Chapter Text
True to the family’s words the demon arrived the next night. This left Tripataka with a night and day of rest, which Wukong was very insistent he get the fullest of. While the monkey was typically very energetic, to say the least, he was more...frenetic, about it. Something that got rather worrisome, but whenever questioned about it, Wukong merely insisted that he just wanted his savior to get the rest he needed. Tripataka decidedly left it at that. He was tired and so slept soundly through the night. The next morning, while Wukong insisted he keep off his feet, Tripataka questioned, “How will you handle this demon, precisely?”
“I’ll fight him into submission? How else?” Wukong responded with a sure grin.
Tripataka looked at him, yet again, dumbfounded by his confidence.
A horse’s snort drew attention to Ao Li whose horsehead was sticking through a window left open for him, “This demon can fly, you can’t with that circlet? Or weren’t you listening?”
While a twitch of annoyance furrowed Wukong’s brow, he maintained his bluster, “That’ll just make it a challenge. There’s been no mention of minions, so this demon can’t be too much of an issue. Just a coward with a few paltry tricks to scare the family into giving him what he wants.” He scoffed, scratching his fuzzy chin, “Honestly, this would be boring to handle otherwise.”
To this, the dragon horse flicked an ear, seeming to agree with Monkey King’s read. Then, abruptly, looked to Tripataka and stated, “Don’t worry, I can change to a human shape if he gets in trouble.”
“I won’t need help, don’t be so presumptuous dragon pup!”
“You’re one to talk.”
Currently, Tripataka and Wukong watched a dark cloud brew in the sky. From their spot on the second floor of the Gao family home, they’d watch it gather with unnatural speed. Tripataka was left silent fear at the phenomena. On the other hand, the Monkey King was positively tickled in amusement, “Looks like the fiend knows how to put on a little bit of a show. Personally, I’d whip it up to look like my emblem. Presentation, you know.”
Tripataka gawked, he couldn’t really be giving honest critique. And was he insinuating he’d extorted others in a similar manner!? His genuine questions didn’t get a chance to get answered when a sudden gale force of wind hit the building’s red lacquered shutters. The wooden structure rattled in fear and the goodly monk recoiled. Stones and fragments were tossed into the wild winds and ricocheted off the family home. A cold wind’s howl caused all the humans present to shudder.
“That’s a bit better.” Chittered Sun Wukong, “Now I can see how he actually managed to scare off two-bit monks and Taoists.”
“Wukong perhaps Ao Li should-” Tripataka, out of concern, was about to suggest the dragon prince assist the monkey, but he was quickly hushed offhandedly as said monkey held up an excited finger.
“Not now savior, he’s showing himself!” Now the Monkey King was absolutely giddy with amusement, “Old Madam Gao wasn’t lying, this really is one ugly beast! Look at those palm leaves for ears!”
From the dark grey cloud and whipping winds emerged a pig demon, dressed in dark blue clothing, his tri-colored, black, white and tan, fur short and bristly. He howled in laughter as he rode down on his blue-grey cloud, mirroring the winds at his beck and call. From over his shoulder, he pointed a silvery nine-pronged muckrake down at the family. Of whom had gathered around the pile of supplies demanded by the demon.
“For once you’ve got the supplies gathered as asked. Have you finally come to your senses and are willing apologize for your guilt!” He bellowed, voice deep and gruff, befitting someone of such beastly appearance.
“We have no guilt to bear!” Old Gao yelled back. His voice would barely be heard above the winds or the sleeve he shielded his face with. It was thanks only to the pig demon’s large ears that his meager defiance was heard.
“Then you shall not see your daughter!” Barked back the demon. The winds responded to his anger, fiercely blowing up with a whole new level of force. Looser tiles on the ground and roofs were torn off and scattered into the air, crashing wherever they were tossed to. The family and their servants yelled in frights, scattering to the shelter of the buildings patio’s. Pleased by this result, the pig demon grunted, and the winds settled some.
“Yeesh, talk about a blowhard.”
The chittering remark caused the pig demon’s bristly fur to bristle further. Whipping around he growled, “Mind your own-” He stalled when he saw just who was jeering at him. He looked like he’d seen a ghost. He knew this simian. Jaw dropped in horror he pointed a hoof-like finger at him, “You! What’re you doing here!? You’re supposed to be sealed away!”
Stood on the second-story roofing, stood Sun Wukong, proudly posed with his replacement iron-staff. He shot a grin at the spooked demon, “That’s of no business to you, just know I’ve been hired to get this family’s daughter back. You should just do that and save yourself a humiliating defeat.” He motioned with his hand, “Just give her back, okay?”
The utterly smug look on the simian’s face readily nettled the pig demon, his already bristly fur bristling even more. Nine-pronged muckrake clenched tightly in one hoof-clawed hand, he indignantly stomped a foot on his cloud. Fuming, he yelled, “Agh! You don’t know anything about what you prattle about!” Free hand whipped out he demanded, “Stay out of business that isn’t yours!”
With a twirl of his iron-staff, Sun Wukong prepared to launch himself into battle, “You see, with them being my hosts- it is my business!”
Just as it looked like the awaited battle was about to commence...the pig demon turned his cloud and fled. Much to the Monkey King’s jaw dropped befuddlement. Blinking, stupefied, the monkey refocused when the heard the demon yell, “I think I left the oven on!”
The remark an obvious copout, Wukong leapt off the building, propelling off the bordering wall, and chased after his target, yelling back, “Get back here and FIGHT ME! COWARD!”
“Go away!” Shot back the pig demon.
“No!”
In hot pursuit, keeping up despite being stuck to the ground, the Monkey King chased him from the Gao Village and into the surrounding woodlands. The demon was clearly aware of the Monkey King’s reputation and was making a hard B-line for what Wukong presumed to be his lair. Where, no doubt, was Old Gao’s daughter. While this wasn’t the battle he’d hoped for, Sun Wukong wasn’t about to turn down a chance to deal with the demon and save the daughter, simultaneously.
However, as the chase continued, the pig demon looked back and was surprised to see the Monkey King was still pursuing on foot. He cocked a brow at this, but quickly became insulted. Did this monkey think he didn’t need to fly to best him? Abruptly he stopped his cloud and faced the troublesome ape.
To this, Sun Wukong stopped as well, snidely remarking, “Oh? Finally going to face me?”
“What’s the deal?” Questioned the pig demon, pointing at him accusingly.
“Deal about what?”
The monkey dancing around what should’ve been obvious, aggravated the pig further, he stomped his foot again, fuming, “Why aren’t you flying! I know you can take to the skies and clouds. So, what’s the deal!? Do you think you don’t need to, in order to best me!?”
“Well, yeah.” Sun Wukong answered bluntly.
The demon was left aghast. For a moment, he couldn’t respond, and when he did it was when his indignant rage hit its boiling point. He was seeing red. “That’s it!” He bellowed, “I won’t be humiliated by you again?”
“Again?” Wukong repeated. He didn’t recall beating a pig demon before...then again, he’d bested so many foes they all blurred together most of the time. The thought caused him to chortle, “I don’t recall kicking such a cowardly rear before... Still, if that’s how you know of me- you really should consider just handing over your kidnapped bride then.”
“You didn’t fight me as I am now!” Shouted the pig, “I was the naval captain of the Heavenly Reeds! I oversaw the milky way! I had thousands under my command! You and I fought twice in the Celestial realm!”
To this, the Monkey King looked at him blankly, absently scratching at his neck fur. The pig demon gawked at this lack of recollection, “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten!?”
Sun Wukong squinted, dryly replying, “Do you have any idea, how little that narrows it down?”
“You stable boy! We fought after you ran the entirety of the stables through the milky way! You humiliated me in front of my men!” Ranted the pig demon, who once again was stomping a foot upon his dark cloud.
This time, with the added details, Sun Wukong recalled the “fight”, and laughed, “Oh yeah! Now I remember!” He scoffed, “Hardly could call that a fight! No wonder I didn’t recall it. I was just messing around with you!”
Steam positively coming from his large ears, the pig demon growled, “You fling yet more insults at me. Fine! Let’s settle this then! Get up here and fight me! Enough of this mockery, I demand a rematch!”
To this, Sun Wukong looked off, dismissively saying, “Nah, I don’t feel like it. You come down here and fight me.”
Eye twitching, the demon retorted, “No! You come up here!”
The two went back and forth, flinging insults at each other, for several minutes. Eventually, frustrated, the demon spotted something peculiar sitting atop the monkey’s head. A circlet. By all looks, it was just a nice piece of jewelry, nothing more or less, but it got the demon to begin thinking. Being a former celestial being, he knew something about binding spells. And the Monkey King, hadn’t gone into detail about his release. Further, of all beings, this insolent simian would love to show him up in the skies. His cloud somersault was renowned, and he loved to boast about how fast he could go. So why not do so? Why was he stubbornly sticking to the ground?
Arms crossed, the pig demon eyed him, “I’m beginning to think you can’t fly anymore.” The remark caused the monkey’s eye to twitch. That was all he needed. With a full-belly laugh, the pig tossed his head back, guffawing, “Oh! I see! Good old’Buddha put a collar on you, just in case, didn’t he! You’ve been formally grounded! Oh, this is rich! You're not even a stable boy anymore! You’re just a talking monkey!”
The air was filled with the pig’s hearty laughter- until it was abruptly cut off with a pained cry. While the pig had been busy laughing, Sun Wukong had taken aim, coiled his body, shot up and rammed his head right into the demon’s gut. The impact was more than enough to stun, focus lost, the pig demon’s cloud vanished into nothing, leaving them in free fall. As they dropped, Wukong flipped the pig over and let him take the impact. No sooner did he groan in pain, than the monkey began to beat his foot into his back.
“What was that!? Eh?” The Monkey King snapped, irate. He pinched one of the banana leaf shaped ears and wrenched it back, “A simple “talking monkey” eh?” With enough force to push the pig into the dirt, Wukong stomped onto his back, emphasizing, “EH!?”
Quick to realize he was, thoroughly, beaten, the pig demon clasped his hands together and went straight to pleading for his life, “Okay, okay! You win- I should’ve listened to your sage advice and surrendered! Oh, Great Sage: Equal to Heave, please spare my miserable life. I’ll never make such a lapse in judgement again!”
The Monkey King, easily placated with brown nosing, and thoroughly amused by the comical heel turn, he busted out laughing, “Well- NOW, you're talking sense!” Rolling his head to the side he added, “However, it would really save me some trouble if I killed you here and now. It shouldn’t take too long to find your cave that you stashed your stolen wife. Even by doing so on foot, I could do it in a day. And I did promise old man Gao that I’d deal with you and I’m a monkey of my word.”
Not wanting to be squashed, the demon pressed on with his plea, with a wavering panicked voice, “Please, please- oh, I honestly didn’t steal her! You’re missing part of the story here. You’d surely now want your reputation ruined, Great –and handsome, Monkey King!”
The pig laughed nervously when the simian eyed him critically. He could tell if his flattery had done its intended effect, or if he’d laid it on too thick. Craning his neck down to him, Wukong questioned, “And what else is there to tell, hm?” With a flourish he twirled his temp-staff then planted it in front of his blunt snout. The action was done in a nonchalant manner, but it was enough to cause the pig to recoil his snout. With such a simple action, it’d finely implanted itself into the ground. “You're a demon and whisked the daughter away. It happens all the time. Really,” He scratched behind his ear, “it’s a surprise that more family don’t prepare for such things.”
“While that is a thing that happens. And quite a bit.” The pig simpered, his words wavering like they were made of Jell-O. He put his hoof-clawed hands together pleading yet more still, “Why not hear her side of the story! I’ll take you right to her!”
This. Got the Monkey King to arc his brow in genuine surprise. His scorched red eyes flicked about the pig’s homely features, searching for something that conflicted with his words. Yet, he couldn’t divine anything aside from earnest pleads. Wukong narrowed his eyes, “Sure. And she’d likely have some spell on her.”
“I can’t do that kind of magic! I was a naval captain, not a sleezy sorcerer!” The pig demon protested, managing to muster back up some indignation again. “I’d never do such a thing to sweet Cuilan!”
Annoyed by the shirl squeal of the pig, the Monkey King jabbed his nose with the end of his staff. The pig yelped and smacked his hands to the struck snout. As he whinged and whined about the tap, Wukong crouched thoughtfully on his back. This was certainly an odd development. He rubbed his jaw, weighing his options. Ultimately, he stood back up and arced his back out, stretching, “Alright. Fine. Since you're willing to take me to your lair. It’ll save me time having to root out every demon hidey hole in this valley. Smacking around mooks is only entertaining for so long.” Matter-of-factly, he added, “And savior’s waiting back at the old guy’s home.”
“Savior?” The pig demon questioned.
“The Great monk Tripataka, he’s the one that freed me.” Sun Wukong chirped brightly.
“How wonderful...” Grumbled the demon. Now he knew who he owed the pleasure of this humiliation to.
“Hey!” The end of the staff stamped in front of his snout again. A shiver of dread shuddered through the pig demon’s ample body. “I don’t even want to hear any negativity towards my master!”
“Got it! Got it!” The demon chattered quickly, “I just- was thinking of a proper way to put how wonderful that must’ve been for you!”
The Monkey King eyed him before simply smiling, “Sure was.” He hopped off the pig and gestured with his tail, “Now get a move on idiot!” He eyed his unwilling guide, “I want to see if what you said was true. But don’t forget, if I even think there’s any trickery. I’ll turn you into ground pork. Don’t need magic for that.”
“Got it, got it.” Repeated the pig as he slowly drew himself to his feet. It’d been a couple minutes, but his torso still felt harshly sore, as did his nose. As he dusted off his blue shirt, he lamented to himself that, even after five centuries, the Monkey King’s strength didn’t seem to have dulled in the least. It had to be the effect of all the peaches of immortality, or the elixir, he’d consumed. They should’ve never let him into the Celestial Realm. Boy, how he wished he’d could’ve smacked Venus for that. Then again...the Monkey King would’ve likely barged in anyway. This must be some sort of cosmic joke...
Regardless of whether it was or not, he began to head towards the direction of his lair. Though he doubted it matter, he added, “And my name is Zhu Bajie...”
“Whatever, idiot. Just lead.” Sun Wukong flatly remarked.
This just wasn’t his day.