Chapter 353: Spy Force Kaijin
“Okay, so there appears to be three different taverns sharing the exact same plaza…do any of them speak to y’all on a spiritual level?,” Zhen Liu asked his cousins.
“Uhh…”
There is this weird phenomenon that occurs when a large enough group of people get together known as “diffusion of responsibility”.
Basically, as more and more people form a group, each individual feels less inclined to take responsibility of any given situation.
Which is why Zhen Liu was making his cousins choose where they were going to go next as opposed to picking himself, because he had morally questionable things to do and needed his family distracted.
“Whelp, I’ll let you guys decide where we can talk in public privacy. Looks like you have choice between…the Hammered Hammerhead, the Intoxicated Sea Dragon and the Drunken Prawn…have fun, I need to go find a restroom.”
“Okay…,” Zhen Yue replied while mulling over the choices. Her cousins however made up their own minds.
“I say the Hammerhead, those guys look like they know how to party,” Zhen Tai suggested as he witnessed a man get tossed through a window and then run back in despite his injuries.
“I say the Prawn, it smells good from here,” Zhen Feng suggested as the smell of strange spices tickled his nose.
“Are the people in front of the Sea Dragon dead or dead drunk?,” Zhen Guo asked as he stared at the amount of bodies laying facedown on the ground in front of it.
“I don’t know,” Zhen Xing answered while staring at one of the patrons twitching in their sleep, a half drunken mug filled with a strange looking blue liquid right next to them.
‘Okay…time for me to do my thing, well, time for the the kaijin to do their thing.’
As Zhen Liu made his way over to one of the public lavatories, he proceeded to subtlety change his bracelet, earring, and ring necklace into three differently colored coins that he then mixed with two other distinctive looking coins in his pockets that were once figures. Once he was close enough to an empty alleyway to his right, he proceeded to toss the coins down it alongside some actual silver coins.
Anyone who saw what he did, would assume he was simply tossing coins to a beggar, not summoning a host of monstrous warriors.
‘Y’all know what do.’
[Of course, milord.]
[Okay…]
[Sure thing, maestro!]
[As you wish, director.]
[As you say. Ring Master!]
________________________________________________
A handful of silver coins, mixed with several strange colored coins, bounced along the cobblestone pavement for a couple of moments, scattering in various directions and getting stuck in various hidden nooks and crannies, until finally coming to a stop.
The coins laid there, silent and unmoving to the casual observer, but if one could hear the voices of one’s mind, one would hear a rather lively conversation taking place. Namely between a coin that appeared to be made of black and red jade, one made of a strange bluish metal with a mammoth imprinted on it, one that was purple with a frog picture, one with strange, sharp edges and one that had a picture of a spring on it.
[Hey, Hurricroak, is the coast clear?,] Nepherage asked her froggy counterpart.
[Gimme a sec.]
Hurricroak released a very faint pulse of aether, one that even if someone could detect it, would just assume it was the residues of a bard’s performance. But to Hurricroak, it was essentially echolocation but significantly more potent. A rather impressive display of aether usage despite being a coin.
[Coast is clear guys, we are free to get fleshy.]
[O…kay…]
[Please stop calling it that.]
[Never.]
One after the other, the coins began to glow with unusual colored lights before growing in size and transforming into distinctively human shapes.
The red and black coin had turned into a leather clad bad-ass biker girl with shocking red hair and distinctive feather braids.
“Alright, does everyone know what the plan is?,” Nepherage asked as she re-adjusted her boots. “How the hell does our lord wear these all day?”
The blue mammoth coin had transformed into a muscular old man with a distinctive braided beard composed that was mix of brown, black and grey hair.
“Think…so…,”Frosttusk rumbled as he stretched his limbs. “Sea breeze…too cold…”
From the purple frog coin popped out a spunky bronze-skinned girl with distinctive looking neon blue hair and decidedly anachronistic clothes, including a pair of headphones.
“Find the rabid puppy dog, his new pack and his master and determine if they’re full of shit or full of honesty and then eat if they’re lying. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.”
“Hurricroak, we’re not…please change your outfit,” Nepherage lightly scolded, “I’m fairly certain headphones don’t exist on Valresta.”
“Not yet…”
“Hurricroak…”
“Fine, guastafeste,” Hurricroak groaned, “wait, where’s Razor and Spring.”
“Over here. Frog sis…”
“What the fuck?”
In a nearby barrel, a pair of legs dressed in rather poofy colorful pants was being pulled by a blonde haired girl with razor sharp features. Evidently, she appeared to be struggling to get the owner of the pair of legs out.
“Spring accidentally manifested in an empty rain barrel,” Razor Maiden explained as she kept pulling, “and now he’s stuck.”
“Sorry guys.”
“It’s fine,” Nepherage said to comfort her proto-kaijin counterpart, “we all make mistakes.”
Razor Maiden kept trying to pull Spring Brawler out of the barrel but failed to make much headway. She gave it a few more tries before giving up and cursing in rage.
“Fucking shit! I wasn’t built for strength, I was made for elegance and grace…and cutting bitches in the face! Can someone else take over for me, please?”
“I…got…it…” Frosttusk answered as he slowly made his way to the barrel.
Razor Maiden stepped back away from the barrel in order to give Frosstusk space, that turned out to be unnecessary.
Frosttusk simply walked over and plucked Spring Brawler out of the barrel like he was carrot. An appropriate metaphor due to Spring Brawler opting to go for a lanky build and curly, almost spring-like hair.
“Thank you, Frost. Bro.”
“No…problem…”
“Alright, with the exception of Arachnidame and Lacerage back home, I do believe we’re all here,” Nepherage confirmed.
The human disguised kaijin looked at each other for a moment before nodding in agreement that all of them were indeed present.
“Now then, to reiterate what our Lord planned for us,” Nepherage began to say, “we are to find Donovan Wolfe, and his new affiliates, to determine if they were lying or telling the truth about the Wolfe Family no longer planning revenge on us or the Clan. Normally this would be rather easy, but the issue is that we can’t just randomly use our aether and just mass search the whole area without pissing people off.”
“You mean alert our presence to even more Aether Lords than just that one guy?”
“Correct, Hurricroak,” Nepherage nodded, “Our lord wants us to be subtle and not grab too much attention. As such, we’re going to be searching for them while disguised as mortals, and doing this on foot as it were. Fight only if necessary, no switching back to kaijin forms unless you can ensure no witnesses. With all that said, let’s get going.”
“Aye…”
“Right on.”
“Sure.”
“Whatever you say. Jade Sis.”
The kaijin were just about to leave the alleyway and go about trying to find Donovan and his Celestial Bronze Claw associates, when the sound of something falling over followed by voices caught their attention.
*Clatter*
“Janice, no!”
[I thought you said there was no one else around!]
[I did! Nobody besides in this alleyway got any aether flow going on.]
“Who’s-! Huh?”
The kaijin had taken on fighting stances the moment they heard the sound of various objects falling over.
The source of these sounds turned out to be a pair of raggedy looking beggar children, one boy and one girl, whether or not they were siblings was to debate.
“P-please don’t hurt us! We didn’t hear anything, we swear!,” the little girl begged quietly.
“Janice, don’t say that! Now they’re gonna know we were listening!,” the boy quietly shouted back.
“Uhh…”
The kaijin had been expecting…not children to be spying on them at this moment.
If it was a shady dealer or a spy, they would have no qualms with leaving them sleeping with the fishes, but…these were kids.
Presumably orphan, beggar kids.
They might have been monsters, but they weren’t…”monsters”.
“What do we-huh?”
Razor Maiden was just about to ask Nepherage what they were going to do with these unexpected beggars, when Hurricroak suddenly stepped towards the kids. As she did, she used a bit of aether to pick up the silver coins that were tossed down the alley with them earlier.
The beggar kids were unaware of what Hurricroak’s intentions were exactly, so they began to panic.
The girl named Janice shrinked into the boy’s arms, who was trying to look as tough as possible in the moment.
“Eep! Jasper!”
“It’s okay Janice, I’ll protect you,” Jasper said as he held his counterpart, his shaking hands a clear indicator that he was bluffing.
“D’awww, that just adorable.”
