Nine Tales [BL]

Arc 6: ARTURO.GYP

Author Has Something To Say: Howdy! We are hitting winter break and as thanks for being so patient with me, I decided to post chapter 1 of this arc! Give you a little sneak peek ;) Hopefully, it will hold you over until I can do my monthly updates again (after May 2024). Enjoy!!

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Renshu opened his eyes to a strange world, the sky above painted in an ethereal silver hue, tree branches intertwined to form a canopy that veiled the heavens. The air was thick with what appeared to be specks of ash, dancing around like particles of dust caught in a spectral breeze. As he sat up, a sense of emptiness echoed within him, a hauntingly familiar void.

Rein Nett was gone.

Surrounded by vivid red metallic flowers blooming on vines that wrapped around Renshu like an enclosing pen, he felt a surge of confusion and anxiety. Where am I? What world did I enter? Attempting to access the gaming menu yielded no results. When Renshu looked down, shock pulsed through him. The body he saw was lithe, pallid, with silvery-white hair cascading down my back. His trembling hands reached to his head, where furry ears twitched against his touch.

Renshu swallowed, licking his lips before glancing behind. Five tails waved back, their familiar sensation a comforting embrace. A squeal left Renshu and he hugged them to his body, burying his face in them.

I got my original body back!

It wasn't some weird puppet or Zerg or a disgusting human, but my body!

Renshu felt tears welling up in his eyes and before he could shout my joy, a virtual green screen materialized. An automated voice echoed through the eerie silence. Renshu clutched his tails tightly to his chest as he followed along on the screen as a mechanical voice read out loud:

"[WELCOME HOST #35789 (CODENAME:RENSHU) TO ARTURO.GYP. WE APOLOGIZE FOR THE CONFUSION. DUE TO THE MALFUNCTION IN SYSTEM 0147, WE REQUEST YOUR PRESENCE HERE UNTIL WE IDENTIFY THE ROOT CAUSE AND COMPLETE THE REBOOT PROCESS OF SYSTEM 0147. PLEASE DO NOT LEAVE THIS AREA. REFRAIN FROM ENGAGING WITH ANY EXTERNAL ENTITIES. PLEASE ENJOY YOUR STAY. YOUR COOPERATION IS APPRECIATED.]"

"Rein Nett isn't broken! He doesn't need to be rebooted!" Renshu's protest echoed in the air, but the screen vanished, leaving behind a small silver orb with a blinking red light atop it. "Wait!' He lunged, his fingers brushing its icy smooth body, but his body collided with the vines, their sharp points piercing his flesh. The orb zipped away into the trees, disappearing.

Renshu snarled, tails flaring. Blue flames erupted in his hands and he cast them on the vines, its paint sloshing off and revealing the metal and screws beneath. Renshu spun around, chest heaving. As he surveyed my surroundings, a sense of entrapment tightened its grip. The vines stretched endlessly into the darkness, offering no escape from this surreal, confounding realm.

He scanned the area for Virus, but it was nowhere to be found. Did they trap it here as well? Renshu pondered how much easier an escape would be if they were together.

Renshu wanted to shout for it, but this wasn't like the normal worlds. This place knew about the systems and knew his name. If he just started shouting for it, wouldn't that give it away?

Drawing nearer to the vines, Renshu inspected them. They appeared sleek, the connections between panels nearly invisible. They felt peculiar under his touch—neither cold nor warm, with bolts so flat they were barely noticeable. Even the painted ones felt organic, like real plant matter. Renshu dosed one vine in my fire, letting it burn for a few minutes, but besides the metal going from matte to shiny, there was no difference. Tear them, bite them, slice them with his nails, but nothing worked. He tried magic and curses, but nothing happened. If Renshu had the rest of his tails, he could shapeshift into a mouse and scurry between the veins, if the fox could swallow his pride.

Time seemed stagnant, the surroundings maintaining a constant gloomy hue. Unsure if they had rebooted Rein Nett, no, if it was, he wouldn't still be here.

Renshu glared down at the vines that seemed unaffected, which only made the anger burn more brightly in his chest. He stared at one screw and tapped it with his nail.

Why not?

He stuck his nail in the screw and tried to turn it. Luckily, Renshu's nails were hard, able to cut through rock, so turning a screw was no problem. He kept working on it until one, two, four came out. He shoved the screw into the flower head, hoping it chokes on it, and pried the panel off.

What he found inside wasn't wires or blood, but densely packed rectangular energy packs emitting a mossy green glow, filled with liquid and a few scattered bubbles. Renshu prodded one, reminiscent of poking plastic wrap, which spilled a green liquid. Its aroma, oddly resembling a yellow energy drink, tempted me.

He resisted the urge to taste it as he studied the strange insides of a robotic plant.

Renshu eyebrows jumped, and a grin stretched wide on his face.

He flicked my finger, and a blue flame leaped onto the innards. It popped and crackled before the flames roared.

A meal screeching sounded out as the blue fire disappeared into the vines, hollowing everything out. He laughed as the vines trembled and four feet of the vine walls collapsed to the ground, looking pitiful and scorched, the metal warped.

Renshu eradicated one plant, though it was a singular victory in this vast place. He waited to see if anything would happen, but nothing reprimanded him, so he continued. Each vine destroyed only stoked Renshu's growing bloodlust, relishing in their fiery demise as the highlight of his time here.

After demolishing about ten vines, with no end in sight, a sound pierced the silence. Metal scraping against metal. His ear pricked up, turning towards the sound.

Renshu's tails puffed up as he stared in that direction. Could it be another trapped Host? If they couldn't free themselves, they'd slow me down. Renshu approached, intending to observe and leave them behind if necessary.

To his dismay, the approaching figure was a male human, judging by his stature. They paused at one point. Renshu was sure they saw his silhouette as well, but instead of calling out, they just changed directions, coming closer to him.

REnshu paused, then waited.

With something in the human's hand hand, possibly a dagger, he swiftly cut through the vines. Renshu hesitated, wary. A potential ally to escape this place, but a dangerous one, judging by the bloodlust enveloping him. Renshu's ears flattened, and he prepared to incinerate the human at the slightest hint of bloodlust towards him.

As he neared, their eyes met, and a sinister grin crept across the human's face. Instead of a dagger, he wielded a peculiar combination of a syringe and a knife.

REnshu recoiled but halted his retreat, teeth clenched. This couldn't be happening. He couldn't be real. He was dead!

Renshu wanted to run. To kill that bastard on the spot, but he made quick work on the vines, far quicker than Renshu could.

The human emerged from the tangled vines, cuts all over his body. He disregarded them, rushing to embrace Renshu. This bastard's once sleek black hair was a disheveled mess, and his once melancholic golden eye now danced with a frenzied madness. The red beauty mark beneath his eye seemed to glow with an eerie brilliance. Yet, what truly stunned Renshu were the fractures snaking across his skin, patches of darkness that outnumbered any trace of humanity. Some crevices were so wide that they revealed an unfathomable void within, devoid of blood or bone. One of his eyes was a haunting abyss. He appeared like fragile glass stitched together by a decaying adhesive.

A whirlwind of emotions surged within Renshu—anger clashed with shock. As the human withdrew, a foul stench emanated from his breath, his words a haunting whisper: "My hero."