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Kashira's History

Kashira Yanatsu was born in a small town along the west coast of Japan in late fall. At the age of 6 she lost her parents in a fatal accident that immediately killed them but mysteriously left her with only a large gash along her face and other, more minor injuries. Investigators of the incident suspected she had protected herself with latent abilities stemming from a heritage of a then-persecuted species known as the tayba. As taybas were widely and falsely believed to be murderous creatures only useful for improving the lives of humans through scientific experiments, the investigation team had plans to send Kashira to a lab to test for tayba lineage. However, before any action could be taken Kashira's uncle Sasaki* stepped in to protect her. A powerful and respected man of business with a cunning streak, his promises to raise her and subdue any tabian abilities she may have were honored.

Unbeknown to anyone, especially Kashira, was that Sasaki's businessman guise was only one of his identities. His business was, amongst other things, a fund for some of his activity in the underground world as the leader of a band of criminals. As soon as the girl was left to Sasaki's care, he immediately began his plans to assimilate her into his criminal gang. Meanwhile, a redheaded young man began his own covert operations involving the same girl. He was Kasai Hiroshi, a distant cousin of Kashira and a half-tayba, who lived hidden on the mainland and in a small tribe of others with tayba heritage known as the Black Horse clan. As one who had lost nearly all his other relatives to the destruction of taybas and tayba hybrids in laboratories, he valued his still living relatives and kept watch over Kashira and her father when the risk of being captured was not as high. News of the deaths of Kashira's parents and Sasaki's adoption of her took little time in reaching Kasai, and he immediately searched her out.

Three weeks had passed by the time he was able to locate Kashira, where she was kept in Sasaki's base of operations. His infiltration was silent, and though gang members became aware of an intruder's prescence early on they had little luck in catching him. Kashira turned out to be too well guarded for Kasai to rescue, so he foolishly went after Sasaki and confronted the man with threats of death if he didn't hand Kashira over to him. Unfazed, and perhaps even slightly amused by Kasai's stupidity as now every person in the base knew exactly where he was, Sasaki proposed a different exchange. He would keep Kashira for half a year, while she would go with Kasai for the other half. Both men came to an agreeance, though Sasaki made a request for his half first with his own threat of death if not followed through. Kasai was allowed to leave peacefully although with several escorts to insure he would bring no harm to the base or its inhabitants, and both him and Sasaki felt satisfied with their deal.
Between Sasaki's criminal organization and the Black Horse clan there had always been great tension. Sasaki found the land the clan lived on to be perfect for a mine to extend his legitimate "upperworld" mining business, and in turn his illegal underworld business, into the mainland. His efforts to take the land by force were always thwarted by the Black Horse clan, and contractors were reluctant to aid him as their own attempts to build in that area were always halted by sudden catastrophes such as total machine malfunction or diseases that temporary crippled all workers in the area. Though the contractors cited the incidences as freak occurences, Sasaki rightly suspected the true nature of so many supposed chance happenings.
The agreement was a ray of hope to both parties involved. Sasaki's plan was to make Kashira a spy without her knowledge, using her trust in him to get information about the Black Horse clan out of her until he found an opportunity to strike and destroy them. Incidentally, Kasai's plan was of a similar nature though his intent in relation to Kashira less malicious. Neither intended to tell her, and years would pass before she would ever find out.

Sasaki spent that first six months preparing Kashira to become one of his underlings, and also reminding her with a feigned air of congeniality to tell him how her stay with her other cousin is. Kashira's cousin on her mother's and Sasaki's side, Moro, was a friend of Kashira and also a member of Sasaki's gang, though his laziness greatly lost him Sasaki's favor. Kashira passed into Kasai's care at the start of fall, and though he was seen as Kashira's guardian he lacked the responsibilty to care for her. Kasai didn't outwardly show Sasaki's great interest in pressuring Kashira for information, though he discussed such with the clan leader Xenophon* many times. Xenophon was heavily troubled by the whole ordeal, being a kind man of great moral standing, and knew Kasai nor Kashira would be completely able to deal with the consequences of their situation. Kasai was a young man of barely 18 who still lamented over the loss of his wife whom he'd only recently married, and Kashira a girl of not even 7 who couldn't even begin to comprehend the weight on her shoulders.

Though aged and with his own orphaned grandson to look after, Xenophon took it upon himself to both deal with the mess of Kasai's decision, and teach Kashira of compassion, morals and spirituality in hope Sasaki would not completely taint her. Lacking any kind of support from Kasai despite his concern for her, Kashira immediately formed a great emotional attachment to Xenophon. She saw him as her real guardian, and called him "my mentor" with the same loving tone any child would use referring to their mother or father.


* -- (Last name pending.)
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