Chapter 102: Razor Maiden: Wild Child edition
[Milord…why is that puppet twitching?]
[Mov…ing…]
‘Uh oh…’
“Xiao Liu, what’s happening?,” Jin Fang called out of concern. While the movement wouldn’t be enough to cause concern, the weird fluctuations in aether around them was enough to. Matilda had already taken up a fighting pose as she moved in front of Alicia to defend her.
Meanwhile, Zhen Liu had the kind of face one had when holding an active time bomb.
‘Okay,I’m just gonna gently put down the twitching blade doll and not aggravated in any-‘
“Pa..pa?”
‘Oh balls.’
Before Zhen Liu could even move the Razor Maiden slightly away from himself, the puppet’s head began to slowly lift in the same manner a small child does when they’re being held. Once the puppet had locked eyes with Zhen Liu, the corners of it’s mouth, which should’ve been stiff in place, began to move up and down.
“Did that puppet just talk?!,” Matilda exclaimed.
“Uh oh…,” Jin Fang and Alicia said in sync…again.
Zhen Liu stared at the now moving and sentient (?) puppet with about a million questions in his head, but only one seemed appropriate right now.
‘Uhh…voice in my head? Is this puppet a…kaijin now?’
‘That’s…somehow more discomforting. What the fuck is going on then?’
‘Chaos energy?’
‘…you mean to tell me I’ve shoved primordial chaos into a puppet?!’
‘Pardon?’
“Hug..”
‘What?’
“HUUUGGGZZZ!’
“Ehh?!”
While Zhen Liu was mentally conversing with what was essentially his spirit guide(maybe), the Razor Maiden was busy adjusting itself to being able to move on it’s own. And now, it wanted to cuddle.
“Hugz!”
“Bah!”
[Milord!]
The Razor Maiden had lunged at Zhen Liu’s face, leaping out of his arms and opening it’s own, but was intercepted by Nepherage grabbing one of it’s blade legs mid air. This gave Zhen Liu enough time to step back as far as he could, as to give Nepherage room to fight in case things went south.
“Xiao Liu! Why Is that puppet-”
“No idea, but I think it might want to rip out my throat.”
[Gotcha!]
“Hugz?”
However, the puppet turned out to be a lot slipperier than anticipated.
SWISH!
[What the-hey!]
The Razor Maiden pulled her leg out of Nepherage’s grip as deftly as one would draw a blade from it’s sheathe. Surprisingly, Nepherage wasn’t harmed by the action, but that could be due to her being made of stone.
The Razor Maiden dropped to the ground after freeing itself and began to run towards Zhen Liu at high speeds. The sight of the small puppet that was more blades than puppet running towards him,caused him to be violently reminded of several indie horror videogames from back when he was on Earth.
“HUGGZZZZ!”
[Frosttusk!]
[On…it…Ice…Wall…]
Frosttusk began to glow an icy blue moments before releasing a gust of cold air that quickly solidified into a wall of ice that blocked the Razor Maiden from Zhen Liu. The aether puppet looked rather cross at the sudden obstacle.
“Wall?! Bad!”
‘Of course it’s vocabulary is getting bi-waitaminute, is that thing growing in size? And why am I feeling my aether getting drained? ‘
Zhen Liu couldn’t really see what was going on through the ice wall, but he swore he could see the Razor Maiden suddenly grow in size until it was about six feet in height. Evidently, that is exactly what was happening from the girls and kaijins point of view.
_________________________________________________
A literal moment before the Razor Maiden started growing:
“Wait…I just realized something,” Jin Fang commented, “Aren’t aether puppets usually immobile unless they’re in their release forms?”
“Yeah, why?,” Alicia answered.
“Zhen Liu has been keeping the Marquis’s gift in it’s sealed form this whole time, so how is it-”
As if on cue, the Razor Maiden suddenly began to grow as the surrounding aether became disturbed.
“Oh this might not end well.”
_________________________________________________
The Razor Maiden’s arms elongated until they were long and spindly, it’s claws becoming like knives. It’s blade-like legs grew longer and more ornate, a noticable joint forming in the middle of the blade as if to mimic legs. The Razor Maiden’s head doubled in size, it’s razor sharp smile growing larger.
Gone was the little murder doll, replaced with an adult sized mannequin made of knives, swords and probably hate.
Once it fully registered in Zhen Liu’s mind that this was probably a bad thing, he began to look for a way to escape.
“Of fucking course I’m trapped in a dead end…next kaijin needs teleporting abilities.”
Now that it was at it’s full height, the Razor Maiden released a barrage of slashes against the ice wall. Unusually, not a single sound was made despite how furious the Razor Maiden’s attack were. This onslaught kept going for a solid minute before the Razor Maiden suddenly stopped.
This sudden inaction confused everyone…except Zhen Liu.
“Huh? Why’d it stop?,” Alicia asked.
‘Don’t say it.’
“Did it run out of energy?,” Jin Fang followed up.
‘Dont say it!’
“It appears as if the puppet didn’t do anything but waste its-”
BOOM!
Before Matilda could finish her statement, the Razor Maiden had poked at the ice wall with a single claw and caused the whole thing to collapse into powdered snow. The three girls were flabbergasted at the turn of events.
‘CAN EVERYBODY I’VE MET PLEASE STOP MESSING WITH MURPHY’S LAW?!,’ Zhen Liu mentally screamed. He took a deep breath before readjusting his mindset.
‘Okay, no big deal I just need to-‘
SCWHOOP
“Godsdammit.”
Before Zhen Liu could even finish thinking about escaping, the Razor Maiden had rushed towards him and was now looming over him. Zhen Liu looked up towards the Razor Maiden with an uneasy look.
“Please don’t ki-”
“Hugz!,” the Razor Maiden declared before actually hugging Zhen Liu, wrapping her long metallic limbs around him in an awkwardly comforting manner.
“What in the-”
“Hugz…nice…,” the Razor Maiden softly mumbled in a pleased tone.
‘Well…at least it’s not dangerous…I think…’
