Sometimes I wonder why I am the way I am.

I was born to a nomadic clan of samurai who made its living off hunting animals and destroying other clans.

Well, that explains my all bloodthirsty and destructive qualities.

My father (who was the clan leader) could’ve been better, but he could’ve been worse. He didn’t spend too much time with me growing up. Too busy killing things. He neglected my medical condition (which I shared with my brother). I’ll be damned if I can remember what it’s called, but all anyone else needs to know is that it makes me hungry ALL the time. Even when I’ve eaten so much food I’m incapacitated.

I wonder if this physical never ending hunger was somehow related to my never ending lust for power.

I spent a lot of time with my little brother Koga and none with other family members because they were all dead. Other children of the clan feared us. We were as thick as brothers could be, running through the woods, training, killing beasts twice our size with our bare hands, mock-dueling…good times.

That explains my deep loyalty to comrades.

But whenever father was around, he was always disciplining us. With a whip. Or worse, he’d put on his metal gloves and punch us in the face. Sure, it worked. But we hated him. Even as we entered our late teens, he continued the beatings. One day, I got sick of it, and cut his head off. That single action had made me clan leader.

I suppose that explains my innate hatred of authority, as well as my desire to be top dog.

With the clan under my control, I decided that we would stop taking orders from other clans. I was going to fight my way to the top. I was to be Shogun. In my conquest, I killed at least 7000 opponents.

There’s where I get my total disregard for human life.

Now, Shoguns were a lot smarter back then and a lot better at waging war than they are now. I was young and naïve, too confident for my own good. In retrospect, I should’ve waited a few more years, to train my troops, buy better armor and forge better swords. If I had done that, I would not have to rely on the other clans I was forced to make an alliance with. They sold me out. My clan was slaughtered. Every last one of them. I think it was when Koga died that I finally snapped.

I figure my hatred of traitors comes from that.

Well, I managed to kill everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) before the Shogun slipped before slipping through my fingers. I saw this as an opportunity to better arm myself before fighting him. I combined my sword with metal of 6 other swords of my clansmen, including Koga. When that was finished, I stuck this new sword in Koga’s body. I was told that if you left a freshly forged sword in someone’s corpse for a week, their soul would enter and remain in the blade. In that week, I managed to put my armor back together the best I could using whatever I salvaged off my dead clanmates. Then I pulled out the huge nodachi and hunted down the Shogun.

You’ve probably figured out by now that I’m a natural hunter.

Bastard Shogun. I decided to face him in fair combat, and what does he do to me? He blows smoke in my face from that wooden pipe of his and turned my face into the sun.

I hate smokers. And cheaters. And the sun. And anything that burns.

With that distraction alone, he was able to slit my belly open. And for years, there I lay on the ground, frozen solid by the winds around me.

I felt a strange darkness creep into my soul, making me stronger. One day, I broke free of my icy tomb. I broke down the gate, ripped the guards to shreds, cut down the Shogun and his family and then….then I assumed this bestial form.

I SHOULD be a member of the Legendary 9. But the centuries of isolation reduced me to ‘mythical’ status. Or maybe it’s better to be a myth. No. When you’re a legend, everyone knows you’re real.

That Kaku that took my place…..well, at first I though he was pathetic, but now I see his true strength, and I agree he deserves his title.

It’s funny. It was at least 500 years ago I heard someone singing an old song we used to sing going into battle, but it’s still stuck in my head:

We’ll kill them all tonight
Show them your all might
Oh what a sight
We’ll kill them all tonight
They’ll fear us all right
Oh what a sight
We’ll kill them all tonight
Forever you will fight
Oh what a sight
We’ll kill them all tonight
Show them your all might
Until the morning light
We’ll kill them all tonight
They’ll fear us all right
Until the morning light
We’ll kill them all tonight
Forever you will fight
Until the morning light