On this day, it was a normal day like any other. Sitting in his 50 story tall building there was a CEO. This man was quite wealthy, he didn't like bragging but he enjoyed the fame that came along with the wealth.
Today was just as usual, he'd begin the day sipping coffee and talking with his assistant and co-workers, preparing for his weekly schedule. He had built up his corporation form scratch to the grand scale it holds now.
In today's world, he could be listed as the top 10 of most influential people in the world. He wasn't known for anything other than his wealth, no other achievement could be listed under this man's name, only the fact that his wealth was so immense that it immediately became his prestige.
The man in question was named no other than Veil Gou. A man of mysterious origins and someone who had risen out of nowhere, taking the world by storm. This man had shook the entire world by his mere presence in the world, and along with his family.
The man himself was nothing special aside from his wealth, but his wife and kids were a different story. His wife was a genius, said to assist in his operations and the main reason why he was able to amass the wealth he has now.
His children, said to acquire the good genes of the mother, being known as genius, monsters, and prodigies. With all three of them holding these titles.
In total, his family consist of his wife, Sakura Shiro, his eldest daughter, Yumi Gou, second daughter, Keio Gou, and youngest son Heou Gou.
Yumi, being the family's genius, equivalent to a modern day Sherlock Holmes, Keio, the monster of the family said to develop connections with many higher ups and even people of the underworld, and finally, the prodigy known as Heou, someone that seemed to have fate in his hands and the goddess of luck smiling on him throughout his entire life.
Truth be told, their level of prowess wasn't something unfounded, Veil Gou, was the secret to everything behind the scenes.
Intentionally making himself to look incompetent, he got married and assisted her throughout her life to help her achieve levels of understanding most people in the world aren't able to accomplish in their lifetime.
He met her while young and became a companion with her throughout both his and her life, becoming somewhat like a childhood friend into a childhood sweetheart, and then becoming married and having children.
As for his children, he bestowed them blessings that he had grown through his own sheer understanding of the world, its rules, and its laws. With understanding that could be declared equal to gods, he had divided his powers and spread them between his children.
He wasn't someone who wanted fame or attention, at least not someone who wanted to display that type of power, so he vicariously lives through that sensation through his wife and children, where he had assisted them to reach levels where they stand now.
He wasn't someone who cared too much about the smaller details, leaving that to other people to think carefully on. He only enjoys doing things that he truly feels like doing, a man motivated by nothing other than his whims.
That's how he had developed his current family dynamics.
But then while in a meeting, he felt something snap in his head and felt a pulsating headache spread throughout in his skull and eventually his vision went blank as he had suddenly appeared in an empty space, with a large desk in the middle.
Truthfully speaking, there was a secret Veil Gou had that most people who knew him didn't know.
Veil Gou came from a very special family, one that stood alone in its bracket of power. This also meant his family had their own special means, such as the mental space where him and his siblings can gather around to meet.
Inside this mental space, time in the real world came to a stop and the siblings could meet in this mental space for as long as they wanted to with no consequence.
Although Veil felt baffled that he was in a meeting only to be pulled into another meeting, he didn't feel all that upset about it as there wasn't many opportunities where he'd get to meet his siblings.
Sitting in his usual spot at the sibling meeting, he waited for everyone to gather.
Soon, everyone had gathered in their chair, the first to speak was unexpectedly one of the younger siblings, Taerou.
It seemed that Taerou had been the one to summon them, but the odd thing was that they'd only do meetings if something truly important occurred, these mental meetings forcibly happened since they had all created a bond that ignited their bloodline to momentarily break time and space to develop this space.
That's why they'd only do these mental meetings if something life changing happened to either one of them, asking each other for advice or imparting knowledge that could be life changing.
"Today, my daughter had met someone of great concern."
Silently, everyone stopped whispering to one another, they came to a hull and allowed Taerou to continue.
"She said she had met someone who looked really similar to father." As soon as she had mentioned their father, everyone's stares intensified.
"What do you mean by met someone similar to father?"
"Are you absolutely sure?"
"The odds of meeting someone who looks like father..."
"Maybe she saw wrong?"
Regardless of the small voices rising up occasionally, Taerou continued, "She had confronted him, when she had relayed the events that had happened, she said she was absolutely sure it was father, her grandpa."
Continuing on, "Fae states that when she said he looked familiar, he denied it at first. But after asking if he was her grandpa, that's when the person she met smiled."
Realizing the situation, the siblings gasped and pondered. To them, this was an unrealistic situation. Throughout the many years, some of the siblings hadn't seen their father in a long time, but all of them had seen him before.
To all of them, father was a special existence. He could be called the founder of the Gou family, the progenitor, the creator, and the true powerhouse.
His existence wasn't just special to them, but to also their mothers. If word ever got out that their father was spotted, their mothers would without a doubt, all make their moves to find his location.
Truthfully speaking, all of these siblings had no idea what each of their mothers had felt toward their father, sometimes they would display longing, fear, anger, resentment, or love. The only thing that they knew was that each and every one of them had wanted to find their father once more.
Maybe for an explanation of his disappearance, or maybe just to find an answer.
Together they had all debated the answer to come with their own conclusions.
One of these conclusions was that their father was a bastard. He had married one of their mothers and left her as a widow with children, another was that father had broke some of their hearts and left died somewhere. Another one that didn't add up was that father had went somewhere far away, to live another life but to be honest, none of the siblings could find a reason to back up this reasoning.
As the group of siblings murmured, a voice spoke up.
"It really could be that he went somewhere in disguise."
Hearing this some of the siblings shook their head and thought that wasn't possible, many of them laughed silently thinking it was a joke, many others didn't bother registering it in their heads as if it was a baseless conclusion.
Some however, turned to look at who said that.
Many of the siblings turned to see who spoke but many of them didn't speak.
Noticing the silence, many other siblings also turned to look but also remained silent.
It wasn't until everyone was looking at the speaker and then the entire room was silent.
Sitting on the floor near the table, sat a man.
To many siblings this man looked similar, to others he looked like a younger version of someone.
But all of them stood up with swiftness and retreated to one side of the room.
Soon, they all huddled together in surprise and fear.
Slowly, the man stood up from the floor he sat and stepped onto the chairs, then onto the table where he looked down upon the bunch of siblings that had gathered.
"Surprised, aren't we?"
No one spoke.
They didn't have to guts to speak to the man before them.
It wasn't the fear of an enemy but the fear of power.
The man before them was someone who shouldn't be here. A mental space developed uniquely for each sibling to break time and space. Only a sibling of their blood could enter this space, not even any of their mothers could enter this space so how had he shown up?
Noticing their silence, the man chuckled and slowly sat down, crossing his legs together. and waited for them to calm down.
To the man, it wasn't surprising that they'd be shocked, after all, no one was able to interfere with their little sibling meetings that they had together. But to him, it was all nothing but children's game.
Veil, one of the oldest siblings walked forward and bowed his head, trying to remain calm and stead but inevitable couldn't help but stumble over his words, "I-it's been a while f-father."
"Indeed it has." Gou said as he looked between each sibling. Some of them hid behind one another, some stepped forward but only Veil had been able to speak.
"Don't be afraid, I won't bite, haha."
Reluctantly, all the siblings slowly sat back in their chairs while their father remain seated on the table. Once they were all seated all their eyes stayed focused on Gou.
Gou, feeling a bit uncomfortable having to only look at a few of them with his eyes, decided to simply levitate himself in the air and then reposition himself to look down while remaining in his position.
Although it surprised some of the siblings, they couldn't help but feel overwhelmed as Gou had inevitable made himself looking like a floating deity looking down on them.
Soon, Gou spoke. "You have just heard the news, I was indeed found out by one of your children. I've awoken again and it's finally time to begin what I stopped."
Hearing those words, the siblings couldn't help but tense up and think to themselves, 'what is he saying?', 'begin what he stopped...?'.
"Of course, I won't tell your mothers about this secret play spot you all have here." Although Gou said this, he looked at each of his kids and couldn't help but see them all cough in nervousness or laugh softly out of embarrassment.
"Let me start off with this, I've been in slumber living multiple lives and have grown even stronger."
Pausing to see the reactions of his kids, he continued, "But the issue is, I have no need for the power so I'm willing to spread it to my cute and lovely grandchildren."
Soon, he spotted almost all of them stirring with excitement as it has been a long time since he had bestowed power to anyone in the family, let alone his now grown grandchildren.
"But, power itself is dangerous and that means the strongest is able to handle the more potent power while the others will gradually be given power that'll help them grow."
Some of the siblings had begun to ponder on this small detail. Some grew concerned, while others looked happy. Most of them had waited for Gou to continue.
"And so, I'll be handing out a test and a game. The test is to see if your kids are suitable for power or not, and the game is to rank them amongst each other."
The siblings began to murmur amongst each other as they had noted the test and the game, the test being a simple qualification measure for their kids, while the game is a contest against one another.
They each were aware of the hidden implications behind this test and game but they couldn't help but worry. People in power then to be on the crazier side and with their father, Gou, being the sole individual holding the power, it was without a doubt that this old man might be the craziest person in all of existence.
Some of the wildest stories these siblings had with one another was that their father, Gou, was reading a fictional story and grew upset with the characters and plot. And so, he decided to rewrite the entire story to fix his narratives and eventually created an entire universe encompassing the entire fictional narrative. To this day, the siblings couldn't help but think to one another if this was an absurd use of power or not. Most of the siblings couldn't help but think of this incident as the base level of Gou's power while others felt gratified by his actions as some of these siblings were born from said fictional world that is now non-fiction.
While all the siblings were lost in thought, Gou tapped the empty air and soon a melodious noise echoed not from the space that he tapped from but from the table on front of them.
Soon, all the siblings quieted down and re-focused their attention on Gou.
"The game itself isn't complicated, among all the grandchildren I have, whoever can bring me the most entertainment, wins." Smiling, Gou felt that this was a good game for his grandchildren.
To him, a grandparent, he never had the chance to properly interact with his little grandchildren as he was in slumber during the time all of them were born. Now that he wasn't in slumber, he wanted to play with them while offering small benefits along the way.
This game felt fitting as it was both a goal for them, and a means to interact with them for him.
Meanwhile, in the perspective of the siblings, it felt totally different. It felt like a challenge imposed on them for their own kids. A goal made to develop their children and eventually made it a contest made on a whim, truly a crazy grandpa.
They couldn't help but worry for their children's lives as it was most likely that they wouldn't die but they'll suffer indefinitely.
"Of course, my children, you'll benefit from this as well. If there is a particularly special grandchild in the mix, he gets to study under me for a while and you all will get to enjoy your lives for a bit."
"..."
Most of the siblings couldn't help but feel that at best, they'd get a vacation from their children, while some of them had happy smiles since they were ones that constantly worried for their kids.
If father took their kids for studying, they wouldn't have to worry about their own children's lives as being with their father was the highest level of 'investment' they could think of.
"Well, spread the good news and don't worry, I'll meet with your mothers next so they'll know what's coming." With that, Gou swiped his fingers in the air as if creating a line. No sooner the space quivered as Gou had reestablished the time and space continuity and restored the world back to the way it was, ejecting every one of his children out of the place and returned to his own little space.
Soon, Gou opened his eyes and found himself back in his chair, projecting holograms all over his office. Each one of these holograms tracked both his children, his wives, and his grandchildren.
"Let the games begin."