Chapter 285 - Under Pressure! Pushing Down On Me, Pushing Down On You, Down On Us All~ (Patreon)

Hell to the fuck yeah, we're out here ready and excited for arc 8! Shin Ren ain't the only one doing a training arc! Being an eldritch horror approaching apotheosis at a truly alarming rate is no excuse to slack off on your self-improvement!

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Raika’s head hurts.

Like a lot. It aches, and rings, and feels like it’s gifting her a constant fucking migraine as a present for her mistreatment of it.

In its defense, she does have a needle in it.

“Ow, ow, ow, ow-”

“Quit moving your jaw! You’re making this way harder!”

“Oh fuck you! We’ll see how you like it when it’s my turn, asshole!”

“Fuck me yourself, coward!”

Raika turns her heads to glare at Li Shu as she giggles. 

“I’m sorry!” the healer says, blushing behind dozens of pages of diagrams, notes, and ideas, reflecting the process currently being undertaken. “It’s just- this whole situation is crazy enough that I’d rather laugh, and you two are-”

“Not us two! Same person still!”

“Only technically, and only for now, idiot. That’s the whole point of this!”

Raika turns to glare at herself, her head aching with the feeling of a spike of cold metal digging halfway through it. “Yes, I’m aware of the reason as to why we’re putting a needle in my fucking brain. But I’d rather nip in the bud any ideas about differentiating us just by separation- we’re still the same person. If we’re not, there’s no point to this, we’re just having a shitton of children of ourselves in the weirdest way possible.”

“Hmm. Fair point, but also- don’t use being in pain as an excuse to be a bitch. I’m trying to do this as accurately as we can.”

“I know, but it hurts, and I thought I was among friends and could bitch freely.”

Li Shu laughs again, and both Raikas turn to give her an exhausted look.

“Come on. You sound like a comedy duo. I feel like I’m in a theater in Paleblossom again.”

“...I’ll take that as a compliment.”

While she’s distracted, Raika shapes her palm perfectly into the shape of a specialized hammer, all metallic nodules and pinpoint-sculpted shapes- and slams it into the back end of the pin going into Raika’s skull.

The names are already getting weird.

Interestingly, though, her head doesn’t hurt anymore. Or at least it’s not the same sort of blinding migraine bad enough to affect even her advanced level of pain tolerance.

“Fuck, that’s… that’s actually much better. Sorry, that was… a truly impressive amount of pain.”

“On a scale from ‘broken bone’ to ‘burned alive completely’-”

“Closer to burned alive completely, but not by that much. Maybe like disemboweling, after the act itself but before the healing, especially around the liver.”

“Ah. Shit. Not looking forward to my turn.”

“Now that that’s settled, with a tremendously useless pain metric,” Li Shu interrupts, “how about we get to the point of this? Raika- Raika with the needle, to be clear- mind trying to shapeshift?”

Raika (the Raika with the needle) sighs, cracking her neck and stepping away from the center of the room. All three of the people in the room are lit by a bright, warm glow of bioluminescence, kept safe in one of Raika’s internal rooms. This one in particular is almost perfectly sterile and cleaned, washed by acid even after she did her best to remove any life-forms or debris, and made entirely of clean and densely-shaped keratin. Li Shu’s Sacrifice is synchronized to it, to some extent- she can’t control it entirely, but since her original Sacrifice was that of her nails, any similar keratin material can be absorbed and manipulated by them, though not “controlled at range”. Between the cleanliness, the concept of healing imbued in Li Shu’s sacrifice, and the cleanliness of the room itself, it’s about as good of a sterile medical space as Raika can manage.

Raika (the Raika with the needle in her head) stretches her arms out, being closely watched by the other version of herself (the original? Hmm. No, just another version) and Li Shu both to check and see if the experiment worked.

Slowly, her fingers shiver, just a bit. Then they crack, and, ever-so-slowly, the nails extend from them, sharper than before, though not by much. 

“Ok, that’s- mmh. Weirder than usual, but it’s still changing. Apparently my Truth is stronger than brain damage, but we knew that already. It’s very slow, though. I’m pretty sure it’s useless in combat. We’ll need to set up some good internal mechanisms, make sure we can at least still run and hit things without needing the internal warping.”

Raika (the one without a needle in her head) frowns. “We can do that. Do you… I mean, are you okay with the current shape? If we’re not going to be able to shapeshift…”

“I have noticed that,” Li Shu says. “Every time you make a humanoid body, you come back just a little different. Your eyes, measurements, hair, sometimes how many arms you have. Is that…?”

“I… yeah. I mean, sometimes bodies are just… hard? It’s easier to always be changing, I think. It fits with my Truth, but the Truth isn’t… isn’t literally biology specific. Maybe that’s more of a ‘me’ thing. It’s part of why I’m worried- if we can’t change, I can only imagine it’ll feel weird at best at this point.”

Raika (with a needle in her head) frowns. “I… don’t think so? I just- the thought of looking like we used to? Human? That’s fucking horrifying. Not comfortable with that idea at all, not without the ability to leave the form when I need to. This is fine, though.”

Raika (with a needle in her head) is standing in what they’re now calling their “true” form, or a sort of default form for now. Close to seven feet, muscular, with rich brown skin that glimmers like night in the shadows and a physique that is still rather well-endowed despite her physique. A long tail, tipped with sunset fur at its tip that matches the long dreadlocks of sculpted neural tissue and their own sunrise colors, and growing from between them, two antlers, branching just a few inches above her head.

And, like happens as often as not, she’s missing her left arm past the elbow.

“Yeah. This works. It’s me. Maybe since we’re always changing, we’re always being more of ourselves, but this is mine. Still feels weird, but… I think I’ll be fine staying as this me for a while.”

“That’s good. Want to rejoin? We can optimize some bio-engineering, get some proper weapons in there-”

“Nah. Sort of undoes the whole point of it, right? If I have too much to rely on, I won’t develop like we need to. This should be fine for moving around in.”

Raika (without a needle in her head) shrugs. “Fair enough. You still alright with the one you picked?”

“Yeah. Nothing’s changed- we’re still me, just different mes. I’m fine with it. It’s going to be annoying as fuck, but again, sort of the point, right?”

Li Shu takes the opportunity to levitate over a few books, already prepared and set to one side. Raika (with a needle in her brain) grabs them, grimacing a bit as she looks over the content. She already knows what it is, but… ugh. 

Each of the books is an introductory text on arrays, taken from different perspectives. The first one is made up of the notes she and Li Shu used to make the original and new curse arrays on her skin; the second one is a set of journals purchased in Singheart, bound together, each of them wildly divergent in style and shape; the last one is taken from the small manual Li Shu got when they left fortress city 180, and is a straightforward copy of the medical and utility arrays described in it.

“Not to sound ungrateful to all of our hard work-” (she nods at both the other Raika and Li Shu)- “but this is going to be a fucking nightmare. Theoretical stuff is fun- if I was ever good at studying, I would’ve probably still been in the Hungering Roots sect.”

“Yeah, well tough luck. If we’re going up against ‘Runemaster Boriah’ and all-”

“Nevermind the rest of the Empire, yeah, yeah. I know how it is- we do our best, yeah?”

“Damn right.”

Li Shu raises a hand, holding a set of seven metal needles up. “You ready for the next set?”

Raika (as-of-yet without a needle in her head) sighs. Then she stretches out, cracking her neck, shaking herself off. “Yeah. Let’s do this.”

Repeating the acts of a few minutes ago, with some minor modifications, Raika separates from the biological room, becoming a “distinct” entity from herself. She’s confirmed, more than once, that her Truth works across distances- every separated piece of her is her. Distance seems to affect it a bit, though it’s not entirely clear how much- she can still feel, reach through, and experience her own body from a few miles away, and hasn’t had much time to test things beyond that. 

That’s where the needles come in.

A mixture of carefully-applied brain damage, and acupuncture with Qi-infused needles to match it, locks down each body. She still shares experiences, even thoughts- but now it takes effort, an act of will to reach out to the rest of her greater-self, and it limits each avatar’s ability to access her full suite of abilities.

The first separate body, now holding the books on arrays, was chosen for that exact purpose. Without as much access to their inner world, with limited access to Dao, and with her shapeshifting locked almost entirely, she’s… well, it would be rude to call herself crippled, but it certainly feels like it, compared to the heights she’s reached. 

But that’s fine. Every part of her knows it. She can do more. But there’s not much reason to if she… well, doesn’t need to. The limitation is there less as shackles on her being, and more as a motivator to push each slightly-separate version of herself in the directions they need.

The first avatar is focused on arrays, both from orthodox Imperial standards (as much as they can, anyways, with so little material) and from Craft users and free cultivators from Singheart’s archives. 

The second, now, sighs and stares at the books set aside for her.

The needles go quickly, settling into very different places in the body than the first Raika’s. Three into the torso, one into a thigh (took a while to find that one), one into the base of her shoulder, one into the base of her spine, and the last one-

“Fuck!”

“I told you it hurts!”

“I know! I felt it! But fuck!”

“Yeah, hurts worse when you’re in it.”

“When we’re in it.”

“When I’m in it?”

“Sure.”

Dink, goes the metal needle as a ball-peen hammer of keratin knocks it into her skull.

“Fuck. That did not go like I thought it would- I thought we said it stops hurting so much after it goes in?”

“Here, let me-”

Another Dink, almost nostalgic when shared with the pain, and- ah. There we are.

“Much better.”

Already ready to go, Li Shu hands over another text. This one is thicker, but also is the only one in the pile, standing out as someone’s personal journal.

“Alright. Dao. We can do this. Not like I’ve been skipping that entire process by eating people.”

“Look on the bright side!” Li Shu says with a big grin on her face. “You can still eat people to get ahead! You just have to have more of a reason for it now.”

“Hey! I’ve always had excellent reasons to eat people!”

Raika (holding the books on array-crafting) raises an eyebrow. “Sure, and them being delicious has nothing to do with it.”

“Wha- whose side are you on?”

“Whichever side is funniest,” she replies, knocking on the wall. Between the prearranged signal and the still-present (if fuzzier) ability for her to be and sense through all of herself, a little tray rolls out of the wall, presenting a set of rolling papers and her favorite mix of herbs.

“Jackass.”

“Hey! None of that!” Li Shu says, snapping her fingers at the Raika currently making a cigarette. “We worked fucking hard to get this room sterile, I will not have you ruining it for a smoke!”

Both Raika’s sigh. “Yeah, yeah. We should probably only have one of us smoking anyways, right? Useless if we’re all burning time and Qi making more, and we can all feel it through each other.”

“Alright, but then who gets to do it?”

“Maybe we rotate it?”

Raika (currently holding a half-made cigarette) shrugs. “Yeah, alright. I call dibs.”

“I- fuck! You bitch!”

“Yes we are.”

Li Shu groans, letting her head fall into her hands. “Guys. Friend. Raika. Please. We still have to do this, what, five more times? It took me all night to get these diagrams ready, and I’m not even getting to put the needles in. At least let me get this dataset and start cross-referencing!”

Both Raikas (who are one Raika) laugh, rolling their eyes in near-perfect synchronicity. “Yeah, alright,” they say. “Let’s do this.”

Seven sets of seven needles. One set of seven Raikas. Seven sets of dangerous and interesting things to be and do, not counting the Raika that will continue to have access to all of her power. 

There’s only so much time in the world. Most cultivators spend decades, maybe even centuries getting properly strong, properly learned about their skillsets and interests. Raika doesn’t have that kind of time.

That’s what the extra brains are for.