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Story Notes:

Given this story's title, there's going to end up being a sizable harem for the protagonist, so if that turns you off, steer clear.  Now you cannot say I didn't give you fair warning.

Disclaimer: Freezing is written by Dall-Young Lim and illustrated by Kwang-Hyun Kim.  I do not own it in any way whatsoever.  This is merely a fanfiction created for entertainment purposes.  You can call off the lawyers now.

Author's Chapter Notes:

Basically a retelling of the whole "Freezing" backstory for those not familiar with it.  I'll be deviating somewhat through the retelling, just to let any hardcore fans know ahead of time.

In the year 2012, life was relatively predictable in some ways.  There were things that could be expected to occur here and there in one's day-to-day life.  Things like going to school, paying bills, being stuck in traffic, attending group events and outings, going to the doctor's office or getting a routine cleaning at the dentist, etc.  The everyday humdrum of daily life had a sort of comfortable (if somewhat boring) monotony to it all.

Then came the Nova.

Mysterious gigantic beings (most of them the size of multi-story buildings) who seemed to phase through some kind of wormhole or means of teleportation from another dimension, the Nova arrived with no warning whatsoever.  And just as quickly as they arrived, they casted their judgement upon mankind, resulting in frighteningly high body counts in the process.  In the first few days of their arrival, millions of human lives were snuffed out of existence.  The Nova tended to appear near major population centers around the globe, staying nearby and attacking cities before eventually detonating with the destructive force equivalent to that of modern nuclear weapons.

Within a year, more than a third of the human race had been wiped out by the Nova.

The world's mightiest nations were helpless to stop the Nova onslaught.  The most technologically advanced armies could do practically nothing to defeat this unknown entity that had decided to wipe out the human race upon its arrival.  Even nuclear weapons and the most powerful of explosive devices could barely leave more than a dent in the Nova, due to a forcefield the Nova could project that could intercept whatever missiles or projectiles that were thrown their way.  Given that this forcefield could freeze anything that was within the Nova's immediate vicinity, the term "freezing" started being used to describe it.

For a time, it truly felt as if it were the "End of Days," "Armageddon," "Judgement Day," or whatever other term was used to signify the end of the human species and life as mankind knew it.  To many, it appeared as though God was casting judgement via the Nova upon mankind for past sins and transgressions.  It seemed as though all hope was lost.

Then came a savior.

Whereas those within the Christian faith believed that the savior would be Jesus Christ, under these circumstances, it turned out to be a woman in the end, one who had long blonde hair going down past her waistline, a supermodel's figure, a generous bustline, goddess-like beauty, slitted golden-colored eyes...and who stood more than twelve feet in height as well.

Her name was Maria Lancelot, and she appeared to be the only person on the planet who was capable of fighting off and defeating the Nova.  She could move at speeds that were beyond human comprehension.  When she fought, her movements couldn't be tracked with the naked eye.  From what military analysts could make of it, her range of movement was akin to that of most fighter jets, ranging anywhere between Mach 3 and Mach 5.

For a time, there appeared to be hope for the human race.  Maria Lancelot became revered as a living goddess, given that she was the only force on the planet that could go toe-to-toe with the Nova.  What was odd about her was that nobody knew where she hailed from, or frankly anything about her in general.  It was as if she had appeared out of the blue to save mankind from its annihilation.

Maria was a quiet, reserved woman.  She rarely spoke and didn't interact with people in general.  Her demeanor came off as regal with an air of mystery about her.  Whenever people happened to see her, most fell to their knees before her, several of them in worship and praising her with thanks.  Her reaction was largely muted and somewhat indifferent to it all; she appeared to neither bask in their praise nor belittle or mock them for doing so.  She simply watched over them like a stoic guardian - a shepherd tending to her flock as it were.

Of course, Maria was only one woman, and she couldn't be everywhere on the planet at once.  The Nova would pop in and out of dimensional wormholes all over the world.  So while Maria might have been dealing with a Nova incursion in North America or Western Europe, there could be another attack happening somewhere in South America, China, India, Africa, Australia, or anywhere else on the planet.  It was turning into a planetwide game of "whack-a-mole," with Maria serving as the mallet and the Nova acting like the moles popping in and out all over the world.  As mighty as she was, she simply couldn't keep up with the rate of attrition with which the Nova were attacking the planet.

Then along came Gengo Aoi, a man who became quite possibly the most powerful man in the world, at least in the political sense.

Gengo Aoi was already a man with power and status even before the Nova threat materialized.  Having an IQ of more than 200, he was one of the smartest men on the planet.  A man dedicated to science and human advancement, Gengo Aoi made discoveries and inventions with clockwork-like speed, whether in the fields of biology, chemistry, physics, quantum mechanics, robotics, computational processing, and virtually anything else that fell under the umbrella of the scientific field.  By the time he was out of highschool, Gengo had already made a name (and a sizable fortune) for himself with numerous scientific breakthroughs.  By the age of twenty, he had become a multi-billionaire, with a fortune that was rapidly growing by leaps and bounds.  His face was all over magazines in both the realm of scientific advancement as well as politics and culture.  Gengo Aoi was becoming something of a kingmaker on the global scene, with more wealth and influence than most men could even wrap their minds around.  When the Nova threat arrived, Gengo Aoi was practically a de facto emperor, with more money, power, and clout than anybody else on the planet.

So it was that the world's most powerful man ended up getting paired with the world's most powerful woman (assuming she was completely human) to team up and overcome the greatest threat which the human race was facing in its history.  As if it were a fairy tale with fate as the main theme, Gengo Aoi met Maria Lancelot, the two fell in love, and they ended up working towards a common goal: Defeat the Nova threat and save the human race from annihilation.  The sight of the two of them was certainly something to behold - a genius inventor, scientist, and powerbroker paired with a breathtakingly beautiful amazon/demigoddess who was more than twice his height.

Being the genius that he was, Gengo Aoi immediately decided to address the problem regarding manpower.  For while Maria was powerful, she couldn't be everywhere at once.  So to remedy that conundrum, Gengo needed to replicate what made Maria Lancelot stand out among all others and gave her the ability to fight off the Nova.  In private conversations between the two of them, she enlightened Gengo with one word: Stigmata.

Gengo knew right off the bat that Maria was not human, or at least not entirely human anyway.  While her physical form was that of an attractive, towering human female, her biology was something almost otherworldly in a way.  She appeared to be somewhere in between on the spectrum between homo sapien and Nova - more than the first, but not quite completely of the second.  Gengo was in awe of her overall capabilities in what she represented, along with falling in love with her for who she was as well.  While others looked at Maria with a mix of confusion and fear (given what she was capable of), Gengo simply saw her as a goddess to revere and love, with the hopes that she would return the love he held for her in kind.

From Gengo's perspective, he could only hope that she saw him as her equal, worthy of her affection.  While he could never hope to match her in raw power (or size, given that he was no higher than her crotch), he was hopeful that his intellect, drive, and creative thinking could make up the difference for him where size fell short.  From what he could tell in their time together, Maria seemed to enjoy his company.  He was the only man she conversed with beyond a sentence  in dialogue, and she would at times crack a smile when they were alone together.  While Gengo wasn't necessarily something of an optimist in his overall worldview, he found his heart feeling lighter whenever he was alone with Maria.

Perhaps that is simply how it feels when someone is truly in love.  Gengo Aoi never gave matters of romance much thought, but now that he had found someone he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, he found himself re-examining matters of the heart, companionship, and genuine affection the more he spent time with Maria.

But we got a little off topic on matters of romance now, haven't we?  Where were we earlier?  Oh yes, stigmata.

From what Gengo learned on Maria's body (after getting intimate with it enough times when the two of them were alone in bed), she possessed an object which she referred to as "stigmata," which gave her the extraordinary abilities she possessed to help fight against the Nova.  It was essentially the keystone behind it all:  Her speed, her strength, her endurance, her regenerative capabilities...it all rested upon stigmata.  It was the sole reason why she could do what no other individual was capable of when it came to defeating Nova.

"Can it be replicated and transplanted to others?" Gengo asked her.

"Yes," replied Maria, "but only to females.  It is simply incompatible with males."

"That's fine," said Gengo, "we have plenty of women on this planet, and given the severity of this threat, I doubt we'll run out of volunteers to help combat this problem we face.  Can your stigmata be copied?"

"It will take time, but I believe so," answered Maria.  "With enough time, you can create an army of women to help save your world and your people.  I will show you how."

So it was that with Gengo's frightening level of genius, he was able to learn the fine minutiae of the stigmata and begin to replicate them in the coming days.  It was certainly a tall order to create something which humanity had practically no knowledge of up to that point, but if there was one thing that Gengo didn't have to worry about, it was the necessary resources.

Given the fate of mankind and civilization was on the table, the world's most powerful nations, mightiest militaries, and wealthiest corporations were only too eager to give Gengo Aoi whatever it was he required.  Money, raw materials, laboratory facilities, personnel, clearances...whatever he required, he was given with practically no resistance whatsoever.  When the fate of the world is at stake, bureaucratic red tape gets reduced to ashes rather quickly.

So it was in the years to come that an army was formed among numerous women from across the world to combat the Nova threat.  With Maria's help in grafting stigmata to these female warriors-to-be, as well as training them to be able to fight against the Nova, a fighting force was formed that grew in number...along with overall size.

For you see, there was a side effect of grafting stigmata onto a woman:  Enlarged size.

As it turned out, when a stigmata was introduced to a human female's body, the power output it generated caused rapid growth over time.  It was a sort of second puberty of sorts, to keep it simplified.  Given that Maria herself was the tallest person on the planet up to that point, it wasn't too farfetched to consider that women who became like her in fighting capability would also end up being like her in terms of size.  After enough studies and long-term examinations of what happened when a human female had stigmata inserted into her body, the jury was in on the end result.

When a woman has stigmata transplanted into her very being, she doubles in height when the process finishes, usually within the span of a few hours (twenty four at most).  The procedure is painful, but once it is over, a human female becomes something...more.  Strength, speed, endurance, agility, pain tolerance - virtually every facet of physical limitation to the human body becomes lessened for women once stigmata are introduced to their forms.  They become something akin to demigods (or demigoddesses might be more accurate) in overall physical power.

Of course, with only women being able to be compatible with stigmata, it had a more broader, long-term implication for the power dynamic between men and women from that point on.  Since only females could hope to successfully fight off the Nova, they had become the more powerful sex practically overnight.

Thousands of years of human evolution and society had been flipped upside down when it came to gender relations.  Thanks to the Nova threat, women were now the dominant sex on the planet, many of them in positions of power and authority in numerous fields across the world.  Be it in politics, business, schooling, industry, or any other broad facet of day-to-day life, women were now the superior sex.  To put it bluntly, the phrase "It's a woman's world." was now an absolute truth.

As fantastical and unrealistic as it would sound, a substantial percentage of Earth's human female population had grown into towering beauties over their male counterparts.  At first the percentage was small, but over time, one percent of women everywhere were now anywhere within the nine-foot-high range all the way up to twelve feet in height.  Then 1% became 2%, then 3%, then 5%, then 10%, then more and more.

With so many women turning into towering amazons (or mini-giantesses as some liked to term them), societies across the world had to make drastic changes practically overnight to accommodate a world with much larger women in it now.  Larger housing facilities, larger clothing, larger meals, larger furniture, larger bathing facilities, larger transportation services, larger personal accessories (cell phones, jewelry, shoes, etc.) - damn near larger everything for a proportion of the female population which was now an absolute necessity when it came to protecting civilization and the human species from the Nova threat.

Of course, some cultures and civilizations were adamantly against the idea of female empowerment when it came to enlarging women to fight against the Nova.  It was a sad truth, but whether it was in the developed world or the developing world, there would always be men who simply couldn't accept the idea of women becoming superior to them.  Biological supremacy was something that males tended to pride themselves over between the sexes.  "Men are stronger than women, so naturally men should be in charge," as many men would say.  Now that the opposite was starting to come true, there were men across the world who were vehemently against the idea of female empowerment through size enlargement.

Never mind that women were necessary to fight against the Nova threat, if the choice was between human extinction and having to acknowledge that more and more women were becoming stronger (via enlargement) than men over time, then some men would sadly choose the first option.

Of course, given that Gengo Aoi had more clout and de facto power than the rest of the world combined, the rantings and displeasure of such individuals were cast into the wastebasket.  It was his genius, his research, his facilities, his planning, his damn near EVERYTHING that humanity needed in order to continue surviving.  The Nova threat had created a sort of new world order.  While Gengo wasn't so arrogant as to place a crown upon his head and declare himself emperor of planet Earth, he wasn't above letting everybody else know who held the lion's share of power globally.  If the rest of the world was going to become a stubborn mule and fight the course of progress and human evolution, then Gengo would deny them the protection he was offering against the Nova whenever they showed up next time.  Fortunately, saner minds won the day and silenced the naysayers from throwing a wrench in the works.

"I like to think of myself as something of a benevolent dictator," was Gengo's response when questioned on such matters.  "I will do everything in my power to protect the human species from this threat; but if you're going to become difficult with me, then I will leave you to the mercy of the Nova.  See if their hospitality is any better than mine."

Needless to say, the rest of the world fell in line soon enough.  So long as Gengo Aoi had the means of fending off the Nova, then the governments and corporate juggernauts of the world would know their place relative to him.  And to be fair, as far as de facto dictators went, Gengo WAS generally benevolent in how he managed things.  As long as you gave him what he wanted when he asked for it, you were okay.  Otherwise, you were on your own and left to fend for yourself.

Now onto another topic, specifically the matter of these female supersoldiers who had arisen as a result of the Nova threat.

For starters, what to call them?

"Pandora," was Gengo's answer.  "I've found the story to be somewhat charming in a way.  A young woman who opens up the box and unleashes chaos and disaster upon the world, though what remains in the box is hope.  It seems somewhat fitting, in my opinion.  Here we are opening Pandora's Box by turning young women into supersoldiers who could theoretically bring the world to its knees if there are enough of them, which there are now.  Yet through them, there is hope for the future as well, at least regarding the existential threat in which the Nova serve as.  Think of it as a double sword if you like:  We need the Pandora to protect ourselves from the Nova, yet there is also the fear that they could do whatever they like to the rest of us, given their enlarged size and physical capabilities, and we would be completely at their mercy. The Pandora are our saviors and guardians, yet many of us fear them because of what they are capable of.  If you ask me, men should get over such fears and perceived inadequacies and learn to live alongside them.  The Pandora are here to stay, so the male specimen of the human race should make peace with that reality and adjust his worldview accordingly."

With the creation of the Pandora came also the birth of Genetics University, a school designed to help Pandora train to combat the Nova threat.  Within a few years, facilities were built all over the world.  Over a hundred branches of Genetics University had sprung up, most of them located throughout parts of North America, Europe, and East Asia.

The universities were created with Pandora in mind, so everything had to be built to their scale.  Everything - classrooms, bathrooms, dormitories, dining halls, dressing rooms, gymnasiums, auditoriums, water fountains, walkways, you name it - had to be built to accommodate women who ranged anywhere in height from ten feet tall to twelve feet tall.  It was certainly a surreal experience for the construction crews having to build all of these structures which were far larger than anything they could use.

Imagine telling a carpenter he had to build a chair or a bedframe for someone more than ten feet in height.  Back in the day, he probably would tell you to get your head examined.  And now, such people...correction, such women were now becoming more and more commonplace throughout the world.  As the years marched on, the Pandora were transitioning from something of a rarity to becoming somewhat uncommon to being a fairly regular occurrence.  Everyday life had to factor in the existence of women who had doubled their height after becoming Pandora, and the world had to adjust accordingly.

In the span of a decade after the first Nova incursion, the number of Pandora went from thousands to tens of thousands, then hundreds of thousands, and then millions.

The world was now chock full of women who towered over men.  It was the most "slap in the face" way of letting men know that more and more women were physically superior to them, which in turn reset the world order.  Year after year, it was becoming less of a man's world and more of a woman's world - especially when the average woman could kick the strongest man's ass without breaking a sweat.

For Pandora who finished their education and training and graduated from a Genetics facility, there was the option to move on to become a member of the group known as "Chevalier" - a supranational organization solely dedicated to fighting the Nova.  Another project of Gengo Aoi's, Chevalier was a group whose authority was the highest on the planet.  No country in the world - Russia, China, the United Kingdom, even the United States - could hope to match Chevalier in outright military might.  After all, the Nova were too powerful for the world's militaries, and the Pandora were the only fighting force that could match or defeat the Nova.  That made the Pandora far superior to all the tanks, helicopters, aircraft carriers, fighter jets, and foot soldiers that any nation could afford to throw at them.

Of course, given the circumstances of the situation, one should ask themselves a question regarding potential conflict with Chevalier:  Why would any country wage war with the one entity that protects the human race from outright extermination?

One could respond to that question with another question: "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"

Translation: Who watches the watchmen?

It was a fair academic/philosophical point to make.  For if the Nova no longer posed a threat to humanity, would the Pandora still serve as benevolent guardians?  Would they abuse their powers and make slaves of the rest of mankind, looking down on them figuratively as well as literally?  It is an interesting hypothetical scenario to entertain, sure enough.

Having factored that into the equation, under the present circumstances, as things stood, the Pandora, Genetics University, and Chevalier were STILL mankind's best hope at survival in facing the juggernaut that was the Nova threat.  Without them, the human race would be hopelessly outmatched and exterminated by the Nova within the span of a few years.  So while there was always the fear of what would happen if Chevalier went rogue and dedicated itself to world domination, it was still for the time considered the lesser evil when compared to the Nova.

While Gengo Aoi was content with the creation of an all-female fighting force (given his somewhat playboy-like propensity to prefer the company of women over men), it was Maria who surprised him when she insisted that there be male counterparts to assist Pandora in fighting the Nova.

"If your species is to truly evolve, to march into the future together as equals, then both male and female should fight alongside each other," she told Gengo.

"But how?" Gengo replied.  "Men are incompatible with stigmata.  There is simply no observable reaction to be found among male specimens."

"I will help you make that otherwise," responded Maria, "I will assist you in your research so as to make males useful partners for females in combat.  It won't be exactly the same, but males will serve a purpose in helping to combat the Nova."

So it was that in the years following the creation of the Pandora, Genetics, and Chevalier that another creation was birthed by Gengo Aoi with the assistance of Maria Lancelot.  In time, with the proper genetic manipulation, the stigmata could indeed be grafted onto human males and give them a particularly unique ability to aid Pandora in combating the Nova.

When a compatible human male has a stigmata successfully grafted with his body, he becomes capable of producing a sort of ground-based forcefield similar to that of the Nova.  Given that this forcefield was similar to that produced by the Nova, it was also referred to as "freezing," though there was a key difference between a human male's freezing and a Nova's freezing.  Whereas the Nova's freezing was designed to freeze in place any incoming threats, be they projectiles or enemy combatants, a human male's freezing was designed to negate a Nova's freezing in order to allow free movement for Pandora to successfully engage in combat and defeat the Nova.  Some males were even able to use their freezing fields to actually hold the Nova into place, assuming the compatibility rate between human males and their stigmata was high enough.

As for what to call these stigmatic males who fought alongside Pandora, Gengo came up with a new term:  Limiter.

"Think about it," he elaborated.  "They use their freezing fields to help slow and entrap the Nova.  They place limitations on their opponents so as to give the Pandora an opening and strike accordingly.  I find it a fitting term."

And so was birthed the fighting group known as Limiters who fought alongside Pandora to help turn back the Nova threat.  However, while the two fought alongside one another in battling the Nova, there were some key differences between the two.

For starters, though human males could be compatible with stigmata, the percentage of men on the planet who were highly compatible with stigmata was much lower compared to the percentage of women on the planet.  Whereas around half of women on the planet were compatible with stigmata and able to become Pandora, only around 5% of the world's men were compatible with stigmata by comparison.  This left the man/woman ratio at Genetics facilities and within Chevalier to be heavy female dominant as a result.

The other significant difference was that while while women who became Pandora ended up doubling in height and having greatly improved physical capabilities, men who became limiters had little or no changes in their overall physical features.  Upon closer examination, there were mild increases in height found among some Limiters, but only by one or two inches at most (there was some speculation as whether this was just a miniscule amplification of male puberty brought about by stigmata, but further study would be required to confirm or deny this theory).  So while Pandoras ranged anywhere between ten and twelve feet in height, Limiters still retained their same overall size, most being somewhere between five-and-a-half to six feet tall.  That simply served as a reminder of the massive size differential between Pandoras and Limiters, and their respective roles for each other, given that difference.  Limiters were expected to show Pandoras the utmost respect, given that they were the guardians protecting humanity (and that they could kick the living crap of them being around twice their height).  In turn, Pandoras were expected to be gentle and considerate of Limiters given the gap in raw physical power that existed between them.  If a Pandora physically attacked a Limiter, she was expected to have a damn good reason for doing so (under grounds of self-defense or something urgent), otherwise harsh punishment could be expected as a result.

And so in the era of the Nova threat, humanity found itself in a position that was as awkward as it was interesting.  It served as just one more reminder of the power disparity between the sexes, with Pandora towering over their Limiter companions during their times at Genetics schools and throughout Chevalier.  In the initial years of it all, it was rather surreal for the Limiters to walk among the presence of women who had a solid five feet or more in height over them.  There was the occasional awkward moment of standing too close to one another, giving Limiters an opportunity to look underneath a Pandora's skirt (given how short the skirts on Pandora school uniforms tended to be).  But aside from moments like that, there grew a sort of understanding between both groups:  The Pandoras were the "big sisters" who were to be revered and respected among their smaller male counterparts, while the Limiters were the "little brothers" who were to be handled delicately and protected (with their occasional "needs" being met by their female counterparts from time to time).

The first Nova incursion happened back in 2012.  Fast forward decades later.  Humanity and civilization still exist, though the Nova still pose a danger.  In that time period, there have been several Pandora across the globe, numbering in the millions, all of them fighting against the Nova threat in order to protect the human race, with their Limiter counterparts fighting alongside them.  The year is now 2065, and there have been nine episodes since the Nova first arrived to begin their assault on humanity, dubbed "Nova Clashes."  

Gengo Aoi is now an old man, though still fit for his age and keeping his mental sharpness after all these years.  He has stepped away from the public spotlight for the most part, only making a debut whenever something of significance regarding advancements in Chevalier or Genetics makes itself known.  The day-to-day functions of life within Chevalier or the various branches of Genetics has been passed down to younger generations.  The struggle against the Nova still continues, though there is hope for the human race at present.  While the arrival of the Nova during each Nova Clash is always of the highest concern, the number and quality of the Pandora who stand at the ready provides some degree of relief, giving the human race hope that there is still a future for mankind and civilization.

It is at this time that the story now shifts to another man, little more than a boy at this point.  While he is young and still learning much, both about himself and the world in which he was born into, there is great promise in his future.  His name is Kazuya Aoi, and he is both the grandson of Gengo Aoi and a Limiter, making his way to the Genetics University, Japanese Western Branch - or "West Genetics" for short.  As a newly inducted Limiter, Kazuya Aoi is entering a world of schooling in the presence of women who tower over him and outnumber him greatly.  Little does he know just how much his life is going to be bombarded with said women in the days and weeks to come.

Chapter End Notes:

That ends the recap.  Whenever I have the next chapter up, the story will be mainly centered on Kazuya from this point on (unless I end up chaning my mind on a whim).  Anyways, hope you find this intriguing, whether you know of the "Freezing" franchise or not.  Until next time...

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