Chapter Text
Extra Experiments Found While Searching The Lab
The first screen described the survivors of the royal court jester program. The two accepted applicants, a young cheerful shark monster and a mildly mad moth monster, were fused together to create an entity the scientist called a Shoth. Upon regaining consciousness after the procedure, the first monster started suffering from an identity crisis as they insisted they were not a moth, even though they were now fused with a moth. Any attempts to get them to accept they are a moth had proven futile. The entity was lost after a shadow bunny and fire demon stole the subject from the lab.
Ceroba then looked at the next screen, which described a sea bunny shopkeeper who sold emergency ration kits consisting of magic beans. Xey were sent to the lab after xey fell down as a result of eating a bean that had been poisoned. The royal scientist had decided to use the subject for new experiments utilizing a new medicine created using the power of the green magic. The hopes were that due to the strong connection between green magic and food magic, strong green magic would be able to treat food related illnesses. The subject showed noticeable improvement and was released from the lab. The report ended suggesting a follow up visit after multiple reports of xem stealing pies everywhere they go, eating multiple pies a day. This new pie addiction may be a potential side effect of medication and require further research. The subject was seen in New Home sitting on a bench eating a plastic wrapped apple pie.
Slight Bit More Horror Themed Second Half of Chapter 1
These experiments sound similar to what Chujin was working on! She knew he was onto something. If the king requested the royal scientist to work on it, then it must actually be possible to use the power of humans to strengthen monster souls. A disturbing thought then occurred to her, “How could the royal scientist have done this? Chujin’s experiments required a boss monster soul for the fusion.”
Then the realization struck her. “The royal scientist was not using a boss monster for the experiments, she was collecting the monsters through that PSA so she could use them as test subjects.”
Ceroba was filled with anger for a moment thinking about how many more monsters would have to go through what happened to Kanako, but then a thought popped in her head. “These experiments were done with better machinery and had funding from the king. Surely the royal scientist would have been able to make some breakthroughs when not forced to face the same limitations as my husband.” She decided to steal the new data on fusing monster souls with the power of humans hoping to use it to finish Chujin’s serum and get him the recognition and honor he deserves.
As she read through the logbook looking for any new information, she was disappointed that the royal scientist was unable to create any real results despite the advantages given. As she was about to set down the logbook, a passage on the following page caught their eye.
It described attempts to take dust covered objects and inject them with DT to turn the object into a vessel that would hold the soul of the monster, resurrected through DT and the small traces of the soul in the dust.
…….
As the human opens the door to the boss monster area of the lab, Ceroba mutters “I’m sorry.” before summoning a wall of fire on the human.
The human looked back with a surprised look on their face as the flames hit them and they realize Ceroba’s betrayal.
Ceroba then followed up her attack by using a barrier to hold the human still while she hurled three more fireballs at them. The human collapsed to the ground, and looked up at Ceroba, opening their mouth as if to say something, but Ceroba knew now was not the time for guilt and finished the human off with one final strike as she summoned beams from the sky to obliterate the human’s head and torso.
Ceroba looked at the human, who lay dead on the ground in front of her. Ceroba pulled out a jar and quickly collected the soul as it left the body. She decided to move the body from in front of the door and prop it up against a wall. Luckily the beam had cauterized the wound so there was minimal blood left behind.
…….
Ceroba then started to feel a familiar presence coming from one of the rooms down the hall. She goes over to investigate and through the window, she sees a familiar face in the room.
“I cannot believe it, it is actually Kanako. The royal scientist was telling the truth when she told me Kanako was alive.” Ceroba thought to herself, but something felt wrong with Kanako.
Ceroba enters the room and sees what looks to be Kanako in the center of a vortex of dust, but Kanako seems to have her soul visible in the center of the dust storm. The soul was pure white with a blue crack going from the top of the soul to the center, not enough for it to shatter, but broken enough to not be whole. Kanako’s face hovered above the soul, like a mask, for Kanako’s face was not attached to Kanako’s body. Kanako didn’t have a body.
Words couldn’t describe the horror she felt upon discovering the scene of Kanako without a body. The dust started to collect around the soul, appearing to take the shape of a small fox child, before it got scattered apart again, causing Kanako to show visible pain on her face.
Looking closer at Kanako’s face, Ceroba could see that flying dust had cut up Kanako’s face pretty badly. Ceroba didn’t know what to do, what to think. The scene was worse than anything her nightmares could come up with as she watched her daughter get blown apart over and over again.
Ceroba, struggling to think through the fear and anger she felt, calls out Kanako’s name out of instinct. The vortex of dust starts moving towards her in response, and starts to reform into a single body.
Kanako looks like she tries to say something, but had no lungs to muster a voice.
Unsure of what else to do, Ceroba gave Kanako a hug, to reassure her that everything will be ok, that her mother will find a way to help her, and that she no longer has to go through this traumatic experience. After this moment of calm, It wasn’t long before the dust started to scatter back into the vortex, but Ceroba quickly led what remained of Kanako to the exit elevator with no further complications.