Kamigami no Sukin — Skin of the Gods

The Story

Skin of the Gods

Jurojin grew up in Asahimura the way most kids do — school, training, and Zander, his best friend, beside him for all of it. He was seven years old when his parents disappeared and the two men who took him in, Yeyido and Uviano, became the only family he had left. By fourteen, training every day was no longer enough.

Asahimura sits in Kasumi, where the government works quietly to keep its people healthy, content, and carefully screened. Across the ocean, another world runs itself ragged producing everything Kasumi needs, the unease between the two has been building long enough and people on both sides are starting to feel the tension.

Yokai, intertwined through the world, hunt humans. Demons of unknown origin that have become commonplace like a bad storm or aggressive wild animals that humans have adapted to and fight to survive.

Jurojin doesn't know any of this yet. He just knows what he's after and where to start looking. What he finds along the way will reach further back than his parents, further than Yeyido and Uviano, further back than anything Asahimura ever prepared him to understand.

The World

The Four Realms

Takamagahara, the sacred heavenly dwelling of the Kami — a divine realm intertwined with Reikai, Earth, and Yomi where no other being enters or exists.

Reikai, a vast, twilight-lit landscape choked with thick, heavy fog and eternal mist turned paradise by the Kami. A spherical world made of condensed clouds in which massive islands float like ships at sea, overtaken by cedar forests, the sun always shining and the wind always warm, where mythical creatures enjoy a new life in a reformed realm.

Earth, a world of sea where two large landmasses envelop each side of the planet, connected by only a chain of islands. Humans evolved on Hajimari, greed polluting their environment into a toxic hotspot, while the aristocracy moved away to Kasumi to escape the repercussions of their actions — a land untouched by man and virtually void of yokai and pollution.

Yomi, the realm of a gloomy and desolate underworld — a murky, shadowy realm of death and spiritual pollution, a place no living being would want nor hope to go.

The Author

Chad Finch II

著者

Chad is the author of Kamigami no Sukin, a high fantasy passion project built on Edo-period aesthetics with a modern-world interpretation and consequence. Development began in 2023, making 2026 the third year the project has been in progress. The novel was born from a deep appreciation for Japanese mythology and anime.

Author's Note

"It's funny actually because a dream I had is what sparked the idea, and from there I began writing for myself and the story evolved month after month. Once the story and lore began to take shape, I named it, which took months of decision making, until finally I wrote out Kamigami no Sukin, and while 'Sukin' doesn't translate exactly to 'skin,' I felt the name just clicked with me. From there the development simply started coming easy and the story began to write itself. I've stayed up for days at a time before, designing the world, the story, the mechanics, deliberating names and locations, and the build. There are times I've wanted to quit, while there are also times I couldn't force myself to put the pen down, even as the clock rolled from 12 A.M. to 5 A.M., and now what I am left with is a world alive with possibility, passion, and emotion."