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“Can’t we just do it together, sosu??” Faputa whined, her ears flopping down to the sides of her head. Putting on her best puppy eyes, the princess trotted over to Nanachi, clasping her claws together. “Faputa doesn’t want to go alone, sosu! I’m tired!”
Nanachi sighed, gently laying one of their paws on Faputa’s head, “Nope. Only one of you can go.” The hollow paused, looking back at Riko as she seemingly found the stray coin from Orth in their bag. “Normally I’d say that you two could go together, but we’re in a more dangerous part of the 6th layer. So we need one of you guys to stay here since Riko and I can’t fight like the two of you can.” They finished, alternating between pointing at Faputa and pointing at Reg.
Pouting, Faputa backed off. Slowly bounding over to Reg and jumping up onto his head. After a few seconds passed as the hollow princess got comfortable, the aubade spoke up.
“I can just go.” He suggested, “If Faputa doesn’t want to, I’m more than willing to do it myself.”
Faputa’s light golden eyes glittered with admiration as she nuzzled her face into Reg’s dark brown hair. Cooing out a quiet ‘fuaaann~’ as she wrapped her fluffy white tail around the two of them.
Nanachi sighed again, putting their hands on their hips, their long tail thumping against the ground in slight irritation. “Naaaa… Sorry, but I think we should let the coin decide for this one. Plus, I don’t think we should overly spoil the princess. Just because you’re tired doesn’t mean you can just skip out on certain responsibilities.”
Riko giggled as she made her way over to Nanachi, the coin resting in the palm of her still functional right hand.
“Sosu…” Faputa groaned, rolling off of Reg’s head and flopping onto the grass covered ground with a soft thump; As she pouted once again, she wrapped her tail around herself as she crossed her front set of arms across her chest, “How is an object with such low value going to make a decision? There doesn’t seem to be anything special about it, sosu. It doesn’t even seem to have a conscience.”
“Well, the coin itself has two sides.” Riko explained as she walked over to the princess, holding the coin out in her palm for Faputa to examine, “You flip it and whichever side is facing upward once it lands is the result you go with. You assign different things to the different sides by the way. Also no, the coin doesn’t have a conscience. It’s just an inanimate object.” After Riko had finished, she squatted down and patted Faputa on the head for a second before leaning back and readying the coin on her thumb.
“Alright.” The young white whistle started, waiting for everyone’s attention, “Heads for Reg, Tails for Faputa.” She announced.
Nanachi’s expression turned to an unimpressed look, “You chose tails for Faputa on purpose, didn’t you.” They murmured.
“Well it makes sense!” Riko shot back, a small smirk on her face, “You probably would’ve done the same!”
“I guess.”
“Exactly.” Riko hummed.
Faputa sat up as the two conversed about the coin, she could hunt for herself, she’s done it thousands of times before. But back then, it was just for her; and even if she were tired in the way she was now, she could just have Gaburoon catch something for her. But Gaburoon was gone now. And even though she had Reg back, she didn’t want to force him to do something he didn’t want to do—even though she may have done that in the past a few times. As Riko and Nanchi continued to get off topic, Reg sat down next to Faputa, crossing his legs and placing his remaining left hand down on the ground in the space left between his legs. Faputa still hadn’t learnt what happened to his right forearm. They still had it, Riko held onto it for safekeeping and for emergencies, like if they needed to use Reg’s rewriter; or ‘incinerator’ as Riko had apparently renamed it a while back. But she wondered how it got cut off. Even Faputa herself couldn’t get a scratch on the aubade’s more metallic body parts, even if she tried.
So how did someone or something manage to full on cut it off? With a blink, Faputa shook her head vigorously, she was getting off topic. Before the princess could turn and ask Reg how long Riko and Nanachi were going to chat for, she was cut off by Nanachi loudly groaning, “Ok! Are we gonna flip the coin or not? I’m getting hungry.”
“Oh! Yeah-” Riko startled, adjusting her glasses and looking down at the coin resting on her thumb, “I totally forgot about that! Ok, everyone ready?”
“Maen!” Faputa chirped, using her mother’s native language. Reg simply nodded.
“Alright.” Riko declared, amping up some unnecessary suspense, “On the count of three, I’m gonna flip it.”
“Naaaaa….” Nanachi sighed, running a paw down their face, “Just flip it.”
Riko turned to face the hollow again, her blonde bangs swiftly moving out of the way of her eyes from how fast she had pivoted. “Geez you’re offly grumpy today..”
“I’m just hungry.” Nanachi countered, their slightly goat-like chartreuse eyes narrowing.
Faputa and Reg quickly shared a glance. Faputa found this situation somewhat amusing, the more they stalled, the longer it took for a decision to be made. Meaning that if she was the final option, she’d have a bit more time to relax. Reg however, found the current situation a bit worrying. Those two never really argued like this. Even if this wasn’t exactly an argument per-say, he still didn’t like seeing people fight. Physically or verbally.
“I mean, I’m hungry too, but-”
Raising his hand and frantically waving it to get his friend’s attention, Reg quickly cut into the two’s conversation, “Let’s just flip the coin! If we keep getting off topic, we’ll all have to wait longer to eat. And I don’t think any of us want to wait any longer.”
Faputa’s gold eyes met Reg’s nervous cat-like amber ones again for a moment. This was how he was. He wanted the best for people, not wanting to hurt anyone. Geez, even back at the Village of Iruburu, when Faputa was absolutely beating him to a pulp, he barely fought back in any ways that would hurt her. That was one of the many reasons why she loved him. But by him cutting in like that, it cut down on her ‘relax time’. Even though the decision of who would go out still hadn’t been set in stone. The princess scowled slightly, burying her nose into one of her four arms.
“Yeah. Ok, no more getting off topic.” Riko agreed with a subtle nod, putting her right hand back in it’s earlier position. Ready to flip the coin. “ Three. Two. One!” She said quickly, flicking her thumb upwards and sending the coin flying.
Once it had hit the ground with a muffled yet metallic thump, Faputa leaned into where the coin was now sitting. She’s never seen a coin like this before. It was probably one from the surface, but she had never been anywhere but the sixth layer of the Abyss, so she really had no idea. And since she has never seen a coin like this, she really couldn’t make out what side it had landed on. Suddenly, a gloved hand reached out in front of her, grabbing the faded copper coin off of the grass.
“What’d it land on?” Nanachi asked, leaning over to Riko’s position and glancing over the girl’s shoulder.
“Tails.” Riko announced, shooting a slightly sympathetic glance to Faputa.
Faputa’s ears perked up in alarm, sitting up quickly as she sat all of her shiny red claws on the ground in front of her. “Faputa was tails wasn’t she, sosu…?” She muttered, her expression filling with disappointment, her ears slowly lowering as she spoke.
“Yeah…” Riko huffed out in reply. She was seemingly trying to act sad for the hollow princess, but the slight smirk on her lips was somewhat drawing away from it. But her green eyes showed genuine pity, even though it was only a little bit.
Groaning once again, Faputa flopped back onto the ground; wrapping her tail around herself again tightly. “What will I even look to catch, sosu…?” She murmured, her voice muffled by her fluffy arms.
“Do you know if the same creature you and Reg caught yesterday is anywhere around here? If it is, you could try going for that again.” Riko suggested, patting Faputa on the head gently.
“Maen…” Faputa grunted, sitting up now. “Faputa won’t be able to catch another one as big as last time though, sosu.” Her ears were still pressed flat against the back of her head.
“That’s ok!” Riko pressed, taking her hand off Faputa’s head and leaning back. “We don’t need anything big. If you were even to just find a really small one or a baby and bring it back, that’d be perfect.”
Eyeing the white whistle suspiciously, Faputa plopped back down onto the dirt and vegetation. Sighing, she curled herself back into a ball, pouting again.
“If Faputa doesn’t want to do it that badly, I can just-” Reg started, but was cut off by Nanachi shoving a brandy tan paw into his face.
“Nope. The coin’s decided. Stop being such a pushover.” They objected, raising their paw and softly bonking him on top of his head. Turning to face Faputa, Nanachi tapped the top of the other hollow’s head. “Anyway, Princess. You’re hungry too, aren’t you? How about you stop sulking and go get some food. Riko can make it into something really good again.”
“The same thing as last time, sosu?” Faputa asked, a look of hopefulness spreading onto her face.
“If you want!” Riko replied happily, “Or I could make something different.”
“Same thing!” Faputa exclaimed, uncurling and hopping off the ground, bounding over to the shrub like plants surrounding the party’s current resting place. “Faputa will be back soon, sosu!” She chirped, smiling with all of her shark-like teeth.
As the original trio sat and watched the princess leave, Nanachi glanced at the others with a small smirk.
“She really likes that stew doesn’t she?”
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As the princess stalked her prey, she crept through the overgrown vegetation of the sixth layer on all fours -sixes?-. She had found a notably smaller version of the creature she had killed the day before. Riko had never told any of them it’s name, or maybe she also didn’t know it’s name. The text on the page of the human girl’s mother’s journal was mirrored, making it almost impossible for them to read it with ease.
Faputa took quick yet careful steps through the underbrush, trying to be as quiet as she possibly could as to not attract the beast’s attention. The hollow continued to approach slowly, readying her claws for when the moment to pounce came. As the creature continued to feed off the odd flora of the lower layers of the Abyss, Faputa closed in. Her ears pressed flat against her head, making herself as small as possible. Adjusting her digitagrade back legs much like a cat would, she dug the claws of her back pair of arms into the earth. Once the princess was sure the beast wasn’t going to make any quick moves, she pounced.
Jumping out from her cover, she slammed into the back of the creature; digging her claws into it’s back. The beast leapt up in surprise with a roar, bucking back and forth in an attempt to knock Faputa off of it. This just made Faputa dig all twelve of her claws into it’s flank even harder. However, she was caught off guard when the creature stood up on it’s hind legs and slammed onto the ground on it’s back, almost landing on her.
Before it had landed, Faputa released her grip and dashed out of the way; using her claws to dig into the ground to keep her from sliding away too far. Grass tore out from the earth as she skid to a stop, watching as the beast got back up and stood it’s ground. Even if this animal was smaller than others, it put up quite a fight.
Faputa hurtled back at the beast, slamming into it’s front side this time. But before she could open her mouth wide enough to give it a killing bite to the throat, the creature somehow lowered it’s head enough to headbutt her off again. Hitting the ground and letting out a squeak of alarm, Faputa shot back up, tail bristling and sticking straight up. All six of her limbs braced against the floor.
“Stop fighting back so hard, sosu!” The hollow screeched, sprinting around the beast in an attempt to confuse it. She wasn’t as fast as Reg could be at times, but she was still extremely agile; almost otherworldly so.
Leaping onto the beast’s back again, she made sure her claws were dug into it’s pelt as securely as possible, wasting no time in driving her razor sharp teeth into it’s nape. Once again, the creature let out a yowl, but this time it was out of pain.
As it thrashed around in a feeble attempt to buck Faputa off one more time, the hollow bit into it’s neck harder. Slowly running out of the energy and adrenaline to keep fighting, the beast gradually slumped onto the ground, it’s weighty body going slack. Faputa took a second to take a breather, licking the blood from her maw. Before the creature could lie in it’s own blood for much longer, the immortal princess wrapped three of her blood-stained furry arms around the beast’s hefty body. Dragging it over the vegetation and back to the area where the rest of the party was waiting.
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“-Turbinid Dragon did that?”
As Faputa neared the clearing, she heard snippets of a conversation being had by the others. She only caught the last part of what Nanachi had just said though.
“Yeah, back by the village. I-it didn’t hurt or anything! I was just kind of surprised.” She heard Reg comment.
Once the princess had finally hulled her kill over the last of the shrubs in her path, she peaked into the glade. Nanachi had Reg’s left arm in their paws, examining something on it. Riko was just a few steps away from them; seemingly finishing up on preparing the pot she was going to cook their food in. The other ingredients they were planning on using were neatly scattered around the area immediately around the kettle.
“Yeah, looks like it just got chipped. It didn’t actually cut into you, unlike he did.” Nanachi explained, glancing over to the aubade’s severed right arm with a glare.
Hearing that, Faputa hopped into the clearing. Leaving her prey in the grass, she trotted over to where Reg and Nanachi were sitting; swiftly jumping onto Reg’s head once again, causing him to yelp in alarm.
“Who’s ‘he’, sosu?” Faputa asked, her tail swishing from side to side, feeling Reg untense under her.
Startled, Nanachi’s eyes shot up to meet the other hollow’s. They relaxed soon after however, sighing. “Geez… Welcome back Faputa. Did you get anything?”
Nodding eagerly, Faputa flicked her tail in the direction of where she had left the dead beast, “Maen!” She chirped.
Glancing over in the direction the princess had pointed to, Nanachi hummed, “Good!” they praised, reaching up and giving Faputa a quick pet, “Riko! Faputa got the goods!” They shouted, getting the girl’s attention.
Spinning around and spotting the deceased creature, Riko’s face lit up.
“Great!” She exclaimed, getting up and almost skipping over to where it lay, “This is perfect Faputa!”
Blushing, the hollow princess used her front two paws to hover over her face, “Really, sosu?” She asked. She liked receiving praise, it felt nice. But in a way, she deserved praise. She was a princess after all.
“Absolutely, sosu.” Riko replied, copying Faputa’s way of speaking for a moment.
Looking back down at Nanachi and Reg, Faputa leaned down to be practically face to face with the other white-haired hollow, “Hey, naa-person. You said ‘he’ a bit ago, sosu. What did you mean?” She asked, genuinely curious. If whoever ‘he’ was had been the one to cut off her third and final haku’s arm, she’d like to have a little bit more than just a word with ‘him’.
Nanachi looked confused for a moment, simply squinting at the princess’s face. Suddenly their eyes widened as they realized what Faputa meant. “Oh! I was just talking about a good-for-nothing bastard.”
“Be more specific, sosu.” Faputa suddenly demanded, her gold eyes squinting in the way they usually did when she was trying to look serious.
“They meant Bondrewd.” Reg answered, fiddling with a stray piece of grass he plucked from the ground. He looked uncomfortable.
Faputa tilted her head. She jumped back onto the ground, turning to face the other two and wrapping her tail around the lower half of her body. “Bondrewd?”
“A white whistle. The Sovereign of Dawn. He’s back on the 5th layer though, so we don’t need to worry about him anymore.” Nanachi groaned, they seemed to hold a grudge against this guy, huh?
“Worry?” Faputa asked. But as if a lightbulb had gone off in her head, her ears perked up and her eyes widened. Quickly slithering to be on the opposite side to the two than the one she was previously on, Faputa abruptly grabbed onto what remained of Reg’s right arm. “Faputa could tell this was fresh when she first saw it, sosu. The 5th layer is just above this one, right, sosu? Did that guy do this?!” Her tone slowly filled with more and more rage as she continued, her tail lashing from side to side.
“Yup.” Nanachi simply replied, popping the ‘p’, seeming pretty unbothered. “He was also the one who turned me into a hollow and Prushka into that whistle.” Nanachi gestured to themself and then over to the white whistle tied around Riko’s neck. “But don’t worry, we took care of him.”
“I had to kill him twice.” Reg muttered, looking at the ground.
Before Faputa could ask more questions, Riko almost yelled to get the three’s attention. “Do you guys wanna help?” There was an extremely small hint of annoyance in her voice but it was barely noticeable.
Getting up off the ground with a grunt, Nanachi began to pad over to the girl. “Yeah.” They said simply, stretching for a brief moment.
As Reg tried to get up as well, Faputa gently slammed into his torso, pushing the two to the ground. Landing on his back, the aubade gave Faputa a startled look as she adjusted her position on top of him, getting comfortable.
“Faputa is tired, sosu.” The princess answered to an unspoken question, “So Reg needs to stay with Faputa in case we need to move, sosu.”
With a blink, Reg caught the other two’s eyes in a silent plea for assistance. Nanachi just smirked and shrugged, turning back around to continue cutting up the meat they had already removed from the rest of the creature’s carcass. Riko simply gave him a sympathetic look. She was just a human child after all, there wasn’t much she could do to get an absurdly strong immortal princess to move.
Looking back at Faputa now, Reg hesitantly retorted, “I doubt anythings going to come here, Faputa…Plus, I don’t think I’m that comfortable to lay on.”
Swiftly yet gently slapping her tail over Reg mouth, Faputa hummed, “No complaining, sosu. Also, you’re wrong. You are very nice to lay on, sosu.”
Without looking up from her current task, Riko let out a noise of agreement in reply to Faputa’s statement. “She’s right. You are really comfortable to sleep on, Reg.” Nanachi looked at Riko in surprise before looking back at Reg and Faputa in confusion.
“Wh-?” Reg started, but quickly let it go and sighed; letting his head heavily drop down to the floor. Giggling, Faputa nuzzled into the aubade’s cheek. Removing her tail from the boy’s mouth, the princess wrapped her tail around herself as she settled down.
“Damn…” Nanachi whispered, slowly looking back down at their paws, “She’s really got him well trained.”
“That’s just how he is, I guess.” Riko quietly laughed as she added some of the herbs she had just cut up into the now boiling water, “Also, ‘well trained’? You’re treating him like a dog!”
“You named him after a dog. Also don’t pretend that you don’t realize that he acts like a dog sometimes. He literally followed Prushka’s scent a few days ago like a hunting dog.”
With a sigh, Riko nodded, “Yeah… It’s kind of funny. If you ask him to do something nicely enough he’ll most likely do it.”
“That’s cuz’ he’s a pushover.” Nanachi commented.
Chuckling slightly, Riko nodded again, “He’s a pushover.” She agreed, finally putting the meat into the work in progress stew as well.
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“Food’s ready!!” Riko shouted happily, holding up two of the four bowls as a brief display.
As if the girl had said a magic word, Faputa instantly perked up at the mention of food. Her ears shot upwards as she swiftly sat up, still forcing Reg to be her bed. The princess jumped off of the aubade and practically ran over to the human child, her tail wagging.
“It’s the same stuff as last time, right sosu?” Faputa asked, taking one of the bowls from Riko’s hands.
“Yup!” Riko replied with a brief yet energetic nod, “Do you want to hand a bowl to Reg?”
Grabbing the dish, Faputa nodded happily. The hollow turned around quickly, trotting over to where she and Reg were last sitting. Softly skidding to a stop, Faputa gently handed one of the two bowls she had to Reg. The aubade grabbed it as he finished sitting back up, which took a hot second. He may have gotten used to missing an arm, but that didn’t mean that he was dealing perfectly fine without it.
As Faputa sat back down next to Reg, Riko and Nanachi made their way over to the two with their own bowls. Everyone’s bowls had spoons except for Faputa’s. She didn’t need a spoon, thank you very much!
Nanachi plopped down onto the ground with a fluffy thump, eating their stew almost immediately after they sat down. Riko sat down with a bit more grace, albeit just a small amount more.
“Have you guys ever wondered how those Amaranthine Deceptors got up to the 4th layer?” Riko started as she began eating, “There’s no way to get up from the 6th layer beside from the lift for a cave raider’s Final Dive and the Sea of Corpses.”
Nanachi sighed through a bite, “I don’t know. Nor do I care that much. We should just worry about what’s going on now.”
“Amaranthine Deceptors?” Faputa asked with a tilt of her head, lifting her head up from her bowl.
“They’re these insects that feed off of and plant their young into any living thing’s body. They look like the leaves of Eternal Fortunes. Y’know, those white flowers you see everywhere. They mostly live down here in the 6th layer, but we found out that they somehow made their way up to the 4th layer.” Nanachi explained, still eating their own stew.
“Oh! Those things, sosu.” Faputa chirped, suddenly shuddering at a memory, “Faputa once saw the carcass of a beast covered in those things and their larva, sosu…”
“Gross…” Reg grimaced.
With the clap of her hands, Riko quickly silenced the group, a slightly disgusted look was evident on her face, “Ok!” She exclaimed, “No more talking about Amaranthine Deceptors while we’re eating!”
Taking another bite of the meat in their stew, Nanachi nodded, “Yes. Thank you.”
The party ate in silence for a minute, just enjoying the food. However, suddenly, Reg perked up, “Didn’t Bondrewd say that Srajo and Wakuna were down here too? In the lower layers of the Abyss? Do you think we’ll run into them?”
“I hope so!” Riko beamed, “It’d be great to meet more White Whistles!”
Sharing a slightly concerned and disappointed glance, Reg and Nanachi stiffened slightly.
“All of the White Whistles we’ve… or at least you guys met have either beat the ever-loving crap out of you or traumatized one of us in more than one way. Are you sure you want to meet more of those guys?” Nanachi asked, their rabbit-like ears twitching slightly. Personally, they didn’t want to run into any more cave raiders, White Whistle or not. Those guys have always meant trouble to them.
“Mhm!” Riko hummed enthusiastically, “White Whistles are the voice of the Abyss after all! And since I’m a White Whistle now, I want to see others with these!” Pointing to her whistle as she finished. “Plus, we have Faputa with us now. So we have more than one person who can fight and is immune to the curse now.”
“Curse?” Faputa asked, finishing up her current bowl of soup. She was definitely going to grab some more in a moment.
“If a human ascends in the Abyss, they get hit with the strains of ascension. The 6th layer’s curse for example is ‘the loss of one’s humanity or death’. Ascending here is what turns a person into a hollow. But since you were never human and Reg isn’t a human either, you two are immune.” Nanachi explained again, they were considered ‘the brains’ of the team after all.
“Ohhhh.” Faputa hummed in response.
“Anyway,” Riko began, looking down at Faputa’s now empty bowl, “Do you want some more food, Faputa?”
The princess’s ears shot up again. She nodded enthusiastically, a wide grin on her face.
“Yes please, sosu!”