Ball of Nothing

Chapter 250 Bonus Birds and the Bees feat. Mii & Bob

"Hey Mii," the young doctor asked after they got out of the inner dimension. Buddha was talking with Hua Tuo and the young doctor was told to entertain himself.

"Yes?" the assistant called out cautiously. For some reason, there was a sinking feeling in her gut when Zero called out to her. The strawcherry fairy was busy communicating with Lily and Zoe who were now part of the mindscape gang.

"What is the difference between being a male and a female?"

The strawcherry assistant dropped what she was doing and paused. Was this really happening?

Zero waited patiently but when he heard no response from Mii, he began to worry. "Mii?"

The assistant sighed. She did not sign up for this. If anyone had to give Zero the talk, that would be his parents. But Zero only had children, grandchildren and creations to ask. Why didn’t Solo leave behind a creation guide about the different things he created and how they worked? Now there was going to be that awkward conversation about the birds and the bees that Zero might not even understand because he lacked the necessary parts to identify as male or female.

"Zero, why don’t you, Bob and I talk about this in the mindscape tonight," Mii suggested and Zero agreed.

Thankfully, for the rest of the day, Hua Tuo and Buddha decided to give Zero a break from his training as they discussed the best methods to help Zero develop the eight extraordinary meridians that he naturally lacked.

Zero spent his time reading up about anatomy about males and females on the reading device that afternoon but only became more confused by the knowledge. Male and females exist for the sake of repopulating so that Solo didn’t have to continuously do it. It’s a rather smart idea created by his past self. However, he didn’t understand why he couldn’t let all living creatures simply reproduce themselves like worms who were both male and female.

Zero thought back about his early days. Does that mean Namekuji was a hermaphrodite? Was that why it could house so many tiny ones in his body? Were those Namekuji’s babies?

What about Buddha? Zero scratched his head over that. Buddha was technically human so he should be seeing either a branch or a flower at the human crotch area. That was basic anatomy after all. What did a glowing light there mean? Was Buddha neither male nor female? Then again, typical signs of deep voice, more muscular structure and absence of developed chest point towards males.

Zero paused. If he thought about it, Mitchnew didn’t have developed chests like Coux or Qin Yun. Amaraline might not have a developed chest but she certainly didn’t have a muscular structure or deep voice. Perhaps she was an undeveloped female. Mitchnew was muscular like Zenobia but without the chest. Her voice was also low and raspy so Zero wondered if he’d gotten the dark elf’s gender wrong now.

"Sekkin referred to Mitchnew as his wife so Mitchnew must technically be a female. Why is it that signs are pointing towards her identifying as a male?" Zero sighed.

"As expected, the only way to tell a person’s gender is by studying their crotch areas. I still think branches and flowers are the easiest way to confirm genders. What would that make Buddha then? The books didn’t mention anything about the absence of branches and flowers. No mention about light sources at the nether regions either..."

Dejected, Zero decided to do some self-studying.

"Shifu! I’m going out for a walk!"

Hua Tuo waved at Zero and told him to be back by dinner, Zero dashed off and the two Sage Gods resumed their discussion while the young doctor decided to locate the nearest animal in the vicinity.

Not too far from Trigression Falls, Zero caught a small yellow bird. The bird had a high-pitched voice that pointed to females and looked pretty. Zero guessed that it must be a female since females are typically better looking than males with their slender builds and curvy silhouettes.

"Time for the reveal," Zero told himself and flipped the bird onto its back hoping to catch sight of a small branch or flower.

Instead, he saw none. Shocked by the revelation that Zero might be the same as birds, he consulted Mii once more.

"Mii! Tell me, am I really a bird? Is my body modelled after birds? Why can’t I fly? This is so unfair!"

The strawcherry fairy groaned. It looks like the matter can no longer be put off. She called for the dragon who was napping in the egg and told him to handle Zero. She had a lot to do and used that as an excuse to run away from teaching Zero about the more embarrassing things.

Bob didn’t know what he was in for when he appeared before Zero. The young doctor was holding a bird in his hand with his pants down to his ankles.

"Zero! What are you doing?"

The teenager was nearly in tears. "Bob! I’m actually a bird but I can’t fly... am I a broken bird?"

That made the dragon speechless. How was Zero a bird? Who told Zero that he was a bird? Also, why was Zero not wearing his pants? What if someone saw that? Even in a forest with nobody, decency was still a must. Bob knew that he didn’t care much about decency when he was in his dragon form because like all animals, they felt comfortable in their own skin. However, humans were vile creatures. If one did not wear clothes in the presence of other humans, one would feel a sense of vulnerability to eyes feasting on their naked skin. The prickling feeling of lust directed to his naked human form felt disgusting and from that incident onwards, Bob always made sure to wear clothes as a human.

"Zero, wear your pants properly and we will talk," the dragon instructed and also ordered Zero to let go of the poor bird who might have been traumatised.

Zero sniffed and pulled up his pants quickly much to the Eternal Dragon’s relief. For some reason, he had an inkling Mii sent him over because she didn’t know how to deal with a growing teen in their puberty stages. Zero was not exactly a teenager going through puberty but he was finding out a lot of things that made him act like one. Recovering parts of his memory and syncing the memories of four divine entities through their fragments can be daunting. He didn’t blame the boy at all for not understanding what gender was despite being a doctor.

"Ok, let’s talk now. What’s bothering you? Please start from the beginning, I’ve been quite left out of the loop ever since I saw a funny contract. Just so you know, I did sign it and have yet to check out the new system function that automatically appears in the mindscape."

Zero sniffed and told Bob how he had to go to his inner dimension to find out whatever was hindering his progress with Buddha.

"And then I saw that Buddha had this glowing light at his crotch area. I’m so confused now because I thought that Buddha was a man. After researching about genders I’m even more confused because I cannot confirm if Mitchnew is a male or a female. She doesn’t have a well-developed chest, has a deep sounding voice and is muscular."

Bob coughed awkwardly and looked around nervously. If Mitchnew heard this coming from her angel, she would be so hurt to hear it even if Zero made that statement with pure intentions.

"Ok, I will explain this only once so you must listen carefully to it. also, you must promise me to never make such statements again. Judging anyone by their gender can often hurt them. If Mitchnew heard this, she would be very hurt by your words even if it is true. Most people cannot help being the gender that they are and some of them are just souls trapped in the wrong bodies."

Zero nodded and listened to Bob explain the concept of genders seriously. There were three kinds of genders as opposed to the two that Zero thought there were.

"Genders exist for reproduction. In most cases, genders cannot be changed. However, there are some creatures who can change their genders. These are very rare and often only ever happens in hermaphrodites. Humans have attempted to change their genders before and there is reason to believe that they were successful. The previous earth allowed the mating between two people of the same gender and have been able to procreate life."

"That’s fascinating. Did that mean they were able to create life by themselves like hermaphrodites?"

Bob hummed. Not much of that was documented. His knowledge didn’t extend that far either and if there was someone who might know about it, that person would be either Merlin or Steve Jobs.

"Sorry Zero, I don’t know much about genders in humans or the experiments they did to it. I only know the natural process of how it is created and what it does. You’d have to ask Merlin or Steve Jobs about the experiments humans tried. It’s not pleasant is all I can tell you. They attempted alchemy, cloning and all sorts of horrible things that took a lot of lives."

The young doctor nodded and decided that he would stay away from that topic for now. Bob then explained how life was created and what the branch did to the flower. Zero was amazed by it and then became confused.

"Wait, if babies were born from inside the stomach, then how will you be born? You come from an egg."

Bob grinned. "Good question. Like I said, that’s the more common method. Sadly, it isn’t very convenient for some of the other animals and magical beasts so we find other methods of procreating life. the egg is like a portal womb where the baby grows. So the branch will still fertilise the flower and then the female will lay an egg in somewhere she thinks is safe. Sometimes the mother takes care until the egg hatches but sometimes she doesn’t."

Zero made an angry noise. "Why can’t the mother take care of the eggs? They’re helpless to wind and rain and hungry animals!"

Bob smiled. "Birds lay eggs because they’re body is way too small to house several baby birds inside them. The same is with fishes. However, while the birds can sit on four of five eggs for a month, fishes lay thousands of eggs at one time. The mother cannot possibly care for so many children can she?"

Zero shook his head. "I suppose not? But what if they get eaten by other bigger fishes before they are hatched?"

"That," Bob told Zero. "Is the life cycle. The mother fish lays thousands of eggs because she knows not many of them will be born. Some will get eaten before they are born and others will get eaten while they are small and weak after they are born. However, for the strong babies, they will grow up to become mothers and fathers to give birth to even stronger babies hoping that more of them will survive."

Then the dragon added that all living creatures do the same to provide better for their young hoping that they will become stronger than them to continue the species. The species that didn’t survive the growing harsh competition will eventually become extinct.

"That’s sad. But it still does not explain why humans cannot be hermaphrodites. If what you explained earlier about some humans being unhappy with their gender or fall in love for others of the same gender, wouldn’t the problem be resolved if everyone had both genders for procreation?"

Bob smirked. "Can you imagine humans populating the world at their will? It takes many years for humans to find a compatible mate and when they do, they can bear children once every year. What do you think will happen if they skip the searching process and start repopulating the world every year after they mature?"

"There will be many humans?" Zero tried.

"Correction," Bob pointed out. "There will be many small humans with not enough big humans wise enough to care for all of them. Have you seen Seth? Do you know how many adults are needed to take care of one baby? If Karris was on her own, she would have a difficult time and both mother and child might not make it."

Zero thought about it. Bob had a point. He explained what extinction was and Zero thought about it. If there were humans who could procreate at will, the world would be overpopulated with humans and there would not be enough resources to sustain everyone. Humans have taken to farming simply because it was easier to feed the population. The mountains and forests were cut down to make cities and towns so the food that took many years to grow were no longer sufficient. If there were more mini-humans than big humans, they would only become extra burdens to the ecosystem and it wouldn’t be long for the planet to be destroyed by humans.

"I understand now. However, I don’t get the part that you say some humans tend to find the same gender to mate with. Why is that a thing? Isn’t that wrong? A flower needs a branch to fertilise it. Two branches and two flowers won’t’ fertilise each other. Besides, if children were like fruits, the fruits developed by two flowers or two branches would mess up the concept of yin and yang completely. It’s going against the cycle."

Bob sighed. He knew Zero was going to point it out. The term homosexual is not going to be easy to explain. However, the best way to do so without Zero questioning it was to call it a ’bug’ in Solo’s creation.

"Not everything the Great One created was perfect. Because humans were given intelligence, sometimes the genetics created had flaws in them. You’ve seen the flaws too right? In Steve’s term, it was called a ’bug’. The error in those created humans made them attracted to the same gender. We call it homosexuality but the purpose of the fruitless mating is because the genetic line should not be passed down with that combination after that human’s generation. The evolution has reached a dead end and it’s a method that preserves the continuation of the human species for the stronger offsprings."

Zero nodded. Now it made sense. Still, one question remained. "What about those you said were souls with labelled genders but had been attached to the wrong physical body? Was Enma careless in assigning the body? Was there a shortage of bodies?"

Bob sighed. Leave it to Zero to question what transgender meant. Unlike homosexuality, the dragon couldn’t really smoke his way out of it.

"I believe you’d have to consult King Yama pertaining to this. I do not have an answer for dragons do not experience this problem. In fact, humans are the only species who encountered such an issue. It might be due to their level of intelligence."

Zero nodded and Bob took his chance to run away. He was going to chew Mii out for throwing him to the merciless doctor. Zero didn’t give him a break and asked everything under the sun from babies to the strange thing called love and the procreation process. Bob couldn’t lie to Zero but he couldn’t give him a too detailed answer either. He simply glazed over details and gave Zero a top-down view of the process in the most medical way he could explain it.

"Good job," the strawcherry fairy praised when Bob returned to their mindscape. Zoe was also there and Lily was bright red after hearing the lecture. None of the mindscape girls wanted to give Zero the talk and Bob groaned. he’d fallen right into the trap of being the only male present.

"You could have thrown Zero a book or something," he complained.

"Zero researched it up before he talked to you. He still had questions to ask. I see that you’re very good at handling Zero. While I’m busy coordinating the background work, I’m putting you in charge of Zero’s education and emotional well-being," Mii said.

Zoe volunteered to be Zero’s unofficial guardian and emotional support while Lily decided to simply be his friend and go-to assistant whenever he needed someone to talk to.

"He is calling King Yama now to clarify the reason for transgenders," Bob told them and Mii laughed. She could already imagine Enma’s reaction to it.

"I’m curious to know how he will answer Zero. You gave him quite the logical and medical explanation like a true professional. You do realise that Zero wouldn’t understand any of the concepts for lust because of it, right?"

Bob rolled his eyes. "So what if Zero understood it? He’s got nothing down there to explore with. If Lilith didn’t want to expose Zero to any of that, I will not do the honours of touching the pandora’s box. also, he’s too young to be thinking about such things!"

Zoe agreed. In her eyes, Zero was still a child who needs a lot of love and protection. Zero might have matured physically but the zashikiwarashi knew that he was still the same sweet kid on the inside.

While the mindscape occupants debated about the pros and cons of Zero finding a romantic relationship and if they should encourage it should the opportunity arise, King Yama was having a hard time justifying the reasons for his actions.

"You see, when a soul is scheduled for rebirth, we can only match it to the database. Remember that complex formula about sins and virtues? Yes, that’s the one. Not all souls become humans, some become plants or animals. We’re not in charge of deciding gender because it isn’t our job."

Zero wasn’t buying it. "How come souls know what gender they want to be then? I thought you said the reincarnated souls will be erased of any past life memories unless there were special cases."

King Yama groaned. This wasn’t his job. Souls were supposed to be part of the life cycle that his mother managed. His job was to see that the process moved smoothly. Why did Zero come to complain about transgenders? Humans were the least of his concern as most souls reincarnate into plants and animals. He only paid attention when a soul was sentenced to rebirth into a lower or higher life form. Everything else was decided by the cycle that Sedna and Gaia maintained.

"Look, Zero. I would love to know why this is happening too but for the Purgatory, we only have the responsibility of seeing that every reincarnated soul has a vessel to occupy and that each vessel does not hold more than one soul. We see an available vessel in the correct plane for reincarnation, we ship the soul ready for rebirth immediately. This is what we do. As for gender-matching, it’s not something I have control over. Perhaps you might want to speak to my mother or aunt about it. Gaia and Sedna decide the cycle so they might have a better idea."

Zero nodded. "I understand. Thanks, En and sorry to disturb you while you’re very busy. Oh, can I also ask if you have a branch or a flower in your crotch area? Buddha has light in his area so I can’t tell. I don’t have either, so I’m doing a general survey for better understanding. Are immortal species very different in this aspect?"

King Yama blinked. Branch or flower? What was this boy talking about?

"I don’t have any. It’s the same as yours. Why?"

Zero was shocked. "Don’t have any? Then how do you know if you are a male or a female?"

King Yama hummed. The question never really come to mind when all the spare energy he had was poured into working.

"I’ve never really thought about it," he admitted and Zero visibly deflated until the Purgatory Ruler added that it shouldn’t matter. "Isn’t it better than the transgenders you were talking about? Not having a gender means you can actually choose what you want to be. I just don’t have the time or motivation to try being a female. I’ve always been a male so I’m sticking with what is comfortable for me. Are you curious about becoming a female?"

Zero paused. Was he curious? "A little," he admitted. "But the dress and wig that your mothers bought for me in La Boutique made me scared of becoming a female. If human females are required to dress in such uncomfortable clothes, I would rather stay male. The tracksuit is the best and I’m not giving it up."

Enma laughed. That sounded very much like something Zero would concern himself with.

"No Zero, genders do not define behaviour. If anything, males can wear dresses too if they liked. I don’t see why females cannot wear tracksuits. Transgender is a thing among humans so you’d fit in perfectly even if you wore clothes of the opposite gender in the body you prefer."

That made Zero consider it. "I guess you’re right. But do girls always need long hair? My hair is growing rather long now and I haven’t had the time to cut it. Would that make me a girl once it grows out to the length of the wig?"

Enma thought about it. "I don’t really know, Zero. Have you tried altering your vessel to become a female? Is there any visible difference other than the hair length? I’m sure there’s a function for you to transform that vessel somewhere. I heard Zeus talking about it."

Zero went into the system settings for his vessel and scrolled through the long list.

"You’re right! There is a function to customise my vessel’s appearance. I can even change my eye colour, skin colour, hair colour at will. Oh, why isn’t there a height function? Also, yes, gender-swapping is an option too. Let me try it now."

Enam waited for Zero to test the function out and was surprised to receive a text not too long after it happened.

The unsuspecting Purgatory King clicked on the picture Zero sent and nearly went into cardiac arrest at the nude picture of Zero’s female vessel.

"What do you think?" Zero asked again with his voice in a much higher pitch.

King Yama paled and his subordinates glanced over with worry when the demigod rushed out of his office and excused himself for the rest of the day.

"Zero?"

"Yes, Enma?"

The Purgatory Lord took a deep breath. "Please don’t ever send pictures of yourself without clothing to people. It doesn’t matter who it is, just never do it again. Understood?"

Zero blinked. He just wanted to show Enma the difference. Other than the long hair, he had a slightly bouncier chest although it looked almost the same as Mitchnew’s and Amaraline’s. His voice was as high as the voice he had before he became a teenager and his waist was slightly smaller but everything else remained the same. If Zero had to say it, he preferred the female form better. It looked a lot prettier and Zero liked how he was more flexible in it. If there was something Zero disliked about the female vessel, it was the one-inch height difference. They made his female vessel shorter than his male vessel and Zero didn’t have an option to increase height.

"Zero?" King Yama asked when he received no reply.

"En... they removed my height in the female vessel... I don’t even have an option to edit height. Why?"

King Yama couldn’t answer him. The ones who made Zero’s vessel weren’t present and King Yama could only comfort Zero as he sobbed over the conflicted thoughts.

"Maybe you could grow your hair out in the male vessel to make it look like the female vessel? You said that there wasn’t much difference between the male and female vessel right? Other than the bouncier chest and smaller waist that you can do without I think flexibility can be trained by doing stretching exercises. Also, if you like the voice of the female vessel you can simply speak in a slightly higher pitch in your normal voice. Nobody can tell the difference once you grow your hair out."

Zero sniffed. Enma’s words gave him some form of hope and Zero went back to his customisation menu to change it back to his male vessel.

"Ok. I will not send nude pictures to anyone. Also, I think I’ll stick with the male vessel simply because it is taller. I might grow my hair out and do stretches as you suggested too. Still cannot believe they removed one inch from the female vessel..."

King Yama chuckled. Zero’s height complex still hasn’t changed. If Baal heard it, the Demon Lord would be laughing for days.

"I don’t think you should worry too much about genders, Zero. In fact, I think it’s better to ignore the impact of a person’s gender. It shouldn’t matter what gender they are because it wouldn’t change a person’s true nature. If they are kind, they would be kind as both male and female. If they are nasty then nothing’s going to change."

Zero smiled. Enma was wise. gender didn’t really matter when it came to friends. Zero knew that he would still be Baal and Truen’s friends even if they were both females. In fact, now that he thought about it, Mitchnew could be a man and Sekkin could still marry Mitchnew while calling him his wife. Zero was too narrow-minded earlier. Males could be wives and females could be husbands.

"For the record," Enma who heard Zero’s mumblings interrupted. "Mitchnew is definitely female. I have her records here."

Zero blinked. "Really?"

King Yama smiled grimly. "Yes. Unfortunately so. Don’t go around assuming people’s genders unless they introduce themselves to you. Transgenders are easily offended. Always refer to them by their names if you’re unsure, ok?"

Zero nodded. "Thank you, Enma! I’m going to call Gaia and Sedna now, ok?"

The Purgatory Lord ended the call and immediately deleted the photo of Zero’s nude female body from his communicator. He’s never had a girlfriend since the beginning of his existence but he’s beginning to wonder what would happen if Zero continued to stay in his female vessel. After all, he felt his heart skip a beat earlier when no other beautiful woman could make him react this way.

"No, it’s because Zero is special. He’s my very first friend, it’s only natural to treat him differently. This is not love, it can’t be."

While the King of the Purgatory was tearing off petals of the mana lotuses in the Spring of Vitality to know if it was love or not, Zero was busy making his final call to understand the mystery behind genders.

"Hello Sedna!" his bright and cheerful voice made the Goddess coo in delight. It had been a while since anyone had any news about the young doctor.

"Hello, Zero. How have you been? It’s good to hear from you."

Zero chatted for a while and updated her about his progress with the training. "Buddha and Hua Tuo are now discussing on the training plans today so I have a little bit of time. I called because I have some questions that even Enma wasn’t able to answer. He said that either Gaia or you would know better because you oversee the cycle of life."

Sedna smiled. "Interesting. That boy is very smart so there shouldn’t be a lot of things he doesn’t know. What’s bothering you, Zero?"

The young doctor started explaining about his questions on gender ever since he saw Buddha’s glowing nether region. He also told Sedna about Bob’s explanation and Enam’s answer about the reincarnation process.

"So that brings me to my question. Why are souls being matched to the wrong vessels? Homosexuality couldn’t be avoided but transgender should."

Sedna wasn’t expecting the topic about the birds and the bees to be brought up when she received Zero’s call. For the first time, the Great Goddess wished that Zero had called her sister instead. Still, she thought carefully about how to answer Zero.

"It’s not as simple as that," she told the teenager. "Souls don’t often identify with genders upon reincarnation. In fact, they lose all their memories of it. The only reason why they feel like they should align with a particular gender is because of the energy they absorbed during the transfer between planes. Some planes are more balanced so the soul is neutral and can adapt to the gender it is born into. However, some planes are more yin positive or yang positive so the souls with lingering yin or yang energy will become developed into that gender. It’s not something we can prevent or match."

Zero raised a bow at the revelation. "Souls go through planes before the rebirth?"

Sedna smiled. "Yes, they do. In fact, some of them travel through the cracks between the planes and harvest chaos energy before birth. Usually, the chaos energy interferes with Enma’s memory-erasing process and they become reborn with memories of their previous lives."

"Is there a way to pass rebirthing souls in a safer passageway?" Zero asked and Sedna sighed.

"You’d have to ask Gaia about it. I take care of the rebirthing for plants and animals but Gaia works on the souls of the humans to be rebirthed. Or you could ask the Queen of Dryads because she’s in charge of collecting fallen soul fragments for rebirthing. Souls don’t always come back in one piece especially for the moe intelligent life forms like humans. They are often damaged and we send them to different planes to recover their form before they reach their new vessels."

Zero groaned. The transgender problem would continue to exist because of the intelligence humans possessed. He didn’t need to call Gaia or talk to Tanya to know why these souls needed repairs. Humans had the ability to use soul magic and often they tapped on energy reserves like chaos magic that they didn’t understand, hurting the souls in the process when it returned to the cycle.

"I think I understand now, thank you Sedna..." Zero smiled and the Goddess wished Zero all the best for his training.

The young doctor ended the call and groaned. Solo created humans because they were the most interesting creatures and while Zero didn’t deny that, he wished they could be less complicated and destructive. Not only were humans destroying worlds and Gods, but they were also capable of destroying themselves.

The brunet spent the rest of the afternoon thinking about humans. Karris was human but she didn’t seem to be too complicated compared to the stories about other humans and what they’d accomplished. Maybe she was the less extreme type of human. Zero then thought about Hua Tuo and Buddha who were both once humans. He couldn’t help but be impressed. All the humans and once-humans Zero knew were very different with no two creatures showing any similarity.

"I wonder why my past self created them in the first place when there are so many problems."

Too much thinking made Zero yawn. He felt sleepy and decided that he should head back for a nap. Hua Tuo would be mad if he overslept and missed the curfew. He didn’t want to worry his teacher either and trouble them to search for him so Zero made the wise decision to head back now that he had his answers.

"It would be nice to have a gender that could grow in height though," he thought half-seriously and yawned again.

For now, Zero was feeling lazy. This vessel was good enough and Zero didn’t think it would matter much if he was going to be meeting all sorts of non-human creatures. Camie who had giant blood in her easily towered over even the tallest humans so Zero was quite content with the genderless identity he had.

If people were going to judge him based on his gender, he was going to take Enma and Bob’s advice to put them in his unworthy list until they changed their minds.

The narrow-minded do not deserve to be friends with him because Zero’s friends came from all over the place. If the couldn’t look past gender, how were they going to look past other things like status, species and talent?