Disclaimer: I own nothing, this is purely a fanfic for enjoyment.
Cross-over from various games, books, anime, manga, and movies.
The familiar characters you see here belong to their respected authors and owners.
"Speech"
Time*
Chapter 94: Midnight Sleep Eating
I gave Alucard a blank stare. For a moment, I seriously considered arguing with her about eating a creature that closely resembled the Loch Ness Monster or Ogopogo. Unfortunately, no matter how hard I thought about it, I couldn't come up with a single reasonable excuse to stop her, aside from the fact that people would probably protest if they found out.
Too bad for them. They wouldn't know anything unless they happened to be around to witness it all. Besides, Alucard had already eaten an unknown number of gnomes, so I wasn't exactly in a position to lecture her about eating strange creatures. I could only sigh at the thought.
"Fine. If we come across the real Gobblewonker, you can eat it,." I finally conceded, shaking my head slightly. I paused for a second, letting my own words sink in before muttering. "I never thought I'd say something like that in my life." Honestly, how did I end up in a situation where I was giving someone permission to eat a legendary lake monster?
"I'm sure you'll say plenty of things you never expected to say in the future, Chikao. After all, we're traveling through multiple different worlds." Momoyo grinned at me as she finished drinking her coconut water. She scooped out the remaining coconut flesh and ate it, then casually tossed the empty shell into a nearby trash bin without even getting up from her seat.
"That's true." I nodded at Momoyo, then turned my attention back to Alucard, only to find she was already gone.
The sandcastle she'd been building suddenly collapsed into a pile of sand, and Alucard was nowhere to be found. I glanced around the beach, searching for any sign of her, but couldn't spot her anywhere.
"Damn. She must really want to eat that Gobblewonker." I muttered, wondering just how quickly she'd run off after hearing my permission.
"Let's just hope it doesn't end up eating Alucard first, only for her to eat it from the inside." Momoyo remarked, clearly amused by the ridiculous possibility. Then she got up from her seat, stretched her arms above her head, and turned toward me. "Alright, how are we going to do this, Chikao? Should we go looking for it aboard the Flying Dutchman, or use someone else's boat?"
"That's assuming she can overcome her fear of water first." I pointed out, imagining how Alucard might react if she actually ended up in the lake. "As for how we should find it, well, my first idea was to have Alucard locate it somewhere nearby or something, but she ran off before I could tell her." I scratched the back of my head, feeling a little annoyed that she'd disappeared so quickly. "But I think we'd be better off using someone else's boat rather than the Flying Dutchman. Bringing a ghost ship out just to search for a lake monster seems a bit excessive."
"Wait, can't you just use one of your supernatural powers to locate this, uh, Gobblewonker?" Momoyo asked, placing a hand on her hip as she raised an eyebrow at me. "I recall you doing something similar in the past." Tilting her head slightly. "Surely finding one lake monster shouldn't be too difficult for you, right?"
"I have a limited amount of Spirituality, which is basically the energy that fuels my supernatural powers. I can only recover it through a full night's sleep or several hours of meditation." I explained to Momoyo. "Plus, I have no idea how much Spirituality I'd consume trying to locate the Gobblewonker. It could be a small amount, or it could take a huge chunk of what I have left. That's the reason I wanted Alucard's help in the first place." I paused for a second, glancing toward the spot where Alucard had been building her sandcastle earlier. "Honestly, she's been complaining a little about how I barely order her around, yet here I am, finally wanting to do exactly that, and she's nowhere to be found."
I let out a sigh and shook my head at the irony of the situation.
"I'm still here, Master..." Alucard's muffled voice suddenly came from underneath the collapsed sandcastle.
A small portion of the sand shifted as she spoke, revealing that she'd been buried beneath it the entire time.
Momoyo and I stared at each other for a moment, neither of us saying a word. Then, almost simultaneously, we turned our attention toward the collapsed sandcastle, where Alucard was apparently still buried underneath the sand.
"Why don't you dig yourself out, Alucard?" Momoyo asked the No-Life Queen, raising an eyebrow at the pile of sand where Alucard remained buried.
"Or just teleport out of there?" I followed up with my own question, looking down at the collapsed sandcastle in confusion. "Why stay buried when you can easily get yourself out?"
"I saw something buried in the sand that looked interesting. It was some kind of unknown animal skull, but I moved around a bit too much, and the sandcastle collapsed on top of me..." Alucard explained, her voice still muffled as she remained buried beneath the sand.
"That's good and all, but didn't you say you wanted to eat the Gobblewonker? Why stay buried, then?" I asked Alucard, who remained silent for a few seconds.
"Would you believe me if I told you I found an unknown animal skull that looks like a hybrid of a squirrel and a crab, and I got distracted by it?" Alucard asked in return, her voice still muffled beneath the sand.
"Yes." I replied without hesitation, while Momoyo nodded in agreement.
Without warning, Alucard suddenly appeared behind Momoyo, causing her to instinctively launch a powerful backward kick. Alucard narrowly avoided having her head kicked off by tilting it to the side at the last possible moment.
The sheer force of Momoyo's kick produced a violent gust of wind that swept toward the nearby fishermen, sending their fishing equipment rattling and nearly tipping over several boats floating close to shore. A few startled fishermen scrambled to steady themselves as the gust passed.
"Careful there. You almost kicked me." Alucard remarked with a smirk, seemingly unconcerned about how close she'd come to losing her head.
Momoyo narrowed her eyes at Alucard before slowly lowering her foot, clearly displeased with the sudden appearance behind her.
Meanwhile, my attention shifted to the strange animal skull Alucard had apparently brought along when she teleported. I stared at it for a moment, examining its unusual shape.
"Yeah, that really does look like a squirrel-and-crab hybrid's skull." I commented, finding the combination rather bizarre.
"Right?" Alucard nodded quickly, looking pleased that I agreed with her observation.
"What are you planning on doing with it?" I asked Alucard.
Alucard paused for a second, looking down at the strange skull in her hand as though considering my question. Then, without another word, she casually tossed it into the lake.
"Seriously?" I stared at Alucard with a deadpan expression, watching the skull disappear beneath the water's surface.
"I just got distracted by something interesting." Alucard replied with a shrug, apparently having lost interest in the skull as quickly as she'd found it. "Anyway, let me find that Gobblewonker for you, Master."
Alucard closed her eyes and began concentrating. Momoyo and I remained quiet, waiting for her to finish whatever method she was using to locate the creature.
After several moments, Alucard opened her eyes and turned toward me with an unusually serious expression.
Seeing that look on her face, I immediately tensed up. Momoyo reacted similarly, shifting her stance as though preparing herself for a potentially dangerous fight.
"Something the matter, Alucard?" I asked, glancing around the lake in case the Gobblewonker was about to emerge from the water at any moment.
Alucard maintained her serious expression as she looked directly at me. "What does a Gobblewonker look like, Master?"
"I have no idea. I've never seen a real Gobblewonker in person before." I admitted, feeling a metaphorical sweatdrop forming at how seriously she'd asked such a simple question.
All that tension, and she was just asking what the creature looked like.
"Although, I suppose I could find out through divination." I added after a moment of thought.
"Doesn't that also consume your Spirituality, Chikao?" Momoyo tilted her head, staring at me with her arms folded beneath her chest. "Also, doesn't divination take a lot of Spirituality?"
"That depends on which method of divination I use. But this should speed things up." I answered.
I then closed one eye and used Dream Divination through the Fool's Uniqueness. It consumed more than half of the Fool Pathway's Spirituality, and the vision itself only lasted for a brief moment.
"Here's what the Gobblewonker looks like." I said as I knelt down and drew its image in the sand for Alucard to see.
The Gobblewonker had a long neck and scaly skin. Its lower jaw overlapped the upper one. It had two tusks along with several other sharp teeth, short legs with webbed feet, a fin on its tail, and a long mane that ran all the way down its back.
Alucard hummed to herself for a few seconds as she studied the drawing more closely. Then she rubbed at the part showing the short legs and webbed feet, along with the two tusks.
"I think all the adults are dead." Alucard said at last. "Because I can only find what might be the children that look like this."
"So you can't find any of the adults, only the ones that look like this?" Momoyo asked. Alucard stayed silent for a bit longer, which made Momoyo raise an eyebrow. "Hello? Why did you suddenly go quiet, Alucard?"
"I might have had a midnight snack while I was half asleep and ended up eating all the adult ones around the lake without realizing it." Alucard admitted before smacking her lips. "That might be one of the reasons why I was so eager to eat one."
I was speechless for a moment before finally speaking. "Well, that explains why the vision I saw earlier had this massive mouth surrounding the Gobblewonker..." Rubbing my forehead in annoyance.
"Wait, why did you even want to find it in the first place, Chikao?" Momoyo blinked as she looked over at me. "Is there something important we need from this thing? Do you think Alucard here could cough up a part of it?" She pointed at Alucard's stomach.
"I was planning on using it for a set of ritual materials, but..." I stared at Alucard for a moment before shaking my head. "Well, I'll just have to work with something else."
"Does that mean I came back here in a bikini for nothing?" Momoyo slowly blinked at me, then narrowed her eyes slightly. "Unless you just wanted to see me in a bikini, Chikao?"
"Yes." I answered without hesitation, openly looking Momoyo up and down before turning my attention toward Alucard. "Just go grab those baby Gobblewonkers. I can still use them. They won't be as effective as an adult one, but they're still usable for other things I could work with."
"You got it, Master!" Alucard saluted me before vanishing on the spot.
A brief moment later, she reappeared holding a dozen baby Gobblewonkers by their tails. The creatures twisted and thrashed desperately, their little mouths opening and closing as they struggled to escape her grip.
"Here you go, Master. Do you want them dead or alive?" Alucard asked casually, seemingly unbothered by the terrified creatures dangling from her hands.
"They look more like mutated snakes than whatever you drew, Chikao." Momoyo leaned slightly closer to examine the baby Gobblewonkers. "Also, is it really a good idea to stick around here where the locals might see these things?" As she spoke, Momoyo casually flicked one of the baby Gobblewonkers on the head.
Its head burst like a balloon, and the creature immediately went limp.
"Oops." Momoyo blinked at the result, staring at the dead creature for a moment. "I wasn't expecting it to be that weak."
"They're babies. Of course they'd be weak." Alucard rolled her eyes at Momoyo before casually shoving the dead Gobblewonker into her mouth. She chewed thoughtfully for a few seconds before swallowing. "Mhm. Tastes like salmon wrapped in seaweed, seasoned with salt and soy sauce." Alucard looking rather pleased with the flavor.
I stared at her for a moment, wondering whether she was seriously comparing a lake monster to something you'd order at a seafood restaurant.
"Just leave half of them aboard the Flying Dutchman." I said dryly, deciding not to comment on her unusual taste in food. "And if possible, don't eat everything before bringing it to me. I'd like to check whether something has any value as a material component for my rituals first."
"Will do, Master!" Alucard replied cheerfully before vanishing from her spot once again, taking the remaining baby Gobblewonkers with her.
I watched the empty spot where she'd been standing.
"So, are you planning on fishing at the lake, or are you going to join me in hunting down some forest creatures to fight?" Momoyo asked, flicking her hair behind her shoulder. "Also, is it just me, or do the people here seem... not quite right in the head?"
She pointed her thumb toward the lake, where a woman sitting in a fishing boat was holding out a frying pan alongside her fishing rod, repeatedly calling for the fish to jump straight into the pan.
I glanced at the woman for a moment, wondering whether she genuinely expected the fish to listen to her.
"I'll join you after I take care of something real quick. I'll meet up with you in the forest." I answered. Then, I glanced around the area before looking back at Momoyo. "Give me about half an hour."
"Sure. I'll be hunting down something that looks like a hybrid of a goblin and a gremlin. It has glowing red eyes without any pupils." Momoyo folded her arms as she recalled her earlier encounter. "I stared at the stupid thing for a bit, and it somehow made me see my worst nightmare. I nearly killed it, too, if it hadn't run away in time. Pisses me off that it didn't stick around." She scowled at the memory before continuing. "It even tried to burn me alive by breathing fire. I managed to tear one of its arms off, but the damn thing sprouted wings and flew away just as I snapped out of that nightmare it forced me to deal with."
"A Gremloblin should be the name of the creature you're hunting." I said after briefly using the Paragon Pathway's Recall ability to remember its name. "Let me help you find it real quick."
I stepped aside and searched the nearby area until I found one of the largest fallen branches I could reasonably use. Picking it up, I channeled my Spirituality into the Fool's Uniqueness and performed Dowsing Rod Seeking Divination to locate the Gremloblin.
I set the large branch upright, letting my Spirituality wrap around it before releasing my grip. The branch hovered slightly above the ground for a brief second, trembling as though an invisible force were holding it in place.
Then it fell sideways, landing with its tip pointing toward a particular section of the forest.
"Just keep going in that direction." I said, pointing toward where the branch had fallen. "You should eventually find your target."
"Thanks, Chikao. I'm going to change first before heading off." Momoyo stepped closer and gave me a kiss on the lips, which I happily returned.
She then pulled away with a satisfied smile and started walking off in another direction to change out of her bikini.
"Hopefully, you'll show up before I end up killing the thing." Momoyo called over her shoulder.
I watched her walk away, my eyes naturally drifting toward her swaying hips and backside.
"Make sure you finish whatever you need to do!" Momoyo added without bothering to turn around, seemingly aware that I was still watching her.
I continued admiring the view for another moment before reminding myself that I actually had something to take care of.