Kata Kirauwa

Background
On the island of Okinawa, Japan, there lied a small town in the heart of the woodland. This town lived in constant fear of a fearsome group of beasts. Thought of by most of the world as a dangerous form of livestock, the creatures, wild boars, were much larger than their normal brethren. They bore massive tusks, and were claimed to have a charge that could cripple an oni. The people lived in constant fear of these beasts; afraid to leave their house's, even, without a group to fight of just one of these creatures. This fear only grew, as one such of the beasts stood out among the rest. The beast appeared to have been in many battles. Having only one eye, one ear, and numerous scars lining its black coat, the beast was given the name "One eared pig"; Katakirauwa. This great boar was considered a youkai among the village, often appearing at night to kill any person that wandered out of their home alone. The beast had grown horns similar to that of a demon, and soon they started to refer to it as a demon. Though the more they made up of it, the more their fear grew - and the more real their rumors become.

It wasn't long until the humans' fear had been embodied in the demon boar. However, as their beliefs grew, they started to realize that the pig would not appear during the day, or when their were groups around. The people stayed indoors, and the population grew, and as they did they further realized the pig's weariness to appear among the group of people. Thus, the creature became one of the night. It became an example of the fears of going out alone at night, and for a while the demon had become just a thing of legend, human's naturally forgetting the terrors of their ancestors.

What had become of the boar, though? Surely a creature like that couldn't have become a youkai that quickly. Well, the boar the humans once did fear had grown to the end of its lifespan without their knowing. However, their faith and fear in the legend had manifested itself into the same form of the boar, and thus it became a demon of the fear of being alone - haunting the depths of the forest, waiting for anyone to wander into the forest alone; waiting within its ethereal existence to take the soul from their bodies, and leave them to wander alone in the plane of the spiritual.

Over time, the beast found that humans, especially men, were seeking women in order to fill their lonely desires. The boar was amused by this fact, and soon it was so that the boar would no longer seek out simply the lonely, but even men that would take out women into the forest, or vice versa, in the hopes of them sating their loneliness. The demon's embodiment now went beyond just being alone, but loneliness in general as it would kill the man or woman of any couple, the one whom was most afraid of being lonely, and would leave the other to run away in fear.

One day, the boar had happened upon a common couple. Something not so common, though, was the amount of loneliness the girl had pent up as she wandered the forest with her lifelong friend, and now her effective lover. The girl had no family, and only the boy had ever sought to befriend her. She was ripe with loneliness, and the pig demon did show itself to the couple. The girl had expected her lover, much stronger than her, to protect her from this beast. However, the man was either a coward or smart, and fled quickly at the thought of such a beast striking him down. The woman was surprised by this - so quickly was she abandoned by the man she thought had loved her, and was stricken with the same fear that the beast craved. With a hungry squeal, the beast charged through the woman's legs, snatching her soul by the ankle with its teeth and dragging it out of its body.

As the soul left her body, her fear was soon turned into rage as the demon laughed at her for having faith in such a weak human. The girl's rage turned to blind power as she lashed out at the demon pig, tearing its face swiftly from its skull. Blinded and having lost its sense of smell, the pig squealed in both pain and anger at the girl's spirit. It thrashed about and rampaged, trying to attack the spirit of the girl, but now it was the girl's turn to laugh at the expense of the crippled demon. As the beast calmed, it tried to plead, even, for its face back, promising to no longer harm the girl in exchange. The girl was smarter than the demon, though, and was quick to see through this lie. Clever, the girl instead offered an exchange; her soul allowed back into the physical plain, in exchange for the demon to have its face back. The demon thought it could just kill the human again, and without thinking it granted the girl her wish. What it didn't realize is that the human would then take the demon's face back into mortal existence. The demon had been tricked by this girl, and its rage was shown in a loud squeal that shook the forest. It rampaged even more than before, destroying whatever it could as it tried to kill the girl again. Even if the girl was killed again, she would not let this beast have its face again - lest it cause more humans more harm. So, the girl did the only thing she could think of to forever keep the face away from the demon; she devoured it.

As she devoured the flesh, the demon became bound to the girl's existence. Once more could it see, but through the eyes of the human instead. Once more its smell returned, now enhancing the girl's, but it was through her nose that it could. It tried to kill the girl, but only found itself in pain and not the girl. The beast was forever angered by this girl, who only laughed at the demon as it did her, and vowed that it would one day return the favor. Until that day, it vowed to make the girl forever live a lonely life, to kill everything that the girl would ever find herself alone and in love with. What's more, the beast had now shared its immortality with the human girl, so she would live with this for much longer than her natural life. This weighed heavy on the girl's heart, but she accepted this in the hopes that maybe, one day, she'd still find someone who would overcome her demon - a hope that made the demon spit with disgust.

It wasn't long before the woman decided to leave her village, and even the island entirely. She wanted to get to the mainland, where there'd be more land to hide amongst - away from humans. It wasn't long before she found herself in a sort of "land for youkai", a great forest at the base of a mountain - a land that would later be Gensoukyou. To her surprise, there was even a human village here as well, however the people lived in fear of the youkai outside the village, and thus stuck together often. Satisfied in this, she now lives among the village - every so often changing her identity to keep suspicions away from her.

Though she thought this would be enough, she soon found herself growing increasingly weaker. When she questioned the boar, the boar claimed the same; it claimed to hunger for the fear of others. Hearing of the youkai attacks that were frequent in the village, the girl had thought that maybe just a human or two dead wouldn't matter much... perhaps she was letting the beast influence her too much.

(( Last two paragraphs need to get improved at some point, made them in a rush. It'll do, for now. ))

Personality
Kata has a sort of quiet disposition, most of the time, leading one to almost think she was plain shy. On the contrary, she actually enjoys being with groups whenever possible - beings that were she alone, or with a friend, the demon pig would be more likely to appear. For this reason, though she enjoys groups, she'd much rather avoid prolonged contact with any one person. This leads to a more detached, lonely air about her. One could even be led to think she's a sort of self-consciousness about herself, and they'd perhaps be right.

Lonely she was, though. She was left by a boy she loved; left to "die" at the tusks of a strange beast. Though she survived, the demon and the memory still haunts her. So though she yearns for another person that she could love, or at the very least be friends with, they would have to be able to brave the demon pig - a task that many have faced against their will, but the humans, male and female, even, alike, failed all the same. She's mostly given up on finding a human suitor, or any really; only occassionally bringing a careless human out into the woods with her so that she can feed the boar and keep it sated - even going as far as to seduce them for both her own enjoyment and the hopes that maybe this one will be different. They usually aren't.

Kata is also rather fearless, even so far as being a tad cocky at times. She's dealt with other youkai before, usually while she hides in the woods on fear of the humans becoming wary of her presence. She often will attack humans, or any creature, sometimes, that wander in the woods, to continue to keep her demon sated, but because of this routine, she usually finds little pleasure in it, or fighting in general. Katakirauwa, however, very much enjoys to fight and kill, and sometimes this can influence Kata's personality somewhat when she allows it to see and fight, laughing or grinning despite her actually not taking too much amusement from it. Though, maybe if it's an interesting enough opponent, instead of random human #263, maybe she'd actually take some enjoyment from it.

Ability to interact with/manipulate the spiritual plane
A key aspect to the demon boar is its effect to steal souls away from the host body. However, the power is a bit more than that. Humans that tend to be more ignorant of their spiritual capabilities are well able to lose their souls simply by this creature running through their legs, but those that are more in touch with their spiritual or magical being, or youkai who are naturally in touch with their spirits, tend to have a decent amount of immunity to being so easily killed. Even so, the Katakirauwa is still a fairly powerful opponent. The "key aspect" actually lies in the fact that the boar is actually on a spiritual plane, thus is both immune to most physical, and even magical, attacks, and able to strike a person on a spiritual level.

What the boar is not immune to, though, is both spiritual or divine attacks, much like the power of a shrine maiden, and the weakness of its human, Kata. Once Kata devoured the demon's face, she became soul-bound with it and vice versa. If she were to die, both her and the demon would be sent to the afterlife - something the demon is quick to not let happen, and would even try to disengage from a fight altogether if it may cost it the human's life.

Jiang-shi creation
Moreof a side effect, when the demon pig steals a soul from an opponent, the body that remains is turned into a mindless Jiang-shi. Nothing more special than that, simply a shambling corpse that doesn't even attack other humans.

Conjuring Spirits
A power acquired by Kata over the years to make benefit of the number of souls the Katakirauwa has stolen. The boar never found use in it, but she thought it good to use to protect herself from harm. Spirits of warriors, youkai, or just pitifully weak human to spirits more akin to danmaku than anything, any of the sort that the boar has stolen throughout the years. These spirits are often times recyclable, so Kata has little problem with using them as weapons in of themselves - perhaps grabbing them by their robes and smashing them into opponents.

Martial arts
Though careful, it's no surprise that a human soul-bound to a boar enjoys a direct form of combat. Though a bit more surprising is her delicate, flowing style of martial arts combined with a strength surprising for how light her movements seem. Her style has the gentle movements of something similar to Tai-chi, but yet introduce open hand strikes that can break bones with relative ease.

The credit for this lies in the boar's brute strength being manifested in each strike, both physically and spiritually. Thus, her strikes can appear as a fairly weak slap of sorts, but contain the power of the demon's charging head - a strength that is said to rival that of an oni's. All things considered, this theory could hold true, depending on the strength of said oni, but even the average oni would probably be able to take at least a few of these strikes center-mass, as the boar is not actually the one attacking. The problem lies in that they are far from just "center-mass", rather they are well aimed to key places. The point, though, remains true; as a demon boar's head is far from something to be taken lightly, and even a watered down version of it can be very effective.

Though, a clear problem with this is that Kata is still fragile as a human, so this strength isn't often seen except by the opponents that rush in unknowingly - they tend to have their faces impacted fairly quick. Regardless, if Kata were to miss a strike, there would lie a good opportunity to do some easy damage. However, her swift recovery should be taken into account during this, lest one find themselves at the end of a surprise strike.

Katakirauwa
If a strike containing its power manifested can be so deadly, than the full package is nothing to take lightly. Though the boar is far from as magically or spiritually adept as its human counterpart, when it's power can be enough to tear your soul from your very body - or head butt it into oblivion. The true scope of this demon's power is unknown, but at least it's been limited by a lack of eyes and nose.

Spellcards
Disgruntled ~ "Charging Boar"

Enraged ~ "Rampaging Boar"

Orphan ~ "Night of the Lost Children"

Loneliness ~ "End to your grief; there's no other way"

Katakirauwa ~ "Live Trap"

Loneliness ~ "Release your life; be reunited for eternity"

Last Word: Abandonment ~ "Forever and always; fearing death do they part"

Trivia

 * Katakirauwa can fly. Kata cannot. Kata will often ride Katakirauwa to solve this, much to the latter's displeasure.


 * Kata's left eye isn't actually missing, however it is blind and resembles that of a pig. She only uncovers it to allow Katakirauwa to see, and it will move independently by the latter's will.


 * The boars mentioned, including Katakirauwa, were actually strange mixes of of boars and some form of wild cattle, making them much larger and more threatening than common wild boars. How this mixed breed came to be is unknown, but it's assumed they've died out long ago - probably by means of sterility in males.


 * Kata's recent name, Ino, leads people to, even if just jokingly, refer to her as a pig. Completely coincidently, people also seem to enjoy being killed by demon boars.