That same night the truth about me and my dinosaurian family was revealed before the whole world. Jared's video was uploaded to all major social sites like BoobPipe, Derptome, Churulik, Instagrabbed, ReadAllAboutIt, Aeon, and others, thanks to my spellhacked internet access.

We all held our breath, waiting for the result.

For the first couple of hours, the video seemed to make no impression at all. The views climbed steadily, but most comments considered the video either an elaborate joke or an expensive high-production CGI hoax. However, there were some early signs that people were realizing what they were seeing; one viewer, for example, citing themselves as a retired FX veteran, commented this wasn't possible to be fake, as the required technology for such smooth photorealistic details was generations away.

There was nothing else to do at the moment, so our 'council' retired for the night. (Well, Alex went about his business, as it was still early evening for him.)

Early next morning, I woke up and went to check the video. Things had changed dramatically overnight, and the video had turned into an absolute sensation, sparking furor, online upheavals, and extreme flame wars. People across traditional forums, social media, chatrooms, and email bulletins argued endlessly whether the material was fake or not, with equal supporters on either side of the argument. Yet this only served to snowball the resulting viral PR, propagating the news everywhere. It got to the point where the video was taken down almost unanimously across the social media outlets, and I had to reupload it to alternative accounts, but I shouldn't have bothered: by then the Internet had seized the moment, and the video popped constantly on its own. People made podcasts, content creators churned reaction videos and vlog commentaries, and armchair analytics tried to explain in arrogant ivory-tower terms what this meant for humanity and civilization at large. The trolls and pranksters had a field day, too: by early afternoon memes and remixes of the original material were in full swing, and even threatened to turn the whole initiative into a pointless stunt, lost in the deafening noise of the digital oceans.

Yet I hadn't been sitting idle throughout this time. After seeing the runaway success of the first video, I had hastily visited Jared, commandeering his smartphone, and then I rapidly recorded and uploaded two more videos: one was a short clip where I briefly explained my family's story, and another where me and Miko demonstrated a few simple spells with flourish. We then, ahem, had a quick go, and uploaded the resulting pretty tame (by our standards) amateur porn video to Pr0nGrub – and that was when people finally began to understand that me and my family were real.

Yeah. When all else fails, trust humanity to be convinced by giant swaying dicks and titties, and hands-on erotic action. The pinnacle argument – if you can have sex with it, it must be real!

While me and Miko recorded our stuff, throughout the day our children were busy producing their own videos with cameras, cellphones, and smartphones volunteered by the Makinata locals, who'd been persuaded by Jared to generously lend material aid. Some of the videos weren't uploaded in the end, seeing how, uh, radical they were for the world at large. (You couldn't expect 'society' to handle everything my family could throw at them in one go.)

I spent the night editing and uploading videos, instead of doing sex as usual. However, I couldn't hold myself completely and had another quick mating with Miko, plus breastfeeding, and I uploaded the resulting video. I'm fairly certain this probably put every hot-blooded human (regardless of gender or sexual preferences) on the internet in a rutting frenzy. Haha.

On the second day, the whole internet clamored for more content from me and my family. People craved the miracle our existence was, the magical wonder it represented in their dull, grey world.

At this point we had already established a solid digital presence. Alex had marshaled a truly respectable team on such short notice; we had set up our own network on rented datacenters, with a score of community managers, outreach experts, PR strategy planners, and even a couple of international lobbyists, all working to shape the overarching narrative of this historical phenomenon. Of course, the opposition was no less fierce: our services were constantly under cyber-attacks, my local backdoors were blocked and walled-up, and the whole Hyogo Prefecture (where Makinata was located) was bombarded with white noise, denial of service, signal cancellation devices, and region-wide blackouts.

Yet our enemies were in trouble, because we used magic to defeat their methods: me and Miko were constantly spellcasting to bypass restrictions, going as far as accessing the digital datasphere directly with our perceptions. (We got really good at it due to the mandatory practice, but I felt awfully dizzy the first few times I received internet packets directly into my brain.)

Then the party was over, because the JSDF came in force. Or so they thought.

Tanks and squads of soldiers advanced up the mountain, tearing down trees and trampling vegetation. They approached in a single huge wave, perhaps half the lockdown forces mobilized for the action. When they reached the shrine temple, they surrounded it in a wide semi-circle. Then a megaphone spoke, demanding my family's unconditional surrender. (They didn't word it so politely, of course. If my memory serves, they barked something along the lines of "Subject Delta and all related kaiju, lie down immediately or you will be terminated!")

This time, however, I flipped them the bird.

I confronted the JSDF by livestreaming them on Glitch, loudly explaining to the millions-strong online crowd how mine and my family's rights were being utterly violated, and how we were treated as prisoners (and worse) for merely existing. My speech alternated between English and Japanese, the latter more to the benefit of the JSDF soldiers, who stared dumbstruck at me. Dozens of locals who'd come to help us film had also gathered at my side, waving cameras and cellphones. Of course, the equipment was all for show only, with the area still saturated with electronic countermeasures – by that point our whole operation was powered magically, and we used recording devices only as a focus.

The JSDF, predictably, believed we were bluffing. They issued one more warning. When we ignored them, the bastards actually shot at us. But me and Miko were prepared for such cowardly violence, and had erected magical barriers beforehand. A veritable wall of bullets and projectiles clashed against our enchanted defense, thundering in a pyrotechnic display of power. We were unharmed, and the soldiers ceased firing shortly, bewildered.

And this was a perfect opportunity: with a dramatic flourish, I gestured, and Miko turned the whole shrine temple's facade into a digital screen, showing our livestream. The JSDF soldiers watched in confusion and dismay how their actions were observed by millions of people across the world. I seized the moment to berate them further, heaping scorn and censure on their service, seething before the entire internet how these soldiers brought dishonor to the country of Japan and humanity as a whole. The online crowd was whipped into frenzy, wanting to murder the JSDF soldiers and worse; even the locals jeered and shouted profanities, cursing the military for having treated them like prisoners and outcasts alongside me and my family.

The JSDF stood around dumbly, frozen in indecision and indicted shame, cowed by such organized resistance and the fact they were actually filmed live. Internally, I rejoiced, a tad bloodthirstily so: finally I was getting back at those bastards, in the most satisfying way possible. Finally I was showing them a minuscule amount of the humiliation and suffering me and Miko and our children had to endure during this whole year. Finally, I was defeating them.

The pen trumped your fucking sword, bastards!

Then a lone black jeep arrived on the scene. Mr. Nakamura disembarked from the jeep, and quietly passed through the ranks of soldiers, coming to the front. I saw him and smiled triumphantly at him, showing my pointed teeth. Mr. Nakamura cast me a sour look but said nothing, his expression hidden behind his mirrorshades, observing the scene in a disciplined, stoic way. I couldn't resist provoking him.

"Hey, Nakamura-san, how about this for 'blowing the conspiracy wide open'?" I jeered. "Is this a big enough explosion for you? Huh? You can't touch us now – the whole world knows about us!"

Nakamura only shook his head, watching the furiously scrolling comments on the giant screen behind me. "You will come to regret this, Mister Raveloff," he spoke calmly, not bothering to even glance at me.

"Huh, what now, Nakamura-san? I'm gonna regret this, you say? Is that a threat!?" I turned to the smartphone in my claw, making meaningful gestures. "Speak up, Nakamura-san! We're on live stream! Threaten me before the whole world!"

This time, Nakamura looked straight at me. "I do not use threats, Mister Raveloff," he said after a pause, his tone unaltered. "They are a crude and often ineffective tool." The locals at my side shouted, throwing mortal insults at Nakamura in Japanese, but he stood as if they weren't even there. "Rather, remember what happened to Disney's version of Iron Man after he revealed himself to the world. Let this be a useful warning, Mister Raveloff."

"I don't plan on playing superhero," I retorted. "The world can search for its saviors elsewhere." I realized what I had said only after I spoke the words. I cursed at my own thoughtless vitriol. The online crowd was whipped into emotional frenzy to agree with whatever I said now, but once things cooled down, this statement would come to bite me in the ass.

"You haven't tasted real power yet, Mister Raveloff," Nakamura said with a crooked smile. His black mirrorshades glinted. "When you do, it will change you permanently. Perhaps then we can speak again, and I'll see if you reaffirm your words, Mister Raveloff."

I had no smart reply to that. I had to grant it to the bastard – he was leagues above me, despite being a baseline human. I grudgingly respected him, even if I wanted to kick his ass.

Mr. Nakamura ordered the JSDF to pull out. He then climbed into the black jeep and departed, as if everything was business as usual. The soldiers were shocked at this turn of events – but they had their orders, and soon retreated down the mountain. The locals around me cheered, as if we had won a climatic battle. In a way, we did.

Jared called me a little later, to tell me that news have reached all major media, and the TV stations talked constantly about me and my family's existence, our uploaded videos, our yearly imprisonment, and the latest live stream of the altercation between us and the JSDF.

We won. We had become an acknowledged fact by the world.

That evening, Makinata District experienced its first reclamation of freedom – all communication lines were restored, such as powerlines, telephones, internet, and other amenities. People were again connected with the rest of the world. Everyone was ecstatic. The festive atmosphere could be felt all the way up to the mountain: me, Miko, and the children climbed Mount Taishaku to enjoy a moment of respite all together. Fireworks were going off down in Makinata, probably smuggled by someone. Soon, there would be no need for such services.

Later, I uploaded the latest batch of videos before going to bed. During the day, the children had been busy attempting all kinds of Internet challenges and recording themselves doing them. Me and Miko, on the other claw, had no less exciting content to share, both vulgar and intellectual: several new sex videos (it was strange how easily I shared those, now that I think about it) and a long, detailed video where we explained the way magic worked, trying to pair our knowledge with current understandings in contemporary cutting-edge physics and mathematics such as quantum field theory, superstrings, non-linear mathematics, elementary particle interactions and so on.

We also proposed some new hypotheses of our own, both mundanely rational and outrageously fringe. Already there were invitations from scientific institutions all over the globe to interview us, examine us, and even proposing us work. I thought I might still have a chance of getting that snazzy MIT diploma, after all.

 

***

 

As the third day dawned, I was surprised to learn that crowds of people had formed at the military perimeter around Makinata District: throngs of actual individuals who wanted to see me and my family for real. Most of these trailblazers were hardcore representatives of various fringe cultures usually shunned by wider society – furries-slash-scalies, otherkin, transhumanists, cryptid scholars, New Age occultists, isekai otakus, and so on; the majority were Japanese but a fair amount of Westerners had also arrived from Australia, Europe, and USA, having taken the first available flights to Japan, perhaps at outrageous prices. There were also trend chasers, cool hunters, religious nuts and other assorted pioneers of weirdness and novelty, all hoping to be the first to spread the word about the most sensational event since the coming of Jesus Christ* and get famous in the process.

*(Yes, I know this sounds hubristic in the extreme, but I'm more than willing to amend my words if you point out something comparative to my family being the first sapient non-humans and actual metaphysical energy manipulators – aka mages – revealed to the world at large.)

There were also scores of TV crews at the perimeter, representatives from every possible media in Japan worth their salt, as well as correspondents and reporters from overseas, sent from those press consortiums which had been able to react the fastest. Cameras and microphones were everywhere, the atmosphere almost palpably buzzing with tremulous airwaves carrying the greatest news in the history of modern society. The press, understandably, wanted their share of the action, mixing with the rest of the crowd and jockeying for position to be potentially the first to see the magical monsters with their own eyes (and to present them to their millions of hungry viewers).

At first, the JSDF denied access. The soldiers remained steadfast against the initial tides of humanity which demanded to make contact with us, the wonders of the world. But as the hour advanced, more and more people gathered at the gates: locals coming from all over the country, travelers arriving directly from the international airports, larger and better equipped media crews with telescopic cameras, satellite vans, and even news helicopters. By noon the barricades at eastern Ogocho and northern Kobe were swarming with more people each than the entirety of the trapped population of Makinata. Standing on top of Mount Taishaku, I could see the tent camps springing along the guarded border and the kilometric traffic jams which formed along the main roads. If I climbed onto Miko's shoulders, I could even see ships crowding in the port city of Akashi in the distance, and beyond the Kobe mountains the situation in Osaka was probably the same.

There was no stopping this.

At 3pm in the afternoon, the JSDF capitulated at last. Word came from Tokyo, and the access points along the perimeter were opened; everybody was allowed to enter and leave Makinata freely. Jared later told me that some of the locals had cried at this point, since they didn't believe they would ever be free again. All of Makinata's main roads were flooded with foot traffic, people pouring in great waves into the reborn legend of El Dorado, the wealth awaiting them inside being wizardry and wonder.

Me and my family had to relocate at Mrs. Kawano's spa center out of sheer necessity. It was easier by far to meet the endless throngs of visitors, and we didn't want our shrine temple's location to become public knowledge – at least not just yet.

At this point, clothing was practically forced on us due to the circumstances; I still wore only my cargo shorts, to retain my 'action hero' image, as the PR team had dubbed it, but Miko and our daughters were fully-dressed in their kimonos, garbed loosely but securely around their bodies to conceal their alluring figures. As one of the image-maker specialists had written in their memo to me: "We have to keep the children, especially, clothed at all times, to prevent their identities from being oversexualized; this can have a highly negative impact on the current narrative trajectory, which is focused on presenting them as intelligent individuals who are responsible members of society." Yeah, I certainly didn't want anyone to regard my daughters as mere sex symbols. Even I, perverted as I was, regarded my children as persons first, future delectable sexual partners distant second.

The late afternoon and the evening passed with me and Miko meeting with endless groups of people. We answered questions after questions, which often repeated, and we were asked to perform magical demonstrations. I felt surreal to be surrounded by so many people, who looked at me with awe and adoration, instead of fear and scorn. It was also extremely tiring, and if I wasn't a nine-feet tall weredinosaur with supernatural stamina, I probably would've fainted within the first couple of hours.

We tried to keep the crowd from interacting with our children, but it was a hopeless task. The spa center was swarmed on all sides, people even climbing the walls to get to us; me and Miko had only Mrs. Kawano, Kauri, Jared, and a few members of the Makinata Shadow Warriors to keep order. It didn't help that our daughters were very curious and mostly innocent in their childish way; they sought out to meet others as much as the others sought them out. Anyway, my anxiety noticeably dropped when Ruru threw a perv in the hot springs who flashed her, and Koko bit the arm of another who tried to touch her inappropriately. After those incidents and a few lesser ones, the children clustered around us, and me and Miko had no more trouble keeping them safe.

The ad-hoc meetings, press interviews, and circus-level showmanships on our part continued late into the night but the excited crowds had no intention of stopping or slowing down. Finally, with the help of Mrs. Kawano and Kauri, me and Miko managed to push off the throngs of people with gentle mind-affecting spellwork, to be left alone for enough time to sleep and rest.

On the fourth day, a tent camp had sprung up already around the spa center itself. The most enterprising Makinata locals were busy hawking quickly cobbled-up merchandise, competing with professional peddlers which had appeared in the area as if by magic. Minivans and stalls offering snacks, drinks, and various on-the-go meals had also occupied strategic locations, the wheels of commerce not caring whether it was Armageddon or the local zoo, as long as there were swift profits to be made.

With Jared's help, the 'fan visits' took on more organized matter, and he unleashed his entrepreneurial spirit on the whole ordeal, managing Q&A sessions, providing breaks for us between 'show slots', and doing fundraising all at once. I never thought Jared had it in him to be so focused on working hard, but somehow he was in his element: my best friend looked every part the future CEO of a major enterprise, judging by the way he presented himself on the hastily prepared front stage and wielding a reporter's microphone hijacked from one of the media crews.

Meanwhile, more people continued to arrive into Makinata ceaselessly, Japanese and internationals both. Police forces deployed at noon en masse, to keep order and prevent accidents; it was strange looking at public servants who weren't in military uniforms. During the breaks, I looked at the endless cavalcades of new arrivals with dismay; if this kept up, my family would be doomed to become imprisoned again as amusement park attractions.

 

***

 

It seemed, however, that fate had a different scenario in store for us.

I received two shocking news simultaneously: the first one was an email informing me that members of the UN international community would be visiting to meet with my family and discuss our rights as sapient beings; and the second was a generous paid offer from Japan's largest porn company for me and Miko to do a live sex show.

Both affairs were scheduled for tomorrow. I was appalled, not knowing which to prioritize. (Why did I consider the porn company in the first place, you ask? Because they were offering enough money to make me an instant multi-millionaire in any part of the world. Being recognized officially by the UN is nice and all, but it doesn't make you wealthy overnight.)

Then the PR team called and proposed – to my astonishment – to combine both events. "How the fuck  do you mix opportunities on such scale?" I growled over the line.

"Think about it, Mister Raveloff," said the jaded PR veteran on the other side. "Instead of making you and your wife symbols in your own right, we can make you into symbols for general change in the world. We can develop your brand in parallel with the political ramifications around your legal status, and use that as leverage to enact alterations to worldwide policies and agendas. You can be the key to paradigmatic shifts in our entire civilization. Several international NGOs and the Global South already have offered us generous sponsorships if we let them co-opt our agenda."

The PR team planned to revive the old hippy slogan 'Make Love, Not War' and depict me and Miko, two fearsome monsters, in our most intimate moments, building the campaign on that idea: if kaijus preferred sex over strife and conflict (among each other or against the world), then why humans should be different? Shouldn't humanity embrace and prioritize creative values over destructive ones to the benefit of society as a whole?

The fact that high-ranking members of the United Nations would be present was regarded as a golden opportunity: the 'leaders of the world' could witness themselves the erosion of the taboo nature of sex and have their awareness raised about the detrimental normalization of violence. I could almost hear the flyers and posters being printed in the background. It sounded both sexy and inspirational.

I talked to Miko about it. After all, it was her decision to make, too.

"This is a wonderful idea!" she rumbled instantly, after I explained the conundrum and its proposed solution. "Let's do it at once!"

"Why are you so eager?" I asked, surprised. "We're proposed to make sex publicly before millions – perhaps hundreds of millions – of people, and there will be some stiff old codgers to boot. We'll look like sexual savages at best, or lusty lechs at worst."

"Well, it is the message itself which inspires me," Miko said. "I prefer to live in a world where everybody is pursuing their sexual desires freely, instead of fighting one another with dangerous weapons or forcing themselves to conform to narrow-minded moral values with coercion or public censure."

"But what if the UN officials refuse to speak with us afterwards? What if they refuse the whole proposal outright?"

"Well, then they obviously aren't worth speaking with in the first place. Look around, my love: there are people enough who like us as we are."

Miko's opinion on the matter was somewhat simplistic, yet that didn't mean it wasn't true. I found myself encouraged by her willingness to attempt to make such sweeping changes. Perhaps I spoke too rashly about not wanting to be a hero. And perhaps Nakamura was right: I was yet to see if power, once wielded openly, would corrupt me. Great Cosmos, give me guidance, I prayed silently, hoping I'd never fall into the void of god complex and self-worship.

And so, I agreed to the porn company's offer, and then communicated with the PR team to draft a suitable communiqué to the UN officials and arrange the details with them.

 

***

 

The day finally ended.

It was late into the night. Me and Miko lay on the spa center's grounds, our children tucked around us, already fast asleep. Volunteer sentries patrolled around the walls, mainly youths which Jared had persuaded to join the 'inner club'.

I scrolled through my recently acquired tabled, researching sexual techniques and poses for tomorrow – I was nervous. Suddenly, Miko whispered in my earfin to look up: the night sky was clear and starry.

"Tomorrow is our birthday," Miko said.

She was right. I had nearly forgotten.

"You mean my birthday," I said softly, "and your, uh..."

"No, our birthday," Miko interrupted me, her tone gentle yet firm. "Yours, mine, and the children's. Tomorrow is the birthday of our family."

I thought about it for a moment. She was right.

"Yes," I agreed quietly. I wondered, as I did so often, if I'd ever visit the Sea of Stars again. My gaze fell mechanically to the tablet in my hands. Perhaps, now that I was a true mage, I could try to open the portal again, if I went back to the mountain...

Miko put her huge claw on the tablet, hiding it from view. "Stop looking for advice on the internet," she chided me lovingly. "Mrs. Kawano already gave me a nice idea for tomorrow; a kinky one, even."

"Will you please tell me, my beautiful goddess?" I asked, smiling.

"I shall, my noble lizzy," Miko said, leaning over me.

She whispered her knowledge in my earfins, punctuating her soft words with playful licks. Soon the telling turned to quiet, tender passion, and we kissed and nuzzled each other under the shining stars of the autumn sky, unaware how fateful the day tomorrow would be.