Chapter 21: How it all Works

After fleeing all night, Yosuzume was finally able to shake off the supernatural vines pursuing her. The current time is 7:23 AM. Using telepathy, Yosuzume begins to commune with Shogi.

Shogi: What is it? Look. I have to go to work right now.

Yosuzume: That can wait. Right now I need you to do a bit of investigation for me.

Shogi: About those vines? I can tell you what I found.

?

Yosuzume: You've been doing some reconnaissance on your own?

Shogi: Well yes. I have.

Yosuzume: Tell me!

Shogi: Whoa! Wait. You think I'm just going to tell you just because you're some kind of queen, the Queen of Spades was it?

Queen of Spades? Since when did I ever call myself that?

Yosuzume: Queen of Spades? You must be confused-er, confusing me with someone else! Yeah, that's it. I'm Yosuzume.

Shogi: Ah. Here's what I found. You are going to pay me, right?

Yosuzume: Of course. Did that package of yen satisfy you?

Shogi: It was decent.

?

Wait, what? I paid him? But I don't recall doing that and why does he sound like we've been acquainted for some time? It's only been like 2 days!

Shogi: On the genetic structure, parts of the vines appear to be based on ordinary plants. Of course if these were just ordinary plants, then all we would need to get rid of them is a whole bunch of fire except these weeds are impervious to flames.

Yosuzume: As well as any form of gunfire, blades, bludgeoning etc.

Shogi: Right. At first glance it would appear these weeds cannot be harmed in any way, they don't even need to photosynthesize and are unaffected by poisons. In fact, if we were to use brute force, the most we could hope to do so is stall their progress via super cold temperatures.

Yosuzume: So their weakness is the cold.

Shogi: No. If that were so, then the cold should cause damage to it and the rate by which the cold slows these weeds down isn't consistent.

Meaning there has to be something else at play here other than frigid cold temperatures.

Yosuzume: Have you found what factors makes these weeds spread faster to others?

Shogi: I'm working on it. One thing I can say is that they seem to prefer populated places however I wouldn't go as far as to say population density is what attracts these vines. While most of the affected areas have access to the internet, some are completely cut off. I thought there might've been a chance they're somewhat drawn to electricity usage but knowing how much of our world uses electricity, that's a moot point.

Yosuzume: Mh hm.

Shogi: Also I thought you might want to know that when I had SAL do a cursory scan of those persistent vines which have entangled pretty much all of Tokyo, SAL found one other factor about these troublesome weeds.

Yosuzume: And what is that?

Shogi: They don't have any roots.

No roots?

Shogi: Bonsais, knotweed, hardy kiwis, Allegheny and chocolate vines and more. All these plants have roots, well they would normally have roots but instead with however this invasive and highly dangerous species of weeds are, they just don't. The only saving grace here is that they cannot be either a tree or grass and it would seem that aquatic plants are out of the question though if these weeds grow large enough, there's a chance it won't matter if they can't also affect aquatic plantlife.

Yosuzume: Affect. Like a parasite?

Shogi: A disease. It's my guess that this most be some sort of highly advanced form of genetic engineering. There are many groups of interest out there that could do something like this but I don't know if any of them would bother trying to pull something so risky. I mean, just look at this! Even if they wanted to wipe us out, how do they plan on not getting affected by their own design? It's like engineering a virus to wipe out all men! It's stupidity. You'll wipe out humanity that way.

Yosuzume: Not unless we perfect cloning.

Shogi: In that case, the women left behind might as well not even be considered human anymore. Just a simple collection of stem cells. Anyways that's beside the point.

…

Yosuzume: I see. You've done an excellent job up to this point. Your payment will be at the usual. I hope to continue working with you, Mr. Shogi.

I fly off to our usual meeting spot and drop a box of yen for Mr. Shogi to pick up later, then I fly off to my hideout.

Yosuzume: "Duusu. Fall my feathers."

In a flash I detransformed.

…

So, looks like I was right after all.

Aoi: "Duusu. Come out."

Duusu phases out of me.

Aoi: "It's just as we suspected. That girl must be the cause of these horrendous weeds!"

Duusu looks confused. I wonder why.

Duusu: "Aoi? Is that you?"

?

Aoi: "I would presume so. Anyways let's not get ourselves distracted. Look, I have a contingency plan and I'd like for you to hear it out. I think you'll find it to be well thought out."

Duusu: "Uh huh."

Aoi: "What are you? Don't doubt me. C'mon. Let me show you what I got."

Non POV

When a sentimonster is made, their form and superpowers are determined by the one who crafts them. A sentimonster born of anger won't be able to have curative superpowers, one of joy will have their superpowers themed accordingly. After all, what amokitization essentially is is emotions turned to life, made into 3d and if it's not part of their nature, they must find another outlet. SAL, Shogi's sentimonster was born out of his inquiry, his curiosity. As such, the superpowers which SAL could have had to be investigative in nature. This was a fact that over the course of the previous 3 weeks, the Queen of Spades had come to know. And just who was this Queen of Spades, Aoi wondered? Wasn't she Yosuzume? When had she picked up a moniker like that? It didn't matter much, but perhaps parts of her recent memories had become hazy?

Aoi: "Hm. And now whether to convince Mr. Shogi to change the form of his sentimonster or not. Should I revoke the amok or should I leave it be?"

Once a sentimonster's form is decided, it cannot be changed. It will stay in that format unless it is by the nature of the emotion and of the sentimonster itself that it doesn't have a defined form. As a smartphone app sentimonster, SAL takes the form of a specific combination of codes and because SAL was born from Shogi's curiosity as opposed to gula, SAL is unable to then take control of various computers like a computer virus. SAL is also limited to the cyberspace. If SAL is to then affect the physical world outside of the computer, then either SAL's base form or SAL's superpowers will have to be adjusted and in order to do that, SAL's amok must be revoked.

Aoi's POV

Aoi: "Hmm.. No. I shouldn't. This is going perfectly."

Until I have determined an exact weakness for those supernatural vines, I'll let my slave keep his- its sentimonster. SAL still has a purpose and I intend to milk it for all its worth including that little bug.

Taking off my Miraculous I place it on a pedestal into semisphere container.

Aoi: "Keep my Miraculous guarded until I come back."

Duusu nods as he hovers near my Miraculous. Because I have not renounced the Miraculous, this allows Duusu to follow my command to guard it. I can't risk having my prisoners discover my Miraculous identity and besides. Right about now it's pointless for me to commune with them as Yosuzume.

Aoi: "It would seem that I have burned off way too many bridges with them, wouldn't you agree, slave?"

Striding outside of the office that I made for myself I walk down a couple of hallways before opening a locked vault door. Inside is a desk with an aquarium filled with even tinier bugs. Shrinkies as they are called. I've gathered quite a handful of them, though when I look at them, I can't help but feel as though my collection isn't complete. Collection? No, that's not the word for it.

Aoi: "So. What's this thing about a Divine Son? You lot have been talking up a storm these past couple of days."

…

They're silent.

Aoi: "Tell you what. You give me as much information about this so-called Divine Son and I just might give you little bugs a nice treat. How does bacon sound?"

I look at the shrinkies. Looks like they're coming to an agreement.

20 minutes later…

Aoi: "I see. Very well, you have done your purpose, so now I suppose I'll just have to pay you off then."

Leaving the room I begin to head towards the refrigerator to provide my tiny slaves some bacon. It is a deal after all.

Duusu's POV

Aoi's changed, but only so briefly. Her behaviour. It's sporadic. There are things about her that I don't quite get. At times when she decides to detransform, Aoi has started using this time to try and build up a rapport with her prisoners. The classic good cop, bad cop routine. As Yosuzume, she has gained a formidable image, one who will kill you once you've outlived your usefulness. Obviously such an approach doesn't encourage cooperation hence that's why Aoi's been using her base form in order to make them feel as though they have a chance.

?: "Wha-! What is that creature!"

Ah. A couple of the shrinkies must've escaped. Hovering above I look down upon them.

Duusu: "Leave. Please leave and go back to your cells."

What has this been, the 23rd breach this week? These shrinkies are quite persistent. Hovering close to them, I issue my next set of warnings.

Duusu: "Please go back. You know your lives are forfeit if you stay out here any longer."

Again they are refusing to desist. Some are even starting to climb towards the Peacock Miraculous. I shake my head.

Duusu: "If you insist on continuing, I will have no choice but to eat you."

It's true. When Aoi made this base, one of the first commands she gave to me was to eat up any shrinkies who discovered the Peacock Miraculous. Evidently she felt that it was okay if they discovered me as the appearance of a supernatural entity working for her would make her seem even more powerful so long as they didn't understand the means and hows.

{sigh}

Let it be known that I'm not entirely averse to eating meat and I have occasionally snacked on some shrunken humans when I was under Mia-chan's employ but this. This feels like a chore. Most of us kwamis don't like eating meat. I'm one of the few that do and more so unlike my fellow few meat eating kwamis, I'm the only one who enjoys having a live snack. Other than that, I very much enjoy eating bacon. Still, there's hardly any joy when it's a command and one without much reward.

…

At least Miawa left it as an option for me to munch on some of her shrinkies. I smile at the memory.

Duusu: "You should try out their many flavors, Duusu." is what she would say. Oh. I said that out loud, didn't I? Oh well. It doesn't matter if they know my name or not. I've only been commanded to dispose of them via consumption if they discover the Peacock Miraculous, not me.

If I ate them, she would praise me. If I didn't, she paid it no mind. It would be nice if Aoi would do the same.

…

…

{sigh}

As if that's going to happen. Still, it doesn't hurt to fantasize. Feeling their emotions, I systematically swoom and annihilate every single shrinky who had managed to see the Peacock Miraculous. By the time I had finished I had eaten 53 of them.

…

It's strange. Why did Mr. Shogi address Aoi as the Queen of Spades? She never introduced herself like that, at least not according to her recent memories. What's more, sometime while she's recharging in her base form, I've felt some of what can only be called her dreams. Dreams of her past as a… delivery package assembly line worker? A postal delivery worker? Waitress, accountant… she just has so many first jobs that I'm not sure which one actually happened or if it's all a fantasy. For now she seems to have accepted the narrative that she was once a McDonald's employee… which isn't too far of a stretch but then, why would the Society had brought any interest on her? I don't know. Whatever the case may be, we need to quickly find her next Memory Pck. Who knows what will happen if these 2 Memory packages become her default personality. With her confusion there's now a chance for self-improvement and yet I don't fancy the prospects.