"Well, that was fun~!" Jiko Ai was honestly quite amused and proud of herself.
Even as she dutifully ignored the feelings of embarrassment and anger/irritation that she could feel leaking from Kasumi Ai thanks to their 'connection' so to speak, the Narcissism was feeling quite happy.
She was- she is that idiot's alter ego, born from her instincts and personality, after all. It was just fun to tease her pseudo-lover (currently, because it's not official... yet) and Kasumi Ai.
It just was as entertaining to her as it is for Kasumi Ai to do the same for Mei Wu after all. Just remembering these moments was enough to make her smile, both from genuine happiness and the sheer amusement she felt about them.
And as for what these two will talk about and the conclusions they will reach regarding her new status when it come to their love life, she would easily admit that she was expecting them to agree. Maybe not fully, maybe not so quickly, but she will become a part of it and the three of them will enjoy it when that happens.
'Naturally, people who would see our discussion without understanding of anything else will think I am an arrogant young master (mistress). How dare I force two people into loving me? Can't I just let the two lovers on their own and just be helpful when needed?' she giggled to herself as she walked aroud the hive, the path to the Queen Bee's area memorized, and even if she did not remember, she can always follow the scent or ask one of the bees to guide her. 'Then again, maybe they will not, and I don't care regardless.'
Of course, a self-centered alraune (person) like her would also prefer if things went smoothly between the three of them, but Jiko Ai doesn't mind being a bit of a spoiled and arrogant brat to get what she wanted.
'I so want to pamper you, Wu-chan~!'
she almost couldn't wait to just hug and kiss that adorable pink-haired woman. Almost. Jiko Ai was instincts and cravings from the racial needs and the mind of Kasumi Ai made manifest, but she wasn't an idiot, and she definitely can be patient when it was needed.
If these animals and beasts with no sapience, who see the world through only their instincts, can still be patient when it came to hunting, and show love to their children and babies despite not having any second thoughts of eating and torturing a deer for hours, giving it an agonizing death, then Jiko Ai can do the same.
She can be a bit patient. As much as she wants to do the same things that stupid alraune did to Mei Wu- to hold her friend and lover within her embrace, to kiss her, and much, much more- the Narcissism knew that she had to take it slow for now, and she knew for certain that she can wait and be patient.
Even so, despite understanding it, Jiko Ai couldn't help but sigh at that as she was halfway to reaching the Queen Bee's area.
"Still, how irritating." she huffed, crossing her arms, "I am an alraune, not some normal-ass human whose biggest dilemma other than being killed by cultivators is some romance story."
And that was a part of why it irked her. She understood the opinions of Mei Wu and Kasumi Ai very well.
She wasn't present with them from the start when these two bonded and became friends over nearly two months, then becoming a couple in less than a week and already having no qualms of doing kinky stuff with each other.
(she would love to lampshade at how fast the whole relationship was, especially with Kasumi Ai's standards of her first life, but that would be admitting that Jiko Ai's own love for Mei Wu was also seemingly rushed and out of nowhere since she was literally born with it, so Jiko Ai will ignore that issue).
No. Instead, Jiko Ai appeared and the first thing she did was making a threat to Kasumi Ai, hijacking her body, then making a deal with a distraught Mei Wu, before she kinda used the woman as a battery to basically murder her enemies (and to break the Xie clan's disciples with aphrodisiacs, but no one seemed to care that much about that, so it doesn't count).
In the first place, alraunes were, if not violent predators that loved to eat everything of their victims, a bunch of sexually-driven sadists who craved to either break the minds of their (attractive and human-looking) victims like how almost every stupid hentai ends, or to make their victims into their eternal battery until they die of old age. If their victims could die of old age, that is. Not that these options were mutually exclusive.
Kasumi Ai would have- should have been the same as well. She would still have her intelligence and memories of course, but her instincts and cravings should have been the ones in control for the most part. She still would have her pride, and the ability to comprehend the risks and how to assess an enemy. Kasumi Ai would still kick ass against that Black Wolf she fought in her first days and killed it, and would have still reached the Silver-rank on her own, and former human would still be able to cultivate even without sapience since her body was able to thanks to that goddess.
'Though, of course, if that idiot primarily followed her instincts, Wu-chan might no longer be the Wu-chan we know now, would she?' Jiko Ai thought to herself. 'If that idiot wasn't sapient, it would have been more likely that Wu-chan will just become a sex slave, wouldn't it? Her personality, hopes, dreams, and everything that makes her, her, simply washed away and reconstructed to be nothing but an obedient pet.'
Even the Narcissism couldn't help but feel quite disgusted at that. Even more so when she knew with absolute certainty that the only reason she was feeling that way was because she loved that stupid yet adorable, inconsistent pink-haired woman.
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Jiko Ai loved Mei Wu as much as Kasumi Ai did, and that was one of the factors of why the idea of doing something that horrible to Mei Wu is such a repulsive idea even for the Narcissism.
Or more accurately, it is because the Narcissism is the embodiment of Kasumi Ai's alraune insctincts and cravings, that such an idea is that unacceptable. It is why Jiko Ai is genuinely happy that Kasumi Ai wasn't like that.
Because it gave her this immense (even if intense and obsessive), genuine feeling of (romantic-sexual) love towards someone else. And more importantly, it was because Kasumi Ai wanted to connect with someone, even for just talking. Even when that woman was content with only interacting with the Worker Bees back then, she still wanted to talk to an actual sapient being.
A reasonable one at least.
'To connect with someone else that much, huh.' even as she thinks, she doesn't stop her movement. She was close to reaching the Queen Bee's area, as the smell and power were growing more potent to her senses. 'To think that I and that idiot fell in such deep love before she became a Platinum-ranked existence. I thank you for that, Goddess. Even if I am a bit disappointed that she didn't get a harem of pets first, and that we might not get any at all in the near future, I still love this moment in life. Now, I only need to let things go their way.'
The Narcissism was certain that things between Kasumi Ai and Mei Wu will be alright, whether it was due to their love and desire to understand and please each other, or because Jiko Ai herself can't help but be positive about it. She just has to take her time, and maybe push the two when needed, like she just did a few minutes ago.
... Plus, she was way too tame about it all things considered. Honestly, she really wanted to send her point by binding these two with her vines and just be all seductive and sweet about it. Shame she had to go for the "intimidation and strict gaze" route instead. If only Jiko Ai existed from the start, then the three would already be in a threesome, and probably into bondage to boot!
"Truly, tragic~!" she almost cried the supposed tragedy of it all. Now, she has to take it slow and wait for her not-really-date with Mei Wu.
She expects at least plenty of hugs, leaning on each other, and her cute love aiding her in killing some lousy bandits and creeps so that the alraune can feed on them.
Peak ROMANCE, in All Caps, as far as the alraune sees it.
'I suppose, from my understanding of you so far, that your tragedy is a completely nonsensical thing?' the voice of the Queen Bee's buzzing reached her ears, the amusement and boredom almost visible on her face, and the Narcissism raised her head, blinking.
Oh yeah, she kinda forgot that she was being melodramatic right when she entered inside the chamber of her boss.
"When you fall in love, you will understand... or something like that." Jiko Ai's cheeky smile returned, and it was clear that the Queen Bee was not impressed.
'Right. So, I assume you came for your portion of the corpses?' the Queen Bee didn't even bother to look interested, the answer to her question clear as day as she simply turned around. 'Well, as you can see, they are here. Eat them.'
She was talking about the halves of the corpses of Xie Xiu and her Camouflage Chameleon that were already in the line of sight of Jiko Ai. The Queen Bee had already ate her fill, and while it was one of the most delicious meals she ate -Kasumi Ai's sweet nectars almost excluded- she wasn't so greedy as to eat it all by herself.
Not when she didn't really do most of the work. Her pride as a Golden King Beast and her respect (and reluctant affectation) to Mei Wu and the alraune just refused that.
"Thanks for the meal, boss~!" Jiko Ai did not show any restraint. Immediately, her current body's lower and giant mouth opened, a large tongue extending as she advanced, and started swallowing the remaining half of Xie Xiu's corpse before chomping on the dead beast's corpse.
"Mmm~! Oh, that's just the best~! If this was a cooking show I would be so orgasming right now~!" the Narcissism doesn't even bother to show any form of decency with the way she moaned, and the Queen Bee just couldn't care less.
'Whatever. Do you need me for something else or can you leave now? I need to take some time to comprehend the insanity that is your existence.'
"You're really no fun." the alraune sighed after she finished her meal. The power from the digested corpses will go to Kasumi Ai's body (the main body). "Still, thanks for the meal. It was delicious..."
Jiko Ai nearly blanked, lost in the taste of the flesh of the sweet, beautiful Xie Xiu. "So soft, warm, and sweet on the tongue, yet so full of energy..."
Shaking her head of these thoughts, she bowed to the Queen Bee before rising. "Eh, but no. I have nothing to request from your highness~ So, if you excuse me. I am now quite full... well, not really, but you get my meaning." she rubbed her human stomach, and the hungry expression on her face never left.
"But, now that a lady ate a most delicious meal, she should now indulge in some delicacy that is a good, heartwarming drink~! An energy drink..." her vines rose in excitement.
Oh yeah, that Xie woman they captured will be most helpful indeed.
Jiko Ai might not be totally accepting of making that woman her pet at the moment, both due to time constraints, and because that woman's fate is at Mei Wu's hand ultimately. That woman might have been one of the many who mistreated Mei Wu after all, so it was fair that the pink-haired woman chooses that woman's fate.
But using that Xie woman's Qi and blood as an energy drink after a nice, warm meal?
Oh, now that is where the fun is. Neither she nor Kasumi Ai had gotten a huge chance to enjoy such a typical Alraune meal other than that random fellow of Xie Li whose name Jiko Ai couldn't really bother to remember. He was the guy that Kasumi Ai gave for the Queen Bee as a small gift (meal), and he was so unimportant that Jiko Ai doesn't believe his name will be necessary.
Still, his Qi and blood were indeed quite tasty, even if they weren't as pure, potent or flavored as the Narcissism preferred.
And that woman's Qi and blood would at least be as tasty, right?
It was difficult to stop her mouth from watering even as she excused herself from the Queen Bee's area, walking to where one Xie Zu was put to sleep and watched by multiple Normal-ranked Worker Bees and a single Bronze-ranked Drone Bee.
'Ah, truly. How glorious~! It is truly a fun life, being an alraune!' a small amount of her Qi and hunger leaked from the sheer excitement. This was how an Alraune truly was at its bestial and primal core. With one having to worry only about oneself and no need to think anything but one's own joy and pleasure.
And the Narcissism grins at that. And if a part of why she was so enthusiastic about it was because she would be tormenting someone who dared to lay their hands on her sweet Mei Wu, well, that was a part of the fun of being a predator in this world, isn't it?
'Unforgivable. Unacceptable. To think that a lowly creature like you dared to touch my Mei Wu? I will torment you and crush you and your ego, and milk you of all your energy and blood over and over!' Jiko Ai could only think as she sped up her march. It was a shame that she would have to give the final judgement to Mei Wu, otherwise she would have already been working on wiping out the entire personality of that insolent woman.
Truly, the sacrifices an alraune does for love.