Mokuren's Room

*Sura's POV*

"Come on ride on Xata it'll be fun Kyuu-san!"

She swerves her head away.

"I'm not a little kid brat."

"That or she's too proud to admit that she's interested."

Kyuu-san's ears turn red as her tail stiffens and poofs up.

"Mokuren!"

Mokuren giggles overhearing our conversation. The pulsing iridescent light of the Magami's Aura's nerves spiral and branches into all the neuron nodes up above. It was mesmerizing to watch… but not long after did they become obscured as a cool shade was cast over me.

Tall, elegant, twisting trees surrounded us in their protective shade with soft beams of sunlight showing through. I sit upright... to see bioluminescent big mushrooms sprouting from the ground along with exotic plants and flowers.

"So I hear you now have a name now little flower."

"Yep! Sura!"

"That is a nice name, it fits you."

As Mokuren walked past a few unopen buds, they suddenly bloomed, their glowing blue petals dispersing, flowing through the air as they land on the ground. Not too long after... a small new stem began to grow. Mokuren turns to me.

"We're here! Welcome to my place!"

A gap in the beautiful forest was lit by golden sunlight, giving this super cool, mystical aura! Vibrant, ancient trees surrounded the area as their branches extended over to each other, creating a canopy of comforting shade over the space. Little fruit orbs wrapped in leaf hung from the branched canopy like lanterns. The surrounding trees also had hollowed-out insides stacked with all kinds of books! It's like a library in the middle of the woods!

Kyuu-san stretches next to me, her sculpted arms to the side and chest out.

"It's been a while since I've come here."

Suddenly a pink-haired fairy flew down from of the bookshelves she was dusting off. She kind of looks familiar... she flies towards us and greets Mokuren. She waves her duster bigger than herself gleefully around.

"Welcome back Mokuren-sama! You brought visitors!... hey wait..."

Ah! I think I heard her voice before! We both point to each other.

"Ah! It's the pink-haired waitress fairy from before!"

"It's the kid who wanted to grab me!"

Mokuren chuckled.

"Yep, she lives here along with the other fairies. Come along now."

I follow Mokuren as more fairies emerge from the luminescent mushrooms around, opening the little carved-out doors from them and playing around with the Dobos. They wore all kinds of small flower dresses and leaf clothes. I see a pair of a girl and boy fairy dance behind me... wondering at my petals as I flicked them around playfully with them. Feeling Kyuu-san stares I stop.

Under the canopy, an array of odd-looking stuff such as robotic arms whirring, turning, and placing some weird black cube onto a set of joined tables with parts lying around. There were all sorts of tablets set up and cabinets in the open.

Behind under the canopy also grew various herbs of odd shapes. Some carried purple berries emitting a faint, honey-like smell white others had translucent leaves. There were wooden cabinets near them full of potions. There was a large stump in the middle of the herb garden with bottles, glasses, and grinding tools... a potion-making place? Mokuren goes to her table and picks up the black cube, it's her matrix cube!

"Welcome to my open workshop! Which is also where I sleep too. Well rest I suppose, I don't really need sleep."

She nods to the left, a hammock made of vines hung from the canopy. The hammock had an overlying vine holding an orb... maybe a lamp? I look around...

"Where do you change?"

Kyuu-san pokes me.

"Oi! What are you asking?"

"Hehe, no worries."

Mokuren smiled at points at herself, her silky green velvet dress turning over itself, emerging in a new vibrant, red-leafed shirt with a short flower dress. So cool!! Kyuu-san has her hands covering her face.

"Mokuren! Don't change in front of her!"

"What? It's not like I'm getting nude or anything... I mean my mother's pretty much streaking all the time so... such a pure maiden Kyui."

Kyuu-san starts waving her hands around erratically.

"Still!"

Mokuren points towards her desk and around her place.

"Take a look around if you like Sura... and ask me if you want to read or try out something!"

"Really? Yay!"

Hopping around the workbench... I look at all the parts on the table. So many weird-looking crystal screens and tablets. I also see papers with lots of lines, designs, and words on them. I read a few lines of words that say: "Need stronger materials, about 9nm." Huh... I continue walking around the workshop... touching the robotic arms that grip lightly onto my hand when I touched it before letting go. Somewhere buried behind a bunch of pads, I see this weird little orb on the bench labeled... "high school project" on it.

"What's this?"

Mokuren walks over to me along with Kyuu-san.

"Oh, you want to play? So nostalgic, It's a little game I created back in high school... here, touch the pad."

She taps the surface when a hologram comes out showing two flat boards bouncing a ball between one another.

"Here."

Mokuren comes and with her hand, she guides one of the boards to bounce the ball past the other board and the holographic score at the top shows 1 to 0. Wow! Kyuu-san leans over me.

"I remember playing this game back in high school... Mokuren always beat me."

Kyuu-san picks the other board from me and grins at me.

"Ready brat?"

I grin back hovering my hand over my side's board.

"Bring it."

Bouncing back and forth, neither one of us was ready to give up as the ball bouncing began to accelerate faster and faster. Mokuren watches us as we continue our battle.

"Take this!"

"Nice try brat!"

As the ball sped up faster and faster, I stare intensely at the ball... can't slip up once. Just as I was to score into Kyuu-san's side, the hologram suddenly became distorted. Mokuren taps the screen for us but nothing comes out.

"Whoops... looks like it glitched out. My bad. Maybe I should fix it some time again."

Oh no!

"Awwww! I was just about to score on Kyuu-san too!"

"Like hell you were! Anyways it doesn't count even if it did cause the game crashed."

I stick out my tongue at Kyuu-san and she gives me a wack on the head. Kyuu-san looks to her side and sees a crystal computer thing with a display up front along with a long kind of cloth still being woven next to it. The crystal screen is displaying some kind of... clothes? It's long and like a blanket... who wears that? Kyuu-san points to it.

"Mokuren... how's the work been going?"

Mokuren scoots over to Kyuu-san's side.

"I've been trying to think of how one could properly clean the clothes but still haven't thought of any yet. It's hard... there's just no reliable way to address Naga clothing with the resources we have."

Naga clothing?

"What's Naga clothing?"

Mokuren smiles and boops my nose.

"We have all kinds of clothes, shoes, and jackets here to suit people of all races. Like your plantigrade shoes. However, so far for Nagas, it's been hard to think of equipment they can put on so that they don't have to worry about dirtying or hurting their bottom serpent halves slithering on the ground all day."

Kyuu-san suggests something to Mokuren.

"Didn't you mention that planet Digita invented something for Nagas like this?"

Mokuren sighs like she knew this all along.

"I did, but..."

Using her hands, she takes something from the crystal computer and expands it outward into another hologram... it looked like a weird long sock of sorts with metal pieces and fabric.

"I've been trying to reproduce it through the resources we have here with maybe plant materials. The version they have are quite expensive to make... so I've been thinking of materials to make a more affordable one here for everyone."

Kyuu-san chuckles, looking through all the intricate mesh mash of blueprints and holograms I have no idea what it is.

"I'm sure you can do it Mokuren. If anyone it's you. If you need help... I'll try to, that is if I can I guess."

Mokuren blushes a little.

"Hopefully and thanks... Kyui? It's my mother and yours. They're asking you to go talk to them. It's about testing the rings."

Kyuu-san's demeanor turns serious a bit more.

"Ok... I'll be back to collect the brat! And hey!"

Kyuu-san points to me with a commanding tone.

"Don't mess around too much."

Kill-joy all day long. I give her a thumbs-up before she says goodbye to Mokuren and jogs off away from this side of the forest. Looking around again, there sure are a lot of books... I feel a hand on my shoulder.

"Interested? Have a look around. Ask any of the fairies if you have trouble finding things. I'll be working so be careful ok?"

"Ok!"

I run along the trees holding all the books... each tree holding shelves of books. All neatly packed on carefully carved shelves. A little stick-looking bug was climbing on the shelves when I lightly touched it. It suddenly dispersed into 5 different pieces crawling in all directions before coming back together into one once far away.

I stop at one section to see a fairy with short sparkling hair and wings trying to take out a book, his wings struggling as hard as possible to take it out... and with a final effort, the book pops out almost landing on himself when I quickly extend my petal to catch it. He looks to me with relief as he heaves out a breath.

"Thank you, little girl... if only I could master levitation quanta like the other fairies."

Well, that's no reason to give up!

"Don't give up! I'm sure with hard work you can do it!"

I give him an encouraging smile as I hand the book over... I see the word: history, on the book... huh. He holds onto it, still somewhat struggling to hold the weight. He flies off with the book onto a nearby tree to read while waving to me. I see the pink-haired fairy watching me from above, still dusting off some books humming a little tune to herself.

"My opinion of you has improved... a little."

Hehe. I look at the section of the tree he took from... to see the history section carefully etched on the tree. History... the history class that I not so successfully spied on came into mind.

"Mokuren?"

I see her talk without looking from her crystal screen.

"Yes?"

"Can you tell me about the past history? The Dark era?"

Mokuren looks up from her table and raises her long, curved eyebrow at me. She has a mystified, surprised twinkle in her eyes.

"How'd you know about that?"

"I heard about it when I visited the high school here! I watched a history class talk about the past history... something about history being restarted and Asura."

Mokuren's pointy ears seem to flinch upon hearing that last word.

"Visiting the high school? I wonder how long it has been since I graduated. Decades counting. So... what do you want to know?"

I look back at the books... it's a lot.

"Maybe just the important things about the past? What did it mean restarting and old gods? More than one universe?"

Mokuren shoots a vine onto one of the branches above me and swings to me in one swoop. She sits down at one of the warm benches and pats her laps. I sit on her lap, taking in her flowery smell and silky skin.

"It'll be a lot to take in for you Sura... are you sure?"

"Yep!"

She uses her vines and takes out one of the books labeled Dark Era. It looked worn and old. But there was no dust on it, it seems to have found a nice home here. Mokuren opens the book, the pages had this smooth, golden brown color with handwritten text. I see a diagram of sorts, showing many interconnected circles with intricate lines and stars produced from ink.

"In the past, there were many universes and still is many that faced untold horrors and cosmic gods that waged war at the detriment of mortals alike. As far as I know, just how vast the extension of omniverses is beyond any understanding."

Omniverses... what does that mean. My squint trying to figure out all the words Mokuren said. She smiled at me.

"Haha! It's ok... just know that in the past, there were lots of big powerful beings and gods fighting over universes and dimensions for control. Luckily, our universe was one of the hidden ones safe from invasion... at least safe to a degree."

Mokuren flips through some pages to a figure traced on the page, seen holding its large sword as it impaled down upon the world. Separating two sides of the page, with one side encased in consuming darkness and the other side bright with depictions of life, trees, and the sun.

"Then what did it mean history restarted?"

"I'm not sure, there are no official records of what exactly happened... but it had to do with Asura. One day, everything changed. No more primordials, no more ancient, cosmic elder gods threatening the universes. They were gone... and not even too long ago. It was for many hundreds of years ago only, right before I was about born."

She paused thinking.

"We have our memories intact... and those who passed down that knowledge are aware of the change. But as new generations pass, they sometimes forget about thas past and think of it as but a distant fairy tale."

That's a lot to take in... so many questions and weird stuff. Thinking hard of what to ask next. But... I want to know about Asura. What was it? Who?

"Mokuren... who is Asu-"

*Ding, Ding!!*

A fairy flew down from one of the trees to Mokuren. Her little leaf dress fluttering in the wind as she had little pom-poms on her shoes. So cute!

"Mokuren-sama! You have a visitor at the door!"

"Who is it?"

"It's Emilia! She's here to return her book."

"Oh! She's here! Let her in."

Mokuren gets up and puts me down... my lap seat! Emilia? Isn't she the succubus girl from the history class with the weird teacher? I take a seat on one of the wooden stumps. Fiddling with my petals and thinking about what Mokuren said. So the past has been rewritten... What happened? Awww! I was cut off just before I can ask! Maybe I can ask next time I come here.

"Hello, Emilia."

"Good morning Mokuren-sama!"

I look up to see Emilia talking to Mokuren at the entrance to her place. She's wearing a pink jacket along with tight jeans. I wonder if it'll stretch apart considering her wide and curvy hips?

"I've come here to return the book you've lent me! If I may... could I ask for some other books today?"

"Sure! If you'd like you can keep that one. Don't think I just have one copy."

"Really? Thanks!"

Emelia greets all the nearby fairies with a little wave. She even shakes the hand of one little fairy as another sits on her shoulder. Her ruby eyes fall onto me, and suddenly she kind of hides behind Mokuren. My trusty ears pick up Emelia's whispering.

"Mokuren wh-who is that?"

"That's Kyui's adopted little sister. Don't be so shy, Emilia."

Emilia nervously waves at me and I do a little wave back. She seems really shy. Mokuren slides onto her seat at the workbench again.

"I'll be over here if you need anything ok? Emilia, you can get along with Sura... she's cute and energetic. I'm sure you'll like her."

Emilia nods silently and begins to look around the shelves for books. As soon as her eyes left me for the books... her pose and aura changed. It was like she was lost in her own little world, her eyes purely focused as it fed upon the array of shelves. Her little bat wings flapping up and down and her long elegant fingers trailed rims of each book as if getting a feel for each one. I lay on the bench on my stomach staring at her.

Her tail swung curiously behind her, scratching her back as she flew from tree to tree... every once in a while she'll quickly glance over at me only to meet me staring at her before turning quickly away in a hurry... hmmm...

"Do you like history books?"

My question startles her as her she almost falls from midair. She turns towards me, her eyes darting around and not meeting my eyes.

"Ye-yes I do... I think they're interesting."

"You can come over you know? I'm not scary. See?"

I smile at her while opening my arms... oof! I accidentally rolled off the bench.

"Hehehehe..."

Looking up to see her big breasts jiggle as she chuckled lightly, her hand to her mouth... she hovers over and helps me up, patting my head too. I hug her and bury my face into her chest.

"You have very big ones! They're soft and comfortable!"

She yelps and blushes. Scanning me up and down, at least she's looking at me, she mentions:

"Oh...thank you, little girl... you know, you look a little stronger than for your age."

She looks at my arms and stomach again. I look down at myself to see some stomach muscles... what's wrong with that?

Emilia now seems a lot more relaxed and proceeded to hover in the history section, delicately taking out each book and opening it to read. I get closer to her and smell a really sweet scent from her. It's calming... and I'm getting a little fuzzy feel. Getting closer to her... I take a sniff of her.

"Eek!"

She yelps again as she turns around. She sure surprises easy.

"You smell sweet Miss Emilia."

"Oh! Those are ju-just my pheromones."

I feel... a little woozy. My sense feels a little dull and my legs feel a little weak.

"Ah! I forgot to drink the potion!"

She quickly takes out a small bottle of something bluish-pink before gulping it down. Slowly, the sweet smell from her goes away and I become a little better.

"What are those?"

Emilia looks at me with an apologetic look.

"I'm so so-sorry, the potions help control my pheromones until I get older and mature enough to control it myself... I owe it to Mokuren-sama for helping create these from the herbs she gathers."

Mokuren-sama sure does help create a lot of things. Emelia resumes choosing some books, while I watch her. I look through the books also and find an old, worn book labeled Dark Era theories. I tug the book out and tug on her jeans...

"Miss Emilia, do you like this book? It has Dark Era about the past history."

"Oh thank you! I was looking for that..."

She gratefully accepts the book.

"Why do you like the past history so much?"

Emelia pauses and brings her books close to her chest.

"I think learning about the past... is a beautiful way to see the world in a different light. To see how far we have come along and the things we have achieved... the people who helped this world. I think it is sad to forget the past even if it may be dark..."

Emelia smiles at me.

"Plus... it's pretty cool don't you think?"

It was clear where her passion is. And I would be lying if it didn't get me more interested in learning about the past. Maybe I can every so often come here and ask Mokuren about the past.

"Brat!"

That insulting tone and fiery voice, none other than Kyuu-san who was shouting from the other side of Mokuren's place... so rude.

"We're going back!"

I hop my way towards Mokuren to get her attention.

"What is it Sura?"

"Is it ok, if I visit again for more history stuff?"

Mokuren leans down and straightens my white dress, brushing off some of the grass on it.

"Anytime Sura, you'll be welcome. You should get going, you have some important stuff to consider with Kyui and your mom."

"Really? How do you know?"

Mokuren taps her antlers.

"Telepathy with my mother remember?"

I jog towards Kyuu-san while turning to say bye to Mokuren and Emilia. They give little waves back even some of the fairies do and I see the blue-haired one so mouth him: "You got this". He danced in the air happily before waving goodbye too.

I get back together with Kyuu-san and follow her out of the forest.

"Did you have fun brat?"

"Yeah! I wanna come back here again sometime!"

"Yeah yeah, we'll see. Come on, there something we need to talk about. Mom's waiting at the entrance."

Arriving at the entrance, I see mom and Goddess Myriam. Goddess Myriam was talking to mom.

"I hope you'll think about it."

"We will"

"Then until next time."

I look at mom and Kyuu-san when we leave.

"So what did you guys talk about?"

Mom takes my hand.

"We're thinking about testing the rings and starting to have you train again."

I can train again?! Alright!

"... but it is up to you if you want to train again. Give it some thought sweetie, it might be dangerous. I don't want the incident to happen again."

Kyuu-san nods in agreement.

"I'll arrange a time we can meet at the dojo if you decide to. Ask questions brat if you're worried, don't forget."

As we exit the Magami Aura, I see a mermaid jump out of the water from of the entrances to the underground water town in a graceful showoff, splashing water around. Jacky sees us and waves at me.

"Hey girly! Heya Kyuu-san and her mother! Say lil girl, I remember telling you I can take ya on a visit to our place down there. Want to? I promise it'll be amazing!"

She flashes her sharky grin with her hands on her hips proud.

"Maybe another time! But I can't wait."

Jacky smiles and continues on her way... I wonder if she's going to work at that Sushi restaurant... I shiver a little, I'll never eat that green ice cream again. Then mom suddenly brings up:

"Hey isn't Jacky working at the new Sushi restaurant not too fear? It's almost noon, wanna go, sweetie?"

"Nooo!!"