Welcome to Chapter Twelve, readers! Since I don't want this story to last for too long, I've decided to jump ahead in time every few chapters, with a short bit explaining what happened in the skipped time, up until November rolls into the story. Just like last time, thank you for reading Origin Story and please follow, favorite, and review.

Allan's Residence, Kawagoe

Japan, Real World

June 28, 2022

Ian Becker, First Person Perspective

It's been an entire month since I first moved to Japan. Not only have I managed to become accustomed to the laws and culture here in less than a week, but I've also made three friends: the highly-skilled kendo practitioner Suguha Kirigaya, her normally antisocial brother Kazuto Kirigaya, and his Destiny friend JaymesTheFirst.

During the events of the rest of May and the twenty-eight days of June, I've reestablished contact with Sophia, introduced her to the Kirigaya siblings, convinced her to train Kazuto and Jaymes, taught them some English, got a new house, and I also managed to get Kazuto to open up a bit. Not enough to learn exactly what caused him to distance himself from his family, but enough to admit that he has trust issues regarding his family.

During that time, I've also gotten pretty good at kendo, and I'm now at the point where I'm doing full-fledged matches with Suguha. Say what you want to, but I'm a lot better at it than most would think.

And finally, I've finally acquired a NerveGear and applied for the beta. Only a thousand people are going to get into the beta, but maybe I'll get lucky. Maybe I won't. But the main thing is, things are starting to go my way, and I can't wait to see what the next month holds for me, Al, Sophia, and the Kirigayas.

Ian Becker

Waking up early took its toll on Ian. He would usually feel colder in the mornings as a result of being huddled under a blanket all night long and would walk a little groggily. However, he would quickly recover and feel refreshed as always. But those early first minutes of consciousness were really taxing and required a considerable of concentration and willpower to avoid falling asleep again.

Due to the stress put onto him by his lure business, Allan had issues with sleep, and he often found himself staying up until the wee hours of the morning doing random things to keep his mind placated.

For once in his life, Ian woke up before Allan. Not because he woke up even earlier than him, but because Allan was finally getting good sleep. Standing in the living room of their new house, Ian took a look around, thinking to himself as he sat down and pulled out a piece of paper with a half-drawn house on it, along with his pencil case.

He still remembered volunteering to draw the Kirigaya residence, but with the kendo training, jobs, and other things, he wasn't able to start the picture until the previous week. Picking through the pencils, the boy withdrew a retractable pencil from the case and began to draw, pausing every now and then to see if the scratching of his pencil on paper woke his brother up.

It's funny really. Back in the United States, I couldn't trust anyone, but now that I've gone abroad, I've made three new friends in a matter of days... What a twist.

After twenty minutes of drawing and coloring, the masterpiece known as the Kirigaya Residence has been completely recreated on paper. Exhaling in relief, Ian stood up, taking his newest drawing with him to snap a photo of it before he gave it to Suguha.

Satisfied with the photo he took, Ian placed the actual picture into a frame and stuffed it into his backpack for later.

"Good morning, nerd." Allan's voice echoed as the older brother entered the living room.

"Good morning." Ian said back, going to the kitchen to get some food.

"Yeah, since when did you get up before me?"

"Sleep well?"

"I've had the most sleep I've ever had since I started this business I have." Allan sat down, watching as his brother cooked food for them.

"Oh?"

"Yeah. How's your picture?"

"I finished it. I'm going to give it to Suguha this afternoon."

"Ahhh." Allan chuckled. "Is it me, or do you have a crush on that girl?"

"No way! How could I-- you know what? I might actually have one, but I'm not going to enter a relationship with her. We're leaving for home whenever we can, and I still haven't met her parents."

"I'm just saying, because she's honest, strong, kind, and cute, too."

"I know. I need to help her with her brother though, because he's got major trust issues involving his family." Ian said, flipping the pancake he was cooking over.

"Maybe his parents aren't so honest." Allan suggested.

"That's what I'm thinking."

"Alright, so, you're going to give that to Suguha when you go train with her this afternoon, right?"

"Ugh, I told you that!"

"Sorry, just making sure. Besides, you can figure out if you have a crush or not."

"Ugh."

"Hyaa!"

"Gah!"

Ian casually leaned against the Kirigaya Residence's wall as he watched Suguha swing her shinai in mock practice, her movements graceful as she repeatedly swung the bamboo blade through the air. The framed drawing of the aforementioned house sat in his backpack, waiting for delivery, and now that he was here, he sought to deliver it, and after a few more swings, Suguha stopped and looked at the gate, where Ian stood, and she nearly dropped her shinai again in shock.

"Oh, gosh, Ian-san!" she called out to the boy. "Could you please announce your arrival?! I almost peed myself!"

"Sorry, Suguha!" Ian called to her as he walked into the yard. "I was just watching you and I forgot what I was doing!"

"That's okay."

Ian stopped in front of Suguha, reaching into his backpack to fetch his drawing.

"Here, Suguha." the boy said, extracting the work of art and giving it to his teacher, who took it and examined it with a careful eye.

"Wow, Ian-san. This... might be one of the best drawings I've ever seen...!" she gushed amazedly, clearly impressed at the exemplary artwork Ian created.

"Yeah. I put tons of time into it, so it should be the best." Ian explained casually, causing the Japanese girl to look up at him.

"You were right about being a talented artist."

"And you're a talented kendo practitioner."

"So, you ready for practice?" Suguha asked.

"Yeah. I am."

Back in the dojo, after practicing a few new moves, the pair of friends were ready for another match, and student and teacher would face off once more. In almost every match following the first one from the previous month, Ian had worn protective gear that was specifically designed for kendo, along with Suguha. After a month of supervision, Allan decided that it was finally time to let Ian train unsupervised, which let them have time to themselves.

"So, what are the odds of me beating you?" Ian, clad in black robes with black armor, asked his teacher, who stood on the other side of the dojo and wore white robes with black armor suppliments.

"I don't know. You'd definitely lose if I went all-out, but this is still training, so I'm not going all-out." she replied, gripping her weapon a bit tighter.

"So I have a fair chance."

The two teenagers then faced each other and put on their game faces, their weapons ready for the coming fight. Suguha held her shinai above her head for an overhead strike while Ian held his to the left, ready to deliver a strike to his teacher's right.

After a month of practicing kendo together, Ian could now pick up on Suguha's tells, and vice-versa. However, since the younger girl was learning new moves and techniques every day, Ian was at a disadvantage. Despite that fact, the boy wasn't too worried.

After a minute-long staredown, Ian then launched himself forwards, initiating the match with a vertical strike.

The strike was blocked by a shinai that was positioned to block him just in time, having for once caught his opponent off-guard. Jumping backwards to avoid any reprisal, he readied himself again, watching as Suguha went for an overhead strike. Raising his weapon, Ian watched Suguha's blade lower suddenly, taking advantage of the exposed area of his torso to try and get a hit.

"Denied!" Ian yelled as he avoided the swing, bringing his blade down on his opponent's head a milisecond later. Feeling the impact, Ian was hit with a double-edged sword as he had successfully hit his target with his second hit, but he had also just hit his sensei in the head, and even with the headgear, attacks aimed at the head were undesirable.

"Gah!" Suguha grunted, clutching her head as the bamboo blade of her student struck it.

"Oh, crap! Suguha!" Ian dropped his weapon to help the girl, but he was swept off of his feet and hit in the groin in an instant, landing on the ground in pain.

"Fuck..."

"Don't ever let your guard down, Ian-san." Suguha informed him, reaching for his hand to pull him up. Despite the fact that she could have easily stopped him, Ian was an opportunist, taking opportunities whenever they showed up. Sweeping her off of her own feet with his outstretched leg, Ian used his arms to soften the fall, then he crawled on top of her, his recovered shinai held at her neck.

"You should do the same thing." the boy slyly told her, smirking.

"Um, you're not that heavy, but this is pretty embarrasing, so could you get off of me?" Suguha asked, a cute blush appearing on her cheeks.

"Yeah." Ian jumped and flipped backwards, landing on his feet after the miniature somersault.

"That was pretty mean, Ian-san."

"I'm an opportunist. You saw that on day one."

"Oh, yeah." Standing up, Suguha picked up her shinai and brushed herself off.

"You want to continue?" Ian asked, getting back into position for a match.

"Yeah. We never finished that first match, you know."

One hour later...

After an hour of practice, the two kids were tired from the dueling, they felt fulfilled. After that first encounter, Ian now expected to get juked if Suguha's attacks seemed too predictable. When the last blow was dealt and an exhausted Ian tumbled to the ground, totally beat, the equipment was put back and the two kids leaned against the dojo wall.

"That was fun." Ian said, panting lightly from exertion.

"Yeah. I wish that Kazuto could start taking classes again." Suguha told her student, not panting as much.

"Speaking of Kazuto, I think he's doing a bit better now."

"That's nice to hear."

"Hey, you two." Ian looked up to see a redheaded girl standing at the entrance to the dojo, smiling warmly at them.

"Um, kon'nichiwa, Sophia-chan!" Suguha said, standing up to bow at the older girl.

"Kon'nichiwa, Suguha!" Sophia bowed at the well-endowed girl. "You were just practicing, weren't you?"

"Yeah." the two younger teenagers replied, standing up.

"I wonder how well Ian's doing."

"I'm holding my own, and we're learning new things every day." Ian said, looking at Suguha when he said it.

"Yeah. Ian-san's really mean in kendo matches." Suguha flashed puppy dog eyes at the redhead, who rolled her eyes at the pair.

"I know. Not from kendo, but in Destiny 2, he's a big bum in the duels we have."

"I'm not that bad!" Ian defended himself. "I'm just an opportunist, that's all!"

"You're fine." Sophia told the boy. Just them, thunder clapped and heavy rains began to pelt the Kirigaya residence.

"So... we should go inside, right?"

"Sure. Anyways, I came here to tell you that it was going to rain, so I got your clothes from the back before the rain started." Sophia then extracted two sets of clothes from the backpack she wore and handed them to the pair.

"Thanks a lot, Soph." Ian said, taking his set of clothes. "I mean it."

"Yeah, Sophia-chan."

"You should turn away from each other and change since it's raining."

Ian promptly turned away from Suguha and began to change, hoping that Sophia wasn't watching him do it. Of course, she wasn't, and she was looking outside, into the storm that was currently raging on.

"Alright, are you two done yet?" she asked, since she was somewhat getting soaked by the heavy rains.

"I'm done." Suguha said, standing up and walking to the door.

"Give me a second." Ian said, wrestling with his shorts to get them on. After he got them on, he joined his friends at the door and followed them into the howling storm to get under the roofed porch, his feet quickly carrying him across the yard as the rain pelted his back and head.

Back inside, the friends were now huddled up at the dinner table and safe from the rain, with the girls wearing hair towels on their heads since they had just taken showers. Ian had done so as well, but he didn't have enough hair to warrant a hair towel.

"Well, I certainly didn't expect to get caught in a Florida-level thunderstorm." Ian told the girls.

"Yeah, that was a shocker." Suguha agreed.

"And yet there have been worst storms." Sophia commented.

"Okay, I'm glad that I didn't have to live in Florida like you did." the other girl exhaled.

"It wasn't all that bad." the two Floridians said, defending their home state.

"Okay, I'll take your word for it."

"Hey, Soph." Ian addressed the redheaded girl.

"Um, yeah?"

"How's the noob training going?"

"Pretty good. Like how you were on day one of training, they were a lot better than I thought, but Kirito is truly horrible at gunplay while Jaymes is a bit of a jack of all trades."

Ian could perfectly recall Kazuto's absolutely terrible aim on multiple occasions, and due to his familiarity with Destiny, he was given the mouse and keyboard multiple times. The only thing he could attribute to that was the "Church Syndrome," as he called it, because there was a character in Red vs Blue named Church who couldn't hit anything with his shots. He liked Kazuto, but his Church Syndrome pissed him off.

"Is it me, or is my drill sergeant of a teacher in the house talking crap about my aim?" an amused voice asked from the hall. Everyone looked up to see, to their surprise, Kazuto standing on the staircase, a look of amusement on his face. He wore a blue shirt this time around, with normal denim blue jeans, unlike the black he was known to wear.

"Hey, Kazuto!" Ian called out to his gamer buddy.

"Onii-san?" Suguha asked, confused at her introverted brother's sudden appearance.

"Uh, hey, guys." Kazuto walked down the stairs and sat down at the table.

"I'm not meaning to offend you, but what are you doing down here?" Sophia asked, trying to avoid offending the gamer, but he wasn't bothered.

"Ian said something about being a bit more open a month ago, so I decided to try and socialize again." Kazuto replied offhandedly.

So I'm the reason he came down here... Ian thought, internally smiling at his progress with Kazuto.

"I'm glad, Onii-san." his sister said, smiling warmly at him.

"Eh, me too, I guess."

"Is there anything you want to talk about?" Ian asked.

"I don't know. Is there anything you want to talk about?"

"Um, sure, if you insist." Scouring his brain for a subject that everyone would be interested in, Ian ended up with memories of his past. "We could talk about my past, if you want to."

"Um, sure. Fire away." He was really trying hard to not show it, but Kazuto was seriously struggling to stay composed. He was even worse than Ian, and he knew that.

"Oh, how did you and Sophia-chan meet, Ian-san?" Suguha asked.

"Um, it was nine years ago, and..."

A young boy sat alone at the playground swings, staring at the ground. Having just lost his homework to the school's bullies and recieved a great deal of undeserved negativity five minutes ago, he wasn't in any mood to be around the other children.

Fidgeting with the chains of the swing, the boy didn't notice a trio of older boys approach his swing and pull the seat out from under him. He spat the sand in his mouth out and looked up at the culprits of his unexpected fall.

"Why did you do that?" he asked. "You destroyed my homework, got me in a bunch of trouble with the teachers, and you made the other students not want to be around me. Isn't that enough?!"

The leader of the trio grabbed the young boy by the collar of his shirt and lifted him into the air.

"No, weakling. You see, we told you to do something for us, and you blatantly said 'no' and walked away. We're the most popular kids at school, so you don't get to say no and walk away like that." The vicious boy then shoved his victim into the ground, harming the poor child.

"You wanted me to break the rules, and I'm not a rulebreaker!" the younger child yelled, his luminous green eyes flashing with an intensity that cut through the air like a laser. "So why don't you get one of your sheep to break the rules for you?!"

The younger boy had to admit that he had some serious guts to be challenging the three popular kids in school.

"Listen, punk." the leader said, pulling the boy up by his collar again. "You don't get to say crap like that and get away with it. Either, you apologize, stay quiet about this, and do everything we say, or..." The boy's head was forced over the seat while the chain was wrapped around his throat. "we teach you some new things that school doesn't teach you about."

"Never! I'm never going to work for jerks like you!" the boy yelled, struggling against the other kids' holds on him.

"So be it, punk." The chain around the younger boy's throat was pulled tighter and tighter until...

"Oy! Leave him alone, you jerks!"

The chain was loosened and the younger boy was able to regain his breath. The other kids turned to see a girl with long red hair and grey eyes standing behind them, hands on her hips as she scowled at the scum that she was looking at.

"Well, if it isn't Autumn." the leader said, his irritated scowl turning into the look of a hungry wolf.

"Let the poor kid go, Hubert." the girl said, pointing at the victim.

"Why, you want some, too?"

"No. You don't get to choke people with the swings' chains."

"Says who?"

"Any rule that prohibits violence. Aren't you content with gossiping about the unpopular kids rather than murdering them?"

"He didn't do what we told him to and he insulted us!"

"How petty." For a child, the redhead was speaking with the vocabulary of an adult. "If he doesn't want to be your fall guy, you can't force it."

"Yeah!" the younger boy yelled in agreement, getting pulled to the ground and having his head smashed against it as a result.

"You monsters!" the girl yelled, slapping the leader full-force in the face, causing him to stumble off of his prey.

"You slapped me!"

"Oh, gosh, it was just a lovetap compared to what you're doing to that boy."

Soon, a lot of student and teacher eyes were on the five people, but only the girl knew this.

"I'm only saying this one more time. Leave. The poor boy. Alone." the girl snarled.

"Oh, whatever, you can join him."

"What if I told you that your actions are being watched by everyone right now? Including the teachers."

At that point, the delinquents finally noticed their unwanted spectators and stood up, scowling before they walked off.

The girl held her hand out to the boy, who took it and pulled himself up while looking at her like she was an angel.

"Thank you, miss!" he said, still holding her hands.

"You're welcome." the girl said, chuckling. "I'm Sophia Autumn."

"Ian Becker. It's really nice to meet you."

"What was up with those guys?" Sophia asked.

"I don't know. I think he wanted me to steal something for him, but I told him no and walked away."

"And you were getting choked by the swings because of it. Just be more careful from now on."

"I will!" Ian said, smiling.

"Miss Autumn! You're needed at the principal's office!"

"I've got to go, Ian. See you around." When the girl turned on her heel to go to the principal's office, a small hand grabbed her wrist. Turning around, she saw Ian holding onto her like she was his lifeline.

"Miss Autumn, could you stay a little longer?" he asked.

"I'm sorry, kiddo, but no. We can go somewhere later and just talk to each other if you want."

"I would like that, because you're like a big sister!"

"Okay, sure thing... I'll see you later."

Ian finally let go of the girl's hand and let her go, looking at her with a look of reverence he had never given anyone before.Thanks to her, he was no longer being bullied, and people might talk to him again. And it was all thanks to the girl he saw as his big sister.

"And that is how we met all those years ago." Ian told the Kirigayas, who were listening closely to the story. "Forgive my stupid seven or eight-year old mouth for sounding creepy with the whole 'big sister' bit."

"So, Sophia-chan's a big sister to you?" Suguha asked.

"I guess... We're close enough to be siblings." Ian remarked quietly.

"Nobody gets to hurt my friends and get away with it." Sophia said, pulling Ian closer to her.

"I see." Kazuto said. "She's a drill sergeant with a heart of gold."

Ian and Sophia chuckled at that as they separated.

"Yep."

"Um, is Allan okay with you being here longer than--"

Kazuto was cut off by Under Cover of Night, and Ian pulled his phone out to answer his caller.

"Speak of the devil..." he said before he answered the phone. "Hello?"

"Ian, it's good to hear from you." Allan said, exhaling. "Where are you? It's raining like it's Florida right now, and--"

"I'm at the Kirigayas with Sophia." was the answer given.

"Ah, yes, your girlfriend."

"You mean my childhood friend, or 'big sister' if you ask younger me..."

"Awww, you even have nicknames for each other." There was an evil chuckle on Allan's end.

"Asshole."

"Alright, I'm not going to be able to pick you up until tomorrow, so just stay there and don't be too much of a bother."

"Understood. Goodbye, Al." Ian hung up, sighing as he put his phone away.

"What is it, more teasing?" Suguha asked.

"Yeah. I don't understand why they like it so much. Nikki's trying to stop doing it, but it seems like Al enjoys doing it."

"Is he coming to pick you up?"

"No, the weather's too bad, so I'm staying here, I guess."

Another phone ringing distracted them, and Kazuto was the one to pull his phone out and answer it.

"Hello? Yeah, we're fine. Um, okay, we've got friends here, but they can't go home because of the storm. I understand. I'll be the best host I can. Okay, goodbye." Kazuto hung up, exhaling before he explained what went down.

"Okay, Mom called to tell us that she's staying at work because of the storm and after I explained that I had friends over, she told me to be a good host before she hung up."

"Okay."

"Yay! We get to have a sleepover!" Suguha cheered.

"In my thirteen years of life, I have never understood her." Kazuto said, facepalming.

"Well, let's make the most of it." Ian suggested. This was gonna be a long night.

This chapter was loads of fun to write, and I really enjoy the dynamic between Ian and the Kirigayas, and the idea of Sophia being a big sister to him. Also, next chapter is the sleepover aforementioned and some extras. Anyways, please check out the Crimson Warrior Chronicles by whitworth5274 so you can get a better understanding of Joshua, since he'll get some more screen time in the upcoming chapters. As always, thank you for reading Origin Story.

(Edit: Cringy/creepy dialogue has been fixed. I hope it doesn't bother you if you liked the old text better.)