Category: The Butterfly Koi

Hatsumi Date

Magic is here, ready to store your data and keep your cell phone charged... endlessly. And the inequities of magic are just another tool for the powerful to reinforce their privilege. Hatsumi Date, childhood friend of Eika Fujiwara and Misora Toyama, is a journalist on the politics beat with anger issues and a tumultuous past.ALT
She’s chasing justice within the tangled organizations of the Tokyo underworld, determined to make things right no matter the cost. When opened doors create webs of obligation, Hatsumi’s access risks abetting the very corruption that she abhors. Given the choice between righteousness and retribution, what path will she choose?ALT
Hatsumi: I’m clearly main character material. Epic quest for justice, etc. I don’t know why this description makes me sound so dodgy. Eika and Misora: Well…ALT

Swimming against the current and swept together by circumstance, these six strange bedfellows have everything to lose.

(Luckily, we all know that being a main character means that you never do anything wrong.)

Starting September 12, we’ll be posting The Butterfly Koi as a serial novel. Sign up now to read from the beginning at https://syphoncontinuity.substack.com.

Misora Toyama

Magic is here, ready to store your data and keep your cell phone charged... endlessly. But in the right hands, it has the potential to be so much more than a personal convenience. Misora Toyama, privileged daughter of a tech mogul and a criminal boss, simply wants to prove herself: that she is a skilled magitech engineer, and her meteoric career arc has been earned, not given.ALT
Hiring Cameron Green on her team could be just what she needs to finish the invention she’s sure will revolutionize the industry. However, when the delicate balancing act of Misora’s life starts to buckle under the pressure, she has hard choices to make. Who is she willing to betray in order to achieve her professional goals?ALT
Cameron: Did I hear you’re not interested in being the main character either? Misora: There are other things I’d rather be: Diligent. Brilliant. Successful. Cameron: And what are your plans for -after- lunch?ALT

Swimming against the current and swept together by circumstance, these six strange bedfellows have everything to lose.

(Because success beats being a main character any day.)

Starting September 12, we’ll be posting The Butterfly Koi as a serial novel. Sign up now to read from the beginning at https://syphoncontinuity.substack.com.

Kenji Asagawa

Magic is here, ready to store your data and keep your cell phone charged... endlessly. At least that’s what the salespeople would have you believe. Kenji Asagawa, Cameron Green’s apparent neighbor, has more important concerns than rich people hawking unreliable technology. After a job gone wrong, he’s got to make sure the knife that’s coming isn’t gonna show up between his own ribs.ALT
Feet dangling over the dark underside of the city, his own wit and reflexes are all that’s between him and a final fall. How far will he go to find answers and what will he do once he has them?ALT
Kenji: I can’t be the main character. My plan is to not grow at all. Negative character change. Cameron: Unfortunately, we know that’s not true. You’re the poster child for right motivation, wrong actions.ALT

Swimming against the current and swept together by circumstance, these six strange bedfellows have everything to lose.

(When you’re too busy with hijinks to bother with this main character business.)

Starting September 12, we’ll be posting The Butterfly Koi as a serial novel. Sign up now to read from the beginning at https://syphoncontinuity.substack.com.

Cameron Green

Magic is here, ready to store your data and keep your cell phone charged... endlessly. So, of course the U.S. Congress decided to pass a law outlawing it as “witchcraft.” Cameron Green, a Minneapolis-based magitech engineer, has his life and career turned upside down by the ban. Fortunately, Japan’s magic industry is still white-hot...ALT
and he’s quickly recruited by Eika Fujiwara to work on her top-secret project. For an American finding himself thrust into the complex and cutthroat world of Tokyo’s megacorps, one question takes precedence: Who can you trust?ALT
Cameron: As the straight cis upper middle class white male American, I figured I ***was*** the main character and I am kinda relieved not to be. Eika: Most of the book does take place in Japan, Cameron-san…ALT

Swimming against the current and swept together by circumstance, these six strange bedfellows have everything to lose.

(Sorry, Cam, you have some stereotypical MC vibes but you’re more of an inciting incident.)

Starting September 12, we’ll be posting The Butterfly Koi as a serial novel. Sign up now to read from the beginning at https://syphoncontinuity.substack.com.

Eika Fujiwara

Magic is here, ready to store your data and keep your cell phone charged... endlessly. But what the packaging won’t say is magic doesn’t work for everyone. Eika Fujiwara, heiress to the Fujiwara Heavy Industries mining empire and face of Diet Breakfast Water, is determined to repair the magical damage caused by her family’s ecological misdeeds.ALT
Together with her best friend, the brilliant engineer Misora Toyama, she’s paving the way for the next generation of magitech, this time available to all. When development hits a roadblock, the pressure is on to use any tool, legal or not, to continue. What trade-offs are they willing to make for an invention that might change magic forever?ALT

Swimming against the current and swept together by circumstance, these six strange bedfellows have everything to lose.

(But does one of them count as a main character?)

The Butterfly Koi will be a free serial novel starting September 12. Sign up now to read from the beginning at https://syphoncontinuity.substack.com!