It has been said that 'monsters are not born; they are made'. This is mostly true. Other people and our environments have a heavy influence on whether we become saints or sinners; angels or demons; heroes or villains… People or monsters. However, sometimes THINGS are born which only LOOK human superficially. These things, in truth, are just waiting for their teeth to grow in so that they can take a bite out of someone. Shiho was 'born' from an attempt to recreate fictional beings from mythology as flesh and blood creatures. Originally human, she and a number of other civilians were taken prisoner during a raid on a small village during the years immediately following the death of the Sage of the Six Paths himself. There were rogues within the 'Shinobi Sect' who did not have any intention of following the rules or laws set down by the man who instructed them in 'Ninshuu' — what would eventually become called 'Ninjutsu'. These rogues were, at the time, unaware that the Ten-Tailed Beast had been split up into 'lesser Tailed Beasts'. Their plan, thus, was to 'create' their own 'monsters' who could be used as tools to control the populace through fear, just as they believed the Sage had done by containing the mightiest monster of all.
There was no clear successor to the Sage. His youngest son was engaged in a bloody rivalry with his older brother, and their conflict was not uniting the people — only generating chaos.
The rogues needed an obvious enemy that they could use to rally others behind them and thus assume control over the world as a whole. They did not have the Sage's ability to turn imagination into reality, or anything even close. Instead, they settled for 'modifying' those who already existed.
Human beings of both genders, and all ages and races, were used as test subjects for various surgical procedures and new Ninjutsu that were being devised by the Ninshuu Rogues. Many died, and all suffered immensely. Shiho was one of the hundred or so who survived the final tests and was altered from mere human to the real-world form of a mythological monster. She had been made a 'Yuki-Onna' or 'Snow Woman'. 6 months after the changes settled into place, it became evident that she no longer qualified as human. She had a supernatural influence on her environment in the form of gradually worsening weather, temperature drops, and the chilling — or even freezing — of people and things she touched. She began requiring the blood of others to maintain her existence. This thirst for the life of others was useful to the goals of the Ninshuu Rogues in that it meant Shiho would be easy to portray as a ravening monster. People would accept her as such without qualms.
However, the plan of the Ninshuu Rogues extended beyond merely the crafting of monsters to temporarily unite people under their banner. They needed a threat that would endure throughout the ages. That meant they needed monsters with the ability to reproduce — to continue their accursed family lines and so provide many enemies to be slain and used as distractions for any who would otherwise question the decisions and power of the Ninshuu Rogues.
Shiho was no longer capable of reproduction, as she was some sort of 'self-aware snow construct' (bodily-speaking). She was too dangerous to be allowed to live, thus, and was scheduled to be destroyed alongside dozens of others who were too powerful, too dangerous, or simply not useful to the Rogues.
However, the Ninshuu Rogues were NOT the only followers of the Sage's teachings nor were they free to act with impunity. The loyal members of the Shinobi Sect had caught wind of the mass disappearances and after investigating and discovering the horrific experiments going on, they chose to act. They attacked the facilities where the monsters were being made, intending to capture or kill the fiends responsible for these atrocities. However, in the ensuing battle, many of the victims of the Rogues were unintentionally freed from confinement. Shiho escaped alongside the others, and roamed the world for centuries, bringing fear, death, and suffering to the world that had made her into a monster. She discovered she did not age, and was thus more or less 'immortal', but she had to keep feeding to remain so.
Many times over her long, isolated existence, Shiho has had contact with humans who defied her expectations, made her hesitate to kill them, and who made her crave interactions free of hatred. She developed a means of living out this desire temporarily at times by inhabiting the body of a newly-dead human body. However, the corpses of women who were compatible with her modified Chakra were few and far between, so the most she could usually offer was to guide a lost traveller out of the same snow storms she generated with her presence, or to leave them with food, or to spend a short time experiencing the joys of physical love with her illusions to suppress their awareness of the fact that they were freezing to death in a blizzard.
She spent most days simply wandering the wilderness of the Land of Snow, singing a piercing, discordant song of icy hate and loneliness into the chill air, and killing those she came across with claws of ice, or simply wearing away at them with continuous snow storms.
Most recently, about thirty years before the present year (thus, -24 B.F.), after losing yet another human she loved, Shiho came across a man named Akeboshi Fumaru crying over the body of his wife, Akeboshi Oyuki. The woman had been in some sort of accident — crushed under a carriage. She had been dead for no more than a minute and her body was compatible with Shiho's energy. Desperate to escape her own despair and loneliness, she inhabited the body, reanimated it, and made it breathe again. She has been dwelling inside of Akeboshi Oyuki's corpse for more than three decades. She repaired it with her powers and the blood of the living, and spends most of her time playing the part of a house-wife. But seven years ago (-1 B.F.), the situation changed. Her husband had been involved in business in the Land of Grass's capital city for quite some time. An organization beholden to the Grass Daimyou, called the "Ninshuu And Chakra Appropriation Group", was working to undermine the power of ninja, to discover a way to monitor and control Chakra usage, and to eventually outlaw Ninjutsu and destroy these people who had brought so much misery to the world. But it was just a loose gathering of like-minded individuals before. After a trip to the Land of Earth, an observer from the court of the Grass Daimyou had information to share with his fellows… And a message to those who wished to make their dream of a world without ninja a reality.
An envoy from an individual with the power to make a future free of the terror of another period of Clan Wars breaking out met with these people, and privately met with "Oyuki" as well. This individual knew who and what she really was, and told her the REAL plan of his master… The dead goddess Izanami-no-Mikoto had been found in the Land of Earth, and she wanted to give humans the opportunity to stand on their own two feet, she said. In truth, her agent told Shiho — and other agents had been telling many other "monsters" (now calling themselves "youma") who had survived the experiments of the Ninshuu Rogues or were descendants from such — Izanami wanted to take away the power of human beings to resist. She wanted to make them humble again, and show them that is humans who should fear the youma, who should respect and revere the youma, and who should suffer punishment for their crimes. This sounded very appealing to the inhuman-looking or outright NON-HUMAN creatures who had suffered discrimination, abuse, beatings, torture, murders, and more, all at the hands of mobs, so-called 'demon hunters', and everyone else. They had been treated like scum, and had been FORCED to live on the outskirts of society, in the wilderness, in ruins, in the sewers… They wanted payback, and they wanted proper treatment.
"Vengeance" and "Justice" were just two words for the same thing, in their minds, as were "Fear" and "Respect" likewise synonymous. Shiho accepted the offer made by Izanami and has spent 7 years helping to organize the youma, both as Shiho and as Oyuki, and has been setting up the "Paranormal Studies Unit" that her husband is head of to be the tool of Izanami-no-Mikoto herself, with the "Ninshuu And Chakra Appropriation Group" a gathering of fools whose fear of the power wielded by their own kind has blinded them to what they are doing to others. However, Shiho had existed for over two-decades as simple Akeboshi Oyuki. She had acquired a taste once again for humanity and human existence. She is not entirely certain she agrees with what Izanami is after, but she is but one woman, and Izanami is a goddess. What she can do to stop her, if Izanami chose to push the issue? Nothing.
So, for now at least, she simply does as she is told… And waits.
