Author's Note: So I'm trying something new in writing. I always have trouble getting past ten pages on any stories because I obsess on having it perfect. Or I get stuck on a part I just don't want to write. So now when I reach a paticulary sticky part that I just can't be satisfied with I'm just gonna barrel through, write it out, and post it anyway. This experiment could churn out really crappy writing so I apologize in advance but I'm determined to finish at least one book in my life time. I'm keeping my expectations low so not to be disappointed but I hope you love it all the same. So far it's been a lot of fun to write, please enjoy!
THE RAION
Children of the Nekoka: Book One
ONE: Japan, 2018
Raion Akio stared through the darkly tinted window of the Nekoka embassy car as it drove down the street in front of the school. The sound of the roaring crowd was only a muted hum from inside. No one outside seemed fazed by the bitter winter cold, and instead the whole high school campus was ablaze with excitement. Electricity tingled in the air. Every window of every building seemed to be open as faces peered out. Paparazzi filled the street outside the the school, and hoards of fangirls swarmed around the gates.
The hype had been mounting ever since the announcement had been made last week. A small group of the nekoka teens were being enrolled into the Sapporo International Senior High School. It was one of Japan's most elite private boarding schools. It had been over a decade and finally it was decided that the nekoka youth were now ready to be integrated into the Japanese School System. They would be moving into the dorm and becoming apart of campus life. It had been set up that in the next year other small groups of Nekoka, called prides, would also be entering schools all over Japan. Akio's pride was chosen to be the first group. Everyone believed that it was to further peaceful relations between the two species but he was certain there was a darker hidden agenda behind this. Something didn't add up. Especially not when the week before the streets had been filled with protesters. He couldn't fathom of how it could change so quickly.
When the alien spaceship of the feline humanoids had crashed on the island of Aogashima seventeen years ago,all but one of the adults died. The children aboard had all been in stasis, and managed to survive in the safety of their hibernation pods. There were hundreds of them, most had been babies, and none were over the age of ten earth years. Every single one of them was male. Even after all these years there was still very little was known about the Nekoka and why they were traveling with a mostly infant population of boys. Akio, along with the other nekoka youth, had been raised almost entirely by humans.
He couldn't truly complain, the Japanese had in fact taken very good care of him and his pride brothers. They had set up The Sentaa to provide for and support the Nekoka. And by Japanese standards his life had been quite privileged. In all actuality, except for the obvious physical differences, he was in every sense Japanese. His was the last age group and with having only males they were facing extinction. Akio knew that it would soon become very important to understand what the Nekoka really were.
Akio knew nothing about his own species, even the name for their species, Nekoka, was an earth term given to them by the Japanese. He knew nothing of their own home world, their culture, nor why they were here on Earth. He had no memories from before earth, accept maybe one, the voice of someone singing. But he couldn’t be sure it was real, it was just a voice he seemed to remember. Sometimes he dreamed about it.
He tried to ask about their home and even the most basic questions where blocked at every turn. The Sentaa appeared to be wholly ignorant, if it wasn't an act. But even the newly formed Nekoka Council, made up of the now adult aged Nekoka, seemed determined to keep the younger ones in the dark. He even tried to question the council alpha directly. Head Alpha, Raion Jirodayu was the lone adult survivor from the crash. Frustratingly, he had kept his answers to Akio vague and tried to assure him there was nothing to worry about. Akio was supposed to enjoy this new experience, just be a teenager and have fun. Akio could tell he wasn't being taken seriously, the council clearly had no respect for his authority as the leader of his pride brothers. He may be too young to be recognized as a true alpha but he would not just ignore his instincts.
It didn’t make sense that not a single person knew anything about the history of the Nekoka. Akio knew more about humans than his own people. In fact he knew more about human biology and anatomy than his own body. He was certain there had been research done but no matter how hard he searched for it he still came up with nothing. Someone was determined to keep the information sealed and under wraps.
The whole situation reeked and he had no doubt that this event was worse than it seemed. He couldn't help but feel slightly betrayed by his own. He was trying shake it off and keep his worries to himself. It would be best if he suspended judgment until he had more information. Panicking and dividing his pride's loyalty from the council would be of no help to his pride. It didn't matter if he didn't know the council's real plans, he now had his own mission. Akio would play their game, but he would have to tread carefully. His pride already held a certain amount of disdain from other prides.
They were more or less the group of misfits. Those that had no family designation assigned to their pods when found were put with the Sapporo Sentaa. They may not belong together by blood but they always would be there to back each other up. They were all each other had. Still, this wouldn't be easy. They had been less socialized than other prides since other Nekoka preferred to ignore their lowly existence. It was also true that his pride were an odd bunch in general, and were probably considered weird by most standards. He just had to make sure they would act friendly and appropriate in their new school despite their lack of experience. That conversation had more been about how to be helpful and kind without coming off as weird or scary than being studious. But also, most importantly, there would be absolutely no fighting. There would be some inevitable taunting from the humans who would want to test their strength against a nekoka. They would have to appear to be model students before it would lull the council and the sentaa into a false sense of security so they could make their own play. The key would be patience.
He was certain he had at least some small part of the mystery figured out. Being stranded here as an all male population, the survival of their species on Earth would be dependant on whether or not they could mate with humans. It was an issue most of the planet was already aware of and it was also highly controversial. The idea had been met with mostly prejudice, at first.
Japan had declared the Nekoka as Japanese citizens with all its rights and protections immediately after the crash. But still for years in the beginning, many humans, despite their approved citizenship, still approached the nekoka with disdainful arrogance and even questioned their equality to humanity. Physically the Nekoka were stunningly similar to human beings,especially having evolved in a entirely different star system but they were also clearly feline. They were built like humans and looked completely human in the face except for their wide cat eyes and furry high-up cat ears. The only other place they had fur was on their tails with the rest of their body hair being like humans. Where they stood out the most was their skin. They had the same spectrum of skin color as humans but many of them had skin markings of stripes or spots that covered them from head to toe. It was so striking that it was the main reason people stopped and stared. Though Akio was sure that even if they had been one hundred percent identical there would still be issues since they were not originally from earth.
When they all were still very young in the first few years, protests were minimal as people seem to think of them more as cute pets. When the first group of them grew into adulthood fear of them began to settle in. Gone was the adorable kitten look as it was replaced by the unmistakable dominance of a wildcat. Adult Nekako stood taller than the average man by more than a foot. They were broad, muscular, and clearly powerful. The fangs had become more prominent and it was hard to miss their claws even though they were retractable. Their senses, agility and instincts were definitely much closer to their wild cat brethren then humans making them seem more animal. But Nekoka were clearly more advanced than humans with the interstellar technology and that actually fed the fear mongering even more.
From the beginning rumors that were never confirmed, broke out about proven genetic compatibility sending the whole planet into an uproar as large protests of volatile outrage exploded over the even a hint at possibility. Many were terrified that the Nekoka were actually planning an invasion. In a way Akio could understand the humans' fear. It wasn't too farfetched since their species if given the opportunity could easily overtake the human race. And it didn't take much of a history lesson to show that humans had never been good at sharing.
Still as the Nekoka had grown steadily in political power and wealth over the years, the protest began to die out. They had been cunning and smart in the selling off their advanced technology and created a massive multibillion dollar industry. After the council was formed they funded thousands of charities all around the world. And what was once a PR nightmare seemed to change overnight. To Akio this had clearly been a ploy to win humans over but he guessed that people were mostly simple. After all it would be hard for anyone to believe that you were evil and dangerous if you were feeding orphans and helping cure children with cancer. It was a good thing, and Akio couldn't deny that. It had gone along way in helping make a place for themselves in this world. The humans had finally started settling into accepting their shared existence.
Akio figured, that all those unconfirmed rumors were likely in some ways true. Scientist had probably been able to prove genetic compatibility and that council would be starting a plan on negotiating for marriages. He had a feeling they were the first step in this process. After all it would first been important to normalize their presence into everyday society. Placing them as students in schools all across Japan would be the most obvious way to do that. The Nekoka’s booming success also had just about everyone scrambling for a way in to their company, but the Nekoka were loyal to their own. The company was run entirely by themselves And having been fortunate enough to be able to remain private, they had no plans to go public. There was a lot of under the radar chatter floating around that the only way in, would be through marriage arrangements. Human and Nekoka matches were on the horizon, it was now only a matter of time. The promise of wealth and power was enough to cause a plenty of stubborn minds to change.
He had a feeling the Council might just be hoping that one of his pride would mess up by allowing their teenage hormones to lead the way. The council would deal with the fallout after the fact while they got served to the hate groups on a silver platter. In a way it basically made his pride the guinea pigs and the sacrificial lambs. They were probably considered the most expendable of all the pride groups. Being the first to integrate had already put his pride at risk from hate groups. So far they were just dealing with acts of vandalism but it would likely escalate. He had wanted to tell the council exactly where they could shove their "request." It definitely didn't set well with him or any of his pride but they would make sure that soon everyone would know they could hold the own. They would survive with or without the help of the council and sentaa.
Still they would need allies, and they now had the unique opportunity to be the first to gain a large amount of human support. Being the first group meant the whole world would be watching them. And getting humans to see them as individuals and not just Nekoka would go along way for them. They couldn't just huddle together in the school, they would have to do some mingling. They had made a plan to spread themselves out across the campus by splitting into pairs and joining different clubs. He didn't want anyone to go it alone, everyone needed to have backup. But with their being twenty-one of them, it left Akio the odd man out. He was okay with it though and felt it better be him than anyone else.
He had actually already received a request to join the karate club. He had been training in karate with humans since he was young and had already decided it would likely be the club he was most comfortable with. The Sentaa had learned early on that they had to be careful in their choice of Akio's sparring partners. He was much stronger than a human and typically needed a much older and stronger partner. He had already started to practice with adults but that wouldn't be possible within a high school karate club. Akio had been expecting he would actually have to hold back entirely when the Sentaa assured him that they were able set one up someone suitable with in the club for him when they replied with his acceptance. He couldn't help but wonder if they were actually looking out for him or merely just try to place him into a position to where they could control him better. It made him very suspicious of his new sparring partner.
When the line of black cars finally pulled up to the front gates the security guards had to push back the crowds and make a path. The twenty-one nekoka teens filed out of the cars and made their way to the school gates. The noise of the crowd was almost deafening to their sensitive ears. Akio walked straight ahead ignoring their shouts. He stayed focused, doing his best to stay alert to any danger. But the screeching fangirls behind him suddenly got louder forcing him to turn around. He wasn't sure to whether he should laugh or frown. His merry band of brothers had started signing autographs and posing for selfies with the girls. The crowd was going wild, it was if they had suddenly become Idols.
Akio had known they already had some supporters but he hadn't been expecting the same reaction a famous boy-band would get. He guessed he couldn't fault his brothers for it, they were only being friendly like he asked. Though he was positive having girls fawn all over them for the first time was no hardship. He just smiled, turned back around, and kept walking towards the school. He could see the school principal waiting for him at the steps of the administration building. It was another factor to consider. He would need to figure out whose side the school itself was actually on. Hopefully it would be their first ally.