Author's Notes

For as long as she has lived with Father, Kaori has been taught to fear the Society for the Betterment of Humanity, the only group powerful enough, or arrogant enough, to challenge his power. But now Kaori finds herself in their clutches, her world falling to pieces around her.

In the midst of her worst enemies, Kaori is forced to confront the demons of her past to escape the demon she is being tortured by now. Will she manage to escape, or at least find a way to survive a new existence, or will her past and present rip her apart?

Heads up. There is swearing in this story. This story also contains illusions and later outright stated sexual assault (although there are minimal descriptions of the actual events), child abuse, and semi-graphic torture (nothing too gorry but the threat of mutilation). I will place disclaimers in front of each section when these things apply but you might not want to start the story if any of these things are triggering, as main aspects of the story will be missed when skipping these sections. Take care of yourself first, read a story later!

I would also like to add. Elements of this story draw from cultures all over the world, but mainly Japan. While I will be doing my best to remain faithful to the mythology/belief systems of Japan and its people, I will be taking some creative liberties. If something doesn't perfectly match up, please take into consideration that:

a) Creative liberties may have been taken
b) Stories vary slightly from location to location and time period to time period
c) while I am doing my best to research everything, I am not Japanese and there might be cultural nuances that I, as an American and a white person may not recognize.

Another heads up. I have written some really weird stuff in my life, and this is the weirdest thing I have ever written but I'm having fun doing it so I'm going to keep writing it.