I'm BACK!
Meh, wasn't really dead but still!
Ah well, School has started for me so da updates is be pretty erratic.
In other news, I doing zis without Sweebation support cos he's currently busy with his own stuff and I'll feel guilty to ask an awesome guy to help me when he is busy. Expect possible quality drop.
Overview
The fire burned throughout the whole night.
When the mixture of sake and oxygen ignited, it created a overpressure wave that smashed its way through the air and simply disintegrated the wooden structures closest to it.
Luckily, the blast was a deflagration, not a detonation. In layman terms, the blast was not a powerful as it could have been.
That didn't stop it from leveling the surrounding buildings and sending the nearby crow tengu tumbling through the air as the shockwave pushed them like leaves. Even the tengu palace shook a bit from the blast.
The White Wolf tengus reaction was hilarious, to say to the least.
The guards arrayed in the headquarters parade square was quite a distance away from the sake warehouse. When it blew, a section of the fastest wolfs was ordered to rush to the warehouse to hold off the fire until more help could arrive. But somewhere, during the process of passing down the command, it was misinterpreted as SEND EVERYONE.
So the entire guards force were peeled off to fight the fire. While the manpower was well appreciated, they arrived with their weapons, not firefighting equipment, which made them worse than not being there. The columns of guards also clogged up the roads, delaying actual help from reaching the fire.
When the wolf night commander found out, they ordered the area to be cleared of personal. To be specific, the exact words of the commander was, "Well, clear them out!" Laughingly, the order was interpreted as to be cleared of all personal. So the surrounding area around the fire was cleared of everyone, including the firefighters as well.
It was just their luck that the city planners had ensured that the warehouse was not close to any other structures otherwise the entire quarters would have been one great fiery tribute to flammable buildings.
When the mistake was discovered, attempts were made to rectify the error and get the firefighters back to doing their jobs. But in the confusion, little could be done and the tengu night commander had to come to a hard decision.
He called in help from the other tengus.
The floodgates were opened and the entire village came out to support the firefighting effort.
At that point, the embarrassment could have ended for the White Wolfs. But traffic control into the White Wolf quarter was slipshod at best and chaos reigned. The roads were clogged with youkai as everyone went out to help. The fact that the link between the troops of the White Wolf and their top tier commanders was cut in the chaos didn't help either. Columns of leaderless Wolf tengus took up space on the roads as their mid tier commanders acted like headless chickens, unable to function without the help of their high level commanders.
Like wolfs in the wild, they need their leaders to work.
Finally, sick of the madness, the Dai tengu stepped in. They forcibly took control of the traffic management from the White Wolfs, who were all to happy to relinquish the responsibility to them. They got the columns of White Wolf guards to get off the roads and clearly marked out the pathways for the firefighters. Bucket brigades were formed and the resident kappas in the village were drafted as the water controllers. Soon, a uninterrupted flow of water were reaching the affected area and a proper firefighting effort began.
And what were the White Wolf commanders doing this whole time? They were busy trying to find out how did a human managed to enter the quarters and steal a highly important object, knock out the guards sent to apprehend him and evade the guards surrounding the headquarters. It was lucky that the commanders were relocated to a different headquarters as per the plan.
The loss of the commander's seal was not that important as a new seal could be crafted. But the fact that it was able to be stolen in the first place was more important.
A blame game started as various sides pointed fingers at each other as explaination for the event.
All the while, the fire raged.
Dawn
Tengu village
Palace
The leaders of the White Wolf tengus sat, arrayed out in front of lord Tenma.
Tenma looked at each of the commanders. Each sat in a composed way to the causal viewer but to the eye trained in tengu society, there was much to be seen. Subtly, each of the commanders posture spoke of hostility to his/her fellow commanders.
Tenma was disappointed by this behavior. Such individualistic behavior was not the mark of the White Wolfs. A pack does not have many members fighting for the same prize. They should be working together as a group.
Then Tenma offered herself a ironic smile as he remembered what the Alpha at the top does.
Perhaps using pack metaphors would be a bad idea. She might insult herself in the process.
"So what happened last night?" Lord Tenma asked her commanders.
"The village was attacked by a human. We believe that the human intended to decapitate the White Wolf tengu. It was by great courage and effort by the guards that he was held off and he escaped." One of the commanders answered.
Tenma gave herself a grim smile. The first statement and already trying to better themselves. From Dutch, he knew that every single one of the guards sent to apprehend him had a unhealthy dose of overconfidence.
"Very well, so the guards did their best. Why they failed is another matter that was out of their hands. What else have you learned?" Tenma continued.
"We believe that he blew up the sake warehouse in an attempt to set fire to the village." The next commander said.
Good attempt at an inference. When Dutch told Tenma that he blew up the sake warehouse as a distraction, she almost collapsed in laughter like the Kitsune. A tengu would never have thought of such an , this outsider's thinking is unorthodox. Practical but unorthodox.
"Ah yes, the fire. Why was the firefighting efforts managed so incompetently?" Tenma asked, making no attempt to mince her words.
The commanders reasons came out in a jumbled mess, each trying to explain why a simple firefighting attempt could be handled so poorly.
Tenma closed her eyes and thought to the past when the same commanders were great leaders in times of crisis. They had become too comfortable with the passage of time. Truly, one would lose their skills if left unattended.
As Tenma listerned to their babbling, she felt one thing that she never felt for a long time.
Shame. Shame that once great leaders could have fallen into such disarray and shame that she, as their leader, let it happen.
Opening her eyes, Tenma spoke.
"I ordered the attack."
Tengu Village
Non-tengu quarters
Guestroom
Dutch watched through the gap as the commanders all gave their stunned reactions. What a bunch of idiot leaders.
As he listened to Tenma launching into a explaination, he looked at the bandage in his arm. It's red stained cloth indicated the still bleeding slash on his arm. At least the pain had dulled into a slight burning. The sliding door opened and Ran stepped in with a new set of bandages.
"Oh dear, its still bleeding?" The nine-tails asked concernedly as she sat next to Dutch. Her laughter had abruptly stopped once she had saw how badly the drone had sliced through Dutch's arm.
Dutch nodded. "Yukari said that the black metal on the assassin golems was of a organic polymer made for lightweight defense and stealth. An side effect of it is that if it came in contact with blood, certain materials in the polymer would prevent the blood from clotting."
Ran carefully unrolled the bloody bandage on Dutch's arm. "I don't like that you have to risk your life. Can you at least try to be careful?" She asked Dutch, her concern plain.
Dutch smiled at the Kitsune. "Weren't the nine-tails of legend supposed to be fearsome harbingers of death and destructions?"
Ran pulled on Dutch's bandages. "OW!" Dutch cried out as the cloth rubbed against his wound. "Under mistress Yukari hand, I learned to win without having to kill. And when Chen came along, I guess you could say I lost the urge to take a life. Or see a life taken." Ran answered, her eyes reminiscing the past.
Dutch nodded. "Well, I'll try to be careful. If the situation allows it."
Ran finished unrolling the bandage. She balled up the bloody cloth and put it aside. The three slashes glistened with blood as the red fluid ran freely. She took a wet cloth she had brought along and dabbed in on the slashes. Dutch winced as the alcoholic smelling cloth touched his flesh.
The wound temporarily clear of fluid, Ran began bandaging up Dutch arm with the clean set of bandages.
"...need not fear the result of a hundred battles." Dutch whispered.
"What was that?" Ran asked Dutch as she concentrated on covering his wounds.
"An old quote from a general. If you know your enemies and you know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. Right now, that quote worries me." Dutch said as he stared at his vault glove.
"Why?" Ran simply returned as she tied a knot on the bandage.
"Because as much as I know myself, I don't know the Lunarians. They could have living flame for all I know." Dutch answered.
Ran chuckled. "Please don't overestimate the inhabitants of the moon. Magic isn't an all powering force that can bend everything to the wielder's will. There are limitations as well, you know. But I agree with you. You should treat them with caution," Ran finished as she packed up her materials. "Take a rest. You haven't slept the whole day after all."
Dutch nodded as he lay on the bed he was sitting on. Ran smiled as she turned off the magic light and left the room.
Outside, her face turned feral as she remembered her last encounter with the Lunarians. One day, one way or another, she would make that princess pay for doing that to her mistress.
Inside the room, Dutch started up at the dark ceiling.
...
/Secondary Data Override/
/50% Complete/
...
/Unlocking past memory/
...
A shudder ran through Dutch.
He fell into a hole, the ceiling slowing disappearing away.
Flashback...
A dark library, it's only light provided by the raining night shining through the windows.
"Project Youkai would have been the cornerstone for the creation of the new world. A superior class of warriors to bring down the old and mould them into the new." The elderly man said, wheelchair connected to a life support machine, his back facing Dutch.
"It's operatives would be entrusted with great powers. The DNA systems would have made them superior in all aspects." The man continued. "Of them, only one prototype system adapted to it's user. You."
"Are you saying I was a experiment?" Dutch asked, looking out the window.
"I was to become a god. Ruling over all with the DNA powers to make me immortal and my soldiers to enforce my will." The man said, coughing when he finished his speech. "Alas the Project fell apart, destroyed by its very creations. A destruction spurred on by you."
Dutch continued to silently looked out the windows, his eyes gaining a blue glow.
"But your adaptation still held great significance. If only we had more time..." The man cried out, his voice hopeless. " And now my time grows short. Ironic, isn't it, for one who had the right to be a god to face his own mortality." The man finished, turning to Dutch.
Dutch looked back at the man, his eyes a full blown bright blue. "The right to be a god?" Dutch said back to the man.
He blurred towards the man and the barrel of a pistol smashed into the old man's lower jaw. The man gasped in pain.
"That right was never yours." Dutch hissed before pulling the trigger.
Bang!
The man jerked up and slumped against his wheelchair. The pistol lowered and returned to its proper place in its holster.
"The right to be a god? You? Arrogant even to the end." Dutch sneered. "Only one truly capable of being a god deserves that right."
...
/Memory end/
...
Dutch returned to the bed, lying down, staring at the ceiling.
"The right to be a god? Nobody should have that right." Dutch whispered.
He closed his eyes.
The lights stopped flashing and Dutch opened his eyes. And was promptly tackled by a overeager entity.
"Master! Why didn't you leave when I asked you to. You could have died!" Vale cried out as she squeezed Dutch torso. Dutch let out the air in his body as it got smaller from Vale's rather insane strength. "Can't...breathe." Dutch gasped out.
Vale quickly released her master. Dutch breathed in deep as he tried to feed his oxygen starved body with, well, oxygen. Having filled his lungs with the life giving substance, he gave a smile to his assistant.
"I lived, didn't I? That was the past." He answered. Vale looked at her master grinning face and sniffed. Her eyes teared up as she lightly sobbed.
'Warning!' Ran through Dutch head as he watched Vale. "What's wrong?" He asked as he watched without an idea on what to do.
"Why can't you be just another jerk for a master? Everytime I see you in danger, I feel helpless. It's just not fair!" Vale cried out. Dutch sweat dropped at her speech. He walked up to Vale and hugged her tight. Vale wrapped her hands around him and sobbed in his fatigues. Looking at her, Dutch came to a revelation.
'She must be watching as I fight. Feeling powerless as she watched me take on the tengu and drone." Dutch thought as he silently held Vale. 'But there's nothing I can do for her. She can't leave the vault and even if she could, she would put the both of us in far more danger.'
Bloody dilemmas.
Or is it? Dutch ran possibilities through his head. He will have to look into this.
They stood there until Vale's sobs subsided. Dutch felt Vale relax against him. "Better?" He asked as he looked down on the entity.
Vale's peaceful face answered him as she slowly let out a breath, eyes closed. 'She fell asleep.' Dutch mentally deadpanned. Looking at her, Dutch could not help but feel sometime he never felt for a long time.
Peace.
"Well, what did ya know. It took a cute girl crying herself to sleep against me to find it." Dutch said with a smile. He gently slipped his hands under Vale's wings, scooped the sleeping entity up into a princess carry and carefully carried her to the bedroom, making sure not to jerk her too much.
Dutch laid her on the bed and folded the blanket over her. Once the deed was done, Dutch sat down on a chair beside the bed, just looking at her.
What was her life like under her former masters? From the stories she shared with Dutch, he knew that the vault is not fussy with it's owners. From Men and women to kings and beggars to powerful magicans and powerless folk, the vault has at one point or another climbed to the highest points in society and dropped down to the darkest pits.
Dutch noticed that her stories tended to be happier when relating to her women masters. Hardly a surprise when one looked at the society standards for men at the time. Even now, some men are pigs.
Dutch also knew that this form of her was not the common one. Her orb form was the one used throughout her time. This human form was only seen by Dutch. Was it because of the blast from when the template was instated?
Or was it something else? Dutch suspected that something else was preventing any other form other than the simple orb from coming into existence. The belief of the owners perhaps? Science did not become the mainstream until the mid-19 centuries. Even now, there are still areas where beliefs act like a shackle to the person. Given Vale's wings, one could easily label her as a agent of the devil.
So many theories.
"Amazing child, don't you think?" A amused voice spoke.
Dutch turned around to see Vault floating behind him.
"You should know that ever since she adopted this form, she had to acquire some form of energy recharging to keep to this form. Sleeping has proven to be the most effective. On the same note, she hadn't slept ever since she woke up." Vault said.
"Why didn't you urge her to sleep?" Dutch asked. Vault, it's tone jovial, answered. " She does not know of my presence and I will be very grateful if you can help me keep it that way, youngling."
"What are you to her? Guardian perhaps? Or maybe a parent?" Dutch shot back. Vault laughed softy. "I believe in your terms I would be her roommate."
Dutch kept silent at the information. The vault chuckled. "Go on. You seem to have many question for me. Ask away."
"Why this form? Why only me?" Dutch asked.
Vault answered, it's tone of voice a mixture of pride and joy. "The vault is constantly evolving device, changing itself to suit its owners needs. What makes the owner makes the vault. Remember when I said that you were them most comparable person the vault has ever encountered?"
Dutch nodded. " I remember you trailing off at one point about it."
Vault continued. "Well comparability does not affect the normal functioning of the vault but instead it's appearance, both on the inside and out. More importantly, it affects how the assistant entity will treat the owner. The orb form was adopted as the best form for interfacing with the owner, after analysing the attitudes of the men and women that it came across. After all, imagine if one of her past owners were to see her in this human form. The religious would attempt to destroy her, the lustful would defile her. That was why the orb form was adopted as a standard."
Dutch leaned back on his chair. "Which brings me back to my original question. Why this form? Why only me?"
Vault glowed with pale light. "Because of two factors. The first is the comparability between you and the device. Out of all the owners, you have the highest level of comparability. The entity would change to a greater degree because of that. But her form, that changed when you added the template. You see, while the worldchanger function was installed, it was never used. That explosion would be the equivalent of a car backfiring as it started after a long time of non-usage. The entity sacrificed her form to save you. When she came back, she could have chosen the orb form again but instead, she chose the human form. Do you know why?"
Dutch shrugged.
"Because you gave her a name. By giving her a name, you gave her a spark of life. A soul. That was the second factor." Vault finished.
"So you are saying that simply by giving her a name, I made her a soul? Just like that?" Dutch returned, confusion reigning over his face.
"Well there are several things that needed to be there like a personality and other such whatnot. That was accumulated over time as the vault passed through owners. You simply added the final piece of the puzzle." Vault answered.
Dutch silently processed the information.
"But the gist of the matter is that you made her. You gave her a name and with that, she is a full-fledged living being, subject to emotions and instincts. In return, she appears to have bonded with you quite well. Quite amusing to watch her reactions to you." Vault finished, amusement in its voice.
Dutch grunted darkly as he remembered his close contact with Vale. The one involving lips.
"That will be enough questions for one day, don't you think? I do believe that you were going to sleep youngling. Take a rest here. When you wake up, you will be refreshed and still in here. Have a good sleep." Vault answered before disappearing.
Dutch stared at the spot that Vault once occupied. And yawned.
Perhaps he should really get some sleep.
But when Dutch looked around, he realized that the only actual proper sleeping is already occupied. And as tired as he was, he didn't want to share a bed with Vale. Deciding to search for any other resources, Dutch searched every corner of the room, opening up a closet in the wall.
Inside was a blanket and a pillow but no bed. Guess it's velvet carpet time then.
Dutch lay down on the floor and set his sleeping materials. Lying down on the carpet, looking at the ceiling and enjoying the slightly cold temperature, Dutch closed his eyes.
And promptly fell asleep.
Some time later
Vale woke up.
When did she ever made it onto the bed? And who tucked in the blanket for her?
Her last memory was crying into Dutch fatigues and somehow falling asleep. Vale blushed as she realized that she fell asleep on Dutch. But he was just that comfortable.
A light snore brought her eyes down onto the floor. Beside the bed, Dutch slept peaceful. He took up only one half of a large pillow and again only half of a large blanket.
She looked at Dutch sleeping face with a warm fuzzy feeling inside. For a owner, he wasn't a jerk and he treated her with something other than violent behavior. He was a great owner, hands down.
As Vale examined Dutch features, she felt like sleeping a bit more. Giggling, she got of her bed and slipped under the blanket with Dutch, folding in her wings to make it smaller. Taking the other half of the pillow, she hugged Dutch so her forehead was against his chin, her body close to his.
In that position, Vale fell asleep, warm and comfortable, not bothered by the velvet carpeted floor and against the person her heart has made a special place for.
THAT'S IT. THE END OF CHAPTER. RWARRRRRRR!
Whoo! thats 16 chapters! (16-1) divided by 6= 2.5.
6x2.5=9. See! EyE can do maths!
If anyone has a problems with zis chapter, TELL ME IN MY FACE OR A REVIEW OR A PM SO I CAN CRY IN A CORNER!
Sweebation, hope u okay with arrangement. U still awesome.