Chapter 763: Exposed Paradox
“Wait, what?”
*Bang!*
“Oh.”
“What the hell?!”
[Why do I suddenly feel more certain about my decisions?]
[Hello…minn…Lady…]
Jin Fang proceeded to fling open the doors to the storage room with such force that it caused the kaijin, and the now revealed cat bloodliner, on the other side of it to pause out of sheer surprise.
Granted, Jin Fang didn’t really care if anybody was surprised right now.
“Okay, so you’re the mysterious cat presence that Ne-Nicole, was panicking about? You don’t look that dangerous.”
When Nepherage started describing the mysterious opponent the other kaijin were facing off, she was expecting something or someone that was the stuff of nightmares.
A walking natural disaster, an ancient monster that could kill with a gaze and move armies by waving finger or something along those lines.
Instead, Jin Fang had stumbled upon Zhen Liu’s newest kaijin, Screamira, locked in combat with a young woman that appeared to have been a cat-type bloodliner.
Granted, she never seen a cat bloodliner with purple fur before, but there was about a million reasons why she had fur color like that.
Either way, it didn’t really matter as circumstances dictated that they were enemies in this moment, and she needed to help handle this.
Or not, given to what happened soon after the door was flung open.
“An opening!”
“Wha-? Ba-bwoom?!”
Soon after Jin Fang had caused that earlier distraction, Screamira took that opportunity to put the cat bloodliner into a chokehold smother.
Jin Fang may have had a few questions in regards to Screamira’s distinctive…build, but she couldn’t deny it’s effectiveness. Especially when used in such manner.
The scene of Screamira choking out this unusual cat bloodliner went for quite a bit of time until Spring Brawler finally decided to pop in.
“Screamira. Screamira?”
“Huh?”
“I think she’s passed out at this point. You can let her go.”
“Oh? Oh! Sorry, sorry. Got a little… overexcited.”
*Thud.*
Once Screamira was made aware of her actions, she dropped the bloodliner girl like she was a sack of potatoes onto the wooden floor, much to Jin Fang’s chagrin.
“Okay, maybe don’t drop people that we’re taking hostage for…I honestly forgot, why did you guys kidnap and tie up all of these people?,” Jin Fang asked as she swept her gaze over the room, counting that there were about a dozen or people that had been rendered unconscious by the kaijin.
“Oh, it’s because…”
The kaijin then proceeded to regale Jin Fang with a rather lengthy summary of events, starting with Razorstella and Hurricroak absconding from the group for a rather… peculiar reasons.
“Do you remember that time Razorstella rescued the snake cousin from drowning? Well…”
________________________________________
*Bing-Bong*
We interrupt this chapter to explain the timeline of events a bit better since it has come to the author’s attention that things were a bit…fucky.
Again.
Seriously man, take notes or something.
|Shut up, I’m only human.|
Right, anyways, here are the timeline of events.
…
Zhen Liu was initially chilling under the tropical sun with Jinju Ren by his side, while the kaijin were out doing whatever, since this was their vacation as it was his and his family’s.
He had asked Jin Fang and Rianna if they wanted to hang out as well, but the two had refused the invitation as they were busy doing what they called “girl stuff”.
In reality though, the two of them were arrow fishing off the side of the ship.
Back to the kaijin squad though,it was during this outing that the kaijin stumbled upon Zhen Tai, Zhen Xing, Zhen Feng and Zhen Guo, all playing shuffleboard, prompting the kaijin to discuss the matter of Zhen Tai crushing on Razorstella’s human disguise to the point of depression.
Not wanting to deal with this sad sack that was thirsty for love all week though, Razorstella and Hurricroak came to the conclusion that they needed to break his heart in a more overt manner. This is what led to the Kaijin splitting up the group, due to Nepherage, Frosttusk, Screamira and Spring Brawler, not wanting to deal with any romantic shenanigans because it sounded like a massive headache.
Shortly after coming to that conclusion though, the rest of the kaijin stumbled upon an assassination plot in progress and realized that if such a thing went through, then their lord’s vacation would probably be ruined as this would lead to a chain of events that would turn this luxury cruise into a muder mystery one. It was under this idea, that the kaijin proceeded to go on a bit of a kidnapping spree.
While this was happening, Zhen Liu was alerted to the fact that Razorstella and Hurricroak made contact with Zhen Tai and essentially lured him to one of the public bar spaces aboard the steamship, so he and Jinju Ren decided to follow up on that bit of information to see what the hell was going to happen.
It was during the entire conversation/heartbreak between Zhen Tai and Razorstella, that the other kaijin had captured about a dozen or so assassins that were independent of one another, had called Jin Fang over to help them fake yet another crime scene and had fought with a bloodliner named Yin Yue, who had this weird ability that caused the kaijin who fought her to fight at basically half of their strength.
It wasn’t until this fight was ended by Jin Fang distracting Yin Yue long enough for Screamira to choke the latter out, that Zhen Liu was made aware of any of this.
Which brings us back to now.
…
We hope this explaination clears up any questions in regards to the timeline of events and we now return to the actual story.
Thank you.
*Bing-Bong*
________________________________________
Once the kaijin finished telling their side of the story, that Jin Fang decided to ask a rather obvious question.
“Did…did any of you guys make sure to alert Zhen Liu about…any of this?,” Jin Fang asked while gesturing to the pile of unconscious bodies.
“Of course we…uh…uh oh.”
It was in that moment, that the kaijin realized that they might’ve forgotten an important step somewhere along the line of their ingenuous plan.
Namely, the step where they warn Zhen Liu about what they were doing so he wouldn’t freak out over it.
Thankfully for them, they had a pair of spirits who knew what to do.
________________________________________
[So…we might’ve jumped the gun a bit with plan to kidnap all of these assassins…]
∆You don’t say?∆
=On the one hand, it was rather impressive seeing you all stealthily take out so many possible malefactors without so much as even a mouse noticing. On the other…=
∆I’m pretty sure that y’all made a lot of enemies without even realizing it.∆
[Shit, the ringmaster ain’t going to be happy about this…]
∆=Don’t worry, we have a plan as to help mitigate some of the anger/resulting panic attack…=∆
_____Back to the actual present…_________
“So you guys weren’t exaggerating on the amount of bodies you bagged…fun…”
“I…I can’t tell if I should be impressed that they manage to capture this many assassins, or terrified at the thought that this lovely steamship is essentially assassination hotspot…”
Shortly after being informed that the kaijin had captured over a dozen people, with their latest one being a weird bloodliner woman that Screamira choked out, Zhen Liu and Jinju Ren moved as fast as their legs could carry them to see just how much collateral damage had been done over the course of a conversation.
It was…less than anticipated, more than what would’ve been acceptable.
At this point in time, Zhen Liu was standing over the unconscious forms of about fifteen assassins, all of whom were being regularly rendered unconscious by the kaijin.
Thankfully, none of the neutralized assassins were killed during the kaijin’s capturing spree, as they had made sure to not only hold back their punches, but to also prevent the assassins from killing themselves as they were normally inclined to do when captured.
As Zhen Liu gazed over the captured people, he eventually focused on a particular assassin that had apparently caused the most trouble to the kaijin.
‘So this is the bloodliner that gave the kaijin a run for their money? Have to say, she doesn’t look that impressive.’
Of course, Zhen Liu understood very well that there was always more than meets the eyes, especially in a world like Valresta and especially when it involved bloodliner warriors.
Either way, with all of these bodies on the floor, Zhen Liu had no choice but to roll with the circumstances and simply move on.
Which in this case, meant it was time for interrogations…again.
‘Logos, we’re going to go at this in a more expedient manner. Could y’all prep multiple rooms or do we only have the one?’
=I can adjust the library momentarily, feel free to open the gate whenever you’re ready.=
‘Thank you. Pathos, do you know where Razorstella and Hurricroak went? It appears my connection with them is still muted.’
∆Whoops! Knew I forgot something, just give me a minute…∆
