Chapter 60 A Group of Crows is Called a Murder Part 1

“Cawr cawr cawr.” - The musings of Seven Fallen Leaves the Wordy, in the Cantos of Crowkind

Aiden felt the hit before he saw it, Jun’s shove wasn’t too strong, but it unbalanced him for a moment, a tentacle caught him before he fell down the stairs, and Josh’s hand shot out to steady him.

Jun huffed as she continued up, “StillnotfastenoughAiden.”

“She’s mad at you.” Josh jabbed at him. Aiden could react this time, he absorbed all of his present tattoos, creating a tough turtle shell on his face, but not before Josh’s fingers gently pushed down his cheek.

“I noticed,” Aiden replied, steadying himself. A spontaneous pact was harder than he thought, he kept his tattoo armour as a passive projection, adjusting it on the fly wasn’t his habit.

They entered Jun’s home. Aiden noted with some strange feeling that it was cleaner than when he last came here. She had evidently kept up decent habits. Aiden could actually see the floor for one, though that was underselling it. The place was spotless.Fluffy leapt into Jun’s arms, hale and healthy as any dog could be.

He briefly pondered the novel emotion, but shook it off as the group took in Puppet Rain.

It was largely stunned silence, only broken when Darius said with a strained voice, “Woah. You two weren’t joking when you said she was pretty.”

“Keep it in your pants cuz,” Luther quipped as he waved a hand in front of the sitting puppet. “Is her power to look abnormally beautiful? Because I have seen people with that power who don’t come close to this.”

“She is a stronger brick than either me or Tuba combined,” Jun answered frankly.

Josh stepped forward, eyes narrowing, “WE DON’T KNOW THAT!” He threw off his jacket and put on his tuba, “LET HER PUNCH ME!”

“No that’s crazy!” Jun rolled her eyes.

“Yeah!” Wren pumped her fist.

“I agree,” Aiden replied. “There are much better substitutes to test punching force-”

“You two will break my walls, do it outside.” “At least let me make a parachute!” Both girls yelled at once.

Aiden face palmed.

“I SHALL STAND ON THE BALCONY, WE SHALL MEASURE IT BY HOW FAR SHE SENDS ME FLYING!” Tuba had already ran outdoor, arms splayed out wide.

Luther rushed to a higher vantage point with his phone out. “Wait! Let me record it.”

Wren patted Aiden’s back, “Brutes are going to be brutes, we should be looking to make it safe rather than trying to stop them.”

“Your wisdom is beyond me.” Aiden couldn’t decided if he meant that as sarcasm or not. He decided both worked.

“Puppet Rain, send him flying!” Jun yelled out.

And that day they got a splendid lesson in the Doppler effect as Tuba disappeared into the horizon. When Josh returned, he found them strategising.

“There’s a good chance we’ll be separated at the start, and every time one of us is taken out and has to respawn.” Luther tapped his notes.

“We only get a single gathering opportunity, should Darius do it at the start?” Aiden suggested as he finely diced some onions.

Josh shook his head as he took a seat. “There will be powers that work better against grouped and multiple targets. I say we take advantage of respawns and scope the situation out, using Darius’s power in case of a late game total party wipe.”

“So we’ll be on our own but seek to gather?” Wren asked.

“But some of us are really easy targets.” Jun accepted Aiden’s diced onions and threw them in the frying pan. The harsh sizzle and smell of aromatics soon permeated the room. “I’m fine, Aiden and Tuba should be fine as well, can you guys manage?”

“I… I can keep myself alive at least.” Hesitance marred Wren’s voice.

“One of you guys pop my can and I’ll be invincible. I’ll be sent back before the paintballs even stain me.”

Luther pursed his lips, “Yep, I’m the only easy target. The question is how we want to distribute resources then.”

They looked at each other, Jun casually did a pan flip as she added the rest of the vegetables. Aiden was pulling out roasted gapple wedges and steaks from the oven.

“One of you two would be our best bets if we’re all going all in,” Luther gestured at the two in the kitchen. “Spawners can split their creatures among teammates if their range allows, and Jun can buff one other person. Tuba is also a fine choice… actually Tuba might be the best choice. Josh with Rain and Jun’s Nightcore might as well be invincible.”

Josh jumped onto the table. “I SEEK NOT GLORY FOR MYSELF!” He casually caught the wooden cutting board Aiden had thrown at him, laying it on the table as Aiden brought over the still hot pan of roast and placed it over it.

“So option two then, we try to split resources evenly, making sure no one is underpowered.” A snake leapt off Aiden’s shoulder and caught a plate Jun had thrown, which he passed to Wren to distribute.

Josh accepted his plate. “AND WHO SHALL BE OUR FOES?”

Luther tapped into his computer, “Disregarding the people with more lethal or dangerous powers, since they’ll be rather restricted, we’ll need to avoid these-”

A plate smashed onto the ground.

“Sorry.” Aiden knelt down, already collecting the pieces. “Don’t move, there are shards everywhere.”

Josh leapt down to help, “MERE CERAMICS CANNOT HARM ME!”

“But a peanut can.” Jun brought over the steaming pan of fried noodles. “You alright Aiden? You got distracted for a moment.”

“Yeah, I felt my phone vibrate.” He took out his phone, quickly sending out a text. “Boss Hwuang needs me at the restaurant, I’m sorry but I’ll have to go soon.”

“Mmmhmmph?” Wren asked.

“Arfmph,” Darius agreed.

“Swallow you idiots.” Luther shook his head.

“I can pack food.” In a flash Jun was taking out tupperware. She had bought those on her own!

Aiden pushed down that emotion, “I’ll eat at his place.”

She took off her Nightcore mask, “Need a buff? Being faster would help with the deliveries.”

It was then Aiden noticed they had gotten her tooth fixed. They had made a doctor’s appointment all on their own.

Pride.

That was the emotion swelling in his heart even as he mentally tsked. Jun had become a lot more perceptive. There was no notification from his phone.

“No thanks,” he shook his head. “It would be weird to explain the differences to Boss Hwuang.”

Jun looked at him hesitantly, than grinned. She blurred, Aiden directed his tattoos, but couldn’t make it before Jun softly punched his arm. She slapped him on the back, “Still too slow.”

“Yeah, I need more practice,” Aiden sighed. “Appreciate your help.”

‘But you didn’t need to.’ He bit back those words even as they came to his mind. That was the wrong thing to say. He should accept kindness as it was given. There was no use for that pride.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

On his right hand was a symbol of the sun.

|

Aiden remade his Umbrella.

He realised the problem only some time after the encounter, he had tried to make something born from his emotion of accepting death, finding the peace within it, but that emotion was already inside the Slitted Decapitator. Absorbing the glove gave it back, but remaking the glove would be difficult and take a few days or so of recovery.

That is if he made it exactly the same way.

An idea had been running through his mind, the Slitted Decapitator in its original form was far too dangerous, being from an uncontrolled and mad boogeyman. It couldn’t be activated in any scenario where there was anyone unaware of it. Jun correctly decided to not activate once during the Gate, only using it as a punching glove.

Aiden could freely restrict and weaken his creations, that was why Tool could be applied to anything, it was a detriment to creature, forever locking it from the same potential Ranpo held. That was why he could make tattoos that were smaller and weaker, as well as implement commands and programming.

The slit mouth woman was dangerous. It had an extremely lethal ability, and even if it didn’t go off, someone caught in it would be completely restricted and helpless for a few moments. Even the correct answer would get in some damage, superficial damage, but Aiden’s mouth was still scarred and raw.

Even his natural regeneration and NectarTM could not fully heal it, the works of a boogeyman were not easily undone.

That was how Aiden thought, boogeymen were dangerous, lethal, created by minds intentionally trying to make obtuse and incomprehensible rules strung together by the barest strings of logic. Not counting the living examples, he had only encountered two, the other being the 3:23 bus.

So making them not a boogeymen would undeniably worsen the ability.

A Stripped-Down Basic Implement, bereft of all the restrictions, conditions and numerous hoops the original version had. That took away his fear of death, and that alone as his acceptance of it was already inside the Umbrella.

The result didn’t look different from his notes of the original Slitted Decapitator, it was still a skin coloured glove, undeniably more fleshy because it had time to break into the object. But opening the zipper on the palm no longer did anything, he didn’t give specific instructions for that after all.

Touching his hoodie with the glove did nothing, after a moment of trying, Aiden found success with a pinching motion, which created a zipper on the cloth when he pinched harder, fingers held on the slider.

He could no longer create zippers directly on himself, or even on the random bush he passed, mundane plants should have low priority, only slightly higher than inanimate objects. The weakness of the base version of this ability seemed to be complete inability to affect living things due to low priority.

Or perhaps it was just because he had weakened it so much, the Umbrella’s source Invader could wield the same ability and affect miles. He didn’t know what the base version of the slit mouth woman’s ability was,but some part of Aiden’s recreation must be heavily limiting it. Perhaps it was because he didn’t want them to be alive, merely exist as dead tools.

Ranpo fluttered down on his shoulder. “I got your text, I didn’t see where Rain came from, but a few other crows did. Before you got the letter she was seen coming from the ports.” He paused in thought for a moment. “She probably knows she’s being watched, but she likely too prideful to care, or worse, use it as a challenge.”

They stopped at a traffic crossing. “You sound spiteful today.”

“I’m starting to realise I really hate gifted people. The sheer arrogance of them.”

Aiden pretended he didn’t notice Ranpo pointedly looking at him. As they continued, he asked, “How much of the city are you covering right now?”

He reached into his chest, where the red A was. Ya had told him what the ability did after that outing with Rain. He could push his hands through the ink, as if it were a letterbox, and he pulled out an envelope. The Scarlet Letter could mark someone and allow the original holder to send a letter to them through their mark, that was it. It could manage locational tracking by sending devices through the A, but it was overall a very unimpressive power.

He wondered if that was all there is to it, or if Ya truly was being honest in an effort of reconciliation. Ya to his mind wasn’t like Rain, he was human of this world, of this place. He knew what lines shouldn’t be crossed. Paying off Jaiden’s hospital bills was bald faced bribery to keep the incident quiet. Now they were stuck in mutual wariness of each other, while needing the other.

He quickly read the letter, then passed it to Ranpo. “That matches up with where they saw her go. We’re covering large parts, a lot of things ignore crows, it’s when there are creatures that don’t that there’s a problem. None of my crows seem to want to go near the ports for the same reason-”

Aiden paused as he heard a siren, then broke into a run. Ranpo needed no explanation, he leapt off and flew in the direction of the noise. It was close, they reached it in mere moments, finding a masked thief rushing out of jewellery store.

Aiden leapt onto the wall, ran overhead and landed right in front of the thief’s tracks. “Look-”

The thief froze, “Did you just run on a wall?”

“Yes,” Aiden replied. “Now I have somewhere to be-”

The thief threw the bag at him, he caught it easily with a tentacle. “That was easy.” Aiden raised an eyebrow as the thief untied his shoes and also threw them at him. “Ok, what is that for?”

“I’m resigning,” the thief slowly enunciated, as if speaking to an idiot. “I have decided I will no longer participate in organised crime.”

“Then why did you throw your shoes?” Aiden blinked, for some reason this felt familiar.

“I stole them as well, I shouldn’t have them.” He ripped off his mask and tossed that away too. “Where’s the nearest police station again?”

“You gave up easily.”

The thief looked at him like he was stupid. “The fuck am I supposed to do?”

“I don’t know, try harder?”

“You want me to look stupid don’t you!” he pointed at him accusingly. “You wanted me to do the whole thing where I run back, and you’re already there, and I run back and forth until I fall onto the ground in TERROR? NO! I’M LEAVING WITH MY DIGNITY TO-”

He was interrupted when Aiden remembered. “Sorry, but have you happened to have met a girl with dyed hair and an oni mask about yay tall?”

The thief gave him a look, then turned and ran.

Aiden pinned him down quickly.

“God that usually works,” the thief muttered as the ropes tightened around him.

Ranpo landed near them. “Wow, that is clever.”

“I am more disappointed that it almost worked. How many people have you gotten doing this? Actually, don’t answer that,” Aiden shook his head, “I want to retain my faith in human intelligence.”

“I don’t, spill the tea.” Ranpo leaned in close enough for the immobilised man to see him for the first time.

“Wait, you’re a crow? Like a real crow?”

Ranpo titled his head, “I suppose?”

“Boss! You gotta let me go!”

Crow and man froze, staring at the immobilised thief in awkward silence. “What?”

“It was you guys who put me up to this! You even taught me the pretend to give up trick!” the thief babbled.

At some point, Aiden’s stare had move to Ranpo.

“I know I borrowed a bit too much money, but I’m still good for it! I can still pay you back!”

“Ranpo,” Aiden asked with eerie calm, “An explanation?”

The crow turned away, “Wellll… You know when I said you didn’t want to know where the money was coming from?”

A tentacle wrapped around the thief’s mouth to stop him rambling. “Go on.”

“Wellll… After I taught the birds the basics of economics, they had the bright idea to start a bank. Of course the original capital was from lost coins and stuff, but they uhhh… got really good at it.”

“Let me guess, they targeted idiots like this who couldn’t pay back the loans. Milking them dry with ever increasing interest,” Aiden answered drily. He shook his head, “How did they even communicate- The logistics of- Math!- You know what, I don’t want to know. I clearly underestimated avian intelligence and don’t feel like knowing the depth of my failures just yet.” That was a problem for future him, the dumb bastard.

“Wise choice,” Ranpo replied, and for the life of him Aiden couldn’t tell if that was sarcastic. He decided both worked.

“Well apparently I started a crow loan shark ring, so it can’t be that wise of a choice,” Aiden said. “Did you know they were robbing people?”

Ranpo rolled his eyes. “Yes, I am completely irresponsible and knowingly perpetuated- of course I fucking didn’t!”

Aiden rubbed his brow, “I thought you guys were just mugging people, but this?”

“Ohhhhh, so you were fine with crimes but draw the line when it becomes organised?”

“Mmmf!”

““You are not part of this conversation!”” they both yelled. Aiden’s tentacles wrapped around his face, plugging his ears and blinding his vision. “You’re fixing this.”

“As my sponsor, I think you can agree we share equal responsibility,” Ranpo said.

“As your sponsor, I’m delegating this task to you.” Aiden rubbed his brow. “At least go after rich people, no one cared when I was embezzling company funds.”

“So you’re fine when they’re rich?”

“Did I say that out loud? That was meant to be an inside thought. And no matter, all that I took wouldn’t have been more than a rounding error, I would know, I did the accounting myself. The problem is relativity. At least scam the people who wouldn’t care or notice.”

“I know this guy, he was already doing low level crime even before our crows got to him.”

“And that justifies our misdeeds how?” Aiden shook his head.

“Shut up, you’re complicit.” Ranpo sighed. “I’m on it, I was too hands off- feet off?- with the crows. This has largely been a result of their spontaneous organisation.”

“I should’ve known,” Aiden murmured. “Humans are freaky in this world, why didn’t I think the birdsare too? I already knew about the emu states.”

“So we agree to share fault?”

“Yes, say as I might I’ve already profited off this. We need to figure out a way to de-escalate this situation.” Aiden put the thief in a more comfortable position, “You deal with this guy, I have a place to be.”

“Don’t do something stupid,” Ranpo called out.

“You too!” he replied.

As he left, the thief mumbled something. Ranpo helped get the gag off. “So uhh…” the man hesitantly began, “If I’m getting this right, you’re my boss, and that meta is your boss?”

“Unwilling, but that’s about it yeah.”

“Well, not the worst gig I’ve ever had.”

“So how many people did you get?”