The Beast Spear

The Beast Spear is a supernatural weapon crafted and forged for the purpose of slaying yokai.

It was created over 2000 years before the start of the story, by Giryou, the son of a master blade-maker, after his sister, Jie Mei, sacrificed herself to make the spear's blade. Driven mad by his sister's sacrifice, Giryou crafted the Beast Spear, pouring all of his hatred and desuire for revenge against the Yokai responsible for the death of his parents, and by indirect extent, his sister, Hakumen no mono, and his very body became the spear's shaft.

with the completion of the weapon, the Beast Spear searched the world for Hakumen no Mono, slaying thousands of yokai in its relentless search to satsify Giryou's ruthless desire for revenge. Finally, hundreds upon hundreds of yokai banded together, transforming into a single long red sash that bound the Beast Spear to a valley. It is unknown how long it remained there but at some point it was released by a man named Shagaksha who became its first wielder and eventually it transformed him into the first Azafuse who came to be known as Nagatobimaru. The Beast Spear was wielded by many over the centuries, by a farmer to protect his family, by a woman to avenge her lover, by a mercenary who killed for money, until finally it came into the possession of the samurai warrior who fought against Tora, then called Nagatobimaru, and impaled him to a stone with the Beast Spear. There it remained keeping Tora imprisoned as the samurai's family, the Aotsuki clan, built a shrine and temple around Tora to insure his imprisonment until 500 years later, a boy named Ushio Aotsuki, who was a descendant of the warrior, found the cellar where Tora and the Beast Spear were, and was finally forced to release him to save his friends, therefore coming into possession of the Beast Spear himself.

It is later revealed that there have been many wielders of the Beast Spear before Ushio and his ancestor who sealed Tora. All these warriors across the centuries wielded the Beast Spear, but after wielding the weapon for so long they each in turn transformed into Yokai very similar to Tora, with the same powers and appearance albeit having distintive characteristics (different faces, claws or feet, different markings, different kinds of hair, etc.), and they were all called the AzaFuse. These Yokai all turned to stone to await the final battle with Hakumen no Mono as the Beast Spear continued to change hands over the centuries.

Known wielders of the Beast Spear include but are not limited to:

-Tora when he was a human named Shagaksha, the first to ever wield the Beast Spear

-A farmer to protect his family

-A woman to avenge her lover

-A Mercenary who killed form oney

-Guren

-Ushio's ancestor who sealed Tora with the Beast Spear (but did not become an Azafuse)

-Ushio Aotsuki