Vivi's Back Story
Vivianne Miko Chirlia's parents are anything but normal. The bat cat was born to a Japanese priestess and a wealthy, Transylvanian count. A combination one would never expect.
Her mother was a black cat that guarded and kept up a large shrine on the outskirt of Tokyo. Chiya, as she was called, was the median between the deity of the shrine and the patrons who came asking for help. The feline did her job very well but there was another side to this priestess that not many came to know....unless you needed her services of course. Chiya, the shrine maiden, was also an exorcist trained in the art of capturing spirits that had inhabited homes or people and releasing them back into the spiritual world. Often she would find herself completing eradicating a demon spirit that had taken possession of someone's body. This black cat became very famous in the underground circle of the occult. So much so that a wealthy count, who believed his sister was possessed, had heard of her and sought Chiya's help.
Radu Chirlia made the long trek to Japan to find a cure for his ailing sister. For months now she had been witnessed to walk the hall in a coma like state, speaking in odd tongues. Not only that but she would not eat and her eyes never faltered from their center point. Radu was in a panic over his dear, little sister's condition. This caused the bat count to shell out hundreds of dollars to any doctor, witch, shaman, who claimed to be able to cure his sister but the results of the treatment never lasted for more than a few days. Finally, one of his advisers had told him of a shrine maiden in Japan who had a reputation of getting rid of any spirit, so, desperate, Radu made the flight to Japan to seek treatment for his sister.
Chiya had never seen a woman so far gone as the bat that wondered onto her door stop, late one rainy night, brother in tow. Her golden eyes watched carefully as the pair sat across from her. There was a blankness inside this lady bat, a very powerful one at that.
"When did this start to happen?" Chiya asked.
"A few months ago, after the lost of her husband...and then her child came into this world a stillborn"
The cat nodded before placing her paw onto the stomach of the muttering, deranged female. She could feel it squirming inside the woman's empty womb feeding off her sorrow, "She is very far gone, the demon spirit inside of her has nearly drained her dry. I don't think I can save her."
"Please, Priestess, you must do something!"
Chiya narrowed her gaze at the count, "You do not understand...the energy of this demon is the only thing keeping her alive. Should I pull it from her body she will die."
"We have to try!" Radu exclaimed, tears stinging his eyes.
The feline priestess felt touched at the brother's plight for his sister so she agreed to help. She had warned him of the consequences but the cat knew dieing would be easier without that tainted soul inside the woman's body. So she laid the woman back on a reed mate, covering her stomach with holy objects and talismans. Then she began to chant and soon her voice was like a song as it rose and fell with the words. She stood; raising her paws to the ceiling, and then faced the statue of the god that called the shrine home. The chant went high in the note before Chiya finally sent her fist rocketing down into the stomach of the woman.
Radu was amazed and horrified by all of this. This ritual was beautiful but it made his skin crawl. The feline's voice, though, was something he could feel touching his soul, almost like probing him for evil spirits. Then he saw the priestess land a blow into his sister's stomach but before he could protest a horrible feeling came over the room. Then the priestess lifted her paw from its impact point to allow Radu to see billowy smoke wrapping up the feline's arm. Like a snake it coiled around her neck, choking her. She yanked it off before plastering a talisman to her arm then attacked the demon with her claws, slashing the smokey snake to pieces that evaporated.
The black cat panted, she had done it and now her body was drained. As she pulled herself to a corner to recover the bat moved to his sister's side. The woman was talking softly, but normally, which brought tears to the count's face. Sadly, like Chiya thought, the woman did not survive and the cat watched as her soul slipped out of her body into the spirit world after giving a nod of thanks to the priestess that had saved her soul.
The bat brother fell into a deep depression, so much so that Chiya worried for the safety of his soul. She kept him at her shrine making sure no demon got a hold of his vulnerable soul. The feline did not know what it was but after time she began to feel drawn and she could feel his attraction for her rising aswell. Slowly as he began to come out of his sorrows she would find herself spending more and more time with him. The whirlwind romance lasted several months and boiled down to one passionate night of love making.
Radu felt so in love, even a month after the night he took his priestess he continued to court her in hopes of making this more than a vacation romance. Then his beloved Chiya delivered news that took the breath out of him, "I'm pregnant..."
The bat count, at first, didn't know what to do but the prospect of a family made him giddy. He asked his feline love to marry him but she denied to his dismay.
"Do you not understand? I've already tainted myself by having sexual pleasure...I'm not even allowed to have a child much less a husband! I'm sorry, but once this baby is born I cannot raise it."
Chiya gave birth to their child nine months later. She referred to the baby girl as Aiko(love child), but instructed him that it was not a proper name and he must give her one. As Radu held his daughter in his arms he knew she would take the name of his dearly departed sister. The count left the shrine that day promising to visit his love for the rest of his days.
As Vivianne grew Radu realized he was not cut out to be a father. When she reached schooling age she was sent off to a boarding school in the states and quickly found her way into a program for the musically gifted at the age of twelve. Also, the little bat cat was shifted back and forth between mother and father for all her life. She found life with her father to be luxury where she only had to ask and he would give, but with her mother it was a learning experience every time she was there.
Sadly, from the time she was no longer carried in the arms from her nurse maid, she was found to be very accident prone. Vivi often found herself in horrible situation by merely tripping. Also, she was plagued with horrible nightmares and narcolepsy where she would just randomly drop to the ground completely unconscious . This just became a fact of life to her, but to her mother it was something much different.
"Vivi, my daughter...Have I ever told you the story of my family?" Chiya asked her one day.
"No mother...."
"This legend goes far back to the first priestess of this shrine of whom we are directly descended from. It is said that the village this shrine once protected suffered horrible monsters that would attack in the night. Beasts that would slaughter whole families in a matter of minutes then possess those who remained alive to torment others. No matter what they did the beasts kept coming, finally the village priestess decided she would venture into the spirit world to ask the god of the shrine to for help. She fasted and mediated for a month before she was pure enough to past through the barrier that guards the spirit and physical world. There she found the dragon they all worshipped. She told him that his followers were being slaughtered by demons which angered him. The dragon then granted her the power to summon him when the next attack came then thrust her back into the physical world.
When the night came again only the priestess faced the beastly horde and as the demons began to attack she summoned the dragon into the physical world where he defeated the beasts. You see, child, he had morphed her body into an actual portal between the spirit world and the physical world. It is a power all her descendants have been blessed with...a power you must learn to control. Those sleeping spells you have if where you accidentally cross over, your dreams are spirits asking you to guide them over, and your horrible mishaps are demons trying to kill you....That is why your future lies here, at the shrine."
Vivi, being born into the modern age, didn't believe this of course and continued on with her life as she had before. At age 19 she was rewarded a scholarship to a private collage that specialized in the arts. She goes to school as a full time student and doesn't believe in such things as ghost and has not intentions of becoming a shrine maiden.