FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The year is 2130, the world has reached it's peak in science and technology after many trials and errors.

Faster forms of travel, new vehicular technology, and many many more. But the technology that took the world by storm was Cyber Transfer, a new form of transportation that turns the physical matter into data for brief moments and moves it through cyberspace into another location.

Cyber Transfer also works on humans, turning them into living data and transporting them to cyberspace, where special zones are created by shopping areas, like malls and supermarkets, these zones are called HUBs. This also works on games, be they special console or even mobile games, where the players are transported inside the games to experience it head-on, with no need for controllers or VR goggles.

In an airport in Japan, a Cyber Transfer chamber was just bringing in someone, a human male about 17 years of age, he was about 5' 7", toned in body, more like a swimmer's build, short hair and a pair of heterochromic eyes, one was olive green and the other was blue.

He had a small travel case, a backpack and a waist bag, preferring to travel light. He was coming back from a religious boarding school in America, where he was strangely sure he wouldn't stay long.

He went through security without problems and made his way to the gates, where a cab driver was holding a card with his name on it, Kagiyama John. The name came from him being half-american and half-japanese, his parents wanting to cement the fact using his name, and he couldn't be more proud of it.

Once all his luggage was fastened, he got into the cab and the driver, already given directions to his coming destination, instantly started driving away from the airport.

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John's home was located in the suburbs, but it was pretty wide, with a big yard around the house itself, and a koi pond and sakura tree in the backyard. The house itself was two floors, the ground floor was the kitchen, storage and living room, while the second floor had the rooms of the family which consisted of both parents, one girl and three boys, four if you count John as well.

Once he paid for the drive, the cab sped off and away to his next client while John went to the front door, ringing the bell and knocking a few times to an old tune, seconds later, he heard heavy footsteps stampeding down the stairs before the door flew open and a small figure tackled him to the floor. “BIG BRO JOHN!!"

John managed to steady himself before falling down, holding his youngest sibling close. “Hey there, Watari. Did you miss me?" he asked sarcastically, with the young boy's reaction being a clear enough answer.

The young 10 year old hugged his brother tight, even when he looked up at him. “Of course I did broe all did, especially mom and dad, but I missed you the most, promise!" John noted two things there, that a small tear was threatening to fall from his brother's eye and that how his mother missed him, since she's the one who sent him to that school in the first place, but she must have had her reasons, so he can't hold it against her, he wouldn't.

Just then a pair of older males emerged from the door and helped John up, the second middle brother of 18, was a few inches taller than John, with a heavier build than him and pale blond shaggy hair and with the elder brother of 22 had a similar build to John and a pair of glasses, but was considerably taller than all three and had smooth black hair that gave out blue hues when in contact with sunlight.

John brought the other two into a hug of his own. “Jeremy," he addressed the middle brother. “Kazu," the elder, “I missed you guys."

Jeremy gave him a few brotherly pats on the back. “Welcome back little bro, great to have you home again."

Kazu nodded softly. “It is indeed. But next time you want to travel abroad, at least tell us first, don't disappear like that."

“Well he basically left before either of you came back home that day." Their father came through the door, a tall tank of a man with wide chest and shoulders and a heavily built frame, stood over his boys with his arms wide open. “Now how about you send some of that love my way, huh?" John shrugged and took as much as he could of his father's build into a hug.

As he did, he noticed a slim woman standing near the stairs, she looked to be in some conflict, so he answered her question for her by breaking off from his father and slowly making his way and taking her into a soft hug. “I'm home, mom."

She held back as much of her tears as she could as she hugged him back. “Welcome back, son. Welcome back."

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That night was a night of celebration indeed, the whole family gathered around the table, except for John's elder sister, Yuki. His brothers, their father, Genjirou Kagiyama, and their mother, Hana Kagiyama, all sat at the table, talking, joking, laughing and having the time of their life.

But then, “Oh great, the fag is back." They all turned to the voice and found Yuki holding her phone and an uninterested look on her face.

“Yuki, show some respect to your brother, he just came back from a trip abroad, the least you could do is tone down that disgusting attitude of yours." Genjirou stated with a tone that clearly said 'don't mess with me'.

“Whatever," she started “I'll just go upstairs, before I catch a case of the 'gays'." And without another word she made her way to her room, ignoring their father calling her.

The air in the room suddenly turned thick, but John didn't let it get to him. “Oh no worries, she'll get over it soon." The others glumly agreed.

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The next day, John and his brothers went to Akihabara, simply window shopping at the moment when he noticed Watari's phone. “You're still on that old thing, little bro?"

“Yeah, dad said that he can't get me a new one until the next payday." Watari still kept on playing his game, but with some disappointment showing in his eyes.

Then it lit up in John's head, using his phone to check on his bank balance and yep, he had enough money. “Say Wata, how about we get you a new phone? My treat."

The youngest brother instantly closed his game and perked up at John. “Really? But the new models are expensive, and shouldn't you be the one getting a new phone?"

He instantly pulled out his own phone, which was the latest model. “As you can see, I bought mine when I was there." He gave it for Watari to get a closer look.

Kazu turned back to him, adjusting his glasses. “Wasn't it even more expensive there?"

John simply shook his head “Well dear brother, unlike someone," he nodded towards Jeremy, “I know how to save my money." This got him a sharp 'Hey!' out of the second middle brother.

A few minutes later, Watari was walking out of a store with a new and fully upgraded phone. He took John in the biggest and tightest hug he could muster. “Oh thank you big bro, you're simply the best." He started the phone and instantly downloaded the game he was playing before, resuming where left off.

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The brothers all sat in a restaurant together, having already eaten, they're now sitting with satisfied stomachs, Jeremy and Kaz were bickering about which sport is the greatest, John was listening to them before shifting his attention to the youngest brother, who was still playing that game. “You're awfully consumed into the game there Wata. What is it?"

Watari looked over his brother. “It's a new game that came out recently, lots of action and strategy. It's really cool."

Hearing his brother speak of the game got his interest. “What's the name of this game? I might play a few rounds of it myself."

“It's called Kaiju Chaos, it's where you collect and breed monsters, form an army and invade other players' bases." He then went on to explain the rules of the game to John, who found his younger sibling's excited ranting to be more interesting.

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The brothers finally went home once the sun began setting, each carrying their respective purchases of the day.

Once in his room, John plugged in his newly purchased charging stand, placing his phone on it then booting up his laptop. After going through his emails and surfing through the net for a while, his phone pinged indicating that it finished charging. Once he took hold of it, he remembered the game Watari was playing, it sounded interesting and he loved Kaiju as a whole.

So, with simply shrugging, he went to the phone market and downloaded the game. While it was installing, he checked the forums and wiki of the game, only to find that it was only a handful of downloads before reaching a whooping million downloads. “This game must be something," he said to himself before shutting down his laptop and preparing for bed, returning the phone to it's stand.

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The next morning.

John woke up to his phone's alarm. After turning it off he went through his morning routine, a few sets of pushups and situps, before going to the bathroom to freshen up.

After all is done he checked his phone, it had a message telling him that the game had finished installing and is ready to start, but he decided to get some breakfast first.

He found his mother in the kitchen, preparing Genjirou's lunch box. “Good morning mother."

“Oh," she turned to him, forcing a smile on her face. “G-good morning John, hope you slept well."

John gave his own soft smile as he slowly walked up to her, giving her a loving hug. “I forgive you mom, but don't pull that stunt again."

She simply nodded with tears in her eyes. The reason John's mother sent him to that school is because he's gay, and she thought that going to a religious school would help him, but when Genjirou found out he was furious at what his wife had done and had John return instantly. The trio decided to keep this from the rest of the family, upon John's request, since his siblings loved him (except for Yuki for some odd reason) they might hate Hana for it and John wouldn't have any of that.

Just as the rest of the family went down to the kitchen, John was halfway done with making his own breakfast, just a couple of sandwiches and a glass of peach juice.

Once done he took his plate up to his room, checking his emails once again before turning his attention to his phone, he saw the icon of the game, just as he was about to press it, Watari came in with his own plate of sandwiches. “Hey there big bro. Good morning. What are you doing?"

“Morning Watari, just wanted to try that game of yours, it sure sounds interesting." He then tapped the icon and activated the game, he was brought to the signup screen, after typing his login details in, a pop up came asking if he wanted to allow for Cyber Transfer or not.

Watari jumped in suddenly. “Oh, say yes, say yes!" John didn't know what his brother was so jumpy about, but he heard about how the Cyber Transfer tech had advanced so he was going to tap 'yes' anyway.

Once all that was done the screen brought up a cutscene, telling the story of the game world Asteria, and a summary of its seven regions, before he was taken to his region selection screen, with the flags of all the regions taking the screen. Watari told that he went with the Amanus region, so he chose the same. He tapped yes again when he was asked for confirmation of his choice.

Then right behind that screen was two choices, the path of knowledge that he would be starting in, a small message bellow told him that he will be able to use the other later in the game. The choices were Mystic, which had the emblem of a rune circle and Scientific which had the drawing of a flask. He chose Mystic and once again confirmed his choice.

Once that was done, he was taken to a big and wide island, surrounded by a few smaller ones, all of them looked like something out of a japanese mythology. Just then a talk box appeared on the lower screen, introducing a small imp-like creature, John summarized that this thing will take him through the tutorial.

The imp's name was Uko, and it took John through the steps of building facilities and gathering resources Then came the time to call a starter Kaiju. Once the summoning room was built, John was taken there, it was wide, with a big altair that had two tall pillars on either side, he was given a choice of three single rod scrolls, one was red with medals of the fire element sign hanging from one side, the second was blue for the water sign and the third was green for nature.

He picked the red scroll and was guided to the side of the altair, a small podium-shaped area was there. It had an opening wide enough to fit the scroll, the animation of inserting the scroll was shown as the side with the medal was left outside, forming a cap of sorts. Just then the scroll glowed brightly, shining through the screen, and a portal as big as the altair and pillars opened with red energy.

A figure jumped through the portal and landed in front of the screen, once the glow subsided the figure was revealed to be a chibi-sized monkey, with white fur and red markings around its body which included a 'mask', 'bands' around it's biceps and near the ankles. It also had big, shaggy head-fur and a red puffy tuft at the tip of its tail.

Watari jumped up over his shoulder. “Oooh, that's a fire Monsaru, these guys are S Rare Kaiju." John took his younger sibling's words to heart, since he was playing the game longer than he was.

Finally John was taken through the usual leveling and evolving tutorial, but those were simple message pop-ups. And then he was finally done with the tutorial and was given free reign of his base.

Watari raced out of the room. “I'll meet you there bro." And went to his own room.

John started seeing the different options of the game and finally found the Cyber Transfer option. Giving it a single tap, he was suddenly and instantly covered in a bright light and felt his body tingling all over, remembering that he felt the same sensation when he traveled back to japan using the same tech.

Once the light subsided, he found himself in a shogun's castle, the whole building taking one side of the mountain of the island and had quite a view of a couple of the neighbouring isles. He then remembered that this was his base in the game.

Just as he turned back to go deeper into the base, he was tackled down by a small figure, when he looked up he saw the Monsaru he got from the scroll. “Why hello there little guy, guess we're stuck together now." He gave the monkey Kaiju a few pets to the head, causing it to jump and somersault out of happiness.

John noticed a small bracelet on his forearm near his wrist, it looked like a flat keyboard of sorts. He tested it by pressing a button, just to have a holo-screen pop in his face, with the screen coincidently aiming at the Monsaru. After briefly scanning the monkey Kaiju, the screen showed it along with its current stats. “Whoa, Watari wasn't kidding, these guys are strong." The Monsaru had great elusive stats, like speed, agility and evasion, but it's other stats clearly needed working on.

Just as he got up and dusted himself, Uko popped in front of him in a small cartoonish explosion. “Why hello there friend and welcome to your base! I will be your guide until you get more familiar with the game."

“Uh...thanks." John regarded the small imp with curiosity as it floated around him.

“Well, let's get started." Another cartoonish explosion had Uko wearing a professor's outfit. “First off, let's start with your Medium."

“My what?" Uko simply pointed at the keyboard brace around John's arm. “Oh, this?"

Uko nodded before explaining. “Your Medium is the device in which you can control both your base and your Kaiju army. The one you have is your basic one, which is given to all newcomers, but you'll be able to get more advanced models later on. So don't worry."

John nodded as he waited for more explanations. “I believe we already covered the resource facilities and whatnot, so this time we'll go through you're processing plants and storage." John raised a brow, but Uko went on before he could ask anything. “Just follow me." And off they went into the deeper parts of the base, with his Kaiju right beside them.

In a floor below the main one, were a few empty rooms waiting to have anything built in them. The insides of the base looked like a wizard's home, stone walls, fire torches lining them, and the rooms had wide sliding paper doors. “First let's try building a meat processing plant." He pointed to a room on the left.

“First you use your medium and select the building option, then select 'Food'." John did just that and the screen opened to a few selections of different ranks of plants, but the others were locked due to him just playing for the first time.

Once he selected 'build' the room in front of them began to give a faint glow around the trims, as if something inside the room was shining brightly, along with the emblem of the plant, which was ironically the drawing of a slab of meat. “Now confirm your choice and the room will be built instantly."

Once John pressed 'Ok' a loud but very short *THUD* came from inside the room. “Told you it was instant. But don't be fooled, higher ranking buildings, rooms and plants will take longer to finish." Uko explained quickly.

They went into the room, but everything was still and quiet, the room itself was big and a bit hot, the whole place looked more like a huge medieval kitchen, but no one was there. “Oh right, silly me." Uko cut into John's thoughts suddenly, so the player waited for his guide to speak. “Processing plants won't start working unless you get a storage room ready."

John was walked through the same process in building rooms, but this time he didn't have to go anywhere, since a holographic blueprint of his base showed up in front of him. It showed the architecture of the whole building, but the lower parts were locked off. “Don't worry, you can expand your base and build more facilities when you get the credits for it." John shrugged as he placed the storage room right below the kitchen.

Suddenly the whole room light up with torchlights, small creatures that looked like boros started appearing and a huge nido oven came to life as the inside of it burst into flames ready to cook. John instantly walked out of the room, the instant heat making him feel slightly lightheaded.

“And that's how a meat processing plant is made." Uko stated before pointing at the room right in front of them on the other side. “Now let's put a small garden, shall we?" John raised a brow once again. “You can't expect all the Kaiju to eat meat do you?"

The trio were instantly teleported outside, to the 'backyard' so to speak, of the base. There John found a wide plain of beautiful green grass, and Uko then began explaining again. “Here is where you will build your farms for the plant processing and your 'meat stock' stables, but before that…."

He tapped on John's Medium to bring out the processing plant options. “Before you do that, you just have to build a greens processing plant and storage area." After John did that, they appeared in the same style as the kitchen.

Uko then took John through the building of vegetable farms and fruit farms, as well as building stables for meat stock, and once he did, more boro creatures started working on the fields. John was confused of something however. “Uh..the stables are empty." Both Uko and the Monsaru looked at him, then each other, then back at John, but Uko is the one who answered. “You don't expect your meat stock to just magically appear whenever you build these stables?"

John felt that he will regret asking. “How do I get them?"

“You hunt for them silly." Uko pointed at one of the nearby isles. “In the wild or the main region islands. But we'll get to that later, for now, we have to make this little guy stronger." At that, the Monsaru jumped a few times in anticipation. “But first we have to give him a name."

John thought for a few minutes then decided. “How about Guren?" The Monsaru jumped up and down before jumping around John then on his back. “Guess he likes it."

Uko nodded. “Awesome, now follow me." They went back into the base, this time making their way to the back of the base. “Here is where we will build your Kaiju facilities." John was going to ask, but Uko beat him to the punch. “Facilities that are exclusive to your Kaiju, like evolution chambers, training rooms, barracks and armory."

Uko went through the explanation of building these different facilities, all of them took a good part of the base, and once all those buildings were done with, Uko went through explaining the different options for the training rooms. “And you can install an elemental disk stone in the room's core to give a greater bonus to Kaiju of the same element. Since Guren here is a fire elemental, I'll give you a fire disk." Uko pulled out a glowing red circle-shaped stone, it had the sign of the fire element embedded in the center.

There were two devices similar to the summoning altair's scroll tube, one was built for the stones and the other for another type of stone. John inserted the fire stone and pushed it in, making the device instantly start giving a faint glow as the room itself turned red and the interior design changed to match the element.

Guren went into the room and a few seconds later it activated, shooting orbs of fire at the Monsaru, with the floors shooting columns of flames upwards and blades shooting from inside the walls. The little fire monkey quickly began jumping and running around the room, deflecting the fireballs and blades shot at him. John and Uko were outside the room, watching Guren train through a glass window.

They decided to leave Guren to his training, and made their way to the main room of the base, which was big itself with a glass wall and a balcony, a desk on one side and a king-sized bed on the other. “This will be your own room in this world, you'll be able to decorate the place as well as invite other players."

Then something lit in Uko's head. “Oh I forgot, later you'll be able to build a trading station, you can sell your resources to the game itself and when you build a relay station, you'll be able to trade with other players."

John let out a big yawn, feeling tired all of a sudden, Uko smiled softly. “Well I guess that's all you need to know for now. We'll continue your tutorial when you come back." John laid down on the bed and closed his eyes.

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When John woke up, he found himself in his real life room, just as his mom was calling for dinner.

He walked down the stairs in a shirt and grey shorts, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. The rest of the family were already at their seats, John let out a huff of irritation when he saw that his place was beside Yuki. He sat down begrudgingly just as Yuki scooted her chair a little further away.

Just as his mother started putting the plates on the table, his phone pinged a few times. When he checked the messages quickly, they were notifications from the game telling him that a player was sending him a few presents. He lifted his eyes and found Watari smiling at him, John returning the smile before both closed their phones for dinner.

Dinner was a tranquil moment for the family, everyone talking about one thing or another, except when John wanted to talk with Yuki, she would turn to another sibling and talk about anything that pops in her head.

Once dinner was done, John went back to his room instantly, going through his before bed routine. Once all was done his phone pinged twice, when he checked it was more notifications, this time the new pings were friend requests, one was from his little brother and another was from a different player. He accepted the request from his brother and declined the other player's.

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The next day after finishing his morning routine, John decided to do a little more.

He changed into a track suit he had, and wore a pair of running shoes, the sun was just peaking out of the horizon, leaving the whole area in a somewhat romantic atmosphere.

He started jogging. Familiar with the area, he found a good jogging route towards the park. He moved through the route, passing through the local temple he felt a weird presence coming from the top of the stairs leading to it, the feeling was instant and went as quick as it came, so he just thought it was his imagination and went on his way.

On the way home he passed by another jogger, when they passed one another, a feeling of nostalgia hit John, but like the presence at the temple, it went away just as quick.

When he arrived home, he was greeted by his father who was wearing his police uniform and just getting into his car, the other family members still asleep except for Hana who prepared Genjirou's lunch.

John instantly went to his room, had a quick shower and booted up the game to check anything new. Guren was done with training and got a great bonus in his stats, while his processing plants were still working and the storages were filling up nicely.

When he checked his inbox, he found a few elemental disks, a couple of summoning scrolls, one was for the water element and the other was of the wind element, and some in-game cash. “Thanks little bro, I must make sure that I give him something in return soon."

He checked his mining facilities and got some resources from them. Once that was done Uko popped in the screen. “Hello again. Are you ready to start your final tutorial?" John tapped 'yes' and Uko was enveloped in another cartoonish explosion, when the smoke cleared, he was wearing a military uniform. “For this tutorial, we're going through the bread and butter of Kaiju Chaos: Combat."

A wide roll up board fell down with many drawings and writing. “Combat in Kaiju Chaos is not easy, no turns, no time to strategize; fast action, quick thinking and fast reflexes. You have to be able to think quick on your feet or you'll be eating dirt three times a day."

The imp instructed him to open the campaign map, once it was open it showed a few isles and islands, with the major region lands showing on the map. “From here, you can choose which region or any of the small islands to go to and explore, hunt for meat stock, excavate for treasure, and battle the wild Kaiju of the world."

Uko walked John through the steps of choosing a stage and preparing for it, then choosing the right Kaiju to send, but since John only had Guren, he had to choose him, sending him to one of the neutral isles that were not owned by anyone.

The isle was a forest type, which means that it's filled with nature elemental Kaiju, which were weak against fire Kaiju like Guren. John gave the command to Guren to start auto exploring and set his phone back on its stand.

He checked his laptop and then started surfing the internet, a few minutes later his phone pinged with a new notification, this was from a battle with a wild Kaiju. When Guren engaged, John saw that the opposing Kaiju was a type of frilled lizardman, a Leaf Frill to be exact, with green and yellow scales in random splotches around it's body. John saw just how fast-paced the action was, both Kaiju jumping around, deflecting and countering each other's attacks, then Uko popped in the screen once more. “Looks like Guren needs some help, here." A few commands appeared on the left side, those were Guren's abilities, and others on the right side, those were the player's support abilities.

John was walked through commanding his Kaiju to use an ability and how to gauge the right time to use his support abilities, and seconds later, the enemy Kaiju was defeated. It then was enveloped in light before shrinking in size, leaving a green orb in its place. The orb had the emblem of the leaf element inside it and some green energy leafs floating around it in a cross, Uko instantly went into explaining. “Oooh, that's a power orb, you can use these to increase your Kaiju's level and help them evolve."

Guren then went on and finished exploring the isle, then finally went back to John's base, when he arrived he brought three chests with him, one had some extra food, the second had more power orbs, and the last had some crystals with varying shapes. “Congrats, you got hyper crystals. Those are essential materials in making powerful weapons and gear for your Kaiju."

John perked up and unconsciously spoke up. “I can do that?"

Uko planted his face on the screen. “Of course you can, my friend." This took John by surprise, almost dropping the phone. “Yes I can hear you, buddy."

“Well this is weird." John muttered, scratching the back of his head.

“You'll get used to it. Now before we go into your Kaiju gear, we need to set up some defences to your base." And with that, John was walked through building and placing the different types of defences to his base, by the time he was done and thanks to the extra cash that Watari sent him, he managed to place a few force turrets and a few anti-air cannons around the base.

“Now finally, the moment you've been waiting for: Kaiju gear. In this part of the tutorial, I'll show the depth of gear crafting." John was then taken to the crafting room, which was pretty big on its own.

“In case you were wondering about the size of the room, it's because that this room holds multiple facilities of crafting." When the build screen opened, John was taken to the crafting option, the gear crafting room had a tailor, a blacksmith, an alchemy set, and runecrafting.

“All of these facilities can make quite the gear and supplies for you and your Kaiju, since we have some metal, let's go to the blacksmith and build a weapon for Guren." John tapped on the blacksmith and was given a few options for a starter weapon, he thought it would be a cliche, but it would look good on Guren, he chose a bo staff.

“Good choice. While that is done, let's go to the tailor and make something for Guren to wear." Once in the tailor, John chose a full set cloth gear and a leather belt. The cloth top was a sleeveless shirt and the bottom was short pants, the belt had a few pockets that look like they're used to hold kunai, which was exactly what he had in mind.

The gear would take time as well, until then. “Oh, looks like your weapon is done." And back to the blacksmith they went, the bo staff the John chose had thick and heavy balls of iron on both sides. “This looks like a strong weapon."

They gave the weapon to Guren and he instantly tried it out, moving like a martial arts master and striking at the air with complicated moves. “Alongside your Kaiju's own abilities, every Kaiju has weapon abilities to use, that change along with the weapon they use at the time. Let's try it out."

Before John could go to the training room, he received a message telling him that his gear was done, once Guren donned his gear he gave a few poses to model them. Both John and Uko gave nods of approval.

When they arrived at the training room, John set the training difficulty to normal. “When training with a weapon, your Kaiju gets extra points for both weapon expertise and battle expertise, unlocking more Kaiju abilities and weapon abilities, but they either have to battle or train with the specific weapon to unlock its abilities." And they left Guren to his training once again.

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John decided to take a walk around the neighbourhood while Guren trained in the game. He walked past the temple again, but this time stopped and remembered the presence he felt at the top.

He finally decided to go up and look around, once at the top his phone pinged a few times, when he checked Uko popped up at the screen. “There's something over there, John. We should check it out." An arrow appeared on the phone that showed him the way.

John followed the arrow until it started pointing downwards, it was pointing at a weirdly shaped stone, and the color looked somewhat familiar. Uko then jumped in. “Ooh, this looks similar to a Power Stone."

“But how is that possible? How can something inside a game be here in the real world?" John picked the stone and looked at it more closely, and sure enough it did look awfully similar to the game's Power Stone.

“I see that you're another player." John heard a deep adult voice behind him, when he turned he found a middle-aged man standing by the gate.

“Depends on what game you mean." John closed his phone and placed it back in his pockets, eyeing the man from a distance.

“Why, Kaiju Chaos, of course." He saw the weirded out look that John gave him. “Yeah, pretty weird to have an adult like me play such games, but I've been a Kaiju fan for so long, and my son got me into the game a few days after its release." He walked up to John and introduced himself as Kotajima Teruhiko. He saw the stone that John was holding. “Oh, you found one too?"

John regarded the stone in his hand. “Well I still haven't figured out what it is"

“You better be collecting those for the event." The man instructed, but saw the confused look on John's face. “Wait, you mean you don't know?"

“I only started playing yesterday, but I'm liking the game so far." He assured the man who was now standing closer to him.

“Well, guess I should tell you. There's an event going on, the producers of the game made other stones like the one you're holding right now and scattered them around the city." He waited a few seconds to let the info sink in. “And it's up to us players to find them, we'll be getting pretty awesome rewards when we do, and the more you find, the greater the rewards."

“Wow. But I'm really behind it seems, this is the first and only stone I found. How can I find others?"

“Simple, the game will tell you when a stone is nearby." Teru opened the game and showed him that he had the same arrow pointing at someplace near the gates. “The stones have special chips in them that will work until they are scanned by a player, then they are added to their collection. Here."

He opened his game and went to the events option, he already collected twenty-three stones “That and the stones themselves have mini rewards inside, but you'll only get those when you scan the stones."

He then quickly explained to the young man how to scan the stone, once John did that, he got a message that he got a present in his inbox.

“Thanks Mr. Kotajima, you've been a big help."

“No need for thanks my boy, I know that my son would do the same if he was here instead of me. Hope to see you again soon, either in the real world or on Asteria" With that, the two players went their separate ways, but John still couldn't shake the feeling that something was in the temple.

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After going around town and the city searching for stones, John finally decided to return home, once the sun was setting.

He greeted his older brothers in the living room, hearing his sister cackling like a witch while gossiping like a house-wife in the kitchen, Kaz told him that Watari was either in his room or Cyber Dove into Kaiju Chaos.

After setting up his phone and cleaning his room for the day, John decided to follow his little brother into Asteria, He always liked the tingling feeling when your body turned into data, it felt to him as if something was tickling him softly from the inside.

Once inside he was greeted by Uko. “Welcome back, buddy. That stone you scanned gave us a new summoning scroll, one of the rare sub-elements at that." He showed John the scroll, it was dark yellow in color and the medal hanging from it was the emblem of the storm sub-element.

“Now we have about… three new scrolls. Looks like it's time to add a few new members to this little family." John made his way to the summoning altair.

Just as he was about to insert one of the scrolls, *KABOOM!!!* a huge explosion shook the whole base. “What the hell is going on?!"

“Looks like we're under attack!" Uko explained quickly as they raced to the main room. Once there, the lights dimmed and a large monitor of sorts appeared on the wall, below it was a keyboard with buttons that resembled a typewriter.

The monitor showed four teen-ranked monsters and one adult. The four teens were a large bat with wings instead of hands, a black-scaled feral dragon, a gryphon and a gargoyle. The adult was a bigger gargoyle that pretty much looked like a winged satyr, with fur around its neck and head, forearms and its whole lower body.

“Who the hell is that?" John asked no in particular as he typed a few commands, the monitor zoomed in on the group until he saw that a human was riding on the shoulder of the big gargoyle. He typed a few more commands to check the human's name. “Makuros240? Who's that?"

“Oh, not some important. Just a high ranking player who likes to bully those of lower ranking, especially newbies." His imp guide stated with a 'not my problem' tone.

John instantly activated all of his defences including the force barrier, checking the damage already sustained from the previous wave, but luckily nothing major was damaged.

Then a call connected with his systems, it showed the face of the human, he had black hair with streaks of blonde on one side. “Hello there newbie, that blast was just a greeting. If you don't want to waste your resources on repairs in the future, you better pay a toll of 10,000 creds next time I come over."

“10,000?!" Uko shrieked loudly holding his head. “Oh, how will we ever get that kind of money?"

John however was trying to think of a way to get out of this situation, then he noticed a button on his Medium, it read 'Help' but with the game world's writing. He pressed it without a second thought, then tried thinking of a way to stall the opposing player until help arrived.

“Not talking, huh? Don't you know when your superiors are talking to you?!" The player yelled through the call angrily, but then smiled sadistically. “Well then, guess you should be disciplined." He then gave the order to his four teen Kaiju to attack.

The base shook with every blast, the bat shooting concentrated plasma, the gryphon flapped his wings and produced strong blades of wind, while the dragon and gargoyle shot electrical blasts. Their collective abilities taking chunks of the barrier's health, while John's defences did little to no damage at all.

“Will you be a good boy now?" the player asked mockingly.

“You should be a good boy and leave right now!" Another line connected with an unfamiliar voice. When John checked the monitor he found a squad of five other players, with his little brother among them.

The leader was had short navy blue hair and looked to be in his early twenties. He was riding on the back of a big, red and blue scaled wyvern that had a long spear-shaped snout, while Watari was riding on the shoulder of a big mech warrior with plane wings. The others had their own flying Kaiju.

The leader raised his hand high, all his allied Kaiju started gathering energy and took aim, then he let his arm fall forward. “Fire!!" he commanded and everyone let out the strongest blast they could muster, each aiming at one of the enemy Kaiju, greatly damaging them.

Makuros growled loudly. “What the fuck is wrong with you people?! I was just welcoming the new guy."

The wyvern rider fixed him with a piercing glare. “And your welcoming party wasn't very welcoming. Now for the second and last time: Leave."

Seeing that he was outnumbered and outclassed, he gave the command to retreat. “I won't forget this!! And you newbie, you better have my creds when I come back." Then he and his Kaiju squad flew away with their tails between their legs.

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“Big bro!!" Watari launched himself at his big brother, taking him in a tight hug. “Oh, I was so worried, when the help message came to me I didn't know what to do. So I called some people from the Alliance I'm part of and asked them for help."

John greeted them in an area of the base that he was remodeling into a launching bay for his flying Kaiju. The area was big with more width than height, to allow those with a large wingspan like the big wyvern some space.

The blue haired young man walked up to them and offered his hand. “My name is Tao Akihiko, I'm the vice-commander of the Gale Force alliance." John took the hand in a firm and friendly shake and introduced himself, Akihiko simply gave him a soft smile. “I have to say: You have quite the talented and intelligent brother, he is quickly rising through the ranks and is simply great company."

“Glad to know, he is easy to talk to and able to bring a smile to your face." John then regarded the vice-commander. “By the way: what's this 'Alliance' business?"

Just then, his imp guide popped right beside him. “Allow me to explain this one." A roll-up board rolled down and Uko started explaining. “An Alliance is a large group of players who band together that share the same goals or ambitions, or those who simply like to surround themselves with other players. As I'm sure you've noticed, there are different ranks in the alliance, the founders are called Commanders, and those below them are called Vice-Commanders and many other ranks below that."

John rubbed his chin lightly. “Sounds interesting."

Akihiko smiled and clapped his hands. “It's great that you think so, because upon your brother's insistence we would like you to join our Alliance, when we go back to our HQ you will receive an invitation from our Commander and I hope that you'll accept it."

“Well if my brother is happy with you guys, then I guess it won't hurt if I join too." John nodded with a smile, already accepting the invitation.

“That's wonderful. The way Watari was speaking about you, the Commander asked for you to join personally." Akihiko looked around briefly. “I have to say: He wasn't kidding, I was surprised to see that your defences lasted this long, against five high leveled Kaiju at that."

“Well four technically." John corrected him. “The last one was lagging behind and simply watching from afar."

“In any case, you should expect a message from our commander soon. Once you're in the alliance, we will be able to help you as much as we can till you can protect yourself without help, but even then we'll be there for you whenever you need us." Akihiko and the group along with Watari all climbed on their respective Kaiju. “Till we meet again new comrade." With that, everyone flew out of the bay and back to their own bases.

John stood in his place for a few seconds before going back inside. “Oh yeah, almost forgot that I have some scrolls. Oh well, I'll use them later, right now I need to head back home for dinner."

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Dinner was another uneventful procedure that day as well. The family sat down together, the parents talked with one another, the two older brothers spoke about a sport game of sorts, while John and Watari spoke about their encounter in the game. Yuki however was barely poking at her food, so she just took her plate to her room, the family barely noticing.

Once after dinner, John went through his before bed routine, placed his phone on its stand after checking for any notifications from the game, and finding nothing he just laid in bed and waited for sleep to get him.

His eyes flew as something hit his window. He checked to see who the idiot was, but no one was there, so he just laid back in bed but stayed awake waiting for another hit.

It never came so he felt safe enough to sleep for the night.

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The next day John was with his brothers making their way to the local mall. They arrived and went their separate ways, with Watari and John going together.

John was looking for a new skin for his phone while Watari was looking for a charging stand for his own. Watari was really happy that his older brother was back, his other brothers tried to spend as much time with him as they could and Yuki was not an option, but John always played with him even when they were younger. He even remembered when John stayed with him when he came down with a cold and John was supposed to go with his friends to a game convention.

Once all the shopping was done, the brothers agreed to meet in the food court, Watari and John finished first, so they sat at a table and waited for the others. “Stay right here, I'll go and order something for us, okay?" John ruffled his little brother's head lightly before going to one of the restaurants.

While waiting in the line John checked his phone and found a notification from the game, an Alliance invitation sent by the commander of Gale Force, he accepted instantly and pocketed his phone.

A few minutes later he returned to his table with a plate, and he saw Watari sitting with his face red like a tomtato. “What is it little bro?"

“I just got the message that you joined our alliance, I got a little too excited." He rubbed the back of his head bashfully. John looked around and saw a few smiling faces and a couple of girls sniggering at one side.

John chuckled to himself and ruffled Watari's head lightly again, just before a large shadow loomed over them, when both brothers looked up, they found a big-sized young man standing behind them. He was really built with wide shoulders, bulging biceps and thickly built arms, wearing a black and red sleeveless jacket. “Can I help you?" John asked with a threatening tone.

“Yeah, you can tell that brat there to keep it down. This is a food court not the fucking park." The man practically spat his demands.

“You just said it with your own tongue, this is a food court, it's a common place for families so expect children to be around and a lot of yelling and screaming. Now how about you act like a spoiled brat somewhere else?" John was about to sit back down, only to have his body lifted off the ground a few inches.

“Hey about you show some respect, faggot? You don't speak to me like that, you hear?!"

John grabbed one of the wrists holding him and tightened his grip hard, his eyes gave the impression of a cornered predator, the bigger guy almost dropped him.

Just as John was about to do something, he smelled the air and got the hint of a familiar perfume. “Hey, what are you doing, Leo?" All three turned to a very familiar voice.

John's eyes glared at his sister just as she walked up to them. “The hell are you two doing here?!" she all but screamed her question.

John gave a mischievous smile. “Why hello sis, so this baboon is your boyfriend? No wonder you're always pissed." The older male growled at him, only to receive an eye-roll. “And shouldn't you be in summer school? I wonder what dad and mom would say of they found out that you're skipping class."

“You will not say a thing, got that you fucking queer?" She snarled as she crossed her arms.

“Big sis?" Watari asked in almost a whisper, still trying to wrap his mind around this little exchange.

The conversing trio ignored him as Leo shook the smaller man in his hands. “Let's head out back queer, I'll teach you not mess with me and my girl." And they made their way out of the food court, onlookers murmuring and gossiping in the background. John told Watari to stay there and not move a muscle, grabbing a pair of leather gloves out of his pockets and wearing them.

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A few minutes later Kaz and Jeremy arrived at the food court, jocking and laughing amongst themselves, but their smiles fell after they saw a pair of girls sitting with a sobbing Watari trying to calm him down.

Both of them jogged in his direction and kneeled on either side of their brother before Jeremy asked the girls. “What happened here?"

“A guy and girl came over and started complaining about this boy, and they started threatening and promising to hurt him." one of them, a long haired girl, spoke.

Kaz then took over. “There was another young man with him, where did he go?"

“T-they… took him… outside, an-and… they said they're… going to.. To.. hurt him." Watari managed to speak through his sobs.

“Who took him?" Jeremy rubbed his baby brother's back, trying to calm him.

“It.. it was.. Y-Yuki.. a-and another guy." Both older brothers' eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

“Can you please stay with him for a while longer? We'll be right back." Kaz asked of the girls as he followed Jeremy, who was already racing out of the mall.

Once outside, they heard a scream and followed it to the side of the mall that was shadowed by trees.

They ran into the tree area until they found Yuki sitting on the ground, shaking. Jeremy picked her up by the arms and shook her roughly. “Where is he Yuki? Where is he?!" She pointed in a direction.

Both of them turned to where she was pointing and found a tall young man dragging himself in their direction, his body was practically in pieces, both legs were broken beyond recognition, one of his arms had some of the bone sticking out, the hand was in ruins and he'd obviously had seen better days, someone really brutalized the guy. Once he saw them he started crying. “Help me, please!! He's a madman… h-he'll kill me… please help!!"

They were just about to go and help him, but they saw John walking up behind the man, holding a bloodied pipe, reclining it on his shoulder, his free hand in his pocket with a large toothy smile on his face that was borderlined sadistic.

“Oh come on, you said you're going to teach me a lesson." He swung hard and the hit landed on Leo's left side, forcing a scream out of him. “Come on, teach, let's see this lesson. Unless it is about laying there and acting like a fucking pinata." He made another swing that caught the other side.

“John stop!!" Kaz yelled out, while Jeremy was looking back and forth between the ravaged man and who/what he thought was his brother.

John looked at his brothers and sister for a few seconds before shrugging and throwing the pipe aside, squatting down beside the guy's head and grabbing his shirt. “I better not see you anywhere near me or my family ever again, and if I see you pull this bullying stunt with anyone else, I won't hesitate to crack your skull. Oh and if you tell anyone, you better tell the truth. I memorized your face. If you tell a weird mixed up version of yours, your bones won't be the only thing I will break." He threw Leo to the ground before stomping on his head hard, luckily the ground was soft enough for his face to sink instead of push back.

He walked up to his siblings, both brothers stepped aside while Yuki stood there in fear. He grabbed her arm hard, bruising it, leaning to her ear. “Next time, you better choose your boyfriends carefully, or at least make sure that you and whatever boytoy you have your claws on won't be in the same place as us." He then let go of her, a bluish red mark on her arm.

Once back in the mall, John comforted his younger brother, but right after that he went to the security office and explained the whole thing after he was told that someone informed the mall security already. He told the whole story, no additions or subtractions, even the part where he tried to calm the whole situation down and let the guy hit him a few times, so according to the law if he fought back after that it would be self-defence.

The police were called in, and it was a bit of an embarrassment when it was their father who took the call. After hearing the whole story and the testimony of both his children and the many witnesses in the food court at the time, and finally the testimony of Yuki's now ex-boyfriend, just as he was told, he spoke the truth, even admitting to simply trying to look big and strong in front of his girlfriend.

So the whole thing was done in seconds and was ruled instantly to be self-defence.

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Once at home, John grabbed his two brothers and dragged them aside. He was rubbing the his neck nervously when he spoke. “Can you guys not tell Watari the whole story? He's too young to hear the brutal parts… that and I don't want to look like a monster in his eyes." His eyes were pleading and showed great concern for their younger sibling.

Dinner that night was nothing but silence, but halfway through, Genjirou cleared his throat, getting everyone's attention. “I'm sure you're all tired from today's… 'events'," he said, using airquotes to emphasize the point.

“But I wanted to tell you a few things. First, John I'm very proud of you for standing up to your younger brother.." John waited for the 'but'. “But, the way you handled it was not… human, for the lack of better word, so I decided to place you in anger-management classes for a few weeks."

“WHAT?!" Both Jeremy and Kaz jumped out of their seats, but Kaz was the one who spoke. “Father you said it yourself: John was defending Watari and standing up for him. Sure the way he handled it was… over the top, but that doesn't..." He fell silent when he felt John grab his wrist, pulling him back into his seat.

“I understand father, as you wish," was the only thing that John said, not even fighting back, not out of fear, but out of respect to his father. Just like the stunt his mother pulled, his anger was part of the reason, his father thought of this as a way to help him control his anger, so he was doing this pretty much out of love for his son.

Genjirou nodded his head, then turned to his only daughter with a deep and scary scowl. “And you young lady, you have anything to say?" Just as she was about to say something, he lifted his hand and stopped her. “You know what, I don't want to hear it. But I'm sure you know how deeply disappointed your mother and I are. All this time you were skipping class to hang out with that troublemaking bully of a boyfriend. Before your mother and I never bothered to check after you because we trusted you, but today you gave us a reason to."

Everyone was silent, waiting for him to continue. “You weren't only skipping class most of the time, but the very few times you bothered to go, you did nothing but bully others. Just because you had a muscled meathead for a boyfriend and a high-ranking police officer for a father, doesn't make you some kind of spoiled princess. That's not how this family works."

He waited a few seconds for his words to sink in. “So from now on, until you prove that you earn our trust, Jeremy will take you to your classes and will stay there until you finish. I will also call the principle and tell him to report all your activities to me directly and this is not open for discussion young lady."

All was silent for a few seconds, until, “Why do you hate me?" Yuki asked her father. “Why do you love him more than me?" she asked while pointing at John. “What's so special about him?!"

“I'm warning you Yuki. Don't. Go. There." Genjirou warned in a deep tone that said he meant business.

“Go where?! What is so special about this faggot, there," she yelled loudly. “He's just a queer who has no right to be in this family, we have a reputation to keep!!"

“You mean you have a reputation to keep." Surprisingly, it was John who spoke, that predatory look in his eyes returning. “Ever since I came back, I did my best to be your brother, but tell me what the hell was the real reason that put you off. Is it the part where I'm half-japanese, or is it that I'm gay. Hell why can't it be both?!"

Their father tried to calm down, but John was taken by that same anger as he had that morning. “If I disgust you that much, why don't you just leave, run away, elope with whatever boytoy you have and get the fuck out of our lives."

His anger blinded him and shut his ears to the fact that his youngest brother was there. “But you know what, you can stay here all you want and I'll be the one to leave. I'm sure that would please you, your highness." He said the last part with very grim sarcasm.

And without waiting for anyone he went upstairs to his room and locked the door, grabbing his backpack and stuffing it with clothes and toiletries, ignoring all the banging and yelling from behind his door, begging him to calm down.

After grabbing all his stuff he waited until the noises outside calmed down until he decided to sneak out, not hearing any sounds he made his way slowly to the door, while he was putting on his shoes. “So you're dead set on leaving?" He turned his head slightly and saw his father standing there, his large and thick arms crossed over his chest. “You won't change your mind?"

“I'm really sorry father, for both disrespecting you and mother like that, as well as showing that hideous side of me to Watari. But I'm not changing my mind, Yuki made it clear it was either her or me, and she's right: having a queer for a son is not good for reputation." he said, voice seemingly devoid of all emotion.

“Come on John, don't say that, you're perfect just as you are. And don't start with that part about you being half, you're my son and I will love you even if you're adopted." He fell silent for a few seconds. “I called a friend of mine and told him about you, he'll be waiting for you near the temple, he'll take care of you until things… cool down a bit."

John stood from his place, tapping his shoes to make sure their worn right, then turned to his father, taking the bigger man in a soft hug. “Take care of the others, and send me the info about those anger management classes. Turns out I really need them." Then John walked out the door, the moon gracing the town with its light.

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John sat at the bottom of the steps leading to the temple, waiting for a few minutes until a red sports car pulled up in front of him, the window slid down and a the driver leaned out.

“You Kagiyama John?" The young boy simply nodded. “Get in then. You're pops called."

On the drive to his temporary home, he was leaning on the window. The driver was a young man, between his early to mid twenties with messy brown hair, he looked handsome with his bed hair, but John wasn't interested in such things at the moment.

Once they arrived at the house on the other side of town, the car was parked in the garage and both got out. John looked over at the young man who drove him here, the guy was tall, taller than Kaz even, not a stubble or stray hair on his face with a slim build, but it was obvious that he took part in some sports. They went inside the house and John was greeted by a familiar middle-aged man. “Mr. Kotajima?!"

“Hey, little John, I was really worried when you're father called and told me what happened. You're always welcome here, please do come in." Teruhiko stepped aside to let both boys enter, taking John into the kitchen and fixing a cup of tea for both.

After a few seconds of silence, Teruhiko tried to strike a conversation. “So how are you feeling?"

“Empty, if that's a feeling. It's as if I poured out all of my emotions back at the house."

“That's understandable, after the horrible things your very own sister said, anyone would react the same way you did."

“Honey? Is he here yet?" A deep voice came from the stairs as the owner came down.

“Yes, dear. He just arrived." Teruhiko called back as the other man came into view.

John almost fell out of his chair, the guy was a carbon copy of his father's build if not more defined, but what was different were the thick sideburns and the forest of hair flowing over his forearms and covering his chest. That and the guy was completely topless.

“Well, any relative to Gen is always welcome here. But I never expected you to come this late in the night." The man looked John over briefly.

“I just wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible… sir." He added the last part out of respect, not wanting to come out as rude or ungrateful.

“Hah!! What's with the overrated politeness? Just call me Ryuji, or uncle Ryu if you want. You know what scratch the first part, just called me uncle." The burly man took the smaller boy into a headlock, then a hug, with one arm was enough to hook around John's frame.

The suffocating boy managed to reply between intakes of precious air. “Sure… thing… uncle Ryu."

“Hon, please put the boy down, you're strangling him." Teruhiko stated as he took a sip from his tea.

Ryuji put the young boy down, apologizing and giving him a firm smack on the back that pushed whatever air he breathed in right back out. John then was showed to his new room. which was pretty much as big as his own room back home. He thanked the two men for their hospitality, not taking notice of how they acted around each other. Now that he was alone, he put his things away and placed his phone on its stand and went to do his before bed routine, then falling right asleep once he laid down on the bed.

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Outside of his window was a small shadowy figure sitting on top of the telephone pole, before dispersing into smoke and swimming through the air, into his room through whatever gap it could find, taking a quick look around before it located his phone.

Sensing another presence in the air, it dove into John's phone, as if it was hiding. His phone turn on to some static before returning to it's normal activities a few seconds later.

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