Proto Kaijin and the "Greatest Show"

Nobody made a move as the Razor Maiden kept hugging Zhen Liu in the same manner as a taller person would to a shorter one...with a lot of headpatting involved.

It was honestly quite impressive how the Razor Maiden hadn't cut open Zhen Liu's head with it's knife fingers...yet

The girls had initially thought to rush in to rescue Zhen Liu from the puppet's clutches, but when they saw that the kaijin weren't moving to rescue Zhen Liu themselves, they paused.

From what they understood, Nepherage and Frosttusk were basically Zhen Liu's fiercest protectors, and if they weren't doing anything, it either meant no threat or the situation was too precarious to do anything. Evidently, it turned out to be the former as the Razor Maiden stopped hugging Zhen Liu after a solid five minutes. With their lord now free, Nepherage and Frosttusk moved to check on Zhen Liu.

[Milord! Are you o-]

"HISS!"

[Whoa!]

Before Nepherage and Frosttusk could get close enough to Zhen Liu, the Razor Maiden started acting like an overprotective cat and started hissing at the two kaijin with it's claws drawn out.

The two kaijin were taken aback for a moment before they took up fighting poses.

[Milord that thing is dangerous, step away from it!]

[Protect...]

"Hiss!"

'Wait a minute...aren't all of you connected to me mentally and therefore each other?,' Zhen Liu thought as he saw the two sides gearing up to fight.

Technically speaking, Zhen Liu had established an imprint on the Razor Maiden, so he could feel that he was connected to it. Although, it did feel weirder than his connection to the kaijins, but that could be because it was a puppet... maybe.

Thoroughly confused, Zhen Liu switched his focus to his connection to all three of them. This little action ending up clearing up everything for him.

'Alright, what the hell is this?'

The connection to Nepherage and Frosttusk were plainly obvious, golden threads connecting his Formula to theirs, but his connection to the Razor Maiden was a lot...weirder.

The Razor Maiden didn't have a formula, obviously, so Zhen Liu's formula was connecting to the puppet core inside of it, like a weird blob covering it. In essence, his aura was somehow enveloping the Razor Maiden's core like they were supposed to be one continuous being. Granted, it didn't explain the weird rainbow mote of light inside of the puppet's core.

<Congratulations, you have accidentally created your first proto-kaijin,> Zhen Liu's brainmate suddenly stated as Zhen Liu tried to figure out what the rainbow mote was. While Zhen Liu could probably gleam details from the name, it was probably a good idea to ask.

'Alright...what the hell is a proto-kaijin?'

<Most kaijin are made with strong desires, valuable materials, chunks of your memories and a whole lot of arts and formulas. This is quick, easy and a little expensive.>

'Right...and proto-kaijin?'

<Proto-kaijin basically forego all of that, by shoving pure unbridled chaos energy into anything, and allowing time and environment to naturally form a kaijin core and formula. Things get weird with this method...and fun.>

'So the Razor Maiden is now a kaijin time bomb?'

<Bingo.>

'Great... doesn't explain the connection difference though.'

<Getting there, the way you're connected to protokaijin is different. It's more...savage, primitive and instinctual. It relies less on conscious thought and more on unconscious thought. In essence, less looking, more leaping.>

'Oh joy...'

Zhen Liu eventually stopped arguing with his brain voice, and went to go calm down the kaijins that were squaring each other up, Jin Fang, Alicia and Matilda were contemplated what to do while off to the sideline...or at least try to figure out what the hell was going on.

"Milady...is this how the young Zhen Clan master, usually trains?," Matilda asked. Alicia didn't know the answer, so she bounced it to Jim Fang.

"Is this normal?"

"Well...he's not lighting himself on fire again," Jin Fang answered while remembering the weird coordinated dance number and the the bonfire. Somehow the latter was easier to explain than the former. That didn't stop Alicia and Matilda looking aghast at Jin Fang's statement.

However, before they could ask further, there was a knock at the door.

*Knock, knock*

"Miss Goldshire?," a masculine yet servile voice called through the door, "Patriarch Goldshire requests that you and the Zhen Clan young master stop training and get ready to go out for the evening."

Matilda and Alicia shared a confused look. They were assuming that tonight was going to be just dinner at the estate.

"Go out?," Alicia asked, "To where?"

"To the circus."

"Circus?"

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"WELCOME ONE AND ALL TO THE MALEOBARIO CIRCUS! THE GREATEST SHOW FROM THE RIME GRIZZLY REGION!"

"WOOOO!"

Days prior to the Zhen Clan's arrival to Jade Eye City, another much larger caravan had come to town and began to erect a series of tents on the outskirts of the city. They were the Maleobario circus.

Lead by their ringmaster, Nikolas Maleobario, the Maleobario circus aimed to bring wonder and joy to wherever they went, while also turning a nice profit or two.

The Maleobario circus was famous for three things:their high flying acrobatics, their ice aether control and their aether beasts performances.

Now it may seem weird that in a world where cultivation is king and such actions could technically be done by others, or one could achieve such feats themselves, not everyone could reach those heights or had the capabilities to do so. Besides, it still made for an impressive sight to see and aspire to.

Of course...such bright spectacles, have a tendency to cast some rather dark shadows that others love to use for their own purposes...

_________________________________________________

"Hey, Zhen Liu?"

"What up?"

"What's with the box backpack?"

"Uh...snacks."

"Snacks? ...okay."

'Russian. This place is viciously Russian,' Zhen Liu thought to himself as he stared at some of the performers putting on their side show acts.

From the way they were dressed, down to the their performances, Zhen Liu couldn't help but be reminded of videos of the Moscow Circus he had occasionally watched out of boredom.

Granted, the special effects were done with aether instead of engineering, he wasn't sure if the magic acts they were doing were just sleight of hand or real, and the bear in a tutu was replaced with...still a bear in a tutu, but the bear was actually a grade two aether beast known as a Terracotta Grizzly.

Zhen Liu honestly couldn't tell if he should've been more impressed at them being able to get such a beast to do a dance number, or that they managed to get to fit a tutu in the first place.

"Huh...so this is what a circus is?," Zhen Hai asked as he scratched his head. "Damn, it's a lot more fun than the opera performances."

"Really? There were never any circus shows at Stone Claw?," Alicia asked.

"No, there were. It's just that grandpa would say that such performances were, and I'm quoting here, 'The circus is disrespectful to our vocation as beast trainers,' whatever the heck that means," Zhen Hai answered.

"Huh...well then, consider this a small moment of rebellious joy."

"Will do!"

But while people looked on the performances with awe and wonder, something sinister was happening, just beneath the surface of it all...

_________________________________________________

"Is the material here yet?"

"Almost...did you prepare our escape route?"

"As always."

"Perfect...the master will be pleased..."