Demons / Yôkai

""Why were monsters 'monsters' and not human beings? It was because they had focused on one attribute of their being, to a degree so extreme that it grew out of balance with other attributes and they had become ugly, deformed, non-human. [...] They were obsessed with the absoluteness of their worldview and had no interest in the thoughts of others.""

- ??? Demons also referred to as Yôkai (妖怪, Yōkai​), are a species of monsters deriving from human beings. They exist on every universe composing the Sunflower-verse, save for the original one and Vilous, and are not to be confused with proper Yôkai as this is cultural folklore adapted for a work of fiction.

Yôkai are thought to originate from Japan, but can be sparsely found in rare numbers all around the planet, as of year 2000. While they may have existed since much longer, they publicly appeared around year 1300 on Japanese islands, disrupting the local human society and drawing strength from the people's fears. They are born from humans who experience unusually strong negative emotions over long periods of time, most often evil ones. Past a certain threshold, their body will physically change to reflect the weight of their feelings, eventually making them into full-fledged demons. Basically, the monster inside becomes the monster outside, so to say.

The affected individuals usually never notice the change until it's entirely done, much too absorbed by whatever caused them to become this way. This situation, however, remains an extremely rare occurrence: Having negative feelings will absolutely not make anyone into a demon. It is to be noted that not all demons look the same, at all, and that their final appearance has a tendency to reflect something they were linked to during their human lives, or something related to the nature of the feelings they carry. As a result, not all of them are humanoid-looking. Some may end up as beasts, insects, or even liquids. They will nonetheless retain their biological birth gender and their memories, with both having a tendency to become irrelevant as demon life takes over. In regards to gender, demons are able to have sex, but cannot normally reproduce. Demons also have a significantly longer lifespan than humans, but can die of boredom and isolation.

Compared to humans, demons have much greater physical capabilities. Shedding their humanity usually gifts them with a stronger physique, a much taller build and even sometimes with the use of magic. While there is a lot of case to case, the average strength of a demon can usually be measured by the amount of negative feelings and/or sins they did accumulate while originally human, and even the weakest demon would still be able to overpower up to three normal people at the same time. However, this only partly true. All negative emotions do not equal each other, and some humans were born into the most terrifying demons with merely a single one of those. The strongest of them, monsters among monsters, have the rare ability to fragment their power and create something similar to offspring through the use of magic, sharing with them their essence as well as the most defining traits of their physical appearance.

While they do not actually need to feed, thriving on the power generated by their own negative emotions, demons have a sense of hunger much stronger than that of any human, and consumed by it, will often seek a way to ease themselves as frequently as possible. This is especially terrible for humans, as demons prey on them to feed, making them, somewhat, cannibals. They will eat any part of their body save for the brain, rejected by all demons for supposedly having a terribly foul taste. If given the opportunity, they will not turn the nose to animal meat like venison, but may also end up eating each other. Interestingly enough, most demon races seem to have an abnormal attraction for strong liquors and spirits, that frequently manifests when they are bored and seeking entertainment. Having a much stronger build to withstand the effects brought up by drinking, some of them will not hesitate to drink day and night for weeks if allowed to.

As creatures generally ruled by their own emotions, demons, unlike humans, do not always think rationally. It could be said that they are 'instinct' and that humans are 'mind.' As such, they obey no rules whatsoever save for the law of the strongest, and have no trouble killing each other, if the need to prove their superiority to one another arises. They have a strong tendency to cause havoc everywhere they go, mostly if humans are involved. Then again, both are similar in nature and origin, so this is not a rule to be applied to all of them. Just like some humans can be excessively emotional, some demons can display a similar level of collectedness and remain cool-headed at almost all times.

While this may seem strange upon looking at the way they become what they are, demons do not possess a physical 'heart.' It is instead replaced by something called a Seed, host of their soul and everything that they are and ever were. Their very identity is imprinted inside it, and shall it ever shatter or become damaged (through the use of magic, as an example) that the demon is most guaranteed to either die or have their sense of self taken away. Demons may just die from important physical harm as well, but due to their superior consistency, high regeneration speed and even lack of vitals in some cases, conventional weapons work very poorly against them, and killing them this way is likely to prove very hard for the average human. Moreover, demons may be able to survive physical death, if their Seed happens to be salvaged and stored away safely, awaiting the day where they would be transferred into the body of a human about to become a demon, in an attempt to take them over and be reborn. Because this option has tremendously hard requirements needed to function, and because demons generally do not care about each other at all, it is rarely, if ever, considered. In the unlikely event that it would come to work, the demon is to steal the new body it got linked to to make it its own, at the cost of sharing the memories of their new host, likely causing duality until the original demon has truly set itself inside.

Lastly, demons and humans normally cannot communicate with each other. Humans are deaf to the language of demons, but the latter are sometimes able to speak human language, a visible proof of their past lived as humans. This happens because the vocal chords demons possess let them speak to each other using particular frequencies, sounds that they are the only ones to perceive thanks to their unique eardrums. Demon speech has a tendency to give headaches to humans listening to it, and rumors say that "You may be on your way to become a demon if you are ever able to understand them." Additionally, strong demon species come with a corruptive aura that will have a tendency to stimulate and speed up the transformation of nearby humans already on the verge of becoming yôkai.

It is to be noted, too, that animals are sometimes able to become demons, although the reasoning behind that is unclear.

''This article has a complementary page. See: Onigami.''

(Fascinating creatures, aren't they? Take a look at another species from the Sunflower Fields?)