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Nezha couldn't exactly expect to slip out of whatever happened to him on Flower Fruit Mountain, not with Detective MK on his trail. He's actually pretty smart, contrary to what he led people to believe. And even if he didn't spend too much time with Nezha, he could pretty much tell something was wrong. So, MK had finally managed to get Red Son to get Nezha to come down to FFM again, to “spar”. From what MK could see, Nezha looked a little more uncomfortable compared to last time he was here. “Where’s Red Son?” He asked, glancing over to where MK was sitting. “He… Uhhhh…” MK paused. Probably should’ve thought of a good excuse between Nezha coming here.
“Couldn’t make it! Yeah, he totally couldn’t make it!” He decided, smiling. “... What do you need, MK?” The lotus prince sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “What do you need, lotus boy?” He was still grinning, trying to be playful. MK wasn’t exactly the best at confronting his friends. “... I’ll be leaving now.” Nezha blurted out, now hovering in the air. “W-Wait, wait, wait, wait! I know something happened to you here!” MK called out, his voice a lot more serious than before, making the deity pause. “You can talk to me. Monkey King’s out. It’ll stay between us.” He watched as Nezha floated back down to the floor.
“Where’d Wukong go?” Nezha asked, glancing over at the shabby hut. “Uhh, dunno, actually. Didn’t tell me. That or I forgot.” MK replied, helpfully. He rolled his eyes a little, before watching as a few monkeys came around MK’s feet. “Leggo!” He shouted, guiding him over to a ledge with a nice view of the mortal world. “So… Do you wanna tell me what happened? Or at least what you saw?” MK asked, sitting down as he went over to the ledge. Nezha averted his eyes. One of those little monkeys came up to him, resting it’s little head of his leg. He paused, his hand briefly pausing, mid air.
Nezha rested his hand on its body, lightly petting it. If monkeys could purr, the little guy would sound like a car engine. It was chirping gently, though. “I… I’ve not exactly met a demon like Xiang Liu before. Not for a long time, anyway.” Nezha slowly began, cracking a little. “Who…?” MK drew out, blinking at the lotus prince. “T-The-” The deity blurted, his old hot headed nature rearing its head. The reaction reminded MK of Red Son’s expressions. Maybe that’s where he got it from? “The nine headed demon who made you practically kill yourself?” Nezha reminded the monkie kid, causing a little awkward chuckle from MK. “Oh, him… Yeahh, well…” He drew out. Nezha sighed before continuing. “That chaos… It’s more than dangerous. I’m not sure where it comes from.” MK does. He saw the brig of chaos before. Literally. Nezha continued. “And there's only so much Chang'e's relaxation advice can do about it. It’s dangerous, especially within me.”
“Within you?” MK repeated, blinking at him. He didn’t mean to say that last part. Nezha paused, figuring out how to put this carefully so MK wouldn’t fully figure it out. “It’s a long tale, but suffice to say, my magic is somewhat fuelled by chaos for… Reasons.” He didn’t want anyone to know. “It’s been growing far faster than I thought. Dangerously so.” Nezha admitted, looking down at the little monkey asleep on his leg. “It’s… Corrupting it’s core, basically. It's wrong. And it’s been like this for a long time.”
“Is that why you keep losing fights?”
Nezha frowned at MK. “Don’t remind me.”
“Anyway, your dad’s in charge of heaven, right? You guys have immortal peaches, so you totally could have a cure or something for it!” MK suggested, smiling. Ever the optimist. Nezha found it almost impressive.
“If there was a cure, Erlang would’ve retrieved it by now.” He sighed, glancing down at the forest. “What about your dad?” Nezha paused. “My… My father is busy restructuring Heaven, he needs his focus elsewhere. It’s not my place to interrupt-”
“You have a chaos fuelled lotus themed fire thing inside of you that could be eating you alive from the inside out, how is that not important?” MK shouted. Macaque’s ears perked up. Nezha was a little surprised, he’d never really seen him shout before. “Dude, you’re his kid, you should talk to him!” MK placed a hand on his shoulder, a soft reminder of what Xiang Liu had warned. “You matter.” That was something Pigsy had told him a lot, maybe he should get Nezha to talk to Pigsy? He just needed to get Nezha to talk to anyone, really.
“I’ll… I’ll discuss it with him. When I return.” Nezha nodded, watching the monkey come off of his leg as he stood up. “... Thank you for letting me talk about this.” He added, fiddling with his spear. “No problem! I got your back.” MK reassured Nezha. He made his usual grand disappearance via spell teleportation and lotus petals.
“Smartie kid strikes again!” MK cheered, celebrating the breakthrough as he disappeared into the shabby little hut.
“You owe me again, Wukong.”