Within the garden of the Pink Palace, a certain purple-haired girl could be seen sitting at a workbench, fiddling with a red sphere, glowing crayons of varying colours littering her desk.
"Done! How long was that?" Aiko asked as she finished the "Crimson Heart Ultimate Collector of Knowledge: Y" Or "Chucky" for short.
'59 minutes, and 33 seconds.' The ghost of her grandfather replied.
"Hmph. Too slow." Aiko said, feeling dissatisfied at the speed she could craft a complex, and revolutionary masterpiece of an item that could shock her whole ancestry into a stupor.
'No need to sulk! You may not have beaten your record this time, but you've still done very well! You've become quite skilled at making these cores now!' The ghost of her grandfather praised as Aiko dropped her newest substitute brain-core into the pile of crimson orbs next to her workbench.
His words were not wrong, in fact, it might be a bit of an understatement. Though, far simpler than most other methods, manufacturing a functional substitute for a human brain is bound to be a considerably complex and delicate process regardless of the means used. Chucky, is a relatively advanced creation within the field of curse magic that would have even some arch-demons who specialize in the field going over the blueprints a few times before trying to craft one themselves. The fact a beginner like Aiko, who needs to rely on the special glowing crayons her master gave her because she isn't yet proficient in manipulating soul-fragments to create helioglyphs the normal way, can now craft an artificial brain in under an hour while still a novice is something most would assume impossible.
The process of creating a Chucky requires you to inscribe highly-compact demonic soul-based symbols known as "Helioglyphs" onto over 50 blades of a very rare material known as "Lunar Blood Grass", with each tiny strand of crimson grass needing to hold at minimum 20 different helioglyphs in a very specific pattern, before they are finally and carefully folded together in a very specific manner that will ultimately take the form of a sphere in the end. In total, you would need to inscribe over a thousand Helioglyphs per Chucky onto a bunch of tiny blades of grass and should even just a single thing be a little off, whether it is one straw being misplaced during assembly, or a letter being drawn a bit too crudely, in the wrong order, or with the wrong type of soul fragments, then the Chucky will be a failure. Worst case scenario, it might malfunction in some unpredictable way when in use. It is not the kind of task you'd normally hand to a beginner who has just recently opened her third eye like Aiko.
In the beginning, Aiko took almost an entire day, constantly going back and forth between her master's notes to make sure she did each step correctly before she finally created a barely functional Chucky, but now, she can make a fully functional core in under an hour, having memorized the entire production process.
After receiving her grandfather's words, Aiko merely nodded in agreement, a slight blush of embarrassment crept up on her cheeks at the praise, while feeling a slight sense of accomplishment, as she reached off to the side of her workbench, trying to reach for something that wasn't there, causing her to lose her balance and fall out of her seat.
*Thud*
'*Chuckle* You okay, Aiko?' Her grandfather asked, chuckling at his granddaughter's clumsy fall.
"Where did the grass go?" Aiko asked as she got up from the ground and looked on the side of her workbench where there used to be a pile of lunar blood grass just a few hours ago.
'You have already used it all up, you silly girl. *Chuckle*' The ghostly grandfather answered.
"Then I'll go harvest some more. I'm sure I can break my record if I-!" Aiko paused as she looked towards the field from which she had harvested her material from.
The once luscious, crimson field of lunar blood grass that stood before her when she arrived here, was now completely empty, with not a single blade of red grass remaining in sight, only barren earth surrounded by unrelated, and somewhat ominous-looking vegetation.
'I did say you used it "all".' The elderly ghost emphasized.
"Does this mean I'm done?" Aiko asked, feeling a little discontent.
'You sound a little disappointed? Last week, were you not so fed up with harvesting the materials that you contemplated arson just so you could end your task early.'
"…. I wanted to break my record one more time."
"Well, that explains why the penmanship is such crap. You've been trying to speedrun chucky-creation, Wimp?" Nox said, looking at one of Aiko's products with a magnifying glass.
*Thud*
Aiko, startled by her master's habit of suddenly appearing without warning, stumbled over her feet and fell back on her butt in surprise.
"…!"
'Could you not sneak up on us like that?!' Aiko's grandfather complained to Nox.
"Why? It's not like you'll have a heart attack." Nox replied as she waved her hand through his spectral body.
'Aiko still can, you lout!'
"She's still young and arrythmia-free, … for approximately 20 more years!" Nox said, her eyes turning away from their gaze as she mentioned the last part.
"Huh? What did you just say?" Aiko asked.
"Young?" Nox replied.
"No, after." Aiko said.
"Free!" Nox answered.
'Would you just speak clearly!' The elderly ghost complained.
"Killjoy! It's nothing to worry about. It's just that the deadly heart condition that's killing Wimp's biological fat-ass happens to be hereditary!"
'WHAT?!' Aiko's grandfather shouted, giving the two people present a telepathy induced headache.
"Ugh!"
"No need to shout! I can hear you fine!" Nox replied, putting her fingers in her ears, knowing full well that it would do nothing to dampen the volume transmitted directly into her head.
'HOW LONG HAVE YOU KNOWN ABOUT THIS?!'
"Use your inside, huh, actually we're outside so I guess outside voice is fine!" Nox said, glueing a chucky to her mask.
'COULD YOU TAKE THE HEALTH OF YOUR DISCIPLE MORE SERIOUSLY?!'
"HOW DARE YOU! I TAKE MY KIDS' HEALTH VERY SERIOUSLY! CAN'T YOU TELL?!" Nox shouted back, her mask now sporting a makeshift clown nose.
'NO! Y-!'
"STOP SHOUTING!!!" Aiko screamed, interrupting the two as their very loud and headache-inducing argument was starting to make her feel nauseous.
'…! Sorry, Aiko!' The elderly ghost apologized, giving Nox a stink eye from the side.
"I don't see what the big deal is! It won't kick in until her 40s, so she got plenty of time to become a super awesome robot girl, probably!" Nox said, whispering the robot part of her sentence.
'Probably?! You mean, you don't know for sure when?'
"All the more reason to wanna learn how to craft mechanical replacements for her internal organs and become a super cool cyborg golem chick, right Wimp?" Nox said as she turned towards Aiko, her chucky nose falling off her mask as she imagined her tiny disciple, transforming into a mechanical purple chicken, flying through the sky while firing missiles and lasers everywhere.
'You can't be serious! Aiko, tell this moron she-!'
As the ghost turned to his granddaughter for back up, his words got lodged in his throat at the sight of the little purple-haired girl drooling with desire as she imagined the exact same thing as her master, including the chicken part, though only because her hungry stomach was influencing her imagination.
"Anyways, enough daydreaming about the future Mega Chicken Wimp! Regular, boring now Wimp, it's about time I took you to your very first war!" Nox said, after storing away all the chucky cores Aiko had made.
"Huh?"
"Now let's go!" Nox said as she grabbed Aiko and yeeted her through a portal.