Jin Muyi Interlude - Gui Hua 2:
The Case Of The Traitor's Greed
"Hello Small One! Take care of this for me will you? I'll take it back later! Maybe! If I remember! "
"Huh?" Was all Gui Hua could react with before the boulder size ball of Gravebronze the woman
pulled out of nowhere and flung reached her. Just as it was about to hit, the pillar started to shrink in size until it reached the size of a pea which then bounced lightly off her forehead and fell to the ground before she could catch it.
Hey what gives? Why didn't you catch me?
The sound of a voice berating her made her jump in surprise. It seemed to have come from within her head and there was no one else around her speaking, the man who had tossed the pillar at her had disappeared without a trace.
Down here, i just bounced off your head. Pick me up!
Looking around once again and still finding no one, Gui Hua reluctantly picked up the pea-sized ball only to leap back in fright as at her touch the ball expanded in size before it start hovering around her.
That's much better! Now, i'm able to move thanks to tapping into your innate Qi and Oooo, YIN BODY! SCORE!! Well, nice meeting you partner! I am the Ninth Generation Artificial Spirit User Interface, you can call me Nau. I have been entrusted into your care by her Ladyship, the Glorious Mistress Of Disciples, One Who's Wit Pierces The Heavens, Scorpion Breeder Extraordinaire Lady Destasia Duca for Field Testing! How lucky you are!"
Gui Hua knew that name. It was the name of one of the Elders on the council, although most of the times she heard the name was in a form of a curse. Still, she was one of the Elders trusted by the Grand Elder to give him advice and aid in his governance of the Clan, her Father's Boss's Boss's Boss's to whoever knows how many Boss. And now, on a stroll in the Dawn Fortress, she had been pelted by said Elder and then entrusted with what seemed to be a experiment done by a
Core Foundation Cultivator!
There was really only one possible response to that, which was to faint in shock and so she proceeded to do that.
Hey, hey hey! Wait, don't faint here! Cmon, show me around this place! I'll be stuck waiting for you to wake.....
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Despite their rather
rough start, Gui Hua found herself soon getting used to Nau and his curiosity. Answering his questions was in a way a nice distraction from worrying about the ongoing Trials. Her nature meant that the friends she had made had long since grew up into cultivators who were now facing the invaders like Father and she wasn't in the mood to make new friends among the other kids in the Fortress who might soon be losing their parents.
Nau's presence beyond serving as a distraction via annoying her also had one other side effect. He made the Dead Speak. Now, that was nothing new to Gui Hua, with her innate Yin body and her affinity to ghosts, she had run into speaking ghosts before although most of the time the Dead came across to her as remnant thoughts and wisps of emotion.
Nau however changed that. He somehow served as a way of empowering the Dead so that even Mortals could take shape and speak to her. Which was something she had always thought impossible since the Qi needed to empower a ghost beyond the status of remnant thoughts and wisps of emotions were usually only available to Cultivators who had built and refined their QI through their lives. Even then, the ghosts generally could only retain the Qi within them for about 10 to 20 years before dissipating into fragments.
Oh ghosts of cultivators with better cultivation could last longer, but she never ran into any such ghosts. The few cultivator ghosts she did speak to were interesting, most of them were forcing themselves to stay because of their legacies with the Cultivators with a grudge generally using their Qi to launch a curse on their killers instead of turning into a ghost. Now, all these cultivator ghosts wanted to do was pass their legacies on to the deserving or ensure that it didn't get lost with their deaths.
While most of their legacies were just small tricks or refinements of already known arts, there were so many of them that when she decided to aid them with passing on via writing their life's work down and submitting it to the Clan it took her months even with enlisting the aid of some of the 1st and 2nd Heavestage Qi Cultivators as scribes.
Nau did not help matters by constantly critiquing each of the "legacies" and offhandedly making it better
which she could also do! She had been educated by the best tutors in the Clan and her Father had been a Late Foundation Establishment cultivator, she knew how they could be improved, thank you very much.
Still he did help, namely via using his knowledge of Lady's Destasia Duca Qi signature and her position as a Council Elder to forge a document allowing her to "requisition some of the 1st and 2nd Heavenstage Qi cultivators to aid in a important task".
Nau however, somehow made it so that ghosts from mortals more then a century dead were appearing to speak to her and unlike the Cultivator ghosts, most of them died with a grudge which they were more then willing to share with her. Nau of course immediately agreed to assist them in resolving the grudges, and being tied to Gui Hua's innate Qi, dragged her into the mess as well.
That lead her to
adventures that she was really not looking forward to telling Father about. Oh it wasn't that she was totally unwilling, most of the mortals had died in manners that she found distasteful and mostly for common reasons like:
Greed
" ...is where you buried the body. you covered it with cobblestones and petitioned the town to build a road there to cover up for the killing. How ruthless of you. She took you in when you had nothing and treat you like a son, and the moment she got old you killed her so that you can claim the inn belong to you instead of her own children."
Gui Hua watched in satisfaction as the face of the wastrel changed from the fake politeness he showed her once she displayed the legion insignia Nau had imitated to anger and then chalk whiteness as she revealed his murder and what he did to the body. That was why she was caught by surprise when he pounced at her with hands aiming for her neck in an physical attempt to silence her.
Instinct took over and with a roll backwards she dodged his grasp before drawing her saber from her side and sweeping it upwards to cut nothing? Blinking in surprise, Gui Hua got back up on her feet only to find Nau bouncing on her assailant's face. She could tell that unlike when he did it with her, he was not changing into silk and was instead pounding the guy with his metal body and as much as she enjoyed watching this, she really had to stop him before the scum's skull caved in.
Then again, he did try to kill a young child like her..Maybe getting Nau to stop could wait for another few minutes...
Rage
"...that's when you snapped and bashed them over the head with your axe. It seems that you didn't snap out of it until they both laid dead before you, where you then broke down into tears. It looks like you still cared for your wife despite your actions, you chopped up the body of Mr Basil and disposed of it by feeding it to your pigs while you buried her under her favorite tree."
As the man's face turned white with his deeds being exposed, she looked at the female ghost standing next to him and with her nod of sad approval said the words that would compound the guilt he must be feeling.
" What you didn't know was that Mr Basil and your Wife wasn't having an affair. Mr Basil which i'm sure you know, was the chef of the Town's inn who made your favorite baked trout, and you Wife was in fact asking for his aid in teaching her how to prepare the dish as a gift for your birthday. The many secret meetings at your home between the two was to ensure it remained a surprise to you as well as for Mr Basil to show her the exact steps needed to replicate his dish.
You killed them both out of misplaced jealousy. Mr Basil was dying from a disease and wanted to ensure his dish would live on while your Wife just wanted to surprise you with a gift. Even now, her ghost is begging me to tell you that she forgives you and that she loves you. You're lucky that none of them want to press charges against you, so you get to live with what you did. "
Despite the Wife's request to spare him, Gui Hua couldn't help but feel a sense of cold satisfaction at the Murderer's reaction as he fell to his knees. Turning away to leave the scene, she made sure to grab Nau who was adding insult to injury by pestering the regretful killer with cries of "How do you feel? Does the Truth Hurt? Why didn't you investigate?"
Nau could be such a brat sometimes.
Passion
"...and you decided that if you can't have her no one would. I have to say that it's really creepy of you to stab her over twenty times while chanting that you love her, which is also not helped by the fact that you then proceed to have second thoughts about the Suicide aspect of your Murder-Suicide and instead chose to make it look like she ran away. So. not only did you take her away from a fiance that loved her, a family of which she was helping to support, her dreams of becoming something more then a waitress, you also ruined her reputation in the eyes of the village by making her come across as ungrateful woman who left for the city by forgoing her roots."
Looking down at the cowering kneeling scum before her, Gui Hua tossed out the puppet that she had wheedled away from the Clan's stores with Nau's aid. A light push with her Qi was all that was needed for the man's victim to merge into the Ghostly battle puppet, and a moment was all that was needed for her to take full control of the puppet and it's bladed limbs.
Gui Hua smiled in triumph as the puppet made it's way to the coward and as his muffled pleas around his Nau gag increase in volume and number.
" And now after a decade of lies, the truth comes out. It looks like someone wants to have stern words with you. Yes, Nau i did the pun you insisted i do. Now would you tell me why i needed to say those words in particular? Look at the blades? Oh no you didn't! WE HAVE TO RETURN THE PUPPET YOU ASS!"
Even as Gui Hua argued with Nau, the puppet moved closer before lifting the arm with the word "Stern" engraved on it to join "Word" in carving off pieces of the stalker that killed her slowly and painfully.
Despair
"...the entire village's water supply. Not only killing the entire village but also ruining a oasis that had fed generations before you were even born! And for what? Campfire tales about the Trial leaving all mortals dead in bloody rituals? Did you even bother checking on if there was any truth to the claim? Or check with the elders in the village who's grandfathers lived through the last trial?
If you had even bother to check or ask before doing the deed, you would have learn that the Invaders only target Cultivators from the Clan. NO! Shut up Nau! I will not calm down! I'm the one having to explain to children why they're dead and need to move on! This nihilistic asshole choose to kill them all instead of having the decency to just do it to himself!
In addition, where did we catch him? ON THE VERGE OF DOING THE SAME THING TO ANOTHER OASIS!" As Gui Hua howled with rage, Nau found to his surprise that this time he was the one preventing Gui Hua from going to extremes. Who knew that a young girl with access to the dead and the gruesome ways they died would be able to amass such a repertoire of torture and execution techniques?
But those were mainly small Cases, easily deduced and resolved with minimal effort on their part. The big case however, that affected things on a bigger scale reaching even the Clan and the legions. It all began with what seemed to be a normal audience to a Mortal Ghost.
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It was a dark and stormy night when our dynamic duo was approached by a ghost with a grud-
"Nau!"
What? It's night and there's a storm. And they always approach us about a grudge they had!
"Tha- That's not the point! I'm trying to make!"
Fine, the point in this case would be?
"Nev- nevermind, can we just please hear what he's approaching us about?"
Oh very well, if you insist. Takes all the fun out of it.
"I heard that! You speak telepathically to me, I CAN HEAR YOU EVEN IF YOU SPEAK SOFTLY!"
Desperately ignoring the chuckle coming from Nau, Gui Hua focused her attention on the approaching ghost and attempted to coaxed it to speak, to explain why it had sought them for aid.
The ghost was leaking Yin Qi to the point that it looked threadbare and only vaguely human in shape. All it's attempts to speak came out in the form of wails filled with Yin Qi that conveyed a sense of anger, desperation and a need for revenge. Exchanging looks with Nau, Gui Hua mustered her courage before pushing through the wails and touched the ghost, allowing her to get a grasp of the images stored in the Yin Qi of the ghost via her innate Yin Body.
What little she had been able grasp from the wails hinted that it would not be a good story. Reaching out and touching it, brought a shock
A flash of images sped through her. Kneeling and watching a cultivator in gold look down on them. Being marched to a forest. FLASH. The cultivator standing next to someone in a distance. A wave of the cultivator's hand that cut most of his fellow villagers into two and left a deep cut on his chest. FLASH. Being surrounded by the dead and crawling to seek justice. Looking down on his own corpse and then moving forward to seek justice.
It was only thanks to Nau acting as a convenient ledge that prevented Gui Hua from falling flat on her face after she let go of the ghost.
"Thanks Nau, but we gotta go."
What.
"What i saw was really bad news Nau. It seems like a Golden Devil was killing the mortals under his care. We need to check and obtain proof on if this is true or if it's some other party tying to ruin the Clan's relationship with the mortals under their care."
Oh Okay then. Let's go! Adventure awaits!
"You don't really care do you?"
Na, I do care! i just leave the big brainy stuff to you, i just hear the siren call of ADVENTURE!
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They rode through Fire and Shadow, over hills and along rivers towards where destiny called them. Yes, with steel-eyed glares and a grip of-
"What are you talking about? We're riding on the Scorpion Road which is nicely paved and we live in a desert. There are no hills and rivers."
You have no sense of appreciation for the old tales. Fine, they rode past dunes and oasis on their mission to find the truth. Happy?
"Ecstatic. Now shush! We're near the place and i need to be focused."
Oh sure, blame the one talking and not your inability to pay attention.
Rolling her eyes at Nau's wounded tone, Gui Hua dismounted from Uncle Qing Yun's back and tug her sheathed saber loose from his saddle before belting it on her waist as she strode towards where the memories had indicated was the entrance of the village. The change was sudden, one moment desert dunes and the next a village lying in ruins with vines and weeds growing among the shattered houses.
The presence of greenery proved at least that the Arrays that made living in the village possible still worked, which in turn meant that what ever happened to the village did so before the centennial visit by Array Engineers after each Trial. It took her less then an hour to check each house, with each showing signs of people living within but a lack of any corpses that should be present based on how the houses were ruined.
Hey Gui Hua, come out. I found something that supports what that ghost told you.
Dashing out in response to Nau's call, Gui Hua found herself presented with a faded footprint leading out of the village. A footprint that was only preserved because some of the rubble from the ruins fell over it and shaded it from the elements.
"Well, let's head towards the direction it was pointing at. If the memories are accurate, they were mortals so they won't have been able to go far especially if they were tied up in the same fashion as what the memories showed."
It took them about 30 minutes or so before another element from the memories made an appearance, a forest far off in the distance. Exchanging a glance with Nau (or where he's eyes would have been if he wasn't a featureless metal hovering ball) the duo made their way to the forest with every sense heighten and ready for combat.
To their mild disappointment, nothing occurred when they reached the forest. Besides the floor of the forest being littered with the bones of the dead and being haunted by multiple ghosts, something which was absolutely no threat for Gui Hua with her Yin Body. Instead, what happened was the ghosts telling Gui Hua about a lack of others within the forest as well as giving the full story of the memories.
What happened was that the village's assigned Golden Devil had hosted a feast for the entire village, claiming that he had gotten a new source of wealth and wanted to share it with them.
Ooooh That did not sound good. I bet the new wealth was the villagers!
"Nau!"
Right sorry. I let them continue.
The feast was a trap and upon consuming the prepared food, the villagers all fell into a deep sleep. When they woke up, they had all be bound and by some strange cultivator art was then forced to marched to this forest and made to kneel as the Golden Devil waited for someone.
Ominous. I don't see this ending well for the villagers.
"Nau. I'm talking to their ghosts who are explaining their deaths to us while standing in a bone pile. IT'S OBVIOUS THAT IT DID NOT END WELL!"
Okay, Okay. I'll keep quiet and let them finish!
They weren't sure how long they waited before the person the Golden Devil was waiting for showed up. The Golden Devil engaged in conversation with the other party before a pouch was handed over to him. Upon receiving the pouch, the Golden Devil turned to them and thanked them for aiding in his cultivation by being the source of the new wealth he-
YES! CALLED IT!
"NAU!!"
Okay, okay. i'm shutting up.
The source of the new wealth that he was claiming to have. Thanks to the tales, no one would questioned the resources obtained from selling them to the very nice Blood Cannibal over there who had a hankering for Mortals seasoned with the blood of bronze. Unfortunately, it turned out that mortals with such taste was a rarity and the Blood Cannibal didn't need that many bodies, as such most of them were now no use to him. With a single wave of his hand, he killed all the adults of the town leaving their spirits to watch as their children were taken away to a horrible fate. Was it any surprise that they turned into ghosts?
Yeeah... This is bad. If news of a Golden Devil selling the people under his protection to the Cannibals for spirit stones gets out, we're gonna have chaos.
"Yes. We need to head back straight away and report this to the clan! They'll be able to find who he is and punish him!"
Erm...Not to burst your bubble.. but that might be harder that you think. We have no proof of this happening and i know no one in the Clan who can interact with ghosts in the same manner as you have been doing. In addition, i'm technically not a Clan Cultivator and you're just a child. They're not going to take our words as fact without any evidence to support it.
"Then we'll find the proof! The Clan Archives should have records of which cultivator was in charge of this village! We should be able to find who he is from that. Once we know, we can probably search his room for evidence or something."
Uh huh. That's the plan?
"Oh shut up. I'll come up with a better one when we know who he is. For now, WE RIDE!"
You've been waiting a long time to say that huh. I mean i know it's the motto for your Dad's Legion, but it's kinda cringy in this situation y'know?
"Shut Up!"
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"This is impossible. Look at all those stacks of un-filed documents! There's no way we're going to be able to find that information by...ourselves...."
Forgot about the document allowing us to "requisition some of the 1st and 2nd Heavenstage Qi cultivators to aid in a important task" huh.
"Shut up Nau. Let's get them on this."
With the aid of the requisitioned cultivators, the document stating the cultivator assigned to the village was found in less then an hour. Something that led to Gui Hua going into a sulk on the time she wasted searching for it on her lonesome. Regardless, they had the scum's name. Brutus. A Foundation Establishment Cultivator who reported the village has having been struck by plague that wiped out all the mortals before he could contact the clan for aid.
In the document, Brutus claimed that the plague's origins were unknown and that it only appeared to affect mortals. He suggested that "...as we do not know if the plague remains active, i suggest letting no one near the village for the next hundred years and also suggest that in memorial to those who lost their lives to it, i think their village should not be repopulated. "
That's pretty smart.
"Nau!"
What? It's a evil and diabolical plan. But it's smart. It ensures no one visits the village and discovers what happens. If it wasn't for the ghost and us, a hundred years later after the arrays fail. It will just appear as a ruin from some bygone age.
"We can't let him get away with it. If he's willing to sink to such depths for Spirit Stones, who knows what else he will do!"
Look at the end of the document. It mentions his new posting. It seems to be Outpost number One. That's stationed pretty near the Dawn Fortress, it's a deserted area but distance-wise is quite close to the fortress.
"Hmm, it is close enough for me to send ghosts to scout on the camp and allow me to tap into what they see..."
Well then, it looks like we have a plan!
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This is a pretty shitty plan.
"Shush you. I'm concentrating. It's not easy getting a ghost there."
This is really boring Gui Hua. Let's just go there ourselves.
"No! We had a plan, it's a good plan. I'll give you a play-by-play on what i see if you shush."
Okay, fine.
" Alright, my ghost is within sight of the Outpost now, tapping into his view... Okay, i'm IN! Huh, it's a pretty small outpost. I can see about ten people in total there most of them seem to be legionaries which makes the centurion Brutus.
Seems pretty normal so far... Can see Brutus doing centuriony stuff like making the legionaries salute and do drills. Oh wait. This is interesting. He's been sending the legionaries away from the Arrays' wardstone. HE'S CUTTING THE WARDSTONE!"
Wait what? He's damaging the wardstone that is maintaining the Arrays used to alert the clan of the Invader's presence while protecting those within the Outpost till the Clan can send aid to extract them?
"YES!"
I suddenly have a very chilling thought. We know he has no scruples in selling mortals for personal gain. Would he be heartless enough to sell fellow cultivators placed under his charge to the greatest enemy known to the Clan?
"I...I think he is. I just saw him putting something in their stew pot! I think we need to go Nau. We got to stop them from eating the stew and get their assigned Array Engineer to fix the Wardstone."
Way ahead of you, i told your uncle and he's making his way from the stables with your stuff waiting. Let's go and this time you can use the motto. The situation calls for it.
"WE RIDE?!"
That's the spirit! Now lets go now. We have SAVING TO DO!
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They did not make it in time. Despite Uncle Qing Yun's speed, Gui Hua found herself still on the road towards the Outpost when the members of the detachment begun their meal. Even as they got closer, she could only watch in horror as one by one the cultivators drop into deep slumber, with Brutus' malicious grin growing in size as they dropped.
Just as they were about to reach the Outpost, Gui Hua watched as a Invader materialized from the dark and made his way to the gates of the Outpost which opened wide as if he was an honored guest and not a foe. This was all to much for her, and without realizing Gui Hua let the link to her scout fade leaving them only with a troubled heart as they made their way towards stopping a Traitor.
Upon reaching the open gates, the trio did not waste time by coming to a halt. Instead they burst through it in a clash of thunder that caught the Traitor and the Foe off guard, allowing them to hear the tail-end of the conversation between the duo.
"...just like the deal i struck with your brother a hundred years ago, here are the karma points all wrapped up for you. My reward plea-"
The mention of there being more cases of the Traitor selling his own people for personal gain filled Gui Hua with such rage that she leapt off Qing Yun with Saber drawn and Nau in tow and without caring about the difference in cultivation between the two of them slashed at him with a mighty slash. Even as she did so, a part of her noticed Uncle Qing Yun charging towards the Foe and forcing him into a no-holds barred melee.
Unfortunately, her attack was easily dodged by the Traitor who pirouetted past her slash as he taunted her.
"Well well, if it isn't the Devouring Willow's daughter? You might not be worth any points to my friend over there, but i'm sure he could find a way to use you against your Father. I thank you for your donation to the Aid Brutus' Future fund, i'll make sure to mention your contribution to the Clan!"
So saying, he lashed out at her with his gladius. Striking hard enough to send her stumbling backwards, her child body unable to generate enough strength for her to block his blows. However, the fact that she was able to survive one of his blows was surprising. Considering his Foundation Establishment Cultivation, she should have been squashed like a bug with his first stroke.
Noticing the confusion on her face, the Traitor gloated out-loud at her.
"Confused? My little powder that put all my merchandise to bed has an antidote that i took earlier since i had to eat the same food as them to deter suspicion. It has a little side effect that temporarily disperses my Qi for about 2 hours. But don't you worry your pretty little head about it, i have more then enough skill to beat you!"
At the end of his speech, the Traitor launched into a flurry of strikes that Gui Hua could barely parry away even with stepping back to negate the force of the hits. The world for Gui Hua narrowed down into the clash of Saber against Gladius, as she stove desperately to stay alive for just one moment more when she suddenly felt her back collide with a hard surface.
A quick look backwards revealed that she had collided with one of the walls of the Outpost and turning back to the front revealed the Traitor grinning sadistically as he moved towards her with Gladius held high.
Father, i'm sorry.
Despite her attempt to be brave, Gui Hua couldn't help but close her eyes to her imminent death. When a shout of screeching steel brought things to a standstill.
"Hey Traitor! You mentioned that you have no Qi in your body? THEN SAY HELLO TO MY LAZERFACE!"
Gui Hua could only watched in awe as the spirits of the dead filled the air with howls of joy as they gathered within Nau, faintly she could tell that the majority of the spirits seem to have came from the direction of the haunted forest they had visited before. Although the presence of other spirits coming from other directions indicated that the Traitor's Crimes were more then what they had discovered. However, the prospects of achieving vengeance for their unjust death due to the base greed of the one who should be their protector was the equalizing factor that allowed them all to fuse into a ball of Ghostly Yin Qi so compact that it showed up in the real.
Without hesitation, Nau fired the souls of the dead in a unceasing continuous stream that grasped at the Traitor with hungry hands that contain enough corrosive Qi to start melting him inch by inch with their touch. It was only the need to present him to the Clan that forced Nau to make the vengeful dead come to a halt. So many was the slain that despite the Traitor dissolving into a creature of half melted flesh and bone, the ball of Ghostly Yin QI had barely shrunk in size.
"Erm, thanks for saving me Nau. But what the heck was that? And what's a lazerface?"
You're welcome! Can't let my best buddy be killed right? Oh and i have no idea what a lazer is either. When i was following my Glorious Creator around, I just heard one of the Qi Condensation minions muttering about using the Sun and Mirrors to make a lazer that will melt the Invaders. I mean, i got something that can melt people and it fires from my face. Lazerface works.
"Huh. I guess it does. I wonder if Father can do the same thing. He can do melty stuff with his weapon as well."
Oooh, that's interesting! So he has a Lazer weapon?
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(5400 words)
This started as something different, but i made some changes to turn it into a Destasia Duca Experiment thereby driving Gui Hua into Buddy Cops Shenanigans.
I was inspired to make it a Detective Conan style mystery with a villain that is outright evil with no redeeming traits. Gui Hua's ability to speak to ghosts allowed me to just jump straight to the reveal + Takedown. Part of the inspiration is definitely from the latest GS report where we have a example of a Golden Devil that went full Evil. this is another one where he turns traitor for personal gain.
Somehow in the process of writing, Nau became this weird combination of Guilty Spark, Claptrap and Lazerface Church from RVB. I'm not sure if i ever bring him back, but the Buddy Cop back-and-forth does let the words flow and help make Gui Hua more interesting to write about.
Homage to
@fictionfan because Abel existence allows me to use Lazerface in the Omake in a semi legit manner.
@Humbaba for Threadmark, though i'm not sure if you'll get it.
