“Gilbert. What a silly name, for a silly man…
I wasn’t always this way. A long time ago, I had a family, just like you do. We weren’t wealthy, but we were quite well off. My sister and I had a happy life, at least, until they started to speak to me. I saw things my family didn’t. Couldn’t. I lived in fear of monsters, monsters my parents insisted weren’t real, that was, until one had bonded to me. Then they saw how true my fears were. A nightmare of mine came true, as the monster took over me. It spoke to them, it spoke to my sister. She wasn’t afraid. My parents were.
But they didn’t act like I had hoped. They cast me out. DIsowned me. So I had to survive, on the streets, alone, hungry. I did anything to survive.
I can’t tell you how many years it was before someone reached out to help me. To take me to a real place to call home. I won’t forget him, or his name. No one should forget people like that in their life.
He showed me the village. Or at least, told me where it was. Majinoki. It was up in the mountains, a myth from a fairytale I thought, but it was real.
They took me in. They showed me more love than I could have dreamed of. They gave me my new name. I no longer wished to be called by the name given by parents who abandoned me. And they accepted me.
But it wasn’t any ordinary place. There was half gods, dying gods. People from different worlds and times. It was a weird place, and even if an evil spirit lived within me, they accepted and loved me for who I was.
So, the day when a goddess asked me for help, I helped her. Though, I did not expect her to want to help me instead. She offered her soul, to help me offset the evil within me. She wouldn’t take no for an answer, so I eventually gave in.
Since then, I haven’t heard the voices. I was happy. My new family was happy for me. We had a celebration. And as customs, with it, I was given a new name, as well as the markings of the clan.
Rena.
That was the name I chose.”
"I am a god. I continue to watch over those who need guidance. I am here to offer a second chance at life.
My life before all of this, was no different than others. I may have had a large home. I may have had my parents and my sister, but none would stand at my side. For as long as I could remember, the voices have always called out to me. The Darkness, is what my sister called them. She saw them too, but only I could hear them.
They were possessive creatures, two of them, had laid their claim to us. While hers protected her from the others, mine fed on me, and lashed out when I disobeyed. My parents, they feared who I was, what I had became. A was a monster to them. They cast me out, a child. They didn't even try to help.
I wandered, I aimlessly walked until the Manji found me. A village on the edge of nothing. A place between what could be, and wasn't. A place of incomplete dreams and half desired gods. They became my family. And most importantly, they accepted me.
I learned the history of their people. They made me into something more. I learned to accept the dark within me, I learned to control it. It made me into who I am. I had been marked by my people, a symbol of honor. I was their champion.
I am Rena, protector of Majinoki. "