Taking precautions in drip

Borferd sat in his seat on the plain with a scowl on his face. 

"What's the fowl mood for?" DaVinci asked. 

"This whole trip to Evendale... I didn't do anything but get some finishing swings in."

"But you got a trade deal for Buvaria."

"I wanted to fight the puma."

Now heading back to Ohana, the envoy had picked up 20 additional elves including Shuzu. Mizata had also opted to return back to Ohana, mainly to act as guide and to help get the plane back in the air with her wind magic so it could fly back to Ohana on it's own. 

"...And that's the report," Jenna stated as she finished catching Muki up on all that happened. 

"Checks out with everything I saw from your body cams. Looks like you're not under any control," Muki's voice grumbled on the other end. 

"And will you be fine with all these elves coming to town?" 

"Don't ask me that as if I'm racist towards elves. I'm weary, but less weary compared to those elves from the first night. If everything's in order, I gotta dip. Kagerosa needs me offline for something important."

"Understood, madam."

"I'll stay on the line, just muted." 

Jenna nodded and set her phone down on the tray as she gazed out the window. 

"Wow, this thing really is something. And it's got free food? Maybe we should clear a place for this thing to land back in Evendale after all," Shuzu smiled as she munched on some biscuit cookies. 

"If you can find our planes a sustainable fuel source, by all means. The dwarves have oilstone in mind, but we haven't done any testing," Rosa stated. 

"Just have Mizata fly it with magic."

"That drains me! Besides, the train system is quite similar and THAT, the humans apparently can manufacture with ease," Mizata grumbled. 

"Correct. We have a train repair yard and and with the help of the dwarves, we can easily build more trains and lines." 

"Trains are these things in the phone, yeah?" Shuzu asked as she flashed a video of a train on her phone.

"Yes. Oh, that reminds me. Were you curious to know why the cola and mentos did in those two?" 

"Guessing you made them eat that shit and you killed them as they were bursting. Pretty cruel, but not out of this world in terms of power." 

"And the ironic thing is they killed the great sky puma by blasting it from within it's throat." 

"Yeowch. That's making me shaky just thinking about it. Hmm, wonder if we should let it decay naturally or try to harvest some meat off it to sell to folks like the dwarves."

"Someone say meat? We gonna harvest that puma?" Borferd asked as he raised his axe. 

"Seems it's in our interests to bring back some meat. Mizata, would it trouble you to land the plane near the great sky puma's corpse?" Rosa asked. 

"No, but with all these elves here, they should do the heavy lifting especially if they want to gift this meat to you and the dwarves," Mizata frowned. 

"Who's the diplomat?" Shuzu smirked. 

Mizata promptly got out of her seat and walked over to Shuzu to slap her across the face. 

...

Back in Ohana, Muki let out a sigh as she lowered her hood and sat down in a salon chair. 

"And what are we doing for you, ma'am?" Kiki snarled as she caped Muki. 

"Need my fucking head shaved for some shit."

"Why am I not surprised."

"Oh, and skip the wash and don't touch my eyelashes." 

"Yay, some progress," Kiki grumbled as she flicked on the clippers and drove them up the middle of Muki's hairline. 

Within minutes, Muki's head and eyebrows were buzzed off and lathered with shaving cream. She was quickly shaved smooth before being subjected to a full head and face shave, wax, and round of depilatory cream, leaving her with a smooth shiny scalp. 

"Ugh, I'm fucking hideous. Shouldn't have shaved the brows too," Muki groaned as she choked back tears while staring at her new bald state. 

"Draw some on, edgelord, unless you want to pay extra," Kiki growled. 

"Don't have the time. But I'll take a wig." 

Stepping outside, Muki cried and trembled as the cool wind made contact with her scalp. "Sana... you're fucking dead for this," she growled as she put her hoodie back on and got in the backseat of Sana's car. 

"Welcome to the bald community. I'm sure you know that it is completely necessary for you to go bald for this procedure," Sana glared. 

"Of course I do, and you better not fuck me up with it." 

"Are you uneasy?"

"NO FUCKING SHIT I AM! You fuck it up, I die or become a vegetable! Who wouldn't be scared!?" 

"I never said you shouldn't be. On the contrary, you agreeing to this is a step towards mending your flawed personality." 

"I'm only doing this because it's logical," Muki mumbled as she began drinking from a large coffee tumbler. 

"Backing up your mind in the event that you're killed is indeed logical, but as I mentioned, it would just be your memories that would be mixed with an AI programmed to think and act like you. The real you would be dead." 

"That'll be my parting gift you said I should give to have future generations bask in some shade. While I'm still alive, which better be the case after this surgery, I'll modify and develop the AI to work alongside me." 

"You mean use it for more control?"

Muki went silent and stared out the window. "My desire for control stems from my own selfish desire for safety. I'm scared of getting stabbed again. If I have a metal shell with enhanced bandwidth in my head, that'll put me more at ease, and maybe, maybe give me an off chance of getting the new proper life I've been longing for ever since that day..." 

The drive continued in silence until the two arrived at the hospital. There, Muki was led by Sana and some doctors to an operating room. 

"Are you not going to change?" Sana asked as Muki plopped down in the operating chair, still clad in her hoodie and hi-top sneakers. 

"No way. First, you just need to cut open my head. Second, if you fuck this up, I at least want to go down in drip instead of a shitty gown," Muki snarled as she finished off her drink. 

"What even is that you've been drinking?"

"Morphine latte." 

"Morphine... I take back my prior statement about you improving." 

"Think I'd be fine going under anesthesia knowing I could be chipped and mind controlled!?" 

"Look who's talking."

"Doesn't matter how excruciating this is. I see this shit from start to finish, and any funny business, you get shot on the spot!" Muki threatened as she pulled out her handgun. 

The hospital staff recoiled in shock, but relaxed as Muki sheathed her gun. "How much morphine did you ingest?" one asked. 

"Enough to negate the pain I'll feel when you slice my head open. Now get this shit done! We got more delegations en route here, and I don't wanna still be in here when they arrive!"