In the beginning there was a land called Tokugawa. Tokugawa was a dark and cold place populated by gods, demons, animals, and humans. The most powerful of the gods were two sisters that were neither good nor evil. They called themselves Ryōmen. Ryōmen decided that a place so dark needed light and created the stars, sun, and moon before falling into a deep sleep. The gods built a shrine around the Ryōmen. Years passed, and they awoke to a new world. They explored the world together until one of the sisters fell in love with a human named Akira. She then gave herself the new name of Tomoe and abandoned her sister for her love. Her sister's heart broke in two and so she declared she had neither name nor sister before disappearing.
Tomoe was sorrowful but in time she thought less and less of her beloved sister. Tomoe and Akira lived peaceful lives until his family realized she wasn't as human as she seemed. This was considered a crime against their family lineage as well as their species. For the lines must remain pure in the species. So, the family reported what had happened to the land's king. They came to the bargain of their son's life in exchange for the stain on their family name to remain unknown. They waited for Tomoe to leave to gather food for supper before sending their weapon to murder him.
Tomoe returned home only to find his dead body. She cried over him for three days before murdering his family and traveling to the underworld. She then seized control of the underworld and declared herself queen. Queen Tomoe would decide who was worthy of passing through the underworld to heaven and how to punish those that were unworthy. Her bias against humans soon became apparent as none were allowed into heaven. After a while a goddess dressed in mourning clothes begged Queen Tomoe to judge humans fairly as not all of them were bad. Queen Tomoe couldn't place her finger on why this goddess seemed vaguely familiar.
The Queen agreed on the terms that the goddess would suffer in the place of those that would pass to heaven. She would live many lives as a human. Each of them would begin with only the worst conditions and each time she must make what she will of her life. When each life ends, she must still consider humans to be worthy of saving. If she changes her mind, then she will become herself again and the Queen will not be bothered with such foolishness again. The goddess fell to the floor in grief and asked if the queen truly hated her as much as she did the humans.
Queen Tomoe ignored her feelings that this goddess was familiar to her and told the goddess that if she were to be unwilling to make such a sacrifice, then it would stand to reason that the humans are truly unworthy of being in heaven. The goddess stared at the queen before she requested a few of her own terms. She would regain her memories at some point in those lives, be allowed to rest should her soul come close to shattering and keep her power even if most of it were locked inside her soul. Queen Tomoe agreed, and they sliced their palms to trade blood for their contract to be permanent. The Queen asked the goddess what she should be referred to as. The goddess gave her a tearful smile before telling her she had neither sister nor name. It was that moment that Queen Tomoe realized that this goddess was her missing sister that she had not recognized because of the hatred in her heart. She stared at her sister for a long moment before telling her that her name would be Sacrifice because she was a sacrifice to her hatred. The blood contract was in effect, and she had condemned her beloved sister.
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Kaoru always sees the most beautiful colors, and some of the ugliest, with each person she meets. Her father's colors are like most only more kind. Occasionally, they shift to something splintered with grief. She watches as they slowly fade into new colors before pulsing to another color. "Come on Kaoru, hurry up. We have to go to the market for rice today."
Hurriedly, she blinks to clear the sensation of double-vision and tries to focus on her father's face. His face is set into stern lines, but she can see his eyes dancing in amusement. "Coming Otou-san!" Her father, Koshijirou, smiles at her fondly as she runs to catch up with him. "Were you planning on staring at me until I left you behind?" Exasperated fondness coats his words. Sneakily, she glances at him out of the corner of her eye only to grin sheepishly when he catches her.
It's really not her fault. The shifting colors are mesmerizing. Even now, she's struggling to see his face instead of his colors. Kaoru fiddles with her fingers as she mutters. "I just like watching people." A snort is how he replies to her at first. "That is the creepiest thing I've ever heard you say." She glares at him in mock outrage and slips back into seeing colors. "Really? That's the creepiest thing you've ever heard me say?"
Kaoru impishly grins at him. "How about I promise to cook for the next week?" The colors of pure horror flash and she feels justified. Her father speaks in his most haughty voice that doesn't quite hide the horror. "It would be an honor to eat food prepared by my daughter." This time, Kaoru is the one who snorts. "Liar."
They walk in companionable silence until Koshijirou breaks it. "I wish my wife could have met you. I think she would have been proud to call you daughter." There it is. The hair-thin black lines lurking under his colors. She can only see them when his colors are still with grief. Grief is the strangest to see since it's almost translucent and paralyzes everything underneath it in an overwhelming display.
Kaoru shudders and looks away from the lines. She has the feeling those lines are signs of splintering, but she doesn't know for sure. Whatever they mean, it's not something good. "I wish I could have met her too." Things fall back to silence. The wind tugs at their clothes as they continue to walk the winding dirt path to the market.
Mostly, the vendors there sell food and a few trinkets. Occasionally, a traveling salesman is there with goods that are exotic to their small corner of the world. Today there aren't many open. Kaoru smiles in delight at the sight of her favorite vendor and waves excitedly. "Hello there Kaoru-chan." Instead of responding, she grins and tugs her father to his stall. He shares an amused look with her father before putting his most serious face on.
"Now Kaoru-chan, I have an important job for you. I seem to have made far too many mochi today and need help eating them." The vendor motions to the display of mochi. "Would you grant me the honor of having your assistance today?" Wide, awestruck eyes look over the assortment before looking up at him hopefully. "Red bean?"
The vendor grins as he grandly passes one to her, and her father begins bargaining for rice. Kaoru savors every bite of the sweet mochi. This is why he's her favorite vendor. This man always asks children to help him eat his overstock of mochi. Somehow, he has an overstock every time a child comes to his stall and she doubts it's a coincidence.
A few women walk by as they gossip in hushed voices. "You know the soldiers are supposed to be here tomorrow." "Why would they bother coming here? There are no mixed bloods or demons here…" Kaoru doesn't turn to look at them but freezes at the sight of the vendor's colors. Terror and determination are a strange combination.
She doesn't see her father's colors. Koshijirou only sees the man's eyes as they track the gossips' movement. They flash gold and Koshijirou's blood runs cold. Gold eyes is a well-known sign that marks the presence of demonic blood. It takes him a moment to collect himself and resist the urge to rip the mochi from his daughter's fingers. Relax, he tells himself.
He sternly forces himself to smile and behave as he normally would. If the women are right, the soldiers will be here tomorrow. He'll make sure his daughter is safe from this man then. Until then… Well, none of the other children show signs of illness after eating the mochi. Kaoru should be safe. No, she will be safe. For a year, he's been near this corrupted thing that's been giving his daughter mochi.
Kaoru remains oblivious to his reaction, instead focusing on different things for sale. Something for which he is grateful. Vaguely planning, he purchases their necessities without paying too much attention to her chattering until it stops. Koshijirou's head whips around and panic bubbles up in his throat. Where is she? "Kao-" He cuts himself off when he catches a glimpse of her on the other side of the vendor's stall staring at a ribbon display.
Kaoru's eyes are wide and her mouth trembles as she stares at them. He struggles to place her reaction even while scolding her. "Kaoru, you're not supposed to wander off like that. If you wanted a ribbon, you should have said something." She exhales shakily, and his eyes dart to her half eaten mochi on the ground before searching her face. "I'm sorry Otou-san, I'm not hungry anymore. Can-" Her eyes dart to the ribbons again. "Can we go home now?"
Koshijirou takes in her pale face, trembling fingers, and shaky breathing before glancing at the vendor. Could he have worked some sort of magic on her? Only, the vendor looks concerned too and comes from behind his stall to look at her more closely. "Did the mochi make you sick? Was it a bad batch? I'm so sorry I could have sworn I tested one earlier and they tasted fine-" She cuts off his panicked apology. "It was really good Heizo-san. I just- I'm not feeling good."
The demon seems genuine and he can understand why so many people become attached to them. Koshijirou's eyes narrow as he looks for any signs of that thing, that dared masquerade as a man, bewitching his daughter. The vendor looks at a loss for only a moment, before taking a ribbon and presenting it to Kaoru with an overly dramatic flourish. "My lady, I can't help but feel responsible. Perhaps you could do me a great favor and lighten my guilt by taking this token?"
The look on her face is a strange combination of having been offered the world and a heartbroken grief, but she takes the ribbon with shaking fingers. "Thank you, Heizo-san." Koshijirou pastes on a smile and begins walking home with Kaoru. After he deigns them far enough from the village, he sets their goods to the side before drawing Kaoru close.
"What happened back there?" She stares at the ground and opens her mouth for a moment before closing it again. If that thing harmed her then Koshijirou would have his head. "I can't remember life before you adopted me, but when I saw the ribbons…" Her voice trails off as she stares at the ribbon twisted between her fingers. "I feel happy, but like I've lost something important." Large blue eyes seem to bore into his soul and will him to understand.
He doesn't ask any more questions of her, and they walk in silence to their home. That night, he hears soldiers marching past their door in the direction of the village and goes out to meet them. Koshijirou will protect his last daughter with everything in him.
A few days later finds them in the marketplace again, but this time Kaoru shrieks in horror. Her favorite vendor's wrists are tied to a pole in the center. He lies still on the ground, covered in blood and open wounds. The soldiers chuckle when Koshijirou holds her back from the man. One speaks out.
"You know, all of the children reacted like that. I heard he was giving them mochi. What do you bet he was trying to fatten them up before eating them?" The others laugh at his joke. His joke is awful, and why were they laughing? Kaoru looks back at her father for an answer only to see his colors are satisfied like the soldiers.
"Otou-san…. Why? Why are they doing this?" He smiles sadly at her. "That man has the blood of demons in his veins. Demons are evil. So, they must see if he knows where others are and take him away." Evil? She's seen a lot of things, but Heizo-san's colors have never been malicious or cruel.
Kaoru stops struggling to stare at the man's colors. Sorrow, anger, resignation, and determination color his unmoving form. A lot of people have colors like that, and she doesn't understand what he's trying to say. "What makes them evil?" Otou-san's face grew grim and his lips are white from being pressed into a firm line.
"They have no souls Kaoru. Things without souls are evil. They're not people. They look like people, but they're not like us. Do you understand?" Her father's colors weren't cruel, angry, or hateful like the words were. Maybe he doesn't understand because he can't see the colors.
Desperately, she tries to make him understand. "But…. Otou-san… His colors and shape look like everyone else's." Otou-san gives her a stern look. "Kaoru, a person's skin doesn't determine their humanity. Besides those things can look like anyone." He doesn't understand what she's saying to him. "Not those colors. The colors that are inside here."
She places her hand over his heart. "He's sad Otou-san." The color of horror spreads like an ink stain. Koshijirou speaks through numb lips. "Kaoru, what do you mean?" He stares into her determined eyes as she tries to explain. "Everyone has colors, and his looks like everyone else's. He is the same. We are the same."
All this time, he had thought his daughter human. No. She had been tested when he took her in, and every test showed her to be human. He can't- he can't think about this right now. Koshijirou can't afford to let the soldiers know anything is wrong. He can't allow them to think he's sympathetic to the vendor. Or worse. They'll think his daughter is one of them.
The soldiers don't appear to have heard the details of what Kaoru said. He glances at the vendor and has to repress a cringe when he sees the man's eyes are focused on him. No. They're focused on his daughter in something that looks like awe, and it's like the air has been sucked from his lungs. Act normal. "She's just having a hard time. We thought he was trustworthy and even viewed him as part of the family. It's just difficult for her right now. I'll make her understand." A soldier nods in amusement. "We all go through that phase at one point. She just needs time."
Koshijirou drags Kaoru back and ignores her kicking, screaming, and pleading. However, try as he might, he cannot escape the look on her face. The look that says she just realized her father was a monster. He numbly closes the door to her room and listens to her screaming until she falls asleep. Only then, does he allow himself to realize what she said.
It can't be true but…. What if it is true? What if everything he knew was built on a lie of demons being at fault for everything from crop failure to harsh patrols? He kneels in the dojo until there's only moonlight reflecting from the blades on the rack. "Otou-san?" Koshijirou hears her whisper and almost wonders when she sat across from him. Instead, he watches her eyes as she stares hard at him and he thinks of how she talked of colors.
Kaoru reaches out as though to hug him, and he almost giddily reaches forward in his relief. He didn't mess everything up. His daughter doesn't hate him. Koshijirou presses his face to her hair and flinches when he feels an odd searching feeling. What? He closes his eyes trying to orient himself and suddenly realizes that he's seeing flashes of colors walk by in a village.
'This is what I see.' Kaoru's voice is distant, and he can only stare at her memories with a growing sense of horror. All the same. Different shades and brightness, but all the same. Oh Kami, what has he done? All his life he had considered himself to be a champion of people. He had even created a sword style meant for the protection of life, and yet- And yet, he had utterly failed them.
Kaoru watches in horror. All she had wanted was to make him understand, and somehow, she had messed up. Her strong Otou-san stares off into space murmuring the same words. "What have I done?" She places her hands on his face and tries to will him to see her. "Otou-san. Otou-san look at me please. We can fix it."
Hazy eyes focused on her for a moment. Fix it? Koshijirou shakes his head slowly and pulls away from her slowly. Kaoru watches the thin black lines become bolder under the weight of despair. She doesn't protest even as he locks himself in a room. Instead, she stares at the ribbon Heizo-san gave her. Wrapping it around her fingers, she thinks over what she said. We can fix it.
Otou-san once told her that one needs to be strong for those who need them. He can't be strong right now and neither can Heizo-san. The ribbon snags on her calluses. Years of practice have made her strong and fast. Strong enough to take on a soldier? Probably not, but she can be fast. She ties her hair into a ponytail with the ribbon and grabs her bokken. Kaoru will be strong for him.