Their days were trying at times, but they had each other, and that was enough to make them happy. Aiko taught Masao everything she had learned, which was considerable, since she had been tutored by the best masters her father could find, as they had no difficulty paying them. Masao grew up to be an intelligent, if somewhat cocky teenager, and he was much more interested in modern technology, than his father’s simple ways of fishing.

He went out on his own adventures, looking for scrap metal, and any parts of electronics he could find on the shores and inland (he particularly frequented the dumpsters of electronic stores) and did his best to create devices that resembled what some of his favorite hyper-human superheroes from throughout history were able to do.

He read through any and all books, pamphlets, comic books, and watched all the cartoons and movies he could get his hands on. His favorites were that of people with magical abilities, like Lydia McManus and Bajan Emerald, as well as legendary Japanese warriors, such as Musashi of the 22nd century, and Danzo, the Iga Clan master, who was rumored to still be living at the ripe old age of 500 years. Masao was only thirteen years old when he created his very own “magic wand”, which used a sort of laser technology, and was able to move objects without him touching them. And though he had no hyper-abilities of his own, he felt like he could become one of the best superheroes the world had ever seen.

When Aiko became pregnant with her second child, she started to suffer from extreme fatigue, began losing weight, and was eventually relegated to bedrest, as she could no longer perform even the simplest household tasks. As they had already scraped together just enough money to hire a midwife, they had no more to spare for extra help around the house. And with Umeji out at sea for long periods of time, earning what money he could as a fisherman, the responsibility of keeping house fell to Masao. He loved his mother dearly, and did his best to try and help her wherever he could – he had to learn to cook, wash clothes, and clean up in the house. But he also began to neglect his hobby of technological advances.
When the day finally came for Aiko to give birth, about two weeks prior to what they were expecting, the two of them were alone at home, Umeji being out at sea. Aiko was extremely weak, and asked Masao to fetch the midwife.

He did as was bid, and returned shortly with the midwife, but he found it impossible to stay in the house, listening to his mother’s cries, so the women decided to send him out to keep watch for his father’s return. Masao knew they didn’t need him to do that, as the fact that he was watching the sea was not going to make Umeji arrive home faster, so he walked along the shore, looking for any useful items he could potentially use for his hobby.

He had just noticed an old, battered-looking smartbud communicator, when he suddenly heard an otherworldly cry that made his ears ring and his head hurt. As he was writhing in agony, he eventually ended up unconscious on the shore. That was where his father found him, and woke him up. As Masao opened his mouth to tell Umeji what happened, he noticed that he could not hear the sound of his own voice, nor the frantic questions his father was trying to ask him. The otherworldly cry had made him deaf! But they had no time to waste, so they ran back to the house, only to find both the midwife and their beloved Aiko dead. Only a tiny, barely moving bundle on the bed was awaiting them. They named her Kina.

Their devastation was impossible to handle. But somehow, they got through it together – the poor, widowed fisherman and his deaf son, with a newborn baby, who turned out to be a fox-eared female Kitsune. Umeji was astonished to find that the stories he had told to his wife about mythical creatures, that even he didn’t believe himself, turned out to not only be true, but seemingly be a part of their very own lineage.

Umeji and Masao struggled with their losses, and with nobody around to help raise the baby, Umeji was no longer able to go out fishing. They desperately needed some kind of financial aid. And that was when Masao revealed his inventions to his father. They began selling them on the internet, where they were also looking for jobs for Umeji. He eventually landed a job in an office building.

They turned their life around, managed to move into a larger apartment on a bigger island, shop for better clothing, food and appliances, and could even afford a nanny to help out with Kina. The Japanese office of Hyper Affairs provided the family with special soundproof walls, as well as an Ebb-tech Crib that would protect neighbors from the effects of the child’s cries. Furthermore, Masao designed a pair of earbuds for his father and the nanny that could filter out the deafening frequencies little Kina was prone to emit, while still speaking to each other. She was a clever and well tempered child, and understood fairly soon that she needed to be careful with the sounds she made. Umeji still couldn’t let her wander out into town and meet other people for fear of hurting them, so he hired tutors for both her and Masao, while also enrolling them in online courses.

Then, when Masao was nearly 18 years old, tragedy struck again: the building Umeji was working at was bombed by a hyper-villain terrorist squad called Stripes and Stars (named after a group started over a hundred years prior in the United States), and everyone inside perished. When Masao learned what had happened, he nearly lost consciousness. First his mother, now his father. He was angry at first, but soon realized that he had to be a stable and strong guide for his little sister. Officials from the Office of Hyper Affairs made the decision to transport Masao and Kina to a special Group Home in New Orleans, USA, that specifically serviced young people who had been orphaned through extraordinary circumstances. In most of the cases the kids themselves had accidentally caused their own parents’ deaths.

The leader of The Home, Francine Frey, also know as “Placebo”, welcomed them with open arms. Given his age and intelligence, it wasn’t long before Masao was offered a position as a staff member and teacher at The Home. Placebo was a powerful telepath, and thus could communicate with him easily despite his hearing impairment. But she, and several other residents of The Home, were also versed in a variety of sign-languages, so Masao had no problems getting along at all.

As he grew more and more comfortable within the walls of The Home, reading up on all the books he could find in the library, he noticed a mention of a special branch of martial arts – something called “Handotsu”, which centered around the ability to trick the mind of the opponent with complicated hand gestures, gaining the advantage in hand-to-hand combat.

When Masao tried out the motions, it proved easy to him, as he had been using sign language to communicate for years. However, he noticed something amazing – as his hands moved, a purple cloud of mist formed, making him virtually invisible to anyone looking. He was also able to project that mist onto objects and make them disappear, appear, and even move at will.

He became overjoyed, and immediately ran to Francine to tell her of the happy news – he was, after all, a hyper-being himself! She understood how important it was to him, and agreed to help him fully develop his hyper-abilities.

He quickly grew in power, however, he would soon learn that his was nothing compared to that of his little sister, Kina, when the full magnitude of her Kitsune abilities were unleashed, thanks to the tampering of another young orphan by the name of Maximilian Finch. Max was not just an ordinary orphan, though. He was actually embodied by a time-traveler, who had jumped into the future in an attempt to fix the Core Reality Timeline, which had been fractured in several places. Max needed to unleash Kina’s massive, nearly god-like powers, in order to gather enough chronokinetic energy to fuse the Timeline back together, thus saving reality and existence from derailing into oblivion.

Placebo attempted to prevent the tampering, as she new Kina’s powers were unstable, and that it could potentially lead to a different cataclysmic trouble. However, Max, in his desperation to fix the timeline, was able to use his own considerable psionic abilities to mentally outmaneuver the governess of The Home, and successfully activate Kina’s Kitsune abilities. Masao was startled, for not only did his sister unleash an incredible power-level, but also an incredible amount of anger and fury, that had been kept in check by Placebo’s telepathy. Kina was able to emit a brain-melting death-cry, which pinpointed the men and women of Stripes and Stars all over the world who were responsible for the attack that killed her parents. And it seemed like she was about to emit a second death-cry, that could possibly destroy even more people. However, when she looked at Masao and saw the love and care in his eyes, she began to calm down. At this point, Max had used the chronokinetic energy from her power-outburst to successfully fix the fracture in the timeline, and then he assisted Placebo in manipulating the hyper-stem in Kina’s mind to mute her powers for the time being, so she could continue to be Masao’s cute little sister for a while longer.

A few days later, Masao was called into Placebo’s office. They spoke a little bit about the incident with Kina and about Max, who was now back to being an ordinary hyper-being, after the time-traveler had quantum-leaped away to fix the next fracture in the timeline. Placebo told him that she was happy that the universe had apparently been saved by the traveler, however, her fear that the unleashing of Kina’s powers would have adverse and dangerous consequences had come true.

With the amount of chronokinetic energy that had been in the atmosphere, it allowed a short window of time for other beings and entities in the multiverse to engage in unchecked interdimensional travel. Using her telepathic abilities to scan the planet, Placebo had detected at first that no one had taken advantage of said window. But then, on that morning she had been awakened by the sudden presence of an incredibly powerful and malevolent being. She was called The Queen Immortal.

Masao asked if the Queen was coming for Kina. Placebo said that yes, she was. Masao stood up with determination, and declared that he would do whatever it took to defend his little sister and The Home. This made Placebo smile, and she said that she was glad he felt that way, but that he alone would stand no chance against the Queen Immortal. That’s when there was a knock at the door. As it opened, a trio of individuals Masao had never seen before walked into the room. Placebo introduced him to Magnanimous, Anamorph, and Kaneita Rain. She then turned to him, and asked if he’d like to join “The Phenomenals”.

Masao eagerly agreed.

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