Chika playing with the Tablet Diana Lent her
Chika continued to play with the borrowed tablet for a little while while she listened to Diana explain the logistics behind why it was such a limited production item. Some of which had Chika blinking in confusion. Were Korikane Crystals typically very fragile or something? Why would they vanish if the creator died? As a member of the Tkalac cast Chika could weave Spidersilk and craft with it. Anything that was made that way like say a Scarf or something could last for decades or longer regardless of anything that happened to her.
Was that the difference between something made with chakra and something that wasn’t? If so then how the heck do you explain Senju wood? It was one of Chika’s favorite materials to craft with precisely because it was so durable, well that and the fact that as a Tsuchigumo spider she couldn’t use metal weapons and armor directly which limited her options. Of course nothing was stopping her from equipping her puppets with those kinds of things. It wasn’t like she was allergic or anything.
“That’s a shame, I would have asked to buy one but it sounds like it won’t be much use at my home village since it lacks the inflistructor.” Chika lamented as she held the tablet out for Diana to take back. If only there was some cheaper way to stabilize the crystals they could do something but at the moment she didn’t even know where to start with something like that.
Her best guess would be to use her webbing as a binding agent somehow but that was super impractical for a lot of reasons. Like how would you even inject it into the crystal to begin with? Even if they could, any solution that depended solely on her in particular was doomed to failure since they wouldn’t be able to scale up. Finding other members of the Tsuchigumo now that she’d lost contact with them could be tricky since they were shapeshifters and could blend almost seamlessly into human society.
It seemed neither Diana or Gyo knew any puppets from Suna. If Gyo was right about that Coutry being a mess right now that really was a cause for concern. Suna had once been known as the Puppeteers paradise thanks in no small part to the first Kazekage Shin Kazehana being famous for using them. If his teachings had been lost to the literal sands of time it would be a major blow for the insular community as a whole.
Chika had originally wanted to call this gathering the Puppet Society but had switched to Association due to a certain notorious terrorist group. Now with less than a handful of members she had to wonder if she had acted too little too late to stave off the extinction of their escotric skillset. Now with the top puppeteer in the world missing in action and assumed dead and Suna in disarray, where even enough of their kind left around to fill a room? One thing was for sure, she had some awfully big shoes to fill compared to her Papa who had been a pioneer in the field blazing new trails into the darkness.
“As long as it doesn’t interfere with my job working for Okane I can scout The land of Rice. I’m just a genin myself too, but I doubt the Hokage would mind giving a Hyuga permission to go on that kind of mission.” While she wasn’t quite at her Papa’s level yet with her eyes she was naturally dispositioned towards the role of scout.
“I believe it was primarily meant for combat assistance though an Identification friend or Foe system making it easier to select targets. It also provided an anti-theft function. His notes said something about reading blood to Authenticate the user. I’m guessing that if anyone but him tried to wear it they would be in for a nasty surprise.” If she was his biological daughter she might be able to cheese the system but sadly she was merely adopted and being part Hyuga likely wouldn’t be enough.
“Don’t worry about damaging the program in the process of trying to unlock it Diana. That disk is merely one of several copies.” One of the nice things about programs on a computer was that even if you couldn’t open them it was still possible to copy and paste them. The only real problem here was that Chika wasn’t smart enough to understand a good chunk of his notes which meant she couldn’t unlock the program herself.
Case in point she felt sweat drip down the back of her head as Diana pointed out her mathematical mistake. Chika wasn’t the best with numbers and even she had to wonder for a second how she’d managed to bungle that one. Frankly it was embarrassing enough that she blushed a red as deep as what she had originally been named for before assuming her father’s name.
“Well knowing my papa, he had a continuance plan for just about anything. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had his mind backed up to a floppy disk or something." Chika joked to lighten the mood and to distract them away from her multiplication error. She almost wanted to say something about how her Papa had died but she snuck a glance out of the corner of her eye at Diana and decided against it. Given that the subject involved how Konoha had tried to conquer Iwa it might be a pretty sore spot.
“Just about everything I have, I was given by him.” Admitted Chika. It was shameful how little achievements she could claim of her own but it would be disingenuous to take credit for someone else’s work.
“The only puppet I’ve made so far by myself is this one.” she said as she extended a nearly invisible chakra string to behind the Faithful Karakuri. A moment later a small child stepped out from behind the larger puppet’s shadow.
“This is Aiko. I’ve built her to be as life-like as possible so please keep the fact that she’s a puppet a secret.” pleaded Chika. She couldn’t reveal that Aiko also doubled as puppet armor without revealing her own secret so for now she kept her mouth shut about that timbit. Aiko was the very definition of form over function. Instead of having any hidden traps or gimmicks the fact that she was so lifelike WAS the gimmick.
She could only conceal the fact that Aiko was a puppet thanks to using clothing to cover up the hinge points on the arms and legs but that was no big deal. Chika was already trying to think of ways to improve on the next model. Aiko was great for trolling people but she needed a adult figure around for supervision which is where the next modle would come in.
“When I build her big sister I’m thinking of weaponizing the breasts by hiding some missiles in them or something.” said Chika lightly. She just couldn’t understand why men were so fascinated by what amounted to a couple lumps of fat. As a shapeshifter she could have made her larger as well but had chosen not too since the added weight would have only slowed her down even more. Not to mention the potential back problems. At least this way if someone ever told her to calm her tits she’d be able to blow them up.
“On the other end of the spectrum I’ve been thinking of designs like this.” said Chika as she showed them a blueprint of a centaur puppet that had multiple arms and fought with crossbows as well as one for a Bike shaped Puppet that could transform into a more humanoid form to act as armor.
“This Sagittar is what I intend to use for the prototype. Ultimately I’d like to build one with a docking mechanism so that the torso can separate from the legs. And for the Cyclone I’d love to enable flight but I haven’t gotten that far on my engineering studies yet” she said feeling a mix of pride and sheepishness for how out there her blueprints were.
The sheer complexity of even the prototypes would require her to make them as a B or maybe even A rank Puppet, neither of which she had the funds for currently, well not if she was going to repair her papa’s shop anytime soon at any rate. And so the Trio merrily continued to talk about Puppets long into the night until Chika became too tried to continue and retried from the meeting.
SagittarCyclone [7]
[exit]