-ˋˏ [𝘽𝙚𝙮𝙤𝙣𝙙] ˎˊ ~ 𝙇𝙈𝙆 𝙭 𝙈𝙖𝙡𝙚 𝙍𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙧

: ̗̀➛ 𝐒ɦⱺ𝗋𝗍 𝐒𝗍ⱺ𝗋𝗂𝖾𝗌;; 𝐌𝐊 ~ 𝐏𝐢𝐜𝐧𝐢𝐜

A few weeks have passed since the whole Spider Queen incident. A few weeks of the haunting vision of seeing the young, yet familiar, girl standing beside Spider Queen. The memory haunts your mind and plagues your every thought.

Surprisingly, MK had noticed your odd behavior– along with the others. Sandy suggested that MK should help you out by taking you out somewhere peaceful to help you. Now here you were, seated at the top of a hill with MK.

"So, M/n, how's your back doing?" MK asked awkwardly.

"Hm? Oh, my back has been healing rather slowly. It still stings every time something slightly grazes it." You grumbled as you popped a strawberry into your mouth, "How have you been doing?"

"The usual, deliveries, Pigsy scolding me for not delivering fast enough, training with Monkey King, etcetera, etcetera." MK waved his hand in a circle to indicate that the list goes on.

"Aaannnddd, how's training with Wu-, ahem-, Monkey King has been?"

"Alright." MK shrugged. There was a long silence between the both of you as MK chowed down on a sandwich. "M/n, do you have any memories of your childhood?" MK blurted out.

"What?"

"Sorry, strange question, I know. I'm just..." MK trailed off while he fiddled with his thumbs, "Curious..." He scratched the back of his neck.

"It's fine, Mortal. I have memories of my past, quite a lot actually." You shrugged.

"Do you mind... telling me?" MK asked apprehensively.

"I suppose I could." You chuckled softly, "When I was younger, I didn't know how to speak properly."

"Really!?" MK gasped, "But–but! You speak so elegantly and all mighty!?"

"I know, I know, major shocker." You chuckled, "My speaking skills were very broken. One time while me and my master were gathering herbs in the forest, I found a beautiful flower on the ground. I proceeded to pick it up, go up to my master and say 'Look, look! I found love!' My master was very confused, to say the least..." You giggled.

MK cackled out in laughter. "Who was your master?" He managed to ask through a fit of small giggles.

"His name was..." You trailed off. You looked down at your plate of food as you tried to remember the name of your master. "Qiang...Qiang.... Qiang Shen! That was his name!" You exclaimed.

"Why do you call him master, I mean, if you know his name then why not just call him by his name?" MK asked before he raised his hand to stop you from replying, "Wait, wait! Lemme guess... you call him master because 'You don't understand nor do you abide by the mortal social constructs, or any social constructs'." MK mocked your voice.

"First off, that's not how my voice sounds." You grumbled, "Seconded off, no, you're wrong. I call him master because he gave me a proper education and was the one that trained me how to become the well renowned, 'The Baihu Zhanshi'."

"He...he was your mentor!?"

"Well, I suppose that is a more fitting word." You shrugged.

"What other stories do you have?" MK asked eagerly.

"Hmmm, depends..." You murmured, "What kind of story do you want to hear?"

"Oh, oh! Tell me about how Qiang Shen, or "master", became your mentor. Like, when he started training you how to fight!"

"Okay, okay." You giggled, "I wasn't accepted by most human kids when I was younger. I was often ridiculed for my appearance and how I handled myself. Most of the time they'd just say a rude comment or two about how I looked, call me names, the usual bullying from your mortal kind. However, things gradually started becoming more...intense. They went from verbally assaulting me, to physically assaulting me."

MK stared at you with his beady black eyes and munched down on the sandwich he had eaten earlier. His eyes twinkled as he listened to your story, "Go on." MK murmured with a mouthful of sandwich in his mouth.

"They started throwing stones and beating me with sticks. One day, they dragged me down to the village well. I screamed and thrashed around as I desperately tried to escape from their grasp, but I wasn't strong enough. Just as they were about the throw me down the well, my master came to save me in time. The kids scurried off in terror at the sight of my master. That day, he told me he'd start training me on growing stronger." You looked off in the distance as you reminisced on the old memory.

"How'd he know you were even there?" MK asked as he gulped down the last piece of his sandwich.

"He noticed I was taking longer to get water than I normally do." You shrugged, "Any more stories you want to hear?"

"Tell me about how you got the huge scar on your eye!" MK exclaimed as he pointed towards the scar that stretched from your eyebrow down to your cheek.

Oh. That scar. You ran your fingers down the bumpy and uneven creases of the scar. Your face hardened as flashes of Lady Bone Demon ran across your head. You had forgotten about her for a second, you wish you could forget about her forever.

"Oh..." You swallowed. Hard. "That's...that's a story for another time..." You murmured.

"Oh, I see. I'm sorry, I didn't realize it was a painful memory for you..." MK muttered apologetically.

"It's okay, Mortal. You didn't know any better." You waved him off, "I don't want to ruin the mood, especially when you planned this whole thing to brighten my mood."

MK sighed in relief before he whipped his head towards you, "Wait, you knew!? How!?"

"It's a secret." You smirked mischievously and slid a finger over your mouth.

"Grgh! I hate it when you do that!" MK groaned furiously.

"Oh, please." You chuckled. You bit a chunk of the sandwich and stared off at the sunny horizon that was laid out in front of you. Puffy white clouds coated the bright blue sky as rays of sunlight peeked over the clouds. A cool breeze drifted past you both as you continued to eat your sandwich.

"This is nice." MK sighed.

"Agreed."

🪼⋆.ೃ࿔*:･

GUESS WHO'S BACK FROM MY WEEK LONG VACATION!?!??!?! 

I hope you guys enjoy these short stories! I decided to do these cuz I wanted to do more writing on the relationship between M/n and the love interest. I realized that I hadn't actually written that much of your relationship between the the love interest. I wanted to make this story while cohesively write the crushes between you and the love interests beginning to bloom over the course of the series. 

I also noticed that a lot of you guys were very disappointed on Redson not being one of the love interest. Truth is, I actually wanted him to be a love interest. However, since he doesn't appear that much throughout the series, it wouldn't make sense of him having a crush on M/n (Vice versa)– Espically with my writing style.

Anyway, thank you all again for supporting me and my journey on making this series! The next short story will be about M/n and Mei! 

Word Count: 1163