Chapter Text
Things were peaceful for a change. A gentle breeze flowed through the mountain like a breath of fresh air. The bright blue sky was dotted with huge fluffy clouds. The flowers and fruit were especially bountiful this time of year, which meant the mountain’s inhabitants were enjoying everything it had to offer. The Monkey King included.
Ah yes. On such a sunny day, he could be found lounging in the sun in a nice cozy hammock. His stash of snacks beside him was well stocked for a day of lounging.
He watched from his favorite spot as the young monkeys played in the sun under the watchful eye of their parents. He enjoyed watching over the little ones, but ultimately they belonged with their family at the end of the day. Plus, while it was fun being the babysitter, he wasn’t sure he’d want to be responsible for one 24/7. Training his successor took up much of his time already.
Speaking of which, he remembered now that MK was supposed to train with him today. As grateful as he was for the kid’s enthusiasm, he could not bring himself to get up on such a fantastic lazy day.
“Monkey King! I’m here and ready to do some awesome training!”
MK came in through the usual way. Absolutely bursting with energy and bouncing off of the walls.
“So, what are we doing today? Are you finally going to teach me how to shapeshift? I wanna be a hawk. No, a tiger!”
“Slow down, Bud. You’re still a long way off from that sort of thing…” he scratched his chin in thought before thinking up an alternative, and more importantly, hands-off, lesson. “But! I do know one thing you can work on today.”
He gets up from his hammock momentarily to lead MK through a patch of trees to an old hut overgrown with vines. It seemed it hadn’t been touched in an awfully long time. He put his arm over the kid’s shoulder as he gestured to the hut. “You’re pretty strong, but you’ve also got to learn to handle things with care. Otherwise, you might break something important. So to teach you that, I figured I’d let you sort out some old relics of mine.”
MK groaned as he realized what was happening. “Is this gonna be another one of those lessons that feel like a chore ?”
“Exactly! Now. I want you to take this wet cloth and bucket and wipe the dust off everything here. If you can do that without breaking a single thing, then I’ll show you how to shapeshift. Maybe…”
“Sweet! Don’t worry, Monkey King. I’ve got this no problem!”
The kid got right to it. Dunking the wet cloth and starting to wipe down a large golden armored plate. After observing it a little, he noticed something familiar about it.
“Hey, wasn’t this the armor you wore when you defeated the Demon Bull King?”
“And countless others. Most of this stuff is from the Journey to the West though. After I got home, I dumped all of it in this shed until I could deal with it, then I sorta just forgot about it for a while.”
“Aw man, this is so cool!” MK beamed as he moved onto another relic. It was sneaky, but he knew his student would get something out of it. Letting him fanboy over some old bits and baubles from his travels would occupy him long enough for Wu Kong to enjoy this pleasant day.
“Remember, try not to break anything.” He said before slipping out the shed door to return to his comfy spot. The Monkey King leaned back in his hammock with a sated sigh. Nothing could spoil such a gorgeous afternoon.
…
Inside the old hut, MK sorted through the vast collection of relics. There was so much history all piled up in this room.
He did his best not to break anything as he wiped off the centuries of dust that had been caked onto a large portion of the relics. He was nearly finished when he found a strange door in the sidewall that seemed to be hidden behind a stack of old boxes.
MK couldn’t overcome his curiosity and opened the door just a little to see what was inside. Surprisingly very, there was very little. Just a few strange objects on pedestals.
One of which was a gourd, similar to the calabash but far cruder and older. There was a faded piece of ancient bamboo paper. The writing on it was very outdated and impossible to read due to being mainly bleached away by time.
MK gently picked it up and shook it a little. He could hear as its contents sloshed around inside. It sounded like water. He didn’t remember reading about anything like this in the stories. Then again, there were so many of them he couldn’t quite remember them all. He remembered all the action bits though.
“Hey? Monkey King?” He called from the shed.
“You’re doing great! Keep at it!” The monkey king echoed in response but gave no indication he was actually listening.
“Thanks, but what about this gourd?”
“What was that, Bud?”
“I said what about this-”
He was suddenly cut short by a loud explosion off in the distance, towards the city he called home. However, MK didn’t wait and quickly sprang into action, unwittingly taking the gourd with him.
Wu Kong watched him speed off towards the city, quickly hopping into the delivery kart that he had borrowed (without his boss’s permission) in order to get there quickly. But, unfortunately, it took him a second to realize that MK had accidentally grabbed the gourd of forbidden water that he’d hidden in the backroom to never again see the light of day.
It was clear that today’s plans of lounging were definitely not happening. If he wanted to prevent disaster, he’d have to grab that bottle before someone accidentally drank it.
He quickly chased after MK fearing what may happen if he didn’t get there in time.
…
When he got to the city, MK was already fighting those two knuckle-headed idiots, Jin and Yin. They were easy enough to deal with, but he couldn’t leave it to chance the gourd wouldn’t be broken in battle.
“Guess I better handle this one myself.”
He landed in the middle of the fight, sending out a controlled yet powerful shockwave, which knocked over the demons and MK.
The demon brothers seemed to grapple onto each other in fear as their eyes fell upon him. Mk, on the other hand, sat up and crossed his arms indignantly.
“Hey! I had it!”
“I know you did, Bud. But I gonna need that back.” Wu Kong pointed to the old gourd on MK’s cart.
An embarrassed expression spread across the young man’s face as Monkey King gingerly walked over to take it back. He didn’t even realize he had taken it until that point.
“Sorry, I was trying to ask about why it was locked up in your shed, but I heard the city being destroyed again and-”
“Don’t sweat it.” Wu Kong said with a wave of his hand. “I’m just glad I got to it before you or one of the others drank it.”
“Why? What does it do? Oh! Does it give you superpowers?”
He held it far above his head where the kid couldn’t reach it.
“No, it does not. This is really bad stuff, Kid. If even a little of it gets in your mouth, it could-”
Out of nowhere, a streak of silver slashed the gourd. Causing the bottom half of the bottle and its contents to fall directly onto the monkey king. More importantly, the surprisingly clear water fell directly into his still open mouth.
He gave a slight gulp as he swallowed a mouthful of the strange water reflexively. His expression was blank as he stood for a minute in shock. Still holding the broken half of the hour over his head. A faint ‘shoot’ may have been heard, but no one paid attention to that. Instead, everyone in the space had their eyes locked onto the now thoroughly soaked Monkey King as his knees began to tremble.
“Uh… Monkey King?” MK said, reaching out to him reluctantly. “Are you okay?”
“DON’T TOUCH ME!”
The sudden yell sent MK reeling back. It spooked him a bit to hear him like that, and he didn’t understand what had upset his teacher so much.
Monkey King then quickly clarified the situation. “You can’t touch me. Not until I get this stuff off.”
“What’s happening to you?”
“Nothing you need to worry about, Bud. I just need to wash this off in the waterfall and get the antidote by sunrise tomorrow. Then, everything will be fine.”
“Uhh. Excuse us. But umm. What about our fight?”
“Were you the ones who broke the gourd?” Wu Kong’s voice seemed to drip with dark intentions for whoever broke it. Shadows fell over his face, and his voice resonated with the force of many. It was clear he was pissed.
Jin and Yin shook their heads fiercely. Mumbling apologies and doing their best to convince Monkey King that they weren’t responsible. It happened so quickly that no one had time to see who it was. As much as MK hated those two, especially when considering the calabash incident, they didn’t seem responsible.
Frankly, they didn’t seem to have enough skill to pull that off.
“Fine. Just go. But if I find out it was you two …” his eye flashed with an angry golden glow that MK had never seen. It sent the brothers running for the hills in a matter of seconds.
Monkey King stood for a minute looking at the broken pieces of the gourd before summoning his cloud. Hopping onto it immediately and looking back at MK, he could tell he was concerned for him. He put on a brave face and smiled at his student. “Hey Bud, it’s gonna be fine. Once I wash this stuff off, we can look for the antidote together. Okay?”
MK forced a smile and nodded. “Okay”
“Everything will work out, you’ll see. It’ll be an adventure.” Wu Kong lied before leaving on his cloud for home. The purifying properties of the waterfall would at least make sure the water’s effects didn’t spread to any of the others.
He could already feel some of his energy drained during his flight home. The sky grew dark as the sun began to dip below the horizon. As the stars became visible in the night sky, Wu Kong cursed himself for not disposing of that accursed gourd years ago.