As the light around her dimmed, Chara could see an amorphous cloud of water mana position itself right above her location, only just outside of her perception.
Unexpectedly, the water element mana was its own unique color, integrating seamlessly with the rest of her visual spectrum. Like the diamonds however, the curiosity spirit was mostly translucent, with only a slight sheen outlining her edges and the slight warping of light being the only indication of her existence.
Curiosity giggled. “Just now. You weren’t thinking of rude things, were you? Because if you were, I might have to add that to your punishment.”
Shit! How did she even find me? Chara was so agitated that she didn’t even hear the greater spirit’s jest.
The greater spirit’s mana swirled. Without any more pretext, she formed a new appendage and reached out to grab the little spirit.
“Hold still.”
Seeing the monstrous tentacle cascading in her direction, Chara shrieked… or at least tried to. Without a second thought, she immediately made a break for it and started floating away at her top speed.
For some reason, this made the curiosity spirit feel like she had been wronged. Not keen on letting her little escapee get away a second time, her displeased voice rang across the cave.
“Stop.”
In an instant, Chara lost all her momentum and stopped, but the moment she came to a complete stop, she started fleeing again.
Realizing the loophole in her command, the curiosity spirit quickly made a revision.
“Don’t move.”
This time Chara well and truly stopped, while also losing the possibility of future movement.
Having sealed off all her means of escape, the greater spirit leisurely floated in her direction while mentally complaining about her unacceptable behavior. Sigh… So smart, but the only things she thinks about are bad things. The only thing she should be thinking about is me…
“Little friend, I asked you to stay still. Why did you move?” asked Curiosity in an admonishing tone. Once she was level with Chara, she continued, “Do you know what it is that I dislike the most?”
Although she still sounded childish and cute, the swirling of her mana told an entirely different story. With every second that Chara didn’t respond, her swirling got faster and faster, and her mana flared very menacingly, frightening the little spirit.
“……Well?”
Chara had never been in a situation like this and was completely paralyzed with anxiousness and fear. Even if she had realized that her ability to speak had returned, the only thing that would be transmitted would be crying and tears.
Fortunately, her interrogator was Curiosity, a [Curiosity Essence Spirit]. Therefore, no matter how angry she became, blowing up just wasn’t part of her nature. Still, just because she wouldn’t kill the little spirit out of anger, didn’t mean she wasn’t capable of equally sinister things, such as becoming curious about what the little spirit would look like while she’s crying.
Observing that Chara was in no condition to respond, Curiosity decided to volunteer the answer, educating the little spirit. “The thing I dislike the most is when my friends don’t listen to what I have to say! I really really really hate being ignored! Unforgivable!!”
She formed a new mana tendril and wrapped it around the little spirit, bringing her closer. “So, no matter what, you must never EVER leave me. Do you understand?”
Scared stiff, Chara tried to nod in assent but was still unable to move.
Misinterpreting her attempt at movement as a sign of resistance, Curiosity scoffed. “Fine! Since you want to leave me so badly, I will limit your actions using a different method. I will show you a performance so mesmerizing that you won’t even be able to think of leaving, since you’ll be busy thinking about me. Hmph!”
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Having left a most incomprehensible threat, she backed away from Chara while many complicated and unfathomable waves rippled across her ethereal form.
All of a sudden, a large portion of the mana that makes up her body lost its iridescent quality, instead being dyed completely in the color of water, while glittering with a curious light. Then, like a liquid being used to quench a piece of red-hot iron, all of the surrounding mana started boiling and glimmering with excitement, before it too started transforming into water element mana, causing the surroundings to dim even further.
Initial preparations complete, Curiosity started circling around Chara like a giant planet orbiting a little moon. As she circled around and around, all of the surrounding mana followed her lead, creating a magnificent vortex of illusory water droplets around the little spirit, all while leaving behind sparkling trails of curiosity.
Chara stared in blank amazement. As the greater spirit skillfully conjured a glittering galaxy around her in what felt like a matter of seconds, her feelings of apprehension and fear started to slowly fade away. Little by little, a seed of curiosity started to bloom inside her heart.
Wha— How… How did she do that!?
Having finished her stage, the curiosity spirit started to perform a mysterious dance. As she sped around in circles, she started swimming up, down, up, down, up, up, down, down in an unpredictable pattern, like she was some kind of magical dolphin trying to follow the instructions of a corrupted sin wave.
Sometimes, she would be diving straight down, before sharply ascending and doing a flip at the peak of her curve. Sometimes she would be diligently going around in circles, before abruptly deciding to cheat and skip part of her orbit by going above or below. Sometimes she would sharply turn towards Chara, only to vanish just before colliding, like a disturbed reflection on the surface of a lake. Then she would silently appear somewhere else, like she had always been there. And other times she would spin before releasing a magnificent shower of illusory water droplets that sparkled with curiosity before fading into nothingness.
Always keeping the little spirit guessing about what would happen next.
As the mysterious dance progressed, Chara could feel herself becoming more and more curious by the second. Feeling like something was out of place, many alarm bells started to go off inside her head, and her previously subdued sense of anxiety spiked through the roof.
As she desperately tried to figure out what was wrong, she suddenly remembered the greater spirit’s incomprehensible threat.
…I will show you a performance so mesmerizing that you won’t even be able to think of leaving since you’ll be busy thinking about me…
The little spirit’s mana started to condense while shivering in fear.
Chara had the ominous intuition that if she allowed this seed of curiosity to continue to mature, she would begin to change. However, this change would be something desirable only for the curiosity spirit, and not for herself.
As someone who had lived through most of her life in relative comfort, Chara was a coward.
In truth, her life couldn’t have been described as noble or virtuous, even as flattery. It wouldn’t even be an exaggeration to say that if there was something out there that was desired by many people, it was almost certain that not only did she already possess it, she almost certainly valued it a lot less.
Hence, it wasn’t until losing all of these things, including her health, that she finally realized what a privileged life she had been living, and how many things she had taken for granted. And yet, despite being aware of all of her shortcomings and all of her faults, Chara was still unabashedly proud of being herself.
Which was why only the mere possibility of being changed against her will, made her feel an existential dread.
Uuuuuu… I… I don’t want to disappear…
Unable to move, she quickly began thinking of various ways to resist the curiosity spirit’s influence.
What if I try using magic? Uuu… I only barely managed to activate it, and it took like 90% of my mana just to dig out some rocks…
What if I scream really loudly? And what will that accomplish; annoy her to death? This is too risky. She’s more likely to just kill me from anger…
What if I close off my senses and try to ignore her? Hm, she is a curiosity spirit. If this dance is meant to somehow imbue curiosity, then that might actually work…
Having decided on a workable plan, she hurriedly deflated her perception, isolating her senses from the malevolent spirit. She could no longer sense mana, but catastrophically, the same could not be said about her vision. Not only did her vision not fade into darkness; she could still see just fine!
As a result of Curiosity repelling away all of the light element mana in the environment, the surroundings were rather dim. Even so, there was still more than enough illumination for Chara to witness Curiosity as she swished happily before sharply turning in her direction, clipping her on the side, and spinning her like a ballerina, before giggling at her misfortune.
Fuck! Who was the moron who decided not to check whether turning off my perception would affect my vision… cursed Chara. She had literally thought of this exact scenario and chose not to verify it. Her negligence had come back to bite her, and the timing couldn’t be any worse.
Desperate, she tried thinking of darkness, closing her eyes, sleeping, the night sky, anything that might result in her not seeing. Unknowingly, some of her ethereal body transformed into dark element mana, finally obscuring her vision.
Voicing her praise for the little spirit’s unexpected problem-solving skills, the curiosity spirit let out a long, “Oooooooooo,” before starting to giggle.
That’s the wrong answer…