Author's Note:
The following are all bullcr*p made up just to keep the story going and relevant and yet still to give characters personality and stuff...lol, I'm gonna cringe, just survive this chapter.
Oh yes, I'm back baby.
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Of course, to make one speak willingly about themselves is to make them let down their guard, and make it seems as though they are the ones who are giving it up rather than being forced to. Quite a vague thing right?
You thought it was something like a secret? HELL NO! As much as women are complicated and men are simple, love is blind and you are too if you think they are just that!
Dongmei wrote with clarity, it seemed that she knew what to write even with a clouded mind but she unfortunately was writing what Shinji wanted.
Shinji's words can either have 2 effects, either make Dongmei not open up more or let her guard go down.
It could seem that Dongmei didn't heed Shinji's word and moreover got angry but to someone highly led by the nose by her emotions, Shinji took advantage of it.
At this point, you can see that Shinji is more effective at talking and directing than his strength.
Dongmei, much more expressive under emotions, didn't seem to think for a second whether this was what Shinji was going for. Even Sirena didn't think of this...because she couldn't even care about it as she had her own problem to deal with, namely that Shinji's thoughts just cut off the literal core of her wanting to have her ability.
With something you're not used to, you would feel anxious, this applies to Sirena very much due to her nature of worrying too much. She did what anyone who didn't know what to do, would do. That as to follow a suggestion rather than their own unsure thoughts.
Quite a weird mindset but it is indeed what someone would do. Humans are compelled to follow which is like the concept of herd mentality. Sirena did just that, expressing her true self.
But you may ask, that is awful you sick bastard, what kind of therapy is this and how will this even help them? Well, it starts with just leaving them alone to their own thoughts.
This could be the first time Dongmei and Sirena didn't feel awkward with each other due to the silence but this...this was a good first step at least.
They were indeed still aware of each other's existence, how could they ignore the other when they are both similarly confused. When in an unstable state, they either focus too much on their thought or the surroundings so they, who are in their spring, will surely take notice of the other.
With a quick consensus, they both liked that the other at least didn't do anything. With these 2 things happening, Shinji can have them both progressively recover from their issues while they also gain if even just a little bit of misattribution of goodwill, something like a suspension bridge effect.
It's like how some characters with different views came out as at least in a truce due to both of them being involved with getting out of trouble. Inevitably, if their relationship won't worsen then it would improve. Wasn't the best solution but in this place? An outsider would be more concerned of the horde.
Dongmei thought and wrote.
Cloud, aloof, high, and carefree;
It is privilege;
Carrying tears and shelter;
Unfortunately. it wasn't a haiku like on Earth but it was 7-5-7 mysteriously so.
It is read in English somehow but the written text was something else, a bit more complicated. A cursive kind of English leaning more towards the hiragana-esque style.
The style of Dongmei's handwriting was hasty in its calm but emboldened text, unlike how she would normally write lightly and be a bit scattered in her writing.
Dongmei added a touch of drawing, a vague cloud not that detailed but it was enough to insinuate it as being one. With it being situated in a yellow-like paper, it gave people the feeling of an ancient scripture.
She wanted to describe herself as the cloud which is aloof, high, and carefree. Her status is a privilege and she carries burdens and woes. But what does she seem to hide?
Shinji kept writing and painting.
Sirena drew a beautiful pink rose making it match the color of her eyes and hair. She drew the stalk without the thorns but added leaves that cover the stalk like it was trying to protect its fragile stem.
It was a bit bent seeming humble but not so much that it was graceful. The colors were light, lively, and natural.
The flower was on the center and focal point, it would be screaming "look at me" if it could. Situated on green grass and calm skies, the flower made the scene special.
She wanted to describe herself as the rose which has grace, beauty, fragility, and humility. The flower doesn't seem to show pride though special. But what does she seem to hide?
Dongmei turns to Shinji, "I don't know why you want us to do this but I've done it. Care to explain now?", at the same time Sirena dries the painting with magic and looks to Shinji expectantly.
Shinji finished his work and looked at Dongmei's work, "Exceptional, a cloud fitting for such as yourself. You think its a privilege huh? Its quite normal, but you also think of it as a responsibility on the third line. A cloud may seem free but its lost and lonely blown by the heavens."
Dongmei knitted her brows as Shinji thought of her as lost, though she admits she was lonely. She was indeed directed by her parents and mostly spend her time fulfilling her duty or training with not much resistance but she indeed followed of her own will. But maybe it has worn down on her conscious as her duties has made her very disciplined but it might have worn down her motivation.
Sirena's eyes widened when she could only hear Shinji's thought when is was speaking.
Shinji looks at Sirena's work and says, "Stunning, Félicité Rouge Rose, how rare. Weren't they the ones planted in pots on your family's garden? I heard they were very fragile, is that why the rose is bent and covering itself? It isn't humble but afraid."
Sirena shivered. Roses were indeed as fragile as their beauty, this made it so that even some species of them became endangered. If the rose was really a symbol of humility, it wouldn't have covered its stem since it would be useless for leaves to protect itself. The simple act of relenting is both a sign of pride, humility, and grace.
More like it was lowering itself not out of humility but because it was afraid of being higher than it already is, the fear of the weak. It was seriously true for Sirena with a [Psyche] of not much offensive means and magic that could pass as average. Doesn't she feel inferior to Dongmei?
"Well actually they're both amazing, beautiful, wonderful even. Though aren't you girls hiding their true beauty? Let me show it.", Shinji smiled handsomely but his words carried some chilliness.
Magic flared and spells glowed on the special paint mixture on Shinji's artwork.
What was seen was an ethereal sight, consuming darkness and magical glow.
Shinji painted on the canvas a dark night that consumed the sunlight, it made it so that the painting was in a world of its own, separated from the bright afternoon in which they are currently at.
Floating above all high and mightily with that of authority, the majesty and absolute aura the cloud gave as the point of origin for all power of destructive lightning is huge and raging but perfectly natural in its disaster.
The natural disaster seemed to be the decreed of the earth and destined of heaven by the golden words of awe-inspiring and compelling saying.
Cloud, Reserved, Above, Resolute;
Heaven's Privileged;
Enacting Wrath, Cries, Shelter;
Other than that was the thunderous declaration of lightning that glowing with terrifying might, the lightning bolts were painted in detail while magic only helped it glow, the level of detail even went as far as melding the blur of swift lightning with the slightly revealed and eerie surroundings.
The light gave off enough to see most of the middle of the painting, what appeared is the bone-chilling scene of the land deprived of life with burrowing sharp thorns that glint under the stormy weather.
Looking for the origin of the thorns and briers would result to where the dark grey cloud struck, a magical aura of mana encapsulating a Rouge Pink Rose, The Félicité Rouge Rose brimming with even more life like it was meant to thrive in the vastness of the desolate environment.
The Félicité Rouge Rose through artificial experiments were made to be one of the most beautiful flowers and that had cause their fragility, but the heaven's weren't unfair and gave it a peculiar side-effect. To drain from the land and blossom into an even grandeur sight.
That was what gave the meaning to the pink rose, gratitude for what the heaven's fairness and admiration, only that humans again have ruined again the flower, keeping it in pots and sustaining it artificial nutrients and healing magic.
Of course the rose would take hold of its fate, even when heaven won't do anything about, even if the heaven's fate were against it, its thorns shall latch onto the life it desires obsessively.
The symbolic clash of heaven and earth. The rose of the dying earth revitalized by the wilting and sundry withered grass shimmers with flourishing mana fights against the thunderous roaring of the dark heavens angered by rebellion.
The absence of the aloof and high; The absence of gratitude and admiration; All that is left is the struggle and strife which brings complex emotions with it.
"B-beautiful...", Sirena was stunned, she herself saw the painting to be amazing, She could see that the magic was used minimally and the skill was a key player in making it.
Sirena finally accepted the fact that Shinji indeed knew everything about her. The feeling that she had been accepted. It seemed that her anxiousness was whisked away. To think the worry she had to know Shinji entirely has been solved like that. She felt like she could be much more than possesive, some more than just a bother cause of jealousy.
Much more than a Yandere Heroine.
Dongmei also felt enlightened by the deep words engraved. She realized how capable she was. The role she was given as the princess of daughter of King Qing von Shiraki.
As much as she felt privileged to be given the status, she always tried to live up to what was expected on one with such status, to be strong enough to be worthy to be someone of a daughter of a king, to be smart enough to be of royalty, to be present oneself as the princess she was meant to be.
She finally accepted the fact that the power given to her is for her to control, not something to live up to but to live as. She felt like she could do what she wanted now, but not in a bad way but she felt like she wanting to develop herself in the right way, not just to be cold and strong but to be much more.
Much more than a Cold Heroine.
Dongmei and Sirena looked at Shinji who was smiling.
Shinji says, "Well, did you finally realize?"
Sirena puffed up here her chest and said, "Well yes, but you think well be satisfied with sharing you?"
Dongmei nodded and agreed with her, "Yes, you should prove to us that you can take responsibility.", She also turns to Sirena and puts up her hand
"I will be better than you.", Sirena says with a fire of determination in her heart, not out of the anxiety of losing Shinji nor the jealousy that Dongmei still had a part of Shinji. She purely wanted to be better, a rivalry had formed inside of her.
Dongmei stopped feeling the pettiness she once had, she is a princess. She should act like one, "I will widen the gap no matter how much you climb", she declared.
Shinji shrugged, he knew that once everything settles with the Kagai-Sha, he would be beaten up for trying to have the both of them.
But a glint flashed in his reinvigorated eyes filled with gentle love, it was enough for him.
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Dongmei flew fast, stepping on icicle as she ran the [Glacial Slide] technique.
As the technique is names, she looks like she was sliding on ice. Indeed ice materialized wherever she stepped, a tiny 'glacier' as it has been hardened to the point of being comparable to one.
This was the perfection of techniques. The manifestation of qi to reality. It seems like it could be done easily like as magic but qi was different, the materialization stays and the techniques could be used flexibly without needing spell adjustments.
It was like mages using the [Word Method] instead of the [Arithmetic Method] for spell making.
The spells mages use nowadays are used through the [Arithmetic Method] as it is concise and doesn't consume too much mana or mental energy in exchange for cold calculations.
[Word Method] would be what the chuunibyous[1] on earth would use, like INFINITY IMPACT [2]!!!
Shinji and Sirena were being carried but they were working together to shoot down monsters.
"38 degrees, north of west", Bang! went a shot
"45 degrees south of west", Bang! another shot
"69 degrees north of east", Bang! the third
Sirena kept telling directions to Shinji as he shifted his double magic pistols around.
Magic pistols you say? Yes, Shinji is not an idiot, its one of the weapons he'll be using. Fortunately, these things don't need mastery so Shinji never takes them out when necessary.
Shinji used a method of enchanting on his pistols, [Technical Enchanting].
It uses a medium as magic circuits to be a substitute for small spells.
He engraved the spell [Compress] on both of his guns which compresses the air into air bursts but if Shinji added his own spells, it would also compress with it. Unfortunately, he doesn't have enough knowledge in placing 2 spells on top of each other for [Technical Enchanting] and he doesn't know how to do [Runic Enchanting].
The [Runic Enchanting] method used by enchanters is a way to place Magic Runes on equipment which yield the same effect as spells as long as mana is applied. Another benefit of [Runic Enchanting] was that runes inlaid into equipment don't have a physical form hence not occupying space, unfortunately it needs precious mediums to make them work.
Though the benefit of [Technical Enchanting] is the conserved mana cost and allowing the option of Mana Clusters as fuel.
Auto 1-Star [Compress] + Intensified 1-Star [Gather Air] + Magnified 1-Star [Mana Bullet] = Modified [Mana Burst]
Shinji also laced the bullets automatically with poison by adding a container in the gun that adds in poison to the spells continuously. To not waste the liquid, it is added at the same time the hammer is pulled.
Speaking about the hammer, Shinji also added a spell on it.
Conditioned Intensified 1-Star [Disperse Air]
The [Mana Burst] fly at the speed of an actual bullet. This was only possible due to highly compressed air propelling the spells forward.
Each bullet either kills a monster or seriously injures it enough to let poison do the work.
Soon the trio arrived where others were, they arrived at the junction where the numbers were dwindling and the horde was dispersing, except for some wilder and weaker beast taken over by their instincts and came over to the inviting smell.
Shinji and Drax locked eyes, they smiled at each other kindly.
Drax greeted Shinji warmly, "F*ck you!", he then give him the finger.
Shinji, who is a good friend, also gave back the kind gesture, "F*ck you too!", he then flips Drax off.
Lin stretched around his sore places, "I heard from Drax about the situation. Was that necessary? Who am I kidding, I had a breakthrough in my technique."
Shinji explained, "There is not much time but this chaotic battlefield is at least similar to how it will go down when the Kagai-Sha attack. Its best for us to be able to fight together as a group. Unfortunately Dongmei's battle will be different and Sirena will have to stick with me when fighting. As for other synergies, were already have been doing it."
Kaitlynn and Audelia gave a nod while Adalinda and Drax rolled their eyes as its a bit displeasing to be subjected to this. Lin gave a wry smile while Albert shrugged his shoulders since he was gaining a lot from these events.
Suddenly Shinji revealed an evil smirk, "So how big is the haul?"
Drax grinned, it was as if their conflict never happened, "There were a lot of drops[3]."
Lin who had a sense of profiteering said, "I made sure to attack the vitals and held back my poison on the weaker monsters so we will get much more than intended."
Adalinda on the other hand seemed to have a knack at the buisness side as she said, "We can auction off the strongest monsters since their materials don't match our attitudes. The weakest monsters can be sold of or mass-manufactured. The beasts with suitable materials could be split between us. Of course, the profit we get off selling with be split in the right amounts of our contribution...", she kept talking about the current resource situation.
Eventually everyone got into the discussion, Dongmei had no need of any specific materials, Albert didn't actually know what he needed so he was fine with anything, Quad wanted defensive materials, Adalinda was interested in the fibrous and leafy materials, Audelia was also fine with anything but preferred food, Sirena chose some fruit and meat, Shinji took important materials for alchemy and enchanting for himself, Lin was satisficed with his weapon and was unfortunately not that well versed in materials other than treasures and artifacts.
Dongmei, Shinji, and Sirena got the least of the cut but its not like the huge horde wasn't enough for everyone when each had their own preference of material.
[1]: [Chūnibyō is a Japanese colloquial term typically used to describe early teens who have grandiose delusions, who desperately want to stand out, and who have convinced themselves that they have hidden knowledge or secret powers. It translates to "second year syndrome"]
[2]: [Infinity Impact is a move used in a song called, Role-Playing Game by MafuMafu]
[3]: [To anyone not able to get it, its the reward in games for killing monsters in RPG]
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Author's Note:
Once again I'll say this, I'm going to improve everything again cause like damn am I a forgetful person so I'll do more auxiliary chapters.
There are 2 editors who will help me make some changes to my novel. I will post them in a separate novel to find about your opinions on it. They're still doing their own things though since they only wanted to edit it because like some of you readers, hate me because I do info dumps.
I love that you guys suffer for my sake of plot enjoyment.
Stick with the story. I feel like everything is improving.
Not.
My laptop fell and the screen broke, my phone too with its phone case and tempered glass.
So many school requirements damn it. Good thing this chapter is done, time for the fast paced ideas flooding in.
I think I want to dedicated a chapter (in my free time) just to solely piss you guys off with my life experiences that will convince you that I'm crazy.
Yes, I am. Lmao