This is my first commission from Holydrake in response to his latest journals. Paid $10 because it is in fact one of two characters.

Don't really mind the lack of background here; in fact, this is what it would probably look like if his projection first appears in dreamspace without any specific landscape (as in Inception's dreamsharing)

Anyway, info!!

Name: Kurotatsu Kemurikage Nisshoku (Japanese for Black Dragon Smoke Shadow Solar Eclipse)
Age: N/A
Species Form: Night Fury Dracon
Type: Familiar spirit
Specific Familiar Class: Shadow/Poison Elemental
Reaper Partner: Sean Skyhawk

Height: Variable (preferred form shown here is approx. 5'7")
Weight: Variable
Gender: Male

Description

It is not entirely known when the spirit in its true form began to manifest as a separate entity altogether from its progenitor soul. It is known, however, that by the time Sean's reaper abilities manifested, the familiar had already developed its own consciousness throughout its latent incubation. Before Sean's abilities manifested at last, he would hear a voice in his head and have vivid dreams about this character (although he could not remember the form upon awakening).

In fact, its desire to make itself known and useful to its master was probably the catalyst to Sean's reaperhood. In the weeks preceding Sean's transformation, he would often collapse due to intense heartburn that did not seem to have any physical cause; meanwhile, Kuro (as we will call him at this point) was forging the sword form in preparation for the fateful moment.

The symptoms only got worse as Sean's soul instinctively fought against the change to the status quo; he started hallucinating shadow people and would often black out for hours on end only to wake up having written his familiar's true name over and over (similar to the "All work and no play" scene from "The Shining"). His parents even hired an exorcist to cure what was believed to be demonic possession, without any meaningful results (Kuro was VERY good at hiding).

At the age of 15, Sean finally completed his painful transformation to a reaper; as he described it later on, he slept to a hyperrealistic dream in which his clothes, skin, and eventually flesh and bone were all burned away by black flames, as he struggled against hurricane-force winds to get a chance to grasp the sword that was rightfully his. Upon waking up from the dream, the sword was there right beside him.

This caught the attention of two would-be mentors; famed illusionist Danny Blair, an emperor penguin avian who was a friend and one-time tutor of Sean in the art of magic, and his own friend, a silver kitsune by the name of Jacob Monroe. Though Danny was a regular being, Jacob had gone through a similar spontaneous transformation to a reaper, one that has happened only 12 times (before Sean) throughout recorded Lemurian history. They trained him (well mostly Jacob did anyway) and taught him the ways of the reapers, as High Captain William (another penguin) had taught Jacob.

In time, Sean was able to reach inward through intense meditation (I believe the term for this is Jinzen) and talked with Kuro in their inner world (which they later reshaped into the likeness of an endless 20th century American city). These visits no doubt piqued the curiosity of the spirit, and revealed one of Kuro's innermost desires: to see and feel the world as only Sean could do (then).

So it was decided a secret ritual be performed, one that would give Kuro a body shaped by its own hands. Together, Kuro and Sean (with Jacob as their witness) created the final shadow form that defines Kuro today, and so far, they have never looked back.

Kuro's body nature is unique to him. Although Jacob's familiar (whose true name translates to "Dream Thief") is also in a permanent physical form, that familiar's body is a real flesh-and-bones organism (a crow avian, to be exact). This is not the case for Kuro. His body is infact composed of trillions of nanobacteria-like organisms, differentiating like stem cells to form the various organs, bones and skin. Though Kuro can reshape his form to anything he should wish, this is not performed often because to digest his own bones for this purpose would take time, time that cannot be wasted for such acts in real-world battle. He, however, is able to quickly regenerate from injury to a capacity that far exceeds those of mortal organisms. You can completely destroy the upper part of the body and it would still regrow back (the more is destroyed, the longer that takes, except for, strangely enough, wings).

In the physical plane, his preferred clothing style hearkens back to antiquity, though if executed properly they could pass off as modern (an effort that clearly seems to be lacking in this image). In this picture he is wearing a simple black T-shirt, black seamless trousers, leather soles, a tunic similar to a cross between a hakama and a tabard and over these, a navy blue cloak that goes over the wing joints. He also wears black bracelets used to focus his magickal energy when casting offensive attacks and a simple brown suede satchel. Of course, he possesses a more diverse wardrobe than his partner Sean; he has been seen with outfits as casual as a tank top and shorts and as formal as a full-suited reaper's shihakusho uniform (complete with woolen cloak over all that). The outfit shown here is more or less for social gatherings such as the opera; it is his idea of "business casual". This outfit is also flexible enough to be used in battle at a moment's notice, leading to it being one of the more common outfits Kuro uses.

His true form lies in the sword that Sean bears, though Kuro can instantaneously manifest a copy that replicates all the properties and composition of the original, even when the original is being used by Sean at the same time. Should Sean's sword be broken, Kuro will sustain equivalent injury, but it will not kill him. He can only be killed if Sean were to die altogether, which makes Kuro highly possessive and protective of his reaper master.

I hope you like!

original: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6394319

EDIT: I just wish to note that the form being made of nanites was pretty much a self-inspired idea (translation: I no longer remember what was the original inspiration), but I can see similarities between this form and the form of the protagonist in Prototype (i.e. the organism comprised of the Blacklight virus). Other parallels include Venom from Marvel Comics, the T-1000 from Terminator 2, and the Black Oil from X-files (of course, I only found these out AFTER the initial idea was made, but now that I think about it, Prototype may have been the initial inspiration). Also in hindsight, I found out that  emptyshadow had a similar concept as shown in this link:

http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/2257324/

I'd like to think that the body came out as a result of bioweapons experimentation, since most familiars would not do this if they seek a body. Typically an artificial body (such as a homunculus) is "bound" to the host, but that's sort of like tying a knot to bind two pieces of rope. Since Kuro's case is a hybrid of the original spirit material and the virus to create the body, the bond is much stronger (as if welded) to the familiar spirit.

It also led me to ponder about the nature of the sword substance itself since it can not possibly be pure steel. I'd like to imagine that the outside is black martensite whereas the interior is actually a composite of metal, virus particles, and a bone-like substance, giving a structure similar to compact bone.

MOAR INFO:


The sword resembles a Japanese katana with a black blade comprised of a graphene-coated organometallic alloy. The (full-tang) blade from kissaki to nakago jiri is 40 inches (101 cm.) long (nagasa of 30 inches/76.2 cm.) and possesses a black matte finish. The tsuka is made of red polished wood from sequoia trees and is bound in a leather-like samegawa wrapping derived from material closely resembling dragon wing skin. Underneath this wrapping is a set of two golden menuki, one of which is the shape of a dragon, the other the shape of an eagle. Also, the tsuka has an additional black metal component which appears to resemble a dragon's head with its mouth open, without a tongue. Appended to the tsuka where this tongue should be is what appears to be the tail-end of a rosary made of black and red nylon cord, six hematite beads, and an elaborately-engraved coin with a hole in its center.

Both its habaki (ferrule) and tsuba (handguard) are made of black metallic alloy which demonstrates ferromagnetic properties. The tsuba comprises five components; the main component is a complex shape comprised of two concentric rings intersecting an S-shape with four "rungs" connected to it at the ends projecting outside the circles (reminiscent of an RNA helix). The triangular hole through which the blade projects is located at the center, parallel to the helix shape. Four triangular pieces of metal of the same type are suspended around the main body without any apparent attachment method forming an equiangular hexagonal formation with the ends of the S-shape. They move along with the tsuba as if solidly attached to it and any attempt to separate the various components is met with significant resistance. Any such pieces separated from the weapon immediately fly back to their original positions as if exposed to a strong magnetic force.

The saya is comprised of an unknown wood painted glossy black with a nylon sageo and a black Nite-ize S-biner attached to the kurigata. Also, it has been seen mounted within a leather strap such that it can be worn on the back of its owner.

The blade possesses unnatural sharpness and durability, never losing its edge over time whether due to wear or significant damage. Should the blade be in any way damaged, the metal appears to "heal", resealing itself as if being welded over the course of 24-72 hours, depending on the level of damage sustained. Testing has proven it to be extremely effective in actual usage, severing flesh cleanly in one slice.

However, it possesses numerous spiritual anomalies that have only been demonstrated when directly used. These include the following:

Projection: When Sean holds onto and focuses intently on the blade outside of Kuro's presence, it emits a heavy cloud of smoke that reconstitutes into Kuro's form. This enables Sean to directly talk to Kuro even if Sean and Kuro's bodies are miles apart.

Flaming Sword: When sufficient psionic focus is exerted, the blade can burst into bright blue flames that appear to emanate from the sword itself. The sword appears to be exhibiting abnormal black body radiation, glowing blue due to temperatures of at least 10,000K. The resulting fire appears to have no source of fuel or ignition mechanism to it, and cannot be extinguished from the blade by any normal means, even total oxygen deprivation. The fire is under the control of the wielder and can be "shot" out from the tip, either as a beam of light or as an arc. Upon resealing of the sword, the fire immediately stops and the blade reverts to its original temperature.

Shadow Trap: If Sean or Kuro stabs the sword into the shadow of any object that is touching the ground the sword has impaled, it will "bind" the shadow and the object by extension. Any inanimate object whose shadow falls upon the blade will be limited to movements that will keep their shadow cast on the blade, and cannot be lifted off the surface affected by it. However, any living being affected in a similar manner will be instantly paralyzed, and cannot be moved by anyone else. The trap can even function by Sean stabbing into a SEPARATE shadow, paralyzing a target and its shadow as long as said target is within line of sight and is within a 100m radius.

This leads to an offensive use for this ability. By focusing psionic energy on the sword while it is used in this manner, Sean or Kuro can combine the flame effect with the Shadow Trap to induce a sudden explosion contained within the radius of the shadow, potentially incinerating any opponent caught within the blast.