Chapter 27: Questions. So many Questions

Jogging along the tunnels Kat started to zone out again. For her she could see the endless tunnel extending endlessly in front of and behind her. The heavy rhythmic footfalls of both Kat and Minor falling in sync. One, two, one two. The peace of the journey was not lost on Kat, it was satisfying in a-"Hey Kat did you run out of questions already" said Minor

"Well, I have no burning questions anymore. And I'm not quite sure what other questions I'd ask"

"Well, then I have plenty of questions for you Kat" said Minor as she turned around and started walking backwards

"Like, what's your favourite food, mines mooncakes, or what's your favourite colour" said Minor

"Hmm, well in terms of food, I'll eat just about anything but I'm quite partial to pears I guess if I had to pick something. It's just food though really. As for colours, I've actually always been really fond of my hair since I was a little girl, so that would have to be my favourite colour" said Kat

"Boo, I can't see your hair Kat. I've figured out you have some sort of super night vision considering you could see my fur change colour, but I can't. Like sure I saw it when Major was in control but it's not the same. I think? Anyway what do you mean you're not that concerned about favourite food. That's like, the most important question all the time Kat" said Minor

"Well, I just eat whatever Gramps cooked, and even after he taught me to cook myself I never really get the chance" said Kat

"Gramps? Who's Gramps? Is he like your grandad or something?" said Minor

"No, Gramps is… well I guess it's a bit hard to explain. Do you know what an orphanage is?" asked Kat

"Of course, just because I'm a princess doesn't mean I'm that bad" pouted Minor

"Right, well Gramps is the one who ran the orphanage I grew up in and that's just what I've always called him" said Kat

"Huh, that's kinda weird that you grew up in an orphanage, I wouldn't have thought demons had those" said Minor

USER KAT, BEFORE YOU CONTINUE D.E.M.O.N.S INSISTS THAT IF USER KAT INTENDS TO REVEAL INFORMATION RELATED TO HOW USER KAT GREW UP THAT USER KAT ALSO EXPLAIN USER KAT WAS NOT ORIGINALLY A DEMON. ADDITIONALLY THE INNER WORKINGS OF DEMONIC SOCIETY AND OPERATION ARE CLOSELY GUARDED SECRETS. DO NOT SPEAK ON THEM

*Well, I guess it's nice they were clear about what I can and can't talk about.*

"Well, normal demons don't. I wasn't always a demon actually. Hang on a moment"

*Did I ever ask the system why I'm turning into a demon… I think I just sort of accepted it. Hey system*

USER KAT IS UNDERGOING THE RARE PROCESS OF AWAKENING. NORMALLY ONLY FULL DEMONS HAVE ACCESS TO SYSTEM. SOMEHOW USER KAT CONNECTED TO THE SYSTEM THEREFORE D.E.M.O.N.S INITIATED AWAKENING PROCEDURES.

*Right, but how did all this happen*

USER KAT CERTAINLY HAS DEMONIC HERITAGE BUT AT THIS TIME D.E.M.O.N.S HAS DEVOTED NO RESOURCES TO INVESTIGATE THE EVENT THAT LED TO USER KAT'S CONNECTION TO THE SYSTEM. IT HAS HAPPENED IN THE PAST, AND WILL LIKELY HAPPEN AGAIN, BUT THE FREQUENCY OF SUCH EVENTS ARE SO LOW THAT D.E.M.O.N.S DOES NOT CONSIDER IT REPEATABLE.

*Ok… well then*

"I've hung on a moment Kat, what do you mean by normal demons don't" said Minor

"Well, I don't really know how it works for others, but I wasn't always a demon" said Kat

"What, how can you not always have been a demon. I know about demonization, and that does some baad things to people, but you clearly aren't demonized. Or I mean, maybe you are? It's an appropriate term I guess, no focus Minor. Why aren't you like the others?" said Minor. *System?*

THE PROCESS BEING REFERRED TO IS LIKELY KNOWN BY D.E.M.O.N.S AS CONTAINMENT FAILURE OR FALSE AWAKENING. TO EXPLAIN HOW THIS OCCURS WOULD REQUIRE EXTENSIVE TIME AND A HIGHER RANK. D.E.M.O.N.S IS WILLING TO PROVIDE EXTREMELY SIMPLIFIED VERSION THAT DOES NOT INFRINGE ON CLASSIFIED INFORMATION. IS THIS ACCEPTABLE USER KAT?

*Sure go ahead*

DEMONS ARE COMPATIBLE WITH A VERY SPECIFIC FORM OF ENERGY THAT DRIVES ALL OTHER RACES WITHOUT EXCLUSION TO MADNESS. IT IS MORE POTENT THEN OTHER SOURCES OF ENERGY BUT COMES WITH A NUMBER OF ISSUES THAT DEMONS HAVE EVOLVED TO IGNORE OR EMBRACE FOR ADDITIONAL POWER.

*Can you elaborate on that?*

NO.

"What makes me different? Well, I think that normal people trying to become demons fail because they simply aren't demons. We use a different energy source then most other species and it does horrible things if they aren't compatible. I guess that I was. Someone in my family was probably a demon, but I never knew my parents so I'm not sure if it was them"

"That's so weird though. But meh, I don't actually care about that. Tell me more about this Gramps" said Minor

"Well, what did you want to know about him" said Kat

"What's he like? Isn't it kinda strange to run an orphanage by yourself? Or maybe it isn't… I wouldn't – Kat are you seeing this" said Minor. Kat looked ahead confused, the only thing visible was an intersection and more grey walls.

"Do you mean the intersection?" asked Kat

"Of course I mean the intersection Kat. This is everything we've ever dreamed of" said Minor

"I don't follow" said Kat

"We'll, finally I get another chance to see if the enchantment is leading use one way or another. It also might give us a cluse as to where we are going, though honestly I'm just excited to see any change of scenery" said Minor

"I suppose so"

Minor ran up to the intersection and screwed up her face in concentration "Left, we definitely have to go left"

"Lead the way" said Kat. Continuing on down the halls it wasn't long before Minor started speaking again.

"So what were we talking about… doesn't matter I suppose, so how about that kimono of yours, is it magic? Your tail goes through it but not like mine where it has a hole how about we speak on that" said Minor

"Minor, why do you keep jumping from topic to topic so quickly. Do you want me to answer these questions?" asked Kat

Minor stopped in place and turned to Kat

"Please put the calm aura back on" said Minor

"Is that really a good idea Minor, you shouldn't become reliant on it. I don't really know what it does to people" said Kat

"It's fine, please Kat then I will explain" said Minor

"Ok but I'm turning it off if you don't give me a good answer" said Kat. Kat activated her calming aura trying to keep the intensity very low. This seemed to satisfy Minor as she nodded and went back to walking

"So, you asked about, the questions, and the calm aura. Which one do you want to start with?" asked Minor sounding much calmer at least

"The aura please" said Kat

"Well, I might be a tiny bit more broken then I thought" said Minor

"What do you mean, you don't seem broken to me. A bit scatterbrained but certainly not broken" said Kat

"Right, um how to explain. So, I mentioned that Major is control most of the time. Well most of the time the biological signals are all sent to Major, I don't ever deal with them. At least until now. And walking like this, it, it does something to me" said Minor throwing her hands into the air "I can't quite explain it well, but the best thing I can compare it to is that normally I sit on a balcony, no sound except the calming wind. Then all of a sudden you blink and you are in a crowded market place. It's just too much

"The talking helps though, it makes everything else quieter when I speak because this voice is louder than the little ones and it also really helps when you speak because I suspect your voice has a bit of calming aura in it. The main one, it doesn't so much as shut the little voices up as um. If we go back to the analogy your calming aura changes it to a hearing instead, they each come forward and calmly state their disagreements. It's not that there are less problems but that the problems that are there are being reasonable about it?" said Minor

"I'm not sure it's healthy for me to be propping you up like that Minor, what will you do when I'm dismissed after the contract" said Kat

"Ideally I'll be back in Major's head at that point, the voices weren't so bad before we went to sleep. I say voices, I don't literally mean I hear voices in my head I'm not crazy…" Minor slowly placed a hand over her face sighing as she continued to jog

"Please ignore what I just said. I don't hear voices in my head because it isn't my head… I'm the voice. I know I'm real, I think… Having two sets of memories really helps with that whole I'm probably not crazy angle but you never know" said Minor

Minor started to ramble about how sane she presumably was or was not, touching on topics a number of times repeatedly and reaching the same conclusion ever time. "The memories don't make enough sense plus I'm red now according to Kat, and I can still feel Majors little thought box she's holding up in" before once again going through all the reasons she had to be crazy.