As a hex blood, his nana was a witch. She crossed the kraken because she stole its egg to perform a sea witch ritual - and was cursed to have water fill her lungs whenever she sleeps in retaliation.

Though nana was a crafty old lady - So that didn't bother her much and she could live a normal life. However her many kids were all cursed also. Most didnt have Nanas craftiness and succumbed to different variations, but dhe had many children.

Oji was an offshoot grandson to a distant land who tended a lakeside shrine that he had no knowledge of how his family inherited. Nonetheless, he tended to shrine. He kept the koi and sold koi in the shrine waters to fund the shrine itself and his other needs.

He fished in the waters around the temple for other kinds of fish and sold them in the market as well. As all he was orphaned from a small age, he had to lesrn to navigate the world himself- as his curse kept people away from him.

Oji is constantly drenched. He's always uncomfortably wet. He is always uncomfortably cold, regardless of whatever he is wearing, he is soaked to the skin. He can feel the warmth of fire, but never the dissipation of the cold around him.

While some took to pity on his situation, most did not want to contract the ire of whatever made Oji that way. They dealt with them fairly. But quickly. He spent his free time studying the martial treatises in the shrine, and those that did not respect him quickly learned to do so.

One day, an ancient spirit in the the shrine, a giant golden koi offered him a deal: one if his children wanted to go questing, and he wanted to grant her that gift. However, he did not trust the world to treat her kindly and asked Oji to go with her.

He told Oji that if he was to bring her questing and then back safely, he would have the curse lifted. With nothing truly holding him. He packed his things that day.