The Record of Unusual Creatures

Lily’s panicked scream cut the conversation between Hao Ren and the MDT short. Even the curled up Rollie who was scratching her own tummy perked up immediately upon hearing Lil Pea’s name. Hao Ren immediately recovered from his shock and grabbed the MDT and dashed out of his room.

“Let go, let go. I can fly… Oh, f*ck! You slammed me against the door frame!”

Hao Ren quickly made his way to the hall and saw Nangong Wuyue and Sanba rushing down from upstairs while Lily was standing in the middle of the living room, her eyes staring towards the tea table.

“What’s wrong?” Hao Ren ran over to check things out. “What’s wrong with Lil Pea?”

“I don’t know.” Lily pointed towards the little mermaid on the table. “I was changing water for her, and she suddenly leaped out from the pot, and she was like this ever since… like she was possessed or something. It was scary!”

Hao Ren turned towards the table and saw Lil Pea on it. The little mermaid was perked up straight with two peanut-sized holy fire in each hand, she looked like she was facing a mortal enemy across the hall while her tail stuck nervously on the table’s surface, smacking it every few seconds.

Hao Ren had never seen Lil Pea reacted this way before, and she looked like she was thoroughly frightened by something, that she even went into her combat stance. (even when the little one’s combat stance was not all that threatening)

“Lil Pea, Lil Pea?” Hao Ren nervously went to speak with the little mermaid before turning towards the opposite side of the living room. “Lily, go see what’s over there.”

Lil Pea had some reaction after hearing Hao Ren’s voice, she looked at her father with a dumbfounded look, as her tail slightly relaxed. She then burst into tears. “Uwaaa… Daddyyyy, Aunty Vivian got eeeatennn…”

By then, Hao Ren was thinking of all sorts of cures for sick fishes, and when the little one popped that sentence out, he got a shock. “What?!”

Another one that got a shock was Vivian who had came up from the basement to check things out. “What? I got eaten by what?”

Lil Pea by then had stopped crying. The little mermaid looked on confusedly at Vivian who was equally confused for a while. Apparently, Lil Pea had problems processing her thought before smacking the table again with her tail with all her might. “She got spit out! She got spit out!”

Seems like the little one’s way to express her emotions was her tail smacking frequency…

“Did Lil Pea ate anything wrong?” Nangong Wuyue gave the little mermaid a curious look before turning towards Vivian. “I’ve told you many times the ink on the newspaper is not clean and to stop her from eating it. Has she gotten hallucinations from that?”

No one knew why Lil Pea had reacted so, and Hao Ren even after a good while could not make out what was wrong. Lil Pea was obviously still in shock, and her ability to express herself was still limited, after a whole load of gestures it still revolved around Vivian being eaten by something. Lily, on the other hand, had moved most of the furniture and electrical appliances from the other side of the living room and even found a set of poker cards that Hao Ren had lost last year. There were Lil Pea’s bite marks on the cards as well, but that was clearly not the cause of her shock.

“There’s nothing weird here.” Lily clasped her hands together. “Unless you want me to wreck the wall.”

Hao Ren then prodded Lil Pea who had now curled into a ball in his arms. “Is there something there?”

The little mermaid poked her head out fearfully, and her nervous expression was still here. She grabbed Hao Ren’s sleeve before nodding. “There’s… something… weird… Aunty Vivian got eaten by it…”

As Lily heard that she rolled up her sleeves. “Then I’ll wreck the wall?”

Vivian immediately pushed the husky aside as she joined the search by the wall. “Stop your nonsense. Let me see… I’m feeling something there… Hmmm?”

“What did you find?” Hao Ren went forward.

“Seems like a mouse hole.” Vivian pointed towards a part of the wall that was overlooked by the rest. And there was a fist-size hole on the wall. “It was blocked by the cupboard.”

“Mouse?” Hao Ren was stunned for a moment before seeming to recall something. He then turned towards the cat girl who had joined in the commotion. “Rollie! Why is there mice around? Why did you say anything?”

The catgirl puffed her chest up as she retorted. “I’ve left them as a backup food supply. You don’t even know how to look for food. So when we are starving we still at least have something to eat meow! And if I had caught all the mouse at home and you no longer have any need for me what should I do then!”

“…”

What in the world was going through that dumb cat’s head! And for a cat, that was a little too much scheming was it not?!

“Don’t go ragging on her. That mouse hole should have been there a long time ago,” Vivian quipped. “The mice had all ran away… seemed like a supernatural being had scared them off with its aura.”

An incredulous look appeared on Rollie’s face. “Meow backup supply is gone? Is it really gone when I stopped looking for a bit?”

“Forget about your backup supply. Use your time to learn how to use chopsticks instead.” Vivian nagged at the cat girl before bending down to look at the mouse hole. “There is something inside there… but funny… My senses seemed to be disrupted, and I can’t see anything inside the mouse hole. Can anyone get me a tube?”

Nangong Wuyue went forward. “I’ll spare you the trouble. Let me handle this.”

After that, the siren squatted before the mouse hole and she placed a hand at the entrance before a surge of living water gushed out from her hand. As the water flowed without a sound into the fist-sized mouse hole, Nangong Wuyue continued talking as she controlled the flow of the water. “It’s oddly dark in there, and rather deep too. Probably a decade old at least… I… Ouch, something bit me!!”

Wuyue let out a yelp as she pulled her liquid arm out. With the splash of water, a crimson-black shadow was thrown out by the current as well!

“Something came out!” Lily exclaimed. “Seems like… uh… Battie, your mini-clone.”

Hao Ren looked stupidly at the crimson-black silhouette that was flushed out by Wuyue. He felt that his world view was about to be challenged again. There sat a 10-cm tall, sopping-wet mini figure on the floor. She wore the same dress as Vivian, and even her look was the same, something like a Vivian who was shrunk a hundred times smaller.

The palm-sized Vivian was still dazed by the flush, and she shook her head as she sat on the floor to regain her senses. She then struggled to get up, and at the same time she turned around to look at a row of giant faces, and let out angry, threatening hiss.

“Oh my, it is really a mini Vivian!” Wuyue exclaimed in surprise. She then turned to look at the real person beside her before turning back to the ‘figurine’ on the floor. “They are literally the same! Vivian, did you forget to retrieve your little bats again?”

Vivian was totally confused by then, and what Wuyue said had her imagining two Hessianas standing side by side. That horrifying image immediately sent chills down her spine. “Impossible! I’ve been very diligent in retrieving my bats of late…”

“Shut up, this is not a bat familiar!” Hao Ren’s voice shook everyone out of their guessing game. He stared at the palm-sized Vivian who was struggling to get up. “Look at her eyes and hair!”

“Hair…” Nangong Sanba was the first to recover. “It’s red!?!”

The mini Vivian’s appearance had thrown everyone into confusion, and some of her more distinct features were overlooked as a result. When Hao Ren had reminded them about it only did the rest realized the difference from the “figurine”.

Aside from the exact similarity of the facial features with the real person, the mini Vivian’s hair and eyes were blood red, especially the eyes. When Vivian transform her eyes will also turn red, but that is limited to the iris, but this ‘figurine’s eyes were without the sclera, and was a veritable sea of chaotic red!

She had finally steadied herself and pointed her hands at the rest with a hissing yelp. Hao Ren then realized that it was not an angry tantrum but a primal roar. It was just that a roar from a palm-sized figurine was not all that threatening.

“It’s a Malevolence!” Lily yelled in surprised and was followed by an even bigger surprise. “But why is it so small?”

“To think that a Malevolence came to our house!” Wuyue too was shocked. “But why is it so small?”

“Regardless, that is indeed a Malevolence of me.” Vivian frowned. “But why is it so small?”

The memory of the chaos that ensued after Hao Ren and Lily summoning Vivian’s Malevolence from a grimoire back in the day was still fresh in everyone’s mind, and everyone was cautious about Vivian’s split made out of malignant powers. And under normal circumstances, the appearance of such a being would have raised the alarm, but the problem actually lies with Hao Ren being caught in weird situations like this.

In the face of such a Malevolence, how the hell is someone supposed to react?

The palm-sized figurine was done threatening and finally decided to go on the offensive. She raised her hands and dashed towards Hao Ren, the closest target to her, a chilling, visceral aura formed around her.

“Watch out!” Vivian woke from her stupor and remembered that even a mini Malevolence was very dangerous and immediately let out a warning.

But just as the words left her mouth, the little figurine suddenly slipped…. and fell with a loud ‘splat!’