Llaru

Llaru was the daughter of a local underground human kingpin that was notorious for feeding those that disobeyed him to his pet lamprey eels. He was a greedy man, and often didn’t give Llaru money so she could eat. Instead, she was neglected for the most part, with the bare minimum being done to take care of her. One day, she struck up a friendship with a strange man named Rikou, who bought her lunch. As the two ate together, they ended up talking about his missing son, Ryu. She told him she hadn’t seen Ryu, but she had seen some witches hanging out with her father at his local hideout. Asking where the location of the hideout was, she quickly shook her head and said that Rikou would get killed if he went there. After some convincing, she relented, and told him where the hideout was. Once she had told him, he thanked her and disappeared within seconds, leaving only a tip for the waitress behind.

Llaru walked the long way home, sighing sadly as she assumed that the stranger would also be fed to her dad’s pet lampreys. She was in for quite the surprise once she got to the abandoned warehouse. All of her old man’s cronies had been knocked out, leaving a trail of bodies behind. She quickly ran in, following the trail that was leftover. It led right up to her father’s main room where he would hold meetings with other terrible people. The sight she was beholden to shocked her. Rikou had him cornered, demanding to know where the witches were. Llaru’s dad laughed in response and dove underneath the sword that was nearing his throat. She cried for him to stop and leave her friend alone, and her father’s focus went onto her. He snatched her by the throat and screamed obscenities into her face. The man called her a traitor and that she was a waste of space after all. That even a pretty face like her was worthless in the end. Her heart broke into a million pieces from hearing his cruel words. And in the blink of an eye, she was thrown into the tank of lampreys.

Disgusted with how he treated his daughter, Rikou told Llaru’s father to turn around. Once he did, he chopped his head off. His severed head hit the ground with a wet splat. He quickly rushed over to the tank of lamprey eels and searched for Llaru amongst the cloud of blood. Going against his better judgment, he stuck his hand into the tank and called out for Llaru to grab his hand if she was still alive. A moment passed, and Rikou grimaced as he assumed the worst. But then, a hand snatched his. His eyes widened in shock, and he pulled Llaru out. Llaru shivered, confused as to how she survived the man eating lampreys. Taking a deep breath, Rikou could only sigh and point to a shard of glass that mirrored her reflection on it. Upon seeing it, she screamed and stumbled back. She cried, horrified that she had transformed into whatever the hell she was! Rikou offered her a hand and as he helped her off the floor, told her that she had been turned into a Kejoro, a type of yokai.

Llaru didn’t know how to take this information. One moment, her stupid old man threw her into the tank to die after calling her horrible names and in the next, she was transformed into a woman with lampreys for tails and hair that could speak and stretch as it pleased. She looked to the body of her deceased father, and realized that she had nowhere else to go. As the morning sun came up through the warehouse window, she started to cry again but quickly stopped. In front of her, the man with oddly shaped hair had transformed back into…a human?! It hit her as she realized that she was talking to someone who was part yokai the entire time. Rikou sighed. Knowing that she had nowhere else to go, he knew that she’d suffer if she was left alone. And part of this was his fault, so he had to take up responsibility. So, he offered her the opportunity to come back to his log cabin mansion and be part of his night parade. She agreed, and became part of it. Eventually, when the parade moved from the United States to Japan, Llaru followed, and now she resides at the Nura mansion with the rest of the night parade.