Verjil
Izurich
Randomness
Alby47
A5G
Thayr
KillamriX88
KuroYūdoku Lyco
“It's the third time this has happened! You’re fired!” Lyco heard the same thing for the third time in as many days.
Another restaurant that welcomed her with open arms but quickly decided to let her off. She still didn’t understand why the clients didn’t like it, all they did was condemn her “Atrocious” Cooking, but they never said why.
Oh well, she still had a couple of recommended places she could try, hopefully they’d be more amenable to her skills, or at least tell her what’s wrong with her food so that she can improve on it.
As she left, she fumbled with her phone to try and put an appointment to the next restaurant in the list, a certain “Ramen is the Best Pleasure” place, only to notice from the tail of her eye a light closing in on her. Turning fully to look at it, Lyco found herself face to face with a truck, probably the one that restock this restaurant, coming at her.
‘Uh, i wonder where the driver is’ she thought. Unfortunately, she will never get to solve that mystery, as the truck hit her at blinding speeds. Everything goes dark, and she dies.
Darkness. A feeling of drifting but nothing more. This is what Lyco encountered after her untimely death. Time had no meaning, as her consciousness floated contently upon Nothingness.
Until it was pierced by a voice. Kami, she called herself, the Goddess of life and reincarnation. She offered them another chance, in a world in danger, where they were needed.
Lyco accepted, of course. She needed help, and while this whole Nothingness thing was nice, from what she gathered it wasn’t gonna last much more anyway.
However,she couldn’t help but to ask Kami for a wish. She wanted to be able to further her cooking skills, and finally be able to create food that would delight who’d eat it.
For some reason, she felt as if Kami's smile broke from a moment. But soon after Kami said that such a thing was simple enough to accomplish, and assured Lyco that her cooking shall be loved by her new family, though she couldn’t assure the same for everyone else.
And so, Lyco was no more.
Arc 1 - Rebirth: Year 1
(Lyco POV)
Darkness
Warmth
Peace
When Lyco came to once more, she honestly thought that Kami made a mistake and sent her to something like Nirvana. She never felt something akin to this. A feeling of calm,belonging and rightness, all blended together to form something new that words simply couldn't explain properly.
Alas, all good things must come to an end. She didn't know for how long she remained in that rapturing state, but all of a sudden, it left, or more correctly, she got pushed away from it.
No matter how hard she tried, she could do nothing, and as the feeling completely left her, new sensations filled the void. Namely constriction,shortly followed by a blinding light piercing the darkness she got so accustomed to.
A deafening,unintelligible sound attacked her ears. Try as she might, her vision still wasn’t making anything out, and if anything the sound just became even worse.
Soon after, she felt “free”, for a term of the word, though even that was short-lived,as she felt herself moving, feeling constricted once again, even if far more gently this time.
Her eyes finally adjusted enough to make out the shape of gigantic people,one of which was holding her close to her chest, and her ears finally picked up something she understood.
Lyco.
Her name from her previous life and, as it seems she was actually reborn, this one too…
Everyone seemed to be in a hurry for some reason,even whoever was holding her.
Not like she will understand anytime soon, as a wave of exhaustion made her eyelids drop, and sleep took her.
When she woke up again, there was a feeling of wind rushing around her,and whoever was holding her,a male figure this time, seemed to be running.
Moving her head, even as little as she could,to check their surroundings, they seemed to be outside, and it was dark enough to probably be night. One thing kept nagging at her though,and checking around again, she understood. The figures seemed to have dwindled a lot. She wondered where they all went, or why they were outside for that matter. She thought a baby would need a crib or something similar.
It seemed that her checking around was noticed, as the figure holding her said something that she couldn’t understand, and passed her off to someone that seemed familiar. Probably the person that holded her after her birth, what she guessed would her be her mother.
That idea seemed to solidify as she tried to feed her. Honestly, she could do without, she still didn’t feel hungry afterall, so maybe they’d get her something else.
Maybe those little pastes that she always sees in the markets?
A week later
(Kurare POV)
A disaster. Even with all the preparations, the planning and time, the desertion was a disaster. And all because the Hunter-nins put a new recruit to check on them, and the fucker decided to be thorough on his first day of the job, the inherent laziness to guard posts not set in yet.
And because of that, a quarter of the clan didn’t make it outside of Kiri, and another quarter didn’t reach the rendezvous point set up with the rebel forces.
And now, after such loss, they are gonna need to spread out all over the network, so as to not place too much heat over any part of it. He understood why, and he was sure his family knew too, but that didn’t stop the grumbling and protest.
Still better than to condemn their children to die as Kiri’s rabid attack dogs.
Talking about childrens, he already feared for his own. Even leaving aside the fact that she’s gonna grow up in a rebel cell of all places, Lyco didn't seem like other kids. We all feared she was a stillborn because of how quiet she was, but her eyes and breath told us otherwise.
He could only hope he and Nasuka could still care for her even without the Clan to support them, though with the difficulties they were already experiencing, the future seems grim on that front. Their little poison flower wasn’t eating as she should,and she has already resorted to stringing her along with little nightshade treats so that she would drink her milk.
‘If any Kami is watching over us, please give us the strength for my Clan to overcome this burden, and for my Daughter to grow up well’
Eight months later
(Nasuka POV)
She for once was seated on the sofa and taking a break, something that was far too rare in between caring for Lyco and being a useful rebel, when it happened. Her husband broke through the door,literally,asking if I had seen Lyco. Apparently he was watching her, but got held up for a couple minutes by someone else, and by the time he was done, Lyco was gone.
Fear gripped me, and as we continued the search, it only worsened. Nobody saw her or knew where she could have gone. Her first thought had gone to a kidnapping. Maybe Kiri found where they were and a ninja took the opportunity.
As the search bore no fruit and a proper hunting party was being formed to understand what happened, a knock on a half-broken door was heard. And lo and behold, her little poison flower was standing there, her face locked in that severe expression she always has, even as caked in dirt as she was and with her hands and mouth full of a plant she knew very well. Afterall, nightshade was her preferred poison.
After checking that everything was indeed fine, and that Lyco didn’t overdose, she once again seated herself on the sofa, a sigh leaving her and with her little poison flower directly beside her. Her daughter was still chewing on a leaf without a care in the world, as if she didn’t give them all a scare just because she wanted a treat.
And now she had to chastise Kurare for not paying attention the one time he should have.
So much for taking a break.
A year later
(Lyco POV)
After the “Incident”, as her parents put it, she was now always watched by one of them,trying to keep her distracted from going for any other “Adventures”. This, along with the greater amount of treats she was getting, made that venture truly worth it.
To be honest, her idea was just to explore around a bit, maybe see if there was something that could take her time, but instead she found a plant that looked quite similar to Belladonna, and she had the same water-mouthering reaction that her mother treats gave her.
Before she could stop herself, she was already chewing on it, and seeing as she wasn’t keeling over death,but instead a reinvigorating feeling washed over her, much like her mother treats, it must have meant it wasn’t poisonous,and so brought it back home after she noticed that she stayed far away for far more time than necessary.
Furthermore, her mother had decided to “focus my energy” in a more productive way. Namely, she now readed books to me daily, the subject seemed to mostly be a curious combination of botany, entomology and chemistry, and while it was fascinating and making learning the language easier, she had to wonder why her mother had decided these topics.
Maybe she was actually a cook at heart too and wanted her to have a leg-up from the start? Some cultures cook and eat insects, and that would explain why the little treats she always gives me are so good!
Life was good. Honestly, the only thing she could complain about was the constant moving.
Was Mother a wandering cook? Or maybe Father was a trader? He does have a ton of knick-knacks laying around, and what she thought seemed like weapons. Maybe an Arms dealer?
Oh well, she’ll learn of it eventually as she becomes older. For now, it’s better to concentrate on the now, especially since Mother has noticed her thoughts wandering off and she brought out the treats box! Which kinda looks like lab equipment now that she looks at it…Was Mother preparing them at the moment? Is that the secret to their goodness? I must learn more!
