Chapter 145 – The Plot Thickens
Nuwa collapses onto the floor with cum leaking out of her and a reluctantly satisfied smile on her face. The soreness in her pussy reminds her to be mad at her Big Bro Zag. She stands up on shaky knees, crosses her arms, and snorts adorably at him. Refusing to look at him, she walks a few steps away from him, but her snakes still work at cleaning his cock from where she’s standing.
Zagreus says with a chuckle, “Sorry, babygirl. You know I was just teasing!”
Nuwa is not too mad, otherwise she wouldn’t be cleaning him off. With a harumph, she says, “I’m not that mad at you. I’m mostly mad at myself for being unable to resist my desires. In my previous life, I always had everything under control during sex. It was when I was at my most powerful, but now.. I don’t know.”
Shaking his head, Zagreus argues, “You’re not weak! Those Casts of yours do more damage than my single hits and I have heard that we’re on a whole different level compared to mortals.”
Nuwa finishes up her cleaning and wraps her snakes around her. She clarifies, “Yeah, I know. I just miss that feeling of being in full control of my own body. In the end though, that is a shortcut and not something I should rely on. Give me a moment, I’m still sore.”
“Hmm whatever you say, sis.” replies Zagreus. He goes to check the room for any hidden Coins.
Nuwa pulls out her [Smartphone] and drops ‘Hey, how’s it going?’ messages to Zul, Tulen, and Zina.
Her daughter is the only one who responds right away. She shoots back, ‘Hi mommy! I’m at the club hanging out with a few friends.’
Smiling, Nuwa types back, ‘I hope you aren’t drinking or doing drugs, young lady. Send me pics if it’s convenient.’
Adept at typing, Zina replies quickly, ‘Don’t worry, mom. I’ve never tried drugs, but alcohol doesn’t affect my body no matter how much I drink. It’s not convenient to take a pic right now, but I’ve taken some before. Here’s my crew of besties!’
What Nuwa gets next makes her do a double take. They are still young adults, but she can clearly recognize them as Zaheer, P'Li, Ming-Hua, and Ghazan. The picture is a selfie of Zina making a peace sign in the foreground and the others in the background horsing around and looking exceptionally cheerful in a bar. They look nothing like the criminal terrorists that Nuwa is familiar with from canon. She knows that the Avatar Record follows canon closely though, so she is still worried for Zina.
Nuwa sinks into thought. ‘The new Avatar, Korra, should already be born in the days following Aang’s death. Since Xai Bau has been reformed and has died early, he would not have been able to radicalize Zaheer and his friends. From my limited knowledge, Zaheer of canon was always a stoic fellow. He is not the type to engage in happy horseplay. If the World’s Will is determined to turn Zaheer against the Avatar, I can assume that some tragedy or impetus that has yet to occur can still change his personality enough to turn him to the Red Lotus or some other terrorist group and convince him to attempt to kidnap Korra.’
‘I miss strategizing back in the Avatar Record. Here it’s just mindless killing, sheesh. At least I’m getting plenty of combat experience here, though.’
Zina messages Nuwa, ‘Mom.. should I tell them that I’m not human?’
Nuwa quickly replies, ‘No dear. You may trust them now, but people can change over time. If you can think of anything suspicious off the top of your head, then don’t do so. For example, if you suspect they have been involved in criminal activities at any point. You have to be very careful giving your trust to those who are prone to bad habits like that. I recommend only sharing your true self with your family and people who you would trust with your life.’
Zagreus returns and looks over at Nuwa’s shoulder to read the screen. “Your daughter? She’s cute. Wish we had these communication devices here. Hmm, is she in trouble?”
Nuwa replies, “I don’t know yet. I’ll prepare some countermeasures.” She messages Aiwei, ‘Can you investigate Zina’s four friends in this picture? *Attaches picture* Their names should be Zaheer, P'Li, Ming-Hua, and Ghazan in that order. I want to know everything about them, but try not to make it known to them or Zina. That means no direct interrogations of any of them unless they do something serious. This is not urgent, but it is important. ’
Zina messages back, ‘Don’t worry mom. A lot of the orphans on the Republic City streets worked for gangs at some point, including Ghazan and Ming-Hua, but my friends definitely put their past behind them! Gotta go, we’re still keeping these phones secret.’
“Alright, baby. Just be careful.” Nuwa messages back to Zina, aware that she cannot instill vigilance in her daughter’s mind through something so crude as a text. Frowning, Nuwa messages Azula about her worries, particularly about how Zaheer had been a militant anarchist in the original story she had read that allowed her to know a lot about the Avatar World’s future.
She recommends not to outright kill Zaheer, lest they anger the World’s Will. In her opinion, the Zaheer of canon serves as an important node in moving civilization forward. Not just that, despite going against the nonviolence of the air nomads, he would undoubtedly inspire future airbenders with his spiritually acquired weightlessness. As for the current Zaheer, as long as he doesn’t attempt to assassinate someone in her Gang or upset Zina, she doesn’t care what he does.
Putting her [Smartphone] away, she holds Zagreus’ hand and says, “Ok, I’m ready.”
They continue on through the next five chambers and grab some decent Boons. Nuwa sees Dionysus, who feels somewhat vaguely related to her Dao, and is always trying to invite Zagreus to the parties he hosts on the Surface. She hears from Zagreus that he thinks Dionysus hosts a never-ending party and feast. She sees Artemis, the most taciturn and isolated of those on Olympus.
Zagreus now has a Boon from Dionysus called After Party, which is amazing. It restores his health back up to 30% of his max if it is lower than that at the end of every chamber. This synergizes with Nuwa’s healing arrows, which she finds restores about 10% of his health. She can sparingly use them to keep him alive at low health at least until the chamber ends, after which he will restore some health with the Boon.
He also gets a Boon called Support Fire, which is one of Artemis’ strongest Boons. Every time he lands an attack on an enemy, a weak homing arrow comes out of the back of his spear. This arrow loops around and lands on any nearby enemy. This additional method of attack accrues massive damage when he spams attacks like he usually does. These powerful Boons make up for the slightly increased quantity of enemies they face due to escaping together rather than Zagreus going at it alone.
After picking up the Centaur Heart drop at the end of the seventh chamber, the duo hear a strange unsettling sound. It is an echo of a gasp that sounds both like a baby waking up and an old man going to sleep. Nuwa turns around and sees a perfectly round hole, which is big enough for two people to fit in, has opened up on the floor of Tartarus. A creepy black and purple smog floats out of it.
Nuwa immediately recognizes it as the same substance she had seen in Chaos’ Lair. She doesn’t know what to call it: Chaos, Void, Primordial Soup? In any case, it does not look safe to breathe it in or approach it. Zagreus, on the other hand, is extremely curious. He’s never seen anything like this in the past 10 years of doing runs, so he immediately lets go of Nuwa’s hand and jumps down.
Nuwa facepalms and follows after him helplessly. ‘This dumb idiot.. he’s so used to respawning that he doesn’t know there are beings above Gods that can permanently end or seal him! Oh no.. the fact that Chaos hasn’t appeared on Zagreus’ runs means that it wants to speak to me. If I don’t go, something bad could happen to Zagreus.’
“Damn it all!” she shouts, before she holds her breath and jumps into a free fall to follow her brother. Instead of the walls of the hole, like she expects to see, Nuwa can only see pitch-black darkness in all directions with the only source of dim light provided by the rapidly shrinking view of the torchlight in the hole to Tartarus above and stars twinkling light-years away below her in the distance as she allows gravity to claim her. ‘Stupid brother.. I’m so scared..’ is her last thought before she runs out of breath, feels pain in her lungs as the smog fills it, and blacks out.
~ ~ ~
Azula stands with arms crossed in front of a shady-looking white guy with white hair, who also has his arms crossed. She says, “I’m Azula.” He says, “Kakashi Hatake.” There’s a tense moment of silence. The teens think they are going to fight, but all they do is anticlimactically nod at each other. Shikamaru silently sighs in bliss from his sled and decides he is going to find a town populated exclusively by introverted people to live in one day.
Kakashi is tall, lean, and wears a black face mask that covers his mouth. The only exposed parts of his body are his eyes, wrists, and the ends of his fingers. He has one cloudy purple eye, which is an indication of having a Byakugan. He starts walking towards the south gate and gestures for the others to follow him.
While Azula is normally happy to be left alone and leave others alone, she knows the impracticality of not having any synergy or cooperation in a team. She walks beside Kakashi and asks, “So what is it that you do in Konoha?”
The kids behind them are paying close attention to the mysterious head of their team. Kakashi mumbles, “Shinobi stuff.” Noticing Azula’s deadpan, he clarifies with a bit clearer of a voice, “I read books, go on high-level missions to support the town, and appreciate fine art. I am 30 years old, make 100,000 yen per year, and I have already paid off the mortgage on my own house. Not only that, I can open my 4th gate and perform A-rank Lightning jutsu..”
“Alright, alright. I get it.” Azula hurriedly stops him and wonders with some disbelief, ‘Is this fucker hitting on me? Talking about his salary and mortgage like he’s at a marriage interview. Even when everyone knows I’m a futanari and taken by Li, I somehow get paired up with Naruto and this guy, who both seem to be hopeless perverts that would stick it in any hole. Shit. If this is another test from Li, I am going to sock her in that pretty face of hers. Or at least I’ll try to.’
In Azula’s book, any man with a Byakugan is a pervert for having the ability to see through her clothes. She hides her scowl and suggests, “Let’s just spar somewhere outside of town.” Kakashi says, “Alrighty.”
Meanwhile, Naruto is following along and fiddling with his ring. Shikamaru, despite appearing to be constantly sleeping, has an extremely high bloodline affinity for Shadow Arts, and therefore keeps a lazy eye on everyone and the environment through each person’s shadow. Earlier, when Naruto had backtracked his claims about the imaginary ring, Shikamaru had already sensed something off about the situation. From Azula’s shadow, he can now notice that Naruto is pressing with actual force upon the empty air over his ring finger.
Shikamaru feels an incongruence. From the times he had seen Naruto practice Rasengan, he knows that Naruto has enough chakra control to form a 5 mm (0.2 inch) solid barrier over his whole hand or one finger, but for him to do so in between joints in the shape of a ring is too difficult for him. Only those who are very well-versed in chakra control can manage that. He concludes that Naruto actually does have a ring. An invisible ring that he cannot take off.
Coincidentally, Shikamaru develops a sudden dislike for Naruto’s strange object, since it inherently has no shadow. Far too lazy to entertain any further thought on such a distasteful matter, he returns to napping, notifying absolutely no one of his observations. Hinata only thinks Naruto is nervously rubbing his hands together. She feels glad that her crush is as nervous as her.
Meanwhile, Naruto is infusing chakra into the ring in an attempt to get it to react. It continues sucking up his chakra like a starved horse. He is stubborn about getting the ring to react, so he keeps going even as he starts to bottom out. After shoveling the last of his chakra into it like a delusional gambler, his efforts surprisingly pay off. The moment he deposits the last of his chakra into the ring, a line of glowing text appears upon it. He has to twirl his hand to read all of it: ‘Normality Ring, Heaven-tier’.
(A/N: OwO what’s this?!)