Kihachi "Pops" Sugiyama was many things. An owner of a business- his beloved game bar, MOGRA-, the leader of a community watch group, the Akiba Freedom Fighters, a kind man, and the adopted father of two socially awkward but well-meaning children. Nanashi and his little sister Nana had come into his care when he was 46, when Nanashi was 6 and his little sister was 3. Raising them had been hard for him, being a person who wasn't good with committed relationships made it tough.
Despite that, he loved the two. He raised them to do what was right when the chance presented itself. Nanashi, the poor otaku, was a lost puppy when his parents passed, he had been a dedicated momma's boy. Losing the woman had scarred him deeply, and the once boisterous and rowdy boy brimming with overconfidence and zeal had become a shy shell of a person who didn't know what to do. Nana, fortunately was only an infant and didn't truly understand what had happened. Being a friend of the family, despite a not-so-close one, he was the only one willing to take them in. He loved them, dearly, and would kill for them if he had to, though he never admitted that out loud.
Raising them brought back memories. Old, horrible memories, of a woman and an infant. Of a family he had abandoned when he had been stupid. He was "young," around 38, and reckless and though only of himself when he left. To this day, he could never forget walking out, ignoring the crying of an ex-girlfriend and of an infant son he had forsaken so he could do what HE wanted. The irony, that he had given up a family with nary a thought when he was younger only to take in two children who needed a family when he was older was not lost on him.
When Pops first heard the word "Synthister," he laughed inside. It sounded like some manga/JRPG/RPG/fantasy word that was just that, fantasy. When he saw some "Synthisters" go up in a blaze of purple flames/smoke/aura, he was convinced. The whole situation was stressful. Learning his adopted son was now one of them, and could easily die because someone wanted some conveyor belt vampires, was both heartbreaking and pissed him off to a level he had never experienced. With this anger came will, the will to put the hurt on the organization and their artificial freak brigade.
The ring of the shop phone, got the attention of MOGRA's resident maid, a Finnish girl by the name of Kati Raikkonen. Kati was a blond girl with large blue eyes, a busty figure and an innocently positive attitude who meant well, even if she screwed up her Japanese sometimes. She wore a blue maid outfit with a pink butterfly hairpin, a maid's headdress and black pumps.
"Game bar MOGRA! How may we help you?" her energetic voice chimed.
"Is Kihachi Sugiyama there?" asked a calm female voice, though the way she said Pops' name had a noticeable edge that the innocent girl missed entirely.
"Hold on. I'll go gets him right new." she said happily, unaware of her slip-ups. With that she place the phone on its back on the counter and ran to a separate room to get Pops.
Kihachi hummed as he sat in a chair in a separate room from the main area of the bar, working on one of the arcade cabinets that had been malfunctioning. This particular one was a steady problem and pretty soon, he would have to scrap it. Shame too, PAX-Min was hard to find as an arcade cabinet. The sound of approaching footsteps caught the aged man's attention, as soon the busty maid under his employ showed her face.
"Pops, you have a call from a woman. I think she knows you personality." the Finnish maid said. Kihachi gave a nod, placing the arcade board and soldering kit to the side before following Kati out of the room.
Arriving with the professional strides of a business owner, in one swoop Kihachi picked up the phone.
"This is Kihachi Sugiyama. Who is this?" he asked professionally.
"Hello, Sugiyama." the woman's voice came, colder than when she talked to Kati. Kihachi's fingers clenched as surprise, fear and regret immediately set in on his person.
"K-Kushina…" he said in shock. Why? How did the mother of his child know he worked here?
"It's been a long time, Sugiyama. 19 years to be exact. You may be shocked, but this is a warning, you abandoner. Your son is going to be in Akihabara for the next month. I knew you would be there, being the game-enthusiast you always were. He is there to meet you. Despite the stunt you pulled, he deserves that much. If I find out you avoided him… let me make it simple… I will take you to court for 18 years of child support. You would end up selling that little shit show of a bar of yours to pay it back. Got me, Sugiyama?" she spoke, her voice demanding no interruptions.
"Kushina that's hardly fair…" he insisted. Her biting response squashed his refusal.
"Fair!? You want fair!? Was it fair to abandon me when you and I were to be married in three months!? Was it fair when you abandoned your son who was only a month old!? All for a game bar!? Do NOT speak to me of fairness! EVER, Sugiyama! And to make it worse, I read about you taking in two children who weren't yours! Was something wrong with me!? With Naruto!? What makes them better than your own son!?" the woman, Kushina, roared with fury.
"N-Nothing was wrong with you or Naruto.. I just… I was stupid…"
"You were, Sugiyama. You ruined my life and your son's. Now, use what time I was extremely reluctant to give you to try and make amends with your son. Because if I had my way, you would never EVER see him, not even on your deathbed." her words were venomous. Where was once happy, joyous love and care in her voice that she reserved only for him was now utter loathing to the point that he could die and she wouldn't even blink. It hurt, but he knew he deserved it.
"Of course, Kushina… I understand. Thank you." he said solemnly. Suddenly, the idea of participating in his dream and fixing that arcade board left a sour taste in his mouth.
"And don't call me Kushina. You lost that right. It's Namikaze now." she said, hanging up the phone. That put a spike through his heart. She had married another man, who had most likely raised Naruto to be a great man. He had no right to be angry, so he hung the phone up with a frown. Kati, having been respectfully silent the entire time, gave him a hug. Pops was like an uncle to her, a forever-young and hip uncle but an uncle nonetheless.
"Pops, are you okay?" she asked. He didn't answer, he didn't need to. The sobs that soon racked his body told all that she needed to hear. She led him over to one of the couches in the center and sat him down before going to fetch a drink. He needed time to think.
Footstep could be heard from the entrance, two pairs to be precise, over an hour after the call.
"I'm telling you, Yuto! I met this guy online! He's cool! And he's coming to visit me! He said so! He even calls me Kai too!" an energetic female voice yelled angrily.
"And I'm telling you I don't believe you, Kaiko. For two reason, as I said before. One: You've sworn up and down on numerous occasions that the only guys you like are the 2D ones in your Otome dating sims. Two: You've declared numerous times as well that no 3D guy is worth time. You also called them 3DPD which, if my knowledge of otaku subculture is correct, which it is considering you're my sister, means 3-Dimensional Pig Disgusting. You stated that 2D men are far superior to 3D." Yuto rebuked, apparently once more.
Kaiko, the eldest sibling of the fraternal twins, was a cute girl with boyish charm at 19 years of age. Kaiko had short, messy brown hair that fell around sharp blue eyes with a beauty mark under the left eye and pale skin from not going out unless it was to buy models, and other anime related goods. She wore a green checkered shirt left unbuttoned with the sleeves rolled to her slim forearms, over a white shirt with the name of an anime on it that was tucked into a pair of hip-hugging blue jeans, with a pair of black sneakers with splashes of red, blue, green and yellow for color, and finishing it off was a black backpack with two rolled up posters poking out one side. A self-titled Otome Dating Sim Master and ultra-hardcore otaku and certified NEET. Her three sizes were 85-76-84.
Yuto, the youngest by 6 minutes but most definitely smartest of the two (though Kaiko would argue that point to the death), was a male of slim build and 19 years of age. He possessed short, neat brown hair combed to keep the bangs out of his blue eyes that were surrounded by a pair of black rimmed box glasses. He wore a blue three-fourth sleeve, horizontally striped, collared shirt left unbuttoned over a grey v-neck shirt tucked into a pair of tan three-quarter jeans, with a green lanyard around his neck, blue green sneakers and a school bag hanging from one shoulder. A mild-mannered foil to his cocky and boisterous sister, and a sophomore college student with a known weakness for cute girls and no interest in otaku subculture, but knowledgeable because of his elder sister. Him and his sister were both fellow members of the Akiba Freedom Fighters alongside Nanashi, Nana, Kati Raikkonen, Tohko Sagisaka, Pops and just recently Shizuku Tokikaze.
"A boyfriend? Oh happy days! Three cheers! Bob! Omb!" cheered Kati, having heard the two siblings talking. Kaiko gave a fierce blush at the busty foreigner.
"H-he-he's not my b-bo-boyfriend! He's a boy who's a friend that I met online who agreed to meet me!" the girl vehemently denied.
"On the chance that he IS real, which I doubt, what's his name?" Yuto inquired.
"Well his handle on Pitter is Sparx. His real name is Naruto Sugiyama. I even have a picture of him on my phone. He's an underground idol singer. He & Rin even bounced ideas, which he confirmed when he sent a pic of the original prototype sheet for one of her songs." Kaiko stated, casually pulling out her phone and pulling up a picture. When the two teens looked at it, both were surprised, Kati even having a blush on her face.
In the picture was a fit teen with a defined musculature, rounded shoulders, flat stomach with six pack abs, a muscled chest and decent bulk on his arms. He was posed in the picture in a way showing he took a selfie. He faced the camera, shirtless with a pair of baggy jean shorts that looked frayed and showed signs of being patched together with an orange cloth belt, the shorts hanging low enough on his muscled frame to show the waistband of black boxers with grey trim. On his hands were black gloves and a rosary around his wrist. He had tan skin that was still somewhat wet showing he had just gotten a shower, a narrow face that somehow seemed familiar to Kati and Yuto, with shock blond hair in a messy do with grey-blue eyes that forced others to look at them (Basically a shirtless Naruto, with a basketball players build, wearing the Anger outfit from Brink). On his face was a smile that would melt hearts as if the person he took the picture for was someone that only he would allow to see. Though if one looked at Kati, they'd swear she was a Finnish tomato with how red she was.
"W-well, fair enough. He's real. You win this one, Kaiko, though that surprises me greatly all things considered. But why such a risque picture?" the blush that appeared on Kaiko's face told her brother enough. The two had BOTH been sending risque pictures to each other. The defensive brother part of Yuto was suspicious of Naruto sexting his sister. "How risque have these pictures been? Hopefully you haven't been sending nude photos to someone you've never met."
"O-of course not! I'd never! The most he's ever seen is my bra! WAIT! Why am I telling YOU this!? I'm older! It doesn't matter if I do or not! Besides, I've known him for the last 2 years! We met on Pitter when a friend showed me a video of him performing and I called him a phony."
"Wait... the same person you're meeting soon... you met when you called him a fake? Did I hear that right?" somehow when Yuto asked that with a deadpan expression, Kati managed to mirror it perfectly.
"I... might have thought he was, uh, lip-syncing his lines... heheh" Kaiko looked decidedly ashamed of that. She really was... after all, Naruto was passionate about his music career, he poured everything he had into it. To insult that, had set off a bomb that Kaiko had later learned to equate with a hydrogen bomb with how intense his anger had been. She had never read such colorful ways for a guy to get back at a girl, especially ones involving wood glue, a pair of pliers, two paddles, a slinky and a rubber ducky... yeah she didn't want to explain how the last two worked but she still got shivers when he explained it. It's crazy to think a rubber ducky could be used in such a way. Of course she didn't know of his passionate until after his insult, in which they somehow managed to find a common ground and forgive each other, Naruto forgiving her insult and Kaiko forgiving him for the nightmares his threat caused. As Kaiko was putting her phone away, it lit up, music playing and Naruto's face appearing on screen. She swiped it and his face disappeared only to reappear moving and happy. Face-Moment was such a great app.
"Kaiko! What's up! Hey I just got into the station. You wouldn't believe what I saw as I looked outside. This guy ripped a girls skirt off before running off! He tore the thing right off, with a crowd watching! The nerve of some people, damn pervert ran off and everybody just carried on... That makes me feel a little more worried for your safety and those female friends of yours, Tohko, Kati and Nana. Especially Nana... A little girl is definitely not safe around that kinda person... But I digress... How are you?" Kaiko was embarrassed... especially since she knew that was her human-turned-Synthister friend Nanashi doing the stripping.
"I-I'm fine! My little brother didn't think you were real until I showed him a picture." Naruto's face suddenly colored on screen.
"Wait! Which picture!? We've sent a lot these past 3 months so... nothing too bad I hope" he stammered nervously. This was NOT how he wanted to meet his girlfriend's brother, not with him seeing what only Kaiko should see.
"Course not! The pants were on in the picture, it was the one you sent after you got out of the shower and got dressed."
"Okay. Whew, almost gave me a heartache, babe. Warn a guy next time... All right... I'm at the ET Plaza right now, see you when you get here. Oh and hi there, Yuto and Kati! Nice to meet you guys!" the screen went blank after that. Yuto nodded at the screen before blinking quickly.
"Kaiko, does Naruto know you're a NEET and an Otaku?" he asked, genuinely curious. The two seemed to like each other a lot (No shit. No sensible people would sext each other without being sure enough of their relationship to send such pictures).
"He knows about the NEET part, he even said it was pretty NEET-o. The jackass and his puns..." she agreed, before mumbling at the end. Naruto, to anyone who knew him, was a notorious pun-spewer. If there was a pun there, he would make it no matter how bad, because it was usually so bad it made people laugh. She nodded to herself, before standing up from her seat. "I'm heading to go pick Naruto up, anyone wanna come with?" she asked, purely to be polite.
"I will..." Kihachi popped up, finally talking after just sitting at the center table for the last hour. "I have to anyway... It's time this old man finally met his son after so long after all..." it wasn't hard to hear how old Pops suddenly sounded in that moment.
"Wait... son! Naruto's your son!? When did this happen!?"
"19 years ago. I was going through a crisis... I had a lovely fiancee, a newborn son, a future with them that was waiting, and a dream that I had wanted to pursue for so long... I had thought that, at the time, I had a choice to make. The family that needed me, or the dream I had chased for so long. I... selfishly thought that my dream needed me more than my family, and left them behind to start what would later become MOGRA... I regret it so much sometimes, but never more today than any other time in my life... I'm going to see the son I left behind for the first time since he was a month old... That woman that called earlier, Kati, was my ex-fiancee... I have no doubts she hates my guts now, I left her alone... broken-hearted, poor, and faced with the harsh life of a single mother. Turns out she married someone else, according to her. I lost her to another guy who was willing to be the man I couldn't." Kihachi reeked of regret and self-loathing at this point. Kaiko, despite how nice she could be, was holding herself back from hauling off and belting the man she had come to see as family. He had admitted to being her boyfriend's dad; fair enough, that explained why Naruto didn't like talking about it. Then he admitted to ABANDONING his family for his dream, after his family was about 90% complete... she wanted to belt him hard... so hard the rubber ducky threat would look tame. She released a breath though, because that was the past, a time when Pops wasn't the man he was today and the man she had come to respect, despite the biting remarks she threw sometimes.
"Alright, well... let's go. To ET Plaza!" Kaiko jogged up the stairs quickly, the smile on her face positively beatific at the thought of hugging Naruto as soon as she saw him.
Naruto stood patiently in the plaza right outside the station exit. He was dressed in his torn jean shorts, a black hoodie with three-quarter sleeves, a backpack, and a bandanna with stitch marks in the pattern of a smile around his neck, finished by red cloth around his shins and black shoes. His hoodie was down allowing his golden hair to be seen in the nice summer air.
"Akihabara... Naruto "Sparx" Sugiyama is here to play." he breathed with a smile on his face. Turning his head, he watched people mill about their daily lives in happy bliss. This place... it was an eden... awkward, obtuse, normal, freak, stupid, smart... it didn't matter in Akiba. In Akiba, that special brand of crazy was split amongst every single person living in its border. This was where he felt at home, where the people wouldn't call him weird for his clothing style, people wouldn't judge him because his step-father wasn't his real father, where he could show his interest in otaku culture without being called that tacky slang word "weeaboo." This... was where he would be glad to stay forever. It didn't matter if his label cut him, or his manager quit, those could happen whenever they wanted but even if they did, he still had Akiba. And in having Akiba, he had Kaiko.
Kaiko was someone he would happily say he loved. She made him smile, frown, snarl, laugh, cry, grin, chuckle, snort, grimace... she made him feel so... normal, so loved. The girl had this charm that others didn't seem to see because of her status as an otaku. Her charm, was her dedication and her compassion. Yes, the two of them had a habit of spending naughty nights together over the phone, and on numerous occasions he had seen a sensual and erotic side of the girl that no person could ever claim to have seen... on a side note, she was a bit of a screamer... off topic. The point was, that the girl could do so much more than she was ever given credit for. Hell, from what he heard, even her own brother seemed to lack confidence in his sister's level of competency... Okay, long story short he loved the shit out of the girl and nothing was changing that. She was a light in his life, and honestly her insulting him had been more help than he could ever explain. He had been in a depression and she brought him out of it. His musing was cut short when he felt a pair of nice round objects press against his back and a pair of lips rub the side of his neck.
"Guess who?"
"Uh... Oh I know! The name is there but I can't remember! But I do remember a nice set on top, a rockin ass, legs that won't quit and a scream that would make the best death metal band ever jealous!" he laughed, laughing harder when a stuttering and blushing Kaiko cuffed upside the head for revealing that info.
"Y-you ass! That is PRIVATE!" Kaiko yelled fiercely. She did NOT want people to know what they'd done over the phone with each other. "A-anyway! It's great to see you in person finally. How was the transfer from Ikebukuro to Akiba?" her voice had noticably calmed from her flustered state.
"Well, we're in Tokyo, Japan. The subways are killer and the trains are boring." he replied quickly, scooping the beautiful otaku into his arms and planting a kiss on her lips. The squeak of surprise made it better for him.
"Ah... I don't mean to interrupt... but..." Kihachi's aged voice popped up. Naruto stood there, Kaiko still in his arms, looking at the man curiously.
"Ah, yeah? What do you need?"
"Well, I'm Kihachi Sugiyama... and I'm your father." Naruto's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates as he slowly set Kaiko to the floor. Slowly walking forward, grey-blue met grey-blue as the two stared at each other. The next thing Kaiko would ever remember of the event was that Naruto had decked Pops with a single decisive hook to the jaw that caused the man to crumple like a paper bag in a rainstorm.
"And I'm a disgruntled son who thinks his curiosity might have already been sated. You don't look like much, old man. Come on, Kaiko... let's get him where you were gonna take me... MOGRA, was it?" Naruto said, his eyes notably narrow in anger as he flexed the hang he struck pops with.
"O-ok..." Kaiko replied, unsure of how to feel about what happened.
"Tch, and to think... I only really tapped him with that one... I wasn't even going for a knockout blow..." Naruto snorted derisively.