NOVEL NEXT Chapter 116: The Little Ol’ Cat
(Cheshire Prime: Treachery ＜TYBW Version＞「Bleach TYBW Episode 26 OST」Epic Orchestral Cover)
In front of the monster & dreamer was a… Little old lady.
She was well dressed in a rather old fashioned manner; wearing a pristine set of white dress shirt with a little red bowtie and a matching pair of pants. Even have a nice pair of dress shoes that looked rather snazzy on her little feet. Of course, one cannot forget the adorable little fandora that sat upon her grey hair. Sitting right between two old cat ears with one having a conspicuous bite mark out of it - white tufts of hair even darkened with age.
Although things only got stranger from there.
One may initially think that the first outlandish thing was the oni-kitsune hybrid who looked rather out of it after seeing everything that had happened. Not surprising since she was a mere girl who had watched some of the strongest across the omniverse clash. But, no, she wasn’t the thing that one took note of.
Instead it was the rest of her getup that got one befuddled. First of all; there was a long white lab coat which she wore over a black tailcoat then a long poorly made scarf over all that . Her hands adorned a pair of medical rubber gloves (in that unsettling blue colour) that sat firmly atop a seemingly simple wooden cane. Though neither the goddess of dreams nor manifestation of blind wrath could recognise what type of wood it was made from.
“You… Aren’t Cheshire?” <Wrath>
Indeed - that question lingered in the air - as the little old woman did not quite match up with the mighty warrior that two thirds of Violet tried fighting together. Ignoring the fact that the cat’s last attack most certainly killed herself; the elderly mortal seemed even smaller than the little black cat. Whether due to having to put her weight on the walking-aide or due to her age causing her to quite literally shrink.
The poor little dodder even seemed to have a rather terrible case of nerve damage. Her body was covered in scars, just like with Cheshire, however one look showed the damage went far further than just some scores across her surface. A subtle shaking of her hands and a cloudiness in her eyes.
Truly she was on her last legs as even her impressive eyesight as a cat appeared to be drifting further away from her with every second that passed.
What made her appearance more suspicious was a far too familiar crow-beak mask that took her exhales leading to a constant purple miasma that helped her seem menacing. Nevertheless, it also helped add some confusion about her, her mask was not exactly the same as the one worn by the late-spirit god empress. On either side of the mask were three “holes” with their existence not exactly being obvious as not nearly as much exhaled gas was coming out of them.
“Why’d cha all seem so glum~? Don’t be a downer~!” <Old Woman>
Despite her mere existence no doubt being painful she seemed alarmingly… Chipper. Her accent being so outrageously Bri’ish that it made the previous Cheshire seem like a watered down southerner. Even those eyes seemed to crease upwards in a pure joy at the situation they found themselves in. Becoming completely out of place on the ruins of a battlefield that had already caused countless deaths.
“Who. Are. You.” <Wrath>
The beast's voice was deep & guttural but it contained far more rational than ever before.
“Oh~ cha know who I am nyahaha!” <Old Woman>
Her cheeriness was only broken by the occasional cough which in turn led to some black liquid seeping out of the vents upon that plague mask.
“Everyone knows who I am… I am the thing that cha keep just outta reach, tryin’ desperately ta forget each and every second uv ya life, yet a fundamental part of bein’ alive. Tha’ col’ feelin’ that comes from the core uv ya being, luv’. A dread that appears when cha stare into the unknown; feelin’ it look back makes me all the stronger in ya simplistic mind… All I’ve wanted ta ever do is play~.” <Old Woman>
That woman, basically a corpse, moved to take one shambling step. A simple movement that thousands had done but this time it felt different for both the divine beings. Unlike Cheshire who had the aura of something hiding under a mortal surface… The woman in front of them was truly a mortal with seemingly nothing eldritch about her.
Yet when she went to take that step neither acted against her.
Instead…
They both took an unconscious step back.
Even the mighty Wrath felt its instincts (for the first time since it had awoken) screaming at it to turn and run from the hobbling pussy. Somehow a cold sheen of liquid coated the beautiful flame-docour that covered it’s entire body. Elizabeth at least relied less on her instincts so did raise her guard a little.
It was then that the sound of something dragging itself across the floor came to grace the ears of those who stood in confusion. Secretly Lizzy was gracious for this as it made the old lady stop her step forward to instead turn towards the source in slight wonderment. Behind her was a feathered-cloak wearing cadaver of still bloody meat in the shape of a humanoid; what Lizzy assumed was a flayed corpse somehow managed to hang on despite the grievous sounds.
In hindsight it wasn’t too surprising that at least one of Vul’Turez would survive since they were quite literally vultures who had managed to stick through the most bloody times in history.
That mighty being did not go to the dragoness but instead crawled towards the unusual hag who tilted her head cutely as she looked down at them. Amusement not sullied by the entity. If anything their cheeriness appeared to grow at seeing the bird managing to survive the encounter.
“Colour me impress’d; didn’ reckon cha had any surprises ta get ya’self outta that but I guess that fox always has been mighty messy chehehe!” <Old Woman>
This all combined to seemingly give the carcass a sense of relief as they reached out to hold the ladies shoes with bloody tears leaking from their eyes.
“He-he said you betrayed us but I knew he was lying!” <Vul’Turez>
Little did they know that her eyes were dreadfully cold as she looked down on them,
“No worries as I ‘ave jus’ ta thing for these situations… Now where was that bleedin’ thing.. Been so long since I needed ta use it so cha’ll ‘ave to gimme a second, my dear.” <Old Woman>
Saying that as they reached their left hand into their tail coats inner pocket to fumble around; clearly trying to find the supposed “solution” to this conundrum.
At this point the vulture was overjoyed that their wise leader was going to give them a second chance and maybe even help her get revenge on the bastard that killed most of her sisters. Some did manage to get away but if they were truly betrayed… Not that that mattered. Once they were back to full health they could all laugh at how dumb those who ran in fear were.
Afterall Chesire always had a-
*ptui*
Although that confusion just gave the old lady more time to shoot a few more shots into the outstretched limbs without so much as flinching.
That pistol being a simple matte silver with black gold adorning the body to make up a beautiful mosaic of children happily playing about. A rather unusual pattern to have on a weapon of murder. Not that the bird nor anyone else had the frame of mind to begin considering the sheer sadistic brutality happening in fron of them all.
“Y-you did betray us?!” <Vul’Turez>
The last survivor pushed themselves away from the woman; arms now completely incapacitated as a strange cyan energy spread from the gunshot wounds. From behind the old lady… Two cat tails began to swish about. Stranger yet unsettlingly; one of those tails was cut in half just like with the late Cheshire.
“Betray?” <OId Lady>
Simply tilting her head to the side before continuing (all the while firing shots expertly at the muscles of the bird who was desperately trying to writhe themselves away from the crazy broad).
“Oh don’ be like that, hun, sayin’ I betrayed cha makes it sound like we were ever aligned in our aspirations. Cha all desired to live eternally like champions so ya happily joined my criminal empire for what I could offer ya… After a lil’ bit of convincin’ of course. Meanwhile I always was of the mind that the opposite is quite preferred ny~h~hahahehehehe~!” <Old Woman>
Realising from the start that the cat never intended to keep them around led to the bird beginning to break down as their long life, longer than anyone else in the room, flashed through their mind.
“B-but WE WERE LOYAL!” <Vul’Turez>
“Indeed…” <Old Woman>
She immediately agreed in a sombre tone as she finally lowered her pistol in contemplation; at least that appeared to be the case.
“Thanks for cha hard work~!” <Old Woman>
That chipper tone confused the bird only for fear to immediately receive a bullet right in the centre of their forehead - as if to prove that every prior shot was for the hags' sadistic pleasure. The mighty figure feared across the realms thus fell lifelessly to the floor for one last time. Her eyes filled with confusion and, most importantly, fear.
The cat’s eyes curled up in abject satisfaction as her old bones shook with pleasure as smoke still rose from the barrel of her pistol.
“Ah~!” <Old Woman>
From there she turned her head to look behind at her “guests”; those once strange eyes now filled with pure madness that brought a shiver to even the beast.
“Apologies about that, a lil spring cleaning in my little crime club is all, cha can consider me to be the cat at the core of this little game we’ve set up… Cheshire Prime is what they call me. Rather ironic that the one in the worst shape is called prime chehehe~!” <Cheshire Prime>
They had finally met the Cheshire born & raised within the confines of the primordial universe; the cat who belonged to Genesis for whom Violet had met all those years ago…