Life With Denkou

Life With Denkou is a serialized fan fiction by FanFiction.Net user Shalalu. The series is set six months before the present timeline of Astro Boy (2003), entailing Denkou's adventures while living with Skunk Kusai. As of May 2021, Life With Denkou is still ongoing and in production.

Canon characters

 * Denkou
 * Skunk Kusai
 * Jazz
 * Blues

Skunk, Jazz, and Blues are given non-canon personality details by author Shalalu. This fanon includes but is not limited to: Blues is gay and a computer programmer, and Jazz is of Jewish heritage.

Fan characters

 * Techno (chapter 5)

Structure
The story is told through Denkou's perspective as they are "born" and are raised by Skunk Kusai's gang. These adventures are first presented as a dark comedy, but they become more serious in tone as the story goes on. Skunk's henchmen regularly speak about profanity and objectionable content in front of Denkou, but the letters of these words are censored with Unicode Character U+2592 ( ▒ ). Denkou is unable to hear or process these words because, as the story explains, Denkou's central processing unit is "programmed to only have access to a children's dictionary database."

Chapters are titled after particular timestamps, signifying where they take place along the greater Astro Boy (2003) timeline.

Chapters

 * 1) "17-11-2042" - Skunk Kusai and his henchmen activate Denkou. As they rise from their containment capsule, Denkou's settings are changed by their surroundings, including their default languages. Skunk imprints on Denkou as their paternal figure, but insists he be called "Mr. Skunk" and not "father".
 * 2) "24-11-2042" - Denkou has taken to sneaking out of Skunk's apartment, turning invisible, and exploring the rest of the apartment building. They are particularly fascinated by a mailman who regularly delivers to the building's lobby. Denkou, not understanding what they are doing, open someone else's mail and steal money from it. Denkou returns to the apartment, just as Skunk wakes up, having been disturbed by a man yelling outside his window. Skunk and Denkou listen as the man yells about doomsday prophecies on the street. In retaliation, Skunk throws a bottle at the man while Denkou laughs.
 * 3) "02-12-2042" - Denkou begins to learn about school from television programs. They ask Skunk if they can attend public school, but his henchmen balk at the idea. To cheer them up, Skunk takes Denkou out for a "scavenger hunt" - a guided theft from a jewellery store.
 * 4) "05-12-2042" - Skunk hires Techno, a gemologist and Jazz's girlfriend, to appraise the stones Denkou stole. Denkou is excited to meet a female human for the first time. The gang discovers Denkou's haul is worth several thousand dollars, thanks to a large piece of natural opal among the gemstones. Jazz is antsy to leave with Techno, and the two depart after Denkou falls asleep. The next morning, Denkou is crushed to discover Techno isn't coming back like she promised. Skunk presents Denkou with a piece of opalite from the gemstone lot. He falls back asleep, and Denkou returns to waiting for Jazz and Blues to return home.
 * 5) "18-12-2042" - A heist goes wrong when Jazz is unable to start their getaway car on time. Skunk's gang is forced to leave Metro City, so the gang takes refuge in a safehouse far outside town. They attempt to watch a movie, but Jazz and Blues begin to argue about Jazz's blunder during the heist. Jazz claims he was unable to give their car proper maintenance because he was also tasked with babysitting Denkou. Later in the evening, Denkou processes what Jazz has said about them, and they sadly go to sleep.
 * 6) "03-01-2043" - Skunk goes back to Metro City while Jazz and Blues stay at the safehouse. Denkou is playing while Jazz repairs the house's router, but when Denkou accidentally knocks over his toolbox, Jazz explodes into a fit of rage. Blues intervenes, and Denkou hides in a closet for several hours. Their water tank runs low from crying, so Denkou eventually sneaks out to refill their water supply. They find Jazz smoking in the kitchen, and are surprised as he is suddenly kind, begrudgingly refilling their water tank from the kitchen tap. Denkou goes to sleep, reassured, but beginning to realize something is wrong with their family unit.
 * 7) "04-02-2043" - The gang eventually returns to Metro City. Hoping for privacy, Skunk has rented the entire top floor of a cheap motel, with Jazz and Blues having their own individual rooms. Inebriated, Skunk hangs out with Denkou in a garden patio on the motel roof. The two bond, and Skunk accidentally causes a car accident by throwing an ice bucket off the roof.
 * 8) Coming Soon

Allusions
Life With Denkou is primarily set within the Astro Boy (2003) canon and the Tezuka Star System multiverse. However, certain elements are adapted from real world media properties:


 * In chapter three, Jazz drives the gang around while playing the highly profane electrorap song "Culture Shock" by Death Grips.
 * In chapter four, Denkou notices in passing that Blues watches Short Circuit (1986) and Yellow Sky (1948) on television.
 * In chapter five, the group watches Evil Dead II (1987) on television. Blues puts the movie on after comparing their safehouse to the haunted cabin featured within the film. Denkou is not following the story properly and thinks the "evil cabin movie" is a comedy.