IT HUMS BENEATH THE SURFACE OF GRIEF, WRAPPED AROUND THE WEARY ( ... ) WHISPERING NOT ALL THINGS NEED TO BE SPOKEN TO BE KNOWN. an original character set in kimetsu no yaiba.
a remote fishing village tucked away in northern japan, where winters bite colder and snow shrouds the frozen ground. a vast river a rare source of food ... the village survives off it, takes to it's waters to reap the fast moving fish that race down it's currents. life isn't plentiful, but it's enough for the many to ease the hunger just enough. ( barely enough. ) a humble family of five: father a specialty net maker, mother who weaves the threads. a son, a daughter, and a second son all contributing. though a careful people, the riverbed proves life threatening with the presence of an unnatural predator ⸻ an aquatically inclined demon known to chase as far as the village's entrance when unable to drown and devour, but never straying too far from the water. a clever thing that's learned to scratch out confusing mimicries of tree markings that leads one lost, in circles, always to end up back at the riverside. not meant to be out that late, but worried about how a blooming snow storm may impact a father's arrival home from the rapids, a daughter ventures out into the nearing night. ( she'll never learn she'd passed him on the way to find him, her gaze mirrored by the growing white haze. ) the way home is lost quickly upon a barren expanse of riverbank, the despair settling in when the path circles back again and again. when the predator strikes the prey ... the prey strikes back. through shock and numbness, the daughter drags the demon further into the river until the current catches and they can no longer stand: hoping to take it with her. ( a hopeful delirium made in the presence of a fate she'd heard far too much about. ) her efforts earn her a pitiful irony, and she succumbs to the cold pressing weight with the sound of a screeching owl on the horizon, but flesh doesn't tear. she wakes up changed, heaving iced water from her lungs until her throat burned, vision splitting with new sharpness. this hunger is new and different, but never owned. the demon before her tries to demand loyalty and is met with a talon through the skull instead. the village has a new predator in the woods.
name. michiyo. specifically the 道代 written variant ⸻ meaning era of the path, one who guides a generation, or ... from the way.
appellation. the last sound you hear. how the villagers speak of her without directly naming her ... some simply unknowing, others too knowing. she isn't spoken of often.
species. demon. the owl she's based off of is a blakiston's fish owl, the largest species of owl and an expert riparian hunter. local to china, japan, and the russian far east.
date of birth. unknown. no one has come to learn exactly how old michiyo is, or when she may have been born, but the village holds traditional archives showing a recorded instances of her spanning 200 years past.
appearance. owl like at first visage, yet distinctly humanoid and natured. michiyo stands tall and graceful, measuring six feet four inches when perched and eight feet seven inches when standing ( inspiration drawn from owl anatomy ... when perched, the legs fold up below the body. the full expanse is only visible when purposefully flexed downward. ) with the quiet poise of a nocturnal hunter. her skin is lightly tawny, touched with faint and feather like markings along her shoulders and upper arms. her hair is long and fades through cool gray and brown tones, often braided loosely at the front. ( see: angell of aisno games' path to nowhere. ) her eyes are a deep amber gold, reflective and sharp, framed by dark lashes and subtle feathering that continues into the hairline. she maintains soft facial plumage that echoes the shape and pattern of an owl’s ruff. small, upward swept tufts of feathers rise from the top of her head, mimicking ear tufts. her nails are slightly curved and sharp, hinting at her predatory nature. altogether, michiyo appears both eerie and elegant ... a creature of ambush, quiet and watchful, made unhuman. behind her, vast and weighty, extend two immense wings. the plumage is rich in layered umbers and pale browns, mottled with faint gray barring. when folded, she slings them over her shoulders and wears them like a haori, the down catching light in subtle shifting ripples. the wings span so far they touch the ground, leaving little of her body to be seen outside of her face.
behavior. solitary, secretive, and slow moving. michiyo is often described as deliberate rather than stealthy. she doesn’t fly much for her impressive wing span ... preferring to walk, wade, or hop along riverbanks in search of prey. despite her size, she's surprisingly quiet, moving carefully through her forested riverside. it be near impossible to hear her movements if the surroundings are not completely silent. extremely territorial in nature, michiyo spends the nighttime roaming the entire twenty miles of her territory, ensuring it's sanctity is to her liking and hunting along the way. ( humans and demons alike: michiyo is far from tolerant of any encroachment into her chosen space. ) though physical confrontation is the very final effort she deploys ⸻ she much rather use intimidation tactics ( screeching, standing to full height, her blood demon art. ) to scare demons and slayers toward leaving on their own accord ... her call is deep, booming and far carrying. strangely calm and patient in demeanor, michiyo will track a moving party from the trees for hours before striking, motionless and watching. her method of killing is known to be rather brutal, often diving from a tree and impaling her victims ( her anisodactyls are large enough to pick two at a time ) and crushing them below her weight.
A NOTE ON A CHARACTER PORTRAYAL. it's been a while since i've talked about kanae, so below is a complication of various studies i've carried over from her original single muse blog. please note my portrayal of kanae kocho is extremely divergent from canon and my own. below you'll find a table of contents for the various subjects i ramble about under the cut.
( 1. ) kanae's vision loss post battle. ( 2. ) tidbits on her breathing style. ( 3. ) detailed on her battle with upper moon two.
( 1. ) AFTER HER NEAR DEATH, kanae does ultimately lose her vision. following immediate recovery, kanae has near complete vision loss. with some physical therapy and adjustment time, she's able to focus in on objects a little better. ( however: the way in which her eyes are damaged means she receives little to no light to her retina. ) as a result, everything looks far darker to her than it does to an undamaged eye, and it's near impossible for kanae to see at night. at best, kanae remains with two thirds of her vision in good and clear lighting. she struggles but makes do in cloudy or low lit environments, often needing to keep a hand on a wall or someone's elbow to avoid tripping or walking into things. she'd be legally blind in any modern setting.
( 2. ) KANAE'S BREATHING STYLE IS VERY GENTLE. like her, as we know from the second fanbook. ( i like to think you can't even really feel being cut by her. ) demons that were interviewed in the book each described their experience being slain by kanae as:
that slayer was like a celestial maiden!
the way it happened was very ... gentle.
it was soft. also smelled good!
she had some kind words for me before the end.
it felt like i was going to heaven.
( 3. ) AS LISTED BELOW.
kanae fought for a total of four hours and forty three minutes. the fight would have ended sometime between four and five in the morning.
kanae’s sword broke close to the three hour mark. the blade cracked in several spots and the handle grip snapped off, kanae cutting into her own hand with every swing thereafter.
the wounds that really did her in was a slash about one and a half inches deep ( just over halfway through ) to the back of her knees ( right where they bend ) and three stacked horizontal cuts on her abdomen, below, on and above the belly button.
regarding my portrayal of her, kanae was unconscious for twelve days following this, lost her vision, and never regained normal use of her knees. bending them can be difficult for her when going up and down stairs, jumping, sitting down, etc.
she remains in the corps by honors alone, no longer active in the field or in battle, but instead dedicates herself to training new slayers and continuing to help run the mansion.
A STUDY IN ... THE BEAST BENEATH THE MOONLIGHT, NAKAJIMA ATSUSHI.
beast beneath the moonlight is a regenerative and transformative ability that grants the user the physical and instinctual assets of a large predatory wildcat. in atsushi's instance, this manifests as a large white tiger. the exact species is undisclosed in the manga, but for my portrayal, i follow that though atsushi's tiger isn't truly a recognized species physiologically speaking ⸻ the genome would most closely resemble a siberian tiger. ( although, i don't think beast beneath the moonlight in of itself is a tiger. the animal, or beast, differs from user to user. ) it could be a bear, a wolf, anything really. but the beast is always bigger and stronger than any living species. for a better picture, the tiger:
stands six feet tall at the shoulders.
is fourteen feet long from nose to rump, excluding a an additional three feet of tail.
weighs in at one thousand two hundred pounds.
has a bite force of 1800 psi, strong enough to crush a skull like a watermelon and bite clean through a car door.
has six inch long claws, with a swipe force capable of disembowelling a human in a single strike.
is capable of running forty five miles an hour, though notably only for short bursts at a time due to it's bulk.
has vision so advanced it could lock onto the movement of someone’s breathing chest at a football field’s distance, in the moonlight.
can hear a whispered conversation from one thousand feet away.
has a sense of smell so strong it can smell the iron in your blood and track you like a heat seeking missile.
and just some other tid bits i'd like to share about my portrayal:
the transformation is not kind. it's bones snapping in half and refusing together in new shapes, muscle being shredded and stitched, skin tearing and stretching, teeth forcing through gums. it's incredibly painful.
it's involuntary, and the user blacks out, often not remembering much or any of what's happened while they'd lost their humanity.
however, with the voluntary shifting atsushi's been granted now with the agency, he does retain his sense of self and memories. he is still capable of losing that control under extreme emotions.
atsushi can feel the tiger pacing in his mind. it feels like a slight headache going back and forth from the right side of his head to the left, across his forehead.
the tiger ages with the user. when the user is a child, the tiger presents as a cub. it has that awkward teenage phase where the paws are too big, legs to long and clumsy.
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