Chapter Text
MK huffed when he heard the laughter behind him mocking him for tripping on his own feet during the spar. He almost considered not moving, just laying on the dirt. From here he could see things from a newer perspective and it was actually kind of interesting. At that point he was laying there because of genuine interest in what could be found, rather than pure pettiness.
“C’mon, Bud. I know you’re not hurt.”
MK wiggled in place before returning to relaxing on his new favorite laying place. He would not feel bad for his mentor at that groan he heard. Oh, he knew this was childish but at this point, he felt he earned it.
“What could you be possibly doing that’s so important you can’t move?”
“I am becoming worm.”
Silence. Now MK was struggling to not laugh. There was another groan from the hero behind him before those magic words were said. “Alright, alright. Lessons are over for today. Go ahead and go back home, Bud.”
MK jumped up immediately and let out a loud cheer. He was so caught up in the excitement that he moved for a hug, only to be reminded with a hand smacking him in the face that that was not allowed. He rubbed at his definitely-gonna-be-sore forehead and whined. “Did you have to hit me so hard?”
“Yeah. You know I don’t do the hugging thing.” Monkey King then began his post workout stretches, leaving MK to pout.
Despite his better judgement, he decided to take this opportunity to poke for some information. “Sooo why don’t you like hugs?”
“I just don’t.”
“But I saw a painting of you with your old traveling group from your awesome journey and it looked like you were hugging someone.”
That made Monkey King pause and MK smiled in anticipation for a new - never before told - story! But then the stretching continued as usual. “ Anymore. I don’t do hugs anymore, okay?”
“Why? Did something happen?”
“Don’t you have some noodles to deliver?” That caused MK to flinch back. Lesson learned; The Monkey King has a story no one has documented before that caused him to not like hugs even though he was positive to them in the past.
And that story is a sore topic.
So MK decided to leave well enough alone and stood. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then?” There was only a small grunt in response which told MK that he really did mess up this time.
Once he made it to the other side of the waterfall he let out a long sigh. “Man. I should know by now not to press for things Monkey King doesn’t wanna tell me…” As he made his way to the dirt path headed home, he heard a noise. Something he couldn’t place.
It wasn’t one of the monkeys, he practically had all their complaining sounds memorized. When it happened again he stopped walking and looked around. He whispered quietly “Where are you, little guy?” As the noises continued, he used his incredible focus skills to find their source, pushing through a bush that sat on the edge between forest and dirt to find his answer.
He was sure the relatively small, red fox was whining in pain. He moved in to action to try and help as best he could, knowing that Monkey King was protective of all creatures on his mountain and thus knowing he couldn’t in good conscience let this go.
MK reached a hand towards them slowly and carefully to look for any wounds that could be causing so much pain. But before he could they jumped him.
They bit his hand! So of course he stood up and immediately made an effort to get them off! Except none of those efforts were working and he was starting to panic. He waved his arm in all kinds of different directions and in what was essentially an instinct he called for help.
“Monkey King! Monkey King, get out here! It’s an ambush! I’m being attacked! They’re gonna capture me and carry me off somewhere and no one will know that I want Mei to have all my video games so -“
Wasting no time at all, Monkey King came rushing to him and the fox that was still holding onto his hand with their teeth. That was when they finally let go and climbed up the nearest tree that stood several feet away from him. MK summoned the staff and got into a fighting stance but waited for Monkey King’s word.
His mentor was glaring up at the tree and he looked to be saying something, but MK couldn’t quite catch it. There was a long moment of stillness and silence that led to MK relaxing his stance. Maybe the fox was just scared because they were hurt and a stranger got too close? He almost said as much before the next interruption pulled a yelp out of him.
“DEATH FROM ABOVE!!” The fox jumped Monkey King and the two struggled for a bit before he got a hold of them around their middle and held them out away from him.
“Who do you think you are coming to the mountain of the -“ he stopped. Why did he stop? What was with that stunned expression? What was going on?
The fox smiled sheepishly, ears perked up in a show of happiness. “The Monkey King? Oh, you know, just an old and quite intimate, if I do say so myself, friend.”
What?
Monkey King’s breathing became visible again while his shock remained clear on his face. There was a breathless whisper of “Kumi…”
What?!
He set the common red fox down and - “Wait! They can talk?!”
Monkey King turned a grin to MK while remaining kneeled down in front of his assailant. “Relax, Bud. I’ll explain in a bit. She’s telling the truth about being an old friend so don’t mind me as I process seeing her again after so long.”
“An old friend? Like - from the journey? How come I don’t know anything about you being friends with a fox?!”
Monkey King completely ignored his questions in favor of talking with this ‘old friend ’ with one of the happiest expressions he’d seen on him yet. “What brought you back? Wanted to torment my successor?”
Her ears flicked and her eyes widened just a bit. “Oh is that what all that’s about? I had heard some rumors about him but I was focused on the ones about your return.” There was a pause. A moment shared between them that MK didn’t know enough to find the meaning in.
And then she looked at him. He jolted to attention, holding the staff steady in the ground next to him. Suddenly he felt very awkward and when she started walking towards him, that anxiety got worse. He pulled the staff closer to his chest and tried to calm the quacking so as to not be rude, but she didn’t exactly start this introduction with the best first impression.
She sat in front of him and gave the purest and sweetest looking smile. “I’m Kumi. A Huli Jing.” A what? “Not quite fox and not quite human.”
“Umm…”
She tilted her head before laughing. “You don’t know what that means?” She looked over her shoulder. “Come on , Wukong. I know you knew nothing when I met you but that doesn’t mean you have to leave your successor in the dark.”
There was strangely no response from Monkey King. MK looked up to see what could have him so tongue tied and what he saw made him suck in a breath.
It was a look like the one he saw earlier when he questioned Monkey King’s issue with hugging only much more intense. It was like he couldn’t decide on what emotion he wanted to feel or show he was feeling. Whatever inner monologue or fight he was having with himself, MK wanted no part in it. So he resolved to stand there and not say a thing, allowing his mentor this moment.
The fox - Huli Jing? - showed no such resolve.
She stood and walked over to him. MK noticed the clenched fist and the way he stepped back. Like it wasn’t a sign of retreat, but a show of stepping into the strike. “Awww does the cat have your tongue? Or I suppose it would be a fox, wouldn’t it?” She laughed at her own joke and the tension rose.
MK reached forward and spoke up, as quiet as it was. “Kumi…”
“Come on, sweetheart. I know it’s been a crazy long time but staying on the mountain without you for so long was so hard to do. I didn’t have a choice but to -“
“- go hunting for more tails?” Monkey King scowled as he interrupted. And now the air around Kumi matched the rest of the area. Heck, MK could almost swear it was reaching far enough to cover the entire mountain.
The moment of silence gave MK a chance to process that particular exchange. More tails? Has she killed a lot of animals and has a collection somewhere? How would Monkey King figure that out? Considering the subject of his confusion, he focused on the movement in front of him that he had only been giving a mild notice to.
Kumi’s very large tail gently swayed behind her but there was something strange about it. Unable to help himself when he figured it out, MK gasped. “WHOA! There’s so many of them! Is that a Huli-whatcha-ma-call-it Jingle thing? You have a ton of tails! What would that do for you? Like - what’s the point of having -“ He stopped himself.
Contrary to popular belief he was absolutely able to read the room, he just purposefully ignored it sometimes. But this was clearly too serious to ignore it. Monkey King was giving off an aura filled with murderous intent and in response Kumi was cowering.
“Do you want to tell him or should I?” There was a strong bite in his mentor's words. Something else was going on here, without a doubt. Kumi’s response was a whimper.
“He doesn’t… really have to know, does he? Can’t we just not think about it?”
“JUST NOT THINK ABOUT IT?!” MK almost needed to cover his ears thanks to that shout being so loud it sent some nearby birds into the air. Once again, a moment of silence. Monkey King took a deep breath before moving his glare to MK.
“MK, go back to your noodle shop. Do your job before Pigsy throws a fit. I have a demon to take care of.”
“Uh…” He hesitated. He couldn’t understand what she did between Monkey King’s happy reunion and his thinly veiled threat so he knew he would feel terrible if she got hurt. She seemed so innocent and sweet, despite that whole biting thing.
But one heated glare - that he hadn’t seen from Monkey King since he trained with Macaque- being directly sent his way and he swiftly turned around. “Yeah! Yup! Right! Gonna head out now! You can let me know when you want to train me later! Alright! See ya!”
That was a difficult thing to do. And he wasn’t so sure he was happy with his decision. Mei was always telling him to be more assertive - especially when the amount of days Monkey King wanted to train him increased and cut into his party time with her - and he should have listened to her.
MK really, honestly, hoped that Monkey King wouldn’t kill the Huli Jing. Or at least if he did, he would explain himself to him better.
When he made it back to the noodle shop, he was given a lecture. He didn’t hear it.
When his shift was over, Pigsy offered him something. He didn’t take it.
He did, however, sit at the bar next to Mr. Tang who was making a fuss about Pigsy’s offer not being extended to him. While their argument came into focus and MK was able to hear and understand what people were saying to him again, he took some deep breaths.
“I’ll repeat one more time so that it fits in that thick skull of yours. I told the kid first that he could have the discount on the noodles if he wanted it. YOU have never ONCE been offered anything of the sort!”
“Well, that’s precisely the issue Pigsy. How come he gets a discount and I don’t?”
“Because you’ve already taken and eaten at least half of the profits I should have seen by now!”
“Oh - pfff - that’s an exaggeration and you know it.”
MK smiled at the familiarity of it all. Hearing the way the two handled their fights was completely different from… from whatever Monkey King and Kumi had going on. He sighed and looked down.
“Guys… can I get some advice on something?”
The loud arguments instantly stopped and Pigsy set down the sauce bottle he had prepared to throw. “What’s wrong, kid?”
Mr. Tang turned to face MK. “Yes of course, MK. You can always get advice from me.”
MK hummed and thought over which question to start with and the best way to word it before settling on something simple. “What do you know about hu- wait, what was it again? - Hula hoop Jin fox spir-“
Mr. Tang spit up the broth from the noodles that he was drinking (which MK didn’t even notice he got) before turning to MK with wide eyes. “A HULI JING?!”
“Oh! Yeah! That was it!”
Mr. Tang sputtered, clearly trying to find the words. Whatever Huli Jing’s were all about, it freaked him out. Suddenly MK was starting to doubt going to him for help. He turned towards Pigsy instead, leaving Mr. Tang to his little freak out.
“What do you know about them, Pigsy?”
His Dadsy just shrugged. Great. That meant he had to wait for Mr. Tang to calm down enough to use understandable sentences.
Which he eventually did, and in record time, too. “MK, there’s only one reason I can think of with you wanting to know that. Please tell me you didn’t actually meet one.”
MK tilted his head. “Huh? Yeah, I did. She seemed sweet but Monkey King -“
“You talked with her?!? And you think she was ‘sweet’?!? Wait - Monkey King was with you… Did he save you from her?”
“Kind of? But when she bit me -“
“SHE BIT YOU?!” Tang jumped into action and before MK could figure out what was going on, his shirt was lifted up. He blushed, feeling like he was being treated like a little kid again.
“Uh… Mr. Tang? What are you looking for?”
“Trying to see if there’s some trick, like poison or mystic related infections.”
“But… why? And why under my shirt?”
Tang rolled his eyes at the question before pulling MK’s shirt back down and then sitting up straight. He rested his elbow on the counter and his cheek in his hand. “I didn’t see any bite marks so you should be fine. You have to be more careful with demons you know nothing about, MK.”
“That doesn’t answer my question. Why did you think she bit me under my shirt?”
“Oh I know she must have bit where your heart is. That’s what they’re all after.”
“What?”
Mr. Tang sighed. He was real quick at switching to this calm demeanor. Must have been the years of study. “MK, Huli Jing only want one thing; to become human. And to do that, they eat the hearts of men. There were actually a couple Huli Jing in the stories of the Monkey King but I never told you those cause I wasn’t sure you were ready to know about them.”
MK’s eyes grew and Pigsy finally spoke up. “I’ve heard you telling him a lot of those stories, Tang. What made these other ones so much more inappropriate?”
“Yeah! And even if they were, I’m 23 now! I think I’m old enough to handle anything else that could be going on in those.”
Mr. Tang cleared his throat and turned a glare on Pigsy before shutting his eyes and humming in thought. “I don’t know… Maybe it’s because I personally do not find the subject matter very pleasant.”
Pigsy leaned over his counter with arms crossed. “Whatch’u talkin’ ‘bout, Tang?”
They both waited patiently for quite a while before Mr. Tang finally gave in and looked away. “Huli Jing are not physically very powerful demons. Their strengths lie in cunning and trickery and oh are they cunning. The way they lead men into their traps to be able to eat their hearts is… it’s through seduction, guys. Some will go so far as to lie with them and catch them sleeping the next morning.”
Pigsy looked almost apologetic while Mr. Tang looked ready to throw up and MK… MK just became all the more confused. That still didn’t explain why Monkey King seemed perfectly fine with Kumi, even knowing she was a Huli Jing, before suddenly switching to the opposite extreme. None of it was adding up at all.
“So why did she have seven tails? What’s the point of that? When I asked her is when Monkey King started freaking out and getting upset so I didn’t get an answer.”
Mr. Tang groaned. MK felt a little bad pressing for more info but he couldn't shake the feeling that this was important. He couldn’t help but feel as though he needed all of this context.
“A Huli Jing has an extra tail for each extra hundred years of life. If they eat enough hearts by the time they turn a thousand, then they become human. If not… Well, I’m not entirely sure what happens if they don’t eat enough. I imagine nothing good considering how serious they take their task.”
“So Kumi would be seven-hundred?”
“Not quite. You said she had seven tails, right? Then that means she’s six-hundred. All foxes are born with one tail, after all.”
MK hummed in a thought that was interrupted by Pigsy. “I know that look. What’s not making sense to ya, kid?”
He shrugged, making no visible acknowledgement towards the rare sight of a customer coming in to sit down and order. “I dunno. Just that the years Monkey King was missing, how old Mr. Tang says Kumi is and how well they seemed to know each other aren’t meshing together in my brain.”
Tang shrugged and started cutting the conversation off due to a new set of ears being in the building. “Well, I wouldn’t worry about it too much. I’m sure Monkey King has it all under control.”
“Yeah… I guess you’re right.”
Hearing the customer order the beef udon, the first thing listed on the menu, MK’s attention was changed. Pigsy began to work on pouring a bowl (he had a pot of that exact kind already made) and some mild small talk was started. His mind was occupied with thoughts of Kumi’s motives for biting him and Wukong’s conflicting reactions to her so he didn’t hear most of the conversation.
At least not until a particular phrase made him tune back in.
Hearing that this would be the woman’s first taste of Pigsy’s noodles made it impossible to hide a smile and get a little excited. It was always fun to see different people’s reactions to them. After all, his Dadsy really was the best chef in the city.
She took a bite, he grinned and held his breath and then… Well, that was a shock. The customer’s hat fell off. It had been sprung away by two fairly large fox ears popping up suddenly from underneath it.
MK stared. Mr. Tang stared. Pigsy stared. And the woman was none the wiser, sitting in what could only be described as bliss with eyes not truly looking. This was clearly some kind of demon they were working with, but he knew from experience that not every demon was inherently evil. Red Son became a he- well he was getting better. The point was, MK would watch carefully and grab the staff at the first sign of trouble, but for now he would accept that maybe she was just an innocent customer.
She recovered from that euphoric moment of when you first take a bite of Pigsy’s cooking and then proceeded to eat the rest greedily. MK managed to relax himself at such a normal reaction, until a group of orange tails appeared as though hidden by a magic barrier. He furrowed his brows in confusion until he heard Mr. Tang hyperventilating behind him.
That made it click and his eyes grew wide. “Kumi?!”
She turned to him with a mouth full of noodles, an ear dipping down as she tilted her head and let out a soft “Hm?” She swallowed the food, set down the chopsticks and reached for her head. She looked behind her and then laughed, making the fangs visible. “Oh wow. Not sure how that happened.” When she got up to retrieve the hat she noticed the tails. She blushed and spun around. “Ah - man… that’s not right. Guess I lost my concentration.”
While she shut her eyes in what MK could only assume was an attempt to use whatever shapeshifting ability she had again, he finally turned towards his dads. Tang was breathing into a brown paper bag with eyes watering as Pigsy rubbed his back. He was fine.
MK smiled and turned to say something to Kumi, but she beat him to it, running up to grab his hands and hold them in both of hers while she excitedly explained herself.
“Sorry for barging in like this! I wasn’t trying to deceive you or anything, I just wasn’t sure how to tell you it was me with other people in here. Wukong’s a little upset with me still, but I’ll bet you can help him understand why that’s silly! Seemed to me like he cared a lot about you and I’m sure that includes caring about your opinion on others, right? So you can make him trust me again!”
MK let out a nervous laugh. “Uh… yeah I don’t… I don’t know about that… does he know you’re here?”
She laughed. “Nope! He just kicked me off the mountain and told me to go find someone else to bother!”
“So… wait… how did you find me?”
“I followed your scent! Duh! Wow, humans can be pretty dumb, huh? Am I gonna be dumb like that when I turn -“
Their conversation was cut off when Mr. Tang suddenly jump-kicked the Huli Jing. Where he learned to do that, MK was a little scared to know, but it was done now. He sat in his spot with hands staying where they were in the air while staring at the space where Kumi was.
He blinked out of his daze at the whimper and jumped off the stool to rush towards it. “Kumi!” She was laying on the floor, switched back into the form MK first knew her in. Mr. Tang pushed up his glasses before resting his hands in his sleeves.
“There. That is her true form. Silly fox honesty believed taking the form of a beautiful woman would work on anyone here.” There was a pause before an addendum. “Well, maybe it would work on one person.”
Pigsy snorted. “I resent that.” His voice spoke with a softer tone while MK looked Kumi over and watched as she stood up. “She okay, kid?”
The gasp was expected. “What?! ‘Is she okay’?! Are YOU okay, Pigsy?! She’s a Huli Jing! Did you not listen to anything I just said?!”
MK tuned their arguing out in favor of smiling as the fox demon in question opened her eyes. “Hey. You alright? That was a pretty nasty hit. Sorry about Mr. Tang. He’s kinda freaked out about Huli Jing’s.”
She shook her head. MK didn’t really have the time to examine that look in her eyes. All he could gather in that moment was that she looked hurt and maybe scared. But he knew there was so much more hiding behind them.
“I’ll be okay. It didn’t hurt that much. I guess. Maybe.” She brought a paw up to the collar around her throat as her voice trailed off. They both winced when they heard another yell from behind them.
“Leave this place of residence at once, you ancient demon!”
“I’m not a demon!”
The fox demon’s reaction - wait, she just said she wasn’t a demon. Then what was MK supposed to call her? He didn’t want to be rude! Or worse, offensive towards her. She seemed really nice and genuine and undeserving of Mr. Tang’s ire.
“If you’re not a demon then, um, what are you?”
Mr. Tang made a very dramatic gasping sound. “MK! I can’t believe it! She’s already gotten into your head!” He then made a point of lowering his pitch while keeping his voice loud as he continued to yell at Kumi. “Beware the wrath of a father figure!” The ‘ch ch’ sounds that accompanied each of the strange finger motions were unnecessary, in MK’s perfectly honest opinion.
He looked to Pigsy for help, hoping he wouldn’t have to say anything. His efforts to telepathically connect to him were rewarded with Pigsy lifting Mr. Tang up and carrying him to the back room, where he continued to shout complaints and harsh statements about the being he didn’t know.
MK turned back to Kumi only to find she was gone. His eyes grew and he immediately started searching, finally deciding on standing up and running out of the shop. There, he saw a dejected, seven tailed fox walking along the farthest edge of the road with her ears down.
The Monkey Kid sighed. He was starting to feel less like a monkey and more like a mouse and it did not feel good at all. He was supposed to be a hero and that for sure extended to demons who had done nothing wrong. Even though Kumi was very adamantly against that label, he still felt she was allowed to apply for his protection and he was duty bound to accept it.
Deciding he had enough wallowing in self-pity over not doing his job, MK sped walked over to do his job. He switched to walking at Kumi’s pace beside her. “Hey. I’m really sorry about Mr. Tang. He kinda got freaked out after - well uh...” MK rubbed the back of his neck and glanced away in just a tad bit of shame. “after I told him you bit me.”
Her ears perked up at that and her head turned sharply to face him, eyes wide. “What?! But that was just a joke! Even Wukong thought it was fu-“ she cut herself off suddenly before returning back to square one with her ears laid down and walking slowly. “Well, he thought it was funny before he saw my tails…” She let out a small whimper. “Now he’s given me an official warning and swore that if you were ever caused any sort of pain while near me, he would…um… make me breathe my - uh…”
MK’s own eyes grew in realization. “He threatened to kill you?!”
Kumi whimpered again, but it was much more pronounced than the last one. “Please don’t say that word. But… yeah…” she stopped walking, staring at the ground as if she were looking through the Earth’s very surface. Was that possible? Could she do that? MK needed to do more research into Huli Jing’s since it would be helpful to know the extent of her powers. “He hates me now. I was so excited to learn of his return and he hates me now.”
Seeing such an honest emotional moment from her, MK’s eyebrows furrowed and he glanced away. She was so genuine and it seemed like all she wanted was Monkey King’s approval (something he could relate to) but there had to be some reason for that first interaction to go from ‘warm and friendly’ to ‘dark and hostile’. He thought back to every second of time he was with her and then a certain memory led to the question, “Why is he so upset by your tails? Don’t they just indicate age?”
There was a pause as Kumi considered his question before she let out a most bitter sounding laugh. “Man. Like master, like student. No, little one, that is not how it works. They are not counters of time but rather counters of keys. Keys that I need ten of to become human.”
And then it all made sense.
Mr. Tang’s explanation of Huli Jing’s needing to eat hearts to become human coupled with the misconception she had just set him straight on meant that Monkey King was upset at seeing how many hearts she had eaten. But how was he friends with her before his disappearance if the idea of her eating human hearts was such a problem?
Almost as if she read his mind - yeah he really needed to do more research - she answered him.
“The last time he saw me, I only had three and he made me promise to not have any more the next time we met. But he was gone for so long and I was so lonely without him and I had no one to hug or to tell me I was already human enough so my instincts kicked in and I - I -“
“You ate human hearts.”
There was a heavy pause filled with tremendous emotion within its deceptive silence. “Yeah… the hearts of prideful, mortal men.”
That was new. MK didn’t realize the requirements were so specific. Did that make it worse? Was it trial and error for her to figure out if a mortal man’s heart was prideful enough?
Was his heart prideful enough?
“How… how do you know when a heart you’ve eaten matches those conditions?”
She shrugged and kept walking. “I just kinda do . It’s instinct, you know? That pull to do something without much reflection given to it. When your thoughts turn to fog as you go through the motions.”
MK let out an awkward and nervous laugh at how she described it. He didn’t think she realized that ‘instinct’ was not something he experienced, at least not in the way she felt it. But he figured that she was going through enough of an identity crisis without having that inhuman trait she clung to being challenged.
“Is mine prideful enough?” He slapped a hand over his mouth, eyes wide when he saw her turn to him with her own shocked expression and ears pointed up.
“What?!”
“Sorry! Sorry!” He held his hands in a show of surrender. “You don’t have to answer that!”
She looked to be thinking it over before narrowing her eyes at him in a way that made him straighten up. “Would you believe me if I told you?”
Now that… that was a really good point. After Macaque manipulated him, he had experience to warn him of trusting anybody whose smile seems friendly. And Macaque didn’t even have centuries of accounts against his entire species! While MK thought Mr. Tang was too quick to judge so harshly, he knew there was a reason for it and he had to respect that.
Getting lost in his contemplation left him silent for too long. Kumi sighed and shook her head before continuing her walk. “For now, I think Wukong would want to keep a close eye on me, despite him initially kicking me off the mountain. Even if he doesn’t see me as a friend.”
MK frowned and stayed in place as she grew distant. “Are you going to be okay? Walking alone, I mean. All the way to Flower Fruit Mountain. It’s kinda really far and also there’s the issue of the volcanoes -“
She laughed. “It’s fine. I have my own way of getting there.” She gave a playful wink, said “See ya later, cutie.” and she was gone.
MK blushed lightly at how adorable that was before shaking it off and then returning home. He had a lot to talk to Monkey King about tomorrow.