Chapter 518 - Baku's Story
A few centuries ago, when Jynx was just a regular banshee and Sylvia was just a mischievous sylph, they often travelled together and caused chaos in rural villages. On one of their pranks, they found a strange creature pretending to be a pillow for an old and blind man. That creature’s name was Baku.
Baku wasn’t a very pretty looking creature. In fact, it was closer to a rat with the trunk of an elephant. It had tiny beady eyes and very dirty fur. When rolled up into a ball, Baku appeared to be an inanimate object and could very well pass off as a used lumpy pillow.
The old man was dying and Jynx was there to grieve for his final moments before his soul was scheduled to depart from the world. Sylvia was the first to notice something strange about the blind old man. Firstly, he was able to ’see’ things even though he was born blind. The sylph had never come across anyone who had the ability to see without physical eyes especially if they did not practice magic or cultivate. Hence, they decided to stay a little longer with this old man to find out why.
"My first meeting with Baku is strange. Baku pretended to be a pillow for so long that neither Sylvia nor I noticed another supernatural creature. I wailed the whole night through and normally, that would give some people nightmares. However, everyone slept very soundly that night and the village was shrouded in a strange mist that Sylvia didn’t summon. It took us a while to investigate the cause and find the culprit," Jynx smiled as she recalled their first meeting with their precious child.
Baku was a creature that ate dreams and in particular, nightmares. It was classified as a low-level monster and was very protective of the blind old man that was scheduled to die. Jynx and Sylvia had never met such a monster and Baku appeared to be very young. Hence, they decided to take Baku along with them after the blind old man passed away. Unlike other people, this old man never once suffered before he died because Baku kept him asleep right until the moment he had to leave the world and gave him nothing but wonderful dreams.
Seeing that the little monster had a kind heart, Sylvia decided to teach it magic while they travelled. Baku was able to use a little magic to transform into a little girl. It wasn’t good at elemental magic like Sylvia but it was able to manifest mana and change its appearance. Baku became their adopted daughter and the three of them spent their time travelling the world and enjoying life.
"As you can tell by now, Baku is a very kind child. She tries her best to make everyone happy. If someone was sad, she would devour their sadness and give them happy dreams. If someone was having an angry dream, she would eat that and replace it with love. She was a unique kind of monster that we’ve never come across before so our lack of knowledge became our downfall."
Zero could already tell that this was where the story turned and where the madness began for them.
"For the longest time, I’m a banshee that can only bring the message of death wherever I go. If it was the death of one or two people in a small village, that can be understood. However, when we’re talking about wars and battlefields where hundreds if not thousands of people are dying, the number of souls and nightmares differ."
While Zero didn’t know much about Baku, he understood the principle of equivalent exchange. Everything in this world ran on a very delicate balance. The key to a healthy lifestyle was moderation. In the war that Jynx had to stay for months, Sylvia did her best to bring wind and rain whenever she could. People were sad, scared and suffering for those months and Jynx cried bloody tears every night for those who would pass on. There didn’t seem to be an end to the number of souls they had to send off but nobody was working harder than Baku.
"At first we thought that Baku was slightly tired after eating so many nightmares. However, as the time dragged on, Baku became unable to retain her human transformation. Yet, our precious child never stopped trying to help people. Even if it was just one more nightmare or one more person, Baku would not stop until the dark energy was all eaten away."
The fur that was normally white and blue slowly became grey and black. Sylvia and Jynx were too busy to understand the change back then but Zero felt his heart squeeze a little too tightly when he heard it. As a doctor, how could he not know? If Baku had always been eating bad dreams and negative energy to purify it in itself, there would be a limit when the corruption was too much.
"One day our child failed to wake up and that one day became two. Baku stopped breathing and started to fade. I was still weeping tears of blood, bound to my duty. Sylvia was the first between us to realise this and the sylph did everything she could to help Baku who was slowly but surely dying. No medicine could cure her, no prayer would save her. We didn’t know what was wrong and the only thing Sylvia could do was cry as she spent the last moments with Baku."
Eventually, the war was over. Without Baku helping the disheartened team, they simply became overpowered and killed by their enemies before reinforcements could arrive. Jynx remembered weeping for the last man on the battlefield with mixed feelings. She felt like she was weeping for more than just the fallen souls of nameless men that night. She was weeping for the soul of someone she knew.
When Jynx returned, Baku was gone and Sylvia had spiralled into depression. Seeing her normally mischievous friend become so quiet and withdrawn scared Jynx very badly.
"That was when I turned to learn necromancy, practising on the fallen warriors in the war that I wept for. I brought my child back over and over again, changing a body when the one she was in rotted too badly. I learned a little too late the price of necromancy and Sylvia has gone off the deep end with alchemy in an effort to resurrect Baku. It breaks my heart to see her like this. If Baku was here, I’m sure she wouldn’t want either of us to be like this either. However, for immortals like us, time won’t heal our wounds. If we can’t bring Baku back, we’d rather seek death."
The tea in Zero’s hands was cold by now and Jynx didn’t remain dry-eyed. The doctor finally understood. Immortals were lonely creatures. Baku brought joy to their empty lives and once she was gone, Sylvia who had always been a free spirit lost her motivation to live. Jynx who was bound by duty could only watch her world fall apart helplessly.
Five or six hundred years was a long time. Zero didn’t know if he could stand this kind of heartache. Baal’s hibernation made Zero tear up sometimes when he thought about it. If Zero wasn’t kept busy, he would find himself missing something inside. If he wasn’t with someone, Zero would look at his i-communicator’s contact list wondering if anyone was available for a call. Sometimes, he’d even dream of going back to the empty space where he couldn’t see, hear or feel anything. It was frightening.
"Thank you for sharing Baku’s story with me," Zero bowed. "I really appreciate it. It would explain the corruption in the soul. Rest assured, I will think of a way to handle your difficult client as part of the agreement. Now that the heavy topic is over, let’s discuss that spider silk production for your new fashion line..."
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