themselves forced to elope deep into the forest, where Susano’o, the god of lightning, surrendered his physical form to hunt down the fox who stole his sister. Unfortunate for the naive lovers, Akaneiro had long succumbed to the despair he had allowed into his heart and would grow wilder as time passed. As aftermath of Tsukuyomi’s inflicted curse, he would transform into a dangerous demon, later known as “Madder Red”, and execute rampages in the villages once again. This time, however, they proved deadly. In an attempt to avoid these incidents, Amaterasu kept Akaneiro close to her, hidden away in their little paradise.

But when taming a wild animal, preparing for the consequences proved a crucial detail when loving someone who was uneducated on the subject of human boundaries. Incapable of dealing with Akaneiro’s violent nature and selfish desires, Amaterasu would soon find herself terrified on the demon she had sworn herself to. Just like the fox, she would turn to Tsukuyomi, who knew poison would eliminate the problem swiftly. Yet the events that unfolded proved to become yet another tragedy. Sold as assassination attempt, Akaneiro would be shot with a poison arrow, soon suffering from painful fever and seizures. But the fox would soon realize who had been trying to kill him, as he recognized the scent of their enemy on his lover. When panic set in, Tsukuyomi’s own curse would become Akaneiro’s savior, as his demon form overtook his dying body and blood scattered across the wooden boards of the interior. When he woke, his lover laid near him, blood staining her robe. Overwhelmed by the guilt of his self inevitable self dense, Akaneiro fled once more, disappearing into solitude inside the green of the forest.

“Things had gone crazy, but by the time I noticed, I couldn’t tell anyone… There came a world where happiness ends.”

Years had gone by and Akaneiro’s heart had been tainted by despair. With the key of the world in his hands, he sought out others who he aimed to bring misery upon. On one fateful day, a voice lured him inside the dream of a girl, someone who wished for her friends and family to be saved from a tyrant.

Promising happiness, the fox would trick the girl to merge her world with his own, the world in which Colette had escaped to. His fate was soon bound to be changed.

In the span of a year, the fox who hated humans found himself falling in love with the kindness of a human girl, who would slowly melt the walls he had built around his heart. However, she was soon to find out the real reason why he had allowed their worlds to merge. Facing the fear of Akaneiro potentially letting all of those innocent hearts succumb to the despair that feasted on him, she confronted the demon, who then would openly admit to his plans.

Throughout months of love, heartbreak, threats, lectures and newly found friends, the fox who had been starved of love would slowly but surely find his place among strangers, who showed a selflessness he had not known. Just when he felt himself at the happiest, he would have to face the enemy he had allowed to enter the world - the manifestation of despair. Despair, in the form of several different opponents, would attempt to destroy his happiness once again by letting him believe his lover had died, by forcing to endure torture, and forcing him to live under a new identity as not to involve his friends. With the help of those close to him and his own willpower to break free from the circle of despair, he eventually managed to temporarily seal despair away and was soon reunited with his lover, as well as blessed with a daughter, who had grown from a magic spell that nourished from the fox’s developed love. After getting married and settling inside a city with his friends, happiness finally seemed to have reached Akaneiro.

However, as despair resurfaced and infested yet another foe, the fox felt himself conflicted. The world seemed filled with consistent danger to those he loved. How, just how could he shield them from any further harm? Before him towered the golden goddess - Shai, the judge of fate. In the solitude of the temples, with no witnesses between them, the fox who had become human would succumb to his feelings and sign a pact, willing to carry a burden heavier than any of his committed crimes. At the cost of his own happiness, he would take all the despair in the world with him, freeing those who loved from misery.

V. Becoming Death
Black stained red strands, lightly at first, like a tender kiss brushing against his skin, until he felt the sizzling, the burning sensation on his flesh. It picked, then stung, then ate at his skin like acid, hungrily devouring his form as tar encased his aching body, muscles struggling against the agony inflicted on him. Is that what sin feels like? His thoughts wandered, wet eyes blurring from hot tears building from overwhelming emotions mixing with indescribable torment. He caught a glimpse of his hand, palm turning as he watched his body dissolve, and with him, the world around him began to crumble. Whether exhaustion drained his senses or if the world ceased to exist remained unclear in the moment, yet just minutes in Akaneiro found himself coated in utter darkness, unable to move, to think, awaiting death’s embrace. Yet, his heart would not stop beating. Why? Was he fated to suffer, even after his mind was destroyed?

“You believe yourself to be quite the genius, are you not? Locking me away by luring me into this pitiful existence with you.” It was no clear voice that rang to the fox’s ears, rather a distortion, an anxiety creeping up his spine. And yet all too familiar, the terrifying pull at what little consciousness remained inside of him. Despair. “Foolish of you to erase your potential by playing in the hands of humans.” It mocked, circling him like a predator. And yet…. “Soon the rest of your body will dissolve and me along with it. Though, I am no living being. I will resurface. Your efforts are fruitless, demon.” Perhaps none of his effort to overcome his eternal battle would bear fruit. But he knew his enemy, as he had lured it into his head countless times.

In the moment, Akaneiro knew, that if he would not act, the future he created would be poisoned by despair again. His mind was destroyed, but his body was not. “You want my body? Come get it.” Cheese for a naive mouse that bit down almost immediately. When the trap triggered, despair could no longer roam. When it realized it was stuck inside the host’s body, it attempted control, only to be blocked. “You obey me now.” Akaneiro’s voice broke from his throat, red eyes opening as his body stabilized inside the darkness of the abyss. “You can have my body. But I never said it’s going to be your mind ruling it. Serve as my weapon and I will allow you to be part of me.” Black shot inside the male’s right arm, extending it towards the darkness, fingers wrapping around something solid before acting on its on, forcing a clean cut into the abyss. Before Akaneiro and his new weapon laid an entirely new sight; a planet.

As golden eyes drank in the planet before him he realized, him who had been meant for destruction, breathed life into a life form much greater than anything he had known. A living organism, sustaining life in an endless circle. His rebirth counted seconds, minutes at most. The man mused as fingertips ran across the surface of a richly flowing energy, In his selfless sacrifice he had created a paradox, a world of harmony, where fate had been altered. And the fox, who had become human, had then become a god of creation himself - and death at once.

And after a long time of struggle, he was finally allowed happiness.
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