Go Big To Go Home: A Kaiju-Fighting Isekai LitRPG (Book 1 Complete!)

There was a building that Mikayla had seen in the distance multiple times while going about her business at Cloudscraper, but never thought to inquire about. As it turned out, that building was the Cloudscraper Nursery.

It was a hall with a curved roof, half-buried in the side of a hill. It was thatched with straw and painted with crude and colourful shapes. Gym play equipment was scattered around one side of the building, all slides and ladders and monkey bars, while on the other side was a sprawling garden, being tended to by a couple of children with a caretaker watching them.

Shao's head had been on a wary swivel as they crossed the Cloudscraper campus, and that didn't abate as they approached her new home. Ironically enough, she was probably more aware of their surroundings than the two monster hunters in training.

"Here we are," Nya drew to a halt outside the building. "Welcome to your new home, Shao,"

"It's big," Shao murmured.

"Yeah, well, there are quite a few kids here," Nya offered.

The woman overseeing the garden had noticed their approach and bustled over to meet them, the two children she'd been supervising trailing after her. All three were yaoguai, and the matron had greying hair tied back around her horns and was dressed in a faded beige shawl. Her charges were both girls clad in dirt-crusted protective gear.

"Why, hello there," the woman called as soon as they were within earshot. "You must be Shao, is that right?"

Shao regarded the matron suspiciously. "Uh-huh,"

"My name is Fuchsia. Your friend Wujing told me all about you, and I've been looking forward to meeting you,"

Shao looked like she was about to protest on instinct, then remembered that Wujing had punched a policeman out of his house because he was upsetting her. "Huh. I guess he is my friend,"

"Mm-hm, and I hope you'll feel the same way about me soon," Fuchsia gently smiled. "Would you like to come inside with us? I can show you around?"

Shao clutched at Mikayla's arm. "You'll . . you'll come visit . . right?" she pleaded.

Mikayla crouched and hugged her. "Of course. Don't forget, I live right over there, it's only ten minutes away. We're gonna see each other all the time,"

". . You'd better!" Shao insisted, fangs bared and tail lashing. If she'd been three times her size, it might have been scary, but it was kind of just adorable.

"I will. I promise," Mikayla fingered the sensitive spots under Shao's horns, and stifled an adoring squee at how she nuzzled into the touch like a cat. "Now, go on. You've got a lot of new friends to meet, and you need to eat, too,"

"We're cooking up

zi

-beef stew for dinner tonight," Fuchsia offered, gesturing invitingly at the Nursery. Mikayla winced a little at the faint crackle that accompanied the Ataraxian System correcting its translation on the fly for her.

Shao squinted suspiciously. "What's beef stew?"

"How about instead of explaining, I show you?"

"Sure!" Shao's face brightened and she moved to join Fuchsia, only seeming to remember that she was still holding Mikayla's hand when she felt resistance. Shao glanced back, suddenly uncertain. "Uh . . can Mikayla come?"

Mikayla glanced at Nya. "Would it be alright if we stayed for dinner?"

Fuchsia immediately understood. "Of course. Come right in,"

<=====}—o

A couple of hours later, Mikayla left the building nursing a headache. The cacophony of eager children had been overwhelming, but she suffered through it while Shao ingratiated herself to her new dorm mates. Nya's patience had been exhausted much sooner than hers, unfortunately. Her roommate had begged off after dinner, but Mikayla didn't think Shao was ready to be left alone just yet.

She'd accompanied Shao to a small room with a bed, several cubbies and a child-sized desk. While to her it looked horrifically cramped, more like a cabin on a ship than a bedroom, Shao had been awed at the idea of having this much space all to herself. (This was probably helped by the fact that she was less than half the size of Mikayla.)

It was certainly a massive step up from 'fighting a rat for the right to sleep in a comfy box'.

Mikayla had half expected Shao to ask her for a bedtime story, but the little girl had fallen fast asleep as soon as she laid her head down. She'd been unable to resist using her phone to take a picture; Shao was just too cute.

[SHAO - LEVEL 22 - YAOGUAI]

It was a little strange that Shao didn't have a surname listed. Mikayla shot a quick text to Asika inquiring about that as she descended the stairs, almost immediately getting a response.

[SYSTEM NAMES REFLECT HOW A PERSON THINKS ABOUT THEMSELVES. SHE'S AN ORPHAN, RIGHT? IF SHE DOESN'T KNOW HER PARENTS OR WANT TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH THEM, THE SYSTEM WON'T MARK HER WITH A NAME SHE DOESN'T THINK OF AS HERS.]

. . that sounded exploitable. Mikayla shrugged and banished the thought; not relevant.

She paused outside, glancing back at the building. To her surprise, Matron Fuchsia emerged from the door during the moment Mikayla had hesitated.

"Oh, good. I was hoping for a word with you,"

"Uh. Sure, what's up?"

Fuchsia didn't respond for a moment, just stepping outside and taking a moment to gaze up at the sky. Mikayla followed her gaze, watching as daylight receded and stars faded into existence.

"Usually, people just dump their grubby little spawn here and saunter away. It's rare that someone bothers to help them get settled in," Fuchsia observed.

"Oh," Mikayla considered that. "Is that praise for me or condemnation for everyone else?"

A smile tugged at Fuchsia's wrinkled lips. "A bit of both. The children that come here usually aren't wanted anywhere else. Whether they're orphans, bastards, rescues or plain old troublemakers. Too much bother, for whatever reason. I'm all too used to people deciding that once the child gets here, their job is done. But you? Not many Guardsmen would show the sort of compassion you did today,"

Flustered, Mikayla stammered for a moment. "Yeah, well, um. Shao didn't look like she was ready for me to leave her alone,"

"How long have you known her?"

"Shao? Uh, a day and a half?"

"And you're already that attached to her," Fuchsia chuckled.

"Yeah, well, I rescued her from the fires," Mikayla shrugged it off. "And then found out she caused the fire . . uh, wait, Wujing read you in on all that, right?"

"Don't worry. We're used to dealing with gifted children here," the matron waved it off. "She's not our first little fireball and won't be our last, either. In fact, almost all of the children have some special skill or power. We're prepared to deal with anything,"

"Good, because this building looks pretty, y'know, flammable,"

Fuchsia let out a pearl of laughter. "Oh, you think so?" The old lady rolled up her sleeve, exposing a glowing Core Controller, and conjured a pale blue zweihander longer than she was tall. Before Mikayla could do more than flinch, Fuchsia swung her sword into the wall of the Cloudscraper Nursery - and it bounced off without even leaving a dent.

"This house is nigh-indestructible. Shao has nothing to worry about,"

"Whew," Mikayla chuckled nervously.

Fuchsia plunged the tip of her sword into the ground and leant on it like a walking stick, a casual display which only served to remind Mikayla that, no matter how harmless they looked, Cloudscraper's entire faculty was comprised of veteran monster hunters. "I did come out here to impress on you just how much you matter to her, how heartbroken she would be if you left her alone now. But somehow I don't think I need to worry about that," She cast Mikayla a level look. "Though, I am curious about something. What does Shao mean to you? Does she remind you of a lost family member? Do you pity her?"

"Huh?" Mikayla certainly hadn't expected to be put on the spot like that. "No, no to both of those. I have a little brother, but he's nothing like Shao. And . . helping her just seemed like the right thing to do," She shrugged. "Sorry. I don't have a reason. I honestly didn't think it through at all. Maybe the practical thing to do would have been to just leave her to her fate, but . . I just did what I thought was right,"

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For some reason, Fuchsia looked highly amused by that. "I see. Hehe. It seems that you've done more good for her than anyone else ever has. I don't doubt that she worships you. Be mindful of that,"

"I will," Mikayla promised. "Well, I suppose I'll see you next time I come to visit,"

"Don't be a stranger, dearie," Fuchsia smiled as she waved Mikayla away.

As she made her way back, Mikayla cast one last fond look in the direction of the Nursery, only for a notification with the white background and gold trim of the Demigod System to blossom before her eyes.

[YOUR CURRENT WORSHIPPER COUNT IS: 5.]

She stumbled, blinking. That number had been

four

last time she looked. "Shao . . but she doesn't even know . . well. How about that,"

<=====}—o

All too soon, nine days had passed - with regular visits to Shao after class becoming part of her schedule - and the afternoon of Tuesday came. After a short ride on the train, Mikayla was approaching the White Skies Institute.

It was a perfectly symmetrical edifice of round towers linked by bridges, with balconies and domed ceilings. A massive glowing billboard displayed the symbol of the White Skies Institute, a road of clouds reaching up to the heavens. The architecture reminded her of Astralia's Spear, but where the Spear had been worn away to dingy grey stone, the Institute was coated in gleaming white marble. Large, roughly spherical structures crowned the tops of the tallest towers, and Mikayla remembered Nocturnus' brief explanation months ago; they put the test facilities at the very top to minimise the chances of collateral damage.

Wait, how did that actually work? If it did explode, wouldn't all the debris from a blast just rain down over a wide area?

It didn't matter, there were probably protections or something. That would probably be covered at some point in her Engraving classes.

The directions she'd been given guided her to the leftmost of the three largest halls in the centre of the complex, one marked with runic script that rearranged itself before her eyes until it read, 'APPRENTICES' HALL'. Massive doors of frosted glass opened of their own volition before her, and Mikayla stifled a low whistle. They had automatic doors here.

A quick stop at a conveniently marked reception desk directed her through a corridor that led into one of the smaller buildings attached to the hall, which she quickly learned were each entire classrooms.

The classroom was impressive; a circular room with twenty nooks arranged around it, each containing what looked like a smaller and more simple version of an Engraving Table. An equal number of seats were arranged in the middle of the room, all focused on a central Engraving Table that she could already guess was used for demonstration, attached to a large display platform that she recognised from the Core shop, the machine that projected Cores for display. The ceiling was tall, enough that an Armour Core could be projected at size three without even touching the roof. And she'd seen other, larger buildings, so there was certainly a display platform that could accommodate size ten somewhere around here.

Half a dozen adolescent yaoguai were already in the classroom, and without exception they turned up their noses at Mikayla. Feeling more than a little self-conscious about being the only human in the room, she sat down and looked around. "Hi, everyone,"

No one deigned to respond, and she fell back into her chair, trying not to be crestfallen.

They're just a bunch of strangers,

she told herself.

You've got friends at Cloudscraper. You don't need these people.

The minutes ticked past, and a couple more students filed in, neither looking like they particularly wanted to be here and both no-selling Mikayla's attempt to start a conversation, leaving her to stew in her thoughts.

"Alright. Allis Ruogang is around here somewhere," Mikayla muttered to herself. "But this place is huge, and she's an important person. This place probably isn't all publicly accessible, either, and if I start sneaking around I'll get thrown out. How am I going to track her down?"

The staff door opened, and Allis Ruogang stepped out. "Alright, you bunch of idiots! It's five PM and I don't care enough about this whole thing to wait for anyone who's late to class, so let's get started!"

Mikayla almost did a double take. That

was

her, wasn't it? Like far too many of the female yaoguai in the region, Allis was a failed Yevgenia clone, bearing a strange faux-familial resemblance to Nya. Her skin was a near-unhealthy-looking shade of pink, her horns bent much further backwards and clinging to her scalp. Her chest was more ample than any other 'Yevgenia' that Mikayla had seen to date, overshadowed by a pointed chin and lips twisted into a sheer. Her silver hair was dyed with red tips that matched her dull red eyes.

The picture Andrea had shown them in class almost a month ago floated in Mikayla's memory, and every detail matched. It was her.

Allis looked over her nine students, and buried her face in her hands. "And we have less than half attendance, that's just fantastic. If I fail this teaching credential because of you idiots, you'd all better sleep with one eye open,"

"Excuse me?" one of the boys piped up, folding his arms and lashing his tail. "Was that a threat?"

A grumpy finger jabbed in his direction. "Yes it was, and don't be stupid enough to think I can't back it up, mister Petras. I've seen your academic record, I know all about your little pattern of slacking off and then ruining your teachers' careers to cover your tracks. You and I have to suffer each other because I am too important for that to work on me and your father is desperate to see you not be entirely useless at everything. So sit down, shut up, and learn,"

The young man stood, a scowl twisting his features and his Core Controller starting to glow. "How dare you -"

With her claws splayed, Allis thrust out a hand and strings of silver Mana wrapped around Petras' shoulders and throat in a tight grip, hoisting him into the air. The unfortunate boy choked, breaths coming quick and fast as the Mana pressed against his throat.

"Pay attention, class. This is your first lesson. You see this, what I'm doing right here? This is not a Technique," she raised her voice and spoke clearly while she had the undivided attention of the whole room. "This is freeform Mana control. This is the kind of skill you need to become a truly great Engraver," Her Mana wrapped around Petras' ankles and flipped him upside-down. "And for all that people call me a prodigy, I've still only been doing this for a bit more than ten years. There are people who've devoted their entire lives to this, who make me look like an amateur,"

She flipped Petras upright again and released him. He collapsed back into his seat, gasping in pain as his tail was pinned under his body weight by the fall.

Mikayla narrowed her eyes. That had looked an awful lot like a

Force Choke.

"There are no shortcuts. No tricks. If you are serious about becoming an Engraver, you must practice, practice, practice, until you can do things like this," Allis raised a single finger into the air and launched a strand of silver Mana. It looped and twisted in the air, flicking back and forth until it spelled out, in cursive script, 'ALLIS IS THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME'.

"Now, if you're all paying attention. It does not matter who you are or why you're here. Because you are here and you are here to learn. I will tolerate nothing less, are we clear?"

A round of muttered assent filled the room.

"Good. Then let's get started,"