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Azure Chronicles: Modified Benevolence
Chapter 2: An Unheard Barrier on Her Quest For Knowledge

Chapter 2: An Unheard Barrier on Her Quest For Knowledge

Atop a tall hill in the middle of a snow-covered city stood a Japanese shrine constructed of silverwood with a Japanese-styled one-story house close by said shrine. Inside the open area living room of the Japanese house, a toddler Kimmi-Ka sat on the floor fully engrossed in the tower of wooden dominoes, stacked to look like Ts balanced on the ends of the Ts' tops.

"Pretty nifty, right?" Kimmi-Ka's father remarked as two of his miruku tendrils held some domino pieces in their mouths.

(He's a tall radiant-fair-skinned adult male humanoid wu-ling, miruku, and acolyte[humanoids with glowing rainbow fingertips]; he has trailing spikey woolly(like a sheep) pure white hair with two ahoges having a faint cyan glow, closed eyes, slightly anorexic, and eight large and long[to his knees] grey with golden ends plated mouth miruku tendrils protruding from his head)

"Ah! Unsa pi sumpa sura keionu seivoha yuo?" Kimmi-Ka mumbled as she waved her hand at the stacked dominoes. Her father flinched at hearing Kimmi-Ka's seeming babbling which caused his miruku tendrils to drop their dominoes.

"When is... Great Grandfather... Zalroth... coming back you say?" Kimmi-Ka's father asked, choking on his breath with every other word as he struggled to translate what his daughter was saying. Her grandfather glanced to his side, defeatedly sighing and placed two fingers on one of the top dominoes.

"... the place he's gone to, isn't a place people can normally come back from," Kimmi-Ka's father said with a lack of warmth, his miruku tendrils rattling a sombre tune. Kimmi-Ka tilted her head, staring perplexedly at her father with her ever-present grumpy expression.

"...dead-o?" Kimmi-Ka mumbled. Her father shook his head as he moved his held domino ever so slightly to the side and released it, tilting the domino stack to be even more flat than before.

"Hard to say....".

"You... don't know?" Kimmi-Ka asked, shock oozing from her voice as her miruku tendril-looking tails tightened around The Eye of Revelations before its handle shot past Kimmi-Ka and pierced right through the stacked dominoes. The dominoes dropped to the carpeted floor as Kimmi-Ka's father amusedly chuckled; he raised two fingers to move the base of TEoR's handle away from his face.

"Try as we might we can't know everything; like the saying goes: the more we know, the more we know how much we don't know... or something like that," Kimmi-Ka's father remarked, Kimmi-Ka's eyes sparkling at her father's statement. Kimmi-Ka stared at her palms filled with dominoes before turning her hands and letting the pieces fall to the floor.

"So... if Kimmi-Ka gets smarter than father she'll be able to find grandfather?" Kimmi-Ka muttered loudly. Her father amusedly smirked as he raised a hand to Kimmi-Ka.

"Are you really worried about the old guy that much?" Kimmi-Ka's father asked amusedly as he flicked a tuff of Kimmi-Ka's hair. Kimmi-Ka adamantly shook her head in defiance, from a mix of getting her hair flicked and to her father's question.

"No? Kimmi-Ka just wants to... erm... best you at being the smartest!" Kimmi-Ka stated, her expression becoming even more grumpy than usual. Her father smugly closed his eyes as he placed a hand on Kimmi-Ka's head and ruffled her hair, eliciting annoyed grumbles from Kimmi-Ka.

"Sure... let's leave it at that," Kimmi-Ka's father said, his voice getting more distant as Kimmi-Ka felt a cool breeze waft over her face.

Present Kimmi-Ka grumbled in her sleep as a soothing breeze washed over her body, making the surrounding grass brush against her. Try as she might, Kimmi-Ka wanted to keep her eyes shut for a little longer but with the external stimulation pushing her dream further and further into the recesses of her mind she didn't get much of a choice. Kimmi-Ka furrowed her brow, turning her neutral grumpy face into annoyed grumpy gear, before opening her eyes to the clear blue sky above and watching as a flock of birds flew above their bronze metallic feathers glistening in the light of the sun.

She followed the flight path of the birds, slowly turning her head to follow them. Kimmi-Ka slightly widened her eyes before sitting up and diverting her gaze to the towering construct far off in the distance. She raised her vision scanning every inch of the towering snow-looking-tipped mountain-sized grey pyramid with a large pillar at the tip of it piercing straight into the sky.

"Seems everywhere you go has large ominous structures," Kimmi-Ka remarked as she itched her forehead, rubbing her finger against her horns in the process, "Oh... forgot about those.". Kimmi-Ka closes her eyes and slightly flexed them. But after a few seconds of nothing, she raised her hands and grabbed the sides of her head before violently shaking her head like a rattle until her horns retracted into her body. She released her head, almost falling to the side as she felt her head spinning.

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"Now... what to do?" Kimmi-Ka mumbled as she staggered to her feet and stumbled away, her head rocking back and forth as her dizziness rocked her brain. Kimmi-Ka made her way down the grassy hill and towards the gravel path within the oak forest surrounding the grassy hill. Kimmi-Ka planted her feet on the path and crouched down on it as she stared at it.

"A settlement must be nearby, but which way?" Kimmi-Ka mentally muttered as light crunchy footsteps approached from her left. Upon hearing the footsteps stop, Kimmi-Ka raised her head and stared at the two human kids standing before her. Kimmi-Ka inspected the two similar-looking girls, with Kimmi-Ka's focus being particularly focused on the two's Japanese-styled peasant clothing.

(the older of the two girls has slightly long scruffy pale green hair, emerald green eyes, and fair skin)

(the younger one was slightly shorter than the other. She has short hair [the left half being pale and the right half being pale red], an emerald green left eye, a ruby red right eye, and fair skin)

"What is she looking at, sister?" the younger girl asked as she held her older sister's hand.

"Shouldn't you ask her instead of me?" the older sister asked.

"Oh...," the younger sister muttered before she turned to Kimmi-Ka, "What were you looking at?". As the younger sister continued to speak, Kimmi-Ka blankly stared at the two girls because, from Kimmi-Ka's perspective, she couldn't understand a single word coming out of the younger sister's mouth.

"Really regretting not letting Parti do the instalment thing for me, he probably would've given me the ability to comprehend this reality's languages," Kimmi-Ka uttered mentally as she subconsciously made her eyes blankly stare at the siblings. The girls stared at each other before itching their heads.

"Aliceia, Is she ignoring me?" the younger sister asked as she pouted to her sister. Aliceia glanced at Kimmi-Ka, inspecting her face to the best of her ability before sighing.

"Maybe she doesn't understand us, Mya," Aliceia stated. Kimmi-Ka stared at the sisters before slowly opening her mouth, catching the sisters' attention. However, instead of speaking, Kimmi-Ka quickly closed it again, making the sisters defeatedly huff. Mya tapped her chin before getting an idea, letting go of Aliceia's hand and pointing back the way they came from.

"Why don't we go back to town and get that Met-tam-io expert to make a language changer artifact," Mya suggested.

"You mean a translator artifact?" Aliceia asked, to which Mya nodded.

"And what makes you think a guy like him would let kids use anything he makes?" Aliceia asked unamusedly as she crossed her arms. Mya raised a hand before lowering it as she realised Aliceia was right.

"Maybe we'll get lucky?" Mya muttered nervously. Kimmi-Ka continued to watch the sisters talk, despite not really following the conversation but concluded that the sisters were her best chance of finding a town in the shortest amount of time possible. While in thought, Kimmi-Ka's attention was diverted to Aliceia as Aliceia held her hand out to Kimmi-Ka. With a blank/grumpy expression, Kimmi-Ka raised a hand and took Aliceia's hand.

A little bit later, the trio walked through the gravelly path with Mya pointing out various things along the group's path and saying what they're called to Kimmi-Ka, who repeated the word although with a stutter. The group arrived at the foot of the rural Japanese village's entrance gate.

"Town or village," Mya said as she pointed at the town, making Aliceia facepalm and sighed

"T...toe- ton," Kimmi-Ka mumbled. Mya's eyes lit up before she sprinted ahead of the others and made a beeline for her grandmother, as she was carrying a basket of bread.

"Oh, you're back sooner than expected, sweetie," Mya's grandmother said cheerfully before putting a slightly worried look on her face, "You weren't causing trouble by Kolveion Mines were you?". Mya pouted at her grandmother's concerned questions before flailing her arms.

"Grandma Feina!" Mya whined as Grandma Feina noticed Aliceia approaching while holding Kimmi-Ka's hand. Feina sighed in relief at seeing the duo's unusually early return wasn't caused by Mya's antics.

"So, you've made a new friend have you?" Feina asked as she noticed Kimmi-Ka's unusual attire before cheerfully smirking, "So, who might you be, young one?". Kimmi-Ka blankly, and involentarily grumpily, stared at Feina while remaining silent. A sweat drop formed on Feina's forehead as Kimmi-Ka seemingly refused to respond.

"We don't think she knows how to talk, Gran-Gran," Aliceia explained.

"Oh..., I see," Feina uttered, chuckling nervously as she handed her basket of bread to Mya while saying to Mya she could have only one for now. Mya happily plucked a small loaf of bread from the basket and began munching away at it.

"Would you mind explaining, Aliceia," Feina requested.

"Well... we were walking on the trail and looking for flokta feathers but then we came across her on the path all alone, I think it was around that tall hill," Aliceia explained. Feina slightly lowered her head and sombrely looked at Kimmi-Ka.

"I see. Well, it can't be helped I suppose," Feina stated before closing her eyes and pushing her sombre thoughts away. She put on a smile and offered a hand to Kimmi-Ka, which she silently took. Feina's smile grew slightly before she led the group through the village, leaving Kimmi-Ka to wonder if going with the flow was the best course of action for now.