Child of the Withered Mother

Not much is known about the early years of Takeya Kunimori. Some say that he was the son of a samurai beholden to the Shogon of the Orochiji, the Snake Clan. Others say that his family were simple farmers working the land outside of Yougotoshi. All of this is merely conjecture. What is known is that at the young age of 4, he found himself wandering the streets of Yougotoshi, alone and orphaned, a collateral victim of the recent war with the Kanishi, the Crab Clan. Orphans in the lands of The Empire of Kotou are often taken in at orphanages or by well-off families who favor charity but not in Yougotoshi. Yougotoshi is infamous for its crime lords and the coldness and hostility of its inhabitants. Orphans are left to find their own way through the rough streets and to die alone and forgotten if they cannot.
 

Such would have been the fate of such a young orphan as The Grue had it not been for Kareta Hahaoya and her band of child thieves. Kareta Hahaoya and her misfit children plague the lowest levels of the city, venturing out from the warrens that wind and twist their way beneath the city to cut purses and steal unattended objects. Kareta Hahaoya never leaves her warren, instead relying on her children to gather what she desires from the city's unwary inhabitants. It was this misfit family that found the young Takeya Kunimori and saved him from a cold and lonely death in the mud of the streets.
 
 
It was here, among the adopted orphans of Kareta Hahaoya, that he was first given the moniker "The Grue". Kunimori quickly developed a talent for both stealth and brutality, favoring weapons almost too large for his small frame to wield effectively. Waiting in the shadows for his prey, he would strike with every ounce of force he could generate, aided by the extra weight of the over-sized weapon, to down his victim in a single blow. He rapidly rose in the Mother's favor and by the age of 16 was treated as one of her most trusted enforcers.
 

The Kamaitachi

Several years later, the Kamaitachi first appeared and became known to the underground. Three young men carved their names into Yougotoshi in blood, leaving a trail of bodies and carnage in their wake. The men known as the Kamaitachi were The Grue, Sama Hyobe (also known as Nikuya or The Butcher), and Shibuya Surai (also known as Shitateya or Stitcher). They became the most brutal and violent of Kareta Hahaoya's enforcers, tasked with protecting the Mother's territory and deal out punishments she deems fit. Their style, the brutal severing of legs followed by a light amount of healing to prevent the victim from bleeding out, became well known throughout Yougotoshi and their activities gathered a great deal of attention, both from rival underworld gangs and from what passes for the Law in Yougotoshi.

 
What no one outside of the Mother's Children, and few of the children themselves, knew was that Kareta Hahaoya's bones lay hidden where they had been tossed by the Kamaitachi after they had brutally deposed her and taken their gleeful rage out with their blades on her ancient flesh. Kunimori had struck the first blow against Kareta Hahaoya, in defense of Surai as she beat him, and brought her down to her knees. The others piled in with reckless abandon and set about their dirty work with smiles plastered on their emotionless faces. Kunimori only watched as his brothers took out their fear and rage on the brittle, old bones of the now dead Kareta Hahaoya. All of the children would understand what had transpired and but few would support the brothers in their bid to maintain control of the Children. It was quickly decided that a ruse was the key.
 
 
For years, the Kamaitachi kept up the ruse and the Children believed Kareta Hahaoya to be alive and in charge though none had seen her and the Kamaitachi were the only ones allowed in her portion of the warrens. The Kamaitachi ruled the children now and, with nothing to keep them in check, their reckless aggression and unguided brutality had forced the rest of the underworld and the officials of Yougotoshi to take action to restore order and protect their interests in the city.
 

When the city descended on the warrens below, the judgement on the Children was swift, it was brutal, and it was without mercy. Children of all ages, waifs and cut-purses all, died that night in a bloodbath unlike any Yougotoshi had ever before seen. Sama Hyobe and Shibuya Surai both were slain in the depths of the warrens after organizing what defenses they could and holding off the attacking forces for much longer than anyone thought possible. None of the Children of Kareta Hahaoya survived that night save but one.
 

As luck would have it, Takeya Kunimori was returning from a successful raid on one of the quarters of the city with a small band of compatriots when the Children were attacked. He witnessed the attackers moving through the tunnels and knew that the Children's time had come. He struck a few blows in revenge for his fallen and soon to be fallen comrades but kept himself well out of the reach of the main attacking force. He tried his best to be cautious and careful but the rage and helplessness he felt finally got the better of him. He struck out at a too large a force and suddenly found himself alone and fleeing wildly through the tunnels with armed and dangerous men in close pursuit of his shadowed form.
 

Whispers in the Dark

In fleeing wildly through the warren beneath the city, barely inches from death at the hands of the men who had killed his friends and family, Kunimori stumbled on an ancient crypt deep beneath the city. He leaned against a wall of the tunnels for a second, to catch his breath and gain his bearings, when the wall collapsed and he fell through into this ancient and undisturbed burial chamber. The age of the chamber hung heavily in the air as small motes of dust swirled around the floor in the sudden breeze. In the silence that followed the cacophony of clattering stone, as Kunimori lay on the floor straining his ears for sounds of his pursuers, he slowly began to hear faint whispers hanging in the air. Angry whispers barely on the edge of hearing. And then they were drowned out by the rush of his pursuers moving down the corridor and to the fresh entrance. Quickly, Kunimori gathered himself to his feet and hid deeper in the crypt, keeping a keen eye on the hole where he fell through and the dim lights beyond.
 

Three figures entered the crypt slowly and cautiously, blades drawn and ready. It was then that Kunimori saw that his sword, his large two-handed nodachi, had come free in his fall and now lay a few feet from the hole in the wall. Unarmed and outnumbered, his mind racing for a way out of his predicament, he slipped deeper into the crypt and attempted to stay out of reach of his pursuers. They had split up and spread out upon entering the crypt and began boxing him in. Fumbling through the dark rear of the crypt, Kunimori's outstretched hand found the wrapped and braided hilt of a weapon set in a ceremonial stand atop one of the sarcophagi. Seizing the sudden possibility of salvation, The Grue took up the weapon and readied himself for battle. As he positioned himself for his attack, a rage began to boil within him and the whispers that had slipped away earlier came back in earnest, whispering close to his ear, urging him onward, begging him to spill blood, to strike out in anger and wrath.
 

Rage over took The Grue and with a mighty downward slice, he cleaved clean through one of his pursuers with a roar. The rage with him had a hold of him now and took on a life of its own. He charged out of the darkness and wildly slashed and thrust at the two remaining enemies, taking a few hits in his reckless rage but shrugging them off and hewed his opponents to pieces with mighty swings of his weapon. Strange lights swirled through the crypt as the they fought this furious but short battle, nearly unnoticed in the heat of the fighting. Several silent minutes passed after the last enemy feel while the rage coursed through him. After what felt like an eternity, his anger subsided and exhaustion set in, leaving him standing in the still darkness of the crypt. Still, the whispers in his ear begged for more blood, for more death, for vengeance....
 

Takeya Kunimori looked down at the weapon in his hand and surprised to see a large, long two-handed handle, almost too big for his hands, with an ornate traditional oval guard and cap, and a nine-inch-wide blade jutting out only a foot before ending in a broken edge. The entire weapon was covered in fresh blood and seemed to tingle in his hands. The whispers continued, fading to just within hearing in the silence.
 

The Road Ahead...

Taking up his old sword and strangely unable to leave behind the broken remnants of the blade he found, Kunimori crept from the crypt and out into the city itself. Taking caution not to draw attention to himself, he walked through the city towards the gates, intent of leaving his home city and never returning. There was nothing left for him in Yougotoshi but death and judgement. His path was now the road, his fate on the horizon, his journey a lonely one.