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One thing that Yanqing liked about the Xianzhou, was how perfect the weather was at night. It was not too cold, yet not too warm. Just the perfect temperature for a late night walk. Or in his case, a late night patrol .
A criminal here and a criminal there. He's out here busting butts in the best way possible.
With Xianzhou being broken down to different districts, vigilantes take care of the lower ones while heroes take care of the higher ones.
Even though being a vigilante is very, very illegal. Yanqing doesn't find himself minding that much. If he could help the people of Xianzhou in any way possible, then he would do it.
Now he runs on the rooftops, feet burning and lungs heaving as he swings himself up with momentum and jumps on a ladder hanging by the side of a building.
He slips- almost. Hands desperately clinging onto the metal bars as his heart lurches. Pulling himself up with his arms and diving behind the small railings on the rooftops.
He was a little clumsy, maybe a little in-experienced too, but that still doesn't take away the fact that he is a vigilante.
The one they call: Blue sparrow
A fitting name in his opinion. The public gave him that nickname when he saved a falling man from the building, by riding fast and quick on a sword, as quick as a sparrow.
He wears that name with pride. Waving to the little kids or friendly Luofu folks that call out to him when he's on patrol.
He hears the wind zip by his ears, tickling his cheeks as they urge him forwards towards what he can see is a hidden shack behind a building. It was brown and old, with rotten wooden planks sticking out on the side. Yanqing could see that the broken windows were bordered up, so much so that nothing could be seen through the little cracks.
It was your stereotypical villain hideout.
With an affirmative nod, he jumps off the rooftop and heads towards the shack. The wind has been bugging him for quite some time now, nudging him every now and then, turning into a sudden strong breeze that slaps his face. It has been talking to him more than usual, he can feel it.
After weeks of following what little clues he has from the ever so passive agressive wind, he has finally found the destination that he has been searching for.
"Alright, alright I'm here, jeez!" Yanqing shoves a hand through his hair, detangling what he can of the yellow strands blown harshly by the wind.
"Tone it down!" He scolds, glaring at the space behind him. Can the wind see that? He hopes it does.
He arrives in front of the shack with his hands tucked in his jacket and checks to make sure his mask is secure. There doesn't seem to be anything suspicious on the outside. But for as long as Yanqing has been a vigilante (which is only a month.) He knows the ins and outs of a secret hideout when he sees one.
He goes up against one of the windows, squinting his eyes and trying to see through what little cracks between the planks.
"I don't really see anything…" he holds his hands out and goes on his tippy toes. Putting force on his fingers that were on the wooden plank he was leaning on.
"Maybe I can just…"
Bang!
…
The wooden plank on the window falls to the ground, Yanqing winces.
"Oookay, hopefully no one heard that-"
Footsteps rumble from the inside, a single shout echoes throughout the shack.
"... Or maybe they did-"
In a flurry of seconds, multiple men dressed in plain t-shirts with a purple mask over their faces come barging out of the shack. The doors and windows that were previously bordered up were broken down as the men charged through them.
Yanqing jumps back, caught off guard by the dozens of guards surrounding him like a hoard of ants, with the tips of their guns pointed directly at him.
"Put your hands up, don't make us- huh? Is that… a kid?"
The guard at the front leading the group puts his hands up and curls them into a fist, a signal for his men to lower his guns. They stare confused at the kid in front of them.
"A-are you lost little guy? This really isn't the place for kids ya know."
Yanqing frowns.
"I'm not a kid!"
"I'm pretty sure you are, now just move away and let the adults here do their stuff."
The men all lower their guns, though still not dropping their guard. More or less looking more relaxed now that they don't see a threat. The main guy in command walks closer to Yanqing.
"Where's your mom?" He puts both hands on Yanqing's shoulder, turns him around and looks left and right.
"You couldn't have wondered this far on your own." He states, giving an awkward pat or two on his head.
Yanqing feels himself seething.
He breaks free from the hold and takes out a figurine of a sword to point it at the man.
"For the last time- I'm not a kid! I am the blue sparrow, and I've come to arrest you for your crimes!"
He twists the small sword in his hands, pointing it towards the man.
The man and his group look humorously at Yanqing as they try their best to hold their laughter. Nodding along as if chastising a kid's fantasy about playing super heroes.
"Yes yes, you are here to bust our butts. Woaah!" the man mocks, bringing his arms up and waving them.
"Yeah- no kid, you don't know what you're doing and we aren't your typical friendly neighbours either. Now get going before you get hurt."
The once friendly tone was now gone, replaced with something more hostile . The man sizes him up, making himself bigger as he stares down at Yanqing, trying to scare him off. Well, too bad for him, Yanqing is just as stubborn.
"The wind has told me you are doing bad things, and bad people need to be punished! You guys need to be thrown in jail and I'm going to be the one who does it!"
The man sighs, "Jeez kid, I really don't want to hurt you…" he cracks his knuckles, "but sometimes they just have to learn the hard way."
The man closes in, walking with his arms swinging at his side. The bulky muscles on his arms flex the closer he gets to Yanqing. And Yanqing grins underneath his masks.
That's more like it.
He keeps his knees bent, lowering his central gravity as he calls upon the familiar chilliness in his veins that he’s had for as long as he could remember, and channels it to the figurine sword in his palm.
The man is now just a foot away from him, where if he wanted to, could punch Yanqing straight in the face. But before he could even lift his arms or do anything. A cold wind blew past both boy and man.
"Last chance kid, get out of here before you regret it."
The rest of the troupes behind stand close to one another as the man waves his arms to them, telling them to get into position.
"Or me and my buddies here won't play nice. "
"I'm not scared of you!" Yanqing shouts. Annoyance grows on the man's face as he raises an arm to swing a left punch. The side of Yanqing's lips tilted up as he did so, having all of the power in his palm ready to unleash. The man goes down for the swing, left fist tearing through air only to get blocked by something hard and cold.
A sword .
The man staggers back in horror at the sword that appeared out of nowhere as two more blue swords join in, circling around the boy like a protective circle as they float in mid air.
"W- what the fu-"
"You have the right to remain silent, criminal!" Yanqing bellows, crossing his arms against his chest, then turns to talk to the swords more than half his size. The icy swords listen, their blades slicing the air in swishes as if they're responding to Yanqing.
"Just beat them up, but make sure to not hurt any of them though. We just need to tie them up." He says casually, as if he were talking about the weather. The sword tilts up and down as if nodding. Two swords separate from Yanqing while one remains on guard.
They float up to the men as the squad that once lowered down their guns, retrieved them in their arms once again, the weapons aiming straight at the blades. The man looks towards the blades then Yanqing, going back and forth. There's fury in his eyes, and Yanqing predicts that it won't be long before he attacks, and sure enough, the man does.
He runs at Yanqing, ducking under the blades when they try to block his way. He gets only about a millimetre from where he stood when he feels pain shoot up both his back and his leg. The blades have used their hilts to hit hard against the man, sending him flying to the ground.
The squad behind shoots the blades, their bullets flying in the air like missiles. But they don't break nor chip the blades in any way. Instead the blades remained spotless. They circle around the squad, herding them together, then draws the tips on their blades against the ground in a circle right outside the squad.
In the span of a second, the lines that were engraved on the ground shoot up shards of ice, trapping the firing squad inside the ice-like cage. Both blades then return to Yanqing’s side.
The man who was their leader and promptly not in the circle, gaped openly at Yanqing. He tried to stand up, to do something to help his crew. But the minute he tried, there was something cold and sharp against his neck, threatening to lower down if he didn't stop struggling.
"There, another job well done." Yanqing cheers, mostly to himself. Crossing both his arms on his hips as he looks at his work.
"Now you bad guys won't do any bad things anymore."
“You don't even know what we did!" One of the trapped squad members shouts, frustrated in the cage that none of their bullets or kicks can break through.
"You're just some kid wondering around, found a warehouse and decided to fuck with us! How old even are you?!"
"Old enough to be busting butts!" He retorts, then puts a hand to his chin, it's true that he doesn't really know what they've done wrong? And technically he didn't see them do any of the illegal stuff that the criminals usually do when he arrests them. If he thought about it, the guy was right about them just… sitting about. But the wind led him to them, just like how it led him to all of the criminals in the past. Yanqing lowers his hands.
"I don't know what you did, but… you probably did something really bad. The wind never lies, and it won't lie about this now." He nods to himself, looking at the man on the ground and the trapped squads.
"T- the wind?! Who the hell is this kid!"
"I am the blue sparrow, defender of the weak and vigilante of the night. I beat up bad guys like you to serve justice to the people."
"You don't even know who we are!"
Yanqing ignores the screaming man.
He leaves them in the ice cage, commanding his swords to haul the leader that was still on the ground with their hilts to join his men in the cage. When the swords finish doing just that, they turn back to small figurines and fly into his jacket. From the far distance, he hears sirens sound across the district, loud and clear.
The police are on time, like every other time he has called and dipped them so they arrest the bad guys. He was just about to leave too, like he has all the other times when he was done with his job. But he feels another tickle on his cheek, and instantly he turns his attention towards the run down shack behind him.
"You want me to go in there?" He asks, the only answer he gets is another breeze against his finger, like its trying to grab his hand to follow them to the shack.
Yanqing cocks his head, and walks slowly towards the run down building. The stairs creak and squeak when he steps on top of them, some of the planks produce water that has been absorbed in the wood.
"What are you doing?!" The leader that was thrown into the cage shouts, his voice oddly more hostile than it was before. And suddenly Yanqing wipes his head back.
"Going into the shack?"
"You're not allowed in there, get out!" The man screams, shaking and punching the ice rather harshly as he tries to break out.
"Why not? You guys do have something to hide don't you." Yanqing puts away his warning and continues on. If the wind was right and they were doing something illegal there, then it probably would be best to expose it to the police, so that they know what's inside.
Before Yanqing takes another step forward, footsteps sound behind him. As quick as lightning, Yanqing is out and away from his spot, jumping out to the side. He sees a man standing right behind where he has been, with his hands reached out. If Yanqing didn't move, the man would have grabbed him by the jacket by now.
But as he observes the man more closely, he feels his breath leave his lungs. The man had long and messy ivory hair, tied up with a single red ribbon that blows lightly in the wind. Other than the iconic Xianzhou armour that he wears and the large golden spear is attached to his side, gleaming in the light. Yanqing looks up, and he is met with a singular sunset-gold iris staring back at him, the other eye of the hero was covered by his long white bangs.
Panic blinds admiration as Yanqing freezes in place. The hero turns to him, a move so easy yet so flawless at the same time.
"Blue sparrow is it?" He speaks, retracting back his hand. There was something majestic about the way he spun that makes Yanqing smile (with the extra need of pumping his arms and jumping around the hero just to tell him how awesome he is.)
"I've heard of you through the mouths of the people here on the Luofu district." He places both his hands at the back of his hands, and smiles.
Yanqing is absolutely astatic right now, because the Lighting Lord, God of the skies, General Jing Yuan, the No.1 hero of all of Xianzhou knows about him?? Please tell him he's not dreaming.
"O-oh uhm… thank you!" He blurts out, keeping his left hand at his side while he does an awkward salute with his right. He also does this weird hair flick thing, which he angles his head up and swings his hair back. It was more stiff then he imagined, but he was trying to look cool in front of his favourite hero okay? Cut him some slack.
The general turns his head, observing the frozen and absolutely still squad members inside the ice cage (who were trying their best not to make eye contact with the hero) and walks towards them. He touches the ice lightly with his fingertips, and hums to himself.
"Impressive craftsmanship," he states, then turns back to Yanqing.
"It seems that district Luofu is indeed in good hands."
Yanqing scratches his neck "thank yo-"
"But being a vigilante and using your gift without a hero licence is still against the Xianzhou law."
"-uh..."
"And you look way too young to be out patrolling the streets. As for Xianzhou precautions, I would need to bring you back to the headquarters for questioning." The general finishes off with a smile, while Yanqing is left staring blankly at the hero.
…
"... Can I say no?"
"No."
…
Yanqing bolts.
Immediately the hero is on his tail, fast on his legs as Yanqing tries not to look back as his heart hammers in his chest. He can hear the sirens clearer now, it seems like they're about to reach the scene too. Has the hero been trying to stall for time so he can take both the trapped criminals and Yanqing at the same time?
Yanqing curses underneath his breath.
He runs down an empty alleyway, kicking the boxes piled at the side in front of him and sending them crashing down. He spares a glance back, in hopes that that would have slowed the hero down. But to his horror, the general is jumping over it. Can someone even jump that high?
Yanqing shakes his head, now's not the time to get distracted. As much as he admires the hero, and as much as it was a dream to see the hero up close and talk to him. He’s not so sure about being chased by said hero, with the threat of being thrown in jail because of it.
The general wasn't slowing down, quick on his feet as he catches up with seemingly little problem. And the worst thing about this is, the alley was coming to an end.
Yanqing can feel himself internally weep as the end of the alleyway closes in on him. As a final desperate way out, he summons his swords once again. Pulling out a small figurine out of his jacket pockets and sending a wave of power through them.
The sword enlarges, and stops to block the general as Yanqing runs forward. The general stops and reaches for his spear, only for the sword to turn down and scrape the ground, summoning a large ice barrier reaching up to four metres high. The general stops himself before he slams into the ice, watching from the slightly transparent ice barrier as Yanqing steps on top of the enlarged blade and sets off into the skies.
"You're super cool!" He shouts from a distance, keeping his arms out for balance. "But I really don't want to go to jail, sorry!"
Jing yuan’s eyes widen as Yanqing disappears into the distance.