Irl Console - Volume 1 Chapter 35 Bonding

Ma Sa waited for about ten minutes for Kurama to make her decision. She really knew how to hold out on him as she simply sat there, looking at anything other than him, for the entire duration of his wait. Eventually he decided to just turn around and leave. If she followed, she followed, and if not then their partnership simply wasn’t meant to be.

After walking for about twenty meters, a smile touched his lips as he sensed Kurama moving behind him. She maintained her distance and did her best to keep trees and foliage in between them. Ma Sa wasn’t particularly surprised by her distrustful attitude as he was aware of how badly the last human she had followed had treated her. He could only hope that she would open up to him once she realized that he was different.

The pair moved through the dark forest in silence. At first light they were far from the Bu clan’s encampment and well on their way towards Mt. Ginyan. Ma Sa was certainly pleased with his progress through the Jianghu however he was a little disappointed with the lack of adversity. The whole point of him venturing out here was to experience real battle! So far he had only played the role of Non-Lethal Assassin/Sadistic Avenger, which, whilst it was a mental hurdle for him, was really unfulfilling. It was nice to know that he had the capabilities to do that kind of stuff but it really wasn’t the sort of thing that he liked. His goal was to become the strongest; the paramount existence of the world… He certainly couldn’t see himself achieving that in a meaningful way if he relied on stealth. No, he had to openly challenge for the pinnacle of strength!

Ma Sa was getting progressively more bored of trekking through the forest and seriously contemplated teleporting directly to his destination. The problem with that was that he would shut the door on any fortuitous encounters that may happen along his journey. Even though it was boring right now, that could all change in an instant. It was frustrating but he had to persist and accept that life wasn’t all wall to wall excitement even in a martial world. Still, it was really difficult to kill the expectations that he had built up from reading all those s…

A rather loud gurgling sound interrupted Ma Sa’s thoughts. Kurama froze in her tracks as she cursed her stomach for its loud protest. Ma Sa chuckled to himself as he spawned a number of steaks to his inventory. That silly fox really seemed to think that he hadn’t noticed her until now. Since she obviously didn’t want to be seen he decided it would be best just to let her have her own way for now. Still, he wouldn’t feel right letting her stay hungry either…

“Oh, I’m getting hungry! Better get something to eat… Hmmm… What shall I have?? Maybe steak?”

Ma Sa hammed up his acting to the maximum, channeling the legendary cult icon, Tommy Wiseau.

“Oh no! I’m so clumsy today!”

Ma Sa juggled a steak in an uncoordinated fashion before dropping it on the ground.

“Awww man! That’s such a waste of good steak! I can only hope some beast sniffs it out and eats it so it doesn’t just rot here… Haaahhh… Oh well, I’ll just have to get another one then.”

Ma Sa continued forward with a big shit-eating grin plastered all over his face as he continued his charade. At least this had somewhat eased his boredom. He was a little worried for Kurama though… Did she even know how to chew?? She showed no signs of passing up the free steaks in the immediate future. Ma Sa kept up the act for a good while until he realized that he had exhausted the entire stack of one hundred steaks. WTF? No way could she have eaten all that, right?? Unable to resist temptation, Ma Sa turned his head and stole a glance at the fox out of the corner of his eyes.

“Bu-! Buhahahahahahahaha! What the hell Kurama?!”

Ma Sa was simply unable to contain his laughter when he caught sight of his spherical follower tottering along behind him on her stick thin legs. She was startled by the man-cub’s explosive laughter but, upon realizing that it was directed at her, threw it a resentful glare. It was only now that she felt the discomfort that accompanied her abnormally distended abdomen. Perhaps she had gone a bit overboard but those ‘steaks’ were really too good… This was all the man-cubs fault in the first place!

“Did you really eat all of those?! Hahahahaha!”

The man-cub had now curled itself up into a ball on the ground and was laughing with wild abandon, only occasionally stopping to gasp for air. When she thought it had finally finished, it looked up at her, pointed its finger at her face and curled up in laughter again. Grrrr! This man-cub was fat-shaming her! How dare he?! Kurama waddled over to him with as much poise and grace as she could muster in her current state and firmly clamped her jaws around the top of his head. That should teach it to laugh at her!

“Ah! Nooooo! Kurama don’t eat me too! Buahahahahahahahahahahaha—-! No! No! Please! I’ll give you more steak! Buahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!”

This bastard! Hmmph! Kurama released her vice like jaws from its head and shuffled away sulkily. She definitely wouldn’t forgive it for this. There are certain things you shouldn’t poke fun at a lady about! Uggghh! This feeling of being about to burst was really uncomfortable! Kurama’s rage resurfaced briefly but was quickly replaced by a wave of nausea. She needed to lie down for a while… She’d deal with the man-cub after she felt better again. She lay down on her side and closed her eyes as she tried to block out the man-cub’s obnoxious laughter.

A while later, after Ma Sa had finally managed to regain his composure, he looked over at the sleeping fox. The poor girl had really pushed herself. She had somewhat of a pained expression on her face as she slumbered. He felt a little bad for laughing at her as he knew that she had been near starvation just a few hours ago. He couldn’t really fault her for overindulging. It was also partly his fault as he had just been so caught up in his charade that he didn’t think about how many steaks he had thrown down for her. He’d have to take a bit of responsibility for her now that she was in such a state.

Ma Sa quietly made his way over to Kurama’s side and gently stroked her head and ears as she slept. He hoped that the contact would bring her a bit of comfort. He was gratified when he saw her expression slacken a bit. It was rather hard to read the facial expressions of a fox since they were so different from those of humans, however, he was sure that relaxation was a positive thing. As he continued to pet the sleeping fox, Ma Sa was reminded of the cheetahs of the African Savannah. They would eat an entire antelope in one sitting and end up in a similarly spherical condition to his companion, though maybe not quite as round. This lady had no restraint!

Ma Sa was suddenly struck by curiosity. Kurama had basically inhaled those steaks. Was there any way he could help her recover a bit faster using the console. He was pretty sure that he could even resurrect her if she had died so he thought it would be alright to experiment a little.

*~*

Ma Sa directed the cursor to select Kurama and, sure enough, a numerical ID showed up for her. Now the question was: ‘what command would work?’ Might as well just try one…

[openactorcontainer 1] *return*

The old faithful ‘openactorcontainer’ command had worked!

*~*

Ma Sa scanned Kurama’s inventory and found it to be a little disconcerting… ‘Fox Pelt’, ‘Fox Bones’, ‘Fox Meat’, etc… Ew.. What would happen if he took something? Like, if he took the pelt would Kurama be instantly skinned alive?? He definitely wasn’t going to try it out on his foxy companion but would definitely keep it in mind for further study when he had a different beast to experiment on. He was almost tempted to spawn a demon beast right now but that could wait until he had helped Kurama out. He somewhat wondered about the console as, anytime he had used the command before, it had only listed items and not the contents of the target’s body. Was this because Kurama was a demon beast or because his intent to get something from inside her body had influenced the result?? More food for thought…

Eventually, after scrolling down the list he discovered an entry for ‘Steak x48 (Partially Digested)’ which he then removed and took into his own inventory.

*escape*

Kurama’s eyes shot open as she noticed a sudden change in her physical state. Ma Sa marveled as her formerly distended abdomen had sprung inwards instantly, restoring her normal lean figure. He was glad that his experiment had been as success but shuddered as he thought about the partially digested steaks in his inventory. Disposing of those wouldn’t be a pleasant task! Keeping them would be weird too… He’d have to dig a hole and just drop them directly from his inventory at some point. There was no way he wanted to touch them!

“Feeling better, girl?”

Kurama rolled her eyes towards the man-cub that was seated behind her. Its gentle touch on her head and ears was surprisingly comfortable. Still, it had laughed at her so much earlier that she wouldn’t forgive it easily. Maybe… Maybe if it continued pampering her like this for a little while longer she could let things slide… Thinking so, she once again shut her eyes and just enjoyed the strange yet pleasant sensation of having her head stroked.

“… Hey, Kurama? I’m sorry for laughing at you earlier. I know you’ve had it rough… In the future you won’t need to worry about food, alright? I’ll make sure you’ll never go hungry again. I promise.”

Ma Sa laid himself down next to Kurama and gave her a little cuddle. She was a little startled at first but then settled into his embrace when she realized he didn’t have any bad intentions. It was strange but for the first time Kurama felt a little bit of warmth in her heart. It was a strangely nostalgic feeling, as if she had felt it before but just couldn’t place the memory. Maybe this man-cub wasn’t that bad after all…

As the large but skinny fox and small boy lay side by side on the forest floor, Ma Sa’s nose twitched. Now wasn’t really the time since this was such a sweet moment of bonding but… Kurama really needed a bath! He circulated his cultivation to breakdown the chemicals entering his nostrils as he breathed and closed his mildly stinging eyes. He might as well have a nap with Kurama for a while before moving on again.

Ma Sa quietly drifted into a sleep filled with dreams of exciting battles and peerless beauties. He’d do his best to make sure his dreams became his reality someday!