-Break-
Location: Cursed Sea District of Căderea-dracului
ΦLooking at the man who looks like heaps of flabby mud plunked over themselves again and again till it forms a human body, Iancu, Willow, and Maple's minds try to understand why Suzuka is saying, "Everything will be ok. Don't cry."
His eyes cannot be seen due to the flabby flesh protruding far away from his actual eyeballs, so all one can see on his face are two dark caves instead of eyes. Yet despite that, the volume of his tears is so great that they rush through the caves, pouring down his face.
Sniffing a bit, the man calms his body down and then says, "Thank you for your kindness."
Turning to everyone, he says, "My name is Ilus and I am sorry for my actions earlier, it is just, it is just."
Ilus starts to sniff, and then he grabs his face saying, "Oh god, I can't even speak properly. WHY AM I EVEN ALIVE!"
Under his breath, Iancu says, "Dramatic."
"Don't be mean, Iancu!"
Iancu clicks his tongue, and Willow walks forward saying, "Don't mind him, he is just in a rebellious phase. Please take your time and explain your situation."
Ilus nods his head and says, "You see, my girlfriend, for one year, just broke up with me, even though I was just about to propose."
"That must feel awful. I don't even know what I'd do if that happened to me."
Turning Willow says, "Lucky I have the best wife ever!"
Maple blushes, and Ilus starts crying even harder, causing both of them to say, "Sorry!"
"I don't see how this is worth getting so up in arms about. She rejected you, so what? Plenty of women out there, don't go around degrading yourself over one woman, you loser."
Maple adds, "What Iancu meant to say was cheer up, it will get better."
"NO I DIDN'T!"
Ilus sniffing says, "It won't because the reason she broke up with me is something that will never go away ever, I will forever be alone. I will never have a lover, never have a family, never make my parents grandparents, and will forever walk this earth alone. Oh god, that's my fate, isn't it!"
He starts crying even more, but along with that and thick oily substance generates from his body, and flies everywhere as he cries. Suzuka uses her tails to guard herself, but Willow, Iancu, and Maple all take direct hits all over their bodies.
And as the oil files on them, each of their noises comes under a vicious attack. Being pierced, being poisoned, being starved, being burned alive, all of that, all the harm, stress, and torment that comes from those assaults are nothing compared to the destruction and war being waged on their noses in this moment.
Each falls to the floor and grips their bodies, and Suzuka says, "Ilus's curse makes his body produce this smelly oil, and his girlfriend couldn't put up with it, so she broke up with him."
-One cleansing later-
Sitting in front of Ilus on the bench, a cleansed Iancu with nose plugs says, "NO SHIT SHE BROKE UP WITH YOU, THAT'S VILE!"
Suzuka, with a violent look, says, "DON'T BE MEAN YOU IDIOT! Isn't he wrong, Maple?"
Averting her eyes from Suzuka, she says, "Of course, it isn't it's not. Definitely not something worth breaking up with someone and running halfway across the country to never smell that again."
"MAPLE! Willow, you don't feel like this as well?"
"Suzuka, I won't lie to you, I would rather be Cyrus when Orb catches him."
"IT'S NOT THAT BAD!"
Ilus says, "Thank you, Suzuka. You're so nice, but it's the truth, it has been like that my entire life. My friends abandoned me, my pets ate poison, my parents wore masks when around me, and all the girls ran away. I thought that when I finally got a girlfriend, things would change, but she was just being nice! She couldn't bring herself to hate me for my curse, yet she couldn't hold on! I am just destined to be this way."
Standing up, Suzuka says, "NO YOU'RE NOT! Just because you're born with something forced like this doesn't mean you are forever destined to be alone! That's a lie, and I won't allow you to believe this! Even someone like me could make a friend, so you can find partners as well."
Ilus says, "But I smell so bad."
"You don't smell that bad to me!"
He looks at her with charmed eyes, and then says, "Sorry I like woman with fat ass, not little children like you. I have principles."
"I WASN'T HITTING ON YOU!"
Maple says, "Suzuka, you don't think he smells bad? Does your nose work?"
Ilus's heart takes a blow to his heart, making him slump down, and Suzuka says, "Yes, it does, I am just used to this smell. I used to smell like it back when I didn't bathe for that year."
Willow says, "You didn't bathe?"
Suzuka, getting embarrassed, says, "After all my battles at Seirei, I didn't shower so I could rest in the spirit energy of my defeated foes."
"You can't be serious."
Iancu turns his face, looking for affirmation from the other two whom he has formed a bond with due to the plague inflicted on them, but to his fright, Willow says, "Understandable."
Maple adds, "Nothing better than feeling the warm blood of your freshly hunted prey drip over your body as you walk through the snow, reminding you of your might and power."
Suzuka gives both of them a hug, and Iancu says, "Not a normal person in sight."
Iancu's eyes quickly glance at Ilus, who is moments away from bursting out in tears, and standing up, he says, "Stop being a baby."
"Why! Will it bring me a wife!?"
"YES!" Iancu says as an idea crosses his mind.
"Huh?"
"You see, right now, you have one major negative? You're smell, so all you gotta do is counter it with a major positive!"
Suzuka, standing up, says, "He is right! As long as you're good sides are better than your bad sides, no one will care about your smell!"
Ilus says, "Are you sure that will work?"
Willow and Maple, standing up as well, say, "OF COURSE IT WILL!"
A streak of happiness passes through his body, and standing up, he says, "I don't know if any of you are right, but let's try it!"
"YAY!" The kids, except Iancu, shout in response to Ilus's vigour.
-Maples Plan-
As they stand in the middle of a clothing shop, Maple says, "The best way to attract a mate is to look your best. So let's find you some nice clothes."
Standing in front of a pile of clothes, Maple takes out pieces one by one, and says, "Ohh, how pretty all of these are! The clothes of the outside world are made out of so many different fabrics, and have so many different designs."
Iancu coughs, and Maple says, "Oh yeah. Grabbing some of the clothes, she headed in with Ilus to the changing room."
"You have a rather shy and reserved personality, so we should counter that we loud explosives and expressive clothes. A really bold outfit without any boundaries should do the trick, just like this!"
After coming out, she says," Behold!"
And in front of everyone lies And after coming out she says, dressed in and outfit that has a manter ray as a shirt, a squid as a mantle over his right arm, a starfish as an eyepatch, the skeleton of whale as a hat, two eels as pants, and shoes that look like geese, each one distorted as if they are cursed in some way.
With a proud smile, Maple says, "This combines the might of the ocean with the bloodiness of a hunter. Right now, he exudes the same awesome aura my father did after he came back from a hunt. There is no one who would think he looks amazing like this."
Willow says, "Maple," with worried eyes.
But Suzuka, putting her hand on his chest, says, "No, let me?"
Walking up to Maple, Suzuka says, "Maple, from now on let me choose you're clothes, ok!"
"Bu-,"
Grabbing her cheeks, she says, "Please just let me pick!"
"Ok."
Willow says, "Ilus go change."
He lets out a sigh of relief and turns around to head back into the changing room, but as he starts to walk but then oil starts to leak through his clothes onto the floor, and as the smell releases, all the staff within the store fall to the ground unconscious.
As three of the four hold their noses, fearing another nasal assault, Ilus says, "I am sorry, whenever I get stuffy I end up ruining my clothes, so that's why I only wear cheap ones!"
Holding his nose, Iancu says, "YOU COULD HAVE MENTIONED THAT BEFOREHAND!"
-Suzuka's plan-
As Ilus sits on a bench in despair the five of them hear from a crowd behind them, "Who will challenge the strongest arm to ever exist, the man who arm carries the strength of a hundred men multiplied by infinity, the one armed emperor only matched by the queen herself, Costal the kind of arm wrestler!"
Pointing at Ilus, Suzuka says, "Confidence comes from strength! If you can become stronger no matter what anyone says to you, it won't matter because you can just beat them up!"
Iancu, under his breath, says, "Barbarian."
And wasting not even a second, she socks him in the face, and says, "See."
Iancu gets up ready to strike back, but Maple slows him down with her legacy, and Suzuka says, "If you train you're body enough one day, you might even be able to control the way your body releases oil!"
"That sounds like a fantasy."
Suzuka turns a walks through the crowd, then says, "I WANT TO CHALLENGE COSTAL!"
In front of her, the giant mutant blue nightmare with one gigantic muscle arm and extremely tiny legs, along with a tiny right arm, says, "Don't you have a tea party to get to, little girl?"
"What are you scared you're going to lose?"
Costal let's out a laugh, and beside him his announcer speaking into a shatter shell says, "It looks like today our games have become a playground, it looks like today Costal the great will become a child abuser, it looks like today we will be getting one angry dad later, but none of that matter as Costal will taking on anyone, anywhere, anytime they want when it comes to arm wrestling, and will smash them with his true strength! For he is the greatest, the biggest, the strongest, the armiest man to ever exist!"
Suzuka wraps her tails together to form a giant arm, grips it against Costal's arm, and she says, "Do you want me to use my tiny arm, and give you a nice handicap?"
"Oh, the little girl wants to give our champion a handicap!"
"Don't worry, I will give you a whole 10 seconds of pushing before I start putting in some force."
Fright falls over her face, and Costal says, "Oh, what are you starting to get scared? I can increase the handicap to 20 seconds."
With terror in her eyes, she says, "If you don't use your full strength from the beginning, you'll die."
Costal laughs a bit, and the announcer says, "Three, two, one!"
Suzuka instantly tensed up her body, and in that moment, Costal's fight and flight instincts activated, tensing up his arm.
"GO!"
In a mere second, he smashes right into the ground, and bowing, Suzuka says, "Good match."
As she walks away cheers erupt from the crowd towards her, and a happy expression appears on her face as she walks away.
Walking in front of Ilus, Suzuka says, "You see that! That's what strength gets you! Undeniably respect!"
Ilus, jumping up, says, "TRAIN ME, MASTER!"
"Don't worry, I will make you the strongest in the country!"