{Shadows In The Snow} |Monkie Kid AU| •Book 1•

•Chapter 13• {|A Brand New Day|}

⚠️TW: A bit of more blood⚠️
Kenji looked around and saw that Li Mei wasn't in the room. He then heard her voice again. "Grandpa!" The voice said again, coming from the other room. He got up and began to walk to the room but...something didn't feel right. He then heard walking around, the footsteps were faint and too quiet to be heard but he was able to hear them. "Fast...." He thought, the footsteps sounded fast, fast and quick. He then heard the voice behind him. "Grandpa..." he flinched and turned only to see nothing. He saw that he was the only one in the room, there was light in the room from the morning light, but still gloomy looking. Then he heard Mei's voice again but it sounded as if she was talking to someone, and she sounded afraid! "AAAAAH!!!!" The voice squealed. He then he got flashes of Mac breaking in and his granddaughter in danger and at the mercy of the monkey, her being taken and her screaming in terror as the monkey's shadow hovered over her and Kenji's snapped out of it, with his granddaughter's screaming echoing through his mind. He then was enraged and quickly grabbed his stick and went to her room and kicked open the door and saw Li Mei talking with Wukong, but he was in the form of a butterfly, hanging off her hand as they both looked at Kenji in shock. Wukong then asked "Heeeey! Old bud! Ya look like you barely slept, ya doing ok????" Li Mei added in, "Yeah grandpa...you look scared and angry...did..something happen?" she asked with worry. "I-I'm sorry...I heard your voice calling me dear..." he responded. Li Mei looked confused and said back, "But grandpa..I didn't call you, I was talking with Monkey King.." Kenji's eyes widened from what he had just heard, if she didn't call him..then who did..? Kenji thought that it must've been his imagination messing with him, his old and withering mind keeps getting weaker and weaker each day but sanity was still with him, thank goodness. He then apologized dearly, "I'm so sorry I scared you my dear, I've just been...HEARING things..lately.." he said in an apologetic tone. Li Mei smiled reassuringly to the old monkey and hugged him. "It's ok grandpa! I understand, I mean I hear voices sometimes but, they just leave me alone once I hear them! They're probably nothing but your thoughts!" Wukong added in, "Yup! Even I still experience hearing things old buddy!" Kenji's eyes grew wide a bit but he smiled a bit and went calm, hugging his granddaughter back and letting go, holding his stick once again. "Thank you my dear, I believe that a good bowl of noodles could be a nice little breakfast to eat from all this...now cmon Li, I need you to get something on your stomach too..." Li Mei's eyes sparkled as they grew wide and she smiled excitedly, "YAY!" She shouted, Wukong trying his best to hang onto her hand without falling off due to her swinging her arms in the air. "And I'll join ya! I've been eating peaches lately but Pigsy's noodles would be GREAT right now!" Wukong added, him morphing back to normal and standing next to Li Mei as he held his hips. Li Mei squealed happily and she grabbed Wukong by his arm and rushed to Pigsy, him yelping and trying to stay on his feet as she ran out the room to the others. "Hey Li Mei! S-Slow down! I might be fast on my nimbus cloud but I'm surely not on my feet!!!" Wukong shouted as he chuckled from the monkey's enthusiasm. Kenji smiles seeing the two get along, but then he remembered what happened...the encounter, him thinking of when she told him and the others of the encounter she had with Macaque, just imagining that brute hurting his granddaughter made his blood boil, but he also felt pity for the monkey, after being abandoned by Wukong and alone for so long...he couldn't help but feel sorrowful of the monkey and the abandonment that he went through, only to be shut out again...seeing the monkey that he once saw as a student...a SON, turn into a monster of hatred and shadows broke his heart. He then sighed and decided to forget what happened from the past and focus on now, going to the table and waiting for his granddaughter and old friend to return.

After 20 minutes of waiting he began to worry but then heard Wukong and Li coming back into the room holding trays of noodles chatting with one another, he listened in on they're quiet conversations. "And then all of a sudden, I felt different! Like my body had a mind of its own, and then I saw blue, all I saw was blue!" She said in excitement to Wukong, Wukong found this a little cute, seeing her enthusiasm and excitement, reminding him of MK. He then smiled and responded, "Well kiddo, that sounds like the growing of your true powers, I sensed that you had powers ever since you was born! And heck, even I was amazed!" Li Mei felt a small blush appear on her face but she played it off as if she was hot from the air. "Wooo!! Uhm..isn't it a little hot in here to ya, hehe...!" The girl chuckled nervously as she fanned her hand at her face for air and sweated a little. Wukong looked a bit confused but kept his calm and kind demeanor. "Yeah? I think soooooo but-" he responded but was cut short by Mei's nervous sudden outburst. "OH LOOK! the others! Uhm...we should get the food to everyone now...!" She chuckled nervously while still having the blush on her face and sweat dripping from her cheek. "You ok???" Wukong asked ok confusion but a bit of worry. "YES!!-....I-I mean..yeah! I'm fine!" She responded to him, chuckling more and moving to everyone and handing them bowls of noodle and cups of orange juice for breakfast. Wukong blinked but shrugged it off as her being nervous to meeting the famous Monkey King himself for the first time, still full of his pride, but was amused by her being so sweet and so loud. He then gave the food and juice to Tang and MK, Tang thanking him with a bow and began to eat as MK thanked as well and looked amazed still by his new teacher being around. Tang then spoke, "MK plz calm yourself, your going to mess up your food!" MK said back, "But Tang isn't it SO COOL!!! Monkey King is here, right in front of me, IN PERSON!!!" Tang looked shocked by the boy's enthusiasm but took it as a good thing and went along with him, "Well, it IS nice to see the legend we both believed in, really interesting!" He spoke back happily. Li Mei smiled as well from MK being so happy but then heard her grandfather calling for her at the table in the other room. She snapped back into reality and went to him with two more bowls of freshly cooked noodles for her and him, he smiled and was happy to see his granddaughter after a long time of waiting and had two cups of freshly made green tea that he made with Sandy.

"Why hello my granddaughter, I heard that you was talking with Monkey King, we're you?" Kenji asked her in a calming tone. She blushed a bit from embarrassment but stayed strong, "Yes, Yes I did grandpa! We was just getting some food for everyone for breakfast, noodles was all that we could find..." she ended with a little worry in her voice. "Awwww, it's ok my dear! Why don't you have a cup of green tea with your grandfather?" Kenji asked in a kind tone. Li Mei smiled and went to her grandpa, sitting the two bowls of noodles in front of her and Kenji then sat on a pillow across from him at the table. Kenji smiled and put down his stick and picked up the cup of tea and sipped it gently, Li Mei did the same and had a warm smile on her face. Wukong was finally finished passing out breakfast to everyone and thought of Li Mei, the little conversations they had when they met in her room, how she blushed whenever he was around and how they first met, how excited she was. A blush soon appeared on his face as well, he felt his cheeks get warm and flinched from realizing it and quickly stopped himself from blushing. "This is new...." He thought as he began to sit on his cloud and think. Meanwhile, Li Mei was munching at the noodles as if she haven't ate in days, slurping the noodles and sipping the juice and licking her lips, she then noticed her grandfather looking at her in a bit of startle with not even a noodle put into his mouth, she then quickly wiped her mouth and cheeks of any juice or noodles and smiled nervously. "Uhm...I haven't ate in so long grandpa! It's been a while!" She said smiling and looking a bit embarrassed. Kenji just shook his head with an amusing chuckle and began to eat, "Why it's alright my dear, I could sense that you haven't eaten in quite a while, I understand that you must've been ravenous..." he responded to her. Li Mei smiled and chuckled herself, smiling happily, after all that's happened to her, she still had some hope in her.

[Meanwhile]
Mac was a shadow slithering through the city in search of Li Mei and saw the city in ablaze, ruin and destruction, the bots roaming the areas and survivors in old broken down shops and houses that still remained in one piece, his footsteps were fast and quick, as if they wasn't even touching the ground. Blood was still on his hand and so was the cut, it stinging through the breeze but, Mac didn't care, all he wanted was to find Kenji and his..."snowflake". He kept searching and searching for her, looking under rubbish and broken down buildings and yet she wasn't found. He looked in old shops, she wasn't there, down the alleys, she wasn't there, he looked and looked and looked...she wasn't anywhere to be found. Macaque grew angrier and angrier by the second, slamming the shop door shut as he growled in frustration. He then saw...the snow globe. It was cracked a bit and the water spilling out the cracks, it was still able to work but, it needed fixing. Mac's eyes grew wide at what he found and remembered when he met Li Mei at the shopping center, how kind she was..how generous she was to give money even tho he let her have it for free. He picked it up and clenched it tightly and growled loudly, swinging his arm into a wall and SMASHING the snow globe on impact, a small rumble and crack on the wall and a little blood dripping from the same hand. He soon started to loose it, throwing down the pieces of glass on his hand onto the ground with an infuriating snarl and turning into a purple mist, slithering away furiously.

"Where....where Where WHERE?!" he thought, turning back to normal and standing in a dark alley, only his eyes able to be seen and clenching his hands into fists, more blood dripping from his hand due to the pressure on the wound. He then sighed in defeat, but only kept going, leaving the alley and going to search for Li Mei more, no matter WHAT it took.....

[End of Chapter]