Infinite Dendrogram - Volume 6 - Chapter SS

Bonus Short Stories 
KoD-Approved Popcorn — The Ultimate Snack 
Paladin, Ray Starling 
On a Dendro day much like any other, Shu called me over to help him with something. 
That big brother of mine was a man who could take care of just about anything by himself, so having him rely on me was definitely unusual. 
Nemesis and I made for the location he’d given me. It led us to a place that seemed like a restaurant that had gone out of business. Obviously, it wasn’t open, and it might not have been for a while. 
“Is this truly the place?” asked Nemesis. 
“Well, it’s where Shu told us to come. He also told us to use the back entrance.” 
We walked around the building, found an unlocked door, and took the liberty of letting ourselves in. 
It led us straight into the kitchen, where we found a person in a bear suit. 
“...One milligram too much, eh?” he muttered. “No, wait, it’s half of that.” 
My brother, the one and only, was using a scale to measure the weight of a shady-looking, white, powdered substance placed on specialized medicine paper. 
“...” We watched him, not saying a word. 
I’m afraid to ask what he’s doing, I thought nervously. 
“Oh, you’re here. Beary good. Gimme a sec. I’m at an important part of mixing.” 
Mixing... what, exactly? 
“I’ll cut to the chase and just ask...” I said. “What are you doing?” 
“Mixing some flavoring. Can’t ya tell?” 
Ah, so it’s just flavoring, I thought in relief. He should’ve said so from the start. For a second there, I thought he was making something he shouldn’t be. 
“Just one lick of this one makes you lose your bearings. It blows your consciousness off to a whole new world of euphoria and—” 
“You’re not helping your case here!” 
Am I behind the times?! Is “flavoring” the slang for some new illegal drug or something?! 
“Recently, this and that happened and I ended up buying a whole lot of corn,” Shu said. “So I decided to use that to begin a popcorn cart.” 
“Nothing you start can surprise me anymore, to be honest,” I sighed. “And this flavoring is for the popcorn?” 
“In this fantasy world, the bear minimum of salt and caramel ain’t enough to have a chance against the other carts and stalls. If I wanna rise above the competition, I’ve gotta develop my own original flavor.” 
“And what, exactly, is our part in this, Brother Bear?” asked Nemesis. 
“Popcorn quality check. It’s hard fur me alone to tell the right measurements, you see.” 
Ah, so he’s, once again, dense to the limits. If his description of the flavoring is anything to go by, then... 
“So you merely need us to be your taste testers?” she asked. “I am fully willing.” 
“...Nemesis, this is Shu’s cooking we’re talking about.” 
“I know. You’ve already told me just how much of a master cook he is. However, this isn’t some gourmet dish — it’s mere popcorn. Surely it won’t be anything ridiculous.” 
“Glad to hear it. Fur real,” said Shu as he presented her with popcorn sprinkled with his flavoring. “Here’s the prototype.” 
“Thank you,” she said as she took a piece, put it in her mouth, and... 
“HwAh?! HaUghaH! WaaAahHh...! Kfgh.” 
...released some of the strangest sounds I’d ever heard before passing out. 
“...Bro, this is a no-no,” I said. 
“Yeah,” he sighed. “It’s still too good.” 
Shu’s cooking was so delicious that it defied all reason, and the quality could even be felt through a single piece of popcorn. 
The taste was so good that it flared up the local nerves and caused them to send out ridiculous amounts of signals. Unable to handle all the information coming in, the brain opted to shut off the consciousness, like a circuit breaker interrupting excessive current. Sometimes people passed out due to great pain, and this phenomenon was basically the opposite of that. 
Needless to say, to be viable on the market, this popcorn would have to taste significantly worse than it did now. Otherwise, the streets of Gideon would be the picture of a very weird kind of hell, with unconscious people spread out all across the pavement. 
“I can’t taste test it myself ’cause I can bear it just fine, ya know?” Shu said, and I knew full well what he was implying. 
I looked at Nemesis, who was on the floor, still twitching from the popcorn’s effect. “Make it at least five tiers worse than what she had, and I’ll test it for you.” 
But alas, the popcorn he brought me ten minutes later was still too good, and I, too, ended up losing consciousness and crashing right next to Nemesis.

Eventually, Shu created flavoring that was safe for consumption by normal people, and his “KoD-Approved Popcorn” became the talk of Gideon... but that was a story for another time. 
KoD-Approved Popcorn — The Commercial Jingle 
Duel City, Gideon 
It was a standard day in Gideon. 
In a certain area of the city, there was a restaurant that had gone out of business. From it, you could hear the methodical sound of nails being hammered into wood. 
The one handling the tool was the current tenant of the building. Clad in a bear suit, he was none other than the King of Destruction, Shu Starling. 
Contrary to what his rough-sounding job name and ludicrous STR would have you expect, he was working the wood with a relatively soft touch. Neither hammering nor planing posed any problems for him. 
He was holding a few unused nails in his mouth. It was an action characteristic of skilled carpenters, but sadly, his attire completely voided the impression, making him look less like an artisan and more like a guy in a suit with nails poking into it. 
Shu was in the middle of building a cart for his popcorn business. 
Many would argue that he could’ve simply bought one, but he probably had some fixations and preferences which had compelled him to make it by himself. 
“Beaar beaar bear-beaar beaaar...” he sang as he worked. “Bear’s popcorn, beary good, yum. The beaary beest.” 
However, it was questionable whether the arrangement of sounds escaping his mouth was truly a “song.” The vocals were there, sure, and — in contrast to the impression given off by his costume — they were absolutely beautiful. But alas, that was the extent of it. The phenomenal singing voice was wasted on lyrics and melody which were beyond bad. 
“...No, it’s unbearable,” he lamented and despaired. “That jingle ain’t an option.” 
Though Shu was no doubt a weirdo, even he could tell that he’d created a horrid song. 
“This always happens whenever I try my paw at making an original...” 
He processed blueprints with excellent proficiency and could build whatever was pictured without a flaw to name. The cart he was making was a prime example. 
He was also a genius when it came to stimulating taste buds. The meals he made were “stunning” in more ways than one. 
Talented as he was, however, Shu couldn’t do art to save his life. 
Anything he made with the intention of enchanting the eye or the ear always came out bizarre, like something humanity was too young to understand. (Then again, the exact same could be said for his hyper-delicious cooking.) 
“I could probably make it work if I just had a bearable melody...” he sighed. “Shame I couldn’t find those musicians anywhere.” 
People were saying that someone had been playing wonderful music during the events of Franklin’s Game. Shu had wanted to ask them for help with his jingle, but sadly, he’d had no luck finding them. 
“Hmm, should I just go to someone at the musician’s guild? But as far as I know, the one at Gideon is pretty small...” 
Turning pensive, he muttered and pondered as to what he should do next. 
“Hey-ya, Shu,” said a voice behind him. “What’s with the nails in your suit? And what’re you mumbling about?” 
He turned around to see a woman he knew very well. It was Lei-Lei — a fellow Superior of the kingdom and someone he was acquainted with in reality. 
“I knocked, but you weren’t responding.” 
“Beary sorry about that,” Shu replied as he realized that he wasn’t even working on the cart anymore. The jingle matter seemed to have been troubling him more than he’d thought. 
“Something on your mind?” she asked. 
“Well...” 

He went ahead and unreservedly told her of his problem. 
“Then I’ll make the song for you!” Lei-Lei responded excitedly. 
“Whoa, seriously? You’re a lifesafur!” 
She was a musician in real life. Composing ear-catching melodies was her element. 
“You’ll pay for it in royalties. 8% from all your popcorn sales.” 
“...Oh, you’re charging for it.” 
Costs aside, Shu’d decided to give this job to Lei-Lei, resulting in the creation of the commercial jingle for his KoD-Approved Popcorn. 
 
After it reached the ears of the public, the jingle became known in Gideon for its strange mix of bizarrely good vocals, wonderful melody, and weird lyrics. 
“The bear’s popcorn! Oh gosh, oh boy! 
Eating them is so much joy! 
Let your taste buds be destroyed!” 
Xunyu’s Drawings 
Paladin, Ray Starling 
Nemesis and I were paying a visit to the knight offices in Gideon. As we passed by the waiting room, we noticed someone with a familiar appearance, but an unfamiliar height. 
“Is that Xunyu I see?” asked Nemesis. 
Blue daoshi clothing, a hat with a Fu covering the face... There was no mistaking it — that was indeed Xunyu. Our first meeting before the Clash of the Superiors hadn’t been pleasant, but we’d put it behind us and gone on to become friendly enough to occasionally spar in the arenas. 
“She’s... kinda different, though,” I replied. 
Today, Xunyu was exceedingly small. She would normally look down on us from a height of over four meters, but now, she barely came up to my chest. 
This was because she’d removed her Superior Embryo, Tenaga Ashinaga, and thus was reduced to the size of her avatar. She hadn’t neglected to take off her long sleeves, either. 
So, if you ignored the weird hat, the voice-changing Fu, loose trouser cuffs, blue skin, and sharp teeth, Xunyu looked like a normal girl. 
“...No, she’s still a far cry from ‘normal,’” I muttered. 
“HuHh? Well, if it aiN’t Ray,” she said, noticing our presence. 
She held a writing brush in her hand and used it to draw something on a piece of paper on the waiting room’s table. 
Her low height made her seem like a little girl drawing pictures to pass the time, but I could never say that out loud. If I did, she’d probably tear my heart out again the next time we sparred. 
“Morning, Xunyu. What are you doing?” 
“Nh? Oh, uh, I carriED the ambassador here frOm the capital, and now she’s in the middLE of some talk. Figured I’d make sOme Fus while I wait. My stocks aRe running low.” 
I ignored the term “carried” and looked at the paper. Now that she’d mentioned it, it looked about the same size as the Fus she used in battle. 
“You have to make them on your own?” I asked. 
“In Huang He, there’re craftiNG jobs that make and sell ’em on the mARket,” she answered. “You can’t gEt ’em like that here, though, and honestLY, I prefer to make my own, since the Fu’s quality depends on the mAker’s level and skill.” 
Xunyu’s job was Master Jiangshi. It was a cross between the daoshi and jiangshi groupings, and from what I’d heard, it was among the strongest known Fu-using jobs. 
“Do you make all your Fus yourself?” I asked in disbelief as I remembered the countless Fus she’d used in her battle against Figaro. 
“Nope, I just make oNE to be the base and usEd my Clerk job’s Auto Clerking skill to copY and paste it. It’s based on DEX, though, sO I mess up 30% of all I copy.” 
Dexterity? Now that’s a stat I don’t see used often, I thought. 
I’d heard that it influenced the power of guns, bows, and skills related to them, but one of the only two gun users I knew fired bullet creatures, while the other was a man I could actually picture saying “DEX? Whuzzat? Prebear to die!” 
“I’ll be prINting 30,000, so that’s 9,000 doWn the drain,” Xunyu added. 
It made me wonder about the cost of the materials for one Fu. The fact that Shu’d used over 3,000,000,000 lir’s worth of ammo when fighting Franklin gave me the impression that Superior battles weren’t cheap. 
“You must be glad to have a weapon that doesn’t drain your wallet, hm?” asked Nemesis. 
“...” I didn’t say a word back. 
I was on the verge of thinking “What if your eating habits become as expensive?” but I was able to bury the sentiment before it reached her.

That evening, I calculated the grand total amount I’d spent on Nemesis’ food since she was born, and the result wasn’t pretty, to say the least. 
Basically, if you somehow converted it to real money, you could probably buy a Porsche. 
That realization made me more wary of her gluttonous nature, even though I was aware that it wouldn’t change a thing. 
Brother Bear’s Fashion Collection 
Certain day of a certain month 
“This stays in here... This goes to the inventory...” 
On a day like any other, the King of Destruction, Shu Starling, was sorting his possessions. 
But he wasn’t merely managing the contents of the inventory he always had with him. Baldr, the man’s Superior Embryo, was a battleship. Like most similar constructs, it had a living space, complete with a closet to store clothes in, and that was exactly what he was organizing. All of that was there thanks to Baldr having Type Castle qualities. 
Though not without their uses, such features were actually a cause of concern for Shu, as it seemed like a waste of Embryo Resources. There was also the flaw that anything stored within Baldr’s battleship form could only be removed when it was in the same form. 
So the fact that Shu was sorting his closet could only mean that Baldr was currently a battleship, standing tall in all its glory. And that could pose a bit of a problem. 
“Dude, why the hEll’re you parking this thing rigHT next to town? The guards’re goin’ nUts.” 
Along with those words, someone entered the room. It was Xunyu, a fellow Superior. She’d left the capital and arrived at Gideon to find the familiar battleship standing right next to its walls. 
Not wasting a moment, she’d instantly jumped inside and walked right to Shu, making short work of any defenses along the way. 
“Oh, I just wanted to sort the stuff inside Baldr,” Shu said, not in the least surprised by her arrival. “Before, I had to be beary careful about where I brought this thing out, but now that Franklin’s Game has revealed my identity, I feel safe to do it bearever.” 
“Well, the people sure dON’t feel safe. There’s a tiME, place, and occasion for things, mAn.” 
Not even Shu knew how to feel about having an elementary schoolgirl tell him off about TPO. 
“What’re ya organiziNG, anyway? That stUff?” she pointed at all the costumes lined up in the closet. 
If her Identification wasn’t malfunctioning, almost each and every one of them was an MVP special reward. 
“These are the suits I bearly use,” he said. “Having them all with me at all times is too much fur my inventory, so I just throw them in here.” 
“...” Xunyu silently stared at the costumes as a certain thought came to her mind. 
These UBMs were probably ready to die and get turned into special rewards, but I don’t think any of them were ready to become... this. 
A famous tokusatsu studio had had a place where they stored the costumes of the kaiju defeated by the heroes. They had come to call it the “kaiju warehouse,” and Baldr’s closet was very much like it, in both nature and function. 
“So, uh, yoU don’t have tigers?” she asked as she noticed that, despite its great variety, the closet certainly didn’t contain all the costumes one could have. 
“I did meet a tiger UBM once, but it was taken by Figgy. It’s the blue coat he usually bears. He even used it in your match.” 
“Oh, okay...” 
Despite having “Yinglong” — “Responding Dragon” — as one of her nicknames, Xunyu found the dragon’s nemesis, the tiger, far more adorable, so this made her somewhat disappointed. 
She even had a giant plush tiger in her room in real life. Her parents had bought it for her, and she was very fond of it. 
“Anyway, you’re bOThering people, so just hide this thing alREady,” she told him. 
“Beary well, then. I already have all the suits I need, anyway.” 
Following this exchange, Baldr was summoned back into Shu’s crest.

Though this whole incident wasn’t seen as a crime worthy of a punishment, the fact remained that Baldr’s presence had greatly troubled the people. 
Because of this, Liliana let him off with just a stern, reasonable warning, much like the one she’d given him after he’d set the whole of Noz Forest ablaze.