Chapter 172: Unexpected Heart to Heart while face down in the ground
“You know, I figured you’d be a lot more panicked about our situation,” Zhen Liu commented, “or at least start screaming when I grabbed you.” {Could have grabbed your phat ass while I was at it.}
/Surprisingly tough for a prince’s kid./
“We just watched a man get drained like a juice pouch, so there’s not much that I can freak me out at this point,” Bellona retorted.
“Fair enough.”/Wait…why does she know the term, juice pouch?/
Evidently, Bellona did not realize that she had just slipped up.
________________________________________________
Zhen Liu, while carrying Bellona, flew out of the caverns and back into the main city area. His thinking was that Leech, or whatever his weird weekend cartoon villain ass name was, wouldn’t attempt to murder/consume the aether of two young people in broad daylight and surrounded by people. Actions have consequences after all.
Unfortunately, Zhen Liu was so focused on getting out of the tunnels and into a crowd, that he failed to notice a few key details until it was too late. Zhen Liu/Hurricroak and Bellona had managed to return to the main city area, but it was in unfriendly territory. It took him a couple moments, but when Zhen Liu saw the familiar emblem of the Corrada Family painted on a nearby wall, it made him grimace both internally and externally.
‘Of fucking course we end up in the Corrada Family districts…,’ Zhen Liu griped.
The two of them had ended up quite literally on the other side of town, which normally wouldn’t be a big issue, but this area was Corrada Family territory and Zhen Liu was…Zhen Liu, aka, Zhen Hai’s cousin and he was accompanied by a certain sheepish woman who most recently caused their young mistress some emotional damage. While the Corradas probably wouldn’t shank him or Bellona on sight, he still didn’t want to risk it.
‘Wait, the Corradas specialize in poison. They wouldn’t have to stab me, they could just go…puff! And I’d drop dead…or get diaherra…wait does the formula give me a weird immunity buff? I never did test that bit out yet…’
[Uuughhh. Maestro. I feel like I’m about to throw up all six of my stomaches,] Hurricroak complained. Zhen Liu was tempted to comment about how the hell she could have six stomaches while looking like an anime pop idol, but now wasn’t the time or place.
‘Godsdammit! Where the hell is a safe space around here?!’ {Somebody just fuck me already!},Zhen Liu mentally cursed at the warning. He was balls deep in a rival family’s territory, he wasn’t sure if there were any places that he and Bellona could safely go without the chance of-
“Over there,” Bellona suddenly said as she tapped on Zhen Liu’s face to grab his attention, “there’s an empty alleyway over there.”
Lo and behold, the alleyway Bellona was pointing to was indeed surrounded by a copse of abandoned buildings. They were probably filled with hobos and maybe some type of infestation, but that wasn’t a big issue all things considered. Plus, the two of them were now in an open space.
“Huh? Oh, right on.”
Moving as quickly as possible, Zhen Liu/Hurricroak flew themselves and Bellona into the abandoned alleyway.
________________________________________________
[Apologies maestro, but I need a nap now.]
‘Well shit.’
*Flop*
“Whoa! Are you okay?”
“Kinda…”
As soon as the Zhen Liu/Hurricroak had touched down on the ground and let Bellona down as well, the [Possession] ability ended and Zhen Liu was back to laying limply on the ground like a dying trout. Additionally, Hurricroak was also exhausted and was unconscious as well.
The initial flop freaked Bellona out, as was the natural reaction to seeing someone just suddenly fall over, but stopped worrying when she saw that Zhen Liu was still conscious, if a little limp.
A muffled groan escaped Zhen Liu’s lips as he laid face to the ground. He had just realized that he had essentially dirtied his newly acquired fancy clothes from top to bottom in what was a mix of sweat, dust and probably blood. It wasn’t his own, but still…pain in the ass to get out.
‘Was it bleach or baking soda that gets rid of blood? Actually, do either of those exist in this world?’ {Are condoms still a thing here?}
Before anything else though, Zhen Liu went about setting up defenses, i.e., summoning the other kaijin.
“Hey, Bellona. Mind doing me a favor? Reach into my jacket pocket, there should be a little figurine in there in the shape of a ballerina, please bring it out for me.”
“Huh? Okay…”
Doing as instructed, Bellona reached into Zhen Liu’s pocket until finding a little ballerina figure made of iron. It looked surprisingly sharp.
“This it?”
“Perfect, now place it over there please.”
“Okay…”
Once the little figure was placed, Zhen Liu switched to command mode.
[Nepherage, Frosttusk come out here please,] Zhen Liu mentally commanded.
“Razor Maiden, wake up.”
[Of course milord.]
[Okay…]
[Huh? Play time?]
“Whoa. Impressive…puppets,” Bellona said while finally matching the voices she was hearing to some kind of face. The only she didn’t know was the ballerina made of knives, that one was new to her.
One by one, Nepherage, Frosttusk and the Razor Maiden changed from inanimate objects back into their full fighting forms.
[No like being small. No air,] the Razor Maiden mentally griped. During the interim of initially meeting Bellona and her father up until now, the Razor Maiden had learned how to speak more coherently, how to use the mental connection instead of just words and could now be converted into a carry mode of sorts. She didn’t like how her carry mode was done though.
[But we don’t even breathe,] Nepherage retorted.
[Still no like.]
[Alright, enough chatter. Go patrol the area and make sure nobody tries to gank me and Bellona while I’m recovering, please.]
[At once milord.]
[Okay…]
[Alright, okay sure.]
With their orders given, the kaijin left to go make sure the exits and entrances to the alleyways were covered, leaving Bellona and Zhen Liu alone to chat.
“Sorry about suddenly going limp on you like this,’ Zhen Liu said with a muffled tone, “The unfortunate side effects of my little trick. Not exactly a good first date now, huh?” {No head?}
Bellona was mildly surprised at this question of Zhen Liu’s. She was prepared for him to verbally ask if she was okay while mentally blaming her, but to her surprise, he was saying what he was thinking at this moment, minus some horny thoughts but at this point she assumed those thoughts belonged to another entity in his head.
“Oh no, it’s fine,” Bellona said with a wave of her hand, “I’m just more worried about Leech trying to find and drain us as well.”
“Yeah, I’m gonna be a sitting duck here for about an hour. But about Leech…” Zhen Liu said while trailing off trying to figure out how to ask a rather sensitive question…before just being blunt a out it.
“Can you read minds or something?”
“What? No,” Bellona replied, sounding surprised, “why would you think that?”
“Well for starters, you kinda emotionally damaged my two cousins by knowing the exact words to use to do so, i.e., exposing their secrets,” Zhen Liu opened.
“Oh that’s just being good at observation,” she retorted.
“You had this look on your face multiple times today that looked like you were listening in on a weird conversation that you found amusing,” Zhen Liu added.
“Like I said, I was just recalling something funny,” she said in denial, but sounding a tad more nervous. ‘There’s no way he knows.’
“You also somehow knew the term ‘juice pouch’.”
“I heard you say it earlier,” Bellona lied.
“Yeah…in my head,” Zhen Liu pointed out.
“…shit.”
That subtle curse was all the confirmation Zhen Liu needed about Bellona’s abilities…that and his brain buddy confirmed it for him too.
‘Y’all keep talking in mind, not that big of a stretch to assume others can do this too.’
[Wait, does that mean she could hear all of us this whole time too?]
[Maybe…]
[She eavesdropping.]
{VOYEURISM!}
