The First Dragni

The woman in the story was born in 1443.

During that time, an ominous storm loomed over the villages at night and the people thought it was some type of curse at the same time; Western folks were taunting those poor villages that there was no such thing about curses. At the time, an unnamed woman(age 18 in 1461), who aided in defending her village, thanks to her archery skills, went out to scout the main roads and highways leading to and out of her village. She was confronted by an obstacle blocking her path, forcing her to cut through the woodland area. She attempted to jump to the next cliff over, only to fall into the pools of water below, allegedly drowning in the strange blue waters below.

3 days later, the woman woke up in an empty lake. She felt very sick and could not see very well. The woman started limping back to her village, who assumed she had died, since a few thieves had entered and ran away from the village. She showed up to her village only for them to be frightened of her. Her eyes were pure white as if she was a dead person walking, others thought that she had become evil, a monster, and threaten to kill her if she doesn’t leave, banishing this woman from the village. The woman became a dweller; she roamed the roadways alone, and lived off of nearby fruits and vegetation from the trees and bushes in the fields and hunted down wild animals.

She was often attacked by highwaymen and thugs, who either wanted to rob, kill, rape, nearly anything to her, the situations were different. Once instanced involved a group of western men, who were thugs, stalk her and 4 of them grabbed her and took her to a nearby wooded area. She struggled as they held her down. One of the men began choking her out. The woman started to feel as though she would die, but inside of her, she felt a burst of energy, and adrenaline, her senses went p and she felt as though the illness had gone away. The man who was choking her tried to undress her, saying that the witch must be purged. To this man’s surprised, the woman, out of fear, kicked the man in the groan.

The man jumped back in pain, and told the woman she shouldn't have done that, saying it is better to purge her when she is crippled, making it easier for him. The woman stood up, and was surrounded by 4 thugs. Each of them came to her one by one, and she was successfully able to counter and beat down the men easily. One of the men had a dagger on him and he hopped behind her and grabbed her, covering her mouth and stabbed her on her shoulder. The other men handled around her, as she fell to the ground, however, the woman literally took the dagger wound and quickly got back up. She proceeds to beat the 4 men to a pulp. She did not kill them, but she had them cornered after beating them. She discovered that the men were responsible for stealing from her village and selling the items off. To this she threaten all 4 of the men for what they attempted to do to her, and she threatened them again to never attack her village, with a final message to them to not doing something like this, or she will hunt and kill them as if they were wild animals.

The woman took the clothing, and weaponry the men had carried, she took the bow and arrow they had with them. The man ran off, calling the woman a road witch, and stopped their crimes in ear of her threatening message. Days later, in the year, the woman, who revealed her name through note/logs she writes to herself as Akaoka Saiyota of Japan and the banished archer from her village.

In 1465, she began doing solo archery work for herself. She covers her eyes in a light cloth and offers her services unknowingly to those who needed help. She was called the mysterious warrior, for no one was able to tell her sex, or where she came from, for she was dressed in a way a male archer would, and she had long black hair, with her eyes covered, so it was hard for anyone to tell whether her sex is male or female. Akaoka (at the time 24) eventually fought in a few civil wars, leading up to the 11 year war, the Ōnin War (1467–77) and fought in most parts of it. She was called the unknown archer, who aided in the war, despite not being summoned to do so.

In 1470 (age 27), Akaoka saved the life of a Samurai, who was about to be assassinated within his own camp. Even with her abilities, she had been overwhelmed by the assassins, and the Samurai, in turn, saved her life. The Samurai was named Dentako Takeru. Eventually Akaoka fell in love with Dentako after a few localized wars that had been won by their efforts. One day, Dentako asked Akaoka to why she covers her eyes in and out of combat, to which she tells him that people see her as a white, whom she did not ask for what she has become, but she considers it a blessing, for she would be dead by now.

She continued to tell her story about the lake f water that vanished days later, assuming it was created by the storm. After talking Dentako removed her eye covering and saw Akaoka eyes, pupils being pure white as snow, to which Dentako told her she is beautiful, that her eyes resemble that of a dragon, a true warrior. Years had passed and the two eventually got married during the times of war. Akaoka had become pregnant and retired from fighting, as her new husband continues to fight.

In the year 1477, the war had finally ended; however, a few civil wars are still common. During one of the civil wars in 1491, Dentako, who is 55 now, went off to fight as his wife and his mother remained at home to care for the babies, who were born that same day. He was eventually killed by assassins while fighting in the war; he was among the many targets slain by these assassins. A young soldier, who barely survived the fight, witnessed Dentako’s death and informed his now widowed wife.

Akaoka, who was caring for her new born twins (one having red eyes, the other blue, born in 1491), got word of her husband’s death and began mourning his death, wanting to seek revenge on the assassins, she left her children in the care of Dentako’s mother, who dubbed Akaoka and her children the family of Dentako, dragons of Japan, Dragnialos (Dragni).

She was absence for many, many, years and reprized her role as an archer and taken up Dentako’s mantle as a Samurai to fight against enemies of Japan. She eventually discovered who killed Dentako and but did not kill him. She dragged the killer to his enemies for them to deal with, knowing that killing him would not bring back her husband. She did not return to her kids, but her writings, her stories and drawings her the only thing the children have of their mother, for she was never seen again. She was 65 (1508) at the time. She knew that she could not go back, for the people needed her help, along with many others who fought alongside with her. She lived long enough to fight alongside Oda Nobunaga. Despite her absence to her children who are now around the ages 17-19, she wrote those letters, revealing to them that she is alive and well, however, she isn’t able to return at all. She manages to send a few letters time to time.

Around 1560, Imagawa Yoshimoto with his 25k men was celebrating their victory, only to be ambushed by Nobunaga, Akaoka and the others. She eventually died in combat after downing about 234 of Yoshimoto’s men in combat Her healing factor had slowed down for she had spears and arrows impaled on her body and a leg. She eventually fell in combat, knowing that she is now in peace and wishes for good to be upon her children and she collapse, she had died at the age of 117, but still looks as if she was in her mid-40s, revealing that Dragni’s age slowly, she could have lived longer than 117.

After Yoshimoto had been killed, Akaoka’s body had been recovered, and the arrows and spears had been removed from her, however, she had been dead for hours, rendering the healing factor obsolete. She gave Nobunaga’s men and their allies hope, even in death. Her body had been buried in Kyoto Japan.

Trivia

• Akaoka was a Half White Dragni. She gain her abilities by accidentally splitting off a cliff into a strange lake during a thunderstorm.
• Akaoka's character was an inspiration from Nakano Takeko and the Korean movie War of Arrows.
• Akaoka could have lived longer than 117. During the ambush on Yoshimoto. Her death was avid for she had piece of shrapnel, arrows and spears impaled on her. Her heart had pieces stuck inside of it and she was fighting, killing 234 men, however, her healing had slowed. Her heart had a piece of shrapnel stuck inside of it, for a bomb was able to hit her, jamming a piece of metal in her heart. It has been stuck for far too long and it had prevented her heart from healing fully, dying in the process.
• It is unknown the name of her children, also unknown if they found out about their mother’s death, but it would have been quite obvious when the letters stopped coming, they would have found out when they got older or visit Kyoto.
• She lived long enough to fight alongside Oda Nobunaga.
• She died during the defeat of Yoshimoto. She was critically injured to the point she could not heal, killing 234 of Yoshimoto's men in combat.