Chương 34: Chicken Tenders

The filament of bone covering June's skin looked like a porcelain coating. It looked as if it were protecting the olive wood skin from the passage of time. But along with the unnatural movements the boy made, they would creak and groan like a newbie puppeteer learning how to maneuver their very first vessel. In a single bound the revenant claw hammer was upon the old coot; the ghostly flame stuttered in the air before colliding with a wall, burning the bricks into a pungent black sludge.

The old man was amused, but deep within him June still smelled a familiar scent. FEAR His instinctual brain repeatedly thought it; every second of its scent made his heart pound like a war drum, and every second his heart pounded, his will stirred, directing its unfiltered excitement at the butler. Slits in his skin opened up and turned into mouths; hollow horns tore themselves out of his eye sockets.

His empty hand unnaturally slapped against it despite how its bones and flesh were designed to move; it stumbled and eventually grabbed the hollow horn sprouting from June's eye. And it tore it out; blood didn't drip, but a piece of his face and bones surrounding it cracked as it was separated from its owner. The boy then slowly brought it up to his mouth. And a warhorn bellowed out, shattering the windows around them and, most importantly, as a move of spite, shattering the old man's glass monocle.

The mouths surrounding his skin began to sing in an orchestra, the only song that was thoroughly engrained in him. The song did nothing to harm the old man, nor his belongings. Instead, the entire dramatic act was all to achieve one purpose. June's eyes regained their regular sheen and began to glow.

'Bingo' His primary brain would be fully restored in a couple of seconds.

'Ah god, why did the second brain have to rip the horn out?' Despite his question, June knew why; the second brain was purely designed to channel will like a funnel. It was an impromptu solution to a simple problem, but June had to make do with what he had at the time, and the idea itself was revolutionary. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Will required concentration, and most actions took away from that concentration, most Aspirants and Dreamers have probably considered the throwaway idea of having a second brain to do things, hell sometimes even the mundane wished to have a second brain to do things. The instinctual takeover was more of a side effect of his second brain; channeling will was still channeling intent, and intent is enough for rudimentary actions.

The purpose of the entire act was to let the brain recover, and the purpose of self-mutilation was to wake it up. And it sure did.

'Let's see, the guy looks like a butler; he's looking at Lilia with kind eyes, I smell parental affection, this guy is probably her butler.'

'Why did the douchebag hit me? I can think of a couple reasons why... mainly parental affection.'

'Now the real question is, do I knock him out? Do I pretend to be knocked out? Wait, no, he wants to kill me.'

"What kind of mother would name their child Mortimer?" June heard bits and pieces; he assumed the other name he heard was the Butlers.

"Oh, that type that would beat me."

'Jesus Christ, man.' June was caught off guard by that, but he still was able to retort without missing a beat.

"Let's make you feel at home then." The Revenant claw hammer was an interesting choice for his instinctual side; he personally would have preferred a tool with more decorum, like an ice pick. But June turned the revenant back into a buckler; he didn't want to kill the old man after all. The revenant was something he needed to learn; it was a sudden boon, and it was an experimental risk at best to use it now, but there really was no better time to test things out other than midfight.

"Such decorum; I can't fathom why Milady would want to defend you."

'Milady's,' huh?

'What is she, royalty?'

'I wonder if I could.' June made a lunging feint, then sprouted wings and flew directly up into the air and flew away.

'I'd rather not fight.' This was the first time he ever tried flying; it was more of a winged leap than anything else, but he watched birds from his window every morning. He knew enough about how they worked to have a jerry-rigged solution. It was more of a chicken glide then anything, and it was extremely taxing considering that his bones weren't hollow among other things.

'I got away, now how do I get—' Something hit him in the back, making him go spiraling to the roof of the mall outside the weird field of distortion. The butler also had a pair of wings, except the butler's were incomparably more elegant than June's.

'It even had feathers.'

"Can't you just pretend to kill me and get on with it!?" June's harrowing voice was starting to sound a bit dry, not to mention his elegant cadence began to get more crass.

"Hm...." The old man tapped a talon on his chin, pondering a question he already had an answer to.

"No" June didn't wait a split second after and tried to kick the butler who was standing over him in the genitals.

'Oh my god' It was fully smooth, and then it clicked. Wings, talons? This old butler was like June. He also had an affinity for body manipulation. And he also used it in a similar fashion to June.

"Pitiful, I thought you were just like my old lord."

"But you can't compare." The old man said so sorrowfully, then Talon stabbed into June's side. And at the same time a ghostly flame severed it. His song didn't stop.