Hello, dear readers, and welcome to a new story of mine – Children of War. It features Hong Kong and his Districts during the Battle of Hong Kong, its unfortunate aftermath and at present day.

Subsection AU is applied to this fic.

Headcanon that 2P Japan was in control at that time.

The Districts were officially established in 1982, but that does not mean that they were all born at that time. Instead, their existence began before that, depending on their significance. They call Hong Kong "Ah Gor" (阿哥, Older Brother) because I headcanon that HK looked about 4 when the Treaty of Nanjing was signed, and the oldest Districts were 'born' (looked about 2) at that time. At current day, I think that the Districts look like preteens-teens.

Districts: Central & Western (Vicky and Lewis), Wan Chai (Owen and Britney), South (Adrian), Eastern (Arlene), Yau Tsim Mong (Emily and Nathan), Sham Shui Po (Marc), Wong Tai Sin (Philip), Kwun Tong (Luke), Kowloon City (Dexter), Sai Kung (Willow), Tuen Mun (Azzie), North (Andrew), Yuen Long (Autumn), Sha Tin (Samantha), Tai Po (Nigel), Tsuen Wan (Gwen), Kwai Tsing (Lynn), Islands (Skye)

I apologize here and in advance for the long A/Ns. Without further ado, story time!

Prologue: Promise

Adrian's PoV

"What's even the point of making a new Defense Plan?

There goes Andrew again, being pessimistic as always.

"What do you mean?" Azzie (short for Azalea) asks.

We're gonna go down anyway. Canton (1) has been surrounded since '38. We're an entrepot, meaning that we're vulnerable to marine attacks. They even called us "hard to defend". A Defense Plan is literally pointless and it's just gonna get people killed," Andrew is now ranting. You know what, that actually makes sense.

I mean, I'm like, literally the southern half of Hong Kong Island. That means that I'm vulnerable. I'm probably gonna get bombed or swamped by the Japanese navy or something.

"And stop helping China? No way!" scoffs Nathan (Mong Kok). Nathan is actually short for Nathaniel, but no one calls him that except for Ah Gor when he's openly angry, which is very rarely, in case anyone's wondering.

Of course, once again, in case anyone's wondering why Japan wants us to go down, it's 'cos after China retreated from his capital (2) into the more mountainous side of his land in the west, we've been sending him supplies and accepting his fleeing people. Now Mr. Betrayed-His-Siblings has annexed three of his little siblings (Taiwan and the Korea twins) and is goin' after the oldest of them. Ah Gor's the youngest and guarding Southeast Asia from that rat-ass. Obviously, sending supplies to Ah Gor's oldest brother and being in the Asshole's way means that he's just Asshole's Ngaan Zung Deng (3) and he's gonna end up in boiling-hot water.

Well, come to think about it, the supplies are probably sent by Autumn if Andrew has all but waved a white flag across the border. After all, the two of them share the Sham Chun (4)-Hong Kong border on our side.

Nigel shoots Nathan a look, his sickle resting on the massive dinner table we have gathered around. He doesn't really use sickles for their intended purpose – farming, which he does. (5) I think that he's worried 'cos he's kinda in the northeastern part of Ah Gor's land. After all, it will not be surprising at all if the Japanese, I dunno, waltz through Tolo Channel into Tolo Harbour (he and Samantha share its coastline).

"If we're honestly going down, we're not goin' down without a fight!" Vicky declares, Lewis and Owen nodding on either side of her. They're the Victoria City Triplets, are the oldest of all of us, being 'born' on the day when the God-be-damned Treaty of Nanjing was signed. I was 'born' a day after them. They represent Victoria City, our de facto capital (Ah Gor's heart) (6). On the contrary, a part of Owen's land has its own Personification, Britney or "Causeway Bay", she tells us. I dunno why, maybe something big in the future. (7)

The rest of us seem to mostly look offended. Can't they sense the danger of the position we are in right now? To be fair, I don't mean that we should go to the border and tell them that we surrender to them right now. God, I really don't know what to now…

"Okay, okay," Ah Gor announces. We all turn to look at him, because obviously he's older than us…even though we only look a few years younger than him (at most), he was 'born' sometime in the Ming Dynasty, I think. (8)

"We're not gonna go down. We're part of the British Empire, remember?" Ah Gor reminds us. That much is true…the British Empire is hard to take down, as far as I know. The American Revolution was probably all sheer dumb luck, not that I disapprove, of course.

A wave of murmurs sound from around the table. Then Emily (Tsim Sha Tsui) speaks up. "But what if the British Empire isn't as strong as we think we are?" Everyone turns to look at her as if her voice is a volleyball sailing its way to the other side of the net.

"What if we do go down? What if they…t-take you?" Her voice is quiet, which is strange, because she usually speaks at normal volume. The temperature in the room suddenly drops. Or at least, it feels like it.

"Don't worry, Em. That's won't happen. I promise that I won't leave you to fend for yourselves." Because we can't – we pretty much depend on each other for survival. The air suddenly gets warmer…golden, sunny hope, I realize all of a sudden.

But a nagging voice in the back of my head tells me, sounding like Ah Gor's Guardian, England, cynical and snarky, and cue 'promise broken'.

I ignore it.

1 – Canton is present-day Guangdong.

2 – China's capital/heart at that time was Nanking, present day Nanjing. Obviously, the full-Asian ally ain't going down without a fight.

3 – The official Romanization of 眼中釘. Its literal meaning is 'nail/tack in [the] eye'. Its actual meaning is, to put it bluntly, 'annoying little s**t, or pain in the ass'. For a politer phrase, I would use the word 'annoyance'.

4 – Sham Chun is present-day Shenzhen.

5 – As I might have mentioned in Anniversary, one of the Four Main Dialect Groups (or something along those lines) is the Punti, who farm for a living. They are divided into the Five Great Clans: the Tang, the Ma, the Hau, the Pang and the Liu. The Man Clan mainly settled in Tai Po. Nigel (the Personification of Tai Po, ICYMI) uses a sickle as his Weapon of Choice to honour both his Chinese (farming) side and his family's Western influence.

6 – Vicky is currently Central and Admiralty, part of the Central and Western District. Lewis is currently Sheung Wan, Sai Wan and the rest of the previously mentioned District. Owen is the Personification of Wan Chai District.

7 – Causeway Bay is, at present day, one of the major shopping areas in HK and helped us earn our title as a Shopping Paradise. Currently, Causeway Bay borders the Eastern District (Arlene's territory) and is a part of the Wan Chai District (Owen's territory).

8 – Personal Headcanon: Hong Kong himself was born in (approx.) 1500, about 20 years before the Chinese chased Portuguese settlers/traders away from Tuen Mun and Lantau Island (IMO, they probably fled to Macau…).

That's about it for this chapter. Thanks for reading, and look out for the next chapter, which will be posted very soon, if you are reading this as I just post(ed) this. Remember the usual: review, favourite and follow (if you want to). Flames will be used to burn Japanese troops as they...nope, no spoilers!

PS There is a poll on my profile for my next individual project. Go vote!