Forwards

"Boss, you okay? If you tired, we have more fish," said Ryo as he tentatively approached Kai. His yellow eyes flitted worriedly past the edge of the waterfall, down to the vast new world Kai stared at. "Boss, that place dangerous. Up here is safe. We don't want boss to go either."

Kai eased the mounting pressure in his fists, realizing how dangerously close his nails were to splitting the flesh on his palms. He did not smile – he was not used to it – but he did try to ease up his expression somewhat as he turned to Ryo.

"I'm good, and I'm not leaving anytime soon. I was just in my own head. And yeah, I'd be down for more fish," said Kai as pleasantly as he could, though no matter what, his voice seemed to have a little bit of an edge to it.

Probably a combination of both his upbringing and how tense his situation had been for the past few days.

===

Back at the clearing, the kappa had gathered around for a communal dinner. A few of them had gone into the waters to catch more koi, and they were quite the efficient hunters, bringing up a small pile enough for everyone. Enough for Kai to restore his biomass stock to full.

Kai was not too surprised. The kappa might have been clumsy on land with their shells weighing them down, but in water, they were in their natural element. They floated like they were flying, making swift turns and acrobatic flips through the air with glee.

When Kai tried to keep up with them in the water himself, he found himself woefully outmatched. He could not manifest the entirety of the kappa's form to maintain his essence integrity, and even if he could have, he was not extremely familiar with how to use the new body parts.

In particular, it took him a while to get used to breathing in water because his whole life, he had been conditioned to hold his breath. He quickly came to realize that even if the system gave him an understanding of what he could do with a bloodline, it did not mean mastery.

That had to be trained, as did getting used to doing the right motions to leverage himself across water for efficient and quick movements. Kinda like breaking into a new shoe, except it was breaking into a new body.

And these were all still children. They could get a fair bit stronger as adults mused Kai as he sat on the grass of the stream side clearing, watching the other kappa munch on fish.

Though, conspicuously, Ryo was missing.

"Where's Ryo?" asked Kai.

"Here, boss!" came Ryo's voice from behind.

Kai turned around and furrowed his brows. Ryo came up to him with a stringy piece of torn flesh dangling from his hand. The young kappa took the flesh in both hands and then bowed deep as he handed it over to Kai.

All the other kappa saw this and rushed to Kai as well, bowing.

"What is this?" said Kai.

"Old boss said he wanted your throat. You win, so you get his," said Ryo. "Sign you're our new boss."

Kai took the throat flesh in his hand, reminded that even if these kappa were young and acted much like human children with their penchant for playing and curiosity, they were still monsters. They grew up with survival instincts and the capacity to kill ingrained in their heads.

Well, he did not complain. He had felt a little bad that he was not able to consume the old boss's bloodline beforehand, and this made up for it. He chewed apart the throat. It felt like jerky, and it tasted surprisingly good. He had no idea if that was the base taste or whether it was because of something else.

>>>

Biomass with a potential bloodline ingested. Analyzing…

Suiko bloodline obtained. Bloodline fully accessible at the host's current level.

Adding to active bloodlines –

Active Bloodlines:

-Kappa

-Suiko

>>>

Kai felt a shudder crawl through his body as his muscles twitched. The bloodline assimilated into his blood, his bones, each and every one of his cells. Knowledge flowed into him about the Suiko, and he felt surprised to see that it had far more abilities than he had witnessed in the fight with it.

First off, it could turn invisible, though this required staying still for quite a while. Secondly, it could induce panic and madness in creatures with a glare. Why the Suiko had not used either ability in the fight was a mystery, but he was grateful it had not.

The duel had been close enough as it was.

"Where you from, boss?" asked Ryo as he settled down, picking up a fish from the pile and munching on it. The rest of the kappa were sitting in a small circle around Kai, like he was a teacher about to tell a story.

"Well, it ain't here, that's for sure," said Kai.

"Oooh," said Ryo as he looked around to his brethren and they too looked around at each other in curiosity and wonder.

"What humans like?" said Aya, female kappa that managed to ask Kai a question beforehand. She seemed to have an innate sense of curiosity that matched Ryo's, except she had a bit less confidence to try to talk.

"Humans? Kind of a general question." Kai mused about the answer. He remembered all the bad that had come his way from people around him and the small bits of good that shone through with those close to him. "Humans are a mixed bag. More on the shitty side than not, I figure, but doesn't mean it's all bad. Some are good. Great, even. And that more than makes up for the bad, in my opinion."

"But, but, what are they like? How strong are they? What they do?" asked Ryo, more excited about the fight than his brethren. "Raku said they use magic. Wave hands and make big fires or loud winds."

"Do they? That sounds pretty useful," said Kai. He shrugged. "But I dunno. I have zero idea about magic."

"This not magic?" Ryo pointed at Kai's eyes, at how they had shifted to being yellow just like his.

"Oh? Is this magic?" Kai wondered to himself.

His system answered.

[Inquiry registered. Utilizing level 1 access to the Collective. To Answer: the system's capabilities make use of power. Power comprises magic. Thus, it can be considered that the system is magical in nature.]

"Guess it is," said Kai. He wondered about the system's words about level 1 access into a collective, but when he probed for an answer mentally, he got no response. "But it's not anything I have a great idea about."

"Then, then where you from?" said Aya.

"Where I'm from? Well, I'm from a place called Earth," said Kai.

"Where that?"

Kai had no idea how to answer that. He had no idea where he was in relation to earth. Definitely not anywhere on the planet proper, but there must have been some relation between there and here. Otherwise, why else would there be kappa - creatures that came from human mythology?

There had to be something tying this new world and earth together. He had no reason to believe this, he knew that, but he knew he had to believe it.

Otherwise, if it meant that he was in a new place completely disconnected from his old life, completely separate from those that had taken everything from him, then he had nothing to look forward to.

No, even if that was true, he would find a way back home. Get strong enough to travel worlds.

Surely, such a thing was possible if the impossible like magic and monsters already was.

Sounds of uncomfortable shuffling snapped Kai out of his head. He looked to see the kappa were inching away from him, their eyes looking away like guilt-stricken dogs.

"Are you all okay?" asked Kai.

"Boss looked scary," said Ryo. "Eyes angry. Like old boss."

"No, no I'm not angry at any of you." Kai sighed, having to force himself to ease his nerves again. "I…don't know where earth is. I came here very suddenly, you see. I don't know how to get back home. Maybe you all can help me."

All the kappa shrank back, not afraid of Kai, but his words. This included even Ryo. Pure terror struck their eyes, glazing them over as they shuddered.

"No, no, don't want to leave!" said one of the kappa, and all of them nodded in unison.

"Don't go, boss!" added Ryo. "This place safe. Everywhere else scary."

"Okay, okay, calm down," said Kai as he held his palms toward them in an easing gesture. "What's so scary about going outside this place? Not even to a whole different world, I'm not asking for that. I mean like, up the waterfall, maybe down it. Maybe into the forest. Surely you guys have explored a bit, right?"

Ryo shook his head furiously. "Never. Old boss said he not want any of us to die. Needed many to fight for him. Told us that outside here, everything scary. Want to kill us. But here, only big fat hanzaki to worry about."

"Eight years here Nowhere else?" Kai said wonderingly. Though when he thought about it, he could understand why their old boss wanted to do this.

From what he remembered about his brief talk, if it could be called that, between himself and the old boss, he knew that the suiko wanted to have the kappa come with him to take back a spring – probably their old home.

It made sense then, for the monster to have kept all the kappa here, where it was safe, to have them grow and get strong and probably multiply over time.

But in a way, it was awfully sad. He could tell that at their hearts, the kappa had a childlike curiosity to them that would have been perfect for exploring. They loved to play games and see new things.

But years of conditioning from the suiko that the vast world outside this tiny clearing was dangerous had kept them isolated here their entire lives.

Then again, Kai had no idea about the world outside the clearing as well. It might very well be forbiddingly dangerous. But he knew that he could not stay here forever. He needed to keep moving forwards.

"Not safe outside," emphasized Ryo. "So boss shouldn't go either."

"Your old boss, though, he wanted to take back a spring. Wasn't that your old home downstream? Seemed like he had faith that you all could do it one day."

Ryo shook his head. He pointed upstream, towards the waterfall. "Spring there. We used to live there. Fish taste better there. Water better. Boss wanted us to grow there. Get stronger there. Take back home down at lake later, after we grow big and strong."

"I get it," said Kai. So the timeline went like this: eight years ago, the suiko and kappa lived downstream, probably by the massive lake below the mountain, but mages chased them off. The suiko initially settled up the waterfall in a spring, but now they were forced to live a rung down in this clearing.

"What chased you all off?" asked Kai.

"Maybe half year ago, big yokai flew in," said Ryo. He flailed his arms around, emphasizing how big this creature was. He then made crackling sounds with his mouth. "Lots and lots of lightning. Chased us all away with big roar, too. Even old boss was scared. Only time we ever see him scared."

"And something that big and strong is right up there?" said Kai as he craned his head up, his gaze tracing up the hundred-foot waterfall to the top of the cliff face. "You sure it's safe down here? This isn't too far away."

"Big yokai don't care much about small yokai like us," explained Ryo. "Big yokai stay there. Sometimes fly out to hunt. But doesn't hunt us. We too small."

"Picky eater, I guess," said Kai. He felt a tingling sense of temptation. Right now, he knew he was still at the bottom of this world's food chain. He wanted the luxury of being able to afford being picky, and the answer seemed to lie right ahead of him.

What if he could get this powerful monster's bloodline?