Azure Chronicles: Maelstrom

"Waterproofness... neat," Zalroth remarked mentally, finding the complete immunity to the surrounding liquid from the phone he received from Katika to be quite interesting. Zalroth even remarked that Zukia would have a geek fit over it if she had it in her hands. Whilst he and Kuuyasa were suspended in the turquoise liquid, anti-luminescent bubbles floated past the duo, bobbing up and down as they gradually rose toward the surface. As she slowly spun through the liquid, Kuuyasa wobbled in place unable to move with the flailing of her arms, legs, and tail giving her no support in her endeavour to change her position in physical space. At watching her squirming and goofy expression displaying her mild exertion, Zalroth amusedly chuckled, his voice unaffected by the liquid, as he reached out and grabbed onto Kuuyasa's tail, making her tense up and halt her flailing.

"Heading nowhere fast are you?" Zalroth joked, an amused grin forming on his face as he felt a tingle in his bones from the remark he made. Kuuyasa raised an eyebrow, struggling to figure out what Zalroth found so humorous, and tilted her head as Zalroth pulled her towards himself.

"So, are gates normally like this?" Zalroth asked. Kuuyasa shook her head, refusing to speak so she didn't intake any of the surrounding liquid. Placing his free hand on his chin and humming, Zalroth mused over something and tapped a finger against his cheek as a thought occurred to him, making him lower his hand.

"By any chance, is this liquid made of or contains that kaiser energy stuff?" Zalroth asked. In response, Kuuyasa nodded two separate times to imply both options were the case. Finding her response slightly confusing, Zalroth had to glance around at his barebone surroundings, wondering if he should say what he was thinking or not before deciding his question just had to be asked.

"So, you'll eat a dimensional fracture in space-time... but won't drink a glorified kaiser smoothie?" Zalroth remarked. Only after a brief change in her expression, Kuuyasa physically buffered with the sound of a dial-up connection emanating from her mouth causing Zalroth to raise an eyebrow in surprise at hearing the sound as Kuuyasa processed Zalroth's remark.

"Huh...," Kuuyasa mumbled, leaving her mouth agape at believing Zalroth thought she was being picky about what she consumed. After a few seconds to ponder, Kuuyasa snapped out of her trance and aggressively shook her head as she turned bright red from a sudden bubbling fury from within. She erupted into a furious shout, exclaiming she'd never drink a medical solution just because she was the devourer god as her shout generated enough force to rupture the ballon-like pod the duo were in.

With the solutions gushing out and covering the rocky purple terrain, Zalroth landed on one foot with his other raised behind himself while carrying a stroppy Kuuyasa on the heel of his foot. As her red complexion turned from a furious red to a timid pink, Kuuyasa raised her knees to her face and curled up into a fetal position as she wrapped her tail around herself as much as she could for extra coverage.

"My apologies; seems this old fox must have been rather insensitive just now," Zalroth stated calmly as he raised a hand while focusing on keeping his balance. He placed a hand on the top of her head before gently caressing her hair and making Kuuyasa mildly raise her eyes from her knees as the tip of her tail flicked and wiggled happily.

"No... it's fine; you couldn't have done it intentionally you don't need to apologise to me," Kuuyasa mumbled in resignation, her voice filled with such defeat and pitifulness it made Zalroth's chest tense up in pure pain. Having his breath put on hold, Zalroth manoeuvred his free hand to his chest before clocking himself in his chest and forcing his breathing to start again. Not even flinching from the initial impact, Kuuyasa raised her head up from her knees, a worried glint in her eyes as she heard Zalroth forcing out heavy coughs.

"Whether intentional or not; as the one whose care you are in, it would be wrong of me to not apologise for causing you such discomfort," Zalroth stated his tone a mix of sternness and compassion. With how thoughtful his words were and how none angered he seemed it inadvertently caused Kuuyasa to feel even more embarrassed about yelling at Zalroth. Seeing her pout even more, Zalroth half-heartedly sighed and ruffled up her hair once more; as he summoned one of his kitsune tails and wrapped it around Kuuyasa's waist, Zalroth hoisted Kuuyasa off his foot and swiftly plopped her on top of his head where she clung to his head like a bicycle helmet.

Zalroth glanced up at Kuuyasa, listening to her pouty murmurs grow weaker and quieter as he felt her weight press more and more into him until she began to snore. Zalroth couldn't help but smirk, finding Kuuyasa flipping from pouting to sleeping so quickly rather familiar to a certain time-bending gremlin.

"Seems all kids nowadays have it rough, no matter the reality," Zalroth remarked as he glanced up to the purple cloud-covered sky.

A little bit later, Zalroth marched his way through the rocky landscape, its terrain littered with the same kaiser solution pods he and Kuuyasa were spawned into when entering the Gate. The pods hung from the ground like anchored balloons, swaying mildly despite the absence of wind leading Zalroth to assume it was caused by the faint jolts he felt beneath his feet. He raised a foot a few inches off the ground before stomping the ground, sending a tremor through the terrain and forcing the solution pods to wobble about like bobbleheads.

"I wonder...," Zalroth muttered aloud. As the solution pods' wobbling died down and returned to their usual swaying, a thought occurred to Zalroth, ushering him to a single conclusion.

"Perhaps a large kaiser beast was here...," Zalroth remarked, his voice tongue and cheek as he jokingly thought it was rather ironic he of all people was in a situation where he couldn't sense a large creature. Placing his hands on his hips, Zalroth Jokingly remarked that Chronia would certainly make a joke about the kaiser beast being right behind them only for it to suddenly be behind them. After a moment of pause, Zalroth briefly glanced behind himself, sighing in obnoxious annoyance at the sheer lack of a kaiser beast being where he wanted to be.

"How does she do it?" Zalroth grumbled defeatedly with the sound of Chronia giggling ringing in his ear, which to the mini-mental Chronia's suprise made Zalroth's mood rise and smugly grin.

"Well, at least I get the cool fight clashes, at least," Zalroth said snarkily to the mental image of Chronia as she playfully crossed her arms in a pout and faded away. Zalroth contently and lightly rocked his head from side to side, stirring Kuuyasa slightly awake and forcing her to reposition herself on Zalroth's head to stop herself from falling off.

"Is... that Metamorphosis?" Kuuysasa mumbled in a daze as she drifted back to sleep, leaving Zalroth with questions he didn't think he had.

"If that's a name... then whoever named Kuuyasa and her siblings have a worser naming sense than....". Zalroth's expression soured, the blurry image of a male wearing a metalic Persian green trench coat and surrounded by various species of snakes popped into his mind, dampening his mood. He swiftly shook his head to dispel the image from his mind, unintentionally shaking Kuuyasa awake, as he struggled to regain his composure.

"Yeah... as if," Zalroth remarked. Zalroth rubbed the back of his head before noticing Kuuyasa pointing ahead. As he traced the direction of Kuuyasa's hand, Zalroth eventually spotted the large Victorian-styled mansion situated in the hollowed-out section of a large purple mountain.

"She's over there I take it?" Zalroth asked cheerfully while hints of his dampened mood remained. Kuuyasa nodded energetically before leading off Zalroth's head and booking it for the structure, leaving Zalroth to amusedly rub the back of his head as he gradually marched after her.