INFORMATION.

[bloodbaths]

「 Only a fool would spit in a demon's face and declare victory。」
BASIC NAME: Kazan Yamaoka (山岡崋山) CANON: Dead by Daylight. AGE: 35 (headcanon) DOB: Unknown. GENDER: Male. SPECIES: Human (supernaturally enhanced/altered)	FIRST IMPRESSIONS VISUAL: 1, 2 HEIGHT: TALL. Approaching 7 feet. BUILD: Muscular and stocky. Endomorph body type. HAIR: White and long. EYES: Shadowed by his mask. Glows red when using his powers. FEATURES: Bluish-gray skin that's cool to the touch. Scars all over his body. SCENT: Blood and iron. VOICE: Deep and guttural. Primarily speaks Japanese.	CHARACTER ATTITUDE: Overbearing, blunt, accustomed to arranging the world to his liking. LIKES: Strength, determination, fearlessness, family. DISLIKES: Weakness, cowardice, disloyalty, being called ogre or Oni-Yamaoka. VIRTUES: Courageous, disciplined, devoted, dutiful, hard-working, persistent, protective. VICES: Wrathful, vengeful, violent, arrogant, cruel, elitist, narrow-minded.

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credits.

[bloodbaths]

coding by efryndiel.

THE IMPOSTER NOBLE - MEMORY FRAGMENTS - TOME 23: CRADLE AND GRAVE

[bloodbaths]

*temporary, for reference purposes until text/images are uploaded to the dbd wiki.

I. CORE MEMORY #1

II. MEMORY 8125

Sunlight spills over Renjiro Yamaoka sitting cross-legged in the meadow. His horse, Rai-Fu, waits patiently. The samurai inhales, considers the weight of the katana at his hip.

His mind wanders for a second, the calm disrupted. His chest tightens. The green fields before him offer no peace when he knows his son spills the red blood of innocents upon them.

He is on the trail to stop him: Kazan, the man known as the Oni, his son who has made it his mission to purify the samurai—not through discipline or honor but by massacring the farmers who oppose them. A savage reaction to minor transgressions.

The sun carves its way through the sky as Rai-Fu carries Renjiro along a quiet road. Modest homes dot the field ahead. No one toils outside. There is an unlikely stillness, as if he journeys through a painting. In the distance, a man watches, leaning against his home. He does not move.

As Renjiro approaches, the scene becomes clear. The farmer is impaled on the wall of his home. Blood pools at his feet. A crow takes flight. It ignores the corpse, instead landing further down the hill. Renjiro follows. A pool of pitch-blackness shuffles in the tall grass ahead. The dark stain screeches, a vast murder of crows lambasting the intruder. Reluctantly, they take flight, stretching across the sky like a dark scythe. Blood soaks the earth where they stood. There are hints that the viscera is human—a roughly cut hand, an exposed femur—but the number of victims is impossible to know in the pulverized gore.

This cannot be the work of Kazan. How could he—

A sour lump rises in Renjiro's throat. He wonders if the commoners' tales are true.

It must be an oni that possesses Kazan for his son could never commit such evil.

III. CORE MEMORY #2

IV. MEMORY 8126

Renjiro's [sic] slumps with fatigue. He hears the voice in his head.

Go home. You are no samurai.

He is tired. He acknowledges the truth:

I am no samurai.

The voice demands more.

You are not Renjiro Yamaoka.

He nods.

I am not Renjiro Yamaoka.

The faded memories return. He is a child, torn from his parents. He does not understand why. They scream his name...

Hachi!

He never sees them again. He's brought to a snarling man who looks him over, opens his mouth. Ignores his crying.

Good. He will be for my son.

He is taken to a boy to be his playmate. The boy's name is Renjiro Yamaoka. They become friends but there are rules. Renjiro must always win. If Renjiro hits him, he must accept it.

He goes with Renjiro to reading and fighting classes, but not as an equal—he must downplay his abilities. He is there to amuse. A living toy. And like a toy, he becomes dull. After a decade, he is cast off to work like the other servants. From then on, Renjiro looks at Hachi with bitterness, as if embarrassed of the bond he had with a commoner.

As Renjiro comes of age, he assumes the duties of a samurai. Beneath his façade of discipline and mercy is cruelty. He leaves scars on Hachi.

Renjiro boards a ship and Hachi goes with him. The Yamaoka family influence is set to extend to a new territory. Hachi pulls a cart of supplies aboard. A storm hits within hours of casting off. Tossed from bow to stern, Hachi grabs Renjiro's hand as the samurai is nearly thrown overboard.

He wants to let go but he sees the face of the boy that was his only friend. He pulls him aboard.

A second to catch his breath.

A thunderous crash.

Parts of the hull explodes into splinters. He's thrown to the deck. Through the ocean's spray, he sees Renjiro, a jagged piece of wood pierced through his neck. Renjiro clutches his throat, tries to hold in the blood, his eyes wide as they fade into a furious, reluctant expression of death.

The ship comes apart.

Hachi awakens on a beach amidst debris and corpses. Nearby is a chest he brought aboard. He breaks it open, pulls out Renjiro's armor, katana, and the Yamaoka family crest.

Hachi will never speak his true name again. On this day he becomes the samurai, Renjiro Yamaoka.

V. CORE MEMORY #3

VI. MEMORY 8127

Renjiro... Hachi...

Who are you?

Too late to erase the lie now.

So, it is Renjiro who rides into the next town. A commoner bows her head as he passes. Nearby, a few men speak, glances cast in Renjiro's direction. He pretends to ignore them. Muttered words reach his ears.

Father to an oni...

...evil blood. Not a real samurai...

Yamaoka butchers... come to kill...

Behind him, someone grabs his armor and attempts to pull him from his horse. He moves with the motion, spinning from his mount to land on his feet, a hand to his blade. The sudden fear struck in those around him stokes their anger. Shouted words become waves of indistinguishable sound. They demand answers to questions he cannot hear. A club slams against him. A hand yanks at his mask. Rai-Fu whinnies and runs.

Renjiro moves his hand to his sword.

No.

He cannot act as his son would. He would rather die than let the Yamaoka name drown in shame and blood.

A blow from behind pushes him to the ground. Strikes resonate through the armor to his ribs. He pushes his hand against his blade, ensures the frantic grips that pull at him cannot unsheathe it.

The strikes continue until the crowd's anger is quenched. They walk away, spitting and laughing.

He pulls himself from the mud, whistling for Rai-Fu. Nothing. The horse lies at the roadside, his body still. Later, when Renjiro is beyond the sight of others, he will clutch his wounds and grieve.

VII. CORE MEMORY #4

VIII. MEMORY 8127

Renjiro examines his bruises. Nothing serious. But the violence... how did it come to this?

He remembers when Kazan was a young boy, shouting angrily.

They called me Imposter Noble! They sung and they laughed.

The guilt bears down on Renjiro. When he assumed the Yamaoka name, he could not convince everyone in the village of his lie. The lone survivor of a shipwreck, his only proof of identity being armor, a blade, and a family crest—it was a suspicious story. Were it not for what he learned as the playmate to a noble, he'd likely have been caught. But he was well-spoken, knew how to read, and could fight like a samurai. It dispelled most doubts.

Most.

The whisperings of an Imposter Noble would never be fully silenced. It fueled a rage in Kazan. Renjiro tried to teach his son patience and humility. He wonders what else he could have done.

I suppose I could have taught him the truth.