Novel Full Chapter 464 - 464 Rat Clean Up Crew
"Actually, wait. Kamiko… is it possible for people to adapt to demonic energy and regain the sanity, or if they were an animal, gain it for the first time thus becoming a demon?" asked Kat
Kamiko winced with her full body as if Kat had struck her instead of just asking a question. "Um… look, I know you didn't mean it like that but… saying something like that, or even suggesting it is… sort or really offensive. Look. I… I understand why you might think that, but it cannot happen. I mean, ok, maybe at the very start instead of losing their sanity if they have a high concentration of demon blood in their heritage they might just transform instead of loosing their mind but I'm not sure…
"Um, look… just. Yeah, sorry, but it CAN'T happen. There have been… some… experiments looking into that apparently. It… it's NOT a pretty history. I know a bit about it because Mum gets told as part of Medical, but… yeah, no, they cannot regain sanity at all. The absolute closest you can get is if a specific type of ghost gets demonic energy into its system, then it will turn into your greatest fear and taunt you with it.
"But it isn't really sentient, it's just using it's ability to reflect back a part of your mind. It doesn't always become a person, but it CAN and that's the closest something can get to sane without being a demon."
"Sorry about that. Um… why is it such a bad thing to imply that other things can become demons though?" asked Kat, genuinely curious.
Kamiko sighed. "That's another thing we don't really talk about, though in this case I think it's more something we CAN'T talk about then that we don't like to. Demons were a created race. We didn't evolve like many other sapient creatures, we were made from scratch by something.
"Personally, I suspect Angels. Though, the fact I can say I suspect Angels at all does lead me to question that a bit, but that's my belief. Either Angels or, if Angels are also a created race, whoever created them.
"So, to a demon, I think the insult is from the implication that your rejecting our heritage, or maybe implying that we are anything less then made for our tasks. Which… if it's the second one I think it's kind of silly because well… we DO change across the generations, we aren't just clones of each other, and unlike some races like Sirens for example, we don't always have kids of our type obviously. Wait… you do know that right?"
Kat nodded, "Yeah when I was in hospital I had the whole thing explained to me, though not that demons were a created race."
*And honestly, it makes a tonne of sense. They don't seem to follow conventional genetics where children are concerned, but that's fine because they DON'T have conventional genetics. I thought it might be a magic thing, but maybe it's just how they were made at the start of… well whenever they came into existence.
Still, it does make me wonder how many generations it takes for someone to stop being a demon. It's been mentioned that it CAN happen, but it also seems like it isn't terribly likely. Especially because well… I exist after all. From what I know, I'm a full blooded demon, or at least the system implied as such.
So… what makes someone less of a demon? I doubt I had much demon blood in me as a child, but now my blood is pitch black. Is it a mutation thing? Like say… your kids have a 1% chance of not being a demon, or maybe 1% chance of being able to have a 1% chance your kids won't be demons?*
Kat shook her head. They were getting way off topic and there was still plenty of rats around. "So… what do we do with all… this?" said Kat gesturing at the path of destruction they'd carved.
Most of the rats were pressed up against the rule, mostly because that's where they were flung by Kat but a number of them were skewed by her tail into the ground and later stepped over easily by Kamiko so they just littered the centre of the pathway.
When Stone had told them to pile up the rats, Kat had been picturing small, knee high, maybe waist height, piles that sat in the corner of the room. This one hallway had enough rats to build a replica of her, along with everyone at the orphanage, and still leave enough left over to make sculptures of Vivian and Callisto for fun as well.
The corridor wasn't exactly huge of course, but it had been packed. Now the rats were bundled against the walls, compacted very slightly due to the fact that some of them had been cut apart and allowed to fill in the cracks unintentionally making things a little less cramped. Still, you did have to watch your step if you wanted to walk through the corridor with no trouble.
Kamiko returned to smiling at this, though it was more like a thoughtful pout. "You know Kat… I'm not sure. It is a LOT of rats… we could maybe push them against the walls? Hungh… seems a bit lazy though… unless killing more rats is more important? Stoney didn't say which was better, just that we should kill them and make sure to pile them up."
Kat tapped her foot lightly on the ground but quickly stopped as she was causing the blood under her foot to splash everywhere as she did so. "We don't want to block off the hall though. If we piled them all up in a big mound it's be large enough to block the tunnel."
"Yeah… we can't have that" said Kamiko humming a bit at the end. "we might be able to just… push them into that dead end that went the other way? It wasn't very long, but it was enough for all the rats… it'd be a pain rounding them all up though…"
Kat looked down the tunnel, and sure enough, there was a short dead end path in view. It could fit the rats, but Kamiko was right… there was just so many of them strewn out in the hall. It would take a good deal of time and effort just rounding them up, and that didn't account for any of the 'loose bits' of rat that didn't get caught in the initial sweep.
Kat tapped herself in the chin with her tail a few times, biting her lip in thought as she glared at the problem. "I think… I think we'll just have to push them against the wall. We just don't have the skills for this. I mean maybe we could both freeze them all into like… cubes or something to move them that way and keep any stray bits from being left behind but we don't have the reserves to get even close to half, and we have other rats to kill"
Kamiko puffed up her cheeks before squeezing the air out in a long drawn out exhale. "Guess you're right Kat. Even if I used my naginata to push them around it just… wouldn't work. We'd be hear for… heck maybe even a few hours and I doubt one hall of rats is all. We could take off our headphones to check?"
"That's a good idea" said Kat as she lifted off one earmuff. She was wrong. It was a terrible idea. The sound of chittering and scratching from thousands, ten of thousands, heck maybe hundreds of thousands of rats slammed into her with an almost physical force causing her to stumble and lose her grip on the earmuff securing it back in place.
Even once it was there though, her ear kept ringing, the sound almost clinging to her ear drum crawling around in there and giving her no peace for a few moments until the sound finally left her, after effects and all. Kamiko gave a worried glance at her friend.
"Ok… new plan… never do that again. Um… it's no wonder the rats can't call for help Kamiko. It might not be that they don't care, but that they can't hear it over all the other shit, or that they've gone deaf from the noise…" said Kat
Kamiko winced at that. "Um… yeah that's… that's not good. Let's just get to cleaning up then shall we. I'll start at the end and work my way back in."
Kamiko then proceeded to dash back to the end of the tunnel where the rat sea started and, using the flat of her blade, pushed the rats to whatever side she felt like, mostly basing it on what needed more rats to balance out. Seeing this, Kat got to work as well, mostly using her tail as a way to sweep things, while still bending down and using her hands for the larger and more intact rats that were in her way.