anwhile, back at the Library...
Pathos complained as they flicked through the information displays pertaining to the Kaijin away team in Dozing Salamander, as well Zhen Liu’s.
=Working on it.=
While Pathos was manning the monitors, Logos was parsing through whatever books and scrolls they had on hand in relation to Buddhism. Incidentally, this also included a certain of original scrolls that were penned by the Buddha himself from way back when.
=I think I might be able to construct a filter of sorts to make it so that the Kaijin can transmit information even with the presence of Nirvana related interference,= Logos concluded after looking through a couple more scrolls. =Granted, I think I’ll need our Lord on hand in order to do so.=
=I know Pathos, I-= *Ping!* =-huh?=
Before the curator spirits could continue their mopey behavior, the sudden sound of a chi broke them out of it.
The chi in question was related to what would happen if the majin assigned to the Kaijin Consorts ever needed to send an alert back to the Library.
Up until this very mont, none of the majin ever needed to send a ssage.
So the fact that they were doing so now was indicative of sothing important...probably.
=I don’t know, we’ll find out as soon as we formally accept it.=
Logos floated over to the majin terminal they had established in their monitoring room and proceeded to accept the ssage.
The ssage ca in the form of a single sentence: WE FOUND HIM!
Needless to say, Logos and Pathos were utterly shocked at this announcent.
...What exactly lead to their exclamation of joy...
"Looks like we got here before the others...whatever! Welco to the Banana Grove, my new friends!," Kidanna declared with gusto.
"Huh... I guess this is the power of money," Antonio comnted.
"Or having a very dedicated company of workers," Zhen Liu added.
"Nah, we literally carried the place over from town," Kidanna answered.
"The hell?," Lythero asked.
Unlike the rest of the boomtown, which consisted mostly of surprisingly elaborate tents and shoddily made wooden structures, the Banana Grove appeared to be a proper structure made of brick and mortar.
Not only that, but it even had an elaborated tavern sign that featured a motifs of bananas and a large mug of foamy beer.
"Yeah, we figured that having this place as close as possible to the entryway to the [City of Mirrors] would be helpful for maintaining morale," Kidanna explained. "They’re also the only place that knows how to make banana wine that doesn’t suck ass."
"Huh..."
In this mont, Zhen Liu had three thoughts back to back.
First, this Kidanna lady would get along wonderfully with his great grandaunt.
Second, he wanted to make a comnt about female gorillas...but he thought better than that.
That didn’t stop the kaijin though.
...
[Caretaker. How co this lady acts like a gorilla despite not looking like one? Is she actually a Bloodliner?]
[No, she’s human,] Blazejudicator pointed out. [And it’s not that weird given...oh wait, you don’t know about the Executor’s family yet. I completely forgot about that.]
[Caretaker has his own caretakers?]
’Yes, I do.’
[Wow...]
...
And lastly, he was fairly certain that Lythero was going to end up with more than a cordial relationship with the Golden Gorilla Union.
Entering the bar, Zhen Liu and his friends were imdiately assailed by the sweet sll of banana wine and spiced ats being roasted in an open fire, alongside loud, blaring music being played for the enjoynt of the rather rowdy patrons.
A majority of patrons present appeared to be fellow Goldenbacks, alongside several other warriors that appeared to be friends with those aforntioned Goldenbacks.
That all stated though, they weren’t going to be spending ti in this public area for long.
"Mistress Kidanna, it’s good to see you this evening."
"Likewise, Biha! Is my private room ready yet?"
"Indeed, Mistress. In fact, your other guests have arrived ahead of you and are seated as we speak."
"Excellent! Hey, since I’m in a good mood, would you mind breaking out a bottle from my private collection?"
"Of course."
"Muchos gracias!"
’Huh...why do I feel like sothing’s about to happen?’
As Zhen Liu followed Kidanna, who appeared to be openly flirting with Lythero at this point in ti, a strange feeling was bubbling in his gut.
It wasn’t a bad feeling though, rather it was one that was more aligned with feelings of anticipation.
Strangely, it reminded him of the day he returned to Stone Claw City after he had-
"Alicia, how’s my favorite little sister in the world?!"
"I’m doing great Sister Kidanna, it’s so nice to finally...eh?"
At this exact mont, Zhen Liu had been reunited with his fiancee Alicia Goldshire...
"Alicia?"
"Xiao Liu?"
"Xiao Liu!"
"Bellona?"
...his other fiancee, Bellona Ecaredies...
"So this is the guy who managed to free after all that ti? Interesting..."
"I...wait, what?"
Aside from his two fiancees, Zhen Liu also saw that Harriet, Alicia’s friend from Radiant Feather, and so unknown girl who seed to know who he was, were present.
"Oh, right. We haven’t been forrly introduced, but my na is Alice Dunkelkrieg. Rember how while back, you fought a crazy opera singer with a case full of masks?"
"Yeah, I-oh! Oh, that was you!"
"In the flesh, nice to et you again," Alice greeted with a bow. "Although, I honestly thought I wouldn’t et you until these two dragged you back to the academy."
"Ah."
Needless to say though, the emotional weight of this reunion was a little hampered by their presence, and the presence of Kidanna, Lythero and Antonio.
The latter two could help but to comnt their disbelief at Zhen Liu’s love life.
"Wait, he was actually telling the truth about having more than one fiancee?"
"Fucking apparently..."
While the forr one was stunned.
"Wait, so this is the guy that you and Princess Bellona were engaged to? I thought he was missing and/or dead again."
"We thought he was," Bellona and Alicia said in simultaneous disbelief.
Needless to say, a strange silence befell the room as this unexpected reunion played out.
After all, Zhen Liu was missing for several weeks now without any of his usual kaijin, so so started thinking that the worst had happened.
So to see him not only alive, but accompanied by friends was incredibly relieving...and a little frustrating.
If Zhen Liu had managed to co into contact with people, why didn’t he imdiately try to contact them?!
In this exact mont, Alicia and Bellona understood why Jin Fang decidedly to greet Zhen Liu in a particular way when he was "dead" the first ti around.
"I’m so glad to-"
Slap!
"Ow!"
"Why didn’t you tell us where you were?!," Bellona and Alicia said in perfect unison after simultaneous slapping his cheeks at the sa ti.
Evidently, all their ti spent sparring and practicing their abilities together had caused the girls to beco significantly more in-sync with each other.
Which is why, imdiately after slapping and asking Zhen Liu why he took so long to reunite with them, they both proceeded to grab at Zhen Liu’s arms and pull him into a hug.
"Don’t do that again," Alicia commanded while hugging his arm.
"And if you end up dying again, I’ll kill you myself," Bellona muttered while cradling his arm.
In response to these displays of worry, Zhen Liu could only mumble that he was sorry for making them worry.
As for everyone else in the room, they couldn’t help but feel that they were intruding in an intimate mont...for all of five seconds.
After that, Kidanna decided to break the ice.
"Huh. What a glorious day! Not only do I get to spend the evening with new friends and my darling niece, but I sohow managed to reunite her with her fiancee! This was originally a welco party, but now I think it’s a bit more than that....no idea what to call it though..."
"Reunion party?" Harriet suggested.
"Welco back from being dead party?," Antonio joked.
"An excuse to eat and drink excessively?," Lythero stated, while rembering his younger days.
"All of those sound great, either way, it’s ti to drink in celebration!"
"Huzzah!"
’Huh...I wonder if the other kaijin are here too?"
...anwhile...
[YOU FOUND OUR LORD?!]
[WHERE’S HE AT?!]
[Dammit...]
"What’s going on with them?," Zhen Xing asked.
"The girls managed to find the Producer, before us," Mira answered matter-of-factly.
"Ah...wait, they did?!"
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