The Moon's Successor

Odd Creature...

This is another buildup episode but that's fiiiine. This'll be fuuuuun!

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─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽River ☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

While everyone was regrouping near a river, Linwan was staring into it. She thought a few things over as Pigsy cleaned his shirt and put it back on. "Blue ain't really my color, but uh, it beats looking like that monster, Zhu Ganglie." "Technically, you'd be Zhu Bajie, now that you're on the Journey to the West." Tang corrected. "Oh hoho, no, no, no. Don't go comparing me to that demon. My name's just plain old Pigsy." "Besides, we're not on the Journey, Tang. Our... uh... Your ancestors were on this journey." Linwan spoke up, almost including herself, but correcting herself upon remembering she doesn't know who her ancestors were. "I can't wait to meet my ancestor, Ao Lie. I bet he was mega cool! Right, Tangy?" Mei spoke as she balanced her sword on her nose, using its handle to do so safely. The scholar laughed nervously and looked away. "Well..." "I wonder when we're gonna meet my ancestor." MK spoke happily as he kicked his legs, laying on the ground and drawing. "I thought Monkey King was your dad." Mei raised a brow, but kept her sword balanced on her nose. Linwan, meanwhile, scootched over to MK to see what he was drawing. "He's not my dad. Pigsy's my dad." MK pointed at Pigsy with his crayon. "Uh, kid, I'm not exactly your uh..." the young hero seemed to ignore him as he continued drawing. "Hmm, Mei does have a point." Tang began and suddenly went on a ramble. "The rest of us mysteriously inherited the powers of the ancient warriors." "Except me..." Linwan tilted her head at the scholar who nodded. "Except Lin. However, Monkey King is the only original companion we know for sure is still alive. And yet, you have inherited all of his power, so it is possible that-" "Yeah, right." MK interrupted with an amused huff. "If Monkey King really was my dad, don't you think he would have said something by now? Like Macaque did with Lin?" "Yeah, 'cause he's normally so forthcoming with information." Mei sarcastically spoke before squeaking as she lost balance and her blade almost stabbed her. "Wait, dad?" Pigsy gave a confused look at Linwan, which made the girl sputter, having completely forgotten to mention Macaque was now being called dad by her. "A-adopted! He's not really my dad either, MK. Remember that Pops is my dad too... or, uh, was. Also adopted. Actually, now that I think about it..." She accidentally made herself feel terrible at her own rambling but ended up trailing off and clearing her throat to avoid that. Luckily, MK helped by continuing the conversation with a huff. "Well, whatever. When we find Monkey King's stone, then we'll just ask him." Tang and Mei spoke at the same time. "What?" "Monkey King's huh?" Linwan gently touched his shoulder as she peeked at his art of the King's stone. "His stone? Why there?" He happily showed the art piece to the rest of the group and explained a bit more. "Yeah! The one he was born from. Ever since I got into the scroll, I've been having visions of Monkey King standing next to his stone-" The pig cut him off in agitation. "Wha... You didn't think to mention that sooner?!" "I'm telling you now. If we find the stone, we'll find Monkey King and he can explain to all of you how he's definitely not my dad and everything is fine. So, less yappy, more-" He suddenly stopped talking with widened eyes. 

"MK?" The young warrior peeked into his eyes. "Monkey King?" "It's happening again, isn't it?" She went to gently shake him out of it, but he already seemed back where he was meant to be. The scenery suddenly darkened and ink demons appeared around the group. "Ah! The scroll's curse. It found us!" Tang panicked a bit and Pigsy joined in that panic by holding his rake close. "Tang, get us outta here!" "R-right." He pulled out some instructions, but they blew away. "Oh no! My cheat sheet!" He reached for them but Mei grabbed his shoulders, since it was a lost cause. "Forget about the cheat sheet! It's exam time, baby!" She let go and Tang slammed the ground with his khakkhara, causing a magical ringing noise that made Linwan flinch slightly. She didn't pay attention to the golden lights below her since she was too busy watching a bird, Macaque, and Ne Zha copies smoosh together and form into a large elephant. "GUYS! He looks mad!" This elephant went to bring its mallet down on MK, but Linwan grabbed onto MK and pulled as Mei went to protect him with her own sword. The blow broke the Dragon Blade and the resulting blast caused the three friends to knock into Tang, interrupting his spell and causing everyone to be in different orbs of light and shooting them off into different chapters of the story.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽??? ☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Linwan groaned as she slowly opened her eyes, but she froze when she saw monkeys that had surrounded her. "Uh... Hi?" She looked around at them and thought for a moment. "Is this Flower Fruit Mountain?" When she went to get up, one screeched at her and she quickly covered her ears as she hissed in pain. "Shhh, quiet, quiet." When she was sure they were quiet, she lowered her hands and slowly got up, but just ended up crouched on her haunches. "What has you guys so angry at me? I haven't done anything." She heard something behind her and looked over to see nothing but wilderness that appeared to be dying. "Huh, definitely isn't Flower Fruit Mountain." She shuddered before quickly turning to her shadow with an excited smile. "Mac!" Unfortunately, nothing was there. "Huh? B-but I was sure I..." She looked around again then looked up at the trees before jumping into one. "Okay, so I need to find my way to Flower Fruit Mountain. Easy. I bet MK is already waiting there for me!" She saw a few monkeys follow her up and gave them a small head tilt. Wrong move. They instantly began screeching and throwing themselves at her, which made her scream and take off through the trees. As she jumped from branch to branch, having to grab on when she wasn't close enough to simply land on them, she was getting teeth and claws dug into her. They were small, but man did they hurt! "The monkeys on King's mountain are so much nicer!" She reached a tree line and quickly jumped through it, rolling before looking back to see if she was being followed out for a fight. Luckily none came from outside the trees, leaving Linwan free to wince at the pain setting in. She stopped to look down at one of the worst bites, a hand bite that was simply pouring blood. Her hands went to the lowest part of her shirt and... riiiip! She wrapped her hand and sighed before checking on her ears. They were still fully attached with no knicks or bumps to feel on them. "That's a relief." The young warrior felt a chilly breeze which made her shiver before she glanced back to see a cave. "... Seriously, where am I?" She got up and summoned her cudgel as she walked towards it, listening out before delving further.

It didn't take long for her to follow a draft and find herself at a higher point. "Huh... At least it has a good view." The sky began to darken again which made her let out a 'tch' in response. "It moved that fast huh." She heard something next to her and looked over before squeaking and scrambling away from an ink version of Macaque. It took a moment, but it seemed to blow away with the wind before she began having to back away from the ink that began appearing everywhere as if many brushstrokes had painted the scenery. "What's going on?..." She heard it. Ink pooling and something coming out of it. It took a moment longer before she heard a giggle that sounded like her own. That made her quickly turn around to see an ink version of herself. "Me?" It tilted its head before a face mask that looked similar to Macaque's appeared and its eyes shined with a Cheshire grin to match. She took a step back as it giggled again.

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This one is pretty short at almost 1,405 words. That's alright, we've gotta set up for the downhill slope of this rollercoaster ride!

Tidbit 1: Linwan is extremely disappointed that she was separated from the group again. Maybe if she held onto MK tighter, she could've gone with him. Oh well...
Tidbit 2: Linwan's thoughts on this new creature are simply... The fuck is that? Why does it look like me? Does that sound like me? WHY?! IS THIS A DAMN NIGHTMARE SCENARIO OR SOME SHIT?!