Chapter 429: Multiverse Philosophy: Creations
“What the fuck?,” Zhen Feng asked himself as he came across a group of unattended fishing poles, all of which were locked in place on the ship’s railing. Near the poles were five small toy-like figures, the kind that his cousin Zhen Liu were making before they left on this journey to Roaring Tide. Granted, these looked significantly more detailed than the ones he left at home.
‘Why are these here?,’ he thought to himself as he looked up and down the ship corridor he was currently traversing, ‘maybe the elders are fishing again? Did Zhen Liu forget about his carvings?”
Out of boredom, the Sixth young master of the Zhen Clan had taken to walking rounds around the ship so that he could take in the sight of the sea while maintaining some form of exercise.
Nobody in the ship could exercise the more devastating parts of their formulas, so routine exercise like this, as well as fishing, became popular alternatives.
Zhen Feng looked up and down a few times before shrugging his shoulders and going on his way, quickly getting out of sight of the figurines and the fishing poles.
‘And ain’t none of my business who left this stuff here,’ he thought to himself.
As soon as he turned the corner at the end of the corridor, the figurines began to move and converse.
[And…he’s gone!]
[Cool.]
With the go-ahead signal given, the figurines quickly ballooned back up in size to become the kaijin known as Nepherage, Frosttusk, Hurricroak, Razorstella and Spring Bralwer, granted, they were all in their human forms when they did.
“Told you that the boar son wouldn’t be able to detect us,” Hurricroak gloated with a cheeky grin.
“Yeah, yeah…,” Nepherage conceded, “has anyone even got a bite the whole time we were small?”
“Don’t…think…so…”
“Boo.”
When their lord left them for the Library of Nowhere to deal with the latest bit of [Chaos] shenanigans, the kaijin were given free time to do whatever they wanted to pass the time.
Normally when they would be given free time, they would wander around the clan estate in their mini-modes, turn human and walk around Stone Claw City, go to the abandoned quarry and spar with one another or just read stuff in the library.
However, due to the sudden change in environment and wanting to take in the sea breeze for the first time in their lives, they decided to use that freedom to go fishing.
As such they found the poles and other necessary equipment in an unlocked storage closet and proceeded to do just that. However, they decided to give their leisure activities a small twist: a game that they invented called “Social Chicken”.
The five of them would pose as a group of mortals fishing and would sit there for as long as possible until a mortal showed up in their area.
At which point, once spotted, they would try to change into their “mini-mode” as quickly as possible to avoid detection, but at the last possible moment. And to make things more interesting, if the owner of a particular pole got a bite before they could transform, they had to catch it before they were allowed to transform.
The loser, namely the kaijin that didn’t manage to transform in time, would then be forced to come up with a believable enough lie to get the mortal, whoever they were, to leave.
So far, none of them got caught, but that fact could change at any moment.
Especially having done this rapid transformation thing over six times at this point.
“Why couldn’t we? Go fishing, normally?,” Spring Brawler complained, “transformation is exhausting.”
“Because it’s a good exercise,” Razorstella answered, “besides, I think this is speeding along your development into a full kaijin. You’re speaking with more complete sentences now.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Oh…okay, then.”
“Also we would technically count as stow-aways if anybody caught us while we’re in human form, and I think they tend to throw kind of people overboard…or the captain’s concubine. At least that’s how it goes in the books I’ve read.”
“Oh.”
“What kind of books have you been reading?,” Nepherage asked in mild alarm.
“Pirate romance,” Razorstella answered in a straightforward manner.
“Ah.”
The kaijin sat there in silence for a couple moments, watching their respective fishing lines sway in the trailing ocean water, when Hurricroak decided to ask weirdly personal question, kind of out of nowhere
“Hey, I got a question for y’all. Do y’all remember things from your cores or materials?”
“Huh? What do you mean?,” Nepherage asked for clarification.
“I mean like…,”Hurricroak paused to find the words, “you know how most of us were made by the concentrated [Desire] of mortals the director met?”
“Yeah…,” Frosttusk agreed.
“Okay, so I’ve been poking around the library and I found this book that talked about something called ‘cellular memory’,” Hurricroak said while doing air quotes, “and it was about how mortals could transplant organs between each other under special medical circumstances. You with me so far?”
“I think so?,” Razorstella tentatively agreed for the group.
“Cool, so when this transplant thing happens though, occasionally, the mortals receiving the organs end up…changing,” Hurricroak further explained, trialing off at that last word due to not knowing what would fit better there.
“Changing…how…?,” Frosttusk asked.
“Well…sometimes they end up remembering things that never happened to them personally, but it did happen to the person that the organ came from, or they end up developing a personality trait that the donor had,” Hurricroak explained further, “so this got me thinking…none of us are really mortal, but we were made of mortal components. Archanidame, Lacerage and I moreso than the rest of y’all, but statement stands. Do you guys remember anything in relation to the stuff that was used in your creation? Because I kinda do, Lacerage and Archanidame definitely do to some extent, but what about y’all?”
“Uh…huh…”
Of the kaijin asked this strangely existential question, Nepherage, Spring Brawler and Razorstella all paused for a moment before swaying their heads side to side, an indication that they vaguely did.
“I… vaguely have feelings of fondness towards the Goldshire family, but I think it’s due to my core coming from Lady Alicia,” Nepherage answered.
“Understandable,” Hurricroak nodded.
“I made my own core due to being a proto originally,” Razorstella answered, “but I remember being made by Marquis de Howlite and then being shoved into a display case for a couple decades,” Razorstella said while scratching her chin.
“Dark.”
“I’m too young to have those feelings,” Spring Brawler answered absentmindedly.
“Again, understandable.”
The only kaijin that didn’t answer yet was Frosttusk, but whether that was due to the mammoth kaijin’s naturally slow nature or being deep in thought was rather questionable.
“What about you big guy? Do you-”
“Yes, I do” Frosttusk answered in an uncharacteristically quick tone.
“Oh,” Hurricroak went, taken aback by how quick that answer was delivered, “do you want to-”
“No, I don’t.”
“…okay.”
Silence fell upon the group after Frosttusk’s rather curt answer. Whatever memory he remembered must have been fairly dark or traumatic to not want to share with his fellow kaijin.
Then again… Hurricroak was in a similar boat.
‘So I guess me and the big guy are more alike than I thought…damn.’
The kaijin continued to fish on in silence, the sound of waves and seagulls being the only thing piercing it, until the sound of footsteps broke through that.
“Oh, incoming mortal.”
“Crewmen or Zhen Clan?”
“Zhen Clan, judging from the clothes at least.”
“Time…to…figure…up…”
“At least we had a longer break this time.”
However, just as the group were about to transform and hide out of sight, Spring Brawler’s fishing line started to become more active.
“Uh oh…”
“Of course the one who can barely talk is the one forced into the awkward situation…”
