Our Ball of Tangled Yarn

Chapter 3: Meeting the City

Macaque sighed as he watched the city from the cloud. He had slightly gotten used to hearing about Monkey King and his successor in the building, but even after the event with DBK had died down on the internet, the people still talked about the boy and how he was a "hero" to the people.

He wonders how often he heard that word for W̸̡̭͚̥͓͖̗̳̿̋̈̍́̅̈̀̕͜͝ͅu̷̢̧͙̼͚̗̜̓̐̒́k̷̨̭̥̽̌͋͑̊̓͐̀̑͝ȯ̶̳̺͎̮̤̞̤̚n̴̢͉͉̞͎̝̼̠͒̆ͅg̴̱̺̙̬̜͙̖̈́̀̅̄̿̐͌͛̐͝ͅͅ when he went on that blasted journey.

"Macaque." A voice boomed behind the shadow monkey, causing him to flinch and snap out of his thoughts. He turned around to see Qīng watching him with careful eyes. Almost as if he'd shatter if the giant moved or spoke wrongly.

As if he'd break like he did before.

"Yes? Is . . . something wrong?" Macaque forced himself to listen into the cloud again, picking up snippets of conversations about a missing girl. Interesting, it changed this time. "Did Hóngsè need my help with finding a book again?" He got up, but paused when he noticed the blue guardian shake his head.

"No, it's nothing of the sort," Qīng moved to sit beside the shadow monkey. "I simply came here to check on you, since it's been a few weeks when you found out . . ." Macaque looked away from the other, turning back to the city below them. Qīng cleared his throat and tried to change the topic. "Um, I was thinking, why don't we visit the city? Like how we used to."

Macaque smiled at the idea, but shook his head. "Someone has to watch over the cloud. If both of you go, then who will protect it from intruders?"

Qīng went quiet after that, and silence remained between them for a while. It was only when Hóngsè bursted out of the building did the shadow monkey get an answer. "I'll stay! You two are free to go and visit the city!" The red giant bellowed, a big grin on his face.

"Hóngsè-!" Qīng hissed at his brother and glanced at Macaque, who had covered his ears at the sudden arrival.

The shadow monkey glanced at the red giant after the ringing in his ears stopped. "When were you listening to our conversation?"

"When Qīng left to look for you," The guardian beamed at Macaque. "You two can go visit the city. I've noticed how curious you've become of the world, it would be best if you saw how much has changed."

"A-are you sure?" Macaque's eyes widened, and his tail began to thump slowly with joy. To see the modern world almost seemed . . . surreal to him. He smiled at both of the brothers and nodded. "Okay, I'll go. But are you sure you'll be fine all alone?"

"Of course!" Hóngsè chuckled. "I wouldn't have volunteered to stay if I wasn't okay with it."

Macaque's grin widened at that, and he ran off inside. "I'll go get changed!"

Both guardians smiled at the change of attitude, almost missing the sudden increase of posts regarding a familiar boy holding people hostage in an arcade.

~~~~~

"What the hell is going on?!" Pigsy yelled at Mk, who was trying to clean up the mess of hairs on the ground after he removed the fat clone.

He just wanted a break from everything, that's all. Mk was tired of having to give orders for Pigsy, paint with Sandy, play with Mei, and manage to get enough rest to do it all over again everyday. He thought if he made more of himself, things would be easier for him.

He wasn't expecting his own clones would gain personalities out of it.

"How many of your clones did you make?!" Tang looked at Mk, glancing at the bald spot that had suddenly appeared on the boy's head. "I know I said you could use that tip to help you when you need it, but isn't this a bit too far?"