Twenty Years Later- Yutaka's Youkai Biology
Chapter 1: Primates and Primate Youkai
As many youkai scientists now agree (Hadekawa, 2011; Yasaka, 2011), the blanket term 'youkai' for any non-divine, superhuman humanoid is a paraphyletic grouping. While Suprahominidae was once thought to be a phylum unto itself (Briggs, 1976; Hadekawa, 2011) it has since turned out that actually, they are spread out within the non-humanoid animals (Hadekawa, 2011; Hieda, 2017) or are merely unique creatures of their own lineages (Hieda, 2006; Lovecraft, 1928).
However, Order Primates is a unique lineage in that it does not only have humanoids that arise from an initially non-humanoid animal-like form that lasts for a hundred years prior to metamorphosis (Bimyouna, 2020), but indeed, they are born closely resembling the humanoid form that seems to have driven animal youkai to evolve towards possessing (Hadekawa, 2014).
These creatures are, of course, humans (Homo sapiens). Humans have a gestation period of forty weeks, with a litter size of one or two, and give birth to relatively helpless live young (Weasley, 1997). In females, as a consequence of bipedalism, their birth canal is so small that childbirth is likely going to be traumatic (Hodnett, 2002), and prior to modern medicinal tools, mother mortality was common (Giacalone et al., 2000). In spite of this, their short lifespan (Weasley, 1997), as well as instances of being preyed on by humanoids higher up the food chain (Hsskekl, 1949), humans remain a highly successful creature, having successfully created tools, systematised the scientific method, and enabled themselves to manipulate the environment around them to make their lives easier, especially their invention of agriculture, effectively enabling them to kill and eat without hunting (Jordan, 2013).
This makes human far more sedentary and their evolutionary selection relying far more on wits and the ability to defend themselves and their residential areas wherein they settle and grow their crops and livestock rather than their ability to hunt and kill such as with hominophage youkai (Hadekawa, 2014). This selection has reached its logical extreme in in the subspecies known as 'Magician Youkai'. Whereas 'non-magical' humans are known as Homo sapiens sapiens, magician youkai, still mostly genetically human, are of the subspecies Homo sapiens incantatus, are only classified as a subspecies due to their extreme phenotypic disparity with humans. While they retain humanoid form and infancy, their ability to retain information and absorb it is far greater than that of humans, and their lifespan is far longer than humans due to their ability to sustain oneself not even by farming, but by sheer magical ability (Dawitsu, 1990). This, however, comes with a side-effect of having a weaker immune system and general frailty of body (Knowledge, 1983).
Due to this, magician youkai can call themselves human and be technically correct, even if this is not enough to allow 'true' humans to trust them (Hieda, 2006), and the 'magician youkai' genotype is sex-linked, requiring to be on both X chromosomes to be expressed (Hadekawa, 2009). Hence, in order to reproduce, magician youkai must have sex with male humans, and if the male bears an X chromosome with the magician allele present, he is a carrier of the trait, meaning that any daughters he should have with a magician youkai will also be magicians (Hadekawa, 2009). Such an event occurred with the author's own parents, Kana and Yutaka I Hadekawa.
In addition to humans and magicians, other sapient humanoids within the Order Primates may well include animal youkai stemming from great apes that live for a hundred years, as per the youkai animal metamorphosis (Bimyouna, 2020), however, while possible, no compelling evidence of such humanoid primate youkai existing are present, though more bestial primate youkai such as the commonly-thought-to-be mythical 'Big-foot', or 'Sasquatch', specimens of which can only be found in North America, the Outside World (Mucha, 2014). This creature is, according to the limited sources available, a bipedal, extremely hairy primate that becomes more powerful the more humans believe in him, akin to the more divine and abstract beings of Gensokyo (Yasaka, 2010).
Overall, Order Primates is a fascinating animal group which provides insight into the original humanoid form, and therefore offers insight into how convergent evolution towards the humanoid form has occurred in so many 'youkai' lineages (Hadekawa, 2014). Hence its placement here, as the first chapter. From this, knowledge shall be built by taking into account the evolutionary advantages of a humanoid form in sapient beings, and how the interaction between youkai and humanity has changed over the years.
References
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Yasaka, K. (2011), Why humans and youkai are not so far removed after all, Moriya Shrine Faith Bulletin.