Mr and Mrs Hamato

Chapter 13 - LaCrimosa

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*Mentions of death, blood, war*

For eons, the yokai looked down on mankind. Hating them for their greed, uncleanliness, and dark hearts. During the time of kings and queens, humans made ridiculous rules that would only benefit the rich and wealthy. The poor are jests and laborers of the land. In the meantime, yokai flourished with a good heart and the love to do good with their powers. 

During the Renaissance, the yokai began to understand mankind more, seeing their newfound love of knowledge, art, and search for understanding and fulfillment as a great stepping stone for the turn of humanity. Many yokai developed respect for humans, however many still felt hatred for the lower-level creatures. In their eyes, even with all the knowledge to understand good from wrong, humans still fall for lust and greed. 

That started the point of turning amongst yokai kind, dividing them into two groups. Sympathizers of humans, and anti-humans. 

Across the world, the sympathizers ventured out of the Hidden City to communicate with humans. Humans were curious enough to find such magical creatures in their midst and welcomed them as travelers, gods, deities, mythical creatures, and aliens. That's why ancient cultures have depictions of creatures like dragons and trolls. From this glorious interaction, was brought forth the gift of mystic energy to only a chosen few humans. Those who vowed to use it for good.

The anti-human yokai choose to sow violence. They abused their powers by influencing the bad humans to cause chaos within their own kind. At first, it started out as lies, then it grew to thievery, then finally, murder. All these led to the devastating events of evil acts in humanity, like wars, and biological warfare. Human experimentation even. Copying their good cousins, these anti-humans also gifted humans mystic energy to be used for evil and the destruction of humankind.

Because of this, more wars emerged between the two kinds of mystic humans. Even with the good yokai pleading with their new allies not to engage, the human on their side decided to fend for their own. The disgusting acts of the evil-influenced humans of the anti-yokai only provoked the good mystic users to engage in bloody warfare. The Great Mystic War.

Some yokai who sympathized with their humans joined the war, while the anti-human yokai left theirs to die alone in the face of battle.

During 10 years of bloodshed, many notable yokai clans stood with their good humans. The most revered of them were the fawn clan, a group of humanoid sheep people, a clan of arachnid-shifting yokai, and the northern-clan yokai. Together with the humans, these great yokai clans sought to help their allies in their war. 

Many saw it as the right decision, helping good people with good deeds. Many saw it as a mistake. 

A mistake it truly was, because it had set in stone the cruelest yokai of all. 

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Calder Ericson, a respectable yokai who studied ancient mystics and sciences. He was a young man of great renown. His family was well known amongst the folk of the north for having a heart of gold and known for their generous deeds. They were the best healers in the Hidden City, having come from a line of powerful healers and doctors.

Calder is the youngest of his three brothers. Their parents thought them everything they needed to know about healing, and Calder excelled well beyond their expectations. His older brothers were very much fond of him and often praise young Calder. Calder loved his family. He loved them too much that the war changed him to be their own nightmare. There is a reason why the names of other members of the Ericson family remain lost in history.