History

• 1183 – 1614

Hideyuki was born a son to Ryōjin, the god of the eastern sea.
For the first 430 years of his life (making him about 17 in “human years”) he grew up in a beautiful and flamboyant atoll-palace 3000 meters deep at the bottom of the sea. As the prince who would one day rule the kingdoms of the East Sea, he had a good and sheltered life. To be a rightful king one day, he had very strict and thorough education and training. Still, he always had the feeling that something deep within him was missing; the life of a prince was dull, full of rules and he did not like it one single bit. It was aggravating and boring and Hideyuki could think of no greater punishment than to be king one day.
One day he learned about the “other world” in his studies. A world far away from the depths of the ocean, filled with creatures he never heard of before. And he was thrilled to say the least. Hideyuki never felt excitement for anything like this before, so he decided for himself to break each and every rule that was drummed into his brain since he was born and visit the “other world” on the surface for himself.
So one night he snuck out of the kingdom and went ashore. He was overwhelmed with the beauty that the coasts had to offer, the moon and the stars, the gentle wafts of the wind and the smells in particular. It was so very different from the deep sea and it delighted him greatly. After that special night Hideyuki took every opportunity of being unsupervised to walk the shores. He became braver with time and soon started to visit the “other world” at daytime as well. Since he had learned quite early in his studies how to change his appearance to a more human-like, he had no problem walking among them without being noticed as a magical being. He loved strolling around their markets, simply watching and listening to the people going on with their daily lives was immense bliss for him.

One fateful day however, Hideyuki met a human that was not like the others. They saw trough his disguise and told him, that they knew what he was. Being found out, as all his teachers and especially his father had always sternly preached him when teaching him about the other world, was not to happen at any cost. Afraid of getting killed, he tried to flee, but the human stopped him and assured him there was no need to worry. Rather than doing him harm, they intended to study him and learn the ancient wisdom of the seas. And Hideyuki, knowing how thrilling another world could be, was all too willing to play the teacher. Weeks passed and Hideyuki stopped strolling the markets, or roaming the shores. He spent all time he had on the surface with the human, telling them everything he knew about the world and the kingdom below, growing fond of them rather quickly. He never felt like this before, he never felt love like that and had no experience in this regard but he was sure, it was his destiny to be with them instead of ruling the East Sea.
Struggling with his feelings and the fact, that his visits of the human world where still a secret from everyone else, Hideyuki became restless. Every minute separated from the human was pain but leaving the kingdom without a word for good to be with them would break his father’s heart, he was sure of that. Still, his love was stronger than his judgement, so he faced his father to tell him the truth.
Needless to say, his father was outraged by his stupidity and naiveté. Not only was he making a fool of himself, he was way beyond breaking just a few rules and on top of that he had told an outsider, even worse a human being, all of their secrets. It was simply too much, even for a prince. So the king did what he had to do and sealed most of Hideyukis powers. Before banishing him from the ocean realm, the king told him that until he understood what it meant to be a mature, wise and considerate creature, he was not to come back to the kingdom he was so clearly not worthy of ever again.

Hideyuki was devastated and returned to his human in shambles. But when he told them how deeply wrong everything went, he had to face the hard truth that his father was right; he had been betrayed all along. His human, the love of his life, was already married, even worse had children. They never loved him at all and only used him for his wisdom and the treasures of the ocean. Since Hideyuki was now banished and not allowed to return, he was of no value for them anymore.


• 1615 – 1707

After he lost everything, Hideyuki fell into deep rage. With the last bit of power left in him, he accidentally killed the human he had loved and cared so deeply for. His heart, which was once so full of joy and curiosity, was now filled with anger, hate and despair. Without a goal or anywhere to turn to, after wandering for days without rest, Hideyuki sunk himself to the bottom of a deep lake, planning to sleep until his powers where to come back to him eventually.
His plan however failed, as the big earthquake of Hoei woke him from his slumbers only 92 years later. Realizing upon awakening that not even a hint of his powers had returned to him, Hideyuki was desolate. While reflecting about what his father had said to him he realized his powers would not come back to him if he just waited. There was a condition linked to regaining them, but which one was beyond him still. To find answers he left the lake in his human form and started traveling the country for answers.


• 1708 – 1912

While traveling, Hideyuki made sure to never stay at any place for too long, since the one thing that could and eventually would give him away was the fact that he did not age like humans did. So he traveled all around the country for ages and met a lot of different people, learned about life and humans in all their facets, albeit never getting too close. The memories of the past as well as the wound in his heart were still deep and hurting.
But then there came a cold winter-day in 1849 where all his carefulness and judgement came to an end. Another fateful encounter, which stuck with him greatly and paved the way to who he came to be.
On a mountain slope, far away from population, where Hideyuki was sure to be alone, he used his sparse magic to light a campfire. A young monk, who had wandered the mountains for self-discovery and passed by in the absolute worst moment saw this and discerned him as a Yōkai. Hideyuki was sure this would be the end of him; he had heard and learned enough about the monks being able to exorcise spirits and demons. But he was ready to fight with the little power he had left, there was no way he would go down easy.
The two of them battled fiercely for hours, but in the end Hideyuki was too weak. He got critically wounded while failing to dodge an attack and everything turned black.
When he opened his eyes, he was fairly surprised to find himself still residing the face of earth instead of being reunited with his ancestors in the otherworld. His wounds had been treated with great skill and medicine that smelled like wild flowers. When the monk realized he had woken up, he bowed before him to apologize. Hideyuki was startled, until the monk told him that he had turned into his dragon-form after losing consciousness. Wani were not the kind of Yōkai the monks considered to be evil or bad omen. Whereas he had sparse power anyway, there was no reason to kill or exorcise him, since every life is precious, if not driven by vile intentions.
Hideyuki was quite warry of the monk, having his trust betrayed so greatly before, so he simply never talked to him and refused all attempts of closeness. Patiently and without forcing him to anything, the monk nursed him back to perfect health with his own medication he made from herbs that grew in the temples garden. After quite some time had passed and he had gradually accepted being tended to with tremendous attention and care, Hideyuki started to open up slowly. He was curious about the practice of mixing medicine so one day he finally answered to the monks sheer endless soliloquies. From this moment on out, the two of them grew closer by day. The monk taught him everything he knew about medical mixtures and alike and Hideyuki seemed to have a congenital talent for it.
During the following years the two of them figured that the return of Hideyukis powers was bound to a lot of requirements. If he did something that was deemed good, selfless and pure his powers would grow. If he did something bad or selfish they would subside again, so Hideyuki began to understand what kind of person exactly his father wanted him to be. But he also knew that he had a very long way to go…

Being sheltered by the protection of the monk, who later became the shrines main warden, Hideyuki remained by his side until he died peacefully of old age in 1912.


• 1913 – Today

Through rumors going around the temple Hideyuki had heard of the Watari Inn before and after the monk had passed and got incinerated, there was no reason left for him to stay. So he took the moderate heritage the monk had bequeathed him and set out to find the Inn for himself, as it seemed to be the perfect place to carry on the life his father had intended him to live. But since he was well aware of the fact that his heritage would run out quickly if he did not have stable income, the first thing he did after finding the Inn and paying for the room in advance, was taking all of his remaining money to buy a moderate shop in the city district. He did this while maintaining his human form, since it was not yet revealed to humanity that Yōkai were wandering amid them.

He transformed the shop into a quaint and old-fashioned pharmacy, selling natural potions and self-made medicine like he was taught to make by the monk. Over the years he developed his own recipes as well and his medicines grew quite famous in town for being hugely effective as well as healthy and a hundred percent natural, so he was and still is able to earn proper and constant revenue.
When the existence of Yōkai was revealed to the public, Hideyuki chose to keep his descent a secret. He feared it could damage his business greatly, as especially old people – his main circle of customers – where still quite refusing and hostile towards this new development.

A lot of rumors about him are circulating in town; some say he may be a sorcerer, a warlock, a demon or even death himself for not aging as fast as everyone else. Others say he’s simply a very quirky but amazing pharmacist that found the source of youth in one of his own mixtures. And albeit people are causing themselves a headache over him, they are still mesmerized by his medicines and come for his unique medical skills, which helps him greatly along the rocky road to regaining his powers by opening up to people.