Gensoukyou:Akumu Honda

Background
The Akumu Bloodline is a special line of Shrine Maidens that all possess extraordinary ability to exorcise youkai and curses possessing human beings and objects. The legends go that Akumu, a youkai who had the ability to consume dreams, met Yuuri Koname, a shrine maiden that was called upon to exorcise him. However, Akumu was far too strong for Yuuri, and easily overpowered her. Akumu was amused by the efforts of the still young Shrine Maiden to try to exorcise him, and let her off. Yuuri, enraged at this show of mercy, continued to pursue Akumu, seeking to end him to regain her lost honour. The hunt became an obsession for Yuuri, and a simple past time for Akumu, who looked forward to each encounter with the firey Shrine Maiden. Eventually, Yuuri eventually attained enough power to affect Akumu, and a furious battle ensued. Akumu, in his pride and confidence, failed to realise the power that he had nurtured in Yuuri over the many years of their conflict, and underestimated her greatly, discounting her as a simple human being. As such, Akumu was shocked as Yuuri managed to beat him. As she stood over the fallen youkai, Yuuri had long forgotten her original mission, and looked down at him. She uttered a few words. “Your pride led to your downfall. Leave, carry the pride that you hold so dear, and never bother the people again.”

Akumu couldn’t find the words to argue back, and he quickly left the country. He no longer had the desire to feast on nightmares, contenting himself with the naturally occurring dreams of humanity, and his thoughts constantly went back to the day he had lost to Yuuri. The idea of revenge never entered his mind, and as he mulled over the past few years, his mind became filled with nothing but thoughts for the shrine maiden. He had fallen for her.

Akumu quickly found himself visiting the shrine on a regular basis. Yuuri, who had beaten him before, looked at him as a mere annoyance, and did little in the way of driving him off. The other girls at the shrine were fearful of Akumu, and watched in horror at the way Yuuri simply brushed him off. Akumu did nothing, as he continued to watch Yuuri’s day to day life, following her across the country as she was sent out to deal with other youkai problems. He found himself helping Yuuri out, weeding out weaker youkai, scouting ahead, doing things for a human woman that he had ironically never dreamed that he would be doing.

Akumu eventually realised that he had indeed fallen in love with Yuuri, and became agitated for several weeks, his mind going between accepting the fact he had fallen in love with a human and the desire to kill the woman who had somehow created these feelings in him. He disappeared from the country multiple times, travelling to other countries and spreading paranoia and nightmares across war torn countries in an attempt to offload his stress and accumulated feelings.

Finally, Akumu went to propose to Yuuri, preparing a long speech in anticipation for what he imagined to be a difficult task. Yuuri simply waved off the speech two sentences in and told him to get to the point. She accepted with a smug smile, as Akumu simplified his speech with a radiant blush on his face. After a simple wedding, Akumu took up permanent residence in the Shrine, completely leaving behind his youkai ways, and settling in with Yuuri. There were several weeks of tension as the leaders of the shrine edged around Akumu, but they slowly managed to adapt to the once fearsome youkai. At some stage during the married life, Akumu’s alignment changed. He changed from a youkai who had the powers to manipulate dreams, to a God who had the powers to make dreams come true. Yuuri often joked about his change and would reminisce about the old days.

The years that followed were the years of happiness that Akumu had never experienced before, the joy of caring for someone else, the joy of nurturing a child, the joy of watching his child grow the joy of day to day life. However, at the same time, he could not help but notice a growing problem, and that was Yuuri aging. The reason why youkai/human relationships were considered forbidden, Akumu never would have thought about the reasons why. As he watched his wife age with every passing day, the weight of life became more apparent to him, and his happiness slowly slipped away. Akumu began a frantic journey to find a means to prolong the Yuuri’s life, but he was rejected at every turn. The Yama looked at him with a sad smile on her face, filled with understanding and pity.

Yuuri had already accepted the fact she was going to die long ago, and she met death with a smile on her face. Akumu, in his grief, eventually ascended to the heavens, and has never been seen descending again into the realm of mankind. Since then the prominence of the shrine has dwindled, though they still follow old traditions.

As the generations passed, the teachings of the shrine changed. Youkai were no longer considered universally evil, seeing as their current patron god was a former youkai. They believed that youkai and gods are the same entity, just acted differently. Those of the Akumu Shrine believed that youkai and gods alike played a role in the creation of the world. Subsequently, the loss of these youkai could affect the balance of the world. As such there was a gradual change in focus from banishing and sealing, to repulsion and defence.

While the bloodline had spread wide and far, most of her ancestors had chosen to leave the life of the shrine behind, leaving to experience the wonders of the world around them. Izumi was one of the few in her generation that opted to stay and maintain the shrine; the allure of modern life had little effect on her. Izumi co-operatively manages the shrine with her younger sister, Mizuki, and her distant cousin Jun. During festivals, a few of her relatives would visit the shrine and help out, before attending the banquet prepared for the after-party. Izumi strictly imposes a no alcohol ban during these family reunions.

Izumi met her husband during her time at school. He was an honest boy with a wide cautious streak, and was often bullied because of his indecisiveness and his aversion to doing anything outside his comfort zone. Like her ancestor, she found little interesting about her what was to be her future partner at the time. As the years passed, though, she was surprised when she met him once more, now a certified teacher, heading a little excursion to the Akumu Shrine. True, the job might not be as glorious as others might not expect, but he showed how committed he was to his job, his previous weakness and fragility had now become the very things that helped him guide children onto the right path. There was a sense of reliability in Tessou’s personality

The flames of interest already alight, there was little else for Izumi to do in her free time but to watch the fires inside her burn out of control, and she found herself making detours in her shopping trips so she would walk past the school to watch him work. The two began to talk more frequently, finally cumulating in Izumi barging halfway into Tessou’s class, confessing and running away, leaving a confused Tessou behind amidst cat calls and laughter from his class.

The two became married later that spring, and eventually they gave birth to Honda.

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Being born into the life of a shrine maiden, Honda was to undergo strict training in the arts of the shrine maiden under the watchful eye of her mother, who was the current head of the shrine, participating in purification rituals, archery training, and various other activities that were to nurture and develop her latent spiritual powers. Her father always was around to help tone down the intensity of her training, often giving treats to Honda and her two cousins.

Like her mother before her, Honda was made to attend school. Leaving the security and warmth of her shrine behind was a daunting concept, and for the first few weeks, Honda never left her father’s side during the breaks. After a little while, she eventually got used to the idea, and slowly began associating with the other people in her class. Like every other child, she finally climbed out of her shell and began to explore halls of the new environment that would be the place that she would attend for the next few years. She put as much effort into her school life as she did into her training, treating anything she learned as truth and added it to her knowledge.

During her free time, Honda would often play with her cousins in the wide courtyard of the shrine, engaging themselves in simple games, talking excitedly to any visitors that happen to visit the shrine, and learn about the experiences of the people who live in the area. Over time, their past-times changed, however the bond between them remained strong between the three girls.

Honda’s priorities changed slightly as she entered high school, her mind more receptive of the world around her. She became more mature, left her childish ways behind, and began to focus for the future, as her workload increased and she needed to carefully strike a balance between her training and her education.

At the age of 16, a significant change occurred to her during a night of the new moon. While undergoing spiritual training to increase self awareness, the training tapped into her dormant bloodline, and she developed an acute awareness of the lingering dreams of the people around her, and a growing hunger to consume the dreams and nightmares of the things around her as the days passed, though at the time, she thought that the ability to sense dreams and the hunger were unrelated. While she was asleep, her body would seek sustenance, however, her subconscious morals prevented her from feeding on the people close to her. She dreamed that night of a wolf tearing into its prey, and found her own hunger slowly fading away. What she didn’t know was that she had unconsciously created that same beast that she had seen in her dreams, and that it had travelled through the town feasting on the dreams of the people in the local area.

The process began to repeat itself, every new moon, Honda’s subconscious would send out a fiend that would go and feast on dreams and nightmares to feed Honda’s youkai side. The normal people began to notice the trend, and finally went to the Akumu Shrine seeking their services. The job was immediately taken, and it was assigned to Honda and her cousins as their first real job as a shrine maiden, and tasked with the seeking the cause of the incident. The girls stayed up late that night, fine tuning their powers and searching for the source of the incident. Honda’s hunger could no longer be restrained, and as before a wolf fiend manifested before Honda, surprising her into a scream of terror as the beast quickly leapt away towards the town. Honda quickly swung her bow in the direction the wolf had run off to, but by that time the wolf had already run out of sight. The girls pursued the wolf, which did not run far, it was a component of Honda’s power, and it merely responded to her desire to have it go away.

The girls finally managed to entrap the wolf with their ofuda, but Honda’s youkai hunger grew ever more, until another wolf manifested from her body in front of her cousins eyes. Their eyes narrowed as they noticed the ebb of youkai blood swirl within Honda, and their glances became sharp and accusing, as they approached Honda with their spiritual weapons. In her fear, Honda began to back away from the accusing glares, as they raised their weapons and aimed it directly at her. Honda only had a single thought of self-preservation and that thought mixed itself with her deep hunger, as the area around her warped and a mob of fiends started manifesting from her nightmares around her. They quickly swarmed, knocking out her cousins, as they spread out and feasted on the dreams of people on the furthest outreaches of town, simply following her desires to have them as far away as possible. The feasting did not last long, as all of the demons she had summoned flew back to her blotting out the night sky. As Honda watched in horror at the chaos she had unleashed, she heard a male voice behind her speak with compassion and pity.

“This is not the place where you belong.”

As Honda turned around to face the voice behind her, a clawed hand reached out to cover her line of sight. She could feel the world around her warp and twist as she tried to pry her face away from the large hand that covered her face.

“Let me go!” she screamed as she batted at the claw. The individual apparently didn’t appreciate her actions, as another claw swung in from behind and knocked her out.

In between her fluctuating consciousness, she could hear bits and pieces of a conversation between what sounded like a man and two girls.

“… irregular… drives you to… maiden?” “...Dream World… forbidden… humans.”

“… my fault... neglected… save…”

“Why… not bef… ferent about…?” “…weak… won’t surv… oukyou.”

“… mine… lacks control… threat…”

“…kill her… “ “… related… turn against…”

“…job… too late… no choice…”

“Okay” “… this once….”

“Thank y…”

Two pairs of arms wrap themselves around Honda’s body and carry her somewhere. Still half conscious, Honda doesn’t resist, before she finds herself flying through empty air and plummets towards the ground, the world around her warping and twisting yet again as her body moves through another plane.

Honda slowly finds herself waking up in the middle of a dense forest, filled with vibrant life and greenery. As she sits up, a piece of paper falls off her chest, and she reaches to pick it up. “Live” was written on the side that faced her. Bewildered and confused, she flips over the sheet of paper to find what appears to be a map, with an X marked over what is written as “Human Village.” With no other leads for her to follow, Honda’s hand firmly tightens around the bow that she was holding, and makes her way to the Human Village in search of some answers.

Personality
Honda is generally quiet energetic and curious about the world around her. She is studious and dedicated to her work, and is very responsible. She communicates politely to her seniors and to people she does not know, but will defend herself if she feels threatened, usually with physical force. She is duty bound to protect the people from the youkai, and will respond quickly and in a systematic way to fend off youkai that attack humans, often drawing the youkai’s attention to herself.

Fighting Style: Demon Warding Archer
Honda is primarily a defensive archer, using her arrows to place repulsion wards to drive youkai away from the village, as opposed to outright killing them. She works at a range, using her arrows to blow back opponents that get too close. Her arrows tend to have a wide area of effect to reduce chances of evasion, while the arrow itself is thin and narrow.

Honda makes good use of her mobility and defensive wards to move around the field and push her enemy out of combat, using the repulsive effect of her ofuda to disorientate and confuse the opponent.

Ability – The Power to Manifest Denizens of the Dream World
Honda has the ability to temporarily manifest the demons that stalk through the Dream World. Her ability is strongly linked to the stability of her mind, the more unstable; the more likely they are to be summoned. Honda has yet to garner full control over her ability, often it activates unconsciously.

These demons that stalk the dream world are not actually the real demons that are summoned, they are mere sihelluetes, the appairations that stalk the depths of the mind and induce fear within people. As such even if the beast looked like the queen of Makai, it is merely taking on her form, and does not possess any of her powers. These demons act as a feeding mechanism, seeking to consume dreams and nightmares in order to sustain the youkai side of her existence.

Honda also has the ability to sense the lingering residues of dreams as she travels around, each person leaving a faint but unique trail in their wake as they walk around in their day to day life, their dreams shedding as they become forgotten. Nightmares are especially tasty because they are not forgotten, they are nurtured for by the insecurities of the individual and carried around by the individual even when awake, and their flavour matures as the individual feeds more of their fear into them.

There are in fact 4 variables which affect the extent and breadth of her power in order of importance

• Flow of Youkai Blood – The variable with the greatest impact, the night of the new when Honda’s youkai blood flows thickest, and her youkai self becomes more predominant, this is the time when her body craves for the dreams that sustain her youkai self.

• Psychological Hunger- A consequence of her part youkai heritage, in addition to having her normal human hunger, she has the youkai sense of hunger that is ever attracted to the taste of nightmares. While present, it does not place much stress on Honda’s psyche, though the presence of a particularly tasty nightmare may cause it to rear its head and induce slight cravings in Honda.

• Darkness – The darkness that conceals everything in its reach, isolating people from one another,

• Visibility – Factors like fog, smoke, mist – Factors which conceal true form, and where objects are misconstrued, and from which conclusions are made and the terror that lurks in the back of a person’s mind as they drift off into unconsciousness.

Passive Abilities
Demon’s Bloodline ~Skill Type – Hereditary ~What it does – As one of the Akumu Bloodline, Honda was blessed with latent spiritual powers, as well as the innate ability to exorcise youkai possessing humans. In addition, with her youkai bloodline, her body was also physically stronger than normal humans, though this trait is was not pronounced in day to day life.

Madness of Dreams ~Skill Type – Hereditary ~What it does – Every month, on the new moon, Honda’s hunger goes wild, making her crave feeding on nightmares. If Honda doesn’t prepare herself the night before and set up a barrier circle around herself, she goes wild and induces nightmares in the people around her, consuming their terror while lesser demons created by her ability run amok. If she has successfully set up the barrier, she will be trapped in her own nightmare during the time of the new moon, forced to endure as she turns to herself for sustenance. In addition to this effect on the night of the new moon, it also provides Honda protection against external forces trying to addle her mind on a day to day basis.

Corrupted Divinity ~Skill Type – Hereditary ~What it does – As one of a bloodline of a powerful shrine maiden and a youkai turned kami, Honda’s powers increase from both belief in dreams as well as the corruption of dreams. However, since it’s only a part of her existence, the increase in power she gains is less in comparison to true youkai and kami.

Physical Fitness ~Skill Type – Body ~What it does – Honda is very fit, often engaging in extra-curricular sporting activities such as gymnastics and archery. She has a great deal of stamina and is otherwise very healthy thanks to her diet.

Akumu Shrine Maiden Arts ~Skill Type – Combat Proficiency ~What it does – While some of the teachings of the Akumu Arts have become lost over the generations, what remains of the art is still potent and effective in dealing with youkai. The Akumu Arts specialises in repulsive and defensive wards, seeking to drive off youkai instead of killing them. In addition, people who practice this school of Shrine Maiden Arts also are highly effective against youkai which affect the mind, possess the mind, or possess people, bearing strong powers in exorcism.

Bow Proficiency ~Skill Type – Weapon Proficiency ~What it does – Having trained with a bow and arrow for much of her life, Honda is accurate and efficient with her bow.

Spiritual Awareness ~Skill Type – Body ~What it does – Born into the life of a shrine maiden, Honda has the ability to sense supernatural phenomena with her spiritual powers with relation to her own body. If she focuses, she can better pinpoint the source of the phenomena.

Heightened Spiritual Reserves ~Skill Type – Body ~What it does – Honda has significant spiritual powers, thanks to both her bloodline and her training.

Spiritual Crafting ~Skill Type – Combat Proficiency ~What it does – Honda, being trained as a shrine maiden, can craft her spiritual energy into various forms used to deal with supernatural beings. She can also manufacture talismans and ofuda as a part of her job. She can currently manufacture : binding, shield, repulsion, healing, blessing, sealing.

Trivia
Likes: Long Warm Baths, Reading, Friends, Cleaning

Dislikes: Cockroaches, Rats, Uncleanliness Being Sweaty

Fears: Her ability going out of control again, being rejected by the people around her

Goals: Find her way home, find out why she has the ability that she has