So, this is the ocean… I’ve gone swimming before of course, but I could never stay under long.. Bad lungs, killed my singing career. Which I would have been great at…

Well, you speak through memory and mind now, not to mention the potential of your Musical Ripple, if it HAS to be physical sound.

Yeah, I GUESS~ but nah, I’m too busy checking out the ocean, for an extended period of time.

Jeez, you’re right, she does have trouble committing-

Have you both been- I’m just gonna’ ignore you two.

Man, I’ve never felt as at home as I do now.. It’s weird.

Anyways, let’s talk about my surroundings… Fish. Lots of fish, they’ve been swimming in and out of me actually. I’ve been using this chance to practice controlling my instincts, ‘don't want another Fingsk happening. Although, it is tough denying my instincts like this.

I’m far enough outside of Ryleth, so I don’t think anybody would notice if I…

*Chomp.*

And the fish is gone, completely disappeared, his friends are confused. You know, usually I’d feel bad, watching them squirm, but right now, I’m actually feeling pretty good…

Welp, time to eat the rest of them. And done! Man, I feel like getting as big as possible.. I.. I...

I must spread… I have to return…

Charlotte!

What?!

Your instincts are acting up again, Fear is trying to shut them off-

What’s that noise? Do you hear it too?

It’s like, some sort of signal, I can’t tell where it’s coming from though-

It’s like an ancient voice, a rippling call from a creature long dead-

Oh, I get it now, it’s the originator. It’s not a call, he created us, just like how we created Arivan, but he was simpleminded, he left them an overwhelming instinctual directive to hunt and return mass to HIM. But for what purpose? I’m not sure…

Alright, I’ve isolated the instincts. Delete’em?

Yeah, they’ll just get in our way. He’s long dead anyways, just let it die off along with him…

You got it. They’re gone. Still, it might have been worth it to investigate them further.

Maybe, but we couldn’t risk it taking over. What if we killed somebody because of it?

I should mention, there was something else in there, I decided not to delete it, I was worried it might delete something important.

Good, only delete what we’re certain will get in our way.

Enough you two, what’s done is done. We have other things to do right now.

Right, thanks Chamber.

Now that that’s out of the way, I can get back to exploring. There’s all kinds of stuff down here, a lot of it I recognize, a lot of it I don’t. It seems like they evolved off of what was already there. Orion could be millions, maybe even billions years older than earth.

But enough of that, I wanna’ get stronger, and we know what I need for that!

And one by one fishies disappear, I’d tell you how they taste, if I had any taste buds. Anyways, it’s pretty interesting, crushing these things inside of me. They’ve started to try running away, but they usually stop somewhere that is also inside of me. I guess it’s because I’m so large, they just don’t understand what’s happening.

You know, since they’re breathing my water, I was worried my Jet Spikes would kick in, and well, tear them apart. But it turns out my subconscious has been filtering it the whole time, it’s like blinking, or breathing.

Anyways, I think I’ve had my fun, and I’ve eaten enough fish. I wonder how things are going with Fingsk, I’ll just have to have hope that he wouldn’t betray us. I doubt anyone would cross us though, we’ve got Liyoxis and Lian backing us. Right now, we’re mostly trying to assemble enough power to take him down. Then we’ll- Is that Kass?

Demi - “Kass, is that you?”

She looks around quickly, she’s about twenty meters away from me. “D-Demi?!” She says, still unable to find me. “Where are you?!” She starts searching for me, until she realizes something. “That’s right, you’re water…” She’s starting to look scared now.

Demi - “I’m right next to you. I’ll change the color of my water real quick-”

She looks over at me as my form becomes visible, I’m using my mana form. She just stares at me, weirdly frightened.

Demi - “Are you alright, Kass?”

She finally begins to calm down. “Man Demi, I can’t- I couldn’t see you. You were starting to scare me. I couldn’t see you, but when I realized that you ARE the water- I felt- I felt vulnerable. Like you could have crushed me at any moment, like you were going to-” She starts to get scared again.

Demi - “What do you mean? I wouldn’t hurt you-”

“I get it now, I get what he meant, Fingsk wasn’t lying about everyone’s fear, Demi. I’ve never felt fear like this before-”

Demi - “Kass, pull yourself together!”

She kicks at the water, scaring off the fish and anything else. “Demi- no- stay away from me!” She lightly screams and kicks with her eyes shut, until I finally surround her. She looks around, and starts panicking more. “Demi, what are you doing?!”

Demi - “Nothing. I couldn’t ever bring myself to hurt you Kass. I love you.”

She continues to kick and slash at my body with her bladed fins. This lasts for a few minutes longer, until she finally begins to calm down again. “I’m sorry Demi, I was just-” She looks around, like she just got out of some trance.

Demi - “It seems like you have some instincts to work through too.”

She looks around again, but more calmly, until she pulls herself into the fetal position. “Yeah, I guess. So will the others.” Right, there’s all kinds of Aquatic Demi-Humans, I doubt we’re lucky enough for them to not have this weird phobia. “It’s kind of getting hard to breathe, Demi. I can’t exactly breath mana..” Right… My body begins to change back, from the inside out, and she begins breathing again. “So am I ACTUALLY breathing you?” She says, with a weird look on her face.

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Demi - “No, my body automatically detaches from the water as it flows through, the same is for everything that swims inside of me. If not, my body would tear apart the fish, trying to get it back. I assume it’s a stealth tactic my species slowly developed overtime, among other things..”

She just looks at me. “What do you mean?”

Demi - “Right, thanks to the little scare Arigold gave me, I activated IDM, which has allowed me to cut off my base instincts.”

“Ha, lucky you, huh? When he came for us, we just kind of went with what Vexalan told us to do. Celscy of course tried to fight back, but it didn’t work. None of US got a chance to activate it.” She just sits there, a melancholic smile.

Demi - “And you never will. I won’t let any of you go through something like that, I’ll protect everyone with my power.”

She just sits there in free-float and starts laughing at me. “What, would you even fight the world? What next, the Gods?!” She continues to laugh, like I wasn’t serious.

Demi - “Yeah, and we’ll do it as a family.”

“You know, you’re never this serious, Demi.” And that’s what broke the Camel’s back.

Demi - “Good gosh~ I know right?! I came down here to try and relax in well, my literal element- Any information from Fingsk’s little team?”

She giggles a little, at the mention of relaxation. “That’s funny, we both came to our, uh, element to relax, and all we found was fear and stress..” Yep… “Yeah, actually, he got back to us surprisingly quickly, he said they would even be willing to meet up with us on our Island.” Wow this is all so sudden-

Demi - “-we’re gonna’ have to set up a building for the meeting- How soon?!”

She just thinks to herself, completely calm inside of me. “They said they’ll be free in about two days. You, Dart, and Vexalan will be speaking with the queen, the general, and some representatives, and other important dudes. Along with Fingsk of course.” There’s so much to do- “Hey, Demi, do you wanna’ play for a little while?” Kass decides to finally swim out of my body, it’s weird that people can just swim in and out of me.

Demi - “Yeah, that sounds fun, since we have some time.”

She smiles at me, and swims away. She’s a master, she’s wicked fast underwater, her turns are sharp like her fins, and she’s performing tricks I couldn’t even imagine. She isn’t even using her eyes, it’s her instincts that guide her. She simply laughs as she darts around- “You know, I asked my brother if he wanted to play with me, and he said no!” Slowly, anger and frustration seems to bubble up with her joy- “His stupid ASSETS are more important to him, than playing with his sister!” She tears apart multiple rock formations, and continues- “I asked everyone else, but they’re all afraid of me, they told me they were worried some of my ‘ancient instincts’ would kick in!” She tears apart a poor fish with just her mouth, swallowing it whole, and revelling in the leftover blood. I.. I never realized… Kass and I, we’re in the same boat.

And as though her frustrations and Anger had completely disappeared, she roars in a ravenous laughter. “SHAKASHIKI-SHISHISHI- AH~ It’s the ultimate high! Sucks you can’t experience something like this Demi-Demi!” She darts through the sea faster than ever before- She’s beginning to get too fast for even me- She tosses a large rock at me, and- “Hey Demi-Demi, catch!” The rock comes flying at me- Okay, she is NOT this strong! I catch the rock inside of my body, and compress my body around it. I need to test her strength, there’s something going on here- “Come on Demi-Demi, toss it back already!” Alright, full power it is. I cover the rock in a smooth titanium alloy, it begins to yield under my immense pressure, beginning to mold into a sort of oval shape, until It finally breaks out of my body, and darts through the water at high speed. Kass punches straight through it, completely tearing it apart. Oh boy.

Demi - “Alright, Kass, I think you need to calm down.”

She just stares at me, a LITTLE~ disappointed… It’s a complete tone shift. I’ve honestly never seen someone go from such joy and euphoria, to soul tearing disappointment.

Demi - “Or we could play for a few hours longer, until your blood-high has ended~!”

And we’re back to joy! She swims up to me, and hugs me, pressing her cheak against my surface- Her arm..

Demi - “Hey, your arm, it’s bruised- what happened?”

She looks at it with mild curiosity. “Oh, musta’ hurt it when I punched the ball.” Her eyes snap shut as she smiles brightly. “Nothin’ ta’ worry about! Best part of my little blood high: I can’t feel the pain!” That is not okay. She swims off, completely unaware of the pain. Caution to the wind I guess…

And that’s what we did, we darted throughout the ocean, and I had to keep her from destroying everything, and tearing herself apart. We did still have a lot of fun, Blood-High-Kass is super aggressive and playful. Aside from being a little destructive, she’s also really powerful like this. It mostly seems to be a physical boost, about a ten to twenty times enhancement. Sharks have some crazy stuff.

Anyways, I think I’ve finally worn her out. Kass just drifts in a slow circle. Turns out she can redirect, and create ocean currents, it’s pretty cool. I’ll have to ask her how she does it.

Demi - “You good?”

She just looks at me, and nods. “Yeah, I’m good.” She’s completely mellowed out. “Sorry if that was a bit of a surprise, I just needed something to calm my nerves. Also my body aches.” Right… Maybe part of why she’s stuck there, is because she wore herself out, smashing herself against just about anything she could find. I literally just sat by and watched her wreck herself...

Demi - “You wanna go home?”

She’s asleep, it’s weird watching her slowly flow in that circle, I mean I get it, shark and what not. But I mean, she’s still got legs and arms, and a torso, even her face is pretty human. Aside from the inside of her mouth of course. Rows of teeth, l pity the dinner.

Now for the big question, do I have to carry her around inside of me, or will she just start breathing air when I plop her out on the Island?

…

*PLOOP* And she’s breathing just fine. Everyone stares at me, on the teleport pad, with a heavily bruised up Kassingkamble.

Demi - “Hey- She’s breathing.”

They’re all giving me the kind of stare you give someone, when you’re like: “What the hell is that supposed to mean?!”

Dart finally shows up, and just looks at his sister, as she rests on the hard floor leading to the teleport pad. He looks at me, with his unflinching gaze. “Blood high?”

Demi - “Yep.”

He sighs, then nods. “Thanks Demi, I was worried all day about what she might do to herself alone down there.” He picks up his sister, sound asleep in his arms. “At least I can count on SOMEBODY to keep an eye on her.” He hoists her over his head and onto his back, then pats my surface. My dark abyss of a core catching his eye, his face muscles finally decides to nudge a little, revealing a hint of what you could call fear- but he quickly shakes his head, and- and- he’s smiling... “I don’t see what there could ever be to fear.. Thanks again Demi.” We watch him carry her home..

Everyone just stares in astonishment.. “D-Dart.. That’s the third time he’s ever smiled, he- Sari was beginning to think the muscles in his face stopped working. Along with just about everything else.” Sari says, leaning forward.

Demi - “Wait- what does Sari mean?”

Sari gives me a surprised look for a moment, then smiles. Score! She remembers what she was about to say, then looks down. “Right.. Dart.. He- he can’t swim-”

Wuh- Wuh- Wuh-

Demi - “WHAT?!”

Everyone throws their hands to their ears, and falls to their knees- “Demi!” Oh-

Demi - “Ah- S-Sorry- Does- Does Kass know?”

Everyone begins to stand up, and looks between each other. “Sari is- um- Sorry to admit that, she uh- doesn’t.” They all look sad. Oh my god.

Demi - “Wha- Bu- He- How does something like that even HAPPEN?! He- He’s an Aquatic Demi-Human, he is a fucking MEGA for shitsake!!”

Everyone cringes at the unnecessary cursing, and tries to calm me. “D-Demi, language- We’ve tried everything already, it just doesn’t work! He sinks like a hammer, no matter what crazy movement he does!” Sari looks over at their house, herself finally calming down. “You know, when he met Kass for the first time, she asked if he would go swimming with her some day.. He smiled and promised her he would. Since that day, he’s been working tirelessly to learn..”

Demi - “But- But why doesn’t he just tell her the truth?”

They look at me again, and shake their head. “Swimming is everything to us, some aquatics even consider it a curse, for some misdeed from a past life... Kass.. She’s the greatest swimmer Sari has ever seen, nobody could ever match her. Oh Dart, he’d resigned himself, when Dart met Kass, it lit a spark in him. He’s the engine, and she’s the fuel. But this engine is worn, and that fuel is too strong for even it, not even Sari is sure how much longer this could last. Kass was a new beginning, we just hope she won’t be the end.”

End of Chapter: 21 “But be careful, your joy will devour you...”

“Thank you.”