Chapter 30: Robonyan activate
"I am ze Terminator, I have come to destroy you!" Nate's Tv buzzed as he, Damona and jibanyan watched a sci-fi movie. Nate's parents were out on date night, so he was home alone tonight.
"This is dumb," Damona, who was laying on her fiance, said in a deadpan tone.
"Eh, thats the beauty of it, you aren't really supposed to take it seriously," Nate said.
"It's still dumb," the oni princess replied putting some popcorn in her mouth.
Beside them, Jibanyan stared intently at the screen, keeping his gaze on the robotic character, "Hey Nyate? If that's a robot, why doesn't it look like Nyo-bot?"
"Oh, well, robots can look like anything really, just depends on how there built," Nate explained, "they can even look like cats sometimes!"
"Eh, I doubt any robot could be as cute as me!" Jibanyan chuckled.
Before anyone else could say anything, a loud bang was heard outside, as if a car had been dropped off a building yet remained intact. Soon after the lights began to flicker as they all suddenly turned off, along with the tv.
"What the?" Nate said in surprise.
"What gives?" his undead fiance asked floating upwards.
"It would seem a yokai has knocked out the power, -_-" the group jumped in surprise as No-bot floated down the stairs, "My readings show a large energy signature down the block. -_-"
"Ugh, can we ever get a break? It feels like we're dealing with at least two yokai a week," Nate sighed.
"Some yokai have no grip on the concept of: take it easy," Damona said in agreement, "No-bot, where's this little pest at?"
"Follow me," No-bot said, gesturing the door.
A short walk down the block later, and the group was met with a crater of some kind, right in the middle of the street.
"Hey look!" Jibanyan said, jumping into the hole, "It's me sized!"
"So… it was made by a Nekomata?" Damona asked.
"Must have been a heavy one," Nate said, examining the hole.
"I take immense offense to that," another voice that sounded like a combination of jibanyan and No-bot' voices.
"What the… uh," Nate turned around to meet face to face with a blue, metal version of Jibanyan floating in mid-air, "what the heck?"
"A pleasure to see you again, nyathan," the strange yokai said, "please do not reference my weight."
"A-again? I've never seen you before, "the boy said in confusion, "how'd you know my name?"
"Simple, I have yet to become me," the nekomata replied.
All of the group looked at the metal yokai with one thought, "What?"
"Allow me to explain," the nekomata said, "I am from centuries into the future…
In the future, technology has developed to the point the word "Impossible" has no meaning. Via technology, every yokai is visible to every human, allowing us to collaborate our efforts advancing both races.
I am the result of one such collaboration, the Robo-Kai. Half yokai, Half machine, these were to be the yokai of the future, with near limitless potential.
I had volunteered myself to this life for one simple reason, I had no purpose. Before I was a Robo-kai, I lazed about Oni-Castle, practically your pet cat. Every day, I watch you, Nathan and Damona. Between running your kingdom and raising your heir, you had both live fuflilled afterlives, Meanwhile I had never even met my goal of stopping a single truck…
...With no idea how to move forward, I chose to evolve, to become the Robo-kai, Robonyan," the machine yokai finished.
Robonyan: A rank
Tough
"Couldn't stop a single truck…" Nate repeated.
"Wait a minute!" Jibanyan said, connecting the dots, "That means you're me!"
"Correct," Robonyan nodded, " I am your evolved form from an alternate future, Infused with machinery to become stronger than I ever could as you!"
Damona snickered, "Cool, we get too robots!"
Though no one noticed, No-bot seemed to have jumped a bit at that phrase, almost as if it felt threatened by the other machine, "B-believe me, Miss Damona, I am perfectly adequate for your needs. '0v0"
"I feel no compulsion for servitude, I became a Robo-kai because my life with you had become stagnyant," the mechanical nekomata handwaved, "I am simply in this timeline for an important mission, this area was on the way."
"So I'm gonnya be a robot at some point?" Jibanyan asked in a concerned tone, "but I like being a cute little kitty!"
Robonyan paused, then said, "Maybe. The one definyite thing about time travel is that every time you see your future the odds that future will actually happen decrease, because your knyowledge of said future prevents you from making the right choices for it to happen. Time is Nyot a straight line, it's a tree that is always growing nyew branches."
"Oh, that's a relief," jibanyan sighed.
"I-I believe Robonyan stated he has a mission to attend to, thus we should most likely leave him to it," No-bot suggested. Nate could swear there was a tone of jealousy in its voice.
"First off, I use They/them, secondly, I do have time. As a matter of fact I came to this area specifically for the sake of nostalgia," Robonayn said, "it would be nice to relive the old days for a short while before getting back to work."
"You wanna come inside?" Nate asked.
"If you'll have me," Robonyan eyes smiled… their mouth stayed the same. No-bot grumbled at the thought.
After making their way back to the house, No-bot restored their power and Damona flopped onto the couch, rubbing her belly.
"Ugh, I'm starving," she whined, "No-bot! Make me dinner!"
"Right away, Miss Damona, :D" No-bot said with more enthusiasm then normal," your normal tempura?"
"Of course, now get my num-nums!" the oni princess yelled.
Before the robot had the chance to do anything, it noticed Robonyan in the kitchen, wearing a chef's hat and already hard at work preparing food. Multiple arms extended from their body to perform multiple tasks, some were frying various fish, others chopping vegetables, more preparing the dish. Within minutes, the Robo-kai had prepared the most delicous looking dish of tempura anyone in the room had ever seen.
The food's smell complemented its appearance, feeling like heaven in Damona's nostrils. She floated over for its final test.
Robonyan handed the princess a pair of chopsticks, which she used to grab a small piece of the golden delicacy. Taking a bite, Damona's mind was struck with a sensation akin to every happy memory of her life flooding over her at once!
"This…" Damona was at a loss for words, tears began to flow down her face, "this is the greatest tempura I've ever tasted!"
"Really?" Nate said pick up a piece and eating it, he was overwhelmed with joy, "Yummy!"
"Robonyan, where did you learn how to cook like this?" his fiance asked the robot, taking another bite.
"I simply downloaded the recipe," they replied, "I am glad it is to your liking."
"It's like the divine paradise in my mouth!" Damona cheered. No-bot's holographic eyes narrowed in disgust, becoming an eerie red.
"Eh, I'm more into chocobars," Jibanyan said.
A lightbulb appeared on No-bot's face screen, from its chest cavity it pulled a handful of the chocolate treats, "your chocolate, master jibanyan! :)"
"Hey thanks," the nekomata said, taking the candies.
A triumphant smirk formed on the robot's face, a smirk that faded when Damoan said, "Woah, you have a built-in chocolate factory!"
Both jibanyan and No-bot turned to see many chocolate bars falling out of Robonyan's mouth. No-bot's mechanical jaw hit the floor as jibanyan ran over to the forming pile of chocobars.
"Wow, you really are me!" the nekomata complimented his counterpart. He opened one of the new chocobars and swallowed it whole, his reaction was similar to that of Damona's to her tempura, "Oh my enyma! These taste even better than my usual ones!"
"That's future chocolate! Not only is it better tasting, but it is also 40% healthier!" they replied.
No-bot's anger continued to rise, it was not ready to let this tin can cat show it up! It entered it's it's defense mode and aimed at Robonyan. After charging for a few seconds a beam of energy fired from its blaster.
Robonyan took notice of this attack and jump in front of Nate, Damona and Jibanyan, "Routing power to forward shields: Guard Meowde!"
An orange forcefield appeared in front of the robotic nekomata. The beam reflected off of it and hit the ceiling, burning a hole threw.
"No-bot, What are you doing!?" Nate yelled.
The robotic yokai ignored this and began firing rapidly at Robonyan's shield, every blast reflected off and hit a random object around the house.
"We gotta stop this!" Nate yelled looking at the state of his home. Damona readied her aura for combat, but Robonyan objected.
"Don't worry, I am more than capable of stopping this treason," Robonyan said. When No-bot stopped to reload, they dropped their force field, "My turn! Rocket punch away!"
With their right fist, the robo-kai made a punching motion. The mechanical fist launched off their arm like a bullet, hitting the rogue yopple-bot in the chest before returning to its owner. Robonyan did this with their left fist, then proceeded to punch No-bot from afar, all the while knocking it backwards. With one last punch the robot was launched into the door, knocking it outside.
The mechanical Nekomata stepped out the doorway, "let us end this."
"Let's," No-bot's eyes narrowed as it swirled its aura, "All Guns Blazing!"
It fired all of its artillery at the other machine, energy and bombs flying in every direction.
Amongst the chaos, no one heard a distorted version of the yokai watches voice yell, "SHADOW!"
A dark aura engulfed Robonyan, metal clanking could be heard as their parts began to separate and spread out. Through the dark smoke the group could see robonyan's body grow and shift in form. Their false tail flames became large drills, their body became much wider, a large cannon formed in their chest.
When the aura cleared, Robonyan had become a 15-foot tall, mechanical behemoth, all of Nobot's attacks bouncing off their thick metal hide.
"Robonyan 28, active!" they said in a much deeper robotic voice, taking a fighting stance.
Robonyan 28: S rank
Shadowside Tough
"Th… they have a Shadowside form!?" Damona screamed.
Having rarely seen her react like this, her fiance panicked, "what the heck is a shadowside form?"
"Certain yokai can change into different forms called shadowside, they become larger, darker, more powerful, on occasion even their tribes change!" the oni princess explained, "they're incredibly rare, not even my dad has one!"
"Man my future must be awesome!" Jibanyan said in awe of his counterpart.
No-bot starred at its now much larger appoinant, showing something along the lines of fear. The larger robot's eyes narrowed as it curled back its arm, "Power paw."
With the force of a bullet train, their giant fist smashed No-bot's form, leaving a fist shaped crater and a severely damaged No-bot. Seeing their threat neutralized, Robonyan 28's form began to shrink back to normal, being signified with the same voice saying, "Light!"
After that, the robot floated over to Nate and said, "I feel that this was brought on by my presence. You see, No-bot's model of Yopple-bot had one particular flaw in their programming, they were capable of jealousy and anger, seeing a superior model machine must have triggered this… I hope this is compensation."
Robonyan held out their medal. Nate took it from their hand.
"I guess we could send it back to Yopple to get fixed," Damona said, looking over the robot's remains.
"I apologize for the trouble tonight, I meant no harm," robonyan said, as they began floating upward, "I must return to my mission. I'll be back!"
The robo-kai gave a salute before flying off.
After a few seconds Nate realized, "Oh my got they trashed the house."
"We'd better get to cleaning," Damona sighed.