Seicrisu: Creatures of Mystery

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Ch. 1: Seicrisu, Who Are You?

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In a small bedroom in an apartment complex, on a bright and beautiful sunrise…

A young boy of 10 years of age is sleeping soundly in his bed. He is average build and height, half-Japanese heritage, with naturally rich black ear-length hair and blue-green eyes. His name is Jotaro Shinji, but he usually prefers to be referred to as Sam Jones due to his having been born in America, and having lived there before moving to Japan, the land of his dad’s birth.

Shinji is a 5th grader at Kotokara Elementary. He doesn’t have a favorite subject in school because he’s pretty average in all of them. To him they’re all the same: part of everyone’s life.

Shinji’s flaw, unfortunately, is that he doesn’t want to show his real self in public because he is not sure what his real self is. This belief has conditioned him down to a seemingly lifeless demeanor. Also, because of that flaw, it made it seem that he had no personality or tastes to speak of.

Shinji’s alarm rang at 7 A.M. He got out of bed at the first ring, and then shuts it off. He got out of his white pajamas and dressed in a pair of black pants, a white shirt, and a beige jacket. As he went to the bathroom to brush his teeth——

A girl’s voice quipped out, “What do you know? The little robot has gotten up, precisely on schedule again.” Another dryly said, “Would you stop that? If you keep that up, who knows when he could break and develop multiple personality disorder?”

Coming out of the bathroom after brushing his teeth and using it, Shinji walks into the kitchen/dining room and quietly says, “Good morning.”

At the table were two girls: one with wild neck-length brown hair dressed in red and one with shoulder-length blonde hair with a single green hairclip in it dressed in a dark-blue sailor outfit, her school uniform.

The wild-haired girl is Tomiko, originally called ‘Tommie’ in America; she is Shinji’s bossy third eldest sister (11 years old). Tomiko’s favorite subject in school is physical education while her least favorite subject is social studies. She gets a kick out of picking on Shinji. She exploits every opportunity to use Shinji’s seemingly lifeless demeanor to make him the butt of her jokes. She even said that the day he’d stand up to her with her quaking in her boots will also be the day the world will blow up.

The other girl at the table is Takara, once known as ‘Carrie Jones’ in America; she is Shinji’s second eldest sister (12 years old) who is interested in getting rich, and quite possibly the smartest daughter in the family. Unlike Tomiko, she doesn’t exploit Shinji in her minor schemes for making money. In a way she’s better than that. Takara’s favorite subjects are arithmetic, science, social studies, and languages and her least favorite subject is art.

There’s a third girl, a very lovely teenager with long dark-brown hair with blue eyes wearing a frilly blue apron over her front; but she’s making breakfast because she likes to cook. She is Michiko, originally ‘Michelle Jones’ in America; she is the eldest child of the family (14 years old). Unlike her sisters, she’s kind and gentle, never one to tease or take advantage of Shinji to her benefit, she just plays the peacekeeper of the siblings.

Michiko is a 9th grader who goes to Kotokara Junior High, which along with Kotokara High happens to be next to Tomiko and Shinji’s school, with Takara, who’s in the 7th grade. Unlike her brother, in school she’s like a ‘jack-of-all-trades goddess’ with many talents since she’s remarkably good at everything she does as well as being a natural beauty; Tomiko and Takara are often jealous of her for being the family’s ‘golden child’.

Takara turns to call to her brother, “Hey, Shinji.” He turns to his sister in response. She asks, “Would you get to the cash box and get me 5000 yen for my lunch money?” Shinji nods and then reaches for the cash box on the high shelf, but being 134 centimeters high (a bit less than 4’5”) and the cash box being high on the shelf, he couldn’t reach it. Because he understood this at the moment, he mumbled quietly.

Mishearing what Shinji mumbled, Tomiko scoffs, “Someday? Let me guess; you’ll grow beyond the height of a telephone pole and you’ll stomp on me like a bug? Feh, you wish, runt.” As usual, poor Shinji didn’t respond.

Sometimes the three younger ones wonder ‘how could they be related?’

Michiko says, “I’ll get the chair for you, Sam.” Shinji shakes his head, “No thank you, nee-san, I’ll get a chair myself.” Tomiko groans, “Michiko-nee-san, need I remind you and Shinji that now that we are in Japan, we have to leave our American names behind.” “The little guy was more used to America and yet he was always like this,” sighed Takara “I just want him to realize that this is who he really is; a boy with a Japanese name, as well as have a good personality.”

Shinji places the ¥5000 onto the table next to his greedy sister, “There you go.” Takara says, “It wouldn’t hurt to express an emotion too.” Tomiko laughs, “Shinji showing an emotion on his face like a regular person would be the sign of the apocalypse.” Takara dryly said, “Bad one, sis. As usual.”

A woman’s voice from outside the room says, “Yes, but Shinji starting to act like a normal person instead of what he is now would be a miracle.”

The woman who said that came into the room. She is 39 years of age and has very long fluffy blonde hair with blue eyes, a slender body build, and a sweet expression on her face. This is the children’s European-American descent mother, Alice. She’s the only one whose name was never completely changed. She cooks in a restaurant when she’s not working on the domestic duties.

Tomiko says, “I hope he never changes; he’s been like this forever.” Takara says, “Actually, he’s been acting like he is for 7 years tonight. Of course he didn’t have much of a real life like us. I’d be surprised if he ended up as a butler.”

The 42-year-old Jotaro patriarch (and the kids’ father), Jotaro Shinji (I), enters the room. He originally changed his name to Samuel Jones when he came to America, solely for the purpose of traveling extensively after he graduated from high school. During his travels he met Alice, they fell in love, got married, and had the children.

3 weeks ago, they agreed to move the entire family to the land of Shinji senior’s birth.

Shinji’s father had hoped that someday that his son would grow out of the deadpan expression and display a personality. He works at a store, but they make a sufficient amount of money to live off on.

Shinji walks into the kitchen and says, “I’m going to toast some slices of bread and a glass of milk to go with my breakfast.” Michiko smiles, “Okay. Do you want your miso soup along with your grilled fish and fried eggs?” “Just a little, thank you” quietly says Shinji.

Shinji’s father looks at the boy hopefully; his son has been unlike other boys his age for the longest time. Quietly, Shinji senior said to his wife, “I hope he will have something nice or amazing happen to him.” Alice nods, “Me too.”

Later, at school, Shinji spent the entire day paying as much attention as possible to his studies, while ignoring the stares and teasing from other students. The teacher, Chono Nozomi, thinks that Shinji is the perfect example of a proper student because of his trouble-free life and studious nature. There are a few students who don’t do anything negative to him because there isn’t any fun in doing things Tomiko and the others do to him.

3 P.M., school is out… Shinji took cleaning duties as per request of Chono-sensei, so he is the last student to leave for home.

On his way home on his red, white, and black single-speed bicycle later that afternoon…

Shinji finds a dirt-encrusted die-like object, 2 inches on each side, on the ground. He picks it up and presses on it, revealing some red plastic underneath. He decides to pocket it, “I’ll take it home, clean it up, and then find the original owner of this later.”

As he rides off for home, a young dark-brown-haired man wearing a store apron (and a nametag reading ‘Kagami Isamu’) in front leans in from an alleyway (which is plastered with an old poster and a new one both mentioning ‘Seicrisu: Creatures of Mystery’ in Japanese and small traces of English) and says “Wow! Looks like whoever it was… he could be a rare soul worthy of something great… then again, he might get cold feet.”

Later that night, dinner is on at home. Everyone attempts watch some television while enjoying the nice meal made by the mother and eldest daughter. Shinji, however, isn’t paying attention to the tastes of his food as he eats it or to the television set with his family.

As soon as the news was over, so is Shinji with his meal. He gets up from his seat and quietly says, “I’m going to shower, brush my teeth, do something minor activity, and go to bed.” Tomiko smirks before saying to him “Be sure that there’s plenty of oil and shut yourself off properly, 3PO!” then she snickers at his silence. Takara quietly groans, “I’ve heard the funny farm pays you handsomely.”

As soon as Shinji enters the bathroom… he sighs out, “Oh man… it’s too nerve-wracking to keep up with the darn façade! Why can’t I act out like I want to? I just want to pound Tomiko for all her stupid humorless so-called jokes. Just because she’s a little bigger and a year older than me it doesn’t mean she has the right to rule over me like some dictator! I also want that to give that scrooge Takara a piece of my mind! And I should’ve told mom and Michiko that dinner was delicious!” Then he calms down, “Oh man… I don’t know what I want.”

He then removes his clothes and flops into the furo (bathtub), sadly sighing out as he brushes his teeth “I just wish I could express myself and remember what my personality’s really like.”

Seeing the dirt-covered die fall out of his pants pocket when he tossed them into the hamper, he remembers what he said earlier in the afternoon. “I guess if I clean it up now, the owner would be grateful.”

He picks up the dirty cube and works thoroughly to scrape the encrusted dirt off of it, revealing a large red-colored die-like object with what appears to be a round quarter-sized button, in a lighter shade of red, on each side. Five of the die’s buttons have individual markings: a sword with an ‘x10’, a shield with an ‘x4’, a sun with an ‘x8’, a crescent moon with an ‘x6’, and an arrow with an ‘x8’; while the sixth one had a pure red round shape attached inside it.

Pressing the side that has the round red object, it dispensed a small, truncated cone-shaped piece with small writing inside it (Fire; legend-type; dragon; male; Lvl: 5; ES: 1st; PA: 216; PD-: 104; Stam: 110; Sp: 126; Int-: 110; Wis: 180; Cha: 176; SA: 216; SD: 154) surrounding a red egg-like lump inside the ‘dish’. As for the sixth section of the red die-like plastic object, it had marking like the others: a single 5-pointed star. To Shinji, it turns out that the ‘buttons’ where actually docks for these small pieces.

“Huh?” Shinji carefully reads the words on the die. It has small writing in a different language on each edge connecting the corners, including English and Japanese; “‘Sei…cri…su?’” He then recalls some advertisements about some weird-sounding game that goes by the name of Seicrisu. “Darn!” he growls, “if only I had stopped to pay more attention to the other things around me, like whatever the game media is.”

Coming to his room at 10 PM, the time he usually goes to bed, Shinji changes into his pajamas and flops out on his bed, “Oh well, when I feel like that I’ll be——” then immediately fell asleep.

However, the sleep is not as calm as it usually is, he sees a colossal red dragon turn toward before him! It has a broad, muscular body with a long neck and tail. Its triangular unreflective scales are red. Its limbs are thick with muscle with 5 sharp-clawed digits on its four hands or feet. It has a large pair of fanlike wings running from shoulders to lower back. A single row of sharp triangular ridges runs from the back of its skull down toward the end of its tail, which is truly arrowhead-shaped and appears sharper than a razor. Its head is wedge-shaped with two curved golden horns at the back of it and a small golden blade-like horn on the snout. It has small narrow almond-shaped nostrils and frill or fin-like ears. Its eyes are light-blue with red irises with narrow pupils, like a cat’s eyes.

When the beast roared at him, Shinji wakes up abruptly, a few minutes earlier than usual and on the floor. “Okay,” Shinji calmly said, but without the usual emotionless and deadpan face “that was different. I tossed and turned and woke up 6 whole minutes before the clock had a chance to ring.” He turns to his clock, only to find it missing from its place and finding it in pieces on the floor, “I’ve got to ask dad for a new alarm clock, or better yet maybe an alarm wristwatch instead.”

The boy rushes out of his pajamas and into a fresh set of beige pants and a red t-shirt as he dashes for the kitchen, where he runs into Tomiko abruptly.

She cringes in a small amount of pain before exclaiming, “Where’s the fire, rhubarb pie boy?” Shinji asks, “Where’s father?” Michiko says, “Oh, mother and father are both still getting up. Why do you ask, Sam?” Shinji says, “I broke my alarm clock while tossing and turning.” Takara’s eyes widened a bit, “You actually tossed and turned?” Shinji nods, “Yes.”

Of course, the morning with the Jotaro family before the children go to school goes by as usual. The only exception was Shinji showing a slight hint of life, and only the parents have noticed it but don’t say anything.

Shinji still carries the Seicrisu game piece, whatever it is, in his pocket. Tomiko continued with the rhubarb pie boy quip on the trip, Takara just ignores it and takes the electric train to school, and Michiko tries to get her youngest sister to stop.

Shinji tries his hardest to get to school first so he can think more clearly without his sister bugging him, but he crashes into a bike rack and the recoil sends the boy flying forward toward an opening door…

As soon as he crashes onto the ground, he finds himself on the floor of the gymnasium. “Ouch,” Shinji asks himself “why did I go flying into the school gymnasium only in the way cartoon characters go?”

A burly man in a black muscle shirt and blue jeans looms over the boy and growls out, “Jotaro!” Shinji nervously gulps but then quietly says, “Oh! Good morning, Kairyuuyama-sensei.” Kairyuuyama-sensei growls, “Good to see you here again, and just in time too—— to drop in to give me 20 pushups.” Cringing a bit, Shinji says “Please call me ‘Sam’, I’ve lived with that name before moving to Japan,” but the kid does the pushups.

After the punishment from the physical fitness teacher/coach, Takanori Kairyuuyama, for crashing into the gym, Shinji proceeds on with the day as quietly as possible. But since this morning, he couldn’t regain his usual public demeanor, which is starting to get some of the other school members to suspect something.

One of the students that doesn’t negatively look at him, and today is among the first at school to notice his behavior, is Fujiwara Rushana, who is also known as Cle (it’s pronounced ‘clay’ and it’s short for ‘Cleopatra’). She’s basically the same height and age as Shinji, has a slender build for someone her age, a creamy skin tone, and serious yet soft milk chocolate eyes. She has silky long pink-tipped blue-green hair placed in three ponytails reaching down to her waist and two long bangs in front. Cle is easy on the eyes for her age (not that Shinji ever notices her), winning her several admirers and friends.

Cle never spoke to Shin directly, nor did she interact with him, but that was before today when he only paid attention to school lessons, because now he was acting differently. She walks up to his desk and asks him “You seem very different from how you usually are, can you tell me what happened please?”

Shinji looks up at her and tries to speak, but he is too nervous. Cle sighs, “Why don’t we wait after school? At that point we’ll be able to talk, Mr. Jones.” Sam looks up at her as she walks back to her seat, quietly he says “Thank you.”

When school was out, Chono-sensei walks up to Shinji and asks him to clean the classroom again, but then Cle comes before the teacher and says, “I’m sorry, sensei, but I must have Mr. Jones disinclined to acquiesce to your request for him to clean the room after school. Because, on behalf of the student body, we find it truly unfair for the other students and everybody should have a fair chance to clean up after school. Besides, any teacher’s obsession in just one of her students just lowers her down to degradation and causes the rise of irresponsibility in the other students.”

Shinji’s hair suddenly becomes wild and unruly with a row of hair spikes coming up from the middle of his head with single spikes of hair rising from the sides, with a hardened yet more confident tone of his voice he says to his teacher “No offense, sensei, but I’m with Fujiwara-san’s wisdom. Both my school and home lives is not worth the hassle and degradation I have to suffer internally.”

Chono-sensei gasps and steps back in surprise, “This can’t be Mr. Jotaro!”

Sam’s hair loses the spikes on the sides of his head and the row on top, but before he can speak for how he acted, a bespectacled classmate shows up and says “Sensei, I’ve been waiting for a chance to clean the classroom for two weeks now.” Meekly, Chono-sensei gives in, “Okay, you may proceed. Kusari-san.”

Now, outside of class, Shinji and Cle are able to talk to each other.

Cle says to Shinji, “Well, at least you got to get away from Chono-sensei.” “You’ve read my mind,” replies Shinji with a small smile. Cle says to the formerly deadpan-faced boy, “I know I’ve said this earlier, but you really do seem different from how you usually were. Don’t be shy, you can tell me.” Shinji quietly nervously chuckles out, “Okay… do you know about the game of Seicrisu? ‘cause yesterday afternoon while walking home I’ve found this crazy large die-like device that may have something to do with the game on the street, and then this morning I’ve faced this incredibly gigantic red dragon.”

To herself, Cle thought ‘Huh? Seicrisu and a red dragon? It’s a long shot but maybe I can prevent it from happening.’ She says to Shinji, “Seicrisu is a rather advanced game, just about everyone in the world can play it. But more often those who can read the 12 languages it’s set in; English, Japanese, Spanish, French, Chinese, German, Russian, African, Greek, Gaelic, Hebrew, and Italian. Of course, there are some countries in the world that require different languages to understand this game’s details written on them.”

Pulling out the red die device he found the day before, Shinji says “That explains the small writing on allover this die-like devices.” Cle notices the device and asks, “Wow! That’s a truly rare Seicrisu Die.” Shinji asks, “Can you explain the important pieces about this game, please?”

Cle points to her hips to show a silver-colored belt wrapped around it, with an oval-shaped buckle with the word ‘Seicrisu’ within it. Hanging from her left side is a bunch of card deck cases while a few box-shaped containers filled with Seicrisu Dice as she calls them, mostly blue colored, on her belt’s right side, She explains about it, “This belt is called a Seicrisu Belt. You mainly use it to carry the Seicrisu Cards and the Seicrisu Dice.”

As soon as they got in the courtyard, Cle says to him, “These Cards can assist us ‘Tamers’, also known as the players of the game, to change the course of the game to our favor with our Seicrisu.” She handed them to him so he could look at them, he blinked a few times before saying “These cards are different in front are so different from each other.” Cle smiles as she explains, “That’s because they’re set into four different cards: magic, ability, counter, and land.”

———Seicrisu Cards (as explained by Cle)———

Magic) these yellow cards affect the course of the game in a wide variety of ways.

Ability) these blue cards grant new temporary abilities for the Seicrisu to within the game session.

Counter) these red cards to counteract the current effects of other cards or Seicrisu regular abilities.

Land) these green cards to affect the gameplay in session for both players.

———Explanation of Cards done———

Shinji was amazed, “Whoa, I think I got some of it.” Cle says, “The Secrisu Die is basically what you carry the Seicrisu in.” Shinji pulls out the little piece off of the Seicrisu Die he found yesterday, “Are these little pieces the Seicrisu?” Cle nods, “Yes.”

Cle throws a shock of surprise toward the red Seicrisu Die that Shinji’s holding, “Whoo! Now that is a rare Die.” Shinji asks, “How so?” Cle explains, “For the cards, dice, and Seicrisu pieces, some of the writing on them or their name displayed come in different colors depending on their rarities; black for common, white for uncommon, copper for rare, silver for super rare, gold for ultra rare, and platinum for secret rare. That red Seicrisu Die has platinum writing on it.”

Shinji asks, “Do you roll the Die to get the Seicrisu out of it normally and into the game?” Cle nods, “Yes, that’s correct.”

Shinji asks, “What about the symbols on it? You know, where the Seicrisu-bit holders are on the die’s sides.” Cle says, “They’re used for gathering points to spend so you can have the following effects——“

———Seicrisu Die Symbols (as explained by Cle)———

For Seicrisu Dice when landing on a non-Seicrisu-equipped side (the bottom of a die)

Sword) allows for chances for a Seicrisu to attack.

Shield) allows for chances for a Seicrisu to apply its defenses.

Sun) allows for usage of a Seicrisu’s abilities, if they cost any.

Moon) allows for usage of a Seicrisu’s counter-abilities, if they cost any.

Star) allows the player to summon another Seicrisu if they have any.

Arrow) allows for chances to move a Seicrisu to a different section of the grip/map on the Field Cards.

———Explanation of Die Symbols done———

Cle continues, “As for the multiplier numbers, one would have to be very lucky to find a Die with at least a times 3 multiplier on three sides of a Die.” Shinji says, “Then this Die was made for people focusing mainly on attacking, moving, and using a Seicrisu’s power.” Shinji sighs with interest, “Gosh, I may need an instruction manual; I think you’re getting me close to getting hooked into this game.”

Cle smiles, “For the win.” Shinji smiles, “I’ve got to learn those expressions.”

Tomiko pops out from behind her brother and slaps him on the back hard, “Tomiko Joke Attack!” Shinji is sprawled to the ground, but he had some stamina left to groan out, “That wasn’t a joke attack, it was a sneak attack.” Tomiko smiles smugly, “Oh, what do you care?” “I don’t know what you think he’s like, you shrewish lowlife, but he certainly doesn’t deserve a sister like you to boss him around like he’s your personal slave or toy,” growled Cle.

Tomiko was displeased, “What was that?” Cle stood still and sternly glared at the older girl, “You heard me.”

Shinji recovers quickly as he looks toward the school gates and asks, “Isn’t that kouchou-sensei?” the girls drop their argument and look at the gate in confusion, “Huh?”

(A/N: ‘kouchou-sensei’ means ‘principal’)

The principal, Taichi Haisha, was handing some money to some people who look like some sort of goons at the school gate.

Shinji walks up to the principal and asks, “Um, what is this about, kouchou-sensei?” The principal sighs, “A small party of Yakuza have come to Kotokara and they’re demanding monetary payoffs from the schools to start with; sort of a protection fee.” Shinji’s eyes widened, “You can’t let that happen!” The principal sadly nods, “I know, but I don’t have any other choice.”

“But there’s always got to be a choice,” thinks Shinji, “but what could I do?”

A strange yet courageous masculine voice says from somewhere near him “Time to take charge, master.” Again, Shinji’s hair suddenly becomes wild and spiky again with the curved side ‘spikes’ and row of ‘spines’ on top going to bottom.

Tomiko, frightened by the Yakuza, quickly drags Shinji away, saying to him “Shinji, it’s best if we don’t get ourselves involved with these things.”

“Oh shut up, Tommie” says Shinji, but with a hardened edge to his voice, as he undoes the upper buttons of his shirt to widen his collars “your jokes are so lame that you couldn’t make a hyena make a sound or even crack a smile. So do yourself a favor.” He brushes her off and walks back to the yakuza.

Tomiko gasped in shock, “No way! It can’t be my wound-tight robot brother Shinji! This guy is on the edge of crazy!” Cle frowns slightly toward Shinji (but not him directly) and whispers to herself “It can’t be, but it looks like it is.”

Reappearing before the yakuza, ‘Shinji’ says confidently, “You gigantic punks are starting to annoy me.” One of the yakuza members asks, “Have you got a problem with how we work?” Shinji says, “Leave this city, cease your actions, and never return.” The boss of the group says, “You may teach the boy some manners, but don’t rough him up too much.”

The first yakuza goon that spoke to Shinji grinned viciously as he looms over the boy. But the next surprise comes along; Shinji turns around and elbows the bigger man in the gut, which makes the criminal have all the wind leave him as he hunches over in pain!

This action sure surprised everyone on campus, especially the yakuza and faculty, and left some of the students fainting.

Then Shinji swings his opponent over his shoulders and slams him into the ground!

Picking up a toothpick and placing it in his mouth, Shinji smugly says, “Isn’t it a shame? Some kids just never learn.”

Then the mafia goons gang up on him, but then Coach Kairyuuyama intervened. He blocks their path and says, “I hope you don’t mind my presence, Jotaro.” The yakuza grunts, who were originally ganging up on the now powerful and confident Shinji, gasp in shock and take a step back in cowardice, “It’s the Kyushu Body King, Kairyuuyama! The lone man who defeated 5 whole armies worth of armed opponents with his bare hands and without breaking a sweat, the man who could easily compare to the legend Bruce Lee’s characters!”

At that, most of the yakuza ran away, leaving behind a shaking few and their boss.

Shinji confidently chuckles, “Okay, coach. Allow me to deal some justice with this mob boss.” Kairyuuyama confidently nods, “Show him and me what you’ve got, Jotaro.”

Shinji steps up to the stubborn yakuza leader and places a fist a millimeter away from the bigger man’s chest… “One Millimeter Punch.” Confused, the yakuza boss exclaims, “Huh?”

BAM! With the extremely close fist impacting against his opponent, Shinji sent the unfortunate receiver flying like a rocket! Along with the amazed crowds from all three schools, Shinji and Kairyuuyama look over the distance…

Kairyuuyama smiles, “130.11 meters… it’s a world record.” Shinji smirks, “Heh-heh!”

Looking down at the panicking bunch, “You’re lucky that you’ve just caught me on a weird day, if it were bad, I’d maul you some more. As I said before; leave Kotokara, cease your actions, and never return! Because if you don’t heed my words… imagine the damage the rest of the faculty and students of any of these three schools could do on a bad day.” Seeing this bluff as a good front, the principal mimics Shinji and says, “Just be glad we were going easy on you. Now leave before we all go supernova.”

At that, the Yakuza thugs run away screaming!

Of course, Shinji’s sudden dragon-like hairstyle and confident outlook vanish as he somehow returns to normal afterward, with the exception that his hair is still wild and he’s still not deadpan. Nervously, the Jotaro boy turns to see the entirety of the students of each school crowding the gates of their respective schools in silence.

The silence broke when a student from the middle school says, “My hero!” Then everybody becomes excited about what Shinji just did. Even the burly and/or meek elementary school boys want Shinji to be their aniki, or ‘boss’.

Cle frowns a bit, but calmly says to herself “Without a doubt, they share an alignment and fate has brought them together… might as well explain the more important bit of information about Seicrisu.”

Luckily, Shinji is able to disappear from the crowd through stealth and speed. He runs to an empty alley for cover, he looks to the street to see the yakuza goons are actually fleeing in terror. He asks himself, “How was it possible that the demeanor I’ve shown for years has completely gone to the dogs?”

The strange courageous voice spoke to him again, “All that happened was your confidence increased, along with some knowledge of wielding your ki; which, by the way, is a lot even without my help.” Slightly spooked, Shinji looks around asking, “Who’s there?”

A small red glow came up from around Shinji’s body, something silvery fell on him knocking him to the ground. The glow then dissipates and then reveals a small plush toy-like version of the red dragon he saw in his dream. It’s no bigger than a small puppy dog. The next-to-ultimate surprise is when the dragon acts on its own, like it’s actually a living creature——

“Me,” the little red dragon said as he introduces himself, “unfortunately I don’t have a name. So I’m counting on you anyway, master.”

“I must be dreaming!” shouted Shinji. The small red dragon said, “Uh… you’re wide awake.”

“Have I gone senile?” asked Shinji. The dragon sweat-drops, “No, you’re quite sane.”

“Be gone, evil spirit!” shrieked Shinji as he thrusts his palms at the dragon, who angrily yells out “Who’s the evil spirit? You moron!”

A familiar voice says to Shinji, “He’s definitely anything but a nightmare, a figment of your imagination, or an evil spirit…” he turns to see the owner of the voice, Cle, walking towards him, “that precious creature.” Shinji gasps, “Fujiwara-san?”

Cle says, “I didn’t want to frighten you with another bit of fact about the Seicrisu. But they’re more than mere toys or other kinds of play things.” Shinji blinks, “More than that?” The dragon nods, “Exactly, master.”

Shinji groans, “Whoa! Reality check.” Cle gasps in shock and quickly crosses her arms across her chest screaming out, “YOU SHOULDN’T SAY THAT!” Shinji was confused, “Why?” Soon the world around him becomes engulfed in balls of colored light. FLASH! He appears in an open field, much to his surprise.

The blue sky and green fields are still the same, save for the fact that he sees a second celestial object in the sky that roughly resembles the Earth as seen in space, along with the other fact that there’s a huge forest behind him with a range of mountains (and a single volcano-like mountain within them) beyond it. Then he sees other kids playing with oddly colored beasts, like a green-colored ostrich; before disappearing the same way he got to this location.

He exclaims loudly, “EH? WHAT THE HELL?!”

His exclamation echoed several times, before the red dragon’s voice was heard again, saying to him, “Master, analogies referring to reality or transportation along with thoughts of relating to them can act as a one-way ticket to the Seicrisu Dimension and back to your world.”

Shinji turns to find the red dragon he’s seen in his dream earlier right behind him. He isn’t too thrilled to see the creature again; he is terrified beyond the hope of making the slightest reaction.

A small shower of balls of colored light appears nearby Shinji. This finally gets him able to panic and scream. The colored light balls swirl around in a spinning spiraling helix of colors until VOOMPH! They explode, revealing Cle with a blue soccer ball-sized ball which turns into a large blue butterfly and an emerald-colored unicorn with a golden horn beside her.

“Mou,” groans Cle. “Yeah,” groans the dragon, “way to make a guy feel bad.”

(A/N: ‘Mou’ is a Japanese way of expressing frustration.)

Shinji gasps at the two creatures appearing and backs off. Cle frowns. “Would you just chill? They’re not going to hurt you. For one, these two are mine, and two, seeing how the dragon doesn’t seem to want to attack you, neither is he.” Shinji shrieks out, “Fujiwara-san, tell me; what is this place? What’s going on here? And what the hell are these monsters?”

Cle walks up to Shinji and says, “First of all, I find it rather rude to refer them as just ‘monsters’; second of all, it looks like you’ve got roped into it too; finally, you are in a different dimension. And as I was saying before; there is more to Seicrisu than just the game.” Shinji blinks in shock, “There is?”

He’s in another dimension? How did they get here in the first place? Also, what are the creatures? Maybe Cle knows the answers to his questions.

Cle says, “The dragon is an extension of a part of you; the dragon is a Seicrisu.” Shinji blinks in shock, “This is a Seicrisu?” The dragon says to Shinji, “By some strange coincidence, the moment you picked up the Seicrisu Die that had me in my egg I was born this morning, empowered by a certain point of yourself, including personality and soul.”

The butterfly floats down to Shinji and calmly says, “Hello, I am Bubble-fly, I am a Water element butterfly-type bug Seicrisu who prefers to the art of healing and special defense. I am quite partial to honey and other sweet things.” The unicorn walks up to Shinji and kneels in introducing herself, “Hello, my name is Yuna.”

Shinji sighs, “Okay, so I’m naïve about this whole business.” Cle interrupts, “No, you’re just new to this. I was too last year, but over time I got used to it.” Then she notices Shinji walking away, “Uh… I’m not finished talking here. Besides, it’s too dangerous for one without a Seicrisu or the proper items in a Seicrisu Tamer’s list of equipment to wander about here!”

“Huh?” replied Shinji, as he kicks a small stone unintentionally in the air. Hearing a soft thud, the boy turns his sight into the direction of impact, only to find coming out of the forest… are two skeletal/feathered crow-like creatures with angered looks of hatred that later turn into excited looks of desire in their dark-brown eyes.

Shinji nervously asks Cle, “Are they Seicrisu too?” Cle nods, “Yep. They appear to be crow-type undead.” She pulls out a calculator/scanner-like device and points it at them before reading off it, “They are, and of the Air element at level 3. They both have a physical attack power of 80, a physical defense power of 30, stamina of 56, speed of 84, intelligence of 70, wisdom of 72, charisma of 36, a special attack power of 108, and special defense power of 123. They may not be pretty nor tough but they’re crafty, fast, and have strong attacks.”

As he slowly backs away from the wild Seicrisu, Shinji calmly asks Cle, “What is that device?” She says, “It’s a Seicrisu Scanulator, it works like a scanner to get information on the Seicrisu Battle or the Seicrisu. Also works as a calculator for computing various information involving currently scanned Seicrisu.”

Shinji asks, “How come they’re avoiding you and coming toward me?” Cle points to her silvery belt and says, “When you travel into the Seicrisu Dimension, you have to have a Seicrisu Belt to protect you from possession from wild Seicrisu!”

Shinji remembers, “I’ve had that belt fall on me yet it fell off when I got here!” he turns and runs for his life! The giant crows cry out, “Get him!” and fly upwards and then toward the running boy!

The dragon groans, “Master…” picks up the Belt that Shinji dropped, and flies after him!

Cle groans out, “Mou!”

Shinji continues running, but the giant crow Seicrisu were catching up to him, he tripped over a stone and slipped to the ground, having the crows fly past him.

The red dragon lands behind him, “You have the devil’s luck, master.” Shinji looks up and shouts out, “Hey, you! Would you stop calling me that? You never belonged to me in the first place!” Seeing the Seicrisu Belt held in the dragon’s claws, Shinji quickly says, “Give me the belt! I need to get out of here!” The Seicrisu shakes his head, “Not until you trust in me and in yourself!”

Feeling the ground rumble beneath him, Shinji rolled away and the dragon jumps backward to see what was coming out, a school bus-sized brown mole with a nose shaped like a flower crawls out from it. Shinji is shocked, “Huh? A flower-nosed mole?”

The dragon growls, “Damn it! You’re leading more to you like kittens to a ball of catnip, master!” Shinji, turning to run again, yells at the dragon, “Leave me alone, you!” The dragon groans as he gives chase after the boy, “Master, would you please stop calling me ‘you’?” Shinji screams, “I am NOT your master!”

As Shinji continues running, more and more Seicrisu of all shapes, colors, species, and forms came rushing around him. He trips again, only to have him left in the open to be vulnerable to the oncoming stampede of Seicrisu after him. The red dragon had to do something to prevent them from getting closer to the young boy.

Seeing the hordes of wild Seicrisu storm at the dragon, Shinji asks, “Why are those guys attacking him?” Cle calls to Shinji, answering “It’s not uncommon for wild Seicrisu to avoid the Tamers and their Seicrisu in this dimension, but there are exceptions; especially when some Seicrisu have made a recent connection with a Tamer, no matter how big or small. Since dragon-san here was born from your long-hidden toughness, confidence, and courage and merged with you earlier, these wild Seicrisu see him as an obstacle to get to you!”

Shinji says, “But I’ve only found the Die with the unborn dragon covered in dirt on the street yesterday! Now thanks to him possessing me back at school back there, I’m bound to have Yakuza to hire someone to kill me for scaring and embarrassing them! I just wanted to find its owner, stay out of trouble, and continue on with my life!”

The red dragon Seicrisu growls out, “What life?” Shinji heard the dragon and replied, “Huh?” Keeping the wild ones back, the dragon says “Nobody cares whether that Die was abandoned or not, what matters is that you found me and that your aura and some of your long-buried characteristics incubated me, hatched me, and matured me just fine. I know how much you’re pissed off you are towards your greedy sister, Takara, and your out-of-tune sister, Tomiko, and how much you want to give them a piece of your mind. How you are afraid of yourself because you don’t know what consequence would come and how you’re trying to adjust to your old man’s land of birth. Besides, that wasn’t possession, it was Seicrisu Mergence; they’re completely different from each other. These guys want to possess you because you’re easy picking without the Belt, but still you’re still vulnerable without a Seicrisu to aid you. I’m the only one in your arsenal. Don’t worry about those yakuza; if they so much as pick on you again, we’ll give them a piece of our mind they’ll never forget… together. Come on, boss!”

Shinji is speechless, the dragon Seicrisu is correct about him. He held out his hand for the Belt, which the dragon tosses to him. Putting the Belt on, Shinji then calls out to the dragon, “Blow them away!”

The dragon huffs up and spews a mighty burst of flames from his mouth on all of the Seicrisu he was pushing back, “Flame Burst!”

The dragon says to Shinji, “They’re weakened; you can capture them and make them extensions to your Seicrisu team, then they won’t be interested in possessing you because they’re going to be tamed that easily!” Shinji asks, “How do I capture it? This Belt doesn’t seem to come with a net and tranquilizer darts.” Cle says, “Use dragon-san’s Seicrisu Die; shoot or throw it at the knocked out Seicrisu!”

Shinji looks at the red Die, which is conveniently placed in one of the Seicrisu Die pouches on the Belt, and squeezes as terribly hard as he could on the sides, making it shoot at the knocked out wild Seicrisu and rebound off the other, repeatedly. Each Seicrisu that was hit by the Die glowed in an array of colors before turning into harmless-looking little plastic Seicrisu game pieces.

Amazed, Cle said, “That was some hot die shooting skill.” Shinji blinks as he picks up the Seicrisu he caught, “I’m kind of impressed myself. But I think I may need more Dice.” Cle padded one of Shinji’s Die containers on his ‘new’ Seicrisu Belt, “Guess again, and I bet you’ve got some new Cards too.”

Shinji looks in the containers on his Belt, he’s got Seicrisu Cards and extra Seicrisu Dice loaded with Seicrisu, which showed that the bottom sides show pictures of the Seicrisu’s true form.

Shinji then turns to the dragon and…

Shinji asks, “Drake, how about that for your name?” the red dragon, now dubbed as Drake, looks at Shinji and sarcastically says, “It’s a little too traditional, but it’s a name none the less.”

Bubble-fly flops onto her mistress’ shoulder and sighs, “Oh! With that kind of attitude, he could barely become an adequate Seicrisu Tamer.” Cle shakes her head, “I don’t know. He may be able to pull something off.

From beyond the scenes, a mysterious young girl with a butterfly mask over her face watched everything from the distance, she says with a smile on her lips “Looks like he’s finally showing it. He may be a great Seicrisu Tamer yet.”

To be continued…