#akira lcb

[naruhate]

Yoru and Akira! Based on the book Chinmoku 沈黙 (Silence) by Endō Shūsaku.

Akira is Black, goth and Christian. I genuinely took so long just to draw her body right....

Design details and ramblings here:

Yoru started wearing her hair in a ponytail to match Akira! They also share the same sword. Akira is 200cm while Yoru is 175cm. That makes the ōdachi look normal when Akira is holding it... The whole sword measures at 220 cm. I also made Akira's dress look like a hakama, like the one Yoru's wearing.

They originated from Q Corp, having left due to religious extermination. Akira is a member of the Pinky, 地猖 Dichāng Star, her real name being 孔明 Kǒng Míng, but she normally goes by 明 Akira instead. Yoru is not yet recognised as a member, only a sword carrier and apprentice of Akira.

I had written more lore here but I cut it out because it's still too unpolished rn... Sowwy.

[naruhate]

I haven’t worked out the details yet but Yoru’s story is inspired by a lot of classic rpg maker horror games like yk, Ib, The Witch’s House, Mad Father, Pocket Mirror… cz that’s Akira’s special interest. I’m collecting them.

[naruhate]

My old sketches of headmates as Limbus Company sprites. I made this back in 2024 or something... Just around the same time Canto VI released because I was obsessed with the Wuthering Heights manor.

The lore reason behind that was because we started off with a manor to use as our headspace, yaddi yadda... I can't be explaining all of our headspace lore as it spanned over several years of existence so long story short we just drew an alternate universe where Shou is still a Heathcliff parallel and he's the rightful heir of Wuthering Heights manor. Akira and Huin are his half-siblings while Jeantoine is like... Edgar Linton. I guess. Get that white man out of here.

Seeing human Shou is kinda funny so I just wanted to share that. And also Fajie, who looks the same even now haha.

I wanted to upload this when I was drawing Sirin as the Edgar Family Butler but then I forgor.

[naruhate]

I’m listening to Cookie Run Kingdom character voicelines to headcanon my character voices again. Can’t believe I never remembered my queen Black Raisin Cookie. That’s Akira’s voice claim for sure.

Also fun fact for Dark Choco Cookie is Huin. That’s canon since we found out about CRK haha. I can’t edit the voiceclaims rn but you know to look out for him.

[naruhate]

So! I’ve been thinking about Yoru’s story more in the shower. I think I’ll change her weapon to something that looks more ceremonial. And because I can… I’m gonna just attach a sword to the kagura suzu. So bells at one end, sword on the other end. It’s going to be a straight sword not a curved sword this time.

But the bulk of my thinking was about Yoru as a character, stuck between two worlds (like Sinclair 👀). The two featured characters in her story are Akira and Rozen. As said before, Akira is a refugee who just wanted shelter from being persecuted so Yoru covered for her. But she’s a relatively new influence to Yoru’s life, unlike Rozen who’s been with her ever since they were born.

Rozen was born as Miren 未練 (lingering regrets). They were both shrine maidens under the same “owner” (their relationship with this person is very clear, it is not one of mother to daughter but owner to property). Miren had always been curious and rebellious, and she often gets into trouble if Yoru wasn’t there to hold her back.

Yoru was born as Seiya 静夜 (quiet night). But eventually she dropped the 静 part because it was just something used to control her. Yk, always a good girl, silent and obedient.

So the thing about their relationship is that Miren often gets beaten up severely by the people higher above them, and also gets loaned out by their owner because they looked cuter than Yoru. So of course she’d kicked up a fuss about this, but Yoru couldn’t do anything but wait for her return. They’re like siblings but one of them is deliberately targeted for abuse while the other one is deliberately left out to teach them a lesson to never speak up or fight back.

I imagined that when Miren found out about Akira alongside Yoru, she wanted to escape to the sanctuary too, and leave behind the shrine that never ever treated her well. Miren had planned to kill everyone who had power over her at their shrine, but Yoru begged for her to stop before she actually commits to the plan and dies in their retaliation. The next day, the owner found out. ☹️

And they made Yoru the one who beats down Miren this time. In the completion of her conditioning, she was made to sever Miren’s tendons so she wouldn’t attempt to run away anymore. And she did just that, believing it was more merciful than death, even though what she was killing all of Miren’s trust and affection for her.

I haven’t wrung out the details after this part yet, but skipping ahead when they meet again, Rozen had to prostheticise those parts that Yoru severed from her. So she’d have puppetlike arms and legs. And a massive chainsaw because I’ve always imagined her with that. She was the one causing the destruction in their hometown when Yoru came back, and when it drew out the source of her heartbreak, she immediately switched to targeting Yoru and the tram. They can’t fight her head on because they’re unmatched by the speed of her prosthetics, so they ran to the burning shrine.

I had plans for them to find some kind of device there that would weaken Rozen’s prosthetic eh. Like it was something the owner already thought to prevent… but it would only made Rozen angrier that Yoru chose to hurt her again and align with their owner. That’s why Yoru still gets beaten senseless until Akira came to help.

Anyway, some thoughts behind the scene. I wrote it like this because the source book, Silence 沈黙 revolves around the hiding Christians and the Japanese militia they’re at odds with. Akira is the Christian here, while Yoru and Rozen are converts. They wanted out of their own religion but they can’t escape the way they were brought up. That’s why they keep hurting each other within the grasp of the bigger power. And worse yet :( Yoru keeps thinking she’s doing this out of love for Rozen, even though it’s only hurting her. That’s true to life for me.

This thought train only started because I kept thinking why isn’t Rozen or Akira the protagonist instead. Like why in particular I chose Yoru? Is it just because she’s the most Sinclair? But on deeper thoughts it’s because she’s the only Sinner amongst them. The other two just want to live in peace. But she chose peace over them. And that’s why she has to walk the thorny path to repent and die over and over again.

[naruhate]

I think Akira really like Electronic music. I need to make a playlist.

If you have any electronic music to recommend please do... I severely lack them...

[naruhate]

Randomly thinking about Akira from Yoru’s story. I feel like when we meet her in Canto III, she would not be at a stable state, considering they are razing her hometown to the ground. She would be the distortion they face instead.

What she thinks that lead to her distorting, is questioning why she isn’t strong enough to protect her sanctuary, when everything she stands for is being persecuted by others. Just constant thoughts telling her she was all bark and no bite because she can’t even prevent them from coming here.

It’s sad, but we had to stabilise her by reminding her to keep living and don’t take the whole tragedy on her shoulders yk. So she would keep going and hope to rebuild her community elsewhere. She doesn’t effloresce E.G.O yet I don’t think. Just naturally undistort.

Funny for a person named “bright” to see the light and distort yk I’m sorry 😭 anyway she can join Ermine and Huin in the distortion gang.

Additionally I want to mention that she came to Q Corp because she was persecuted in H Corp too for bearing the surname Kong. So when she moved to the new District, she lived a low profile life, and met Yoru at her work. Yoru didn’t recognise her attire so she got curious <- cult child seeing someone from outside the first time. They started sharing stories about their lives to each other and that’s how they became friends. (˵◝ ⩊ ◜˵マ

[naruhate]

Some really funny facts I remembered. Akira is related to Kong Qiu I guess, It’s not a coincidence that she’s also just as tall. Her real name is Kong Ming, so she probably originated from the Kong Family too.

From how the story of Chinmoku plays out, with the massacre of the Kong family and the persecution of Kakure Kirishitan (hiding Christians) it paints a clear picture that Kong Ming fled to Q Corp and changed her name to Akira.

There should be more Kong family survivors too, who joined the Pinky afterwards. I will try to write about them as we go through Yoru’s Canto, because otherwise it would be a waste of such good designs.

明 means bright :) and Q Corp’s singularity can only work in the dark. Idk what this implies but it’s cool.