Kendall's Chosen

At first, Kendall Fudakan -- along with his younger sister, Yoshina -- resented the frequent and lengthy visits from their aged grandparents. They would stay for months on end sometimes. Their parents obligingly gave up their own bedroom to the elders and slept in the living room, which meant that all television and such ended when they went to sleep around 9:00 PM.  Even more disruptive was that his grandmother took over the kitchen and would brook no dissent; her pride as a  Japanese housewife was paramount.  She spent much of the day preparing traditional dishes, most of which were based on exotic seafood and spent hours to prepare.  She served octopus, mussels, endless bony fish and various types of raw sashimi, and the children found much of it to be rubbery, slimy, and unpleasant.  Kendall and Yoshina desperately hoarded some treasured snack food items that they would retrieve from under their beds and munch on in the night.  Unlike his sister, however, Kendall eventually acquired a taste for the rich and salty fare, and no longer did he have to force the chilly gelatinous chunks down his protesting throat out of politeness; he savored every bite.  This pleased his mother, knowing how much importance grandfather and grandmother placed on preserving their family traditions, and how they deplored the idea of their grandchildren becoming "spoiled and modern."  Grandmother would beam and reveal a rotting toothless smile when she saw Kendall devour the intestines of a steamed grouper or chomp into the boiled bodies of soft-shelled crabs.  Yoshina stared in disgust, and earned many a disapproving glare for her finicky nature.

But in time, even his grandmother's strongest delicacies were no longer sufficient to sate Kendall's changing palate.  He required more.  By the time he was a freshman in college, he could no longer stomach the American food that was all around.  Pizza?  Burgers?  Chips?  It was all bland pablum to him.  He yearned for the pure marine flavor rush.  It was in his DNA, he knew, passed down from the ages and reactivated.  So he would sneak out into the night and scavenge the dumpsters behind the harborside markets where his grandmother shopped.  He'd gather the rotting meats, the squid tentacles and various roes, the urchins, starfish, sea cucumbers and such, and take them back to his dorm room where he would greedily devour them with glee.  Often he waited until they had totally putrefied and were crawling with visible parasites.  It was all just more life to absorb.  After his roommate was awoken one too many times by loud slurping noises and the stink of fish, Kendall was forced to occupy a single dorm unit, which served his appetite well. Now he could properly age his food and cultivate the parasites to adulthood.  Soon the parasites took up residence inside Kendall's intestines, which brought him even more delight.  He was an ecosystem of life, they were his children and he was their god.  His lower body bloated with excess meat and gas.  Needless to say, his fellow students were curious at the bizarre changes overtaking their friend and slightly chagrined at the powerful blasts of squid-scented flatulence that began to erupt from his overworked tract.  But most of them got used to it and held no grudge.  Every time Kendall had to move his bowels, he'd stare in wonder at the various worms and squirming things that infested his waste.  Flush them away?  No! he cried to himself.  At great cost, he filled up his room with numerous aquariums, each one filled with a thriving colony spawned from one of his many violent defecations.  In time he augmented the aquariums with neon lights and other decorations.  The other students would gather in his room during their leisure hours, often drinking and smoking, and spend many joyful hours staring entranced at the complexity and beauty of these living gardens.  Some of them never got used to the smell, but endured it because the rewards of being one of Kendall's Chosen were too great.  Do not think that his diet consumed the whole of his life, no, Kendall remained an excellent student, a helpful friend, an avid gamer, and a reliable source of kind bud during this time.  

And one day, Kendall, he would become the Bio-King.  He would initiate the Feast of the Seas. This is but the beginning of his story.  

And what of Yoshina? Did she escape this fate?  Partially.  But twenty years later, as the Bio-King's reign threatened the stability of the world, she was forced to return to Beach City to confront the thing that had been her brother.  Even though he had much changed she still recognized the boy behind the sharp snapping beak and whipping tentacles. Their parents and grandparents had long ago been absorbed and integrated into his carapace, but she knew that he could never hurt her, she knew, and this proved to be his ultimate downfall.