In another universe, there exists a world known as Terrasium. Within this world lies a country very similar to Japan called [Redacted]. In the year 1300, the land was ruled by a king and his wife. The royal family was seen by most people as ordinary rulers. They were neither particularly great nor especially terrible. To most of the kingdom, they were simply the current family sitting on the throne.
Within the palace lived the royal children, and among them were two twins. The older twin was named Tadayoshi, while the younger was named Tadamori, though their age difference was only a minute. Despite being born at nearly the same time, the two were treated very differently. Tadamori was liked by many within the palace and was often seen as the more proper son of the royal family.
Tadayoshi, however, was something different. He was a hybrid, something that made much of the royal family uncomfortable. Because of this, he was often ignored or kept at a distance by those around him. But his younger brother never treated him that way. To Tadamori, he was simply his brother, and for Tadayoshi, that was one of the few things in the palace that actually felt real and made him happy.
On a sunny day, Tadayoshi woke up in his small room in the outer bailey as usual. Nothing about the room was special. The walls were worn, and the mirror across from his bed was cracked. He grabbed his lowly clothes and put them on before walking over to the broken mirror to look at himself before going to work.
He looked at himself, looking at his pitch-black hair and his scaly tail first, then at his grey wolf-like ears that sat on top of his head. The fur on the ears almost looked silver, though it was usually dirty. His horns stuck out from his head and pointed forward. When he looked into his eyes, he felt like something about them was strange, like something might happen with them someday. For now, they were a calm hazel color, though he could not figure out why that feeling stayed with him. Lastly, he looked at his wings, which appeared black but sometimes sparkled faintly in the light.
Once he finished looking at himself, he glanced out the window and noticed decorations and people gathering in the courtyard. There seemed to be some sort of celebration happening. As he listened more closely, he realized it was a birthday celebration for his brother, Tadamori. Hearing that made him pause for a moment before remembering something important.
Today was not just Tadamori's birthday.
It was his birthday too.