Chapter 186: Kaijin Story Time
Nepherage Browsing
‘So these were the shelves that created us? Inspiring,” Nepherage thought as she looked over the arts and formulas in the Terraqi section of the library. All of these arts felt both alien and familiar to the magma-like kaijin.
Over the past few months, Zhen Liu would regularly have Nepherage and the others test out different arts in order to get them familiar with different ways of fighting, as well as figure out what suited them best.
While they hadn’t gone through all of the arts in the library, there were a fuckton to go through, Nepherage was at least familiar with this particular selection of arts.
It was weird to her that she knew some of these arts and yet was unable to perform them at the same time, due to the nature of kaijin.
‘At least I got my favorites installed.’
Nepherage stood there and looked at the bookshelf with great intensity, until Pathos interrupted her.
“….I know. Don’t see the point though. Can’t use arts the normal way.”
“… there’s more to these books than fighting arts?”
With this in mind, Pathos proceeded to take Nepherage by the hand lead her to some literature she would probably enjoy.
“Really?”
“Pe..le…”
She wasn’t sure why, but that name carried…”weight”.
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Frosttusk’s echo
Thump… thump… thump…
“So many… books…,” Frosttusk rumbled as he walked down an aisle.
The mammoth kaijin had little interest in the books surrounding him, he just decided to split off like everyone else because that was the energy in the moment.
Thump…thump…thump…
“Too…cold…need…warm…spot…”
Perhaps it was a flaw in his design, but Frosttusk never really felt he was in focus unless it was burning hot outside, or he was boiling hot inside. Every other temperature was too cold for him, and it made his thinking and moving a tad…sluggish.
“Maybe…need… heating…tool…”
Thump…thump…thump…thud!
“Huh…?”
Behind Frosttusk, a book had unexpectedly fallen out of the shelf and opened on some random page. He was mildly tempted to just leave the book there, but felt like he would regret doing so later.
“Clean…up…”
Frosttusk walked over to the fallen book and was already planning to place it back on the shelf and be on his way. However, he paused once his eyes landed on the page, and his mind fully registered what he saw.
“Wait…I…know…this?”
The page that Frosttusk was staring at at this moment was not the title of a historic event, it wasn’t the picture of ruins of an ancient kingdom and it wasn’t the description of a historic battlefield full of the forgotten. The only thing he was staring at this moment was a simple illustration of a small village on an icy field, surrounded by evergreens.
Frosttusk stared hard at the photo, feeling as if he forgot something important…despite knowing he only started “existing” a few short weeks ago. For whatever reason, staring at this photo made him feel…warmer.
“How can this…”
‘Papa…’
“What?”
Frosttusk abruptly lifted his head as he heard the voice of a small child call out. But looking around the aisle, he could only see books, empty air and nothingness.
“Who’s voice was…that…?,” Frosttusk asked himself as the feeling that gripped his mind when he saw the book, faded away. However, streaking down his face was a single tear, the only proof that whatever happened to him…happened.
“Why do I…feel this?”
On a related note, [Death Echo Amber] gets its name for a few reasons, but a major one being this: it is believed that whosever remains are locked in this amber, the memory of their existence will be locked forever, but only as an echo…
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Hurricroak’s Nostalgia
“Books, scrolls, journals, random philosophies of life…ah, how strangely nostalgic! Is this what being a student would be like if I was born ‘over there’?,” Hurricroak happily mused while walking through a section of books that was in-between the Iganti and Aeroqi sections.
Since the the library was organized via the Aether Wheel, that meant the “combined aether” arts and knowledge associated with them were located in the places where the elements collided. In the case of one Hurricroak, she was currently strolling through the “sound”/music section, which was between the Aeroqi and Aquarri sections.
“Do, rei mi…I wonder if I can find a piece of music that will inspire me~…oh! That looks interesting.”
In the middle of her musings, Hurricroak looked up to see a shining golden scroll case that made her sensibilities scream, “important”. The only issue was that it was just out of her reach.
“Hmmm. Making use of abilities would probably be “against policy” or library etiquette at least…ah! I got it.”
Hurricroak pulled back a lock of her hair and lightly pressed on a pair of recently acquired bone accessories on her ear. They began to glow with a strange power.
“Come on out you two, I need a lift.”
Fweee…zip!
Pop, pop!
The bone accessories transformed into the Skeletal zakos that Zhen Liu had recently assigned to Hurricroak’s care.
“Hmm?” “Hmmm?”
The two bony zakos looked around for a bit, confused as to why they were summoned.
“Like I said, I need a lift,” Hurricroak repeated while pointing up towards the golden scroll case.
“Huh?”
The zakos tilted their heads to the side, still confused on how the two of them were supposed to help Hurricroak get up there. She was the one with frog legs…and wasp wings!
Hurricroak rolled her eyes a bit before showing them what to do.
“Like this.”
“Oh.” “Oh.”
She had the two zakos stand opposite of each other, get down on one knee and cup their hands together.
“Alright, now hold those poses…,” Hurricroak instructed as she placed her feet into each of the zakos’ waiting hands, “now lift me onto your shoulders.”
“Hup.” “Hup.”
“There we go!”
Hurricroak had essentially taught the zakos how to do a cheerleader lift, and it worked surprisingly well. Now, she could grab the golden scroll case.
“Alright, now hold me steady while grab this thing.”
“Hmm!” “Hmm!”
“Bwah!” “Bwah!”
Hurricroak was just about to grab the tantalizing scroll, when all of a sudden, she felt a loss of support from beneath her before falling to the ground.
“Huh? Bwah!”
She fell into a pile with her zako, causing the nearby shelves to clatter and shake, and a single scroll to roll of the shelves and bonk one of the zakos on the head before unfurling.
“Alright,” Hurricroak groaned while rubbing her head, “who decided to shove…huh?”
Hurricroak was all set to complain at whoever decided to assail her cheerleader lift, when her eyes fell onto the unfurled scroll.
“Well I’ll be. I haven’t seen this thing in years.”
The scroll in question wasn’t some profound piece of knowledge, rather it was just a simple sheet of music, nothing but dots on a line. But, it was a piece of music Hurricroak was rather familiar with.
“Wonder if I can still play this,” she wondered as her hands slowly and without her notice, curled into a chord structure and a strumming fold. The faint shadow of a shamisen could be seen appearing in her hands.
