"Ara~ ara~ why are you leaving after having not done anything?"
"Pretty chaotic~."
Abruptly, the retreating cat stopped moments before hundreds of jade chains erupted from cracks in reality from in front of her. Coming out in all different directions to create a complex interlinking pattern that quickly became an impenetrable wall. Munzumira's brow trembling in response to being stopped.
"Tsk."
"... Did you just click your tongue at my adorable self?"
Of course she decided to not answer that.
"So much for pretending you needed to click in order to summon those annoying ass chains that stupid snake taught you how to create."
"What' the point of pretending among friends~♥"
That line caused a shiver (more primordial than Konton, Mugen, Navy or the third cat) to travel from the ears that hear it all the way down to her tail. As well as a bit beyond that. When That shiver caused her tail to spasm out she finally jumped as if escaping from the uncomfortable feeling.
This time it was Mugen's turn to be displeased as she looked at her "master" with a smile that wasn't quite a smile and with a constantly trembling brow. Her closed eyelids even twitched alongside the edges of her slightly raised lips. Hands clutching the parasol that appeared at some point to cast a shadow over her.
"What was that reaction about, ma~ster?"
"Keep your yandere behaviour between the two of them you creepy midget."
Letting a sigh leave her lips as she moved to one of the walls of "experimental material" where she clicked her fingers as a heavy groan began. Slowly but surely the pods began to shift around showcasing creatures in various states of "disassembly". Though none of them were taken aback by the scene.
In fact the chaotic incarnation even began to point his book towards the various bodies as he counted all the different races he remembered.
Mugen was less easily appeased as her face never stopped shuddering.
"At least I don't look like a wax sex doll…"
"Just got the sex doll part down, then?"
The cat replied without even turning to look at the annoyed dragoness who spoke calmly with forced warmth dripping from her tone.
For a moment the goddess-cum-sword spirit just stood there silently. One could clearly see as she worked her mind to figure out how to best respond to the unexpected comeback of the ancient cat. Soon she came up with the most genius reply…
"So how is the experiment going?"
She confidently thought to herself as her expression soon settled on smug as she snapped the parasol forward only for it to turn back into a wand that she slid up her sleeve.
In actuality she was just in time with that question as the wall finally stopped manoeuvring and settled upon creatures that could only be called chimaera. Body parts expertly grafted onto one another to make various creatures of varying sizes. Some are even bigger than a building.
Munzumira finally took her gaze off the wall to look towards the goddess who asked the strange question she should already have known about. Those two little monsters were there helping her the entire time process of creating those things. Neither a mere amateur when it comes to such experiments.
Still… She enjoyed the sound of her own voice enough to actually humor her; turning back as a faint hiss came from the top of their pods.
"Why do you ask?"
"Curious what progress you made since I last was here; you know I have been keeping an eye on that spoopy pussy-cat's little human."
"O~h last time you were here we were still struggling with keeping changes right~?"
The boy was far more willing to openly expound all of their accomplishments as he wandered over to one of the pods. This one filled with something akin to an ape the size of an outhouse with a strangely shaped claw on one hand as well as a scorpion tail. Pressing some buttons as the hissing grew.
"Indee~dy but I can tell you somehow got over that with all the tendrils you were spitting out earlier; no way you'd experiment on yourself without some prior successes~."
"Yea it was easy enough to change normal souls as long as we didn't change too much - push too much and they kind'a just collapsed like when you go all out with your power."
"What about when they were stronger?"
"That's when the souls would reject it. They didn't outright collapse however their spiritual energy attacked the foreign additions to the point of the parts collapsing. If we took out something that also happened to be keeping them alive, such as a heart, then those ones would die from that."
Shaking her head as the malformed creature in front of them began to twitch as their stitched on mask bubbled faintly like a boiling spring.
"To put it simply, souls are akin to rubber bands while their spiritual power can be treated as the resistance of the band in question. The more you try to enforce change the more forcibly it will try to revert back to its original state. Pull too much that soul will snap which is what happened when we made too many changes to those weaker souls out of the Rukon."
"So the problem was that we needed to edge it for the stronger ones~!"
"... Yes, yes. We needed to edge them."
She didn't like it but she surrendered briefly to the girl's stupidity in order to move things along.
"Through this we also learned how to make weak souls stronger~!"
"Ara~ no doubt by slowly siphoning another's spiritual power into them~?"
Finally that boiling mask's eye holes glowed but it wasn't the usual colour of red but an unsettling purple that constantly flickered. As if the creature was struggling on whether to blow up or not. Groans echoed from the experimental hollow that somehow managed to convey the agony it was feeling at that moment.
"Indeed which in turn allowed us to essentially use anyone as a base that we pleased or even artificially enhance the quality of our material. Once again my genius shines through as I prove that even life itself has no choice but to conform to me. All as expected of the abyss herself."
Flourishing her perm with a hand while her ears cutely twitched on her body.
What wasn't cute was the twitching that the muscles all over the chimera hollow's body as they seemed to struggle silently despite not letting out anything but a drawl.
"Sadly it does nothing to improve intelligence and can even have a negative impact if we do not introduce a certain degree of willpower into the subject; easily fixed if we want something smarter~!"
"Will is malleable when one considers our skill sets."
Cat agreed with her spawn as she glared at the creature who stopped their struggle.
"With this an army will be easy enough to build and we can begin to even find more… Sustainable methods to gather resources for continued production. Although I must admit that the nature of these hollow spirits make repeat products difficult to acquire naturally."
"Breed them~?"
That caused the cat to give her child some major side eye.
"You were the one to point out a lack of genitals…"
"Plu~s I would find such a thing quite the uncoo~th lottery."
A sudden unsettlingly inconsistent voice caused the two sword spirits to quickly whip around to see a face that was all too familiar by now.
Though it was hard to forget the sight of someone with crimson threads incorporated into their face.
That mysterious dapper dressed cat had one hand resting upon their hat, metal claws cupping around the top to prevent tearing, pulling it down to hide their eyes behind the brim. Meanwhile the other set of claws slowly scrapped the crystal glass that contained a prior experiment. Sound causing them all to wince.
Not that the cat seemed to care as she half sat upon the control panel without worry at the strong potential the butt dial something by accident. Both the powerful spirits clearly grew more cautious. Neither able to fully tell why they were so on guard with that obviously getting under Mugen's collar far more.
Still she didn't ambush the trespasser due to Munzumira raising a hand while still focused on the malformed life form in front of her.
"Destroy my work station and I'll have to monologue about manners next."
Callously throwing out a threat at her other third without so much as a hint of compassion.
"Oh m~y what a scary one yo~u are!"
Pushing themself off the control station as a beep echoed throughout the room as the fluid inside began to drain only for a tendril of shadow to rise up from behind the cat. Quickly tapping that panel once more to stop the liquid from lowering anymore. Though it was clear that the beast was beginning to wake up.
Unlike the "finished product" it was far less behaved as it began to thrash wildly as the purple in it's eyes was far closer to a maroon than the ape. Seeing that made Mugen click her tongue followed by her clicking her fingers as chains pierced through the glass to bind the being. Making Munzumira nod.
"We have a nice thing going gambler, you provide bodies and I provide a nice life for that human pet you hold so dear, so do yourself a favour… Don't mess it up for yourself."
To the cat's credit she seemed marginally sorry for what transpired as she looked towards what seemed like a human given the body of a spider below the hips.
However she also seemed completely unbothered.
"Every single wager comes with ri~sk and mine are well calculated… Most of the time."
Soon that constantly shifting, always inconsistent, laugh echoed throughout the room as even the usually animated Konton could only frown at how unsettling this entity was.
"Everyone at the ta~ble has a goal~ but I fail to see a winning hand."
Lifting their hands up in a shrug as they continued to pace around without worry about the eyes following them around the room.
"A location for Navy is wh~at you promised me some time ago."
"Oh, it's about that, well it was so obvious I just assumed you already knew what he was up to within the gilded walls of the soul society."
This time it was her turn to shrug off the words of her fellow cat.
For once that gambler stood still as she stared at the back of Munzumira's faintly shimmering hair as the usual pattern of galaxies shifting by showed no changes. It caused that gambler to, for once, consider whether to call the bluff. Wondering if that kitten knew more or maybe less than she was letting on.
Soon giving in with a shake of their head as they reached into the pocket to pull out a familiar pocket watch alongside a cigarette.
Popping open the lid of the watch as a flame set alight.
Not that they had a chance to use said flame as they quickly stepped back as a beam of water erupted from the always confident Mugen.
"No smoking in the lab or you'll get thrown out~!"
Ignoring the fact that her "owner" was currently smoking in that very same lab.
"Tis' the rules the house laid down I supp~o~se."
Still the gambler simply put the the fag away while their eyes momentarily remained glued upon the hidden face of that watch. Snapping it shut to return it back into their jacket. Walking behind one of the many pods with another, if shorter, chortle.
"I'll accept you ou~tplayed me for this ha~nd and won't call your be~t."
Mugen disappeared from her spot to reappear where the cat had wandered off to only to find the area empty much to her grumbling displeasure.
"Hate when people do that to me… It's my thing…"
Meanwhile Konton looked towards his "mother" with a cutely tilted head.
"Didn't we only gain that info a few minutes ago?"
"And the information obviously pointed towards him so I didn't lie."
Such a reply caused the boy to tremble excitedly.
"Ah~ how chaotically appalling~!"
"Speaking of… I wonder what Cheshire is up to."
Rejoining the pair to sulkingly resume their work; though they needed to reseal a certain experiment due to a certain cat.