Capítulo 26: Shadows
(Can I confess something to you all? I don't really like Hazbin Hotel; in fact, I kinda hate it. The show, at least, I really like the characters and setting, but I really can't get down with the show, aside from my glorious king Adam.
(James POV)
"Welcome to the shadow realm, my esteemed guest."
I looked at the silhouette in utter confusion. How the hell did I even get here in the first place? Did she bring me here through my shadow? "Why, my guest, you catch on very quickly.". Did she just read my mind?
"No, I didn't, my guest." She says, making a teapot and pouring it directly into her mouth. "But, it's very surprising how I can't, I can only read your shadow. You see, the shadow is a reflection of the soul; the soul holds all thoughts and feelings inside of it, being aided by the brain or the equivalent in whatever has a soul."
"Your shadow holds all emotions you consider negative. Doubts, dislikes for things or people, hate, and depression. Yet what intrigues me about you is how I can only read your reasonable doubts about me. Interesting." The silhouette puts the teacup down and just starts to stare at me.
"Dude, you can't just bring me here to a whole new realm and just start dumping info on me like that. A 'hello' or 'My name is.' would have sufficed, dude." I say, looking at the surprisingly curvy silhouette… Am I really that damn down bad?
The silhouette looked at me in a tiny bit of surprise as she put down her teapot. "I apologize for that, my guest. You may call me Roo, the Root of All Evil." With her name mentioned, that entire room creaked under an invisible pressure, as if her mere name bent reality. "Wait, wait, wait, hold the phone. You're telling me the literal embodiment of evil itself has called me down here?"
After my question, Roo simply smiled before her form gained more presence. Instead of a shadow, she became more like me, an inky black figure, except way curvier. Her breasts and privates were covered up with black censor bars, saying, No Peeking.
"Why, yes, I have called you here." She says, "You see, that power you have of making beings from your shadows directly establishes a line with me directly, the ruler of the shadow realm." While she was talking, she made a teacup and gave me a cup of tea.
"That Alastor overlord also has a shadow ability, yet I can't even communicate with him, much less call him here like you." I take a long sip of the tea. "Though, perhaps that's because of your unique status as a transmigrator, isn't it?" I immediately spit out my tea all over the table and looked at Roo in shock.
Roo looked unimpressed at me, and with a snap, the tea I had spat out was completely gone. "Yes, I suppose that wasn't exactly a small thing to drop in casual conversation," she says, rubbing her arm in embarrassment, making the teapot float beside her. "Yeah, bro, no shit. How the hell did you even know that!?"
"You see, my guest, whenever a portal is formed, it briefly passes through my realm, not for long though, a picosecond at most, yet I sense all of them." She rubs her finger along the brim of my teacup that I had sat down on the table. "So imagine my shock when a soul, a human one no less, was transported into hell, somehow less than a picosecond."
My hands trembled with this knowledge, knowing that someone or something had tracked me down and proved there were 'gods' here, people that are way above my level of power that could basically do anything without me knowing. It made me feel worthless… Like, no matter what, my fate and entire being were determined on the whim of some being way stronger than me.
My hands trembled as I looked at Roo. "So why the hell did you call me here then?" Roo either didn't know or didn't comment on my insecurities as she spoke without a care in the world. "I'm sure you're familiar with the concept of gods choosing someone to represent them, like those chaos gods of Warhammer 40 Thousand, right?"
I gave a small nod and blinked. She disappeared from my sight as I looked to my left and saw her in a chair right beside me, putting an arm around my shoulders in an almost friendly gesture. "What I want to do is make you my champion."
I say nothing for a minute before asking. "...Why do you want to do that?" She looked at me, and for the first time I could see the shape of a face; unlike her previous silhouette form, she only had a mouth that was curled up into a smile that was just a tiny bit too big for her face.
"Why, you ask? It would be so interesting; think about it. The embodiment of evil sponsors a random mortal who transmigrated here? That just sounds like a ripe idea for the TV you mortals watch." Even without me blinking this time. She directly disappears from my line of sight and appears back in her chair on the other side of the desk.
"So, how about it, my dear guest? Would you like to take the deal?" I look down and clench my fists, contemplating my options. "What if I said I needed more information and time before I agreed?" Roo's smile dropped back into the nothingness her mouth was before. "That's fine. I won't end you because you wouldn't want to be my champion."
She knocks on the table twice, and it transfigures into ten recognizable symbols. Dogs, frogs, snakes, antlers, and a tiger. All symbols for the ten shadows. "For you, my soon-to-be champion, I will enhance these shadow creatures, along with the energy you use to summon them."
"Aren't you the ruler of this shadow realm? How are you going to enhance my cursed energy?" My question makes her mouth reappear and gives a smirk. "Do you really think the embodiment of evil can't help you with energy that's negative?" Yeah, that was kind of a stupid question.
"Super stupid question."
"..... Please don't do that again." The literal embodiment of evil starts to pout like a child. "Fine…. So are you going to be champion or not?" I rubbed my chin, deep in thought. "... Can I get like a month in time before I answer?" Roo shrugs her shoulders. "I'm the embodiment of evil; it's not like I'm going away anytime soon; take all the time you need."
She snaps her fingers again, and the floor starts turning murky, like sludge. "Just go into your shadow and think about me when you're ready to talk. You're welcome for the free healing, by the way." But before I could ask what she was talking about, I had already slipped into the shadows, only seeing the slight smile on Roo's face before resurfacing.
-Scene Break-
When I resurfaced from my shadow, I saw the now-familiar red skies of hell along with my divine dogs beside me, questioning looks on their faces as they saw me. "Sorry I checked out there for a bit, guys… You know what, I think I have enough cursed energy to just keep you guys out indefinitely."
To put it into BS numerical terms, I have about 2000 units of cursed energy; normally divine dogs use up 500 every 10 minutes, and I regenerate 350 a minute. However, with the six eyes, I can reduce the amount of cursed energy that divine dogs take up from 500 to only 5. The six eyes are truly overpowered bullshit, heh.
I swiftly got up and stretched all four of my arms and led my dogs into the hotel with me, patting their heads with my lower arms while walking. "Hey, Charlie." I walked into the hotel and called out to Charlie who was asleep on the coffee table before waking up, wiping her drool off of her face.
"Oh, y-yeah, what's up, Ja—" I hold up my two dogs and present them to her. "They don't need food or water, and they don't poop or pee or anything like that. Can I please keep them?" Before I could even blink, Charlie was already on her knees, petting and putting her face into my dogs' fur.
"You're good boys, aren't you? Good, good boys. You're so darn fluffy!" I looked at the dogs, and it seemed they were enjoying it, so I didn't stop Charlie's antics. "Of course you can keep these guys; where else would they go?"
I gave a small smile and started to shrink down into my normal form, reverting my extra arms back in and closing my stomach mouth. "You guys can track my scent, right? If you want to sleep in my room, just sniff me out, okay?" The dogs let out satisfied whines and went back to being pampered by Charlie.
I walked up the stairs to my room, thinking about my training. 'From what I can tell, I haven't even scratched the surface of Jujutsu as a whole, I only did domain amplification against Alastor of all people. I'm not expecting a domain after only a few days, but I definitely need to start training more. I'll start by accessing my inner domain by meditating. Isn't that what all the protagonists do?"
When I got to my room, I was greeted by Amery and Nifty in a yelling match about who would take my right side tonight because it's "the warmest side.".
But before I start training, I'll take a little break first.
(After this chapter, I'll definitely put in some filler.)
Capítulo 27: Hotel Days
(Fun fact 1: Last chapter I wanted to make James a psyker and meet Roo through the warp, even though I don't know shit about 40k. Imagine my surprise when I look up psykers, and it turns out that even some of the weakest ones are still crazy strong.
(Fun fact 2: I wanted to have Roo do a whole song and dance number when introducing James, but then I remembered I don't know diddly squat about writing songs, lol.)
Dear Diary,
First of all, let me get something straight: this is a JOURNAL, not a diary. Charlie insisted I should keep one of these for recording notes on my path to redemption but forgot to get an actual journal from wherever she bought it. She said it's there for me to write out my feelings and stuff; I think I'd be fine without it, but I don't want to make Charlie cry.
So. Recapping last night before I went to sleep with Nifty and Amery, I wanted to try out something different with my binding vows. At first it was simple stuff like limiting my cursed energy for a while, but then I started to get into really crazy stuff. Like today, I had made a vow that made me get rid of all my cursed energy in exchange for turning me into a physical heavenly restriction user.
It's weird, you know? After having the energy inside me all of this time, it feels weird to just have it gone. Besides, I don't even know if this is as strong as being a normal heavenly restriction. But for the rest of the day, no cursed energy for me, baby, just pure physical P O W E R!!!!
But anyways, I was trying to get some passive training in while I was in the bathroom and tried to open my six eyes. I expected it to be normal, you know, me having to close them after a minute or two, due to me not having cursed energy anymore…. BIG MISTAKE! Apparently, since peak performance made everything peak, it included the heavenly restriction, meaning the six eyes could sense way more than they should be able to, and I closed my eyes almost immediately. I'm very thankful my brain could handle all the information.
Speaking of brains, I really want to experiment with mine. From what I knew about JJK, using two cursed techniques at once is virtually impossible for everyone except Kenjaku, due to his barrier techniques and unique brain. I think the canon reason for it would be that because cursed techniques are engraved on the brain, it would put too much strain on the brain to activate two at once.
Yet, I have a theory. When Amery was inside of me (pause), she could take on the burden of the overload of information from the six eyes. And not only that, but in the fight between Gojo and Sukuna, Sukuna used Megumi's soul as a sort of substitute for him, having Megumi take on infinite void while Mahoraga adapted to it.
So my theory is that the brain has little to do with techniques and more about Jujutsu itself. From what I knew, Jujutsu was a very loose power system, one based very heavily on belief. When Yuji awakened the shrine, his cleaves and dismantles were more like scissors compared to mine and Sukuna's straight-up slashes. Nanami made a binding vow to increase his cursed energy amount by 120% after working hours, but that wouldn't make sense since the body shouldn't be able to handle that, from what I know.
I'll test it out tomorrow, but I believe that if I made a binding vow for it, I could use the ten shadows and shrine at the same time, and if that doesn't work, I guess I'll just get started on those barrier techniques, I guess.
But enough about all of that training stuff; what I really want to talk about is how today went. So Charlie had us all line up and do some roleplay. I was the big bad guy in the trench coat while Amery was the lost little girl licking a comically large lollipop. It was pretty funny to act out, especially with Amery's monotone voice making everything she said sound like sarcasm, even though she said she was trying her genuine best.
When it was my turn to talk, I did a damn good performance. Willem Dafoe, who? Ryan Reynolds, who? Make way for a new actor, baby! Unfortunately after that, Vaggie dragged me outside and beat me like an abusive father coming home to his wife without dinner on the table. I thought making the binding vow would give me an edge, and it did… for 2 minutes, and after that it's like she adapted to my strength and somehow stayed out of my sight the entire time.
What she tried to teach me was called espionage style. She only picked up the very basics, saying that since angels can't get hurt, it was useless for her to get a style about sneaking up on people… Does she know? I asked her if she was stupid out loud and later went back to the hotel with many more bruises than I should have had.
After that it was about 4:30, and I, being the charming man that I am, asked Nifty out to go somewhere. I wasn't calling it a date yet, considering I really didn't know Nifty like that, but considering how wide she smiled, she must've really wanted to get to know me.
When we went out, I unfortunately couldn't threaten innocent cashiers to give me free stuff anymore without my cursed technique, so I just wore whatever was in my closet, which were ripped jeans and a swampy green shirt.
It turns out that Nifty isn't bad company in the slightest. When you get her interested in something, she just keeps talking and talking about it. By the way I'm describing it, it kind of makes me look like a dick, but I promise I actually really enjoy it. I think it's cute to see someone (especially a hot girl) get excited and share with me what they enjoy and like.
We first went to a bar; surprisingly, Nifty didn't really like alcohol, so she just stuck with apple juice. Meanwhile, I was slamming down beers left and right, like any red-blooded American should. I didn't really realize I was drunk until I transformed into my Heian era form without me even noticing.
Hell, I even got into my very first bar fight with a green snake sinner… that I won almost instantly. I held myself back a bunch, trying to barely tap him, but he still went flying into the wall. Anyway, after we got done with the bar, I transformed back into my normal self and walked with Nifty to a nightclub.
And when I say we got down… I'd be lying my ass off, because I can't dance for shit. Thankfully, Nifty knew how to dance and taught me step by step. It was kind of romantic, to be honest; I can only imagine how much I was blushing for Nifty to grin at me.
I haven't mentioned it much at all or even thought about it, but Nifty is really pretty, even ignoring her… proportions. She has really round cheeks and a dainty little nose, and along with her single eye and large smile, it makes me melt whenever she genuinely smiles at me.
Oh right, something else I haven't mentioned is that Nifty doesn't genuinely smile often; sure, she has this manic grin on her face 24/7, but rarely, when she thinks no one is looking, she takes off her mask of happiness and looks so… tired. I only ever see it when she's asleep on me, and I wake up earlier than her; it's honestly beautiful. I really wish she would smile like that more… I want to be the cause of her smile….
Holy hell. I think I have a crush on Nifty. I'm not too mad at it, to be honest; I could be in an abusive relationship with a girl who had blue hair that I'm forced to like. Why did I just think of that? Oh well, I guess it's the price of life being strange.
Eh, eh?
I forgot I'm writing this down in a personal notebook, fuck. Now if anyone looks into this, I'll feel stupid.
Anyway, I'll just recap everything else because I'm feeling a bit tired. After Nifty taught me how to dance, we had a grand old time, drinking and laughing on the dance floor. Hell, we even slowly danced when the music came up.
After that, we decided it was time to head back to the hotel since it was already 11:30. Right now, I'm writing this in bed in my heian with Amery and Nifty. She still has that smile I like seeing.
Life is good.
(4 Days Later)
Dear Diary,
To be honest I completely forgot about this thing for the past few days, I've been kinda busy with training and stuff so I'll catch this thing up to speed.
Over the past 4 days, I've tamed every single shadow except for Mahoraga, the reason being that I really want to make sure I'm prepared with both of my cursed techniques before I even try to fight him.
I've also been experimenting with some of them. See, Round Deer has exclusively reverse cursed technique, something I've been trying to get with all of my time here so far, so what I've been doing is having him bathe me in RCT for as long as he could to try and remember the feeling.
To be honest, it's kind of like the holy aura I gained after my cursed energy studied the angelic steel weapons in the turf war. Speaking of that, I actually managed to do a poor man's version of RCT with that.
By slamming my "holy" cursed energy against itself, it creates a kind of feedback loop that would be much better if I weren't in hell, making the holy energy die out very fast. But looking on the bright side, now I have a version of healing before I actually gain the real thing.
I also tamed Tiger Funeral, the shadow that was never used in the main series for some reason, and I have no idea why, considering how good it is. Tiger's funeral was actually the hardest one to tame, taking about 10 minutes compared to the one shot the others were.
In addition to its overwhelming speed and strength, it also has the ability to camouflage itself and blend in with its surroundings like a gecko. Why this wasn't an actual lizard or something else that can camouflage itself is beyond me, but I don't really care.
But, going back to the topic of using two cursed techniques at the same time, I believe that I've made some progress. Yesterday I asked Amery to come back inside of my body for a little bit in order to experiment with some things, which she (unsurprisingly) agreed to, and I tried my little experiment with round deer on standby.
Since I now have my divine dogs out indefinitely, I just tried sending out a weak dismantle, which was surprisingly harder than I thought it would be. It took me 5 minutes to let out a single Dismantle that barely made a scratch in the apple I had bought for the experiment. My head was also killing me; I had to lie down for 30 minutes and rest awhile. Round Deer worked his magic, and by the time I got up, I had a massive nose and ear bleed.
Amery informed me that two parts of my brain were swelling like crazy, compared to only one part of it being slightly bigger than the rest. I experimented some more and found out that the part of my brain that holds my ten shadows technique would be excreting special energy to power the ten shadows, yet if I used a shrine along with it, it would cause severe brain damage.
My solution to this? Well, it's actually quite simple. I wish to tame Mahoraga and use a binding vow to "wear" his wheel and adapt to the brain damage, making it possible to use ten shadows and shrines. Now you, my schizophrenic companion, might ask me how I would defeat Mahoraga if I wanted to get down using both techniques at the same time.
Well, I'm glad you asked since I've learned that these binding vows are very loose here. By making a binding vow to have a dismantle come out instantaneously after 30 seconds of not using the shrine, I can make the window of the two parts of my brain so brief that it doesn't get the chance to react.
I'm honestly pretty nervous about this whole thing, so I'll try and talk about some other stuff, like me and Nifty. She's been pretty clingy for the past 2 days, on me almost wherever I go… I kind of like it; I haven't really felt loved and wanted since… Since… Alicia.
I think I'm done writing for the day. I'm also putting you in my shadow. I spent 20 minutes looking for this and panicking for about 20 minutes.
.
.
.
.
.
.
The End!
(AN: How'd you guys like this chapter? I really loved writing in a diary style, and I made a helluva lot more words than I thought I would. Also, what the hell do power stones do?
(As always, please comment and share what you find interesting or bad about the story… Please ignore that I haven't been saying this at all for the past few chapters.
(Shameless Plug: Ko-fi/mrlegantrop.com)
Estado de energía semanal
200+ Ranking de
Poder 
27 Piedra de
Poder También te puede interesar
Comentario de párrafo