A Knight's Loyalty | Food Fantasy AU Fanfic

Chapter 24 - When Your Past Returns

On the other side of town, B-52 suddenly coughed up blood. All the Master Attendants were surprised, and none of the Food Souls could help. Ryouri tried using healing Cooking Talents, but it only made B-52 cough again. Catcakes pulled out a knife for a hopefully surgical purpose.

"Wait!" Kuri shouted. "Are you stupid?! If he coughs up blood when he's being healed, then something needs to be done about that in a civil and humane manner. Not by using the knife you used last night to cook steak."

Catcakes lowered his weapon, and Kuri thought for a moment. Ryouri was also quiet. Sanma gathered up the cats to keep then from interfering. Kuri's eyes were shut, until she remembered something.

"Hey, B-52, you have a . . . past with Spaghetti, right?" Kuri asked in need of confirmation. B-52 nodded calmly, wiping some of the blood off his face. "Did he implant anything in you before you escaped?"

B-52 was quiet. The room silently awaited his response. So, he finally answered.

"There's a chance." Ryouri got up quickly, something registering in his brain.

"Uh, Bifty, can you turn off susceptibility to pain please? I need to check something." B-52's blue-colored pupil showed a buffering sign, then a check. "Thanks. Catcakes, can I get that knife?"

Catcakes hesitantly gave up the knife, and Ryouri took B-52's glove off, to where it was all metallic. He carved carefully to avoid damaging B-52, and found a small chip with a red light flashing on it. Kuri perked up.

"That chip isn't part of B-52's wiring," Kuri pointed out. "I would know - I've memorized all of his parts."

"This is what Sweet Tofu was talking about," Ryouri stated in realization. It had been so long ago, he had forgotten, but it was all coming back to him now. Ryouri suddenly looked extremely pained. "Before he died . . ."

Catcakes looked surprised. "Sweet Tofu is dead?! Food Souls who die just return to their Attendant-" That's when he realized Sweet's Attendant had died a long time ago. For quite some time, there was a respectful moment of silence. Then, B-52 coughed more blood. Kuri stood and approached him.

"Okay, listen. For it to be affecting him so greatly, it has to be deeply rooted into his system," Kuri began to explain. The rest of her words were a blur, and eventually she just stopped, knowing no one but her and B-52 could understand, and it was just redundant to say anything at all.

Even using the screwdriver she pulled from her attendant belt, she couldn't find a safe way to uproot the chip. Then she had a different idea.

"This is dangerous, but . . ." Kuri stabbed at the chip, leaving a little dent in it. "That is one powerful chip."

B-52 understood and took over the process. "You'll want to stand back."

A moment of realization came, and Kuri motioned for everyone to stand back. B-52 turned around and held his sword (with his real weapon inside) and pointed at the chip. Then, he fired.

The room heated quickly, as the chip melted away into ash. Once even the ash was burnt, B-52 stopped. Kuri approached his arm, and examined it.

"Huh. That was effective. Must be nice to be fireproof," Kuri commented. B-52 merely blew away the ashes.