Okay so I have a side character named Balthazaar. He is a kamaitachi, a small weasel like creature in Japanese lore that has two sickle like blades on its forepaws. Now I have changed this up a little bit for his character and added more spikes and stuff to him, but he still remains the same for the most part.

There are several myths and facts about these creatures, and I figured why not make a chapter about them.

Origins:

Basically they were created from the corruption of the Japanese words for "Stance Sword" and made into a weasel like yo-kai. In a story that basically solidified them, several kids were enveloped in a whirlwind and when it stopped, they had beast like footprints on their back. Kamaitachis are said to have fur like that of a hedgehog and the cry of a dog. They are known to attack people with their sickle like blades or "razors" as they fly through the air.

Lore:
-Common Myth: the whirlwinds themselves are called the "kamaitachi", though in strange conditions in the cold and wind people would fall and get strange leg injuries that they couldn't describe or explain.
-Shin'etsu Myth: the Kamaitachi is the work of an evil god, and by stepping on a calendar would calamity arise.
-Tōhoku Myth: if one receives an injury from a Kamaitachi, they would have to burn an old calendar black and put it on the wound to heal it.
-Hida Myth: the Kamaitachi is the combination of three evil gods, in which one would push you down, one would cut with a blade, and the last would put medicine on it which would stop it from bleeding.
-Yoshio Myth: the Kamaitachi is invisible to the human eye. But when hit with one there would be a huge gash in the flesh, but no blood or pain.
-Aichi Myth: Kamaitachi are also called Idzuna. Someone who used to use idzuna forgot to tell his pupil how to seal his idzuna away. And now that idzuna rides on whirlwinds around and cuts people and sucks their living blood to stay alive, hence why there is no bleeding.
     -West Japanese Myth: Kamaitachi are the souls of forgotten grass cutting sickles that turn into living beings. They are also souls and spirits of sickles and other tools that have been used for digging graves, then left forgotten for seven days out in the fields. So basically really angry tool spirits.
     -East Japanese Myth: Kamaitachi can also be the souls of dead praying mantids and longhorn beetles. The lore goes that a large praying mantis was once crushed to death by falling snow and that, when one falls, that person would bleed black blood because of the mantis's curse.
     -Other: Kamaitachi are known to slice off people's skin. At first there is no pain, but then it becomes excruciating. The only way to lessen the pain is to hold an old calendar. They can also be the hair that was cut off by an angered woman. If a woman has her lover stolen from her by another and she cuts her hair, that too can be the birth of a kamaitachi.

And that is where my Balthazaar is from.