Pinky

Kanji stared at the convulsing arm, his body shivering.

How do I stop it?

He grabbed the arm by the base, but it seems to agitate it even more, as it started convulsing even more frantically. Kanji let go of it and it continued to convulse on the sand.

My pinky made the modification work? Even when it's separated from my body… How can an arm move without a body? Wait, should I try attaching the hand to myself? But that would be dangerous, I don’t know if I would be able to remove it, and I don’t know what the consequences will be.

Kanji hit the arm with the hammer, thinking Calm down!

Nothing happened.

I’ll just have to take it like this.

He hit the sand. It warped into a singular rag, warping around the arm, restricting its movement. Kanji picked up the wrapped arm and walked north.

He walked for about twenty minutes, until there was nothing but the sea around him.

I wonder how big this place is. It looks infinite.

He looked upwards, the cloudy sky moved like sheep in a river, slowly floating towards the exit — the gap in the sky. The double helix tower looked infinitely taller the closer Kanji got.

As he walked he noticed something. The hand stopped struggling. He put it on the ground in front of him. The fangs loosened like a monster’s corpse. His stomach turned. It’s somehow scarier when it’s not moving.

It started rattling again.

Eh? What happened? Is it… is it because I got calmer when walking, and then got scared again?

Kanji breathed deeply, squeezing and letting go of his fists rhythmically, trying to relax his nervous system.

And as he did, the arm stopped rattling.

It’s connected to me! Maybe I could control it somehow?

The arm started rattling again.

He sighed.

*****

To figure out the mechanism, Kanji decided to look for more parts. He scouted for monsters, until he found a blue elephant-like monster with a single centralized eye, and spiraling tusks.

The elephant-cyclop was surprisingly supple, leaping and hunting both airborne and land creatures. Its hunger was seemingly bottomless; its tusks extended like homing spears, piercing even at a generous distance.

A pelicanesque creature, walking on two legs with its talons apart, appeared right behind Kanji.

Oh, crap!

It was immediately leaped on and eliminated by the elephant.

Kanji fall on his back from the splash of red water.

The elephant turned and walked away, ignoring Kanji.

It only hunts other monsters?

Kanji picked up a pair of inanimate pelican wings.

As he followed the elephant, more parts turned up — scaly feline legs, a bat-like ear, and crowbar-like talons of an unthinkable horror.

After a few hours, the cyclops-elephant had encountered the flying snake. It leaped.

The snake tackled the elephant midair, biting off its torso. The elephant stabbed it repeatedly with its tusks. However, the snake did not show any sense of agony. Its jaw closed shut, and the elephant tore apart.

Its head rolled to the ground, splashing water and sand as it slid in defeat, stopping in front of Kanji, about one-and-half his height.

That thing really is the apex predator, isn’t it?

The snake ignored Kanji, instead biting its own tail, rolling in a circle mid air. After completing a victory lap, it flew away.

There’s probably enough material in this head for a few body parts… should I try combining it?

Kanji placed the arm, the legs, the wings, the ear, and the talons so that they touch the elephant’s head. His heart raced as he took a deep breath.

Here goes nothing.

He slammed his hammer.

Lace-like patterns emerged from the place of impact, placing and moving the different parts around in precision, making stitching noises. The head itself decreased in size, and shaped itself into the mold. The result was a humanoid shape; its torso and head formed by the head’s mass, and its left arm from a tusk. It had a single eye, taking on most of its face; its other arm was the wolf arm, its legs the feline’s leg; it had a singular bat ear; the pair of pelican wings attached on its back grew significantly in size, enveloping it.

“Woah…” Kanji said. The mannequin stood silently.

It worked!

The mannequin blinked, examining its environment.

It stared at the sky, then the hills. Taking as much of its environment in as it could.

And then it stared at Kanji.

“H-hello?” Kanji said.

It didn’t answer, just kept staring.

“Oh right. You have no mouth, do you?”

It blinked.

So I could influence the arm with my emotions. I wonder if the same applies to this creature. I should probably name it. How about… Pinky? Since it's made from my pinky.

Pinky’s eye started moving in a line from Kanji to the right. Its pupil dilated until it covered half its face. Without warning, it leaped in the air, leaving dust behind. Kanji turned, Pinky lengthened its tusk arm midair into a spear, falling towards a yelping boar-like creature. The boar screamed as it got punctured by Pinky’s spear, dragging red sand on the ground; Pinky kept stabbing it repeatedly until it stopped moving. Pinky stared at the boar.

It’s acting just like that elephant. I guess it’s using the same brain after all. How could I control it?

“Pinky-san, come here!” Kanji yelled at it.

Pinky didn’t move. Kanji walked towards it instead. Hmm… So lets say the revival works through intuition from the hammer passing onto me, and then somehow remotely to my pinky finger. Then… we just need to hijack that connection to pass on our inspiration. My emotions already passed as inspiration, I just need to pass it a more concrete idea. But how?

*****

Kanji opened his eyes on the school’s rooftop. Gasp.

“Oh, what’s this? You know of the snake-eater’s cast?” Isamu said as a snakes emerged from Kanji’s chest, digging into his injured bones and cuts, knotting and merging them seamlessly, a mostly painless process thanks to his lack of sensation.

It turns out, that snake was invincible for a reason. It kept shedding the death off itself.

Before he knew it, sensation came back to him. He stood up shakily.

“It seems I’ll have to expend more force to destroy you than I expected. Prepare yourself.” Isamu extended his arm forward, as a purple ring formed above Kanji, expanding inwards into a circle.

And for my one eyed friend…

“Pinky,” Kanji whispered, extending his left arm forward, which contained all his five fingers.

He just needed to be reminded who he is a part of.

“What? Speak louder on your deathbed, kid.” Isamu said.

Kanji closed his fist. As he opened it again, his pinky finger disappeared.

And get a bit fired up.

Slam. Pinky’s left hook connected with Isamu’s temple, sending him sliding to the edge of the building, even though in that moment Isamu managed to block Pinky’s spear attack.

Kanji ran towards Isamu’s left. Isamu looked at Kanji, and quickly turned his attention to the approaching Pinky, who flew at him directly at top speed. His eyes widened. Kanji hammered the ground, which sent expanding concrete spikes towards Isamu. Isamu extended his arm, which blocked the spikes with a purple aura, but he could only barely block Pinky’s spear again as Pinky’s punch hit him again, sending him towards Kanji. As he floated close, Kanji hit him with the hammer.

Nice pass.

A hypersonic boom. Cracking bones. Isamu flew off the edge of the building into the courtyard.

Kanji laughed ecstatically. “Nice!” He said as he raised his arm at Pinky for a high five. Pinky blinked.

“Oh right. We should finish him.”

Kanji wrapped his hands around Pinky’s back, which then flew them both down to the courtyard.

Isamu stood shakily. “You have no idea what you’ve done, Okimoto Kanji. That… thing is not meant to be in this world.”

“So are you, bastard.” Kanji said, stepping back on the asphalt, “One more, Pinky!”

Kanji and Pinky attacked Isamu again from both sides. Isamu charged at Kanji, which won him a quick spear through his back. He stumbled off the spear as snakes filled the hole in his chest, wide eyed, before meeting Kanji’s hammer in his face again. As he was flying Pinky used the momentum to impale him once again, Isamu landing a hard punch, knocking Pinky backwards. But as he turned to Kanji, the hammer had already flown towards his face once more, which he managed to block with his forearm.

He smiled maniacly at Kanji, his eyes saying ‘I got you now.’ A menacing, thick aura formed around Isamu’s fist.

Crap!

Pinky flew in again, impaling Isamu’s forearm to his side. Isamu moved his other fist towards Kanji, before moving it to catch Pinky’s fist, crushing and crumbling it like paper. Ecstasy in his eyes, as if he’s enjoying every moment.

Slash.

The talons extended from Pinky’s knuckles, right into Isamu’s skull. Isamu fell to the ground.

Oh… so that’s where the talons went…

Snakes quickly wrapped around Isamu’s body like a mummy, lifting him in the air. A foreign, outlandish voice echoed. “In all centuries of the earth, not one of my vessels had been defeated. Not once had I taken its place.”

The snakes dropped Isamu to the ground. He was wearing full samurai armor, with a pair of horns on its head, holding a Katana in each hand.

Pinky’s pupil dilated.