TURNING RED 2 : White Code

Chapter 2 - The Tiger spirit

That's when I wake up and I feel different than usual...I feel strong, powerful, more confident than I've ever been, like I can accomplish anything, big too... but that's not just a feeling in reality, when I get up I have the impression that my room has become smaller, I don't really understand what's happening to me at the moment... especially since when you wake up you're always a little in a daze. It's only when I see my reflection in the mirror while going to get my things that I discover why. It's not my usual appearance that I see but that of a large bipedal white tiger, almost 2.50 meters tall, with an imposing build. Against all expectations, I am absolutely not frightened by what I see, on the contrary, I am even fascinated and even delighted when I realize that it is really me and... yes, I admit, I did some bodybuilder poses in front of the mirror but who wouldn't do it with muscles like that! That being said, I have no idea what could have happened to cause me to end up like this, but regardless, I feel strangely good. Especially since I have free rein, generally my parents leave before me in the morning and as I don't have class this day I have plenty of time to test my body's capabilities, on all the plans, strength, speed, endurance. Of course... the euphoria of the discovery ends up passing after a while and I start to think about how I was going to be able to introduce it to the parents... and then how they would take it... It's by asking myself all these questions, let's say a little stressful at the time, that... suddenly... I regain my human appearance. All you have to do is ask and I become normal again... well... almost, because my brown hair before is now white and my eyebrows... black. I'm not relieved though... white hair... it was hardly going to be accepted especially after the story the day before reported my basic hairstyle, it will certainly be taken as provocation. And oh well hey! That's exactly what happened! The piercing story was nothing compared to it and this time it goes further than a broken vase because... I get a slap from my father... So, in the best scenario everything could end there for a simple story of hair coloring and again... but we are not in the best scenario and as the anger takes precedence on my side, while I express everything about my heart, tail and tiger ears appear as well as stripes on my cheeks and forearms. I'll let you imagine the expression they have and seeing their faces it looks like the sky is falling on them. So at that moment, I obviously don't expect them to support my difference even if it's... let's say not really a choice on my part, but I still hope a minimum of understanding in the face of this new unforeseen change in my life and I find myself with: "You are the shame of this family... you dishonor us"... ah yes... I take a second slap but mental this times, without really understanding why this outpouring of malice against something that I can do nothing about and which is visibly part of me. Fortunately... or unfortunately, I'm going to have an answer to all of this. What is happening to me is part of a family secret that only affects the men in our family. A long time ago one of our ancestors, Yazu Kazu, by trusting bad people, found himself involved against his will in a deal with the mafia and to recover their dues, they took everything he owned, his money, his property and even his family, he found himself alone and without hope. Consumed by a powerful feeling of injustice, only one desire burned within him, that of recovering what belonged to him and as a great follower of Omyodo, he prayed night and day to the gods to come to his aid. One autumn evening when the moon appeared practically white, they responded to his call by granting him a great power, that of transforming himself into an immense white tiger, endowed with strength, ferocity and other abilities to to be able to carry out his revenge and bring justice, which he did by savagely eliminating the Yakuza clan and recovering what belonged to him. And the story didn't end there because he quickly realized the potential and what he was capable of accomplishing with the tiger, so much so that he used it again and again to obtain everything he coveted and the more he used it the less he couldn't do without it, almost like a kind of drug. His behavior had also changed a lot, the kind, timid peasant had become a big head of the family, cunning and sneaky and somewhat aggressive when he was upset. The tiger's power was ultimately quite dark and ended up changing its host over time. And this power was passed down from father to son over the generations for a long time before beginning to elude some and becoming more and more rare before simply disappearing from circulation. It's been 7 generations since we last heard about it. Today in my family we consider the appearance of the tiger as a mark of weakness, due to the fact that several decades had managed to expand the family empire without it.

And it is precisely on this last point that my father strongly insists in his flood of damning words, this is why I constitute a dishonor, according to him I am so weak in my convictions and in my actions that the family curse must intervene to "save", a "Failure" that he will not tolerate under his roof. This is where things get even worse, because I lose my temper once again... and yet this only happens very rarely to me usually I have a fairly calm personality... In short, I get angry, which makes me take on my full Tiger appearance and, wanting to bang my fist on the table, I break it in two. That's when what I never thought possible happens, my father grabs the shotgun displayed on the mantelpiece and points it at me. Both of them have a look of terror on their faces as if they are expecting me to lash out wildly on them. They order me to de-transform, which I do without discussion because I'm not stupid and I realize the proportions it takes, and then...then they order me to... ... to leave the house immediately and that I have no interest in ever setting foot there again. I just have time to grab my baseball jacket before I find myself kicked out of my house.

At the moment I'm not too worried, I'll just let the night pass while things settle down and I'll come back tomorrow morning. It remains to be seen what I'm going to do with these next few hours...I can't see myself sleeping on the landing...I wouldn't be able to do it anyway, there are too many things going around in my head so I'm going to rather take a trip to Lake Saint Clair... ah yes with all that I forgot to tell you where I live, I live in Windsor... so no, not the city in England but rather in Detroit-Windsor, the cross-border city between the state of Michigan in the United States and Ontario in Canada. Given my last name, you will have understood that I am Japanese-Canadian... or more simply, Nikkei as they say here. About my nighttime stroll, I think a lot about the family legend and I remain conciliatory towards my parents, as they thought "the curse" was extinct, they must have been taken by surprise and were not prepared for it to happen. I think that, like me, the night will give them advice. I'm very hesitant to take the tiger out being alone in the night and in the open air, there are so many things I would still like to discover, but I can't help but think about what the story says "The more we use it and at least we can do without it" so I do nothing, I just imagine what I could do.