Love origin

To avoid waste in the constant looming food shortage government Distribution points sold milk and other foods at dirt cheap. That didn't happen frequently but it was a nice surprise when it did.

In his weekend Ryu was busy saving milk from spoiling. Some tendrils formed the shape of a whisk, beating milk into butter in one bowl, others squeezed the whey out of the fresh cheese while his hands kneaded a dough. He thanked auntie Martha from teaching him how to do that. 

Coordinating that many tendrils into different motions was the human equivalent of a nice workout, for humans that enjoy it at least. Having two biological forms meant the responsibility to maintain them both.

He looked at the several kilograms of bones Natasha left on the door for Roxy. He knew how to make bone broth but Roxy didn't like her things touched, even when she's swamped with finals or translation gigs.

"I don't think I will do shenanigans Tuesday again in a while. Enjoy the normal summer break." That what she told him last night, while working on the bicycles book. 

'What a shame. The summer camp we did in the wild last summer was well.. wild!' He giggled at his own joke. A sudden movement between the plants grab his attention, something small moving.

With five days left Roxy decided she couldn't waste time by looking for an editor. She looked at her old classmate in the hospital that was reading her translation, she thought she could rely on the opinion of someone who's first language was Latin. A big basket of fruit was on the side table.

After reading the original Latin text and it's Sadi translation she looked at her.

"Well, it's accurate. I can tell you that much." 

"Thank you!"

"Although it's a little... I don't know how to describe it but it's too straight forward. I guess you need that in an instruction book though, sorry, never mind."

"On the contrary, tell me more."

At the community warehouse Karaza finished ironing all that can be ironed by 8 in the morning, she was there since dawn. The duke weed was harvested from the pond. And the kitchen wasn't swamped. Momo was also on his day off, make sense. Not everyone had the crippling urge to stay busy all the time.

Yasmin was there thought making schedules. Wearing another practical elegant dress.

"Please anything.. I will even clean your house." Karaza plead for a task.

"Even you can't handle that, love. I'll send you to waste control unit." She said with her beautiful voice.

"I'm forever in your debt."

Yasmin loved her dramatic lines.

"I'll see if there is a full time beekeeping training. Also take this." She handed her a catalog, for hobbies for the first time.

"Find something fun, or else no work will be left to other volunteers at this rate." The exaggerated teary eyes cued Karaza to the joke.

"Understood! a true citizen leave space to other people!" She murmured to herself. Making Yasmin doubt she got the joke.

The food waste management system was a complex one, like an ant home but the unit she's allocated to was simple enough. As a porter she needed to collect the excess food restaurants and cafés couldn't sell and bring it to the sorting unit, where food is divided to four grades.

A: perfectly good food to be redistributed to who's in need.

B:Good food yet doesn't look appetizing like overly decorated cakes with melted frosting. Which workers in the unit snaked on or brought it home. Other could just take some as lunch if money was tight too.

C: Not good food yet not ready for compost. Specialists dealt with it.

D: Food that goes to compost.

It was fun job for a porter.

The patch she delivered to the unit had a bucket of jam mixed with broken crackers in an accident. Even magnates make mistakes sometimes.

"We could still make a cake or a dessert with it right?" One porter asked.

"Seems like their swamped in the kitchen unit." Another tells.

She looked at the buttered bread she fetched from a bakery, she cut the bread and stuffed some jam in it.

" I used to eat butter-jam sandwiches in long missions." She explained after trying what she made.

After eating some samples they decided to make the sandwiches and display it with the translucent cover on the small distribution point on the street for people to take.

They disappeared in the middle of the lunch time.

"Bread, fat and sugar. Can't go wrong with them." Someone commented.

Karaza walked home an hour before the sunset. Stomach full by what others offered her. The unit was in the opposite side of the city in relation to her home, so she wondered in the streets here and there till she reached the streets she knew. She walked blissfully until a sense of dread washed over her like a wave of black ink, or a snowdrift slammed into her.

The deep breath she took seemed free of oxygen. She walked like nothing was wrong but she had to do complex mental gymnastics to convince her self the ground was indeed under her feet, and she's not going to fall into the void any second.

Nail to the coffin was the presence of someone above her. She slowly looked up, but it was Roxy, sitting on a tree branch knees glued to her chest. So quite to erase her presence.

'Naaah, this is one bad joke.' She thought upon seeing a young woman walking by. Hazel brown hair and crystal blue eyes, weak looking to people who can't see behind the exceptional beauty.

The woman was walking with Momo, surprisingly out of all the people in the land of the unwanted.

Although not looking alike Karaza assumed she's his daughter, from the tenderness of his gestures towards her.

She calmed a little when they walked away, not seeing her. Roxy jumped from the tree as well.

"Fewh, that was close." Roxy said, dusting her clothes.

' What's a love monster doing here? If it's here, between all these humans... that's not gonna end well..' She frowned upon that thought.

The two exchanged scrutinous eye contact, the human was carefully reading her.

"It's not as bad as it looks." Roxy says, shrugging her shoulders.

In her almost empty apartment the axe was touching her forehead, collecting sound waves. A map of the city in her hand. 

She muted all sounds she picked expect for the sounds in a shabby apartment in the clover neighborhood. Which was surprisingly useless. The apex predator was asking about someplace called Shohizinda in the green zone. It took her a minute to register that he is talking about the grand blue palace/necropolis that was usually called Samarkand.

'It's beautiful I guess, there were no elixirs for the duke's kids there though.' She recalls what she know about the location.

He talked about going there. The sound of scribbling and few words here and there was the only sounds the parasite made. And all sounds practically stopped when the clock hit 9 at night. Her arch nemesis was fast a sleep and by the faint sound of paper flipping she concluded the boy was reading. 

'You got beaten up twice by someone who sleeps at nine, great job Karaza, really. Great job! ' 

After a quick pity party she unmuted all the sounds she picked up.

' When not knowing where to search you either start from a random point, or the furthest point from me. Whatever it is I'm covering the city tonight.

She sipped quenshy in her nightgown. Still holding the axe in the other hand. A storm of voices in her head. Picking up all these sounds at once can cause temporary madness, before learning how to half dissociate from the chaos while foraging a specific target attempting this didn't end well.

'If I can find Momo, The monster could be close to him.' 

She scanned her memory for a mention of where he lives or goes frequently, which was in vain.

' I gotta talk to people more.' 

More clinking of silverware appeared in the soup of noises as people ate their dinners, unlike the dukedom, dinner here served late usually. For most people at least. 

In the far east of the city, near the marine where neighborhoods there were slums in the past she catches a familiar voice.

"How was your day Ai?" Woman, in her 30s.

"It was great! Momo-san took me to the letters pond." The wish monster. Early twenties biologically.

"You should go outside more, I was thinking the flower tower next weekend." Momo there he was.

The dinner table had also an old man and a young woman who didn't speak much but Karaza got her confirmation.

' That frequency in their voices, yeah the wish monster has already brain  washed them. Way too long ago. Not good, I interacted with Momo plenty!' 

~ Hello Miss? Please refrain from any more usage of your power inside the blue zone. ~  The blue zone human protection barrier got activated, A floating band aid appeared. Giving a warning.

"Okay Okay, Jeez. God forbid I didn't want to become a minion of a brain washing monster!" She complained yet hide her axe anyway, stopping the eavesdropping.

She searched in her suitcase till she found some notes. She barely decoded her chicken scratch hand writing, though the information were embedded in her brain she preferred to stay methodical. 

' No wish monster can brain wash a creature into their loyal dog as they please. The victim has to satisfy some conditions first.'

'The strongest wish monster, from that time.. The condition was a mere interaction with it or a prolonged interaction with a minion of it. This monster shouldn't be that strong but let me be sure.'

She took the golden apple. " Take me above the barrier." 

She teleported to the sky, free falling until she formed a frisbee shaped disc as a stepping point. The sand waves oscillated left to right in a closed loop creating an upthrust force, allowing her to stand in air.  

She shivered from the cold air penetrating the thin nightgown. Summoning the axe again. 

"Sorry everyone, this is gonna be a crude privacy violation." 

From the snoring to the late night conversations, she picked up all the voices, searching for the doomed frequency of the brain washed in them. 

The morning sun poked her eyes like a needle, she walked like a zombie to the smoke vending machine while her stomach growled for some food, she gave the Tabaco refills a second look before shoving it in the pockets of her dress. 

' Well screw me.' 

In the nearest restaurant she chewed the rice sluggishly before swallowing it with miso soup.

' At the end Momo, the old man and the woman were the only people brain washed by the love monster. Good news I guess?' 

She almost choked on the pickled radish she didn't chew well. 

And the parasite was right at the end, it wasn't as bad as it looks.