Chapter 4: Sealing My Creation(1)

"Finally, I'll be able to rest in a real bed."

Wirt had spent a long time in the forest, but he hadn't neglected his personal hygiene during this period.

Despite his... strange appearance, with pieces of roots attached all over him, he didn't look dirty.

He had planned to return to civilization sooner or later, and that had motivated him to avoid being mistaken for a madman in Gravity Falls due to poor hygiene.

It didn't take him long to find Dipper, who was hitting tree trunks around the Mystery Shack.

'Damn, what's that thing in his hand?'

He hadn't given him a weapon at this stage of the story, and yet... he had one. For some obscure reason.

[Ding!!]

As he was considering restructuring his approach, Wirt heard a notification on his PC.

[Message from the author: Dear co-author, we found it absurd that a man reincarnated in Gravity Falls could venture into the forest without a decent weapon.]

[Message from the author: So, we decided to give him one before this part of the story.]

'Crap, he had to complicate everything...'

Wirt had somewhat forgotten that he was no longer the author of this fanfic.

So it was normal to observe changes in the story's development.

Normally, things shouldn't have happened like this.

In the canon story, Dipper hadn't found Journal number 3 directly after arriving in Gravity Falls.

He had first been exploited by Stan, who had convinced himself that manual labor would toughen up the physically weak boy.

Therefore, Dipper shouldn't have had time to craft any equipment worthy of the name.

That was the logic behind his lack of equipment in chapter 1 of the fanfic.

'Anyway, he couldn't have created anything really dangerous in such a short time, given his limited budget...'

Things would have been different with a Rick Sanchez, of course.

But here, he was just dealing with a guy who possessed Vegapunk's knowledge.

"Beatrix, the others... I need help."

Despite his confidence in victory, he preferred to avoid any recklessness when facing a 21st-century man with the legacy of an IQ concerning enough to be described as "500 years ahead" in the One Piece universe.

He decided to play it safe.

Wirt telepathically contacted the animals at the edge of the forest.

He absolutely needed to know what this Dipper was capable of, and not act blindly.

From Wirt's perspective, nothing was more frightening than the unknown.

Of course, he didn't contact the gnomes.

They were far too valuable for him to risk losing a certain number here, and they constituted his most powerful attack force at the moment.

While he was explaining their approach against Dipper to the animals, the latter had already managed to find the tree containing the mechanism leading to Journal number 3.

"Now I can really start my ascension in this world with complete safety," he declared with a small "disturbing" smile that didn't fit his juvenile face at all.

But his joy was short-lived.

"What the...?!"

Several rodents and birds began to frantically chase him.

Their goal wasn't to kill him, but to force Dipper to move deeper into the Gravity Falls forest.

"Damn it!!!" he shouted, pulling out a gun that looked like a glass water pistol.

But a violent discharge came out of it.

In an instant, several birds were either killed or knocked out.

'Looks like the Tesla guns from the Warehouse 13 series...'

(Image)

Wirt was relieved: at least these weren't laser guns or other advanced weapons yet.

But that didn't really improve the situation either.

"Hello Dipper... or should I call you by your real name?"

Wirt hadn't revealed himself out of pride or stupidity.

Everything was calculated.

"Who are you?" asked Dipper, interrupting his concerns about the forest creatures. He pointed his strange gun at him, through the dense foliage.

Frankly, Wirt would have been unable to dodge that thing without his telepathy skill.

It was also thanks to this skill that he had the confidence to confront Dipper without an "ambush."

'I've already read his thoughts. He has no other weapon than this Tesla gun, and he's worried about the lack of energy he has left after the battle against the animals.'

All these elements allowed Wirt to come out of his hiding place and face his creation, without the slightest fear.

"You wound me... Not recognizing this character?"

Wirt half-emerged from the shadows.

The silhouette of a teenager, slightly thinner than average, with eyes of a strange color, appeared in the light. Dipper could observe him clearly.

He already had something inhuman in his appearance, but the branches (or roots) that adorned his head gave him an aspect both mystical and disturbing.

And the fact that he was 'humanoid' only accentuated this uneasiness for Dipper.

At the sight of Wirt, Dipper tightened his grip on his weapon.

But this attempt to gain courage didn't escape Wirt.

His eyes had taken on that strange glow from intense use of telepathy during his training, and their particular aspect hadn't escaped Dipper's geek instincts.

"Y... You're the Beast!!"

Wirt wanted to correct him, but... he found the name stylish.

So he said nothing, and simply stared at him calmly.

This staring contest lasted a good minute, before Dipper broke the silence first.

"What do you want?"

This cold tone gave birth to a slight urge to smile in Wirt... but he held back. It wasn't the moment yet.

"I want to try to negotiate before having to use force."

He approached a recently cut tree stump, then settled himself on it calmly.

This allowed Dipper to see him entirely, in the daylight, out of the shadows of the trees.

"You're not the Beast, but I doubt you're Wirt..."

Wirt ignored Dipper's remark and spoke as if he hadn't heard it.

"You stole this body a few weeks ago, didn't you?"

Wirt wasn't trying to play a role, and he didn't want Dipper to play one either.

Wirt wanted to see Dipper's true face through his eyes, and then decide what to do.

If he had been weaker, he would never have let this kind of reflection cross his mind.

But that wasn't the case.

He was stronger than Dipper, at this precise moment.

And he knew he could beat him at any time.

Thus, Wirt had the luxury of deciding the "end" of this encounter.

"H... how? Oh, I see."

Dipper lowered his cap, trying to hide the gleam in his eyes. But his true thoughts didn't escape Wirt.

'This guy isn't talking about Dipper's real name... but mine... What the hell is this thing?'

His thoughts were racing at an almost inhuman speed, which slightly surprised Wirt.

But he wasn't afraid.

'As long as I can still follow the thread of his ideas, everything's fine.'

Reading thoughts was like tuning a radio to a frequency.

And in Dipper's case, the frequency was just multiplied compared to normal people.

One could even speak of a difference in mental perspective: Dipper probably believed he was thinking normally at this moment.

"You're the one who sent me here, aren't you?"

The hostility in Dipper's voice was palpable, even without telepathy.

But Wirt didn't panic.

He showed no fear.

"Exactly. But I've changed my mind."

Dipper displayed a confused face at this absurd statement.

'You kidnap me via an online poll, and now you want to send me back home... just like that, as if nothing happened?'

Dipper had already drawn a line under his life on Earth, which was no small thing, psychologically.

And here was this guy, showing up in "return to your country" mode.

For the current Dipper, overflowing with ambition, Wirt represented very bad news.

"You want to take me back home?"

"Yes. I just need your agreement."

Wirt was lying... halfway.

He had no intention of cooperating with Dipper, or rather Peter, the human from Earth trapped in this body.

He purely and simply wanted to neutralize him.

'I'm going to seal his memories of Earth, and everything concerning Vegapunk. But that won't be enough to extinguish an IQ like his.'

That's also why he had created telepathy, instead of simply stealing a Memory Gun. He felt a bit guilty about Peter Thomson.

Of course, he didn't literally know how to send him back to Earth.

But he would eventually figure it out. Perhaps from Axolotl, or the Guardian of the multiverse in the Amphibia story.

If Bill Cipher can talk to Earthlings via Reddit, then entities of his level or more powerful must surely know about Earth's existence, right?

It was this reasoning that had given him the confidence necessary to propose this peaceful outcome to Dipper.

"No."

Dipper quickly refused the offer.