[[Due to unfortunate circumstances, I will likely be erratic until late August. I deeply apologize to everyone. The blogs I run are as follows:
Once again, I’m sorry for not being on. Daichi, Eirin, Middi, you three keep going strong.]]
Eirin nodded at the request and led the pair on a short walk to a room with various small mechanical parts strewn about. She gestured to some materials sitting on a side table. “Those are the parts that he left here. I had planned on letting the kappa develop some tools for me with them, but you should be able to salvage or fashion any spare parts that he needs from those pieces, yes? He should be able to give you any specifications for the more sensitive aspects, but there should be no problems. If you need to consult me on biological interfacing, then simply ask. Otherwise, I will wait until you are ready to begin the biological component surgery.”
“Uh, yes, thank you.” Nitori waited until Eirin left the room. Then she set Buck down on the table and examined the parts. They were small, and Nitori couldn’t really identify most of them. But as she browsed through the parts, she found some things she could salvage to make into a voice device for Buck.
It didn’t take too long. After she finished, she knocked on the door to the other room. “Miss Yagokoro? I re-made a voice amplifier for Buck. But I’m not sure if there’s anything else I can really do.”
Eirin rose with a smile. “Very well, then. Let us go back in and speak with him. I can help with the biological interface, definitely, and you may want to continue working on whatever devices he may need as you are able.” She opened the door and entered, approaching Buck. “Well then, can you report on your own damages or do I need to probe around inside of you?”
Buck nodded in response; he really could not wait for the voice amplifier to be replaced so Nitori would not need to relay everything constantly. “Pretty much all of the electronics were in the abdomen, as I told Eirin in our last endeavor, so that’s all busted. I’d say you would have to replace just about everything in there anyway, so probe away.”
“All of my organs were moved both in and around the thorax to make room for the equipment, so they’re fine. Both my middle legs and my left hindleg, as well as my wings, are gone, so any suitable replacement, however temporary, would be appreciated.” Buck laid on his side, getting comfortable on the table.”The voice amplifier is the part labeled ‘V-038’, just so you know, Nitori.”
Buck waved back to Eirin, balancing on his other foreleg and his right hindleg. “Just paraphrase what I say to her, Miss Kawashiro,” he said before actually speaking to Eirin. “It’s nice to see you again, too. Well, besides the missing wings and limbs and the lack of any working electronics. Also, I’m biomechanical; still fleshy on the inside,” he added, nitpicking.
Nitori bowed politely to Eirin. “Thank you for the invite.” She walked carefully into to the house.
She turned to Eirin. “By the way, Buck says he’s glad to see you, and that he’s biomechanical; still fleshy on the inside,” she winked.
Eirin chuckled. “Yes, of course. If he were not biological in some aspects then I would not have been the one to nurse him back to health those other times.” She stepped in after Nitori and gestured to a small specimen table. “Please set him here and the two of us can go for those parts. If you would like, you can even join in the surgery to restore the natural functions.”
“I’d prefer to have my voice amplifier and my battery pack fixed first, though,” Buck remarked. “I don’t want Nitori repeating everything to you while you are operating.” He then went silent waiting for Nitori to take him out of the jar.
((Just going to keep pushing this forward until Buck is reintroduced and we’ll do the 3-way split.))
Eirin nodded slowly. “Yes, you might say that they are. Things have taken a rather peaceful turn after the last little incident.” She shrugged and turned a concentrated look to Nitori. “Speaking of which, I hurriedly left a small creature near the river a few days ago, hoping that a kappa might pick it up. Have you heard anything about it? He is a small mechanical bee of sorts.”
“Uh, yes, right here!” She held up the little container that Buck was in. “He was in pretty bad— well, really bad— shape when I first saw him. I wasn’t able to do much except for stopping him from losing any more fluids. And he also said his voice amplifier was broken, so I gave him this communicator to talk through. I don’t have a speaker for it though, just this.” She pointed to her ear.
“So this bee… It belongs to you?”
Eirin beamed at seeing her small companion. “Yes! Er, that is to say, he is an honored guest of mine. He does not belong to me, though, as he is simply a visitor from another world.” She gestured Nitori inside as she slid open the door to the clinic. “Please, come in and we will work on him together. I should have some of the old technology from his world that you can use to fashion proper replacement parts for him.” She smiled as the kappa walked past. “It is good to see you again, Sir Buck.”
Buck waved back to Eirin, balancing on his other foreleg and his right hindleg. “Just paraphrase what I say to her, Miss Kawashiro,” he said before actually speaking to Eirin. “It’s nice to see you again, too. Well, besides the missing wings and limbs and the lack of any working electronics. Also, I’m biomechanical; still fleshy on the inside,” he added, nitpicking.
After the quick fix, he felt a little better; at least he wasn’t bleeding out now. Using his impromptu ink, he wrote down: “Amplify voice. Easier to communicate.”
“Amplifier, amplifier… Uhhh, ok, like a microphone? Will this do? Or do you make your sounds electronically?” She placed a very tiny device next to him. It worked more like a walkie-talkie, and Nitori put the receiver in her ear.
Grabbing the device and holding it to his mouth, he intruduced himself. “Thanks, ma’am. I’m Buck. I’m basically a bee, but intelligent and part-mechanical. Who are you?”
“W-wow!” Nitori exclaimed. “So I’m not going crazy after all!” She very quickly grew ecstatic. “Oh, what could this mean for the kappa? I don’t even know how this got it here. It’s certainly an interesting discovery. But wait, what if it’s someone else’s discoveries? Maybe I’m stealing an important experiment. But I did help him out, after all. So this new technology certainly hasn’t been encountered yet. Then why would someone want it gone? Or maybe it was a freak accident? How did it even get here?” She rambled on as she went full-blown into researcher mode.
She paused, then suddenly remembered who she had just saved. “O-oh, I’m sorry,” she said, turning back to Buck. “I just get kinda excited about these things. My name’s Nitori, Nitori Kawashiro. As you can clearly see, I’m a kappa. It’s a good thing I had that mini-radio made. It was going to come to use sooner or later, wasn’t it?”
“So… are you feeling any better now?”
“Trust me, I ramble on at times as well, Miss Kawashiro. I’m actually a member of a covenant of super-intelligent insects. I’m one of their best soldiers, filled with electronic equipment surpassing anything the humans have,” he boasted. “Of course, it’s all busted up right now because of an evil doppelganger Eirin deciding to crush me and leave me for dead.” He said the last part with obvious distaste. “Do you think you could take me to Eientei? I’m still at risk of organ failure.”
“Eientei? It’s in the bamboo forest, isn’t it? But wait, I thought you said there was an evil Eirin. Why would you want to go back to whoever hurt you like this?”
“Yes, but I highly doubt she’s going to be there when we get back. She seems like an opportunist, only going for her goals when nothing can stop her at that moment,” he explained. “You look like the kind of person who tinkers rather than fixes. No offense, though.”
After the quick fix, he felt a little better; at least he wasn’t bleeding out now. Using his impromptu ink, he wrote down: “Amplify voice. Easier to communicate.”
“Amplifier, amplifier… Uhhh, ok, like a microphone? Will this do? Or do you make your sounds electronically?” She placed a very tiny device next to him. It worked more like a walkie-talkie, and Nitori put the receiver in her ear.
Grabbing the device and holding it to his mouth, he intruduced himself. “Thanks, ma’am. I’m Buck. I’m basically a bee, but intelligent and part-mechanical. Who are you?”
“W-wow!” Nitori exclaimed. “So I’m not going crazy after all!” She very quickly grew ecstatic. “Oh, what could this mean for the kappa? I don’t even know how this got it here. It’s certainly an interesting discovery. But wait, what if it’s someone else’s discoveries? Maybe I’m stealing an important experiment. But I did help him out, after all. So this new technology certainly hasn’t been encountered yet. Then why would someone want it gone? Or maybe it was a freak accident? How did it even get here?” She rambled on as she went full-blown into researcher mode.
She paused, then suddenly remembered who she had just saved. “O-oh, I’m sorry,” she said, turning back to Buck. “I just get kinda excited about these things. My name’s Nitori, Nitori Kawashiro. As you can clearly see, I’m a kappa. It’s a good thing I had that mini-radio made. It was going to come to use sooner or later, wasn’t it?”
“So… are you feeling any better now?”
“Trust me, I ramble on at times as well, Miss Kawashiro. I’m actually a member of a covenant of super-intelligent insects. I’m one of their best soldiers, filled with electronic equipment surpassing anything the humans have,” he boasted. “Of course, it’s all busted up right now because of an evil doppelganger Eirin deciding to crush me and leave me for dead.” He said the last part with obvious distaste. “Do you think you could take me to Eientei? I’m still at risk of organ failure.”
After the quick fix, he felt a little better; at least he wasn’t bleeding out now. Using his impromptu ink, he wrote down: “Amplify voice. Easier to communicate.”
“Amplifier, amplifier… Uhhh, ok, like a microphone? Will this do? Or do you make your sounds electronically?” She placed a very tiny device next to him. It worked more like a walkie-talkie, and Nitori put the receiver in her ear.
Grabbing the device and holding it to his mouth, he intruduced himself. “Thanks, ma’am. I’m Buck. I’m basically a bee, but intelligent and part-mechanical. Who are you?”
@ Any Kappa or passerby of a lake on…
((Ah, that’s true. I just didn’t want to get too ahead of myself in one post.))
“Okay…” Nitori picked up the container as carefully as she could without disturbing the creature inside. She started running down the mountain, as quickly and as smoothly as she could.
This is insane… she kept thinking. Maybe I’m just going crazy. There’s no way this bee could be communicating with me, no matter what color it is. Maybe I just misinterpreted something. Yeah, I probably just saw something weird that I thought was a nod. I knew I should’ve gotten more sleep last night. She slowed down slightly to a jog. Well, whatever the case, I’ll look at it again when I get back to the workshop. And if these comes out to be some crazy hallucination, I’ll just take a quick nap…
A few minutes later, and the workshop was in sight. It bordered the calmly flowing river, and a waterwheel was attached to the side of it. Nitori hurried inside and placed the container on a worn-out table. She carefully eased the container on its side, making sure not to disturb the creature too much. Using careful motions and a thin card, she extracted it from the container, including its separated appendages.
“I’m no doctor, so I dunno what I can do… You’re still alive aren’t you?” She nudged it with the card a couple times.
He nods weakly, an idea occuring in his brain. gesturing to a magnifying glass nearby, he took some of the blood he was leaking in a puddle and began scribbling a message in katakana, which read: “Losing blood. Biomechanical. Patch me up with metal. Temporary fix.”
“M-metal?! Biomechanical?” Nitori took the magnifying glass and took a second close look at the insect. Sure enough, she saw the tiny metal parts that made it up, although much of it was broken up. “A bee that writes, is made of metal, and can understand me… This really is something.” She shook her head. This is no time to be thinking such things. It really is dying, and I have to help it!
Nitori rummaged around her workshop, looking through various containers and machines for scrap supplies. She came upon a few sheets of metal, and grabbed another tool out of another pile. She took some scraps of cloth from yet a different place and brought them all over to the table.
“I’ll try to be gentle… Sorry if this hurts a bit,” she said as she began her work. She tried to work as quickly but cautiously as possible, just as she was when she was bringing the bee down.
Several minutes and some creative engineering later, she stepped back and observed the bee. “It looks like I’ve managed to stop the bleeding, though I don’t think you’re in any better condition than you were when I started. I wish I could do more, but whatever you’re made of is more advanced than what I’ve seen before. Is there anything else you think I can do for you?”
After the quick fix, he felt a little better; at least he wasn’t bleeding out now. Using his impromptu ink, he wrote down: “Amplify voice. Easier to communicate.”
@ Any Kappa or passerby of a lake on…
((Ah, that’s true. I just didn’t want to get too ahead of myself in one post.))
“Okay…” Nitori picked up the container as carefully as she could without disturbing the creature inside. She started running down the mountain, as quickly and as smoothly as she could.
This is insane… she kept thinking. Maybe I’m just going crazy. There’s no way this bee could be communicating with me, no matter what color it is. Maybe I just misinterpreted something. Yeah, I probably just saw something weird that I thought was a nod. I knew I should’ve gotten more sleep last night. She slowed down slightly to a jog. Well, whatever the case, I’ll look at it again when I get back to the workshop. And if these comes out to be some crazy hallucination, I’ll just take a quick nap…
A few minutes later, and the workshop was in sight. It bordered the calmly flowing river, and a waterwheel was attached to the side of it. Nitori hurried inside and placed the container on a worn-out table. She carefully eased the container on its side, making sure not to disturb the creature too much. Using careful motions and a thin card, she extracted it from the container, including its separated appendages.
“I’m no doctor, so I dunno what I can do… You’re still alive aren’t you?” She nudged it with the card a couple times.
He nods weakly, an idea occuring in his brain. gesturing to a magnifying glass nearby, he took some of the blood he was leaking in a puddle and began scribbling a message in katakana, which read: “Losing blood. Biomechanical. Patch me up with metal. Temporary fix.”
Ask Buck Bumble: @ Any Kappa or passerby of a lake on Youkai Mountain
Within a loosely-lidded container, a small cybernetic bee lay unconscious and dying slowly, it’s abdomen crushed. Green blood and black oil leaked from the heavily injured segment. The rest of the incest was in poor shape as well, missing both of its wings…
Opening his eyes behind the goggles, Buck noticed the Kappa poking at his current prison. His voice amplifier busted, he weakly struggled to his three feet, a tiny blue piece of metal falling out from his busted abdomen, covered in blood and oil. He pointed to his throat and shook his head, indicating his inability to speak.
“Ah-aaah!” Nitori exclaimed when she saw it moved. She took a few steps back when she realized it was trying to communicate to her. “Wh-what are you?” she asked. She shook her head several times to check if she wasn’t going crazy.
“Never mind that, it looks like you need help. If you’re something other than an ordinary bee, then you might be worth saving,” she said. She looked around her to see if anyone was watching. There was no one; only the slight wind rustled the trees in the area. Then she crouched down to the jar and whispered, “Okay, I’m going to try and help you, but I can’t do anything about it here. My workshop is down the mountain so can you wait until we get there?”
Upon the aspect of help, he nodded as visibly as he could.
[[Not much I could do other than have him say yes.]]
