Gonna write this like a story bc I can hah quick notes before the thing so nobody gets confused: When Yaji was alive his name was Yajino, his dog's name is Rushida. In this he's like, 7 years old. Yaji was a sickly child so the cold is twice as lethal to him. Yajino looked around, none of his surroundings were familiar and he was beginning to grow scared "Mama?" He was out on a walking trip through the mountain forests and saw something shiny in the snow and went to get it, but he ended up getting lost and loosing the path "Mama?!" He could've followed his footprints back to the path, but it had begun snowing heavily and the footprints he had left in the snow were now filled in, and the scent trail his dog could've followed was also gone Rushida barked worriedly and looked at Yajino who coughed and looked back at him "Rushida, what're we gonna do?" He whimpered and coughed again "We're stuck in this forest in the middle of nowhere, and it's freezing- mama and papa said I shouldn't be out in the cold for long because I might-" He stopped himself from finishing "I don't want that happening to either of us-" Rushida padded over to Yajino and pawed at his foot "Aw I know, we're gonna be okay, hopefully-" Yajino said reassuringly, crouching down and petting Rushida "Maybe if we stay here mama and papa will find us?" He sat down and sneezed "Hopefully" Half an hour passed and Yajino was lying in the snow, sneezing every few minutes, Rushida was snuggled next to him trying to keep him warm but failing Suddenly, the sound of footsteps drew near, and two sharp-clawed feet came into Yajino's line of sight The person looked down at Yajino and sighed "Poor human child, what're you doing out in the cold?" Yajino sneezed in response "Hmph, you could at least say something" the person huffed "Can you stand human child? Wait- who am I kidding, you've collapsed of course you can't stand- I'm sorry I have to do this human child but hold still for a second-" the person took something out of his bag and touched it against the back of Yajino's neck and suddenly everything went black and quiet, a minute passed and suddenly he could hear things again, but it was different than before everything went black, he could hear himself crying and the person trying to get him to quiet down "It's alright little one, you're safe now, the cold will no longer bring you harm. I am Takeru and I shall be taking care of you from now on" Yajino responded with a yawn and fell asleep -2,000 year long timeskip where basically Takeru raises and bonds with Yaji, a fox Yokai called Shinonome acts as Yaji's mother and Yaji's memories of his previous life, including his death, are hidden by Takeru- Yajirushi and Takeru were quietly walking through a small village together when suddenly Takeru broke the silence "Yajirushi, have I ever told you about your previous life?" "Previous life? What do you mean by that?" "Well, I 'erased' your memories of your previous life so chances are you don't remember, but you used to be human" "Erased my memories?!" "Well, when I say erased I really mean hid, you still have the memories, you just can't access them" "Ah okay, that's way less worse then I thought" Yaji chuckled "So, is there any way you'd be able to give me back my memories?" Takeru nodded "Yes, it's rather easy, all I have to do is this" He snapped his fingers and suddenly Yaji's old memories flooded back into his head and eventually the memory of his death appeared, causing him to freeze At the time he wouldn't have known what happened to himself, but he'd been a Yokai for 2,000 years and he could tell exactly what happened, Takeru had used a freezing arrow on him, and by extension his dog, which was why he had become a Yokai in the first place Once he realised what happened he whipped his head around to face Takeru "So you killed me, and to think all this time I trusted you" He hissed "Yajirushi I had a good reason-" "I highly doubt that, I knew high and mighty dragon Yokai sometimes killed and ate humans but I didn't think you were one of those Yokai" Yaji's eyes began glowing and Takeru started slowly backing away "Yajirushi, calm down and let me explain, please" "Oh no, you had time to explain before, but you didn't, did you?" "I had my reaso-" "NO YOU DIDN'T." He screeched and suddenly his form changed into one that Takeru hadn't seen before, it was a gigantic canine creature with lion-like traits Suddenly he opened his mouth and a loud, distorted roar rung through the village "Yajirushi! Please calm down!" "Takeru don't bother asking him to calm down, his emotional state's too heightened for him to listen, all we can do now is try and weaken him and get him to turn back to his regular form" said an eight-tailed fox "Shinonome? What're you doing here?" She shrugged
[cont. from top] "I was in the area and heard the roar so I decided to check it out, wasn't expecting Yaji to be the one roaring though, by the way you should probably have started weakening Yaji while I was talking" She pointed to a bunch of buildings that had been set on fire "Oh- yes I probably should have" Takeru mumbled, ran over to Yaji and began reciting weakening spells Yaji roared angrily and slammed one of his paws down on a house, crushing it and anyone who was inside After many minutes of houses being destroyed Takeru and Shinonome had eventually weakened Yaji enough to cause him to run off Takeru was about to run after him but Shinonome stopped him "There's no village in the direction he's headed, let him run for a while, he'll tire himself out" Takeru nodded "I hope he returns to his regular form, I don't really want an angry lion dog running around" "Don't worry, he will" An hour passed and the two went looking for Yaji, eventually finding him in his human form passed out in a large patch of melted snow "He looks so peaceful compared to before, it's weird to think he was destroying a village an hour or so ago-" Shinonome nodded "It's rather a shame we'll have to bind him to a shrine, if he learned to control that power he'd be unbelievably useful if a war ever broke out against our kind and humans" Takeru picked up Yaji and sighed "Indeed he would" End Ok hopefully that explains everything- may as well add some extra explanations just in case though Yaji's actually a lion dog Yokai, however he can't turn into a lion dog without becoming believably angry Takeru killed Yaji because he didn't want him to go through the slow and painful process of freezing to death, he also killed Rushida for the same reason Yajirushi's name wasn't given to him because it was a freezing arrow that killed him, he was given his name because a few minutes after he turned into a Yokai Takeru could hear his parents shouting "Yaji? Rushi?" and thought that was his name Shinonome is basically Yaji's adopted mother, and she hates knowing he blames her for 'framing him' for burning down a village The counter against Yaji turning into a lion dog is being petted because it keeps him calm okie that's it- JK FREE YOKAI INFORMATION TIME WOOOOOO- when a Yokai is bound to a human they become connected to the human's life force, so if the human dies, they die [but not the other way around] If not bound to a human Yokai are immortal Asking a Yokai how they died [if they used to be a human] is like asking for someone's hand in marriage ok that's actually it this time
