Only Human

My stomach was in knots on the first day of high school. Anytime I was cast into a totally alien atmosphere with an unfamiliar audience I felt nauseous. It was hard being anxious, young and different.

I tried to calm myself down by thinking of how high the odds were that there might be someone like me. Plus I had at least one guaranteed friend in school as well. I played gacha games with worse odds and no pity system so this wasn’t going to be hard.

…Or so I thought.

My classroom was filled from head to toe with fur, claws, scales, and feathers. I was the odd guy out; the only full human in my class of half-humans.

All eyes were trained on me when I walked in. Some were curious at the oddity of a regular human in the age of Numans. Others were saddened, probably pitying me. A few gazes were hungry at a new target for their desires or frustrations.

Mr. Aoki was my teacher and despite having a literal wolfish grin on his face he was a nice guy. His tail wagged just a little bit as I walked in before he addressed the class.

“Okay class, calm down. This is Hiko Rainfield, I know he hasn’t transitioned but please make him feel welcomed. We’ll have a full introduction later. You can sit by Rose near the window.”

Aoki’s paw gestured to my seat and I went over to it. My desk neighbor was the serious and studious class president Rose. Her half avian features created the image of a wise owl and she regarded me with a curt nod.

“I think a good thing to remember is that humanity, Numan or human, is all part of one big pack. And as you guys know I love reviewing our origins. Can someone run us through how Numans came to exist?”

The class president rose immediately to answer. Some ear-like tuft of feathers twitched with excitement at the chance to lead a discussion on the topic.

Mr. Aoki acknowledged her and she launched into a fair, accurate, and detailed account of the three main events that have shaped recent history on the planet: The Yggdrasil Incident, The World Tree War, and The New Fruit Treaty.

She started at the beginning, not of time, but around a hundred years ago when a giant tree sprouted out of a mountain in China. People later named that tree Yggdrasil. The fruit of Yggdrasil possessed a peculiar and miraculous ability that transformed regular humans who consumed them into demi-humans. Usually the demi-humans received neat and powerful abilities. That was the Yggdrasil Incident in a nutshell.

As is typical with people when it comes to limited resources for special things humans fought over it. The Eastern Asia Alliance tried to fight off the entire world while farming fruit from the tree faster than it could produce it. The World Tree War was a global conflict that siphoned resources and lives like no other war had.

The tree did not like that.

The massive devastation Yggdrasil caused across the globe everyone was forced to hold hands and sing “We Are The World'' figuratively. The aptly named New Fruit Treaty was proposed and every country was given fruit from Yggdrasil to study, dissect, and recreate. The miracle was made into common mass manufactured goods.

Ascend beyond being just human. For a price.

Rose assumed it was a philosophical notion, the idea of a better humanity, that drove people to transform magical fruit into a corporate product. I assumed the betterment of humanity was irrelevant when a miracle in a bottle could be sold.

Personally, I didn’t have much of an interest in the tailored selection of animal DNA infusion. Wolf guy, moose man, bird boy, or any other type of Numan didn’t feel like a prize to me. Nothing was so impressive that I felt compelled to change myself.

As I continued through the school year I found out others disagreed. Strongly.

*****

“Hiko, why don’t you just get with the program already?”

Ken sounded normal despite having me hoisted off the ground by his large gorilla-like hand wrapped around my neck.

"Ack. Oof! Koff!!"

Ken had gathered that cutting off my air supply wasn’t going to get him any answers so he released me. My vision returned to me pretty quickly after the pavement rushed up to greet me. I looked up around the school yard and saw almost everyone avoiding eye contact with me.

It was hard enough to oppose Gorilla Ken in general. He was larger and stronger than most Numans with a violent streak a mile long. It was even harder to interfere with him over a social pariah like myself. I only had one friend that would and they weren’t around.

“I’m not being unreasonable here. You gambled, you lost, and now you owe me.”

“But you cheated though…”

It was stupid of me to trust a gang leader but part of me always had an interest in high stake odds with big rewards. However, real life was very different from playing gacha games or virtual casinos.

“No, I just didn’t tell you all the rules. You should have asked more questions before gambling for thousands on credit. You had to beat all of my crew to win. Besides, like I said; I’m not unreasonable! Just join Ape Gang.”

It wasn’t a complex scam to run. They used a rigged game and high debt to force recruitment and if that didn’t work intimidation and violence followed. It was probably better for my health to join them but Ape Gang had a rule: You had to be some type of half monkey Numan to join.

“I’m already a primate. Can’t I just be an honorary member and we call it square?”

Ken shook his head and placed a big boot in my chest. I slammed back down into the ground with his weight on me.

“Nope. You’ll become a proper Numan today or we’ll just beat you to death.”

Ken gestured to two monkeyish goons at his side who clapped in agreement.

Horrid options. Either I get beaten to death or forced into body modification and slaver’s debt. It wasn’t even a choice. The odds of it getting worse were low but I always preferred a gamble over an ultimatum.

“Okay, how about this, one straight game of dice? No extra rules. Double or nothing. I’ll join your gang and pay double!”

“Heh. You dumb gambling addict. Fine. What's a few more thousand for you to work off?”

Ken reached into his pocket and produced two dirty dice. I shook my head.

“Not with yours. Or at least not just yours. One die of my own too.”

“Fine. Have it your way.”

Ken shrugged and tossed one die on the ground causally. That should have clued me in on how this was going to end.

“You only get one game. Roll your dice.”

Shooting dice was basically just playing craps but simplified. All I had to do was throw a pair of dice against a wall and hopefully roll a seven or eleven on my first roll. Or at least not roll a two, a three, or a twelve. Anything else besides that let me roll again until I hopefully got the number to appear again.

“Come on lady luck, I need a big win or at least to stall them out.”

The dice felt heavy with the weight of my fate as I shook them in my fist. The constant clicking was like a clock counting down to an inevitable conclusion. Yet I held fast to the belief that luck could alter fate.

With a deep breath I let the dice go. They rolled out my hand and bounced off the wall before settling. A two and a five.

My mouth went slack for a second and I checked the faces of Ken and his goons. I saw disappointment and something. Immediately I raised my fists in celebration.

“Hell yeah! Wow. That was-wow. Usually I’m not that lucky on my first roll.”

“...Doesn’t matter how lucky you are. You’re gonna pay us back.”

When Ken’s vice-like grip clamped down on my shoulder I suddenly realized what I missed. The other expression that accompanied their disappointment was irritation. No, anger.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I won, right? We can work this out.”

“Nothing to work out. You know, now that I think of it, maybe we should break you anyway. Once you can’t use your legs you’ll be crawling to us, literally.”

The world rushed by as Ken yanked me off my feet and threw me into one of his goons. Long, furry arms wrapped around me with strength I couldn’t hope to match. I still struggled the best I could.

Then the goon squeezed.

The air fled my lungs like rats from a sinking ship. Pain stabbed through my body in bright flashes as the world went blurry.

Ken was yelling at me about something but it was a battle just to keep myself from passing out. A sea of indistinct faces behind him watched as I had the life crushed out of me. No one did anything.

Until one person did.

“Oorayah!”

A battle cry sliced through the blurred world as a white figure rushed at me. The next moment I was free and watched a white furred bunny girl launch a chimp man with a flying kick.

“Rebecca…?”

“Can’t talk. Fighting.”

The rabbit girl was my only friend Rebecca and true to her statement she didn’t say another word as she fought.

The other goon had watched his friend get knocked dozens of feet away and somehow thought he’d fare better by charging Rebecca head-on. He was very wrong.

Rebecca stunned him with a strike to the gut before folding him into a ball. She took a quick appraisal of the Numan sphere she made then kicked him like a soccer ball at Ken. Gorilla Ken was all gangster and a terrible goalkeeper so they crashed together and collapsed on the ground.

“Whee! That’s done. You okay, Hiko?”

“Yup. I appreciate it, Becky. Let’s leave before the teachers finally show up.”

******

After a day spent skipping classes to dodge bullies, Rebecca and I decided to walk home together. It wasn’t uncommon for us but we didn’t do it everyday either. Something we both agreed on today is that we’d want the company.

“Thanks again for the save, Becky.”

“No worries Hiko. I was in the mood for a light workout after lunch. They were just right.”

“You’ve always been so strong. Both mentally and physically.”

“You know my parents. Especially my dad. ‘A strong body creates a strong mind.’”

Rebecca did her best impression of her father’s deep and stern voice when she quoted him. It was spot on so I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Hasn’t helped your grades though.”

“Hey, don’t be mean! I saved your ass today!”

We both chuckled and kept walking as time passed and the night sky rolled out like a blanket of stars over our heads. The trip home was mercifully uneventful. When we reached our neighborhood our idle banter had died out until Rebecca thought of something new to say.

“You know stuff like this will keep happening, right? Most Numans have prejudices against unaltered humans. Maybe you should really think about what you want to be. You do want to be a Numan, right?”

“Yes? No? I don’t know. I know I don’t want to be like this forever but I’m not exactly excited to be spliced with animal DNA yet.”

“They’ve got more than just animal stuff now. You can be part rock. It would go great with your hard-headed attitude.”

“I’m not hard-headed.”

“You gambled with a cheating gangster, twice.”

I didn’t really have a comeback for that one so I decided to let her have that argument. It was a moment before she spoke again. This time her voice was soft yet mature. I called it her ‘big sister voice’.

“It’s okay to not know what you want to be. I know how I appear: Confident, strong, bravehearted.”

“...Really humble too.”

“I’m just saying I’ve known since we were kids that I loved rabbits, martial arts, and I want to participate in the Arasaka Numan Triathlon. I didn’t hesitate to become a rabbit-type Numan. I just want you to figure out what you want so you can pursue it.”

It was a thought I had from time to time myself. Part of me felt that I should know by now what I wanted to be or what Numan type I’d want to turn into but I didn’t. Nothing felt right.

“I don’t have an answer for what type of Numan I want to be. I just want to be free. And few things feel more free to me than pulling from a gacha game or gambling and winning.”

“Trusting your fate to luck, huh? Well I’m sure you’ll figure out something. Even if you don’t have an answer now, you’ll find it one day.”

As she said that I looked up at the stars and saw in each one a possibility. Something new to try day by day until I finally hit the jackpot and discovered my answer.

“Yes, I’ll find it one day.”

Half World - Chapter 1 End