The Moon's Successor

Having A New Journey

I just had to have smaller Macaque as the image here. No reason for it. He's a sweet boy with a soft smile here and he needs to be appreciated. I mean just look at how small he is to Yellowtusk. Come ooooon!

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─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽Home☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

"And I almost got sucked into that damned scroll too." Linwan spoke as she grumpily tried to dry off her jacket. Macaque sighed a bit as he took in the entire story he was given then leaned on the wall next to her. "And you're sure it was me you saw in that... ink?" "Yeah, it was ink. And I think I'd recognize you, even if you didn't look exactly like yourself." She paused. "It looked like you were in distress. You sounded super angry too. It really threw me off and then I just let the rest happen. I wasn't even fast enough to portal MK and I out of there." "Hey, look at me Little Shade." She sighed and looked at the dark furred monkey who gave her a small smile. "You did your best and got both of you out of there." "... Yeah. I know. I just-" She shook her head. "I feel like I'm hitting this roadblock lately and it's super detrimental or something. It's frustrating." He nodded a bit then pat her back. "You'll get it figured out when you least expect it." "Thanks dad." She gave him a small smile as she squeezed the rest of the water out of the jacket and put it back on. "Anyway, I'm supposed to go back with everyone else and seal that scroll until we figure out how to get everyone out of it. You can come if you want." "Hm... I'll be around." She deadpanned at him then shrugged. "Your loss. This would be the perfect material to tease King with for eternity." "Trust me, I'll still be close enough for that." "You always are." She joked then texted MK before summoning a portal and slipping into it.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽Flower Fruit Mountain☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

"So, you're saying you unlocked a cursed scroll and were attacked by DBK, Iron Fan, Spider Queen, Ne Zha, and some other demons you've never seen before?" Tang spoke in a confused tone. 'Oh, he's just now filling them in? Man do those portals make me fast...' "No, I'm saying we were attacked by ink versions of DBK, Iron Fan, Spider Queen and all those other ones you just said." MK shrugged as Linwan walked over. "And that Monkey King was sucked into an ancient scroll that you found in his room full of junk." Mei chipped in, followed by Sandy. "And now you're thinking Mr. Tang's gonna use his newfound powers to free our Mystic Monkey! Right?" Pigsy then gave a bit of side eye towards Tang as he spoke up. "And, uh, if that amazing plan doesn't work?" "HEY!" Tang got ignored as MK waved an arm out in dismissal, laughing. "Don't worry about it guys! I figure this is just another cheeky, little adventure! If fighting Lady Bone Demon was a marathon, this is like a-a-a half marathon. Ideally less, you know? Short sprint." Everyone looked a bit concerned but Mei was the one who responded to the young hero. "Uh, MK? You okay, my guy?" "Yeah... You alright? We could always take a-" Linwan was cut off by MK yelling a "Yep!" and racing off. She sighed then looked back at everyone. "Come on. I know the fastest way." She started walking. "No portal Lia?" "... Nah, I feel MK needs a second to get this out of his system and we need a second away from that." "And are you alright, kid?" She looked at Pigsy then looked down. "Honestly... I'm feeling a lot of ways about it now. I'm upset that King and the monkeys got sucked into that scroll, worried that MK is avoiding these issues, and a bit... I don't know... excited?" Now her best friend raised a brow. "Excited?" "Aha... Yeah. I guess it's the idea of coming up with a solution or something." Tang adjusted his glasses. "You do like puzzles..." Everyone nodded in agreement as they caught up with MK.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽Treasure Room ☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

"Okay! No Ink Demons. Phew! When we get Monkey King out, we're gonna look back and laugh. Oh, how we'll laugh!" The young hero forced out a laugh as he leaned on their boss, getting a nervous look from him. "Whoa! Monkey King..." Mei looked around with sparkly eyes before awkwardly continuing in a quieter tone, "is a hoarder." "Tell me about it. Some time ago we were trying to organize it. It got messy real quick." The young warrior cringed at the memory of her almost getting crushed by junk. "Stuck to organized piles..." She shook her head but stopped when she heard Sandy speak up. "Hey, I think I found the scroll." Both MK and Linwan, having just experienced its nightmarish presence, quickly turned and spoke at the same time. "Sandy, wait!" While MK ended up on his knees with a hand out, Linwan had rushed ahead to try and keep the scroll shut. Unfortunately, the scroll unrolled which made Sandy drop it and back up until the group was back together. She slid in front of everyone and readied herself with her cudgel as Sandy let out an "Uh...", but she ignored him to focus on the demons emerging in front of them. "Aight, Tangy, you're up!" Mei spoke as she tossed the scholar forward and he adjusted his glasses before speaking. "Uh, give our Mystic Monkey back, or you're going to learn why they call me Mr. Tang!" He attempted to use his powers, but it just wasn't working. "Anytime now!" Pigsy said, both annoyed and worried, and Tang panicked a bit. "Give it a minute!" An ink version of Tang Sanzang suddenly appeared and let out a gust of wind, then the ink also formed into the other members of the original journey. The Great Monk seemed to speak to Tang. "Your journey is not complete." Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing were next, speaking to Pigsy and Sandy. "This fool has no strength." "Your fear makes you weak." The White Horse Dragon finished off with Mei. "You are but a footnote." "Uh," Tang awkwardly spoke up as the Ink Demons prepared an attack, "I'm not sure my sweet magic moves did the trick." Everyone kept staring up as Pigsy responded. "You think?" "GUYS MOVE!" The attack came as soon as Linwan spoke up. Mei was grabbed by MK as he leapt to the side and Linwan rushed to the other side, hoping to protect everyone as they ran. She looked up to see almost everyone sinking into the ink instead, which made her get up and rush over without thinking. "Not again! Not them, please!" She ended up on her hands and knees in the ink they left behind and stared at her ink covered hands with wide tear-filled eyes. She had failed to save them. Again! Another Ink Demon rose in front of her and she moved as quickly as possible before falling back as she realized her leg was actually in the ink. "Shit!" She turned to see if she could find her two best friends through the inked monsters that were trying to get them. She saw them and tried to crawl out of the ink that was sucking her in, but it was a lot like her first portal so she ended up yelling. "MK, MEI, GET TO SAFETY!" She heard her best friends' breaths hitch at her voice, but she focused on taking a deep breath in and holding it as she was sucked into the scroll.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽Scroll/Warrior Mountain ☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Linwan finally breathed when her lungs began screaming at her, causing her to take deeper gulps of air. She sighed when she finally evened her breath out, then quickly stood up when she saw she was in a black void. "Why is it always a void I get stuck in?..." She shifted her weight and froze due to a scenery suddenly creating itself around her. "Woah... what the fuck?" The young warrior summoned her cudgel and looked around at the mountain she was on, shielding her face from the wind that was blowing into her face. While it was gentle, it was annoying. "Okay, where am I?" She paused. "Lin, you really have to stop talking to yourself. Then again, when I do that, my voice gets all rough again." A small sigh came from her as she put her hands on her hips. "Alright, so just keep talking to yourself. Better than the sore throat issue." She continued to look around as she solved that issue and hummed at the vast expanse of beautiful flora that surrounded the mountain. "Man, this place reminds me of dad's training mountain... But with life. Weird." Her ear twitched at some rustling behind her, causing her to quickly turn to look behind her with her cudgel at the ready. "Huh?" Linwan blinked a few times at the people that were coming up to the mountain, and they seemed to stop when they saw her. "Um... Hello? Do you know where-?" "DEMON!" That made her jump and look around as she prepared for a fight. "Huh? I... I don't see one." She put her left hand over her eyes as she leaned forward a bit, just to see in the distance everywhere she looked. "You sure you're not seeing wrong?" She turned back to the people and ended up leaning back when they brought out weapons. "Ah, I'm the demon... Wait... NO I'M NOT! ARE YOU GUYS BLIND?!" "Don't try to tell us anything different, demon! Those artifacts you're wearing cannot fool us!" The young warrior gave them an "are you stupid?" stare then glanced down at her clothes. "... This is a jacket, dude. That's pretty normal. You all on the other hand..." She peeked at their clothes as if to point out their weirdness but stopped when she saw they were training outfits... Really... Really old training outfits. "I'm so confused." She held a hand up. "Hold on, lemme figure this out." The pacing began as the people looked between each other in confusion. "So, this mountain looks like dad's training one. These people seem to think I'm a demon because of my clothing despite me OBVIOUSLY BEING HUMAN! And they're wearing weird, old clothing themselves!" She stopped and snatched a staff from one of them, causing a small yelp from them. She inspected it as her cudgel vanished. "This is such an old weapon too. At least the model is." She tossed it back but it just bonked the person on the head. She didn't notice since she turned away again and put a hand to her chin. "Hm... Is this an illusion? But it feels real and-" She let out a yelp before glaring at the one who hit her side with their own training staff. "Do that again and you won't like the results." "Oh yeah?" An annoyed twitch of her eyebrow was all they got in response.

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A shorter chapter at exactly 1,810 words. I like to imagine that Warrior Mountain was important to Macaque and is important to Linwan, so where better for his student and daughter to plop than right there. It must've been a nice place at some point, like before some grand battle. We do see a ton of weapons and armor, a skelly here and there, so I feel it was a cool training place before this battle happened.

Tidbit 1: Linwan feeling like she failed people is one of the only times when she finds she can't get a grasp on things again. Usually she just shrugs it off and continues with a plan B-Z but not when she's got people she's now lost or disappointed.
Tidbit 2: Linwan is extremely confused about just what's going on, but then again, she was simply dropped into this odd place with no idea of what would happen here. For a bit, she even believed she'd just be stuck in the void until MK and Mei came for her and the others.
Tidbit 3: Macaque said he'd be around and he meant it, but he didn't exactly get there in time. He had heard Linwan yelling for MK to get Mei to safety and saw her slip into the ink, but avoided coming out to ensure he didn't get caught or seen by someone on the outside.