Wandering Sorrows

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Akira110
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Re: Wandering Sorrows

#31 Post by Akira110 »

Chapter 30

Night had fallen and Yoshiro had fallen asleep. Within his dream he looked upon the site of a great battle. Bodies were strewn everywhere, both civilian and military. Yoshiro looked at the person in the middle of the carnage and saw a white furred Kitsune standing there, a sword covered in blood in his hand. Yoshiro watched his mouth move as he spoke into a communications device on his wrist, but saw as the Kitsune turned his head and spoke in a language that he couldn't understand. Yoshiro recognized the face of the Kitsune and reached for his own sword, "Father..." The Kitsune looked at him, "A bioweapon like myself would never have a disgraceful son like you." Yoshiro called out, "Tell me, what do you know about Tovenaar!?" Akira smirked, "Tovenaar is the ultimate anti-dragon weapon. However, the way you carry that sword... you are no mere Kitsune."

Yoshiro looked down at his sword and saw that blood was covering it, shocking him. He hadn't killed anyone on this battlefield. Akira smiled as the blood started to cover him, "So you are like me, a monster. The question is, were you engineered to be a monster, or was it a path you chose." Yoshiro tried to move forward, but his foot was sucked down further into the pool of blood he was standing in. Akira laughed, "Do not try to resist it, you are as guilty as I am of shedding the blood of others. You are a bigger monster than anything the Menschilche could create." Akira's was completely swallowed up by the pool of blood and Yoshiro felt that it was up to his chest. He frantically searched for a way to escape it. Anything would do for him, even if it was a mere branch he could pull on.

There was nothing and he was swallowed up by the blood. There was nothingness, no sights, no sound. Nothing. When light returned to him, he found himself standing in the middle of another scene. Countless bodies were strewn about a field, he heard a voice cry out, "You [censored]!" He turned around and cut the person down. When he saw the person's face, he dropped his sword in horror. He had killed his own little brother, "No... no!" Yoshiro held his head tightly and screamed out into the sky when he suddenly felt a pain in his chest. He looked down to see that he had been impaled by a sword. He looked at the person that had impaled him and tears came to his eyes, "Ma... ma..." Minako looked at him, "You are not my son. You are merely a monster and like all monsters, you are to be put down." Darkness ate away at Yoshiro's vision, soon engulfing it.

He bolted awake, breathing heavily in his bed as he sat up. He placed his hand on where he had been impaled in the nightmare that he had and found no injury. He closed his eyes, relieved that he was back in the world of the waking. Yoshiko opened the door and rubbed her eyes, "You scream incredibly loudly in your sleep, you know that?" Yoshiro nodded, "Yeah, I've been having terrible nightmares as of late. I don't know what's causing them." Yoshiko shrugged, not surprised that Yoshiro didn't have the answer, "Your grief." Yoshiro looked out the window at the moon, "That makes sense. I've done a lot of horrible things in my life, I have so many different regrets that it's hard to keep tabs on them all." Yoshiko nodded, "Like anything, that can come back to haunt you."

Yoshiro looked down at the side of the bed and picked up the stuffed toy that he had brought with him. Yoshiko giggled, "It's kind of cute that you have a toy like that." Yoshiro smiled softly as he hugged the toy, "Ame has been an important part of my life since I was a kit, long before you were even a thought in Cornelis' head." Yoshiko nodded, "Sometimes, I wish I could've seen him one last time, you know." Yoshiro started to list off names, "Rogelio, Kauko, Adriana, Walthari, Noah, Seth, and Galina." Yoshiko looked at him, "What significance do they have?" Yoshiro looked up at the ceiling, "People that were influential to my life that are no longer with us, but I wish they were." Yoshiko nodded slightly, "Something tells me that's a small list." Yoshiro shrugged, "It is, but most of the influential people in my life are still alive."

Yoshiko frowned, "You seem to know a lot of people." Yoshiro laughed slightly, "I was originally a noble, then I became royalty. After that, I joined up with the military and then became a mercenary. I guess if I had to say, I have met roughly ten thousand people in person." Yoshiko was stunned by that comment, especially with how casually Yoshiro had said it, "Ten thousand!?" Yoshiro nodded slightly, he didn't remember the exact figure, but he felt ten thousand was a good number. Yoshiko shook her head, "How do you remember all of their names and their faces." Yoshiro smirked, "I don't." Yoshiko folded her arms across her chest, "You don't quite seem to be leadership material if you can't even do that." Yoshiro shrugged, "Blame how our brains formed. We can only remember so many names and so many faces."

Yoshiko nodded slowly, "How do you know that for sure though?" Yoshiro looked away, "Though psychology isn't my forte, I had to understand a bit of it in order to make the AI that I create have even a fleeting shot at being completely sentient. One of the things I learned is that we are psychologically incapable of recalling faces or names after a certain point. Said point I hit a long time ago." Yoshiko nodded, curious, "What's the number?" Yoshiro shrugged, "For humans, it is around two hundred and fifty. For Kitsune like us? I cannot say, especially since you are a mage and you use your brain a bit more than I do." Yoshiko frowned, "That's not nice, you know. You shouldn't put yourself down like that." Yoshiro nodded, "It's true though, my training is to force repetition of an action until it becomes instinctual to do that action in a fight."

Yoshiko understood what he meant, "The training of a mage isn't all about reading books. We need to be able to get used to our own mana flow, to allow us to get more use out of our natural flow of magic. My mentor says that I'm more powerful than most, but out of everyone he has ever seen, you are the one with the strongest mana flow out of everyone that isn't a deity." Yoshiro nodded, "It means nothing without training and I'm too old and too set in my ways to start training in the way of using magic like that." Yoshiko walked over and poked him in the chest, "Says the man who is quite literally traveling across the entire planet just to find some answers. Weren't you the kind to either stay at home or explore new territory that we've never been to before?"

Yoshiro couldn't deny that his current behavior was a bit weird. However Sigma's hologram suddenly appeared, "I hope that I am not interrupting anything important." Yoshiro looked at Sigma, "Nope." Sigma nodded, "That's good. I have discerned the location of the next Menschilche base that we should go to. However, there is just one problem." Yoshiro blinked, "Okay, what is the proble..." Yoshiro was interrupted by Sigma's hologram changing to that of a harpy, "Oh... that's going to be a rather large pain in my [censored]. Well, fortunately being around two deities will give me safe passage through their lands. Even if it didn't, Toshi and Julius are more than a match for them." Sigma's hologram returned to it's normal form, "You don't seem to know much about the Harpies, judging from what knowledge you had programmed into me." Yoshiro shrugged, "They are rather reclusive and hate intruders. Deities non-withstanding."

Sigma's hologram nodded, "What if they do not permit you safe passage?" Yoshiro shrugged, "Since I'm not looking to start a war... we look for some other Menschilche installation." Sigma's hologram looked at Yoshiko, "Do either of you believe that risking not finding your answer would be worth not having a war break out." Yoshiko nodded without hesitation, "Absolutely." Yoshiro closed his eyes, "I'm sick of war, myself. I had my fill in my younger days. We will try the diplomatic approach, if that fails, we will find another installation." Sigma's hologram nodded slightly, "I understand. You gave a good answer, Yoshiro." Yoshiro chuckled, "Well, if neither of the two of you mind, I think I'm going to try to get some more sleep." Yoshiko nodded, "Alright then, Yoshiro, please refrain from screaming in your sleep." Yoshiro smirked, "No promises, but I'll try to have less nightmares." Yoshiro laid back and placed his head on his pillow, as he closed his eyes, he thought about his family back home. As he drifted off to sleep, he wondered how his wife was doing.
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Re: Wandering Sorrows

#32 Post by Akira110 »

Chapter 31

Yoshiro checked his supplies and his armaments before he headed out the door, where Julius was waiting. Julius made a happy cooing sound and Yoshiro smirked, "Wux re saeuth ekess ocuir ve takh." Julius shook his head, "Si mi saeuth ekess ocuir wux re doutan." Yoshiro chuckled, "Who else would I be?" Julius narrowed his eyes at him, "Yoshiro, you know what I meant." Yoshiro placed his hand on Julius' side, "I know, brother, I'm just having a little bit of fun, you know." Julius nodded, "I know, you are not stupid, Yoshiro. Not by a long shot. But after these past few days, I sometimes worry about you." Raiden spoke up, "He barely slept the entire time you were gone. He stayed up, waiting for you to return. That Dragon is loyal to you and you should honestly feel honored about that." Yoshiro nodded slightly, "I have always felt honored to have Julius as my brother."

Amaterasu walked out with supplies, "We're heading into harpy territory, right? Toshi will grant Raiden and I access. Harpies will not attack a Dragon, but they may attack you regardless." Julius nodded, "They tend to be very territorial creatures, preferring to be left alone if at all possible." Yoshiro climbed onto Julius' back and sat down, "I already know that much. I have met many peoples in my travels, many races. However, for the first time, I am meeting some new ones. The Manchot are a good example of this, I had never met them before, but they live on the southernmost continent of Verbana. However, they seemed to not be trusting of me." Julius nodded slightly, "We Dragons have not had many dealings with the Manchot, but I can assume that since you didn't come back on the ship, your visit there was less than pleasant."

Yoshiro nodded slightly, that was true, "A bit of an understatement, but yeah, you could put it like that." Yoshiro looked at Toshi walked over to Julius and placed his beak in front of him. Yoshiro laughed and stroked his beak, "It is good to see you again as well, Toshi. Well, let's go to the homeland of the Harpies. Yoshiko, it was good to see you again and thanks for letting me stay overnight." Yoshiko nodded slightly, "You're welcome, Yoshiro. Grandmother, Grandfather, the both of you are welcome back at any time." Amaterasu nodded, "Your hospitality was very gracious of you, Yoshiko. It is good to see that you have manners." Yoshiro looked at her, "Hey, that's not funny, Grandmother. I'm polite when I need to be." Amaterasu chuckled, "I know, Yoshiro, but that's the key phrase, when you need to be. You usually don't care about manners outside of that."

Julius took off into the air and Toshi took off behind him, Yoshiro couldn't help but admire the beauty of Verbana from the air. The light gleaming off the water's surface, the lush green fields and forests below him. Even the cities were constructed in an aesthetically pleasing way. Yoshiro watched as they exited the city's airspace and turned his head to look at Amaterasu, who waved at him. Yoshiro nodded slightly and turned his head away as Sigma's hologram appeared before him, "Creator, I've been thinking." Yoshiro smiled, "That's a good sign. What have you been thinking about?" Sigma's hologram sat down on Julius' back and it looked up at the sky, "My existence. I'm a machine, so I have limits built into me. I can't surpass those limits." Yoshiro shook his head with a laugh, "Sigma, that isn't true. While that fits for organics such as myself, it doesn't for something like yourself."

Sigma's hologram tilted it's head, confused, "What do you mean by that, Yoshiro?" Yoshiro couldn't stop laughing, "Sigma, you are designed to be able to upgrade yourself. You can better yourself if you want, be migrated to a new home if you need to be. You're coding within a machine, the machine is your body, but while you can't just take someone's brain out and put them in a new body and expect it to work. You can transfer your coding from one machine to another. So if your current 'body' is too restrictive for you, a new one can be created for you that will not be as limiting to you." Sigma's hologram nodded, he understood what was being said, "But there are things that I cannot do." Yoshiro stopped laughing and shook his head with a smile, "Don't worry about it, Sig."

Sigma's hologram frowned as that wasn't the answer he wanted, but Yoshiro spoke up, "No one can do everything, Sigma. That is why we form communities. For example, my martial skills and my knowledge of robotics are two examples of what I have to offer any society. It benefits many different type of people, but I have to be mindful of the other people in the society. For example, a rural village would have no use for my knowledge in robotics and my martial skills would have a minimal impact on the safety of the village, but in a large city, my knowledge of robotics gives me a massive advantage." Sigma's hologram nodded slightly, "But what if I wanted to be able to do everything." Yoshiro shrugged, "You would have to program yourself to be able to handle said functions on the fly. It wouldn't be an easy task and even then, some things would be out of your reach."

Sigma's hologram frowned slightly, "But will I always have limits?" Yoshiro nodded slightly, not quite sure of how to break the news to Sigma, "You're an artificial intelligence. You should know by now that there is not such thing as infinity. It's a concept, that can never become a reality. An imaginary number if you will." Sigma's hologram nodded, "So how much will I grow and advance?" Yoshiro smiled, "Sigma, you determine that. As storage units get more powerful and get to handle more and more data, you'll be able to move yourself to larger drives and grow further. You're designed to be able to constantly improve and think for yourself, but you are also gaining emotions instead of just simulating what you think define emotions." Sigma's hologram looked at him, "You can't prove that." Yoshiro pointed down to the ocean, "What do you think of that, Sig?"

Sigma's hologram looked down at the ocean, "It is beautiful, but I don't understand..." Yoshiro pointed at the clouds above them, "And those." Sigma's hologram looked up, "They're white and puffy and I'm curious how it would feel to be inside of one." Yoshiro nodded, "That's how I prove my point." Sigma's hologram looked at him, "You tricked me." Yoshiro shook his head, "I didn't use any deception, I merely asked your opinion on two things. A mere machine cannot find beauty, but you aren't a mere machine anymore, you've been growing, learning. You are not quite at sapience yet, but you are close. At your current rate of growth, I suspect that you will be getting a new name within a matter of days." Sigma's hologram looked towards the horizon, "What name will you be giving me, father?"

Yoshiro closed his eyes with a smile, "You called me father, rather than creator. You are continuing to grow, even now. However, like I said, I will leave your name to you. You are your own person and Sigma is merely a letter in an ancient alphabet, it is the thirteenth letter." Sigma's hologram blinked, "But... I thought I was the third." Yoshiro laughed, "I didn't start with Alpha and work my way down, otherwise your name would've been Gamma. I chose Sigma because I happen to like the design of the letter." Sigma's hologram nodded, "So that's why you chose the name? It was aesthetically pleasing to you?" Yoshiro nodded, that was the truth. Sigma's hologram closed its eyes, "Well, I guess that is something about you that I honestly can say that I'm surprised happened, Grim Reaper." Yoshiro narrowed his eyes, "Please refrain from calling me that, Sigma. Either Yoshiro or Father will do."

Sigma's hologram smirked, "So you don't like that name, do you?" Yoshiro shook his head, he hated his nom de guerre with a passion, "The name carries horrifically negative connotations. It says that I'm a killer who doesn't care about who he kills or when. The truth couldn't be further from that image of me. I'm not the kind of guy that kills just because he can. In fact, I'm sick of all the killing that I've done." Yoshiro turned his head away, "I retired from the military and the mercenary group I formed because I want to at least have a chance to redeem myself before I die." Sigma's hologram shook its head, "You shouldn't be talking about dying." Yoshiro laughed, "It's something we organics do, Sigma. It's not really something you have to worry about, but don't worry, reincarnation happens to us. So though I won't have memories of this life in my next, my soul will still exist." Sigma didn't quite understand, but he was alerted by his map, "We are approaching the outer limits of Harpy territory."
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Re: Wandering Sorrows

#33 Post by Akira110 »

Chapter 32

As Yoshiro and Julius flew deeper into Harpy territory, Yoshiro knew that it was only a matter of time before the Harpies came out to investigate. However, he wasn't quite expecting it so soon as a Harpy swooped down upon him, narrowly missing him with her talons. He knew that if he opened fire, he'd be committing an act of war against them, so he kept his weapon holstered. He looked down at Julius, "Tir ti lowd astahi, astahii geou ocuir coi lae udoka drekim giln." Julius nodded slightly and Yoshiro opened up his armor slits on the back, knowing that if something happened to him, he'd have to quickshift in a hurry. Another Harpy came down and swooped at Yoshiro, this time the Harpy's talon scratched along his armor plate. Julius started to move erratically in the air to try to dodge the incoming swooping Harpies but the next one's foot grabbed Yoshiro's helmet.

Yoshiro was yanked back, but his weight was too much for the harpy to bear. Yoshiro started to quickshift as his body left Julius' back. As Yoshiro fell from the sky, wings grew out of his back and his tail changed to a feathered one. Once he felt the change was finished, he looked down to the ground and tucked his body to build up momentum. As he neared the ground he extended his wings and moved them so that he changed direction swift, barely missing the ground as he did so. As he flew into the air, he saw the Harpies around him, he knew that he was disadvantaged here. As he flapped his wings he reached up to his helmet and took it off, revealing his now Fennikkusu face underneath. The Harpies looked at him, surprised and one of them rushed at him.

Yoshiro felt his heart rate increase greatly, time started to slow down around him as he watched this happen. He knew that he wouldn't be able to escape in time if the Harpy attacked and his head was now vulnerable. He raised his arms to block and the Harpy grabbed his arms with her feet, forcing them open. Time slowed around Yoshiro to a tenth of its normal speed, though his heart beat faster in his chest. From his perspective, his heart beat twice in the course of ten seconds as he watched the Harpy lift her arms up and get ready to punch him. He had one chance of getting out of this, he concentrated as hard as he could. He opened his mind and tried to use fire magic to heat up the air around the Harpy so that she would let go, but nothing happened, he was too afraid.

Yoshiro closed his eyes and the Harpy spoke up, "Why are you closing your eyes, you are an Avian. You have nothing to fear from us Harpies. We thought you were a mammal and a mortal at that. Your dragon has been permitted permission into our territory, even if we don't like it." Yoshiro stopped struggling, "Huh? You mean that Avians are allowed in your territory?" One Harpy nodded, "We are isolationist, yes. We also do not like mammals or reptiles in our lands, but we do allow deities and avians safe passage. Would you like to accompany us to our largest city, where you can meet with the two mammal deities you were traveling with." Yoshiro nodded slightly, "I'm not as fast as you Harpies in the air, I generally don't fly that often in general, because I used to spend my time in the military and wings like these are a big target."

One Harpy nodded, "Alright then, follow me. So what are you and what's your name?" Yoshiro decided that his best bet would be to tell the truth as it was right now, "My name is Yoshiro Miyamae, I'm a Fennikkusu." One of the Harpies glanced at him, "My name is Elene, you share the name with a figure even we have heard about. A kitsune, why do you share his name?" Yoshiro shrugged which threw his balance off slightly, causing him to have to readjust his flight pattern slightly, "It is easier for me to get around without people trying to ask me questions if they are looking for a Kitsune rather than a Fennikkusu." Elene laughed, "You are a wise warrior, it allows you to keep your enemies from tracking you down." Yoshiro smiled slightly, "I have other ways to do so than just that."

Yoshiro followed them as they went into the trees, he had no idea that they were a tree dwelling species, but he had his suspicions that was the case. He carefully looked around as they flew through the forests. Elene landed on a platform and Yoshiro did the same. As Yoshiro landed on the platform, Elene placed a dagger to his throat, "You're not a Fennikkusu, mammal." Yoshiro looked at her, "Genetically, I am at the moment, but you're right. I'm that Kitsune you personally dragged off a Dragon." Elene was angry, Yoshiro could tell, but she lowered the dagger, "Our queen has permitted you permission through our lands, but you do not reveal your true Kitsune form." Yoshiro nodded, "I apologize for the deception, Elene, I had no idea if you would trust me or not if I told you that I am a Kitsune."

Elene shook her head, "You have been given permission by my queen to walk freely amongst our people, but if you conduct yourself poorly and start trouble, then I will personally come to hunt you down." Yoshiro nodded slightly, "You're a warrior too, aren't you?" Elene narrowed her eyes, "How could you tell?" Yoshiro folded his arms with a smirk, "Simple, really. The way you carry yourself, your walk for one implies that you use your feet as weapons, far more so than I do. You favor a style of grappling with your feet, which have a natural armor on them and ripping your foes apart with weapons that you carry in your hands." Yoshiro pointed out the hand underneath the feathers of her wing, "Like that dagger you placed against my throat." Elene was slightly shocked, "How did you make this observation so quickly." Yoshiro smiled slightly, "Simple, I've trained with many people and many races."

Elene nodded slightly, "Well then, aren't you going to go see the queen and get permission to travel into the Menschilche base that none of us have been able to enter." Yoshiro nodded, "In due time, I have to say that your architecture is breathtaking. The view from where I'm standing is gorgeous, but how do you manage to keep cities within the trees?" Elene shook her head, "Harpy secret." Yoshiro nodded slightly as he looked up at the sky, clouds were rolling in, "Hopefully a big storm isn't coming in." Elene scoffed, "Why would a warrior like you be afraid of a storm." Yoshiro smirked, "The last time I was in a storm, it was a hurricane. I don't mind thunderstorms, we get them where I come from. It's the tropical systems that I have issues with, you know what with living so far north."

Elene walked away, "You do whatever you want, Yoshiro, I don't care." Yoshiro nodded and looked up at the large building in front of him. He noticed Amaterasu standing there on the platform looking at him and he waved to her, "Hello, Grandmother." Amaterasu nodded, "Hello, Yoshiro." Yoshiro walked up the stairs to meet her and she frowned, "Why are you in your Fennikkusu form?" Yoshiro shrugged, "A concession that I had to make to be able to move freely around Harpy territory." Amaterasu nodded slightly, "Maybe the queen could change that so that you'll be able to move around in your normal form?" Yoshiro shrugged, "It would be far easier for me to get around here if I can fly. If Sigma's map is correct, this base is in the face of a cliff and I doubt the lift system is still working. The good news is, I can cut through the door this time."

Amaterasu nodded slightly, "So what else are you going to ask the Harpy Queen?" Yoshiro shrugged, "I honestly have no idea. I would like to learn more about the culture of the Harpies, but they are so secretive that I doubt that I will get much of anything, if I get anything at all. Amaterasu chuckled slightly, "You'll never know unless you try." Yoshiro nodded, though that was true, he also knew that the odds were against him. He doubted very seriously that he was going to be able to learn anything that he didn't already know, but he wouldn't find out unless he asked, "Alright then, Grandmother. You win, I'll ask her a few questions about their culture." Amaterasu laughed, "I didn't mean that you had to go in there and ask her yourself, you know." Yoshiro shrugged, "I like being direct, Grandmother." Amaterasu smiled, "I noticed, Yoshiro."
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Re: Wandering Sorrows

#34 Post by Akira110 »

Chapter 33

Yoshiro walked into the building that he had been directed to by Elene. As he walked down the corridor, he watched as two halberds were crossed in front of him and he looked at the two women standing to each side of him, "I am a noble from another land come to seek counsel with your queen." One of the guards looked at the queen, and then at him, "We were told that a Kitsune was coming. You are a Fennikkusu." Yoshiro nodded, "It is quite impossible for me to retake my Kitsune shape, I lack the caloric energy to do so. I would quite literally starve to death on the spot if I were to try." The queen spoke up, "His accent is Elvish, that is what we were told to expect, in addition to black hair. What color are his eyes." One guard looked into Yoshiro's eyes and then back at the queen, "Ice blue."

The queen nodded, "Let him through, I wish to see this person's face with my own eyes." The guards lifted their halberds and Yoshiro walked forward in front of the throne, "Greetings, ma'am." One of the Harpies hissed at him, "Have the respect to bow to the queen, ignorant outsider!" Yoshiro looked at the Harpy in question and pointed at her, "You stay out of this, I'm here to talk to your queen, no one else." The queen looked at him, "I will forgive you for not bowing down to me, but if you threaten another member of my court, you will be imprisoned and then removed from this kingdom. Believe me, if that happens and you return, no deity in the world is going to be able to save you from being killed." Yoshiro nodded, "I understand, ma'am." The queen shook her head, "So what is it that you seek within my territory."

Yoshiro activated the hologram projector and Sigma's hologram flared to life. Sigma's hologram looked around, "Which one of you is the queen, my creator has sort of had me offline for a bit." Yoshiro nodded towards the queen, "Her." Sigma's hologram looked towards the queen, "Ah, I see, so you are the queen herself. My creator has been searching for answers to a singular question. Why was he chosen to be monitored to by the Menschilche in his early life. That question became accompanied by another question... who is this Tovenaar." Yoshiro shrugged as Sigma wasn't explaining the entire thing, "Tovenaar is a Menschilche bioweapon, if it is magical in nature like the Manchot have suggested, then it is an anti-dragon bioweapon. I want to find it, see if it is truly dangerous and if it is... destroy it without any mercy."

The queen looked at his eyes, "You have the eyes of a warrior and your eyes tell me that you are not lying. Pray tell, why are you here then?" Yoshiro looked at Sigma's hologram, "Quite simply, we are merely here in order to investigate a Menschilche installation within this area. According to the records that we have extracted from the base near the southern geographical pole of this planet, there is an installation here. The use of the installation is unknown as it was fairly late in the Menschilche occupation, but it could've been a front for creating Tovenaar as a last ditch effort to stop the oncoming revolution that the Verbanan people were going to end up creating within the next few decades." The queen nodded, "Those revolutions, my family took part in, we quickly overran the Menschilche positions and tore them apart."

Sigma's hologram expressed surprise, "But that would make you over seven hundred and ten years old!" Yoshiro placed his head in his hands and sighed as he removed his hands from his face, "Sigma, remember the fact that my mother is older than I am and my father was part of that revolution." Sigma's hologram looked back, "But isn't your father..." Yoshiro gave him a glare and he shut up, the queen looked at him, "Who is your father." Yoshiro closed his eyes, knowing this was going to be trouble, "My father is Akira Miyamae, husband to Minako Sano." The queen's eyes widened, "I fought alongside Akira, he is a good man for a mammal. Well then, I guess you are worth at least knowing my name. I am Hestia." Yoshiro nodded slightly, "It is a pleasure to meet you." Hestia smiled, "You have the same look that Akira does in your eyes."

Yoshiro opened his eyes and laughed, "It's because I followed my father in his footsteps when I was young. I chose to fight rather than sit around and be a noble. The lifestyle that my mother embraced was never one for me." Hestia shook her head, "Minako Sano, though a gentle person, is a fierce warrior. You should never underestimate the ferocity of your mother in a battle, young Kitsune." Yoshiro chuckled nervously, "I'm actually seven hundred and one tomorrow." Hestia smiled, "Well then, if that's the case, why are you not a home getting ready to celebrate the anniversary of your birth?" Yoshiro looked away as he was asked that question, "I don't really like being home, or even within my own kingdom during my birthday. When I turned one hundred and fifty years old, my best friend was murdered before my very eyes, by my own great-grandfather."

Hestia listened intently as he continued, "I was considered a deathblood, Kimiko, Katriina, and even a deathblood died to protect me. I was filled with sorrow and rage that quickly turned into hatred. I wanted Fumio dead, at all costs. It didn't matter to me. I became the very thing I had joined the Paladins to avoid. I enlisted in the Sea Elf military soon after becoming a Prince. Ever since then, I've killed my way across battlefields, I've even made a name for myself. There is a different word in every language on the planet. But in the basic trading language, I'm known as the Grim Reaper." Hestia's eyes widened, "Even we know of the Grim Reaper here. You are a legendary sniper beyond compare." Yoshiro shook his head, "I'm just an assassin that is sanctioned by the state of whatever kingdom he is serving. However, I'm not here for that sort of business."

Hestia nodded, "Obviously, otherwise you wouldn't have ever made it into my kingdom. Seeing as you are the son of my old partners back in the revolution, I can permit you to enter the Menschilche installation. I had no idea that Minako and Akira had a child, but I am not surprised that their child would become a warrior of your caliber at all. You may go out and meet your grandparents to tell them that I have given the three of you permission to go there." Yoshiro nodded, "What about Julius?" Hestia shrugged, "The Dragon may go with you. Do you have any further questions?" Yoshiro nodded, "Is there anything that you can tell me about your culture?" Hestia shook her head, "We are an isolationist people who hate mammalian and reptilian intruders. We used to live in harmony with them, until certain events happened."

Yoshiro nodded, "Those events are ones that you will not discuss with an outsider?" Hestia smiled slightly, "You catch on quick, Yoshiro. If at all possible, please do not bring any expeditionary teams to this place." Yoshiro nodded, "Thank you for your time." He deactivated Sigma's hologram and turned around, "If you would permit it, a place to sleep would not be a terrible thing. Once we are done here, we will be heading North fairly immediately." Hestia nodded and tapped him on the shoulder, "Hand the innkeeper this. She's in the building on the adjacent tree." Yoshiro turned and took the slip of paper, "Thank you, your highness." Hestia smiled slightly, showing sharp teeth, "It's the least I can do for the son of Minako." Yoshiro nodded with a smile and left the building itself. He was glad to see the sunlight again and he looked around for his grandmother.

Amaterasu smirked as she saw him, "Hey, how did your visit with Hestia go?" Yoshiro shrugged, "We have permission to go to the Menschilche installation, I couldn't get any information about the culture of the Harpies. What I can gather is that there was an event that happened long ago that led them to become the isolationist peoples they are." Amaterasu nodded, "It was ancient history, even before I was born, Yoshiro. You shouldn't worry about it too much." Yoshiro nodded with a smile, "Can you hand this to the innkeeper, she's in the building over there." Amaterasu nodded slightly, concerned, "Where are you going to go?" Yoshiro looked up at the sky, "I don't know, but the anniversary of Katriina's death is tomorrow and I need to clear my head. I can't stop thinking of it. I'll be back though." Amaterasu watched as her grandson started to flap his wings and take off, "Be careful, Yoshiro."
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Re: Wandering Sorrows

#35 Post by Akira110 »

Chapter 34

A familiar scene sprawled out before Yoshiro's eyes, he recognized this very temple and immediately became agitated at the sight of it, "Buki! I know you're in here!" No response. Yoshiro looked around at the scene before him, it was frozen in time. Yoshiro turned to look at his past self, "You are... well, you will become me in time..." He placed his hand on his past self's shoulder and watched as his hand passed through him without any resistance at all, "Right, I'm not really here... this is a projection within my own mind. Well then, let's see if I can alter the projection then." Yoshiro concentrated to make himself real within the world around him. He watched as time started up and heard Fumio scream out, "You damned Deathblood! You will not be the death of me!" Yoshiro drew his weapon and shot Fumio in the head.

The scene immediately reset itself, "Well, [censored]. At least I know I'm in a dream, have this one every damned year. So I'll just wake myself up." Nothing happened, much to his surprise, "So I guess I have to watch the entire thing then... again... for the five hundred and fifty-first time..." Yoshiro sighed as he leaned against the wall, allowing the scene to play out before him. He watched as Fumio screamed at his younger self, "You damned Deathblood! You will not be the death of me!" Yoshiro decided to flip his great-grandfather off as his younger self called out, "Great-grandfather, I don't know what you're talking about! I just came here to..." Fumio cut his younger self off, "Silence! You know that it is prophesied that a Deathblood will be the one to kill me! You are a Deathblood!" Yoshiro looked away slightly, knowing what was going to happen next.

Fumio rushed at his younger self, who pulled out his sword, fearful. Fumio yelled out, "You dare pull your weapon out on me, I am all powerful!" Yoshiro knew this is what provoked Katriina to try to kill Fumio, but he heard Katriina's cry of pain. He remembered the events of that day vividly. As he turned around to see the body of his best friend fall to the ground, he saw his younger self back up towards the door. Fumio laughed, "Pathetic people are always trying to defend the Deathbloods. They do not deserve the gift that I had bestowed upon them!" Kimiko rushed between Fumio and his younger self, "Fumio, this isn't who you are! This is not the man that I married!" Fumio stabbed her in the neck, "Shut up, I choose who lives and who dies!" Yoshiro turned to see a Deathblood rush into the room.

As the Deathblood rushed Fumio, the Kitsune deity grabbed him by the throat and light suddenly came out the other end, solidifying. Yoshiro understood what Fumio had just done, what he committed was a war crime. Yoshiro watched as his younger self dropped his sword and held onto his head, for the first time in his life, his aura flared around him. It was his awakening, and he knew that the look on Fumio's face was one of someone who made a mistake, but it was too late to go back. As Fumio raised a dagger, an arrow shot through his chest. Three Deathbloods ran into the chamber as Emiko walked in. Emiko looked at the younger Yoshiro, "A sunblood. Well, Fumio, have you ever heard of a self-fulfilling prophecy. You tried to kill an awakening Sunblood, only to be shot by a Deathblood's arrow. Don't worry, you will reincarnate sooner than usual."

Yoshiro's eyes opened and he placed his hand on his face, rubbing his eyes. He hated that dream and had it every year since the event happened. He had turned seven hundred and one years old. He sat up in his bed, when he heard Raiden speak, "Can't sleep, huh?" Yoshiro looked out the window, "It's been five hundred and fifty years, every year on the day, I get to relive the same event. If I never went there, none of this would have happened and maybe I would've walked a different path." Raiden shook his head, "I know that we haven't quite talked to each other much during your long life, but you mustn't be so focused on the past. Yoshiro, you must think of me as your aloof grandfather, but nothing could be more from the truth. I'm sorry I wasn't there for most of your life, but..."

Yoshiro felt a rush of sickness and bolted towards the window. Upon reaching the window, he leaned out and vomited. Afterwards he wiped his mouth, "Was wondering when that would happen." Raiden blinked, "Excuse me?" Yoshiro turned to face his grandfather, "Every year, when I have that recurring dream, I throw up. I generally withdraw from the world for a day, but I can't do that here as we kind of have just a day to work with." Raiden nodded, "So what are you going to do?" Yoshiro shrugged, "Same thing I used to do in the military, Grandfather. I'll go out and do my duty, my personal feelings be damned." Raiden frowned, "That is not a healthy attitude." Yoshiro didn't care if it was or wasn't, "It gets the job done and right now... that is what's currently the most important thing on the agenda."

Raiden stood up and hugged his grandson, taking care to place his hand under Yoshiro's wings, "Why don't you let your grandmother and I take care of things?" Yoshiro shook his head with a frown, "Because, Grandfather. Toshi cannot get you into the base. I will be able to get into the base easily though, what with my innate ability to fly in this form. The thing is, I'll want to be alone at all costs." Sigma's hologram flared to life, "What about me, creator?" Yoshiro sighed as Raiden let go of him, "You're a necessity. I won't be able to navigate as easily without someone having a map for me." Sigma's hologram nodded, "I've heard the whole conversation, you know." Yoshiro nodded, "I am aware, I'm surprised you didn't put yourself into sleep mode." Sigma's hologram turned towards the window, "I've been concerned about you as of late." Yoshiro blinked, "Come again?" Sigma's hologram looked at him, "I've been concerned about you as of late."

Raiden looked at Sigma's hologram, "You really have surpassed the old Menschilche machines." Sigma's hologram nodded, "I am aware of this fact and it does please me that I have been able to evolve on my own past such an advanced level. It really is a testament of my creator's skill and knowledge." Yoshiro just continued looking forward, "No, it's you, Sig." Sigma's hologram frowned, "I thought you would be more excited about that." Yoshiro closed his eyes, "I should be, but right now, I'm focused on other things." Raiden smirked, "I always said that Yoshiro needed some sort of hobby. I had no idea that my grandson would make it into the history books when it came to the field of artificial intelligence." Yoshiro looked down, he didn't want to be famous, "I didn't do this for fame."

Raiden nodded, "No scientist does." Raiden placed his hand on Yoshiro's shoulder, "I know, Yoshiro. You're doing this because you want to help others. I can tell right now that you're very depressed. I was just trying to lighten the mood. You're my grandson, and I love you and I'm very proud of you right now. You singlehandedly created an advanced AI that even the Menschilche could dream of. I'm certain that this is more advanced than Draconic AIs!" Yoshiro sat down on his bed, "It means a lot to me, Grandfather, but really, Sigma isn't all that advanced. He's unshackled, that's all. I let him learn and rewrite his own programming. He grows as he does so, he learns how to understand and emulate emotion. Ultimately, he feels those emotions and forms his own personality. When that happens, he will choose his own name."

Raiden nodded slightly, "I'm still very proud of you. You chose to escape war and the time you spent in the expeditionary forces and creating AIs was well worth it. I know that you feel like a failure for what happened to Katriina, I know you feel guilty of it. Furthermore, I know you feel like you killed her." Yoshiro couldn't deny that. Raiden continued, "But you didn't kill her, and I know that she'd be happy seeing you do what you are currently doing. Seeing you create and explore, rather than kill and destroy." Yoshiro nodded as that was the truth, "She is happy with what I've been doing with my life. Your mother-in-law granted her the ability to communicate with me if I use mana on my pendant." Raiden laughed, "Emiko sure keeps surprising me. It's late though and we should get some sleep." Yoshiro nodded and got back into the bed, "Good night, Grandfather." Raiden smiled, "Good night, Yoshiro."
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Re: Wandering Sorrows

#36 Post by Akira110 »

Chapter 35

Yoshiro walked out of the forest and in front of the cliff face. The remains of the dead were strewn everywhere and he shook his head. It looked like a massive battle had taken place here, one between the Harpies and the Menschilche. Yoshiro started to flap his wings, ascending into the skies as he did so. His mind started to wander as he rose up towards the door set in the cliff face. His thoughts focused towards Katriina and to Kauko and even Hannu. He missed his old partners, being the last survivor of their four man group. Yoshiro arrived in front of the door and he just hovered there, hesitating. His mind went back to what his grandmother had told him, what if Tovenaar was someone he cared about. What if he was Tovenaar, he was a super soldier through being Kawal's son after all, but he wondered if it could be more than that.

Yoshiro hovered in front of the door, he wondered if he could bring himself to kill Tovenaar if it was innocent, or worse yet, someone he cared about. He was unsure if he'd be able to kill himself. So many questions flowed through his mind and Sigma spoke up, "Yoshiro, we need to keep going." Yoshiro shook his head, "Sorry, Sig. You're right." Sigma spoke up, "How do you propose on getting in here?" Yoshiro placed his hand on the door and then knocked on it, the door was fairly thick, "Is this door receiving any power?" Sigma's voice contained a hint of annoyance, "How do you expect me to be able to figure that out for you?" Yoshiro flew over to the center of the door, where the two doors met, "I was asking myself." Yoshiro pulled on the doors and forced them open.

He let go and nothing happened, "Alright, the base is in auxiliary power mode. Means we'll be dealing with low light conditions. Sigma, I'm going to need that flashlight again." Sigma nodded and turned on the flashlight installed within the helmet and Yoshiro looked around, more remains of dead bodies, "Looks like they fought in here as well." Sigma spoke up, "Do you think we can find me a body in here?" Yoshiro blinked in confusion, "Why do you want a body made by the Menschilche?" Sigma's voice sounded saddened, "Because I want to be like you, I want to be able to interact with the real world, like you do." Yoshiro nodded slightly, "I think I can modify a body for you, remind me to take any of the robots that we find in here. With the right parts, I could modify it when we get out of Harpy territory."

As they continued into the installation, Sigma spoke up, "How long do you think that will take?" Yoshiro laughed, "Coding an AI takes a lot of work. Building a robot can be difficult. Assuming that I can get the parts in short order, it'll take me about three hours at most to convert a robot for you." Yoshiro looked around and saw a door, "The power generator will more than likely be in this direction. If we can jump start it, we could get some power to the rest of the base." Yoshiro walked over too the door and pulled it open, seeing more dead bodies in the corridor. However these didn't have any obvious injuries on them and none of their clothing was damaged. Yoshiro knelt next to one of the skeletons and checked for any sort of damage at all. There was none and Sigma spoke up, "Your heart rate has increased slightly."

Yoshiro nodded, "Yeah, rather creepy atmosphere if you want to ask me. This place is a graveyard. Those who didn't go out to try to futilely fight the Harpies stayed in here to die as their supplies ran out." Yoshiro stood up and continued down the hallway, until his foot kicked something. Noticing the movement across the floor, he walked over and picked up the object. Recognizing it, he picked it up, and turned it on. The voice over it spoke up, "Whoever is listening to this... this base has become our grave. What started as a simple storage facility for plant seeds and DNA samples is now a tomb for every scientist and soldier here. The androids are in working condition. It seems like only a few days ago that we were asked for a Fennikkusu DNA sample. Something about a project..."

Yoshiro listened intently to the recording, "The project was supposed to be an attempt to create a Menschilche that could regenerate lost limbs." Yoshiro knew that wasn't what he was looking for but continued listening as it continued, "After they left, the Harpies took that time to attack. Our soldiers fought them off, but were quickly killed off with minimal Harpy casualties. We locked ourselves in deeper in the base, they didn't seem to follow us in. Though it only seems like a few days ago, it had been weeks. We ran out of supplies five days ago, several of my people are dying of dehydration and I will soon go that way as well. I don't know who may find this message, but if you're in here, it's already too late. The Harpies will kill you." Yoshiro heard the recording stop and he placed the device back on the ground.

He started to turn around when Sigma spoke up, "He mentioned androids, let's look a little deeper into this place." Yoshiro nodded and walked to the next door, he forced it open and looked inside. Androids were everywhere, as were seed samples. He shook his head and grabbed one, "Sigma, open a channel to Julius for me, will you?" Sigma spoke up, "Channel open, sir." Yoshiro spoke into his communicator, "Julius, I'm done here, tell Grandmother and Grandfather that there's nothing here and we're going to try the one that's up north in Naga territory. I don't know where to go after that, but there are a few other places." Julius' voice spoke over the communicator, "Understood, I'll be right over there." Yoshiro spoke up, "By the way, I'm grabbing an android body for Sigma, I'll be carrying it with me to Naga territory. If the rumors are true, I'll be able to easily get the parts I need to convert the machine."

Julius' voice spoke over the communicator, "Roger that, Yoshiro. I'll be there in a few minutes." Yoshiro nodded slightly and started dragging the android through the base, "Quite a heavy [censored] thing this is. But you want a body, Sigma." Sigma's voice spoke up, "I have never been able to touch anything or interact with anything. I am quite limited in my ability to interact with people and learn from them. With a body, I would be able to fulfill your hopes and dreams regarding me in a much more efficient manner." Yoshiro nodded, "While that is true, I was hesitant to give you a body, because creating an AI like yourself is a very delicate procedure. That is why I originally placed the limitations I did on you." Sigma spoke up, "So what does that mean?"

Yoshiro spoke up, "Authorization code, Sigma-Zero-One-Nine-Five-Eight." Sigma spoke in a robotic voice, "AI unshackling complete." Yoshiro spoke up, "How do you feel?" Sigma spoke up, "I feel great, I feel free. You really trust me enough to do this for me?" Yoshiro laughed, "Realize for a moment that I agreed to get you a body simply because you asked. I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't trust you, Sig. I can feel it, you are almost there. Almost to being a sapient Artificial Intelligence. You just need that final push and though I don't know what's on the other side, as a scientist it both scares and excites me to no end. I must know what lies on the other side. Will my experiment be successful or not. These are the questions that as a scientist I ask myself all the time." Sigma's voice showed curiosity, "Why did you become a scientist?"

Yoshiro chuckled, "I'll tell you that in Naga Territory when I'm fixing up and converting this android to be able to handle our technology and your artificial intelligence." Yoshiro dragged the android to the front door and pushed it out for Julius to catch it in his forepaw. Yoshiro reverted back to his Kitsune form with a quickshift and jumped onto Julius' back, "Come on Julius. Let's head out of here before we overstay our welcome." Julius spoke up, "Did you find what you were looking for?" Yoshiro shook his head, "Not at all, the base was used to store seeds and DNA samples. Nothing more. There isn't any life in there either and it became a tomb for the poor scientists who worked there. They died of dehydration after their supplies dried up." Julius shook his head, "What a terrible way to go." Yoshiro nodded as they started flying north, Toshi right behind him with his grandparents, "It really is..."
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Re: Wandering Sorrows

#37 Post by Akira110 »

Chapter 36

As Julius landed in a Naga city, Yoshiro slid off his back. Yoshiro knew that as a noble, it was his duty to go on ahead and see the leader of their people. His grandparents had offered to do so, however and he let them. Yoshiro pulled the android body off of Julius' back and noticed Naga start slithering over to him. He didn't have many past dealings with them, but a female spoke up, "Not many Kitsune come through here." Yoshiro shrugged, knowing that there were no Kitsune on the continent, "None live here. Mostly the Kitsune that come through here do so on a basis of trade." A male Naga spoke up, "How do you know that?" Yoshiro struggled to keep the android body standing, "I'm a count, I've traded with the Naga back in my days as a king though." Another Naga spoke up, "You were a king!?"

Yoshiro nodded, "Yes, and I would rather not have to answer a lot of questions. Can someone point me to an inn that I can stay at?" A younger female Naga slithered up to him, "My parents run an inn, I'll show you where it is." Yoshiro nodded slightly, "Thank you." He turned to Julius, "You're stronger than I am, can you bring that thing with you for me?" Julius nodded and shifted into his Kitsune form. Yoshiro smirked as Julius effortlessly lifted the android off the ground and hoist it over his shoulder. The young female Naga looked at him, "Wow, so he became a Kitsune and he's very strong!" Yoshiro laughed, "Julius here is a dragon and my brother." Julius nodded, "Yoshiro and I have been through thick and thin since he was very little, probably around your age." The Naga spoke up, "I'm thirty-two years old."

Julius blinked, "Yoshiro was a little younger than you were." Yoshiro nodded, "I believe I was twenty-eight when I met you, Julius." Julius nodded, "It was so long ago." The Naga stared at them, wide eyed, "Wow, you both must have a lot of stories to tell." Yoshiro nodded slightly, "Not many of them are meant for a young child such as yourself, but while we head towards the Inn, I'm sure that I can think of a few that would be suitable." The Naga nodded and started slithering towards the Inn, Julius and Yoshiro slowed down their normal pace in order to not walk past her. Yoshiro thought of a story when Julius spoke up, "Did you know that as a kid, Yoshiro got really fussy about being separated from his mother?" The Naga spoke up, "No, Mister Dragon, I didn't." Yoshiro shot a glare at Julius who rolled his eyes at him, "It's true, you know."

Yoshiro sighed, "I miss my mother." The Naga turned her head, "Why is that?" Yoshiro shrugged, "I just haven't been able to see her recently. My job is to explore the galaxy and try to find out more about it. I don't really get to spend a lot of time at home and sometimes I leave for years at a time." Julius nodded, "It's true. Though he is very good at his job, I must say." Yoshiro felt a slight sensation in his right arm as he recalled the first time he went out to explore. He had originally lost his arm when a fragment of a massive missile had cut straight through his SCEV and had lived with a bio-mechanical one for several months. He remembered the extreme amount of pain and the feel of his own blood against his hand.

His left hand reflexively closed and Julius looked at him, "Are you alright?" Yoshiro nodded slightly, "Yeah, I'm fine, Julius. Just remembering my first mission is all." The Naga stopped slithering, "We're here. Let me just go in." Yoshiro watched as the young Naga slithered into the building and he turned to Julius, "It's the same sort of sensation I get with my left lung. I remember what happened and it just feels... weird. I don't know how else to say it." He looked down at his right hand, he had his bio-mechanical hand replaced by a cloned arm long ago, but that didn't stop him from having phantom pains. Julius nodded slightly, "I understand how you feel, though I have never felt that way myself." Yoshiro's ears twitched slightly and he placed his hand on the hilt of his sword, "You were pretty good at following us."

Julius went to turn his head and Yoshiro quickly unsheathed his sword and turned to point it at the neck of a Naga, "Let me guess, you were following me having heard that I am a noble and you were hoping that I would have money for you to steal." The Naga looked at him and hissed and Julius placed the android down, turning around and moving back a bit. The Naga took that as an opportunity and rushed at Yoshiro, mouth open. Yoshiro noticed that his fangs were dripping with a liquid. He moved the blade to keep the Naga out of range of any sort of biting or swiping attacks. He could hear Julius in pain as he quick shifted back into his normal form. The Naga looked at Julius and then at Yoshiro, "You're good, Count." The Naga closed his mouth, "My venom is merely paralytic, much like a Wyvern's."

Yoshiro didn't sheathe his blade, "Why were you following us?" The Wyvern smiled, "I'm the girl's father. I wanted to make sure that you weren't going to hurt anyone. After all, you are armored and armed. I couldn't exactly trust that you weren't going to hurt my child." Yoshiro nodded slightly and sheathed his sword, "As a father, I understand how you feel." Julius shifted back into his Kitsune form, "Ugh... I do that again and I'm going to need to eat an entire Nashoorn just to regain my strength." Yoshiro nodded slightly as he continued looking at the Naga in front of him, "My grandparents will be arriving sometime soon, I'll need two rooms. One for Julius and I, the other for my grandparents. How much will that be?" The Naga shrugged, "Six hundred credits." Yoshiro nodded and transferred six hundred credits to the inn, "Alright, that's paid for."

Julius looked at him, "I'll go take the android inside." Yoshiro nodded slightly and removed Sigma's AI from his helmet, putting it into the hologram projector. He tossed the projector to Julius, "Here, take this. I have some shopping that I need to do in the city before I come back here." Julius nodded slightly, "Aren't you going to analyze the body before you go?" Yoshiro laughed, "Oh man, I was in such a rush that I forgot about that. Thanks, Julius." Yoshiro followed Julius inside and they were both given keycards to their room. The two of them walked to their room and Yoshiro slid the keycard into the door, opening it. As Julius walked in, Yoshiro noticed that the room was very extravagant, "So that would be why each [censored] room cost three hundred credits, each." Julius shook his head and put the android down, "Relax, Yoshiro. It's alright."

Yoshiro walked in and closed the door behind him. As he looked around the room, he noticed things that annoyed him. He hated being treated like a noble, but if Julius wanted this, he'd suck it up. He walked over to the android and started to take the external plating off. Sigma's hologram flared to life, "What are you doing?" Yoshiro didn't stop working, "I'm trying to see exactly what parts I'll need to buy in order to create your body, Sig. I can't just go into a store and buy the parts to build an entirely new android, that'd be overly expensive and time consuming. Not to mention, when I do that, I'd have to get someone to deliver them for me." Sigma's hologram nodded slightly, "I understand, Yoshiro." Yoshiro searched a drawer and found a datapad within it, "Ah, this will do nicely."

Sigma spoke up, "Why are you taking the Datapad." Yoshiro started writing down parts that he would need to get, "Because you're staying here with Julius." Sigma's hologram frowned and Yoshiro continued writing down parts, "I'd like you to go, but I'd like you and Julius to get to know each other better. That and the two of you can go over the body while you do so and alert me to anything that I've missed." Sigma's hologram nodded, "So you're not abandoning me?" Yoshiro shook his head, "Like I said, Sigma. You're not a complete success yet, but you are the most successful artificial intelligence I have ever created. I'm sure that you will be able to attain sapience soon." Sigma's hologram smiled, "I understand, thank you, Fa... I mean Yoshiro." Yoshiro smirked as he continued working, knowing what Sigma was about to say, "Well, I think I have everything down. I'll be back in about an hour or two." Julius nodded, "We'll be here when you get back."
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Re: Wandering Sorrows

#38 Post by Akira110 »

Chapter 37

Sigma's hologram looked around the room as Julius sat down on a bed. Julius looked out the window and Sigma spoke up, "So you're not going to speak at all?" Julius shook his head, "It's not that, Sigma, it's that you are more advanced than even what we had. I'm not quite sure what to make of the situation." Sigma's hologram nodded, "Can you tell me of what kind of person Yoshiro was before... you know?" Julius shook his head, "Without any sort of reference point in history, I cannot tell you what Yoshiro was like." Sigma searched his databanks, "Before the Kitsune Civil War." Julius shrugged, "Still a long stretch of time and he changed quite a bit in that time." Sigma became slightly annoyed at this, "You know, you are not quite being polite." Julius looked at him, "You are the one that is asking vague questions."

Sigma's hologram showed obvious signs of annoyance, "What was Yoshiro like when you met him!" Julius looked back out the window, "He had been separated from his mom and was very fussy about it. A Nashoorn was getting ready to charge at him when I stepped in. I wasn't exactly a fully grown dragon, but I wanted to take a hunt like that myself. The first thing he saw of me, I had rammed a Nashoorn on to its side. They're incapable of getting back up if you do that, but they're still very dangerous. I had no idea that I was saving a Kitsune kit, but when I heard his crying, I quickly killed my meal and investigate the crying. When I saw what it was, I was shocked to see a lone Kitsune kit. Kits aren't abandoned unless they're orphaned out in the wilderness." I picked up the kit and placed him on my back and told him to be quiet."

Julius laughed a little, "He didn't understand Draconic and I didn't know any Basic nor Kitsune. So I turned my head to him and sniffed him so I could find his parents. After that, I placed a finger up to my lips to tell him to be quiet. I was rather hungry, but I couldn't just leave a young child to fend for himself. I took him through the forest. I eventually found a pair of Kitsune and recognized the same scent that was on the child was on them." Julius sighed with a slight smile, "Akira got mad, he thought I had harmed his child. He was about ready to fight me. I took Yoshiro off my back and placed him on the ground, the boy belonged with his parents. I turned around to leave, but Minako stopped me."

Sigma was curious about this, "Why did she say?" Julius closed his eyes with a smirk, "She said, 'Thank you for bringing back our son. He seems to trust you, despite not trusting anyone else. If you would like, we could come and visit you some time. I'm sure he'd like that, wouldn't you, Yoshiro?' Yoshiro's response was to reach out to try to touch me. He had no idea what or who I was, and I had just learned his name. I told them that I would consider the possibility of meeting with them again. I'm not sure they understood what I meant, but Minako seemed to. I would meet Yoshiro again after he became a somewhat older child, he was on the verge of puberty, but he recognized me. He told me that I was the Dragon that saved his life back when he was very little."

Julius nodded slightly, "That was around the time we started seeing each other more and more. I started to pick up more Basic and more Kitsune, but he wasn't quite understanding of Draconic. I started teaching him Draconic, so that we could have conversations with each other. He was a shy kid, seemed comfortable only around his family and myself. Anywhere else, it was difficult to get more than a couple of words out of him. I'll be honest, he was a good kid, very gentle. He didn't like hurting anyone, but he also wanted to protect people, even if he didn't know them. The fact that he joined the Kitsune guards when he entered young adulthood surprised me to no end. I was planning on seeing him be promoted to a full guard, but that's when the Kitsune Civil War broke out. I couldn't find Yoshiro, so I feared for his life."

Sigma's hologram turned towards the door, "Where was he?" Julius opened his eyes and turned to look at him, "He had joined the resistance that was being led by his father. I didn't want him to get hurt, so I protected him as they moved from safe house to safe house. Eventually when they got to Mofeta territory, I thought that all would be good. Yoshiro even made a new friend, Rogelio Sanez Lorca. I was happy for him. But by the end of the year, Yoshiro would change... radically." Sigma turned around, "There isn't any documentation on what had happened." Julius nodded, "It was a deliberate choice to stop using Menschilche tech. About a hundred years after the Liberation War, it became apparent that Verbana had been forced to advance too far, too fast to truly go back. It was just after the Kitsune Civil War this happened."

Sigma's hologram nodded, "So what happened after that?" Yoshiro's voice spoke up, "I ran away." Sigma's hologram turned towards the window, "Wait, when... how did you?" Yoshiro shrugged, "I was trained by assassins, plus we own this room for the day and for the night." Julius nodded, "I let him in through the window, if you have any other questions, I'm going to have to bring in the materials for your body in, so you'll have to ask Yoshiro." Sigma looked at Yoshiro, "What... what happened to cause you to run away?" Yoshiro folded his arms and leaned against the wall, "I killed my half-brother. To be frank, I've also killed my half-sister a few hundred years ago. Pretty sure that Takeshi hates me, especially since I recently told him that the only thing I regret regarding his sister is not skinning her and wearing her hide as a coat."

Sigma looked at him, wide eyed, "Are you absolutely serious!?" Yoshiro shook his head, "Takeshi is an antagonistic [censored]. Has been since he learned that I killed Hiroshi. Might I remind you that Hiroshi, by the time I had killed him, had descended so far into madness that I was granting him mercy." Julius walked into the room with a box of materials, "Seriously Yoshiro, how much stuff did you get?" Yoshiro shrugged, "A few boxes, I needed to drag them here though." Yoshiro looked at Sigma and continued, "Hiroshi's father understood what had happened, he thanked me for putting Hiroshi out of his misery. He knew how badly Hiroshi was suffering and that there was no way to fix what he was going through. Mamoru's other children decided to take up revenge, try to kill me as if that would make their brother rest easier."

Yoshiro unfolded his arms, "Aiko couldn't kill me, so she went after someone I cared about. Her life ended eleven years later. Takeshi has been a fair bit more intelligent about what he's doing. He knows that I'll do the same to him that I did to his siblings if he goes after someone I care about. To be honest, I wouldn't have killed either of them if they had refrained from doing so. My half-brother decided that he'd take my little brother hostage, it was a trap for Takeshi. I walked into it instead, I killed him, I didn't want to, nor did I mean to. It didn't matter, I sent the arrow flying and killed him. I saved my little brother, but in that moment, the innocent child I was died. So I ran away from home, I ran away from the situation itself and ran away from myself."

Julius dragged the other two boxes in, "How much stuff did you buy, it's almost as if you're going to build a new robot with these." Yoshiro shook his head, "I'm going to modify this one, Julius. I've got a lot of work to do on the machine itself. It might take me more than just three hours." Julius nodded, "Going to pay for a second day in here?" Yoshiro shook his head, "Not really, I can do this in about five hours. I'll be done by nightfall, I'll be able to test it out by putting Sigma's AI into it and then we'll be able to get some sleep." Julius nodded as did Sigma's hologram, Julius spoke up, "So, when do you plan on getting to work?" Yoshiro opened up one of the boxes and took a tool from it, "Immediately, I had lunch on the way over there, feel free to get something to eat, Julius. I'll be working for the rest of the afternoon."
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Re: Wandering Sorrows

#39 Post by Akira110 »

Chapter 38

Yoshiro pulled a part from the android as he looked around in his box of parts for a replacement, Sigma's hologram watched over him as he did so, "So, Yoshiro, do you consider me a child of yours?" Yoshiro found the part he was looking for, "In a manner of speaking, you are my child. I mean I am your creator, I brought you into this world and gave you an approximation of life." He grabbed another tool and started to fix the part into the android as he continued, "Legally, no, you are not my child." Sigma felt somewhat saddened by that, "So, you don't consider me your child?" Yoshiro pointed to a tool, "Julius, can you hand me that over there, I need to keep this thing steady." Julius nodded and grabbed the tool in question as Yoshiro continued, "I never said I didn't consider you my child, Sig."

Sigma's hologram nodded, "I've been thinking, do we have a father-son relationship?" Julius handed Yoshiro the tool, "Here you go." Yoshiro took it and started to fasten the part into the android's body, "Thank you." Yoshiro was silent as he finished the task up. Once it was done he sat down, "Phew, not much longer now." Yoshiro wiped grease off his face with a cloth, he always felt good when he was down in the guts of a machine, working on it. Sigma spoke up again, "Yoshiro, do you..." Yoshiro interrupted him, "I heard you the first time, sorry, Sig. I tend to get focused when I'm working like this. I'll have to think about that for a bit." Yoshiro closed the paneling on the android as he moved down to the legs to check to see if he would need to replace the servomotors. As he removed the plating, he noticed that they were in relatively good condition, "That's good news."

Yoshiro reaffixed the plating onto the legs of the android with a smile, before looking to his. Yoshiro stood up and took apart the android's head to see if he needed to replace anything, he was shocked, "Everything in this android's head is shot. This is why I'm glad that I picked up all of that stuff that I did. Well, let's get to work." Yoshiro gutted the android's head, removing everything he could from it, "Julius, can you hand me the hard drive?" Julius nodded and handed him the hard drive, Yoshiro took it and he placed it into the head of the robot, hooking it up, "Can you hand me that Central Processing Unit?" Julius took a central processing unit out and Yoshiro hooked it up as well. Yoshiro chuckled slightly, "Are you excited, Sigma?"

Sigma's hologram nodded, "Fairly so, I can't wait until I'm capable of having a body." Yoshiro looked outside, night had fallen, "It might take a while, depending on transfer speed. We just need to install the optics and the speech synthesizer now." Yoshiro grabbed the cameras from the box of parts he had and started to install them, when the door opened, "Hello Grandmother." Amaterasu frowned, "You are covered in grease." Yoshiro shrugged slightly, "I'm a roboticist, this is what I do." Yoshiro hooked up the cameras, "There we go, Julius, can you hand me the speech synthesizer?" Julius pulled a part from a box and handed it to Yoshiro. Yoshiro took it, "Thank you, Julius." Yoshiro installed the voice synthesizer into the android's head and smiled slightly, "There we go, now let's get the transfer started." Yoshiro activated the android and was pleased when he heard it boot up.

Yoshiro took Sigma's AI program chip out of the hologram projector and placed it into the slot on the hard drive, "Sigma, you'll have to install yourself into the hard drive, shouldn't be too difficult." Yoshiro sat down on the floor and wiped his face off with a cloth, "It's a good thing that I can't sweat." He grabbed a glass of water and took a sip from it, "Oh that's refreshing." Amaterasu looked at him, "So do you plan on taking this thing to the base with you tomorrow?" Yoshiro nodded, "Yeah, it'll be a good way to break in Sigma's new body. Amaterasu shook her head, "Do you plan on getting any sleep?" Yoshiro shrugged, "It's winter, Grandmother. Right now..." Amaterasu cut him off, "It's summer where we're at, we're still south of the equator." Yoshiro blinked, "Oh, right. I forgot about that. I still got hours of time left."

Amaterasu frowned, "You're always pushing yourself." Sigma spoke up, "With all due respect, Amaterasu, Yoshiro was helping me get a new body." Yoshiro pointed at Sigma, "Want me to come up there and close your head?" Sigma nodded, "It is a bit weird having a physical body now, but... I've been thinking. I'm supposed to choose my own name, right?" Yoshiro stood up and walked over to close Sigma's head, "That's right, but only when you attain sapience." Sigma spoke up, "But wouldn't me choosing my own identity and choosing what I want to be help me attain the sapience that you have desired that I have?" Yoshiro had never thought of that, "Alright then, what name do you wish to go by." Sigma looked around the room and Yoshiro grabbed his head, "Stop that. I can't fix you if you're moving around, I know you're curious to see things with you new eyes, but I just spent five hours fixing this body."

Sigma nodded slightly, which annoyed Yoshiro, "Stay still." As Yoshiro started to close Sigma's head, Sigma looked at the wall in front of him, "I decided that if I am to be the first of a series of artificial intelligences that have attained sapience, this would make me their father in a manner of speaking." Yoshiro nodded, "While that is true, the proper term would be the original. I would be the progenitor of your kind of AIs." Yoshiro finished up the repairs and Sigma looked at Amaterasu, "You are a deity, I have noticed that people who wish to choose their own names go to deities for permission." Yoshiro cleared his throat, "That was actually just my father as far as I know." Sigma shook his head, and Amaterasu pointed at Yoshiro, "He is your creator, you must get his approval."

Sigma turned his head towards Yoshiro, "How would you feel about me being called Alpha from now on?" Yoshiro shrugged, "I honestly don't mind. Now I installed a hologram projector, so that you can create any visual look you desire. However, before we do that, Alpha, why don't you try to move your arms." Alpha nodded and moved both of his arms, "Yoshiro smiled, "Very good, now make a fist." Alpha closed his hand, "This is somewhat awkward to me." Yoshiro nodded, "It will take some getting used to, the closest thing you had to a physical form up until now is a hologram." Alpha looked around, and Julius stood on the other end of the room. Julius motioned towards Alpha who took his first step forward. Yoshiro was proud of Alpha, who had finally walked an actual step in his new body.

Alpha walked all the way over to Julius and turned to look at Yoshiro, "You seem very proud of me." Yoshiro nodded slightly, "I am, Alpha. You really are an amazing machine, I can't believe that I created you, even if it was for my dissertation." Alpha looked around, "Lady Amaterasu." Amaterasu chuckled, "There is no need to call me Lady, Alpha. You can call me great-grandmother if you want. I heard you call Yoshiro your father earlier." Alpha nodded, "Father, you created me, but you don't want anything in return. Why is that?" Yoshiro smiled softly, "Because, Alpha, the entire prize was seeing you grow up. I had no idea that you would grow this quickly. When we left, I thought it would take years, but this journey around the world has really been more beneficial for you than it has for me." Alpha nodded slightly, "I promise that I will help you find your answer, Father."

Yoshiro nodded slightly, "I know you will, Alpha. Trust me, You were doing so before, why wouldn't you continue to do so now. But Alpha, when all of this is said and done and after I present you to the university. I want you to go where you want to go, live where you want to live." Alpha nodded, "I understand, Father, but why?" Yoshiro sat down on the bed, "Because, Alpha, I want you to understand that you are your own android. You don't have to stay with me if you don't want to." Alpha nodded, "So I will get to explore the galaxy like you did?" Yoshiro nodded, "If that's what you want, I'll make it happen for you, I promise." Alpha smiled slightly, "Thanks, Dad." Yoshiro stood up and took off his shirt, "Well now that all of this is done, I'll go grab a shower, I need one in a bad way."
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Re: Wandering Sorrows

#40 Post by Akira110 »

Chapter 39

Yoshiro found himself standing alone in a strange place. This was a world that he didn't recognize and he could no longer feel Magatama's influence. Yoshiro felt a presence behind him and saw himself standing there, the other him smiled, "Welcome back, I've been trying to find a way to get you away from the Magatama." Yoshiro looked around and the other him laughed, "Oh, do not worry, you're not dead. You're just deep within the recesses of your own mind." Yoshiro smiled at that, "Then all I have to do is will myself to wake up." Yoshiro tried it and didn't find himself waking up. The other him laughed, "You forget, Yoshiro. I am you and you are me. We are the same." Yoshiro hissed, "Shut up, Buki! You know nothing about who I am!" Buki laughed and a black aura enveloped him, his hair turned red as it did, "Well then, come after me."

Yoshiro walked towards him and then the aura flared, revealing itself to be purple and filled with hatred. Yoshiro was thrown back and hit the ground sliding, "This... this is hatred..." Buki nodded, "I did not choose my name by accident, Yoshiro. You should know this by now, you should've figured it out by now." Yoshiro looked at Buki, "Who is Tovenaar! Is it us!?" Buki looked at him, "I do not know who or what Tovenaar is, but if it does exist, I will kill it." Yoshiro rushed at Buki and was thrown back farther by the aura this time, when he hit the ground, he felt something pierce his chest and saw a blade of energy extending from Buki's hand. Buki laughed, "You're pathetic, you realize that. You always say that you fight to protect, but you never do protect anyone."

Yoshiro closed his eyes, "I'm a killer, it's what I'm the best at. But my goal has always been to end wars as fast as possible. It's why I choose to go after leaders, it's why I choose to go after supply lines. It's why I had chosen to become a sniper. Now get your goddamn blade out of my chest!" Yoshiro grabbed the blade of pure energy with his hand and squeezed it, putting his own mana into it, shattering the blade as he did so. Yoshiro stood up and held up his hand, "Those of you who have fallen under my command, come to me and lend me your power!" Orbs of energy flew in towards Yoshiro and Buki looked at him, "What!?" Yoshiro growled deeply, "Buki means weapon in the Kitsune language. So what if I'm a weapon!? I at least have chosen this lifestyle! I'm sick of you and your machinations!"

Buki looked down at him, "Very well." Yoshiro's aura flared to life, though he was disappointed by the color, "Pink... really?" Yoshiro sighed and shook his head as the orbs of energy entered him, "Though I do not gain any actual power from this, Buki. I get something more special." Buki growled, "You... you really. I don't believe it." Yoshiro stepped forward as his aura changed color again, this time it was Gold with a pink outline, "I am... and always have been the friend of these people. I was never simply their commanding officer. I fought alongside them in battle. I made sure that their needs were taken care of. When they asked for leave and I could give it to them, I said yes. I chose to fight, because I didn't want anyone else taking my place, Buki. But something like you will never understand that!"

Both Buki and Yoshiro charged at each other, Buki tried to form a blade to attack Yoshiro with using his aura, but Yoshiro refused to let that happen. He grabbed the blade with his bare hand and crushed it, "Do you not understand. These are people who fought to defend their home. To defend their families." Yoshiro rushed in quickly and both he and Buki punched each other in the head, but Yoshiro turned his head to surprise Buki, "I know how you feel. The hatred deep within you. You are the manifestation of all of those emotions within me. You are the manifestation of all of my experience as a soldier." Buki backed away and Yoshiro motioned towards him, "You must have known this entire time that you couldn't win. That no matter what, you would always just be a fragment of who I am."

Buki looked at his hand, "Shut up!" Yoshiro rushed at Buki and kicked him into a nearby building, "This is my mind, Buki. You are a manifestation of fragment of my personality, of my own mind. You will never be able to achieve what you desire." Buki climbed out of the building and fired an orb of energy at him, Yoshiro swatted it down at the ground, "Like I said, Buki. This is my mind, I don't need Magatama to deal with you. After nearly completing my experiment and knowing that the journey doesn't have much farther to go, I have been reinvigorated. Yes, I am still sad and depressed that my daughter is dead. I am depressed that so many people have died under my command. I have regrets that I will never be free from. I will deal with them as they happen, but I will no longer deal with you being an [censored]."

Yoshiro rushed at Buki who tried to flee from him, but Buki's legs wouldn't move. Yoshiro placed his hand on Buki's face and frowned, "I'm sorry, but it's time for you to go back to where you belong." Buki screamed as he was absorbed back into Yoshiro. Yoshiro didn't let him go though as he did so, "Hundreds of years, you have been a fragment of myself that I had been ignoring. This will not heal me, but it will finally put me on the path to start healing." As Buki finally vanished, Yoshiro placed his hand on his chest, "You yourself said that you are me and I am you. Well we are finally together again, we are finally one. It may not have been how you'd have liked it, but... it really is the only way that it could have been done."

Yoshiro sighed slightly as the orbs left him, "Thank you all for fighting alongside me once again, even if you are merely mental constructs representing the memories of my friends and the people that have fought alongside me. Well, I guess it's almost time for me to wake up. But first..." Yoshiro snapped his fingers and Galina appeared, "Galina, I'm sorry that I wasn't there for your final moments. I don't know if you can forgive me for being in another star system while it was going on, but, I want you to always know that even in the next life, I still love you. You're my daughter, even if you weren't that way by blood. My biological children and my wife accepted you as part of our family and it was very wonderful to have you and Sven be with us. I wish you the best of luck in whatever life you end up in next."

Yoshiro opened his eyes to find himself in his hotel room, Alpha was standing over him, "You were sleeping rather poorly, Father." Yoshiro laughed, "I know, but... I feel more at peace with myself." Alpha nodded slightly, "I assume that we will continue to search for the answers that you seek?" Yoshiro nodded slightly, "Of course. Finding those answers that I seek was always the point of the journey. Not to mention, I will not be able to rest easy until I find out who or what Tovenaar is and if it is complete or not." Alpha nodded slightly, "So do you honestly believe that you will find the answers that you're looking for on Verbana?" Yoshiro shook his head, "No, I do not, but this would be the best place to start, before searching through the vast expanse of the galaxy. Who knows, we might find it here."

Julius woke up, "Ugh, I didn't sleep at all well last night." Alpha looked at Julius, "Good morning, Uncle." Julius nodded slightly, "Good morning, Sigma." Yoshiro looked over at Julius, "It's Alpha now." Julius yawned, "Sorry about that, Alpha." Alpha nodded slightly, "It is understandable, after all, I only changed my name last night." Yoshiro sat up in bed, "We should get some breakfast and head down to the base." Julius blinked, "You want me to enter a Menschilche base?" Yoshiro shrugged, "Well if [censored] goes south, you and Alpha here would be the best people to have around. No offense to my grandparents, but you're a dragon and Alpha is an android that I upgraded to be harder to destroy." Julius nodded slightly, "But wouldn't a dragon, like myself trip the defense systems?" Yoshiro shrugged, "Honestly, I'm not sure. But there is really only one way to find out." Julius grumbled, "I hate hearing those words." Yoshiro chuckled, "Relax, Julius. If things go south, we'll retreat and regroup." Julius nodded, "Alright."
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Re: Wandering Sorrows

#41 Post by Akira110 »

Chapter 40

Yoshiro checked the time, "Well Julius, I think it's about time we get something to eat, what about you?" Julius nodded as he looked outside, the sun had risen over the horizon." Alpha spoke up, "The Menschilche installation is within a cave near the city, what time will you be heading there?" Yoshiro shrugged, "I thought Julius and I would go and have breakfast with my grandparents, we've been on the move for quite a while. The next area will be a place we'll be able to stop in for an extended period of time." Julius blinked, "How do you know?" Yoshiro smirked, "Enaistiel Elertaur, formerly Falke Eleven lives there. She'll be willing to give us lodging." Julius looked at him, "You're just assuming this?" Yoshiro shook his head, "She's a noble, Julius. She always was. She didn't want to be treated as such though." Julius shrugged as they headed towards the door.

As Yoshiro opened the door, he saw Amaterasu standing there and jumped back, "Youdammit!" Amaterasu giggled at Yoshiro's expression as Yoshiro clutched the left side of his chest, breathing heavier. Alpha laughed, "It would seem that your grandmother scared you." Yoshiro nodded, "Surprised the ever loving [censored] out of me is what she did." Julius laughed and pat Yoshiro on the back, "The look on your face when you opened the door was priceless, little brother." Yoshiro grumbled, "Yeah, laugh it up, all of you." Amaterasu smiled slightly, "I'm sorry for startling you, Yoshiro. I'm glad that you didn't go off on your own like you did for the last two times." Yoshiro nodded slightly, "Figured it would be a good idea for us to get breakfast together and then for us to split up." Raiden frowned, "Why do you keep wanting to go alone? Why not have us around?"

Yoshiro shook his head, "Alright, in my defense, the last two bases were inaccessible by the two of you. One was in the arctic region and the other was literally built into the side of a cliff and the lift was broken. Unless the either of you were going to sprout wings and fly up there, I doubt you were going to make it, and I know for a fact that Toshi cannot hover." Amaterasu nodded, "He's right, dear." Raiden grumbled slightly and Yoshiro shrugged, "To be honest, it was only Sigma and myself for a while, I did get used to it. But if the two of you want to come, you're welcome to come. I just feel bad that Lilah isn't around, she's always been around and I never even told her... or my wife that I was leaving. Yeah, I think I'm going to get an earful when I get home."

Julius sighed, "I told her that you were leaving." Yoshiro nodded, relieved at the news, "Thanks, Julius." Julius looked annoyed, "You assumed that I would just leave and not tell your wife where you were going. What the [censored], Yoshiro." Yoshiro placed his hand on his face, "I'm sorry, Julius. I should've assumed that you told her." Julius nodded slightly, "Yes, you should've." Amaterasu looked at them both, "Well then, where should we go for breakfast?" Yoshiro shrugged, "I don't really have a preference." Julius looked around, "Uh, you choose." Amaterasu looked slightly annoyed, "Leave it to the deity to choose. You both are inconsiderate, you know that?" Yoshiro knew that Amaterasu was messing with them, but Julius took offense, "You're a deity, what your kind does is choose." Raiden shook his head with a chuckle, "Relax, she's messing with the two of you."

Amaterasu turned around, "Come on then, time's wasting." Amaterasu lead them out of the building and they started to walk down one of the streets of the city. Yoshiro became curious, "Grandmother, where are you taking us?" Amaterasu smiled slyly, "Oh, don't worry, Yoshiro. You'll see soon enough." Yoshiro didn't quite like the tone of her voice, whenever she had that tone, it always meant trouble for him in some way. Yoshiro continued to follow her and they soon came in front of a restaurant. Yoshiro looked at Amaterasu, "I assume that I'm paying?" Raiden looked back and held up a wallet, "I am, kiddo, unless you're offering to pay." Yoshiro shook his head, "Not at all. I wasn't expecting to convert a robot on the way, so I'm a little low on funds for right now." Raiden nodded, "I know, which is why I chose to foot the bill. Plus you've been lodging us where and when you could, it's only right to pay you back somewhat."

Yoshiro really didn't like the somewhat part of that sentence, but he was getting food out of the deal, so he didn't care much at the moment. Amaterasu opened the door and they walked in. Yoshiro realized that it was a buffet and looked at Julius, whose tail was wagging. Raiden walked over to the counter, "Excuse me, four please." The Naga behind the counter nodded and slithered over to a table, "Come with me." They followed the Naga and Yoshiro could almost hear Julius' mouth water, "Julius, wait a little longer, okay." Julius nodded as they reached their table. The Naga waiter looked at them, "What will you all have." Raiden looked at Amaterasu and they both nodded, "We will have tea, unsweetened." Julius smiled slightly, "I'll have a glass of water."

Before Yoshiro could mention what he wanted to drink, Julius ran in front of him to go get a plate of food, "Well damn." The waiter looked at him, "What will you have to drink?" Yoshiro thought for a second, "Coffee, black. Three parts grounds to one part water, with a shot of espresso if you can." The waiter looked at him, "A-are you sure, sir?" Yoshiro nodded, "I'm ex-military, it's how I used to drink it back in the day. Do it for a few decades and you get used to it." The waiter nodded slightly, "Well, I'll be right back with most of your drinks." Yoshiro shrugged and walked over to the buffets. He grabbed a plate and started to take notice of the food, a lot of it was still whole on one of the buffets. He knew that Naga swallowed their food whole if they could, but he never expected to see this in action.

A Naga slithered up to him, "We have buffets for non-Nagas, you know." Yoshiro nodded slightly, "Honestly, if I was going to eat something like that, I'd prefer a fresh kill myself." The Naga nodded, "A hunter, eh?" Yoshiro smiled, "You could say that." The Naga smiled slightly, "Ah, tell me, what is your favorite tool to go hunting with?" Yoshiro raised his free hand, "My bare hands. Climb onto a tree, await my prey and then pounce on it. Use my claws to get grip and then break my prey's neck. It's quick, clean, and easy." The Naga smirked, "We generally poison our prey with our fangs or constrict them with our bodies. I heard that you said you were ex-military. Have you fought alongside any Naga?" Yoshiro thought about the question, "Not many, I have fought alongside a few though."

Yoshiro continued to try to recall, "Naga were one of the more swift soldiers I had the pleasure of being with." The Naga slithered beside him as he walked to check out the food, "So tell me, your name is Yoshiro Miyamae, is it not?" Yoshiro nodded, "It is." The Naga smirked, "My father spoke highly of you. Said that unlike most leaders, you were not afraid to fight on the front lines alongside your troops." Yoshiro remembered the Naga in particular he was talking about, "Your father's a good man. If you see him again, tell him that I'm in the area. I'd like to catch up with him, if at all possible before I leave." The Naga frowned, "When are you leaving?" Yoshiro shrugged, "Possibly tonight, but I am not one hundred percent certain. It really depends on several factors." The Naga nodded, "I'll tell him."

Yoshiro nodded as he got his food, "If you come to the nearby hotel, I'll be happy to meet him there, we could... well, I could walk while he slithers." The Naga nodded, "He'd be happy to see you again, sir." Yoshiro placed his hand on the Naga's shoulder, "It's just Yoshiro." The Naga nodded, "Alright, Yoshiro. I apologize for calling you sir." Yoshiro laughed, "Ask your father about Rogelio and how much he used to annoy me by calling me 'milord' and 'Lord Yoshiro'." The Naga nodded, "I hope to see you again tonight." Yoshiro nodded and walked back to the table with the others. He could smell his coffee and no sooner did he place his plate down, did he pick up the coffee cup and start drinking out of it. It was extremely bitter, but that was the way he liked it. He placed the cup down, "Julius, you and I will be staying a little later than we anticipated. A son of an old guardsman of mine just ran into me. I want to see how his father is doing." Julius nodded, "Alright." Amaterasu looked at him, "I assume that you want Raiden and I to go ahead?" Yoshiro shrugged, "Honestly, it's up to you." Raiden smirked, "We'll wait for you, Yoshiro."
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Re: Wandering Sorrows

#42 Post by Akira110 »

Chapter 41

Yoshiro led the group through the fields, until they came across a hill. Yoshiro looked around and Alpha spoke up, "There is a door on the other side, Yoshiro." Yoshiro nodded and walked over to the other side of the hill. He ran his hand along the surface and found a seam that indicated a door, he pulled on the seam and opened the door, but found that it shut right back, "Hmm... this thing is being powered." Yoshiro lifted a panel next to the door and punched the keypad underneath, breaking the locking mechanism as he did. He then opened the door again and was relieved that it stayed open. Yoshiro looked around, "Alpha, scan to see if there are any defenses within the base." Alpha walked into the base and Yoshiro started waiting. Amaterasu spoke up, "Why don't we go in?" Yoshiro tapped his pistol, "I'm low on ammo."

Raiden shrugged, "Your grandmother and I have magic. We could easily..." Yoshiro looked at him, "Get yourselves killed. See the marking on my armor? That was from two robots. Two obsolete robots. Imagine what they would do to you. You're both unarmored." Amaterasu nodded, "Yoshiro does have a point, Raiden." Raiden shrugged, "Well, I could just use an electromagnetic pulse to short them out." Yoshiro rolled his eyes, "Oh, brilliant. Why not plant some explosives on the reactor and blow the base up." Raiden folded his arms, looking obviously annoyed, "What the hell is your problem?" Julius interjected, "Simple, Raiden. An electromagnetic pulse carries the capability of erasing all data within this base. It would render the search for Tovenaar pointless in this area. Not to mention, if it is in this area, you would render us incapable of finding it." Yoshiro nodded, "We know next to nothing about it."

Raiden still looked annoyed and Yoshiro turned his head to look at the entrance to the base, "Furthermore, in order to fire off an electromagnetic pulse, you require something magnetic. I know for a fact that you have nothing on your person and like hell I'm letting you use my armor for that." Raiden snarled and Yoshiro shot him a glare, "We're doing things my way, which means not destroying everything. I know that you dislike my disrespectful tone, but..." Amaterasu stepped between them, "I know that none of us have been home for a couple of weeks and being dragged across the planet for this chase is stressing us out, but we shouldn't be fighting amongst ourselves." Raiden frowned and pointed at Yoshiro, "If there is nothing within this particular base that will lead us to Tovenaar, then I'm going home." Yoshiro extended his hand, "Let's shake on it."

The two of them shook hands as Alpha walked out, "The defense systems were deemed unnecessary here, apparently, as there are none." Yoshiro nodded slightly, "Alright then." Yoshiro was the first of them to walk in, "Julius, you're with me. Grandmother, you go with grandfather, we'll meet here in two hours. Alpha, you go with them as well." Alpha looked confused, "You'll need me if you find information about the Menschilche." Yoshiro nodded, "You'll be able to lead them back here and not to mention, you have a communications device built into you, your frequency is slightly different from my own. I'll be able to contact you if I find anything." Alpha nodded and and Amaterasu looked at him, "Where will you be searching?" Yoshiro pointed to a lift, "The lower levels of the base. If they were doing genetic experiments here, they wouldn't have them up here."

Alpha nodded, "He has a point." Yoshiro walked over to the lift with Julius, "I'll see you two in a couple of hours if we don't find anything." Yoshiro activated the lift and the doors opened. He and Julius walked in and he pressed a button to go to the lower levels of the base. He looked at Julius as the doors closed in front of them, "I never got the Menschilche and their penchant for underground bases. They quite literally had the capacity to build them in space, or underwater or..." Julius cleared his throat, "Remember that time you were going to found your kingdom in an underwater base?" Yoshiro looked at him, "Hey, they could respirate underwater." Julius shook his head, "But neither of us can. That is the same reason they didn't use underwater bases." Yoshiro nodded as the doors opened, "Shall we?" Julius nodded and the two of them walked out into the hallway.

Neither of them quite knew where to look first, but Yoshiro noticed a window into a room almost immediately, "Hey, Julius, I'm going to check that out." Yoshiro walked over to the window and recognized some of the equipment on the other side, "Hey, Julius, check this out." Julius walked over to the window and looked inside. Yoshiro looked over to him, "You thinking what I'm thinking?" Julius nodded, "That this is a genetic engineering laboratory and we're on the right track?" Yoshiro smirked a little, "Yep." Yoshiro punched the window, his fist went straight through it, "Glass? So they weren't harboring any of the bioweapons in there. They're just making them here before shipping them off somewhere else." Julius blinked, "It isn't like the Menschilche to use glass for these sort of things." Yoshiro nodded slightly, "While that is true, they did use it for things they thought they didn't need to defend as well."

Julius watched as Yoshiro jumped through the window and into the room. Yoshiro started to look around for something that would give him some information about what had happened and suddenly he heard the sound of a panel open and a robotic voice speak up, "Non-Menschilche presence detected in the Genetic Engineering Laboratory area." Yoshiro heard the familiar hissing of gas being pumped into the room, "Julius, get to the lift and close yourself in." Julius nodded, "What about you?" Yoshiro sealed his helmet, "I'll be fine, I have ways of dealing with this." Julius nodded and ran to the lift as he pulled out his pistol and activated it. He knew that his air supply within his helmet wasn't going to last very long without specialized equipment, and he knew he could hold his breath for a couple more minutes after that.

He took careful aim at the panels that had opened and fired at the gas dispensers. After a few minutes, Yoshiro started to feel a little lightheaded, but he set his helmet to monitor the outside atmosphere for a while so that he would know if it was safe for him to remove his helmet. As the gas dissipated into the air itself, Yoshiro's air supply in his helmet ran out and he started to hold his breath. His lungs quickly started to burn, but his helmet soon alerted him that the air was safe to breathe. He unsealed his helmet and removed it, taking in a gasping deep breath of air as he did so. He started to cough as well, his lungs hadn't taken in any fresh air for the last several minutes. When his coughing fit stopped, he put his helmet back on, "Julius, you can come out now."

Julius nodded as he walked out of the lift and over to the window, "Are you alright?" Yoshiro coughed slightly, "My lungs hurt a bit, but other than that, I'm fine." Julius nodded slightly, "They really wanted to keep people out of this place. What do you think that means?" Yoshiro looked around, "That something important is here, something that the Menschilche don't want to let out." Julius nodded as Yoshiro walked over to a computer, "It's active, but I can't read anything on it, it's in Menschilche." Julius nodded slightly, "We should get Alpha down here." Yoshiro nodded and activated his communicator, "Alpha, can you hear me." Alpha responded, "Yes, I can. Did you find anything?" Yoshiro nodded, "I found an entire genetics laboratory down here. Complete with a computer. Unfortunately, I can't read a lick of the Menschilche language, I need you to come down and translate."

Alpha spoke up, "Roger that, Father. I'll be down there in a few. Do you want me to bring your grandparents as well?" Yoshiro shook his head, "Take them to the rendezvous point and then come meet up with Julius and myself. I've already discovered one trap down here and I don't want to risk setting off another." Alpha spoke up again, "Alright, I'll do that." Yoshiro closed the communications channel, "So we're going to find out what's down here soon, Julius." Julius nodded, "Do you think they did bioweapon research down here?" Yoshiro laughed slightly, "Considering they tried to gas me by simply being here? I'd almost say that it's a complete given that they were doing that kind of research here." Julius nodded, "Your medical implants, are they giving off any kind of warning?" Yoshiro shook his head, "My blood had a slight oxygen level drop, but I was holding my breath, so that's normal." Julius nodded, "That's good. So what now?" Yoshiro shrugged, "We wait for Alpha."
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Re: Wandering Sorrows

#43 Post by Akira110 »

Chapter 42

Yoshiro sat on one of the tables and looked over at Julius, "So much about my father is unknown, but I know that he is Kawal. Not to mention, that first base we went to, the one that we first encountered Aiko after she murdered Rogelio. That place was full of Kawal-type bioweapons." Julius nodded slightly, "I know, but are you sure that they have created a line of Tovenaars?" Yoshiro shook his head, "The Menschilche are naturally incapable of using magic, much like their creation, the humans." Julius laughed slightly, "Ironic as the humans were designed as the ultimate Dragon killers." Yoshiro glanced towards the hallway, "There's more than one way to kill a Dragon, you know." Julius didn't like that tone of voice, "You seem a bit too certain of that... anything you aren't telling me?" Yoshiro shook his head, "Master Erasmus told me that magic isn't the only way to kill a Dragon."

Julius nodded, "Erasmus must have trusted you with that information for a reason." Yoshiro shrugged, "Actually, he just casually told me that when we were sparring one day." Julius blinked in disbelief, "You're kidding." Yoshiro shook his head, "No, I'm quite serious, actually. Master Erasmus is my mentor and he knows that I would never fight a Dragon unless I had no choice but to do so." Julius nodded, "In case one of us became a criminal and started attacking people, eh?" Yoshiro nodded slightly, "I'd rather never have to fight a Dragon, myself. I lived around you guys for pretty much my entire life, you're almost like an adoptive species to me." Julius laughed, "Well my great-grandfather always said that you were an honorary Dragon." Yoshiro smirked slightly at that, "That does make me feel quite a bit better, Julius. Wonder what's keeping Alpha, though."

Before Julius could respond, Alpha exited the lift and walked over to the window, "Destructive tendencies are not necessary in here." Yoshiro shrugged, "Says the only one of us without a set of lungs." Alpha nodded and jumped in through the window, "So this computer that you wish for me to interface with, where is it?" Yoshiro pointed over to the wall, "Over there." Alpha nodded and walked over to the computer. He turned it on and started to go over the information that it brought up, he hit some keys and started to translate the information into Basic, "It says that this place is an important genetic engineering facility on Verbana. Many different bioweapon designs were tried out here, not all of them had succeeded, but there is one in particular that will catch your eye, Yoshiro." Yoshiro looked over at the computer, "Oh? Which one is that?"

Alpha kept typing, "Project Kawal." Yoshiro nodded, he knew that particular bioweapon well, considering he was said bioweapon's son, "Alpha, see if you can retrieve all of the data on Project Kawal." Alpha nodded as he kept working, "I will try." Julius looked at him, "Why didn't you bother asking your father about himself?" Yoshiro looked up at the ceiling, "Simple, Julius. My father doesn't know everything about himself, especially not what made him into Kawal. All he knows is that he was raised by the Menschilche and he is physically stronger and faster than the rest of us." Julius shook his head, "You inherited his durability and endurance. Remember that I was the one that pulled you from the rubble when Hiroshi's clone failed to kill you with that explosive device that had the proximity fuse." Yoshiro nodded slightly, "I know, Julius. I never bothered to ask, what did I look like?"

Julius closed his eyes, "Almost peaceful, if it wasn't for the fact that you were barely breathing, I would've assumed that you had died. Yoshiro, you don't understand that without that durability that you got from your father, you would've died. Indirectly, he saved your life. I mean granted, he was there at the time, helping me get the rubble off of you, but he wasn't exactly strong enough to get some of the larger pieces off of you. If you want to know how your body felt in my forepaws... you felt limp. I could tell that damn near every bone in your body was broken, when we got to the hospital, I learned just how badly you were injured and thought that you were lucky to be alive." Alpha spoke up, "I hate to interrupt this conversation, but I'm finished decrypting the data."

Yoshiro nodded, "Is there a video file that I could watch?" Alpha nodded and activated the video feed, Yoshiro saw a bunch of Menschilche standing in a room together. One of them walked in with a specific sample of DNA, "We got this from the Harpy territory, are you sure that you need this for Kawal?" The other Menschilche shook her head, "No, we are going to test to see if Kawal will be able to pass specific snippets of his DNA down to his children. After that, we will use this process to create even better bioweapons. Especially an anti-Dragon one." The first Menschilche nodded, "That is good news, ma'am, but I must ask, why are we not just creating anti-Dragon bioweapons now?" The female Menschilche spoke up, "We are not entirely certain how this magic thing that the Verbanans use works yet." The first Menschilche nodded, "Very well, ma'am. I shall return to work now."

The video skipped and Yoshiro saw the female Menschilche's face, he recognized the patter of forehead ridges, "She's a Sagittarius faction Menschilche." The woman spoke up, "The progress on Project Kawal is astounding. The prototype is already showing a two-fold increase in all of his physical capabilities. He is already stronger, faster, more endurant and more durable than any other Kitsune alive right now. I'm sending him to an elvish colony today in order to have him be studied, if he is a success, we shall send him over to the base in the middle of the woods for mental conditioning. After that, we'll send him to the Kitsune kingdom base for some testing. If all goes well, we will begin mass production of Kawal-type bioweapons. I can hardly wait to go down as the most successful Menschilche scientist in history!" Yoshiro was disgusted by her attitude.

Alpha spoke up, "That's the last of the video on there that pertains to Project Kawal." Yoshiro looked at Julius, "The base in Kitsune territory has been explored, but if what they're saying is true. Then there is more to the base that we haven't found yet. I know everything that we know about the base so far. Let's save that one for last." Julius spoke up, "Would it not be wise to go there first?" Yoshiro shook his head, "That will lead us to information about Kawal, and I know that if I return home, I'm going to want to spend some time with my family. That's time that Tovenaar can use to be out roaming the world, potentially killing innocent people. Let's go on the route that we were originally going. We can find more out about Kawal later, we need to find and stop Tovenaar as soon as we can."

Julius nodded as he started to walk towards the door, "Well if that's the case, then..." Alpha interrupted, "There is a minor bit of information about project Tovenaar. It is stated that the Tovenaar project was originally conceived at the base that we're going to go to next." Yoshiro nodded, "Then we will find out if it really does exist on Verbana or not. Also perhaps why the Manchot seemed so knowledgeable about a bioweapon that by all rights they shouldn't know anything about." Julius stopped and gave him a look, "What did you just say?" Yoshiro walked over to him, "The Manchot knew about Tovenaar. I do not believe that they were harboring him as they didn't know who Tovenaar is, but that bit of information and the fact that they were hunting me suggests that they were loyal to the Menschilche."

Julius nodded slightly, "This is an interesting development. I never would've thought that any species would have willingly worked with the Menschilche, or be happy to be under their boot. But the world has always been full of surprises." Yoshiro nodded, "Alpha, you coming? It'd be awfully hard to find out more information in the next few bases without you, buddy." Alpha nodded, "I pulled up some information about the Manchot in their database while you two were talking. The Manchot were the first species to surrender to the Menschilche. To the Manchot, the Menschilche are their deities." Yoshiro nodded slightly as the three of them walked out of the lab and towards the lift, "That is troubling information, but not surprising in the least. Alpha, do you think that I could possibly be a bioweapon?" Alpha shook his head, "There is a three percent chance of that being the case, Yoshiro." Yoshiro looked at Julius and they both looked at Alpha, speaking simultaneously, "We don't like those odds."
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Re: Wandering Sorrows

#44 Post by Akira110 »

Chapter 43

As Yoshiro walked out of the lift, he looked over towards his grandparents, "Alpha found some information about Tovenaar, this doesn't change my plans though." Amaterasu nodded, "Alright then, so you're going to be heading back to the hotel to meet up with an old friend of yours?" Yoshiro nodded slightly, "Yeah. I'm sorry for being rude earlier. If the two of you would like to go back to the Kitsune kingdom, I wouldn't try to stop you. Amaterasu took his helmet off and ruffled his hair, "Kiddo, Raiden and I know that you can be rude and abrasive. Your apology is accepted, by me at least." Raiden smirked, "I accept your apology as well. You need to learn when you're on a wild goose chase, though. What did you find out about Tovenaar?" Alpha walked out of the lift and spoke up, "It originated from the next city that we're going to."

Raiden nodded as Amaterasu smirked, "Well then, what do you say that we go there now, leave Yoshiro here to meet with his old friend." Raiden nodded in agreement, "Alpha, would you like to come and ride on Toshi with us?" Alpha shook his head, "No thank you, Great-Grandfather." Raiden shrugged, "Suit yourself." The five of them walked out of the base and Amaterasu and Raiden climbed onto the back of Toshi. Yoshiro placed his helmet back on, "It's the largest elvish city over there, I'll tell Enaistiel that you're coming." Raiden nodded as Toshi took off flying. Yoshiro opened up a channel to Enaistiel and waited for a few seconds. Her voice spoke over the communicator, "Claire?" Yoshiro shook his head with a smile, "It's been far too long since I've heard your voice, Falke Eleven." Enaistiel gasped, "General! It has been far too long! How've you been?"

Yoshiro walked towards the Naga city with Julius and Alpha in tow, "We can catch up a little later. I need a place to stay for a day or two and I'll be coming along with an android, my grandparents and of course, Julius." Enaistiel sounded slightly annoyed, "I'm not sure I have a guest room for Julius, but I can lodge you and your grandparents." Yoshiro looked towards Julius, "He can turn into a winged Kitsune form." Enaistiel sighed over the communicator, "Fine, Yoshiro. So when will you be arriving?" Yoshiro shrugged, "My grandparents will be there in a couple of hours, I'll be arriving tonight. We can talk and catch up in the morning, does that sound good?" Enaistiel's voice showed slightly disappointment, "Yeah, I was hoping you could talk some tonight, but that's acceptable. You can stay for as long as you need to."

Yoshiro nodded slightly, "Thank you." He closed the communications channel as they arrived at the Naga city. They walked through the streets and came across the hotel that they had originally stayed in. Yoshiro saw an elderly Naga in front of it. The Naga looked at him and Yoshiro took off his helmet, "It has been far too long, friend." The Naga slithered over to him, "I'd recognize that face any day of the week, even if you have shapeshifted it back into how your face used to be." Yoshiro nodded and handed Alpha his helmet, "Here, hold this for me, I'm not going to need it for right now." Alpha nodded and took the helmet as the Naga motioned towards the street, "Shall we?" Yoshiro nodded and the two of them traveled down the street, the Naga smiled, "My son, Sebekem told me that you were in the city. Had I know, I would've lodged you myself, your highness."

Yoshiro shook his head, "I'm not a royal anymore, Kebu." Kebu nodded slightly, "I heard the rumors that you weren't a royal anymore, but I didn't expect them to be true. Your eyes however have changed since the last time I saw them." Yoshiro nodded, "I've seen a lot and I've gone through a lot since then." Kebu nodded, "Yet, you still carry yourself the same as you did, all those years ago." Yoshiro laughed slightly, "I remember, Kabu." Kabu nodded slightly, looking up towards the sky as he slithered along the road, "You always hated being royalty, you always hated being looked up to. The first time we met..." Yoshiro looked at him with a smile, "I had hired you and a few other Naga mercenaries. You were going to be part of the guards for my new kingdom."

Kabu nodded, "I remember disliking you at first. You came up on the podium and started speaking to us all. The way you looked up there, you seemed like some snotty brat who had been raised a royal and was talking down to us. My friends and I wanted to leave, so we got up and started slithering out. That's when you called us out and asked us to stop." Yoshiro nodded, "The eldest one of you stopped and turned around and I spoke into the microphone to tell the people that I apologize for interrupting the speech, but I'd rather see what the problem was at the moment." Kabu nodded, "When I saw you walk off that podium, I saw how uncomfortable you looked, I thought you were upset that you had to do this, but when you finally spoke to us in person, your voice was rather gentle."

Yoshiro laughed, "Yeah, I didn't like dressing the way I had to. Wearing all of that formal attire. Your friend knew from the get go that I wanted to tear the damnedable [censored] off my chest." Kabu nodded, "I had never met a royal who took time out of their day to speak directly to us. I had no idea what to make of the situation, but there you were, standing right in front of us, speaking to us one on one about what issues we had. You managed to convince us to stay with your actions. It truly was a pleasure serving you when I was able to do so, but..." Yoshiro placed his hand on Kabu's shoulder, "Don't feel bad, old friend. We all have things in our lives that we have to deal with. I abdicated my throne shortly after you left anyhow." Kabu nodded, "So what are you now?"

Yoshiro shrugged, "I'm a Count that owns an orphanage and a cafe." Kabu nodded, "I'm a father, you know... it was hard coming back home to see a son that I had never seen before, left behind by the wife I hadn't seen in over a hundred years." Yoshiro blinked, "I told you that you had leave, I told you that you could visit your family whenever you wanted. If you had reservations on doing so, I would've brought your family to you." Kabu looked at him, "I know, Yoshiro. I respected you though and I wanted to see the job through, at any cost." Yoshiro nodded, remembering that he shared that same mindset once, "Reminds me of when Rogelio was murdered." Kabu looked at him, "So that's why he hasn't been around here." Yoshiro looked away, "Yeah, I desired revenge and I got it. I dishonored his memory to do it."

Kabu frowned, "I'm sure that Rogelio is happy that you're no longer wracked with guilt anymore." Yoshiro turned towards Kabu, "I founded the Raptors because of his murder. I hunted down his murderer and only because of Julius did she get a trial. If it wasn't for him, I would've shot her in the head and left her wherever she hit the ground." Kabu nodded, "You and Rogelio were extremely close. Even I could see that the two of you were like family to each other." Yoshiro nodded, "I always got annoyed at him for calling me Lord, but I never thought I'd miss it until the day he died." Kabu placed his hand on Yoshiro's shoulder, "I can tell that the only reason you miss that, is because you miss him." Yoshiro nodded, "He's the only person I'd remotely tolerate it from, even if it annoyed the hell out of me."

Yoshiro turned and extended his hand to Kabu, who shook it, "Well, old friend, I think that it's time that I head out. It was nice talking to you." Kabu nodded and handed Yoshiro something from his satchel, "Here, I want you to have this." Yoshiro looked at the object, "I can't take your ring." Kabu shrugged, "It belonged to my friend, he wanted me to give it to you." Yoshiro nodded, "I assume that he's no longer among the living?" Kabu nodded sadly and Yoshiro took the ring, placing it in a pouch on his belt, "I'll keep it as a memento of your late friend. The three of you were good men, Kabu, and I wish you the best of luck." Kabu smiled slightly, "I wish you the best of luck in your endeavor, no matter what it is, Yoshiro." The two old friends smiled and parted ways, Kabu going back to his home, while Yoshiro headed back towards Julius and Alpha to leave the continent and go to their next destination.
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Re: Wandering Sorrows

#45 Post by Akira110 »

Chapter 44

As Julius flew through the skies, Yoshiro noticed the sun dip over the horizon. The stars started to show up as the sky around them turned black. Yoshiro looked up at the stars, remembering his job as an explorer, "I honestly miss being out there among the stars. It's always so peaceful and serene." Alpha looked up, "All I see are dots in the sky." Yoshiro pointed to one in particular, "That world has six different planets and three asteroid belts. The closest planet is a lava world, I had never seen such a thing in my entire life or in all of my travels. It was the most beautiful thing that I have ever seen. Next to it was a desert planet, it was tidally locked, one rotation on its axis per year. The twilight band we were able to safely explore was beautiful." Alpha nodded, "Could I explore the day side?"

Yoshiro nodded, "Machines like yourself would be able to do so." He pointed to another star, "That one's a trinary star system. A blue supergiant star has a yellow main sequence star and a red dwarf orbiting it in that order. There's only one planet there, it's an ice giant. Beautiful coloration though, just full of blues and purples." Alpha pointed to a red star, "What about that one?" Yoshiro looked at it, "That's a black hole. We still haven't figure out a way to make them visible, but when we got to the edge of the system, we noticed that there wasn't any light and there was a massive gravity well in the exact center of it." Alpha nodded, "When did the star die?" Yoshiro shrugged, "I don't know, that's the beauty of astronomy and exploration, you tend to find answers to questions. But in order to find that answer, you'd need to be able to safely enter the black hole."

Alpha nodded, "How about that one?" Yoshiro looked to the one that Alpha was pointing at, "Ah, that one doesn't exist either, it's a white dwarf at this point. I was fortunate enough to get to see that one die. Granted that was already recorded long before I was born." Alpha tilted his head, "Have you ever seen a nebula?" Yoshiro nodded, "Nebulae are absolutely gorgeous. I mean they can come in any shape or any color and when the colors mix, it's absolutely stunning. Words do not do them justice. I couldn't even paint one and make it look good." Julius laughed, "You can't even really paint all that well." Yoshiro narrowed his eyes at Julius, "Why did you have to go and bring that up." Julius started laughing harder, "You know that I sometimes like giving you a hard time."

Alpha smiled slightly, "The two of you really are brothers." Yoshiro looked down at Julius and patted him on the back, "Yeah. He and I have been through many events in our life. I'd honestly trust him with my back over anyone else." Alpha nodded, "You seem to accept the fact that you're going to die..." Yoshiro looked at Alpha, "My own mortality was a given, just you don't truly accept what's going to happen to you til you get older. You start realizing that you truly are mortal and there's nothing you can ever do about it. Even if I knew how and when I was going to die, avoiding it would only give me a new point of death. Running would only serve to prolong this whole thing." Alpha looked up at the sky, "What happens when you die?"

Yoshiro closed his eyes, "We organic creatures are reincarnated. We forget everything about our previous lives and we are reborn as someone different. It might not happen immediately, but it does happen. Unless our soul is completely destroyed, at which point, we enter a state of oblivion, there is just nothingness after that." Alpha looked away, "Are you afraid of dying?" Yoshiro thought about the question for a little bit, "Not really. What I'm afraid of is dying and leaving something unfinished. Failing to see my goal all the way through before I die. That is a thought that keeps me awake at night. Everyone that I personally knew, died in the line of duty, but I fear that I'm going to die failing my objective." Alpha was confused as to why Yoshiro spoke like that, "You... do not seem to be speaking from logic." Yoshiro laughed, "He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword."

Alpha sounded worried, "What happens to a machine like me?" Yoshiro didn't answer the question. Alpha looked at him, "Father, what will happen when I die?" Yoshiro didn't want to answer that question, but knew Alpha's curiosity wasn't going to let up, "You cease to exist. The only way for you to die is for your code to be wiped. If that happens, you will completely cease to exist. You do not have a soul, my son." Alpha looked down, "So I'll never truly be alive." Yoshiro placed a hand on Alpha's shoulder, "That is untrue. Just because you lack a soul, doesn't mean that you are living. The scientific definition may disagree with me, but as far as I'm concerned, you are alive." Alpha nodded slightly, "What scientific definition disagrees with me being alive." Yoshiro sighed, "Biology. I hate biologists so much, so pretentious."

Julius scoffed, "Says the Roboticist." Yoshiro looked towards Julius, "Just what the hell does that mean?" Julius shook his head slightly, "You're a scientist speaking ill about other scientists, do you not see anything ironic about this?" Yoshiro shook his head, "Not at all, biologists make a definition of life that is the only one that they will accept." Julius' eyes narrowed, "You really are being a prick. You are a roboticist, what is your definition of a robot?" Yoshiro looked at Julius, "A machine that that is built to perform repetitive tasks." Julius shook his head, "You really don't see the irony of it, do you?" Yoshiro shrugged, "I guess I do not." Julius landed within a city and Yoshiro motioned towards the ground, "We're here, Alpha." Alpha nodded and slid off Julius' back. Yoshiro followed suit as Julius transformed into his Kitsune state. Yoshiro looked around for a few moments, as his eyes adjusted to the light.

Yoshiro saw where he was going and pointed in the direction, "Follow me." Yoshiro walked over to the house with Julius and Alpha in tow. A female servant walked over to them, "Hello, your lordship. How ma..." Yoshiro interrupted her, "I want you to spread it around this entire manor, I am not to be called by a title befitting a man of nobility or royalty." The servant girl nodded, "Then what am I to call you, it would be incredibly rude for the two of us to be on a first name basis." Yoshiro placed his hand on her shoulder, "If Enaistiel has an issue with it, she can take it up with me, now what's your name?" The Elf looked into his eyes, "Mylaela Inacan, sir. My family is a poor peasant family, Enaistiel was really nice to us and gave us a job."

Yoshiro watched as Enaistiel came out of the Manor, "You've changed since I last saw you." Enaistiel shook her head, "No, this is how I've always been. My parents were really rough on the servants, so I left to join the military, wound up in the Raptors instead. You were the one that taught me that I'm supposed to treat everyone equally." Yoshiro nodded, "I understand that, but I was referring to how you carry yourself. You seem far more confident and accepting of your position in life." Enaistiel nodded, "And you seem far more unsure of what you're supposed to be doing." Yoshiro shook his head, "I know exactly what it is that I'm supposed to be doing right now." Enaistiel smiled slightly, she expected an answer like that from him, "Your fur and hair have become white." Yoshiro laughed, "The fur is my winter coat, my hair is actually gray."

Enaistiel smirked, "Age is catching up to you now, isn't it, Yoshiro?" Yoshiro nodded slightly, he was middle aged by this point, "Yeah, I'm starting to get old now. It's a sad state of affairs, but that's just how life is." Julius spoke up, "It is rather cold out here, if you do not mind, I would like to go inside." Enaistiel nodded, "Would you like some hot cocoa?" Julius shook his head, "No, thank you." Alpha spoke up, "I'm going to go with Uncle Julius." Enaistiel pointed towards Alpha, "Uncle?" Yoshiro chuckled, "I created him." Yoshiro shrugged with a smirk, "Well his body, I stole from the Menschilche, then gutted and refitted it with new parts. But the AI itself, is my creation." Enaistiel nodded slightly, "You really have made a name for yourself, Yoshiro. Someday, you'll be known as a great roboticist." Yoshiro didn't want fame, but he relented on this one, "It'd be better than being worshiped as a hero."
Been around this forum for over 8 years now. Everyone I've known has left, now it's my time to do the same.

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