The sun was low in the east as the woman made a final great effort, rewarded with the frightened cries of her newborn child. She called to her mate for help, taking the opportunity to rest up for the long journey ahead as he cleaned and swaddled it.

"What is it?" she asked weakly as he crouched beside her.

The look of disappointment on his face broke her heart, and she knew that it was female. How badly they had desired a son… There was nothing to be done about it, though; at least not here. The cave was drenched with the scent of blood and her struggling, and it wouldn't be long before it attracted the wrong sort of attention. As soon as she was strong enough, they fled. They didn't mistreat the pup, but neither were they affectionate, and it would be years before they even found a name for her.

Kuroihi; more of a moniker than a name, inspired by the blackish flames she produced when upset or excited; flames her parents went to desperate lengths to hide.

She grew slowly over the next 15 years, as half‐demons do, learned to contain her fire, and her parents taught her everything else they could in that time. Being half‐breeds themselves, they knew exactly what the world had in store for their kind, and it was far from welcoming benevolence.

Of all the mighty daiyoukai that prowled central Japan, the Inu no Taishou was by far the most ferocious. Only the foolhardy dared to challenge his ancient territorial claims and few of those demons lived to tell of their nightmarish encounters with him. As the impulsive brigands were slain or finally bent knee to him, new generations of ambitious demons rose to take their place. They met their ends soon after. The General's work was never finished, it seemed, but the presence of his long-time companion, the jackal demon Rekkonji, made the violent lifestyle more enjoyable. While the Inu no Taishou's many enemies knew him only by his moniker, Rekkonji knew him as 'Touga'.

Physically speaking, the two elder demons were quite the pair of opposites. Where Touga was tall and solidly build, Rekkonji was shorter, compact, and lithe. The General kept his silvery hair high in a trailing ponytail while Rekkonji kept his tawny braid low to fall down his back. Rekkonji's eyes were dark and touched with red while Touga's were kissed with the burnished orange of the marigold. The older dog's clean-shaven face bore a single set of cobalt stripes that tapered elegantly along his alabaster cheeks, while Rekkonji's face was without markings, his skin tanned, and he sported a finely groomed goatee. Despite their great many centuries, both retained the youthful appearance common to all greater demons.

After many millennia, Touga reached an age where the injudicious bloodlust of his nature had given way to the wisdom of experience and something akin to compassion. No one understood this change better than stalwart Rekkonji, who had followed and supported the General on his campaign to control central Japan for centuries.

Touga had once been almost entirely nomadic, but now constructed a base from which to operate upon the birth of his son, Sesshoumaru. Soon after, he named Rekkonji his Warmaster, and charged him with maintaining a modest pool of combatants to defend the territory around the base and beyond. Touga had never been cruel by demon standards, per se, but the wind now whispered that he was growing soft. Having once exacted harsh punishments for troublemaking, Touga now began showing empathy and consideration to the demons of his lands. It troubled his Warmaster.

Out of Touga's many acts of mercy, the most memorable and baffling to Rekkonji was the incident that had brought into the base a rather peculiar creature perhaps a century after its establishment. During a patrol, Rekkonji and the General had come across a pair of half-demons with a pup in tow trespassing on the General's territory. Finding two humanoid half-breeds at once was strange enough but finding ones that had spawned a child between them was absurd.

When they groveled for their lives, Touga simply commanded they leave his lands. Taken aback, Rekkonji demanded the hanyou pay tribute to the General for his mercy before leaving. Having nothing else, and seeming quite pleased with the opportunity, they abandoned their child to the General's use and fled. Instead of leaving the unfortunate creature to fend for herself, Touga put her to work under the scrutinizing vigil of Fuyutoka, the hawk demon Overseer of his base. While Rekkonji did not argue with his friend's decision, he could not understand his reasoning.

For one hundred and sixty years the half-breed Kuroihi toiled, mostly unseen and unheard by the demons of the Inu no Taishou's castle-base, all but forgotten save by Fuyutoka, who managed her nigh invisible efforts. As she grew, she came to understand her place in the world and to know she would spend her life slinking through the dark spaces beneath the tatami mats and wooden floors, no better regarded or known than the rubbish she helped clear away. Her fate was set by her very blood, her lot in life cast. However, even the unbending mountains can be made to change.