"This ga...is surprisingly complicated."
"You’re telling ! I’m not used to having to control my aether so...delicately."
"Pfft! Speak for yourselves you louts. I feel like a fish in water right now!"
After settling into their rooms and making sure their luggage was secure, Zhen Xing, Zhen Tai, Zhen Guo and Zhen Feng were playing a ga of sothing they recently learned called "shuffleboard", which was surprisingly tricky despite being so simple.
The reason for this trickiness was due to the pucks being used being made from a special type of stone that reacted to the player’s aether when pushed.
Too little aether and the puck won’t budge an inch, too much and the player was liable to take soone’s head off in the process of playing.
Being Aether Masters, the four scions of the Zhen Clan were used to infusing things with aether in order to strengthen them or perform certain weird arts, but this was a first for any of them to try and do it in such a precise manner for a ga of all things.
It made for damn good training of their senses though.
"And...fuck you all! s
Seven points, baby!," Zhen Guo proclaid happily when his puck stopped slidding.
"Gah!"
"Dammit!"
The Zhen Clan scions had been going at this ga for a while now and had been consistently pushing their pucks a little too hard. That said, Zhen Guo for so unknown reason had been able to consistently score high every ti he went.
Whether this was beginner’s luck or actual skill was up for debate.
"Zhen Tai, it’s your turn to...Zhen Tai?"
"Ha..."
As the others alerted Zhen Tai that it was his turn to play the ga, they found that the man was currently leaning on the railing while staring off into space like his mind was elsewhere.
In other words, the boy looked lovesick.
"Godsdamn dude, he’s been like this for days," Zhen Feng complained. "How is he still not over that girl?"
"To be fair, she was rather striking in appearance. Albeit, her features were too...sharp for my liking," Zhen Guo answered. "I’d prefer my won like how I like my wine."
"Older than you?"
"Full bodied and refined, you boar of a man."
"I take that as a complint!"
"Ay caramba, Zhen Tai! Quit moping on your mystery woman, it’s your turn to shuffle!," Zhen Xing called out.
"Huh? Oh...yeah...sure..."
Zhen Tai simply and calmly ca over to the other three and prepared himself to launch his puck.
"Oh damn. I figured he’d chew you out over complaining about his love life while yours is decent."
"Sa..."
"How is Pai Ling, by the way?"
"She’s been improving, but..."
As the Zhen Clan scions began to gossip while playing shuffleboard, a certain sharp featured woman was ntally preparing herself to try and end a relationship before it even had an inkling of starting.
Well...she was getting advice from a certain frog woman.
________________________________________
[And you’re certain that I can’t just hide away until whatever crush he has on my human form disappears?,] Razorstella asked Hurricroak while peeking her head around a corner.
At this point in ti, Razorstella had taken on her human disguise of "Rachel" and had tracked down the exact location of Zhen Tai, aka, Snake Boy. Of course, she wasn’t alone in this endeavor as Hurricroak was by her side, albeit, under the guise of being a necklace around Razorstella’s neck.
[If our maestro is anything to go off of, hell no,] Hurricroak replied. [Practically every mber of his clan seems to have rock solid romantic relationships and/or a bleeding heart focused on the idea of romance. That and the fact that has been about a week since you saved him and he’s still sighting over not knowing your na.]
[That...that tracks,] Razorstella replied as she recalled how Zhen Liu’s parents and uncles seed to be the perfect picture examples of those old married couples that seem to do everything together.
Hell, Patriarch Zhen Shi never remarried despite Matriarch Zhen Bai Hua passing away years ago.
While this level of love and devotion was very sweet to most people, even to Razorstella, she had no idea to pursue this kind of relationship in the slightest...well...she didn’t want to pursue this kind of relationship with anyone that was blood related to the director.
[I gotta ask again,but are you against the idea of romance with Zhen Tai because he’s related to the director and you consider tmit mild incest, or are you against the idea because you dislike the idea of romance in general? Are you aroace?]
[I-no? I’m made of blades, not arrows.]
[Not what I-]
[Also, I’m not entirely sure if I’m against the idea of romance, I just know I don’t want to be in a relationship with him. That’s about it,] Razorstella explained.
[Whatever you say,] Hurricroak capitulated.
[But while we’re on the topic of romance or whatever this is, any particular reason why you wanted to help out with this? When you volunteered, you gave off this weird mixed feeling of sympathy, nostalgia and amusent. It throws off.]
[Well, long story short, I just thought the idea of you trying to softly reject soone like sothing out of an ani I’ve watched before to be incredibly amusing.]
[That...sounds about right.]
[That and I was reminded of my younger days.]
[What was that?]
[Nothing. Now rember your lines, pre-recorded responses, and try not to rip his heart apart too badly.]
[I make no promises.]
...
"Wait, that’s what Razorstella’s human form look like? No wonder your cousin fell in love with at first sight, she’s hot!"
"And we’re too late to stop them, godsdammit."
"Oh no...is it wrong for to say that I want to see how your kaijin reject your poor cousin?"
"Mildly, but we have no choice...at least the others aren’t actively involving themselves in this situation."
________________________________________
[Wait...did we rember to tell the ringmaster that we weren’t helping out with Razorstella because we were dealing with an assassination plot?]
[Uh...shit, I don’t rember.]
[Ah...oh well.]
...
=Why did you mute the kaijin when they were reporting about that possible assassination plot?=
∆Because that was technically none of our business. Besides, they’re not gonna be relevant for this part.∆
=Fair.=
________________________________________
"Alright, assholes! This ti we’re not doing highest score of three, this ti we’re going to keep going until soone reaches thirty points! So who wants to-"
"Wait," Zhen Tai interrupted Zhen Guo before he could finish stating the rules for this particular round of shuffleboard."I...I’m sensing soone...sothing familiar."
"What the hell are you-"
*Tak, tak, tak.*
"-oh..."
"What the hell?," Zhen Guo said in disbelief.
"What are the chances...," Zhen Feng comnted in a flabbergasted tone.
"Near zero...but we’ve been having weird amounts of luck lately," Zhen Xing admitted.
"She... she’s here."
The reason Zhen Tai had interrupted his cousin was due to a chance encounter that he and his cousin assud to be near zero by every tric possible.
*Tak,tak,tak.*
Walking towards, no, pass, the quartet of young masters was none other than that mysterious, sharp featured blonde woman that saved Zhen Tai’s ass from drowning not too long ago.
The woman’s vibe, however, felt a bit different this ti around...then again, that was probably due to the outfit change.
*Tak,tak,tak.*
The last ti they had saw her, she was wearing an outfit that was clearly designed for wilderness exploration and combat training, so sothing rugged and not-so frilly. This ti she was wearing the exact opposite of that.
"Huh...I don’t think we saw her in a dress last ti, right?"
"No...but she makes it feel like she can turn any of those frills into a deadly weapon."
"Sure it’s not the shoes?"
*Tak,tak,tak.*
The mysterious, sharp featured woman, was wearing a surprisingly flowy dress that appeared to be a single piece of patterned cloth designed to accentuate her figure. None of the boys knew what this style of dress was called, but a certain cousin of theirs knew this outfit was known as a "sundress".
Completing the whole ensemble was a strange looking necklace that looked incredibly familiar to them due to the frog motif...but they couldn’t put their finger on as to why...regardless, their own observations and thoughts weren’t important at this ti.
*Tak,tak,tak.*
"And she’s walking away...," Zhen Xing noted as he and the others watched the sharp featured girl walk away.
What was important in this mont was seeing how Zhen Tai was going to react now that the object of his affection had suddenly appeared like a mont of God, and whether or not he was going to take this opportunity to go and-
*NYOOM!*
"And now, Zhen Tai has gone after her like a cat given catnip and a large live rat...I feel like I should be using a snake analogy, but I can’t co up with anything clever right now...," Zhen Guo admitted.
"Yeah..."
"..."
"... we’re going after them?"
"YUP!"
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