Chapter 26 Meeting Day(?)core Part 2

“Sure it was Reginald, but she just ate him! How can we trust a cannibal?” - Mike Myers, known for having a well-muscled and lean thigh that tasted wonderful after a good roasting. On an unrelated note, Cannibal Holocaust is now hiring for the Slaughterhouse Five.

“Aiden?” Jun called out as she ran, “Aiden?”

She turned over a stone, “Underhere?”

Only some bugs were there, nestling in the damp.

She was gone before the stone had time to fall.

Jun cleared the entire length of the river, finding some people evacuating due to the sirens, but no sign of the one-handed idiot. “Hmm…” she pondered, pursing her lips, “Whatarethechanceshe’salreadyinashelter…”

Strangely, that assessment was not that far off, though undoubtedly for different reasons than she was imagining.

“There’snowayhe’sinsomethinglike…” she glanced around, noting little but a dirty cardboard box, “thisbox?”

She opened it up, and two brown eyes stared back at her.

“Yip!”

“Aww,” she let out as she petted the small, brown-furred dog. ‘No collar.’ “Someone abandoned you, didn’t they?”

The puppy leaned into her hand, allowing her hand to rub into its coarse and rough fur.

Smiling, she spoke in the same tone all dog owners did, “Who’s a good doggy-”

“JUN!”

A shout, quietened to a whisper by distance, but no less heard.

Jun was running back already, already in sight of their starting point, above there was a black crow in the sky. Waving him down, Jun slowed, heaving for breath as she skidded to a stop.

“I saw traces of him! He’s in a fight and he needs- is that a dog?”

Jun glanced down at the puppy she had fortuitously adopted, and proudly presented him, “He’s Mr Fluffernutter!”

“She actually, but that doesn’t matter!”

“Ofcourseitdoes!” Jun answered as she glanced down at the… well it's definitely Ms Fluffernutter.

“I think Aiden’s in a fight-”

“Where,” she cut in, her past frivolity already gone as she made space in her arms for the crow to nestle in.

“Past the bridge, in the abandoned factory district,” Ranpo regarded her arms with a bit of apprehension, “You can get there first, I’ll follow-”

“WhatifIrunpastthebridge?”

Ranpo sighed, and nestled in next to the pup which she still held.

Jun breathed out, flexing her tired calves, Nightcore sped up her time, it did little to her stamina. But she still had more in her.

She ran.

The scenery around them sped by and disappeared, turning into blurs. In a few short moments, Jun sighted the bridge in question, slowing down, she asked, “Isthisit?”

Ranpo cracked open an eye that was shut like a vault door, “Yes!”

She sped up further, and when she got close enough, she saw a blur of green.

Jun put her first foot on the bridge.

Then it exploded.

She saw it all in slow motion, a plume of red and orange, blooming from the centre of the bridge. Throwing burning shards of wood and steel.

Her foot pivoted, she huddled down, shielding her two companions as she stepped back onto dry land.

Jun crashed into the dirt, rolling like a hamster wheel with Ranpo and the stray in the centre. Slowing in momentum as the earth broke their advance.

Ranpo peeked out from his cradle, seeing the burning wreck where the bridge was.

“Motherfuckers…” Jun breathed out as she tried to get up. Supporting herself with her knees and elbows.

“Is that…” Ranpo turned around, “Jun! You’re-”

“Pissed,” she spat as her hands closed around a shard of smouldering wood embedded in her shoulder. Yanking it out, the flesh underneath knitting itself at a visible pace.

“You shielded me.”

“Help me pull out the other ones and we’ll call it even.”

Ranpo nodded, glancing at the huddling stray that had fallen beside him before he hopped onto Jun’s back.

Using his beak, he helped pull out the few pieces of shrapnel that had lodged themselves into Jun, marvelling at the sight of her flesh regenerating.

“Your regeneration is better than Aiden’s.”

“Goodforme,” she muttered as fell into a sitting posture.

The flesh underneath was still scarred and burnt, but they were closed.

“You don’t suddenly have a hankering for food do you?”

Jun stared at him strangely, before she got up, not even deigning to give him an answer.

“Thisjustgotpersonalrealquick,” she said with a barely veiled snarl. “SorryRanRan, originallyIwasjustgonnadraghimout, paybackalifedebtya’know?

“But now?” she snarled, for real this time.

“Now I’m gonna hurt something.”

“Ran Ran?” he muttered, just as Jun stepped towards the shoreline. “Wait! Are you going to swim across?”

Jun shook her head, “My piece of shit parents never bothered to teach me, so I’ll just run across.”

“Run… you’re going to run on water?”

“Yep.”

She took off, rushing towards the shoreline. Quickly approaching the murky waters, her foot soon hit the water…

And sunk.

To reiterate, Jun’s power worked by speeding up her time, so that she perceived the world as if it were slower.

She did not actually have that strong of a body, she ran as quickly as a normal healthy, fit and unaugmented person of her age, slightly better even, however, the forces she acts upon the world in sped time was still the same as if she wasn’t using Nightcore.

She still stepped on the water with the same force and ‘speed’ as if she weren’t sped up.

So naturally, she sank.

“Ohshi-” she tried to yell before getting a mouthful of water for her trouble.

“Jun!” Ranpo yelled, flapping his way towards the girl, now splashing wildly in the water. “Don’t splash wildly! Spread yourself out!”

“Easyforyoutosay!” she somehow managed to yell through all the splashing.

Ranpo couldn’t approach, the girl was splashing so wildly that the spray practically blanketed her. He was stuck circling her like a carrion bird.

“Stay calm!” he yelled, just as Jun’s head fell through the waters.

“Shit, how bad at swimming can you be!?” Ranpo yelled as he prepared to dive in.

There was another splash, smaller and behind him, Ranpo glanced back, seeing the shadow of the small puppy in the water. “Oh, not you too!”

Jun continued to thrash, her eyes opened and blindly perceiving the river depths. The waters stung against her eyes, every mouth opened came with only lost air and choking liquid.

With her perception, it felt like an eternity of drowning, of choked breaths and stinging eyes, of the strength leaving her limbs and her clothes weighing like chains dragging her down to the depths.

Through all this, it was only by chance she saw it.

Ms Fluffernutter, paddling just above the water.

She saw her posture, flat against the water, head kept above and limbs under.

With her quickened perception, she saw all of this, an eternity just staring at Ms Fluffernutter, paddling in slow motion across the water.

Unconsciously, she assumed the same position, flat against the water, limbs under and head above.

She surfaced.

She breathed.

And she paddled.

“Ilearnedhowtoswim!” she yelled as she sped across the water, Ms Fluffernutter following behind with her tail wagging like a ship’s rotor blade. Behind both of them, Ranpo followed with a mystified expression.

“What the fuck?” Ranpo remarked, but even his surprise had to take a backseat, as he suddenly heard something large crash, a deep rumbling as if a building had just fallen over.

“Whatever, hurry up and swim Jun!” the crow yelled as he flew forward.

Jun quickly reached the shore, clawing her way onto land, her clothes dripped with dirty river water.

She breathed in deep, feeling her heart beating against her rib cage. Jumping slightly away as Ms Fluffernutter got onto dry land and dried herself as most dogs do.

Seeing the crow rushing above her, she took in another deep breath, steadying her beating heart. And she ran.

Ms Fluffernutter disappeared behind her, the land was eaten up in great and fast strides, she followed the path of destruction, the rhythm of her breath. No longer was her heart beating like a beast caged, but a great machine forever roaring to life.

Then it stopped, for in a single moment, for a single second, she saw.

She saw that no matter how much she ran, she could not approach.

“What the hell is this?” Ranpo yelled behind her, similarly frozen in midair, despite furiously flapping his wings forward.

And it was gone.

Jun moved a single step forward, yet still, she froze in place, from no force but her own.

She looked down, seeing a single leg pointed back, her body already in the motions of running away.

And she grit her teeth, grinding them to the very gums, “Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck.”

“What happened-”

Before Ranpo could finish, Jun took another step forward.

For Jun was done running.

Ranpo had arrived. Circling above, but staying silent, Aiden suspected it was to remain unnoticed. He was either looking for an opening to do something or buying time.

“I should’ve packed lunch,” Aiden muttered as more goblins arrived. Eight riding the scooters that weren’t contrived. “Where’d you get those by the way? You definitely didn’t make them.”

The lead goblin snorted, “Some humans are more intelligent than you peon, to have already given supplication.”

“Using big words is the sign of the pretentious,” Aiden said. He would’ve laughed loudly to illustrate the point, but he felt like that would make the pangs in his stomach worse. Too bad Ranpo couldn’t laugh for him. Though he definitely saw the crow smirk, unless he was getting delusional with hunger.

One goblin tried another potshot, it flew true towards him, but paused less than a metre from his knelt position. After a moment, it clanged onto the ground with the rest, its momentum spent.

There definitely wasn’t a physical force blocking those shots, they still appeared to be moving in front of him, only paused in space. He wondered if he could touch the bullets while they were stopped, if he had the strength of course.

Still, whatever power he just made was, Oros was turning darker.

Gradually, the white serpent’s body was getting painted in black and bark. Whatever it was, it was spending his Hume.

Which was just unfortunate wasn’t it?

It didn’t even have the decency to be self-sufficient like Ranpo.

He needed to figure out what concept he threw on it, it was something synonymous with ‘instrument’ and ‘utensil’, which gave him a vague idea on its meaning, even if he no longer knew the word.

Next were the strange petals surrounding him, likely related. They came before the butcher’s blade in his hand. Did giving it the utensil synonym warp its original form? Or perhaps the goblins had another power prepared somewhere?

“Dagin dagin!”

Now, Aiden wasn’t a speaker of goblinese in either life, but the short figure pointing to the side gave an obvious indication.

Tattoos manifested on his neck, and he turned his head. Moving slowly to ensure he didn’t accidentally twist something the wrong way in the process.

A blurry figure was walking towards them, slowly. It took him a moment, but eagle eyes allowed him to hone in on the familiar mask on her face.

“Yo,” Jun said. She was barely considering the numerous goblins that were around them, instead, focusing squarely on him.

“Greetings,” Aiden replied. “I hope this isn’t too much to ask, but could you help me out?”

“Sure thing, but I need you to answer something.”

“Ask-”

“Silence both you wrenches,” the lead goblin snarled.

“Shutupyouextra.”

“Extra?” it snarled again in indignation, “I am a king!”

“ThenIamagod,” Jun answered, her eyes completely cold.

“Kill it!”

“So Aiden,” she asked, completely unperturbed as several barrels were suddenly pointing at her. “What the actual-”

They fired.

She stepped aside.

“-fuck-”

The goblins corrected, and she began dodging all around them.

“-are-”

She ran past a group of five, and the other goblins lit them up trying to hit her.

“-you-”

The lead goblin slapped them to stop shooting and barked an order.

“-holding?”

The hobgoblin corpse burst into a ball of steam and jumped. Jun dodged just out of the way, but it crashed into a building, wrecking it.

“Truthfully,” Aiden began, “I have no fucking idea.”

She pursed her lips, now standing beside him. Eyeing the bullets on the ground. “I’m gonna need a good explanation for that later.”

“Of course ma'am,” he politely answered.

Jun chuckled at that for some reason, before turning to that moving corpse.

“Can you do me another favour?” Aiden asked. This close, he could hear the rapid beating of her heart, the perspiration running down her face and mask.

“Ask.”

“Make sure to put him to peace.”

She followed his gaze and nodded.

The goblins gathered around in a circle as she stepped forward.

The first move was Jun’s.

Running next to the corpse, she threw out a fist, but the thing was fast. A thrown arm knocked hers aside, followed by a kick which she quickly backed out of.

Jun glanced at her arm, seeing the flesh still quivering from the blow and tsked.

The corpse jumped, leaping through the distance between them. They were matched in speed, but Jun had better maneuverability. She easily dodged out of the way, slapping a gun out of a surprised goblin’s hand, before she pistol-whipped the corpse’s head.

The gun was smashed to pieces, yet the thing was undeterred.

Jun backed away, opening more ground as the corpse jumped again, smashing past her and into another building.

It stood up, its body bleeding and wounded, yet it still jerked towards Jun.

“Are you going to run forever?” the goblin taunted. “Keep dancing like a foolish jester?”

She shot it a dirty look before she seemed to smile under her mask.

“You know what? No.”

On her right hand, the sun symbol shined, before it morphed into a fox-like domino mask.

“Daycore,” Jun murmured as she raised a hand to her face. Putting it on and taking the Oni mask off. The latter turning into a moon symbol on her left hand.

Aiden blinked, for suddenly, Jun appeared completely different. He took in the sudden change and wasn’t sure if he should say anything.

Surprisingly, it was Ranpo who spoke first, “Did you just lose your mammaries?”

“In some places, you would get beaten for that, Sir Ranpo,” Jun spoke in a deeper and calmer voice. Slowed and clear.

Jun stood a step taller, back tall and clothes morphed into some traditional Asian dress. Instead of purple streaks, now the black hairs ended in burning orange tips.

Aiden recognised this figure, for he had thought it was Jun’s brother.

The corpse jumped, a flying kick directly to Jun’s masked face. They connected in a blow of steam and wind. The force great enough that it kicked up dust that forced most of them to close their eyes.

But the dust didn’t, couldn’t reach Aiden, so he saw it first.

Jun’s head, only slightly tilted to the side, the corpse’s foot still planted on his(?) cheek.

“That it?” Jun asked as he reached out, slowly, but surely, grabbed onto the ankle.

The corpse tried to jump back but found it could not break the grip.

A fist slammed into Jun’s face, jerking him backwards. Jun reached out with his other hand, moving in slow motion, but the hobgoblin easily dodged the other hand’s grip despite one of its legs being trapped.

Then Jun pulled the leg, knocking the monster off balance and onto the ground. Both hands gripped onto the leg, his fist slowly started to tighten.

And the flesh began to pulp, almost like squeezing a lemon. Blood squirted out of his two hands as bones were crunched broken. The puppet kept trying to jump backwards, repeating the motion incessantly until finally, the ankle was crushed under Jun’s grip and the creature was freed.

It stood jerkily off-balance, one leg standing on broken and shattered bones.

The dynamic had changed.

The corpse jumped, smashing Jun in the abdomen with its fist as he groped for purchase.

Where once Jun was the faster one barely able to damage the opponent, now it was the puppet. Forced to dodge every slowed blow. But it was doing damage.

‘Fast but weak.’

Aiden could see Jun’s cheek bruising. Slowly, but he could see dots of ugly purple under the skin.

Finally, a single moment off-balance, brought about by its severed arm and destroyed leg, Jun grabbed the neck.

The puppet struggled, beating Jun with blows that would shatter concrete. With its remaining hand, it kept repeatedly punching Jun’s face. Its severed arm jerking forward to complete motions it couldn’t. Its legs kicked, smashing into his sides, jerking him with every blow, but Jun stood his ground.

Jun spat out blood, his face purple with bruises and he was forced to a knee, but the grip remained firm and tightening.

The puppet punched and kicked and smashed till its own bones began to shatter and break. Once strong, muscled limbs were reduced to flailing red slabs of pulped bone and meat that slammed unrelentingly into a figure just as stubborn.

Finally, a blow shattered a portion of Jun’s mask, revealing a single eye.

A single eye, a black iris rimmed with gold, bloody capillaries drew a web of red, his bruise bordering the entire eye in purple. Black, gold, red and purple, the colours of kings, formed from blood and trauma.

‘Slow but strong.’

Jun’s fingers dug into the puppet’s neck, slowly and slowly tightening. A vice grip of madness.

Finally, the puppet changed tactics, slamming its limbs into Jun’s extended arm, but it was too late then.

It had long smashed the limbs into nothing but wet mince.

And finally, something snapped, and the puppet fell limp and broken.

Sudden quiet filled the battlefield. Shock at the display of bloody violence, devoid of strategy, cunning and trickery, leaving simple butchery.

Slowly, Jun unsteadily rose, his form swaying in the wind. Blood both his own and the puppet’s dripped off his body. The once white martial dress was stained in crimson.

He spat out a bloody tooth and asked,

“Who’s next?”

Silence answered at first. Then a different answer came, slowly but surely, as one goblin began backing away before it turned and ran.

Then it was shot in the back of its head.

“Coward!” the lead goblin yelled. “Stand your ground and don’t run!”

Yet Aiden could hear the fear in its voice, and the fear in all their steps as the goblins collectively began taking a step back.

The lead goblin’s eyes jerked fearfully between Jun and the slowly retreating goblins before it raised its gun.

And sprayed it in a circle, killing its own kind.

“You are not allowed to run before me!”

It threw out its deck, cards flying into the corpses, each raising another.

“I am King Nothing, you knaves buy me time!” the last living goblin ordered its puppets as it turned and ran.

Jun took a step forward, but it was painfully slow. He could not give chase in this form, Daycore slowed.

The goblin ran to the scooters, and without looking back, it jumped onto one and rode away.

Jun tried to take another step, but he fell once again to a knee, clutching his stomach.

“He was stronger than I thought,” he grimaced. “But why…”

“Why aren’t they shooting us?” Aiden asked, looking at the milling puppets, standing to block the path to where the goblin ran, but doing nothing else.

“I’m guessing unclear orders,” Aiden murmured, “it ordered them to buy it time, but nothing else.”

“So we let it run away?” Jun asked, grunting as he tried to stand again. Leaning on a wall, he found moderate success.

“Who said that?” Aiden asked.

Imagined Flight Part 4

“Imagine you can fight

Imagine you're alive

Imagine you can”

The King of Nothing ran.

Speeding away on its scooter, running far away from those two.

It would return and bring its vengeance upon them. Already, the Queen of Diamonds had returned from its loss. One day, King Nothing would return and claim their corpses as its own, for its power was the strongest. Any body under its control would retain all its old strength with none of the bodily limitations, its weakness was only a matter of the power’s freshness and the utter incompetence of its subordinates. It will be the strongest in existence, but now it had to run, now it had to-

Something sharp stabbed into the King of Nothing’s spine, causing it to lose control of the scooter, and crash violently to the ground.

Flapping his wings just above was a carrion bird.

“Did you know?” the crow asked, “That poison dart frogs were named that way because the natives would rub darts on their backs, thus creating poisoned darts.”

King Nothing’s mouth gaped, trying to speak, but the poison in its veins was too much.

“I suppose you can’t talk anymore,” Ranpo said before he flew off.

The King of Nothing looked around for someone to blame.

But the King found no one, for it was alone.

Aiden knew, deep in his heart, that Ranpo was superior to those puppets in every way.

At first, he didn’t know for sure, but upon thinking back, he now did.

For whether consciously or not, when earlier Ranpo had asked him the purpose Aiden served, he had stood next to him.

With a single touch, Aiden could reabsorb Ranpo, end that prototype that had shown rebellion.

Yet he did not, for whether the crow had meant it or not, he had shown trust in standing next to him.

The first purpose Ranpo asked for was for the saving of lives, not of glory in battle, not of force of arms. Ranpo understood what good was, Ranpo did not question why he wanted to do good, only the scale, Ranpo was a good person.

And this had happened, all without him knowing.

Aiden saw, through that moment of mad clarity from witnessing his very existence be washed away, that Ranpo, all of his creations remained despite his death.

And when the puppets fell limp to the ground, their strings cut, Aiden felt pride.