Chimper #771
"The laughter is the first warning," a palace guard tells recruits training beneath the gold spires. "The second is a blur of azure and cherry. By the third, the message is on the general's desk, and they're asking about the quality of the kitchen's bananas." A court scribe insists the war paint is a misnomer. "They treat an imperial decree with the same gravity as a forgotten shopping list. One day the paint is a terrifying death's head; the next, a field of tiny, smiling flowers." But a scientist who witnessed the incident in the labs below knows the truth. "The same energy that trapped Inparusu's soul didn't break Rikuka—it showed them the universe's final, terrible joke. That guffaw is the sound of a soul with absolutely nothing left to fear, and it is infuriatingly effective."
