[WAAAAAAAAAAH! WAAAAAAH!,] the [Cursed Corpse Blood Puppet](?) continued to wail like a hurt child, much to the shock of the native aether warriors. Granted, she technically was a child but Kendana, Leon, Rama and Lythero weren’t really aware of that fact.
If anything, the aforntioned warriors just wanted to know how Zhen Liu managed to bring to life the cursed puppet in the first place, maturity be damned.
This curiosity actually compelled Lythero to leave the Cortez Grandmasters alone to their own devices for a while, while he went to go and see what the fuck the deal with all this was.
^Stay here, or I’m going to turn all three of you into ash stains if you run.^
Aside from that though, the aforentioned Cortez Grandmasters were in the middle of a heart-to-heart anyways, especially since this night very well might be their last chance to do so.
...
^He’s immune to curses, he can ignore most of our aether based abilities and he can apparently bring life to the lifeless,^ Leon listed off aloud so he could try and process the absurdity of these words. ^Did...did we really even have a chance when we decided to fight him?^
^Evidently...no,^ Rama admitted. ^Making matters shittier, it is becoming evident that he was playing with us the whole godsdamn ti too. Kendana, I am officially apologizing for thinking you were a coward when your [Regalia] broke and you wanted to surrender. If we had known this Dealmaker guy was this-^
^Save it, my brothers,^ Kendana interjected. ^I was indeed cowardly in the face of fighting this guy, there is no denying that. If anything though...I am rather grateful for that.^
^What?^
^Excuse ?^
^For the past few decades or so, I had thought I had seen everything that I could see and reached my limit as warrior. I had beco content yet arrogant over our hegemony of Papaya Town. But now, after having face this absurdity and feeling first hand on how much bigger the world is...I can’t help but think of sothing.^
^And that sothing is?,^ Rama asked.
^When and why the fuck did we, no, I get like this?^
^To be fair, "we" is fairly applicable to us,^ Leon added. ^We have grown complacent and what Dealmaker ntioned earlier... wasn’t wrong.^
^Damn...rember when we were young and ambitious?,^ Rama sighed.
As the Cortez Grandmasters continued their conversation though, and the leaking of their more personal desires were affecting the zakos holding them, a not so unrelated conversation was occurring just a couple of feet away from them.
...
[WAAAAAAH, WAAAAH!]
"Hmmm, what to do, what to do...," Zhen Liu muttered to himself as he looked over the crying proto-kaijin. "I know she’s in a lot of pain, but where do I even start?"
Like every other kaijin and protokaijin before now, Zhen Liu found that his soul had managed to form a connection with the protokaijin he created from the [Cursed Corpse Blood Puppet]. Unlike every other proto-kaijin before her though, Zhen Liu could feel that she was a bit more ntally developed than them but at a cost.
In the exact monts she started to co to sentience, Zhen Liu could feel her rapidly go from an existence of being nothing but hatred, pain and rage, to being significantly more complex but still feel all the pain.
To make so quick comparisons to the other forr proto-kaijin, Razorstella and Springerdermain both ca into existence like babies and were given ti to grow and develop over ti like children.
The [Cursed Corpse Blood Puppet] though was like a child that had been raised to feel nothing but rage and violence, and then suddenly given a full suite of emotions, empathy and thoughts to better express themselves.
This wasn’t stunted developnt, this was sudden developnt.
On top of all that, Zhen Liu could also feel that the puppet’s body was in constant, overwhelming pain originating from every single installed body part.
From the top of her head that had a pair of cursed eyes and a cursed tongue, down to the bottoms of her feet that were sourced from those with in-born jinxes, these body parts were not only sourced from conflicting blood types but the curses themselves were in conflict too.
While Zhen Liu wasn’t versed in the art of curses and their nature, he could at least sense that the ones inside of the [Cursed Corpse Blood Puppet] were vying for dominance. Evidently, this might’ve been why this particular type of puppet needed to be in a constant of rage. It was the only way to keep those curses in check.
"But now I’m here, so with that in mind...Blazejudicator, would you mind?"
[Not at all], the soul-bound Kaijin confird, shortly before providing his charge with green [Ghost Fla] that manifested in his hand.
However, he didn’t imdiately apply it to the [Cursed Corpse Blood Puppet].
Squatting down to get on the sa level as the crying corpse puppet, Zhen Liu made sure to get her attention first all while channeling sincere and soothing feelings to her via their connection.
The effect was almost imdiate, as the [Cursed Corpse Puppet] slowly stopped crying but continued to sniffle.
"Hey, hey. You seem to be in a lot of pain right now. Does that sound about right?"
[Y-yeah,] the proto-kaijin sniffled as she wiped literal tears of blood from her eyes. [Everything is achey, bitey and itchy.]
"Well, that doesn’t sound good at all...do you have any places that hurt more than others?"
[Mmmhmmm,] she said while parting her own head. [Feels like it’s going boom-boom.]
"Hmmm," Zhen Liu humd while observing her head. Using a bit of [Chaos], Zhen Liu could see that while she looked physically fine, despite all of the stitching, the cursed eyes and tongue in her head were rioting against what appeared to be an equally cursed brain.
’Okay, let’s start there.’
With a clear understanding of what to do next, Zhen Liu redirected his eyes to et with Corpse Puppet’s mismatched ones.
"I’m going to cast a little spell on you that will make the pain disappear," Zhen Liu told her. "Do you trust ?"
"Really?," she sniffled. "It’ll make it go away?"
"I promise," Zhen Liu while making a cross sign over his heart. "Cross my heart and hope to die."
"Sniff, sniff...okay."
And with that little exchange, Zhen Liu proceeded to place his [Ghost Fla] covered hand on the puppet’s head and began to sing a little song while massaging her scalp.
"Pain, pain, fly away. Pain, pain fly away..."
And as odd as it appeared on the outside looking in, this little spell of Zhen Liu’s was working.
A look of relief and calm began to form on the corpse puppet’s face as Zhen Liu continued to channel [Ghost Fla] into her head.
[Mmm...that feels nice...Caretaker...]
...
’Oh...huh.’
In the ti I took Lythero to walk over to Zhen Liu, the man had already begun to provide comfort to the crying corpse doll.
At least, he thought that was the case.
He had no idea if applying aether fla to a puppet was a good idea, but she had stopped crying and looked remarkably more at ease than before.
Technically speaking, Lythero had no reason to stop.
As far as he knew, Zhen Liu was just a weird miracle bringer who blew up his house and that he was in the middle of repairing a puppet that he just stole from the Cortez Company.
However, for reasons, he really couldn’t explain himself, Lythero felt this strange pang of nostalgia when staring at the two.
In a way, he was reminded of the interactions between a parent and a child, a father and his daughter.
^Pain, pain, fly away...^
A mother and her son.
’Huh...kind of reminds when I was with mama...’
Before he went on his journey, before he got to where he was now, Lythero was just a little boy who lived with his mom.
Nothing more, nothing less.
And if there was one thing he had been regretting more and more lately, he wish he had spent more ti with his mama.
Or at the very least, he wish that he kept more in contact with them.
’I guess...I can wait for him to finish,’ Lythero decided while sitting off to the side. ’Hopefully I won’t have to wait too long.’
Spoiler alert, it wouldn’t take that much longer...but he wasn’t going to get answers till later.
...anwhile...
=In fairness, none of us could’ve predicted that the Cortez Company would have sothing as dangerous as a Cursed Corpse Blood Puppet in their vaults. Speaking of...=
[You all can suck it!,] Hurricroak exclaid with pride. [I fucking knew that whover made that puppet was fucking pervert weirdo, ha!]
[Should I be worried about my role being overtaken,] Screamira asked her fellow kaijin.
[Probably not,] Razorstella assured her. [If anything, you’re going to be playing as her big sister.]
[Oh...that sounds fun.]
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