Post by Grail Brisk on Jul 5, 2017 18:53:23 GMT
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Cel'Daren Mithanil
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Cel'Daren Mithanil
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Base Powerlevel | Transformations | Current Powerlevel | Gain Modifiers | Tags |
62,100 | Heavily Weighted | 15,525 | Heavy Weights, T3 House | N/A |
Darkness. Warm, embracing darkness surrounded them; enveloping them and protecting them. Or were they the darkness? They couldn't tell where they ended and the darkness began; couldn't tell what the concept of distance was. They felt as if they were the darkness. They were everything they could sense; they were nothing at all. Whatever they were, they were alone. Completely and utterly alone. A thought skittered across their mind, the first hint of consciousness in what may have been years, millennia even, and it was a lonesome thought fit for such an empty existence. Am I all there is? It wasn't asked in actual words; they had no knowledge of words, it was only a deep emotion that subsumed everything for a split second. Unfortunately the question, as spontaneous and strong as it was, caused nothing else to occur immediately, and they continued to...wait for something, anything to happen. Unable to even comprehend that they were waiting...
Yet the question was the beginning of.. something. A kind of change in their existence, unnoticeable at first, but over the course of what felt an eternity it became the only thing they could perceive. It began small, a little speck of awareness quickly subsumed in the darkness, each little speck slowly clumping together into one idea. There were two darknesses that they could perceive. One darkness was somehow deeper, heavier, and clung tighter to them. The other darkness was thinner and uncaring, it did not cling or shy away from them, it merely was.
For a great span of time they were simply engrossed by the differences between these two parts of all, merely sensing these differences, exploring them, trying to find if there was yet more to discover. The inner darkness clung tightly to them, preventing them from moving, suspended within that lesser darkness, but they felt something was odd, and when they struggled to move, not even knowing where the concept of movement itself had come from, they were surprised. The inner darkness, when they had struggled hard, had moved with them! The single movement, a small twitch of an undefined limb, brought with it a stunning barrage of new sensations. They felt movement for the first time, a surge of awareness washing over the edge of the darkness before piercing deep inside towards the center where they resided. No, not the center, for they resided instead on one end of this inner darkness, although they felt this new awareness everywhere within that inner darkness, and they knew something new then. I am the darkness.
This idea passed not as a bubble of emotion, quickly there and quickly gone, but passed across their mind as words, spilling forth and bringing with them a deluge of new concepts and ideas, so many of them meaningless to them in their limited state. Thoughts slipped through their mind in a roar, resisting any attempt to be caught and held down, but with great effort once more they managed to capture another word. Light. The opposite of darkness. Where there was light there wasn't darkness, and where there was darkness there wasn't light. These two contrasting ideas clashed in their mind, more thoughts and ideas rushing forward, but now they could be clung to, captured, learned. Their thoughts churned faster and faster, ”Where is the light? Why can't I see?
..See? I need light to see. What sees though?
Eyes. I have eyes.
It took them a few moments to think of how to open their eyes, but they felt that they were getting better at this...consciousness, they thought the word was. Yes, they were becoming conscious, and they could open their eyes by moving that part of the darkness they were, just there. Yes.
Eyelids were slowly raised, revealing the amber orbs within, their pupils as wide as possible as they sought for the light in the darkness. They were weak and unfocused, incapable of finding details, but they functioned well enough to show them that there was light. A dim splash of reddish brown covered their vision, the sensation of a liquid pressing up against their eyes caused them to blink several times, trying to adjust from the discomfort. The light seemed weaker directly in front of them, while it was stronger behind them, although it was just then that they discovered what the concept of “orientation” was.
Progress...of a sort, although there was a new problem. How could they move themselves to face the light? Their darkness was so heavy, so clinging and resistant to their efforts to move it. Even opening and closing their eyes seemed to tire them. They wanted to sleep. Yes...sleep, to fade into the darkness of themselves for a time. It was so tempting, but they didn't let themselves fall away. Nothing happened in the darkness, and only now that they had begun to realize what existence was did they know that they hated when nothing happened. It was boring!
So they moved. Or tried to. Their darkness flailed weakly; they were still unsure how to move, and it was so difficult. The lower parts of them felt completely different to their...arms? Arms and Head. And Legs! They shuddered for a moment as the knowledge flooded their minded, so pleased with themselves for remembering that they forgot what they had been doing for....some time. Yet eventually they could focus once more, and then they knew what to do to move! The outer darkness didn't cling so tightly as the inner darkness, or their body, and if they swept their arms out to the left then to the right before pulling them close to their torso and then repeated the movement... Yes! They were turning! The light that they felt behind them was slowly becoming brighter, approaching from the left as they shifted position in their dark world. Even better was that as they moved their body more and more it became easier to do so. At the start of their efforts it took all they had to control their arms; the effort draining their will to move that they had to stop and start three times, but by the end they had completed their motion and felt only a desire to continue.
Yet what were they to do now? The light beckoned to them from the front, a deep reddish brown that filled their vision....but it was so far away somehow. Beyond their reach, surely. They could tell there was more than the darkness....no, the liquid. It was liquid they floated in. Anyway, there was more than liquid preventing them from moving towards the light. The light beyond seemed like it might be....brighter? But there was something solid in the way. It was what caused the light to appear reddish-brown at least. Which was the color of flesh, right? A fleshy barrier encasing a being in liquid and cutting off outside stimulus...
Their mind churned, more complex ideas than things like orientation and distance flooding through. A fleshy barrier encasing a being in liquid and cutting off outside stimulus... No. Protecting them from the outside. It clicked. Two things came to their mind, either option meaning the same thing. Womb or Eggshell. Womb seemed more appropriate, given that they were a...mammal, right? Fur not scales. Except for the Platypus; which even still after thousands of years defied proper classification! They were getting sidetracked. They were in a womb-like location. They were like an infant, yet they knew that somehow they were much stronger than an infant. Far more developed When an infant was suitably developed it would leave the womb or eggshell. Either by the womb forcing them out or....breaking their way out. Yet wombs were part of other creatures. They might hurt something if they tried to escape this womb that way..
No. They were alone. No second presence had been with them the entire time they were within this womb, at least not when they were conscious. Wombs were part of a creature, so they should have felt something from that creature? So it was more of an egg. It was safe to break their way out of the egg! They didn't have to worry about hurting something when they escaped.
But...
...How?
This was quite the conundrum for them. They could barely move. Reaching for the eggshell resulted in the flowing liquid to push back against their movement, forcing them back towards the center of the egg, away from their escape. Even their most wild flailing merely resulted in the same. They didn't have enough energy in their movements to counteract the forces of the water effectively. Wait. Energy. All living things had a different kind of energy besides the kinetic energy of their movements. Chemical energy. Potential Energy...
Ki.
That was the answer. Ki! They had Ki; they knew how to utilize it as well. Right? Memories flooded their mind, answering in the affirmative. Yes. They knew how to use Ki. They could raise their arm. The left one specifically, and aim at the eggshell. Now. Ki, pulled from the gut, flooded along the channels in their arm, down to the wrist, ignoring the fingers, exiting the palm, push forward! More! MORE!
A silver beam of ki flecked with orange motes blasted forward, nearly six foot in diameter and charged with enough destructive energy to demolish a city block in an instant! It surged forward as if hungrily devouring all that stood in its path. Millions of Zenis worth of laboratory tools and gadgets were vaporized in that instant before the artificial intelligence that controlled the environment of the entire laboratory was alerted to the damaging ki and initiated defensive protocols, the very walls of the room becoming energized with artificial Ki. Reinforced with incredible power the walls withstood the blast of ki without a scratch, but the egg that Katsu Yuda had just blasted was irrevocably shattered. It was bigger than Katsu had thought as well, the great amount of fluid he had been floating in rushing out into the room, bringing the weakened scientist along for the ride, spilling him onto the floor face down. His first action in this new world he had just found himself in was to push himself up onto his hands and knees and vomit noisily onto the ground; his body fighting for breath as he expelled all of the fluid that had been in his stomach and lungs. He then shuddered from the taste of the fluid; it being primarily composed of his own urine and digestive fluids, just like every baby was exposed to during the final months of their existence before being born. It was nasty, but that was nature for you.
Coughing weakly from his retching, Katsu tried to lift his head to look around, only to find that his body was heavy... Incredibly heavy. He couldn't keep himself held up on hands and knees, and sank back down into a prone position, managing to at least turn his head to the side so he wouldn't drown in his own vomit. He gasped for air, his lungs on fire from their unaccustomed workload, and he lay there with eyes closed just focusing on breathing for a while. Everything hurt. Everything. His feet, his eyes, his hair even hurt. Or was that the pores of his skin where his hair follicles were growing from? Either way, pain. Lots of it.
Some undetermined amount of time later Katsu realized there was a tiny voice whispering to him. He had taken so long to notice it because it wasn't a voice he could hear with his ears. He could only hear it with his mind, which had been preoccupied with not dying a disgusting death recently. It was simply the same words repeated over and over again. More like a name or title than a phrase or message.
Cel'Daren Mithanil (Kell-dare-enn Mith-ann-ill)
The voice seemed to realize that Katsu had heard it, for it now faded away, the presence that had accompanied the voice fading from his senses too fast for him to catch. He groaned; focusing himself back on his current situation rather than the voice. He was still laying naked in a puddle of vomit and other nasty fluids. Not the most dignified position to be in. Another groan, this one not of pain but of effort, and Katsu slowly managed to pull himself back out of the muck to his hands and knees, dripping with the stuff. He paused, feeling exhausted, and trying to figure out why his body felt so heavy. He let his consciousness drift through his body, his Ki-enhanced nerves sensing the minute changes of his fluids and organs, feeling the vestiges of the serum riding through his Ki channels.
Serum.
Right. He had taken a Serum. Something that...made him stronger? No. It clearly made him weaker. Wait. It made him weaker now, absorbing and condensing his energy, adapting his body to Ki, so that it would be stronger later! Yes. That seemed plausible. That sounded like something he would do to himself, for SCIENCE! [Heavy Weights acknowledged]
That little mystery solved Katsu endeavored to pull himself to a stand, first gathering his legs solidly beneath them before groaning half in pain and effort as he pushed out hard with his legs. He reached his full height and nearly fell over, his balance unstable, but he managed to catch himself with the edge of the egg he had come from. His fingers grasped at the edges of the shredded surface, and for a moment it shifted with his weight, and he feared for a tiny moment he was going to end up sprawling out again. It however held, the texture of the surface thick and leathery, like a soggy tanned hide.
Finally on his feet, his mental gears working overtime to try and reorganize all of his thoughts into something cohesive, Katsu dully looked around the room he had blasted, finding the place both familiar and alien at the same time. He was obviously in some kind of laboratory; in fact it was some kind of laboratory that he himself might have designed, at least so far as the....mechanical bits were concerned. The walls were a pristine metallic color, the energy of the reinforcing mechanism exactly the same type as the one in his home lab, and the instruments that he hadn't managed to destroy were surgical tools he might have used in his genetic tinkering projects. There was much more than just mechanical parts to this room however. The great fleshy egg thing was not alone; there were many devices that Katsu had no idea what their actual function was, but many of them pulsed with an eery energy that he could only assume was magical in nature. Certainly he had never felt any machine, creature, or ki that gave off this kind of signature before.
Katsu's curiosity was ignited by the tiny devices all made of flesh, and he staggered away from the egg's shell, falling against one of the tables the devices were on, his feet splashing in the liquid on the floor. It was a struggle to move around still, and he took some time to steady himself before he slowly picked up one of the devices. It fit in the palm of his hand easily, in fact he felt it shift slightly to match the shape of his palm to be better grasped. Turning it over and over again in wonder Katsu vaguely got the impression it was a type of monitoring device, as if the device was sensing him somehow. A small indentation seemed to become apparent as he put it back in his hand right-side up, and he pressed it with a thumb. A holographic HUD, not unlike that produced by his lab tech, appeared, showing data that Katsu could recognize even if he couldn't understand the language it displayed. It was clearly biometric data; heartbeat, brain activity, and a thousand other readings were easily navigated by the experienced Bio-Engineer.
It was Katsu's own readings; he was about 87% sure. The heartbeat was what he expected for his situation; the brain activity was a bit lower in some sections, as if he were half-asleep, but given his recent condition that made sense. He still felt as if parts of his mental faculties were sleeping still. Yet his Ki readings were very abnormal, as well as his metabolic data. Katsu switched his gaze to his hand holding the device. It had changed color from his simple Caucasian skintone to something much darker and smoother. He had initially passed over this information; thinking perhaps it was the effects of the fluid he had been submerged in, but as he used his other arm to scrub at his left he felt the change was literally more than skin deep.
His hands reached up to touch his face, the device placed back on the table, as Katsu explored the contours of his own skull. Yes, the shape of the cheekbones and jawline was definitely different that what he remembered, the cheeks less sunken and the chin “stronger”. The nose seemed a bit thinner but longer as well. Eye sockets had a different shape. Katsu continued to reach around his head, noting his hair. It was really long. He normally only kept it at a few inches long; his hair naturally curling up when it was any longer, but now it was well past his shoulders. He grabbed a lock of it and placed it up to view. It was the wrong color. His hair used to be dark, nearly black. Now it was clearly a metallic silver color. Not natural to human DNA at all. Even his ears were different; they were pointed!
Either I'm mistaken or someone turned me into a Konatsian. That doesn't sound like something I'd do to myself. Maybe someone else, but not me. came the idle thought as Katsu called out in an attempt to get a computer to respond to him. ”Aliza? Display me on all monitors in this room please.”
For a second nothing happened, and Katsu wondered if his voice had changed enough to be unrecognizable to the AI, but eventually a voice that didn't match that of Aliza answered him. “Displaying subject: Cel'Daren Mithanil”
There was that name again. This time spoken by a computer instead of a voice in his head. Apparently someone had wanted him to change his name along with his everything else. He gave a mental shrug, merely waiting for his image to pop up on any monitors still functioning in the room. When it did he wasn't surprised. Based on the sensations of his own touch based inspection the image that popped up on the screens made complete sense. Yes; he looked very...Konatsian. Except he was much darker. His skin a muted dark bronze color. He hadn't heard of any Konatsian with that skin color, their DNA made them predisposed towards pale skin. So either a melanistic Konatsian or just a bit of an appearance change over his natural human genetics. The latter seemed more likely. He turned his head this way and that as he inspected himself, exploring the various differences of his body. He noted that he was taller now as well, in addition to possessing a more muscular frame than he had before. In fact many parts of his body were enhanced in that manner, as if someone had tried to shift his appearance closer towards the ideal human.
A certain level of beauty was attained, although it was mostly ruined by the fluid that still dripped from Katsu's body, and he eventually began to look around for something to clean himself off with. A shower stall with a set of unadorned clothing, miraculously protected by the same energies that had reinforced the walls. Thankfully the whole setup was purely mechanical. Katsu just then truly didn't want to have to deal with any more magical organic technology. It was going to take him days to feel properly clean again, he just knew it.
Perhaps an hour later Katsu left the shower with the fresh clothes, floating above the floor as he telekinetically gathered up all the liquid on the ground and sealed it back into the egg he had exited by simply reattaching the parts he had blasted free. The shower itself had taken so long not because Katsu had been particularly thorough but instead because he was still having trouble moving. Washing his own body had felt like trying to bench press a bus, the luffa he was using slipping from his grasp repeatedly until he simply used telekinesis to clean himself. He felt exhausted from his ordeal in the egg, and although he was mostly clean and in fresh clothes (his usual labcoat, shirt, and slacks with dress shoes) he still felt dirty and abused somehow. He still had absolutely no memory of what events might have led up to him having ended up in a transformation chamber, or rebirth chamber or whatever it's purpose had been. On top of that he was in a completely different body than the one he remembered, and even as he left the room he accidentally bumped against the door as he tried to open it, the extra height throwing off his timing of when to grab for the doorknob and turn.
Which might have been for the best, considering what was on the other side of the door. The steel door was opened, a standard hallway appearing beyond, and then Katsu move through it and closed it, for some reason feeling a need to look back at the door as he closed it. It was shut tightly, and Katsu looked back at the hallway...
…to find himself in the middle of his living room, in his mansion home on Mount Paozu. Blinking once in surprise Katsu quickly turned back to look for the door he had stepped through, to of course find a blank wall. Rubbing his head with one hand Katsu gave a sigh. This situation was completely out of hand!
“It's gone. The door. The egg. The room. It was only supposed to last as long as it took for you to hatch. You're ahead of schedule, Cel'Daren.” came a high-pitched feminine voice from nearby, and as Katsu turned to look at them he saw a small girl who shared a great deal of features with him. She sat on top of an end table next to his couch, swinging her legs back and forth as she spoke. Pointed ears, a specific shape of the face, her lips just then curled up into a smile that was clearly false to the eyes of the Bio-Engineer. Even her skin was similar, although it was different in that it had more pigment than his own, being more purplish than bronzed. She looked to be no more than eleven or so, her clothing typical for the Gothic Lolita style that had been popular in East City among cosplayers recently, and the big purple bow she had wrapped her hair into an intricate style with just completed the image.
A thousand different ideas flooded through Katsu's mind at once, but he had to actually turn away and place his hand to his face to avoid looking directly at the girl for a moment. Katsu had a weaknesses for cute things; he could ignore all the seductive charm in the world thrown at him at once, but when it came to things that were cute he couldn't muster a mental defense! Focusing on the hundreds of other things that also occupied his brain just then he decided that things were alright. Katsu remembered speaking to a council of humanoids hidden by dark cloaks in a mental landscape. They had spoke of offering him their abilities and knowledge, making him one of them, in return for aid of their people. The egg room, his transformation. This girl. They could all be easily explained with that information. The egg room was most likely a pocket dimension that had been created to provide a safe and controlled environment for Katsu to be transformed without issue. The people he had been talking with were incredibly skilled with magic, he knew that at the start. The transformation of his appearance was most likely what they meant by making him one of them. It wasn't a club you could just join, so they had to edit his genetics to have him fit. Talk about strict entry parameters.
Katsu was going to have fun looking through his own DNA later, he was sure. However that did leave the girl. She was most likely his liaison and guide when it came to being...whatever he had been turned into. There were of course a lot of other questions he would have to ask at some point, but he decided to start with the basics. ”Alright, so Cel'Daren is my name among your...tribesmen. I guess. Memory seems fuzzy a bit. Your name is?” Katsu extended a hand as part of his question, an invitation for her to speak.
However the girl's false smile slipped a notch, being replaced by mild confusion. Apparently this was something that Katsu was supposed to know? She frowned a moment before responding, her eyes telling Katsu that she was completely suspicious of his words, ”...The Council didn't tell you? I am Sel'Aya Mithanil.”
Shaking his head Katsu tried to rack his brains for any memory concerning that name, but found nothing. It wasn't that surprising though. Katsu had once been put in a coma with brain damage (thanks to an Oozaru during the Saiyan Invasion) and had lost entire months of his own memory upon wakening. Considering the transformation he had gone through in that egg, although he wasn't sure exactly what kind of transformation it was, Katsu wouldn't find it surprising that a few wires had gotten crossed in his neural pathways and he had forgotten something else. Frustrating, to be sure, but not something he could change just yet.
Finally Katsu gave a shrug and responded to the girl, ”Nothing. I have no recollection of what I spoke of with your Council members beyond their offer to make me into one of your tribe with access to your knowledge and techniques in return for my aid.”
”Well...I suppose I'll just have to work through your memory loss, then.” Sel'Aya gave a childish grin at Katsu, and for once he felt that it was a genuine smile, and he had to turn his head to the side again in order not to blush. She was too adorable for Katsu to handle! He wasn't sure if he wanted to make her smile like that often or if he wanted to sever the muscles in her face that let her smile at all!
Sel'Aya continued, her elation plain in her voice even as she missed Katsu's reaction to her smile, ”Well, I am essentially your liaison and guide with the Dragon Zoan Clan, Cel'Daren Mithanil. My goal is to assist you as to acclimate to your new abilities as a Dragon Zoan as well as have you teach me about the world as it is now, to better prepare the Clan for returning to th.”
Suddenly Katsu interjected, speaking over the rest of what Sel'Aya had been trying to say. ”Whoa. Dragon Zoan Clan? I think there's a mistake here somewhere then. I don't exactly look like a reptile, do I? If you are Dragon Zoans, I think something went wrong with the transformation. I cannot currently breathe fire or sprout scale covered wings to fly, for example.”
As Katsu spoke Sel'Aya's eyes became larger and larger, her breath held so tightly she looked like she was trying to imitate a bullfrog. When Katsu finished speaking she was obviously distressed, her tiny hands gripping the edge of the table she sat on tightly enough to drain the blood, ”..You...you're joking right?...” When Katsu gave her a shake of the head she nearly screamed in his face, her voice supernaturally loud to the point that things were beginning to shake and rattle, “That's IMPOSSIBLE! Our Clan are Masters of Transformation magics. We're the Best there is, and we put great effort into making sure your Inheritance transformation was perfect!
“No. There's no way. Those magics would have worked on anything short of one of the Kai. For them to fail you'd have to be something with the potential to reach for the power of the gods.” The final bit of her speech was laced with venomous sarcasm, her disdain for such an idea that her people could have failed was clear. She held her people in high regard in terms of skill, Katsu had to give her respect in his mind for her adamant faith.
However she had to face reality, ”Perhaps not the gods, but something surely more than a mere human. I am a Bio-Engineer, Cel'Aya. That means that my sphere of knowledge revolves around modifying and improving living organisms, including myself. I have altered my own genetics; the part of your body that tells it how to form itself, and have improved my physical form thusly. I have also taken a serum that absorbs and concentrates the energy in my body, which us humans call Ki. Perhaps this mixture of circumstances caused my body to absorb the magics that were attempting to transform it, accepting the part that changed my basic appearance but keeping me human rather than turning into one of your tribe?” Katsu gave the best option that he could muster, the one with the most positive outlook and that didn't call Sel'Aya's people incompetent.
It did seem to work; Sel'Aya did not seem angry at his words and instead went silent for an extended period, her mental gears churning. Finally she seemed to accept the idea as plausible, ”That...Yes. It's like you were transforming yourself into a Paragon of your species. Your transformation's origin source may have been wildly different but the source doesn't matter, only the effect. The transformation to a Paragon is one my people know of, but it is a very difficult thing to achieve; with very disastrous results if something goes wrong.
“When we perform such transformation magics on someone we place safeties into the process to protect against such failings. The Inheritance and Paragon transformations are almost mutually exclusive. If you're undergoing the Paragon transformation, our safeties would have stopped the Inheritance transformation before you were irreparably damaged.” Sel'Aya proceeded to slump forward, her head hanging low. Her voice was barely above a whisper, as if she was speaking to herself, and she truly sounded miserable, “We've failed our part of the bargain. There is no deal for him to uphold and yet we've wasted the last of our resources placing me into the world... The Clan is doomed to finally die..”
Of course at this Katsu had to tilt his head, ”Hmm? I plan to aid the Dragon Zoan Clan regardless of the circumstances we find ourselves in, Sel'Aya.” He was almost immediately rewarded with an incredulous stare as she snapped her head up and looked at him, her face turning a few wild colors before she could contain her emotions enough to ask the obvious, ”Why?!”
At this Katsu would give a small smile as he placed his hands behind his back, and he replied as if it was the simplest thing in the world, ”Knowledge.”
Confusion clouded Sel'Aya's features for a moment, and Katsu continued during that pause, ”Your Clan is ancient to the point that no one even knows who they even are anymore. Your magics are powerful and exotic to me, one who has lived in a world of science all of my life. You and your people are a veritable treasure trove of lost knowledge. In my eyes letting your Clan die out would be a crime most heinous.”
The complete and utter incredulity on Sel'Aya's face was almost worth taking a photo of, but Katsu decided better; she seemed more than a little high strung and he'd probably get hit with something heavy otherwise. Still, it was obvious she didn't believe him at all, and she cited a very logical reason why, “Do you understand just how massive of an undertaking this is supposed to be?! Our numbers aren't in the dozens, hundreds, or thousands; our tribe was once one of the most prosperous to ever exist on this planet. We number in the millions! The magics we utilized to hide ourselves from the entire universe were formed by the greatest minds of our entire race and took the resources of whole nations to pull off.
“This is something that should require the power of an alliance of worlds, and you want to say you're going to set this in motion, to undergo a task that not even the greatest of Heroes could hope to accomplish... just to learn our lore?!” The tiny girl was nearly screaming at Katsu by the end of her tirade, her body shaking with her emotions, the wooden table she was clutching beginning to crack and splinter in her grasp, punctuating her words perfectly.
”Things that are worth doing tend not to be easy; regardless of the difficulty I will do what I can to aid your people in their return.”
Sel'Aya looked at Katsu for a long time before speaking in a quiet tone, ”You're insane. You're absolutely insane...”
”No, child. He is a Sage.” the sudden interjection of a new voice into the conversation startled both Katsu and Sel'Aya, although they took it differently. Katsu, who had some measure of life experience and dealing with crazy shit, merely turned his head to look at the new voice, his heartbeat only speeding for a moment or two before it calmed back down. Sel'Aya though recognized the voice and immediately felt as if she was in school once again, and she jumped from the startlement and then leapt off the table to give the cloaked figure that had spoken a bow of respect.
”E-Elder Galadragas! Greetings!” came the stammering voice of Sel'Aya. This was obviously someone she both respected and feared greatly, and Katsu would give the cloaked man bow as well, although it was much more controlled and he did not bow nearly so low as Sel'Aya had.
”Greetings, Elder. I would not claim myself a Sage. A Sage is one who is venerated for the knowledge and wisdom they possess to the point of fame and idolization. I have a long way to go before I could claim such a title; a very long way to go...”
The cloaked Elder's response was a deep throaty chuckle, a small shake of the head, and an amused response, “Spoken as a true Sage.”
Sel'Aya was still doubting, the exchange seemed full of lunacy, but the Elder's voice soon filled her head, hidden from Katsu's senses..”It is for this reason that we place our trust in him, Sel'Aya. He is a true seeker of knowledge. It is his purpose. Such people are some of the most dangerous as an enemy, but the greatest of allies. He seeks our knowledge; all of it. Cel'Daren will do what it takes to restore our Clan; even if he must crush worlds in his grasp to do so. Be a good mate to him, child. Guide him so that he does not make us regret our inevitable return to the world. That is your duty to your people...”
The voice faded from Sel'Aya's mind, and the image that had been in front of both Katsu and Sel'Aya also slowly faded from sight. Elder Galadragas had merely projected his image to them to help resolve Sel'Aya's doubt and remind her of her duty. She wasn't happy, not in the slightest, but Sel'Aya had been chosen as the one to help bring her Clan back to prominence. It was a huge honor, and all Sel'Aya could think of was her people trapped in slumber or else tending to the magics, their lives empty and dull. They needed to return to the world or else they would perish.
Giving a deep sigh, Sel'Aya would turn herself back to Katsu, her hands on hips and a sullen look on her face, ”Alright Mr Sage. I still think you're insane as they come, but if you're willing to do this I'm duty-bound to assist. You got the beginnings of a plan or what, Cel'Daren?”
For his part, Katsu would give a crooked smile and beckoned for Sel'Aya to follow as he headed towards his kitchen, ”First? Breakfast. Then we get your bedroom set up for you, then training. We'll need to see what power if any I've gained from this transformation, and I need to know what you yourself are capable of...
“..Oh. Right. Bacon and Eggs fine for you?”
Sel'Aya skipped along behind the taller man, giving a shrug in response before beginning to skip once more, ”I've never eaten real food. Magic was used to sustain me. What's Bacon and Eggs taste like?”
Mithanil just smiled...
Yet the question was the beginning of.. something. A kind of change in their existence, unnoticeable at first, but over the course of what felt an eternity it became the only thing they could perceive. It began small, a little speck of awareness quickly subsumed in the darkness, each little speck slowly clumping together into one idea. There were two darknesses that they could perceive. One darkness was somehow deeper, heavier, and clung tighter to them. The other darkness was thinner and uncaring, it did not cling or shy away from them, it merely was.
For a great span of time they were simply engrossed by the differences between these two parts of all, merely sensing these differences, exploring them, trying to find if there was yet more to discover. The inner darkness clung tightly to them, preventing them from moving, suspended within that lesser darkness, but they felt something was odd, and when they struggled to move, not even knowing where the concept of movement itself had come from, they were surprised. The inner darkness, when they had struggled hard, had moved with them! The single movement, a small twitch of an undefined limb, brought with it a stunning barrage of new sensations. They felt movement for the first time, a surge of awareness washing over the edge of the darkness before piercing deep inside towards the center where they resided. No, not the center, for they resided instead on one end of this inner darkness, although they felt this new awareness everywhere within that inner darkness, and they knew something new then. I am the darkness.
This idea passed not as a bubble of emotion, quickly there and quickly gone, but passed across their mind as words, spilling forth and bringing with them a deluge of new concepts and ideas, so many of them meaningless to them in their limited state. Thoughts slipped through their mind in a roar, resisting any attempt to be caught and held down, but with great effort once more they managed to capture another word. Light. The opposite of darkness. Where there was light there wasn't darkness, and where there was darkness there wasn't light. These two contrasting ideas clashed in their mind, more thoughts and ideas rushing forward, but now they could be clung to, captured, learned. Their thoughts churned faster and faster, ”Where is the light? Why can't I see?
..See? I need light to see. What sees though?
Eyes see.
Eyes. I have eyes.
I need to open my eyes.”
It took them a few moments to think of how to open their eyes, but they felt that they were getting better at this...consciousness, they thought the word was. Yes, they were becoming conscious, and they could open their eyes by moving that part of the darkness they were, just there. Yes.
Eyelids were slowly raised, revealing the amber orbs within, their pupils as wide as possible as they sought for the light in the darkness. They were weak and unfocused, incapable of finding details, but they functioned well enough to show them that there was light. A dim splash of reddish brown covered their vision, the sensation of a liquid pressing up against their eyes caused them to blink several times, trying to adjust from the discomfort. The light seemed weaker directly in front of them, while it was stronger behind them, although it was just then that they discovered what the concept of “orientation” was.
Progress...of a sort, although there was a new problem. How could they move themselves to face the light? Their darkness was so heavy, so clinging and resistant to their efforts to move it. Even opening and closing their eyes seemed to tire them. They wanted to sleep. Yes...sleep, to fade into the darkness of themselves for a time. It was so tempting, but they didn't let themselves fall away. Nothing happened in the darkness, and only now that they had begun to realize what existence was did they know that they hated when nothing happened. It was boring!
So they moved. Or tried to. Their darkness flailed weakly; they were still unsure how to move, and it was so difficult. The lower parts of them felt completely different to their...arms? Arms and Head. And Legs! They shuddered for a moment as the knowledge flooded their minded, so pleased with themselves for remembering that they forgot what they had been doing for....some time. Yet eventually they could focus once more, and then they knew what to do to move! The outer darkness didn't cling so tightly as the inner darkness, or their body, and if they swept their arms out to the left then to the right before pulling them close to their torso and then repeated the movement... Yes! They were turning! The light that they felt behind them was slowly becoming brighter, approaching from the left as they shifted position in their dark world. Even better was that as they moved their body more and more it became easier to do so. At the start of their efforts it took all they had to control their arms; the effort draining their will to move that they had to stop and start three times, but by the end they had completed their motion and felt only a desire to continue.
Yet what were they to do now? The light beckoned to them from the front, a deep reddish brown that filled their vision....but it was so far away somehow. Beyond their reach, surely. They could tell there was more than the darkness....no, the liquid. It was liquid they floated in. Anyway, there was more than liquid preventing them from moving towards the light. The light beyond seemed like it might be....brighter? But there was something solid in the way. It was what caused the light to appear reddish-brown at least. Which was the color of flesh, right? A fleshy barrier encasing a being in liquid and cutting off outside stimulus...
Their mind churned, more complex ideas than things like orientation and distance flooding through. A fleshy barrier encasing a being in liquid and cutting off outside stimulus... No. Protecting them from the outside. It clicked. Two things came to their mind, either option meaning the same thing. Womb or Eggshell. Womb seemed more appropriate, given that they were a...mammal, right? Fur not scales. Except for the Platypus; which even still after thousands of years defied proper classification! They were getting sidetracked. They were in a womb-like location. They were like an infant, yet they knew that somehow they were much stronger than an infant. Far more developed When an infant was suitably developed it would leave the womb or eggshell. Either by the womb forcing them out or....breaking their way out. Yet wombs were part of other creatures. They might hurt something if they tried to escape this womb that way..
No. They were alone. No second presence had been with them the entire time they were within this womb, at least not when they were conscious. Wombs were part of a creature, so they should have felt something from that creature? So it was more of an egg. It was safe to break their way out of the egg! They didn't have to worry about hurting something when they escaped.
But...
...How?
This was quite the conundrum for them. They could barely move. Reaching for the eggshell resulted in the flowing liquid to push back against their movement, forcing them back towards the center of the egg, away from their escape. Even their most wild flailing merely resulted in the same. They didn't have enough energy in their movements to counteract the forces of the water effectively. Wait. Energy. All living things had a different kind of energy besides the kinetic energy of their movements. Chemical energy. Potential Energy...
Ki.
That was the answer. Ki! They had Ki; they knew how to utilize it as well. Right? Memories flooded their mind, answering in the affirmative. Yes. They knew how to use Ki. They could raise their arm. The left one specifically, and aim at the eggshell. Now. Ki, pulled from the gut, flooded along the channels in their arm, down to the wrist, ignoring the fingers, exiting the palm, push forward! More! MORE!
= - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - =
A silver beam of ki flecked with orange motes blasted forward, nearly six foot in diameter and charged with enough destructive energy to demolish a city block in an instant! It surged forward as if hungrily devouring all that stood in its path. Millions of Zenis worth of laboratory tools and gadgets were vaporized in that instant before the artificial intelligence that controlled the environment of the entire laboratory was alerted to the damaging ki and initiated defensive protocols, the very walls of the room becoming energized with artificial Ki. Reinforced with incredible power the walls withstood the blast of ki without a scratch, but the egg that Katsu Yuda had just blasted was irrevocably shattered. It was bigger than Katsu had thought as well, the great amount of fluid he had been floating in rushing out into the room, bringing the weakened scientist along for the ride, spilling him onto the floor face down. His first action in this new world he had just found himself in was to push himself up onto his hands and knees and vomit noisily onto the ground; his body fighting for breath as he expelled all of the fluid that had been in his stomach and lungs. He then shuddered from the taste of the fluid; it being primarily composed of his own urine and digestive fluids, just like every baby was exposed to during the final months of their existence before being born. It was nasty, but that was nature for you.
Coughing weakly from his retching, Katsu tried to lift his head to look around, only to find that his body was heavy... Incredibly heavy. He couldn't keep himself held up on hands and knees, and sank back down into a prone position, managing to at least turn his head to the side so he wouldn't drown in his own vomit. He gasped for air, his lungs on fire from their unaccustomed workload, and he lay there with eyes closed just focusing on breathing for a while. Everything hurt. Everything. His feet, his eyes, his hair even hurt. Or was that the pores of his skin where his hair follicles were growing from? Either way, pain. Lots of it.
Some undetermined amount of time later Katsu realized there was a tiny voice whispering to him. He had taken so long to notice it because it wasn't a voice he could hear with his ears. He could only hear it with his mind, which had been preoccupied with not dying a disgusting death recently. It was simply the same words repeated over and over again. More like a name or title than a phrase or message.
Cel'Daren Mithanil (Kell-dare-enn Mith-ann-ill)
The voice seemed to realize that Katsu had heard it, for it now faded away, the presence that had accompanied the voice fading from his senses too fast for him to catch. He groaned; focusing himself back on his current situation rather than the voice. He was still laying naked in a puddle of vomit and other nasty fluids. Not the most dignified position to be in. Another groan, this one not of pain but of effort, and Katsu slowly managed to pull himself back out of the muck to his hands and knees, dripping with the stuff. He paused, feeling exhausted, and trying to figure out why his body felt so heavy. He let his consciousness drift through his body, his Ki-enhanced nerves sensing the minute changes of his fluids and organs, feeling the vestiges of the serum riding through his Ki channels.
Serum.
Right. He had taken a Serum. Something that...made him stronger? No. It clearly made him weaker. Wait. It made him weaker now, absorbing and condensing his energy, adapting his body to Ki, so that it would be stronger later! Yes. That seemed plausible. That sounded like something he would do to himself, for SCIENCE! [Heavy Weights acknowledged]
That little mystery solved Katsu endeavored to pull himself to a stand, first gathering his legs solidly beneath them before groaning half in pain and effort as he pushed out hard with his legs. He reached his full height and nearly fell over, his balance unstable, but he managed to catch himself with the edge of the egg he had come from. His fingers grasped at the edges of the shredded surface, and for a moment it shifted with his weight, and he feared for a tiny moment he was going to end up sprawling out again. It however held, the texture of the surface thick and leathery, like a soggy tanned hide.
Finally on his feet, his mental gears working overtime to try and reorganize all of his thoughts into something cohesive, Katsu dully looked around the room he had blasted, finding the place both familiar and alien at the same time. He was obviously in some kind of laboratory; in fact it was some kind of laboratory that he himself might have designed, at least so far as the....mechanical bits were concerned. The walls were a pristine metallic color, the energy of the reinforcing mechanism exactly the same type as the one in his home lab, and the instruments that he hadn't managed to destroy were surgical tools he might have used in his genetic tinkering projects. There was much more than just mechanical parts to this room however. The great fleshy egg thing was not alone; there were many devices that Katsu had no idea what their actual function was, but many of them pulsed with an eery energy that he could only assume was magical in nature. Certainly he had never felt any machine, creature, or ki that gave off this kind of signature before.
Katsu's curiosity was ignited by the tiny devices all made of flesh, and he staggered away from the egg's shell, falling against one of the tables the devices were on, his feet splashing in the liquid on the floor. It was a struggle to move around still, and he took some time to steady himself before he slowly picked up one of the devices. It fit in the palm of his hand easily, in fact he felt it shift slightly to match the shape of his palm to be better grasped. Turning it over and over again in wonder Katsu vaguely got the impression it was a type of monitoring device, as if the device was sensing him somehow. A small indentation seemed to become apparent as he put it back in his hand right-side up, and he pressed it with a thumb. A holographic HUD, not unlike that produced by his lab tech, appeared, showing data that Katsu could recognize even if he couldn't understand the language it displayed. It was clearly biometric data; heartbeat, brain activity, and a thousand other readings were easily navigated by the experienced Bio-Engineer.
It was Katsu's own readings; he was about 87% sure. The heartbeat was what he expected for his situation; the brain activity was a bit lower in some sections, as if he were half-asleep, but given his recent condition that made sense. He still felt as if parts of his mental faculties were sleeping still. Yet his Ki readings were very abnormal, as well as his metabolic data. Katsu switched his gaze to his hand holding the device. It had changed color from his simple Caucasian skintone to something much darker and smoother. He had initially passed over this information; thinking perhaps it was the effects of the fluid he had been submerged in, but as he used his other arm to scrub at his left he felt the change was literally more than skin deep.
His hands reached up to touch his face, the device placed back on the table, as Katsu explored the contours of his own skull. Yes, the shape of the cheekbones and jawline was definitely different that what he remembered, the cheeks less sunken and the chin “stronger”. The nose seemed a bit thinner but longer as well. Eye sockets had a different shape. Katsu continued to reach around his head, noting his hair. It was really long. He normally only kept it at a few inches long; his hair naturally curling up when it was any longer, but now it was well past his shoulders. He grabbed a lock of it and placed it up to view. It was the wrong color. His hair used to be dark, nearly black. Now it was clearly a metallic silver color. Not natural to human DNA at all. Even his ears were different; they were pointed!
Either I'm mistaken or someone turned me into a Konatsian. That doesn't sound like something I'd do to myself. Maybe someone else, but not me. came the idle thought as Katsu called out in an attempt to get a computer to respond to him. ”Aliza? Display me on all monitors in this room please.”
For a second nothing happened, and Katsu wondered if his voice had changed enough to be unrecognizable to the AI, but eventually a voice that didn't match that of Aliza answered him. “Displaying subject: Cel'Daren Mithanil”
There was that name again. This time spoken by a computer instead of a voice in his head. Apparently someone had wanted him to change his name along with his everything else. He gave a mental shrug, merely waiting for his image to pop up on any monitors still functioning in the room. When it did he wasn't surprised. Based on the sensations of his own touch based inspection the image that popped up on the screens made complete sense. Yes; he looked very...Konatsian. Except he was much darker. His skin a muted dark bronze color. He hadn't heard of any Konatsian with that skin color, their DNA made them predisposed towards pale skin. So either a melanistic Konatsian or just a bit of an appearance change over his natural human genetics. The latter seemed more likely. He turned his head this way and that as he inspected himself, exploring the various differences of his body. He noted that he was taller now as well, in addition to possessing a more muscular frame than he had before. In fact many parts of his body were enhanced in that manner, as if someone had tried to shift his appearance closer towards the ideal human.
A certain level of beauty was attained, although it was mostly ruined by the fluid that still dripped from Katsu's body, and he eventually began to look around for something to clean himself off with. A shower stall with a set of unadorned clothing, miraculously protected by the same energies that had reinforced the walls. Thankfully the whole setup was purely mechanical. Katsu just then truly didn't want to have to deal with any more magical organic technology. It was going to take him days to feel properly clean again, he just knew it.
Perhaps an hour later Katsu left the shower with the fresh clothes, floating above the floor as he telekinetically gathered up all the liquid on the ground and sealed it back into the egg he had exited by simply reattaching the parts he had blasted free. The shower itself had taken so long not because Katsu had been particularly thorough but instead because he was still having trouble moving. Washing his own body had felt like trying to bench press a bus, the luffa he was using slipping from his grasp repeatedly until he simply used telekinesis to clean himself. He felt exhausted from his ordeal in the egg, and although he was mostly clean and in fresh clothes (his usual labcoat, shirt, and slacks with dress shoes) he still felt dirty and abused somehow. He still had absolutely no memory of what events might have led up to him having ended up in a transformation chamber, or rebirth chamber or whatever it's purpose had been. On top of that he was in a completely different body than the one he remembered, and even as he left the room he accidentally bumped against the door as he tried to open it, the extra height throwing off his timing of when to grab for the doorknob and turn.
Which might have been for the best, considering what was on the other side of the door. The steel door was opened, a standard hallway appearing beyond, and then Katsu move through it and closed it, for some reason feeling a need to look back at the door as he closed it. It was shut tightly, and Katsu looked back at the hallway...
…to find himself in the middle of his living room, in his mansion home on Mount Paozu. Blinking once in surprise Katsu quickly turned back to look for the door he had stepped through, to of course find a blank wall. Rubbing his head with one hand Katsu gave a sigh. This situation was completely out of hand!
“It's gone. The door. The egg. The room. It was only supposed to last as long as it took for you to hatch. You're ahead of schedule, Cel'Daren.” came a high-pitched feminine voice from nearby, and as Katsu turned to look at them he saw a small girl who shared a great deal of features with him. She sat on top of an end table next to his couch, swinging her legs back and forth as she spoke. Pointed ears, a specific shape of the face, her lips just then curled up into a smile that was clearly false to the eyes of the Bio-Engineer. Even her skin was similar, although it was different in that it had more pigment than his own, being more purplish than bronzed. She looked to be no more than eleven or so, her clothing typical for the Gothic Lolita style that had been popular in East City among cosplayers recently, and the big purple bow she had wrapped her hair into an intricate style with just completed the image.
A thousand different ideas flooded through Katsu's mind at once, but he had to actually turn away and place his hand to his face to avoid looking directly at the girl for a moment. Katsu had a weaknesses for cute things; he could ignore all the seductive charm in the world thrown at him at once, but when it came to things that were cute he couldn't muster a mental defense! Focusing on the hundreds of other things that also occupied his brain just then he decided that things were alright. Katsu remembered speaking to a council of humanoids hidden by dark cloaks in a mental landscape. They had spoke of offering him their abilities and knowledge, making him one of them, in return for aid of their people. The egg room, his transformation. This girl. They could all be easily explained with that information. The egg room was most likely a pocket dimension that had been created to provide a safe and controlled environment for Katsu to be transformed without issue. The people he had been talking with were incredibly skilled with magic, he knew that at the start. The transformation of his appearance was most likely what they meant by making him one of them. It wasn't a club you could just join, so they had to edit his genetics to have him fit. Talk about strict entry parameters.
Katsu was going to have fun looking through his own DNA later, he was sure. However that did leave the girl. She was most likely his liaison and guide when it came to being...whatever he had been turned into. There were of course a lot of other questions he would have to ask at some point, but he decided to start with the basics. ”Alright, so Cel'Daren is my name among your...tribesmen. I guess. Memory seems fuzzy a bit. Your name is?” Katsu extended a hand as part of his question, an invitation for her to speak.
However the girl's false smile slipped a notch, being replaced by mild confusion. Apparently this was something that Katsu was supposed to know? She frowned a moment before responding, her eyes telling Katsu that she was completely suspicious of his words, ”...The Council didn't tell you? I am Sel'Aya Mithanil.”
Shaking his head Katsu tried to rack his brains for any memory concerning that name, but found nothing. It wasn't that surprising though. Katsu had once been put in a coma with brain damage (thanks to an Oozaru during the Saiyan Invasion) and had lost entire months of his own memory upon wakening. Considering the transformation he had gone through in that egg, although he wasn't sure exactly what kind of transformation it was, Katsu wouldn't find it surprising that a few wires had gotten crossed in his neural pathways and he had forgotten something else. Frustrating, to be sure, but not something he could change just yet.
Finally Katsu gave a shrug and responded to the girl, ”Nothing. I have no recollection of what I spoke of with your Council members beyond their offer to make me into one of your tribe with access to your knowledge and techniques in return for my aid.”
”Well...I suppose I'll just have to work through your memory loss, then.” Sel'Aya gave a childish grin at Katsu, and for once he felt that it was a genuine smile, and he had to turn his head to the side again in order not to blush. She was too adorable for Katsu to handle! He wasn't sure if he wanted to make her smile like that often or if he wanted to sever the muscles in her face that let her smile at all!
Sel'Aya continued, her elation plain in her voice even as she missed Katsu's reaction to her smile, ”Well, I am essentially your liaison and guide with the Dragon Zoan Clan, Cel'Daren Mithanil. My goal is to assist you as to acclimate to your new abilities as a Dragon Zoan as well as have you teach me about the world as it is now, to better prepare the Clan for returning to th.”
Suddenly Katsu interjected, speaking over the rest of what Sel'Aya had been trying to say. ”Whoa. Dragon Zoan Clan? I think there's a mistake here somewhere then. I don't exactly look like a reptile, do I? If you are Dragon Zoans, I think something went wrong with the transformation. I cannot currently breathe fire or sprout scale covered wings to fly, for example.”
As Katsu spoke Sel'Aya's eyes became larger and larger, her breath held so tightly she looked like she was trying to imitate a bullfrog. When Katsu finished speaking she was obviously distressed, her tiny hands gripping the edge of the table she sat on tightly enough to drain the blood, ”..You...you're joking right?...” When Katsu gave her a shake of the head she nearly screamed in his face, her voice supernaturally loud to the point that things were beginning to shake and rattle, “That's IMPOSSIBLE! Our Clan are Masters of Transformation magics. We're the Best there is, and we put great effort into making sure your Inheritance transformation was perfect!
“No. There's no way. Those magics would have worked on anything short of one of the Kai. For them to fail you'd have to be something with the potential to reach for the power of the gods.” The final bit of her speech was laced with venomous sarcasm, her disdain for such an idea that her people could have failed was clear. She held her people in high regard in terms of skill, Katsu had to give her respect in his mind for her adamant faith.
However she had to face reality, ”Perhaps not the gods, but something surely more than a mere human. I am a Bio-Engineer, Cel'Aya. That means that my sphere of knowledge revolves around modifying and improving living organisms, including myself. I have altered my own genetics; the part of your body that tells it how to form itself, and have improved my physical form thusly. I have also taken a serum that absorbs and concentrates the energy in my body, which us humans call Ki. Perhaps this mixture of circumstances caused my body to absorb the magics that were attempting to transform it, accepting the part that changed my basic appearance but keeping me human rather than turning into one of your tribe?” Katsu gave the best option that he could muster, the one with the most positive outlook and that didn't call Sel'Aya's people incompetent.
It did seem to work; Sel'Aya did not seem angry at his words and instead went silent for an extended period, her mental gears churning. Finally she seemed to accept the idea as plausible, ”That...Yes. It's like you were transforming yourself into a Paragon of your species. Your transformation's origin source may have been wildly different but the source doesn't matter, only the effect. The transformation to a Paragon is one my people know of, but it is a very difficult thing to achieve; with very disastrous results if something goes wrong.
“When we perform such transformation magics on someone we place safeties into the process to protect against such failings. The Inheritance and Paragon transformations are almost mutually exclusive. If you're undergoing the Paragon transformation, our safeties would have stopped the Inheritance transformation before you were irreparably damaged.” Sel'Aya proceeded to slump forward, her head hanging low. Her voice was barely above a whisper, as if she was speaking to herself, and she truly sounded miserable, “We've failed our part of the bargain. There is no deal for him to uphold and yet we've wasted the last of our resources placing me into the world... The Clan is doomed to finally die..”
Of course at this Katsu had to tilt his head, ”Hmm? I plan to aid the Dragon Zoan Clan regardless of the circumstances we find ourselves in, Sel'Aya.” He was almost immediately rewarded with an incredulous stare as she snapped her head up and looked at him, her face turning a few wild colors before she could contain her emotions enough to ask the obvious, ”Why?!”
At this Katsu would give a small smile as he placed his hands behind his back, and he replied as if it was the simplest thing in the world, ”Knowledge.”
Confusion clouded Sel'Aya's features for a moment, and Katsu continued during that pause, ”Your Clan is ancient to the point that no one even knows who they even are anymore. Your magics are powerful and exotic to me, one who has lived in a world of science all of my life. You and your people are a veritable treasure trove of lost knowledge. In my eyes letting your Clan die out would be a crime most heinous.”
The complete and utter incredulity on Sel'Aya's face was almost worth taking a photo of, but Katsu decided better; she seemed more than a little high strung and he'd probably get hit with something heavy otherwise. Still, it was obvious she didn't believe him at all, and she cited a very logical reason why, “Do you understand just how massive of an undertaking this is supposed to be?! Our numbers aren't in the dozens, hundreds, or thousands; our tribe was once one of the most prosperous to ever exist on this planet. We number in the millions! The magics we utilized to hide ourselves from the entire universe were formed by the greatest minds of our entire race and took the resources of whole nations to pull off.
“This is something that should require the power of an alliance of worlds, and you want to say you're going to set this in motion, to undergo a task that not even the greatest of Heroes could hope to accomplish... just to learn our lore?!” The tiny girl was nearly screaming at Katsu by the end of her tirade, her body shaking with her emotions, the wooden table she was clutching beginning to crack and splinter in her grasp, punctuating her words perfectly.
”Things that are worth doing tend not to be easy; regardless of the difficulty I will do what I can to aid your people in their return.”
Sel'Aya looked at Katsu for a long time before speaking in a quiet tone, ”You're insane. You're absolutely insane...”
”No, child. He is a Sage.” the sudden interjection of a new voice into the conversation startled both Katsu and Sel'Aya, although they took it differently. Katsu, who had some measure of life experience and dealing with crazy shit, merely turned his head to look at the new voice, his heartbeat only speeding for a moment or two before it calmed back down. Sel'Aya though recognized the voice and immediately felt as if she was in school once again, and she jumped from the startlement and then leapt off the table to give the cloaked figure that had spoken a bow of respect.
”E-Elder Galadragas! Greetings!” came the stammering voice of Sel'Aya. This was obviously someone she both respected and feared greatly, and Katsu would give the cloaked man bow as well, although it was much more controlled and he did not bow nearly so low as Sel'Aya had.
”Greetings, Elder. I would not claim myself a Sage. A Sage is one who is venerated for the knowledge and wisdom they possess to the point of fame and idolization. I have a long way to go before I could claim such a title; a very long way to go...”
The cloaked Elder's response was a deep throaty chuckle, a small shake of the head, and an amused response, “Spoken as a true Sage.”
Sel'Aya was still doubting, the exchange seemed full of lunacy, but the Elder's voice soon filled her head, hidden from Katsu's senses..”It is for this reason that we place our trust in him, Sel'Aya. He is a true seeker of knowledge. It is his purpose. Such people are some of the most dangerous as an enemy, but the greatest of allies. He seeks our knowledge; all of it. Cel'Daren will do what it takes to restore our Clan; even if he must crush worlds in his grasp to do so. Be a good mate to him, child. Guide him so that he does not make us regret our inevitable return to the world. That is your duty to your people...”
The voice faded from Sel'Aya's mind, and the image that had been in front of both Katsu and Sel'Aya also slowly faded from sight. Elder Galadragas had merely projected his image to them to help resolve Sel'Aya's doubt and remind her of her duty. She wasn't happy, not in the slightest, but Sel'Aya had been chosen as the one to help bring her Clan back to prominence. It was a huge honor, and all Sel'Aya could think of was her people trapped in slumber or else tending to the magics, their lives empty and dull. They needed to return to the world or else they would perish.
Giving a deep sigh, Sel'Aya would turn herself back to Katsu, her hands on hips and a sullen look on her face, ”Alright Mr Sage. I still think you're insane as they come, but if you're willing to do this I'm duty-bound to assist. You got the beginnings of a plan or what, Cel'Daren?”
For his part, Katsu would give a crooked smile and beckoned for Sel'Aya to follow as he headed towards his kitchen, ”First? Breakfast. Then we get your bedroom set up for you, then training. We'll need to see what power if any I've gained from this transformation, and I need to know what you yourself are capable of...
“..Oh. Right. Bacon and Eggs fine for you?”
Sel'Aya skipped along behind the taller man, giving a shrug in response before beginning to skip once more, ”I've never eaten real food. Magic was used to sustain me. What's Bacon and Eggs taste like?”
Mithanil just smiled...