Webcomic / A Story Of Fire

A Story Of Fire is a webcomic by Ardihel.

In a fantasy alternate Japan, the kingdom of Yue is being ravaged by inmortal man-eater monsters known as Oni. The story follows the adventures of two oni sisters, Azu and Rau as they travel towards the capital and try to evade a dangerous demon hunter giving them chase, which forces them to join a clan of oni led by the mysterious Shuten.

Read it here.

Or here.

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A Story Of Fire contains examples of:

• An Arm and a Leg: Bazak cuts off Ibara's arm on their encounter. That Ibara can still move his cut off arm ends up being a relevant plot point.
• Art Evolution: A lot, as the comic was a project made in order to learn drawing.
• The Atoner: Rau. Shuten too.
• Armor-Piercing Question: "Why didn't I become an oni?" from the Priest to Rau, making evident that there is some level of personal influence on whether the Curse affects you or not. Its after being forced to recognize this that her happy facade starts to break down.
• Bait-and-Switch: Sutak is a master of this. The first instance is when Rau meets him in dreams, and sees him crying after revisiting her memories. He is crying because they are still alive. Later when Azu faces the actual Sutak, he breaks down crying and proclaims regretting what he did: waiting before murdering them.
• Batman Gambit: Tamamo's and the Priest secret plan to kill Azu works as this, as it requires for her to attempt eating him and thus ingest the poison the witch spread over him.
• Big, Thin, Short Trio: Galog, Caera and Zain fit this mold.
• Cain and Abel: Azu and Rau, respectively. Despite this, however, they genuinely love each other.
• Catapult Nightmare: Both Rau and Azu experience one of those after their separation, the first about their last time as humans, the second about her guilt.
• Character Development: Rau goes from a murderous oni to a hardworking human girl.
• Chekhov's Gun: The oni poison bottle. Its thought to be what ended Shuten's life and then it's forgotten, instead it ends up being what kills Azu.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The human Sutak facing the super powered oni Azu goes as well as you would expect, at least until Sutak also transforms. Later Azu and the leaders can't harm Tengu Sutak in any way, but Tamamo and her Kitsune make quick work of it.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Pretty much all of the oni count, as the curse is triggered by suffering and traumatic events, but Shuten is of special note as he was raised with Douma under constant torture and it was a simple act of kindness what set him over the edge.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: Azu dies on Rau's arms.
• Disc-One Final Boss: Sutak is presented as the main antagonist, given that he was the one who caused the girls to become oni. By chapter 16 Azu kills him and takes over as the story antagonist.
• Distant Finale: The last part of the epilogue happens ten years after the events of the story.
• Divergent Character Evolution: After recovering their memories, Azu and Rau follow complete opposite paths: while the first doubles down on her evil and sees to follow her revenge on everyone who hurt her, the later tries to desperately make up for her crimes and achieve redemption. By the point they meet again, the sisters cannot see eye to eye at all anymore.
• Driven to Suicide: After realizing how much of an horrible life he had, Shuten decides to set fire to the cabin on which he and Douma live. He survives, thanks to the curse. It's also implied this was the Priest's fate had he actually returned home after releasing himself from captivity, as Rau's rather insensitively points out he has nothing waiting for him there.
• Drowning My Sorrows: The Priest is introduced drinking a whole bottle of wine by himself in a tavern, through the significance of it is only revealed later.
• Dying Clue: Upon being killed by Sutak, Ibara manages to make his cut off arm in the prison move to leave a message revealing Douma's identity.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Rau has to go through a LOT in order to earn hers, that's for sure. Including spending over ten years hunting the demons Douma absorbed and enduring the curse's hunger. Ultimately, she manages to recover her humanity.
• Eyepatch of Power: The Priest, who got his eye pulled out by a particularly strong demon. We get to see the nasty scar under it in the finale.
• Facial Markings: Particularly strong oni seem to sprout these: Shuten, Sutak, and even Azu after she eats Shuten and absorbs his curse.. Witches who absorb demons can also get markings on their face, as seem with Tamamo.
• God Save Us from the Queen!: Azu, who kills her father and takes over the Capital both as queen and as the leader of Shuten's clan. Her plan to deal with enemies? Burn down the entire capital so that she gets an army of oni at her service.
• Good All Along: Perhaps a stretch to call him good, since he still was leading an army of hungry oni towards the capital, but by the point we meet him Shuten had already repented and had taken good care of not killing anyone himself, purposefully leading every oni who followed him towards attacking forts and avoiding villages and places filled with innocents.
• Guardian Entity: Tamamo hosts a powerful Kitsune demon inside her body, zealous to protect her.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: How Azu kills Sutak, using his own demon-hunter sword.
• Happily Married: Bazak, much to Tamamo's surprise.
• He Knows Too Much: When Ibara starts talking about the oni sisters, Sutak quickly shuts him down by stabbing him on the head.
• Hidden Villain: Douma, the sorcerer who created the oni curse. The story initially implies he was executed a long time ago, but soon he shows up in Shuten's flashback and it becomes clear he is been setting many aspects of the plot in motion. It's ultimately revealed that he has been hiding all this time in front of our faces as one of the army soldiers, Nura.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Each of the elements that cause Sutak's end were brought by himself. His murder attempt turned his sisters into oni. His decision to send Tamamo to poison Shuten meant they recovered their memories. Even biting off his own fingers in pleasure weakens the hold of his sword, which Azu promptly uses to bisect him.
  • Azu also can count as an example herself. Had she not gone back on her word and attacked the Priest once he released himself, she would have avoided the death by poisoning that befell her.
• Horror Hunger: The Oni hunger on humans, to the point that any kind of desire they feel is translated into hunger for them.
• Interplay of Sex and Violence: The story presents the Oni's cannibalism as a metaphor for sexuality, with Azu's devouring of Shuten being shown with her on top of him and her later describing it as "becoming one".
• It's All About Me: Prince Sutak. Notably he interrupts Rau's tragic flashback about their murder attempt with his very own tragic flashback about how he failed to kill her.
• Ironic Echo: "Quite the conundrum, isn't it?", said by the Priest to Azu as he is hanging her to death. She repeats the words verbatim in the finale when she pulls a similar trick on him.
• I've Come Too Far: Strongly suggested with Azu, who is described as having been a frail and sweet child before the Curse. She is seen crying in pain during his dream and Shuten -or better, the Curse part of Shuten inside her- is the one who encourages her to not look back.
• Jerkass: Douma. It says a lot that resident nice girl Tamamo feels at ease calling him a "disgusting weasel". His short appearance during the epilogue shows in spades that he is a nasty piece of work, openly laughing at everyone's misfortunes and only accepting to stop the curse due to the prospect of seeing Rau strive in vain and die.
• Klingon Promotion: After Azu eats Shuten, Zain makes her their leader in order to keep the morale up. She ends up growing into the role quite quickly.
• Knight Templar: The Priest gives no quarters to any kind of evil. It's largely implied the entire Demon Hunter organization worked under the same mindset, though only limited to demons.
• The Lost Lenore: The Priest's wife is murdered by the oni girls on the first chapter, kickstarting the events of the story.
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: A few close-ups on the oni mouths show them to include several rows of razor sharp teeth, like a shark.
• My Master, Right or Wrong: This is the reason Tamamo doesn't just end the clan in half a minute with her Kitsune; she feels compelled to obey Azu and to not attack her because she failed at her promise of protecting the girls to the queen. She, however, is very willing the support someone else doing the dirty deed for her, as Azu soon discovers.
• Narcissist: Sutak, described as "only capable of loving himself.". Notable is the scene on which he calls Caera's eyes beautiful as he seems himself reflected on them.
• No-Dialogue Episode: The first part of chapter 18 is done entirely without dialogue. It also counts as a breather episode as it's the last moment for the characters to relax before the climax begins.
• Not Quite Flight: Oni can jump good. We are talking "cross a city in a jump" levels of good.
• One-Winged Angel: Upon having his city invaded by the Clan and facing his failure in murdering his sisters, Prince Sutak accumulates enough stress and suffering to turn himself into a rather hideous, mighty oni. He gets another transformation after Azu bisects him, as his soul is so corrupted that it comes back in the form of an Onryo/Tengu.
• Power Tattoo: When a witch absorbs a demon, they get a colorful marking in their bodies. Tamamo has her fox-whiskers and later eye markings after absorbing a Tengu, while Douma's entire skin is a greyish color due to how many demons he has absorbed.
• Prehensile Tail: Tamamo, though its actually the Kitsune's tail. She is seen using it to catch a falling pot at one point.
• Princesses Rule: Male version with Sutak, who is described as a Ruling Prince. We later learn that this is because King Abe is alive, just not in any condition to rule.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Bazak seems open to the idea of working with Tamamo if will help them solve the invasion, listens to her suspicions regarding Douma, and generally prioritizes saving lives above all.
• Red Baron: Zain The Beheader.
• Redemption Quest: For Rau. She succeeds.
• Red Herring Shirt: Nura initially seems like cannon fodder, but he keeps surviving the odds against him and reappearing. Turns out there is a reason for this.
• The Reveal: Plenty of them:
  • The oni are actually cursed amnesiac humans who experienced trauma.
  • Rau and Azu are the kingdom princesses and Sutak's sisters.
  • The Priest is the father of the baby the girls murder in the first chapter.
  • Shuten had taken a vow not to kill anyone and was using the clan to hunt down Douma.
  • Nura is Douma.
• Revenge: The Azu arc follows her quest to get revenge for her murder attempt on her brother, the prince.
• Secretly Dying: Shuten, who by this point in the story has already spent over five years without eating any human. Realizing he is not going to make it to the Capital, he ends up allowing Azu to eat him.
• Sins of Our Fathers: Ashiya Douma rejoices in sending the entire royal family to hell, despite King Abe being the only person responsible for his execution.
• Stepford Smiler: The Priest at first, but the facade easily starts to break down when the sisters evade him.
• Succession Crisis: A short, nasty one after King Abe was taken off the chessboard, in that the girls were his rightful successors but Sutak and parts of the army desperately needed a stronger figure taking the reigns, which concluded in their assassination attempt.
• Super Mode: Shuten can apparently increase his strength abnormally -even in oni terms-, as he appears as a dark creature. Later in the story Rau is able to pull the same trick which she assumes is the result of her body going into survival mode due to her not eating for so long.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: The Priest doesn't take well to Rau dragging him in chains to help her save her sister. Despite this, they make an effective battle couple.
• Tragic Keepsake: The Priest keeps a locker with a painting of his family, which conveniently reveals their relationship to Rau.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: After Azu takes over the capital, the people are forced to be locked inside their homes and any rebels are brought to her to be eaten.
• Variable-Length Chain: The Priest's weapon chain seems to be able to extend almost as far as he wants, to the point that he is able to make it chase Rau even from a town away.
• Your Days Are Numbered: What happens when an oni manages to stop devouring humans. However the amount of time required for the hunger to kill them varies: Shuten was already at death's door after five years, while Rau manages to overcome around ten years of hunger in the epilogue.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Discussed. The demon hunters apparently would decide against acting even if King Abe had not disbanded them, as the oni are cursed humans and thus they are unworthy of being slaughtered. The Priest being the only exception makes him the last of their kind and supplementary material shows it puts him an odds with the organization leader, his own father.