Doodle Champion Island Journeys!

24.

Fukuro was the last Legendary Champion. Last, because they said he would give you a traumatizing experience of Champion Island if you decided to challenge him first thing. So better save him for later, when your mentality had stabled from culture shock and the overwhelming power of the Champions.

Fukuro was, to put it simply, a kami, or god, who had been living since forever on this island. He was easily one of the first creatures to set foot on this land, because back then Otohime wasn't even born, and the gateway from the Underwater Palace to Champion Island had yet to be opened. He perched atop the Northern Mountain Roof, the highest mountain on the island, as he watched over everyone and everything. Every every harvest by the southwest area, every tidal wave crashing upon the southeast beach, every eruption of the volcano, every willow tree that sprung to life on the west islet, every rainy season pouring down on the bamboo forest, every treasure-hunting ship that came back to the Northwest docks, and every snowfall on his mountains. He saw many things. If anything, he even made the island have its variety of grounds nowadays.

Fukuro's power was to raise the land and sea to his will, and sometimes forge lives, too. Occasionally, he would come down and teach them about crafting and culture. He was the kami of land creation and creature development. Being so old and mighty, he held his pride in this peaceful island. Ever since Otohime's arrival and the booming of the Kijimunas, Origin Island - the name it had before getting changed into 'Champion Island' - was a paradise for not only mortals but also deities. The Demon Realm later crashed course, enjoying the heat radiating from the volcano. The Oni King did quite well on keeping his lowers in, really, so the Onis only shared the climate, nothing else, besides rare exchange trips where the Ushis, a kind of Oni themselves, went in to have a sense of true birth land, and the Karasus came to learn more about the kind, while the Onis had a change of air by coming to the beach.

It was fun, though the old owl wouldn't admit it, not wanting to be teased by the sun goddess Amaterasu on her yearly trips to visit her flock of Karasus, who she entrusted as messengers, or worse - mocked by the sly foxes of Inaris.

Then disaster crashed in - or so it was what he considered a disaster. Whoever suggested competitiveness here on Origin Island deserved severe punishment for that sin. Competitiveness was what made mortals so chaotic, so cheap and delusional of themselves, unaware of the kamis who had granted them blessings and the nature that had sheltered them. This island was closer to holy beings more than anywhere in the Doodle world, and the discrimination coming from such sort had tainted them. Origin Island once stood on the brink between realms, balanced between gods and mortals, but once disharmony took over, it fell to a normal piece of land under the new name of Champion Island. A kami such as himself had to flee to a distant wilderness.

It had been the worst years of his life, minus the time before he was recognized as a kami, which he couldn't even recall anyway.

When he met the Tengus, demigods who had both kami and yokai traits, and dedicated themselves to the silent work of chasing ill-spirits, he changed his mind. Took a tad too long for his ancient system to click, but what's important was that he had realized where holy beings should interfere because while Champion Island was more visible to mortals now, the magic it used to hold had started to affect them. More precisely, any memories made on Champion Island would be lost upon leaving. Otohime seemed to realize the same idea, and so they formed the title of Legendary Champions.

At least those islanders weren't all oblivious of who they were.

However, unlike other Champions who awaited their challengers by the gate - or in Tengu's case, awaited a signal from the gate to come down and kick their butt to the competing spot - Fukuro decided to state clearly how terrifying he could be, even when in sports. He decided to climb all the way up the mountain and stay there. His time record and his cold eyes staring down even in the dark gave creatures no chance to 'but' about him being the Champion. And as Champion, he declared his own way of defining an inheritor: for every challenger, he would rise a mountain from the sea, crafting it from scratch with cliffs and grips and everything. There was snow on the top and crashing waves by the foot. Whoever climbed the whole way up the top in at most trice the time he took to become Champion would do. And apparently, nobody had achieved that, except Usagi in her prime time, which was twenty years ago anyway.