Kaijin Fighter: So I Have to Make Monsters, So What?

The Goldenbacks had won the day, technically, so they were given full right to pick the place clean for any treasures or loot that the defeated had on their persons and whatever was left in the plaza.

While they were in the process of cleaning up though, Zhen Liu had to tie up a loose end.

Namely, the fact that there was a witness who was unaffiliated with everyone present and had possible incentive to not keep his mouth shut.

As such, Zhen Liu decided to give him incentive to stay mum.

...

"Okay, just to double check, your name is... Rammada, and you were more or less used as the unwilling host for Smoking Mirror."

"Yes."

"And that, while he was replacing you, used a clone of you to disseminate a map that was designed to do some resurrection ritual shit that was more or less because...I showed up."

"Yes."

"And because you were more or less playing ghost host, you had a front row seat to everything that transpired in here alongside whatever information he had mentally going on."

"Also, yes."

"Hmmm...okay, I have a carrot and a stick option as to why you're going to need to keep your mouth shut and lie about what had happened here."

"I...okay...what does that mean?"

"The carrot option is that I hand you a bag of gold coins and a Major Ethereal Aether Art to lie your pretty little butt off."

"Holy—! Okay...what's the stick option?"

"You find out what the inside of Nepeherage's stomach looks like."

[Hello there.]

"...so what do you want me to say?"

"Don't worry, I wrote it all down for you."

"I'm...I'm afraid to ask this, but why do you seem weirdly prepared for this?"

"Cover-ups are kind of my thing and I find it a lot easier to have compliant witnesses than dead bodies."

"Really?"

"What's more suspicious: a crazy man saying they saw monsters fighting gods or a missing person report?"

"Fair point..."

...

And with that, the Goldenbacks had won the day...at least, that's what the rest of the world believed.

________________________________________

The Mirror Ruins Cold War was...weird.

This war waged between the Golden Gorilla Union and Silver Jungle Dragon Shipping Company within the depths of the [City of Mirrors] ended in a victory for the former...sort of.

The official story, as shared by a young Aether Master who had apparently been spending the past few days being replaced by a doppelganger, was as transcribed below.

...

The City of Mirrors was a trap.

When my team and I went to explore the place, it turned out that there was a hidden chamber in the fountain plaza of all places and there was some ancient asshole sealed inside it.

Please note, I'm calling him an asshole because I don't know how else to describe someone that thought possessing someone and replacing them with a glass clone was a good idea.

Anyways, that motherfucker decided to have my clone sent out there and push the Silver-tongues and the Goldenbacks into open conflict by giving them both maps that led to the exact same treasures and locations.

In his words, he wanted to winnow out the chaff until he found a body that was more suitable.

However, he didn't expect the Silver-tongue leader, Alfonzo, and the Silver-tongues benefactor to show up earlier than anticipated and strike a deal.

The details on that deal is hazy to me, for obvious reasons, but I managed to put together that in exchange for fealty and assistance in taking down the Goldenbacks, that ancient asshole promised them a ludicrous reward.

As you can imagine they were very receptive to the idea.

Due to their newly minted alliance, the Silver-tongues were able to capture the Goldenback warriors one by one, but they had made a fatal error.

One of the Goldenback's allies, a swordsman named Lythero, had a special treasure that allowed him to make illusions.

By using it, he managed to free himself and several other warriors from their bonds and stage a counterattack.

The battle was fierce, brutal and it would've ended with the Goldenbacks vanquishing Alfonzo and the rest of the Silver-tongues, but then...something weird happened.

That ancient expert finally left my body after being presented a suitable vessel and managed to activate some weird treasure that teleported him and all of the Silver-tongues in the wandering ruins...somewhere, I don't fucking know.

When I finally came to, the Goldenbacks were standing there confused yet victorious.

If you don't believe me, well, go ask them.

...

This story was corroborated by the fact that Goldenbacks were still present and the leaders Silver-tongues had actually upped and disappeared from the area entirely. Eventually, this led to the Silver-tongues that were left in the boomtown to just up and leave as well.

Although, there was a bit of weirdness in this retreat.

Many assumed the Silver-tongues would head back home to Amber Shore. Instead, they seemed to go off in the opposite direction.

Perhaps they were embarrassed by their loss or they were worried about being ambushed, either way, they were no longer in the picture and the Golden Gorilla Union were now fully in charge of maintaining the boomtown, the wandering ruins and all of the financial benefits that came from doing so.

Now, there were still a few unconvinced uninvolved bystanders who attempted to interrogate the Golden Gorilla Union warriors for more information. However, the responses they received were less than satisfactory to say the least.

Eventually, with the lack of any opposing or additional information, the people just accepted the fact that the Golden Gorilla Union had defeated their rivals once and for all.

Maybe.

The ones who were actually aware of the truth of this entire debacle, though, were busy dealing with the aftermath.

...What this aftermath entailed...

"Meh..." Zhen Liu groaned while laying facedown on the ground.

"Mmm..." Lythero grunted while cradling the broken remains of several Gold-tiered swords.

"Huh. Synchronized sadness. Didn't know that was a real thing," Zhen Xing commented as he ate a regional specialty of the Dozing Salamander continent. "Also, where'd you get these tacos again?"

"Booth with a roasting lizard sign."

"Ah."

After Smoking Mirror and the Silver-tongues disappeared in a literal puff of smoke, the Goldenbacks and their allies took the opportunity to secure their loot.

Combined with the treasures they had acquired earlier that day, the Goldenbacks were well on their way of exceeding their previous heights, even when subtracting the rewards they owed their allies.

However, not everyone was happy about this situation.

In the private room of an inn owned by the Golden Gorilla Union, Zhen Liu and Lythero were wallowing in sadness while their friends and family were keeping an eye on them.

Well, they were technically waiting on news from Kidanna and the girls because they had discovered something weird when they left the wandering ruins but the sentiment was still there.

"I've only known Zhen Liu for about...a few weeks now? Is this...normal?" Antonio asked the Zhen Clan scions.

"Kind of."

Zhen Liu was more or less miserable, because he now had even more unfathomably weird motherfuckers gunning for his ass.

That shortlist of enemies included an Otherlander opera singer with the habit of stealing faces, that fucking weird rogue Kaijin named Buzza, whomever the fuck those twins and knight were, technical Olstenna and now the sentient fragment of a trickster god from a civilization that Zhen Liu was actually familiar with.

A very dark part of Zhen Liu came to the realization that if he was a bit more murder happy, he would have a smaller enemy list. Then again, that sort of thinking was a slippery slope into becoming the number one enemy of the world and a paranoid motherfucker obsessed with erasing records of their own existence.

'Then again, it might be a good idea to at least seal away some of these motherfuckers,' Zhen Liu mentally mused. 'Gotta ask Logos and Pathos about that once I get my brain fixed.'

Lythero, on the other hand, was miserable because not only had he failed in killing his mortal enemy, but had also lost five of his masters' Gold-tier swords.

He still had two of them, but it was a cold comfort to the idealistic swordsman who had planned his revenge down to the number of times he would stab Diamoro.

"Is that normal for him?" Zhen Xing asked Antonio.

"Also kind of."

"Hmm."

Knock-knock.

"Hmmm?"

Alerted by the knock at the door, Zhen Tai got up from his seat to open it.

The person at the door just so happened to be the girls they were waiting for.

"Evening, Zhen Tai."

"Kidanna, ladies."

"Are Zhen Liu and darling still..."

"Acting like miserable sad sacks?" Olstenna interrupted. "Yes. Yes, they are."

"Fuck you, Olstenna," Zhen Liu mumbled from his space on the ground. "You don't have an ancient asshole gunning for your ass."

"Eh..."

"Well then, I hope you guys are ready to turn those frowns upside down," Alicia began to say as she entered the room. "Because I think we found a way to track those bastards."