Princes of the Oniverse
I tweeted this and then started to get deeper ideas. All based on a mild pun. Go figure. So here's a haphazard, done really fast write up of what came to me. It's only part of an idea, really.
Splitting the atom, it turns out, does more than just release the energy bound up between the electrons and neutrons. It also assaults the barrier between our world and the Oniverse, a mystical realm of magic, monsters and ancient powers that predate the Earth.
In Hiroshima, 1945, Hideto Nakamura is one of a handful of people to survive ground zero of the first nuclear detonation intent upon taking human lives. No one knows why he survived; and what's more, surviving left him with heightened strength, agility and stamina. But more, it left him with some kind of extended senses, which at first he took to be a hallucination. But in fact, he found he could sense the Oniverse. For Hideto, it turns out, is one of thousands of human beings with Oni blood in his ancestry.
By 1950, the world was once again at war. But this time it was against Awakened Onigo who, discovering their power, were rapidly taking over the world, starting with Japan and working their way west.
But attempts by other nations to destroy them with more nuclear bombs made the situation much, much worse; one day, a nuclear blast finally did it. Rather weakening the barrier to the Oniverse, the barrier ruptured. On that day, the Princes of the Oniverse arrived.
Now, Hideto must flee Earth to the Oniverse to discover the secrets of their power, and to find a way to seal the rents in the fabric of reality before there is no humanity left to save.
I don't have enough knowledge of Japanese culture to pull this off, so not going to put this into my mental file of Stories I Should Write but it's fun to think about.
Splitting the atom, it turns out, does more than just release the energy bound up between the electrons and neutrons. It also assaults the barrier between our world and the Oniverse, a mystical realm of magic, monsters and ancient powers that predate the Earth.
In Hiroshima, 1945, Hideto Nakamura is one of a handful of people to survive ground zero of the first nuclear detonation intent upon taking human lives. No one knows why he survived; and what's more, surviving left him with heightened strength, agility and stamina. But more, it left him with some kind of extended senses, which at first he took to be a hallucination. But in fact, he found he could sense the Oniverse. For Hideto, it turns out, is one of thousands of human beings with Oni blood in his ancestry.
By 1950, the world was once again at war. But this time it was against Awakened Onigo who, discovering their power, were rapidly taking over the world, starting with Japan and working their way west.
But attempts by other nations to destroy them with more nuclear bombs made the situation much, much worse; one day, a nuclear blast finally did it. Rather weakening the barrier to the Oniverse, the barrier ruptured. On that day, the Princes of the Oniverse arrived.
Now, Hideto must flee Earth to the Oniverse to discover the secrets of their power, and to find a way to seal the rents in the fabric of reality before there is no humanity left to save.
I don't have enough knowledge of Japanese culture to pull this off, so not going to put this into my mental file of Stories I Should Write but it's fun to think about.