It was a light winter, Danzaburo Danaki decided as he made the short trip to his master, the Daimyo he traversed the path a light snow dropped down from the heavens, not enough to do much, other than maybe cake a few branches in white.
The tanuki clan had once been a lively bunch, getting drunk, beating bellies, and snow, when snow had come they had made little tanuki's of the stuff for their children to play with or had fought with the cold,soft snowballs their own paws had formed. Then it had all changed, so suddenly, so quickly.
Danzaburo pushed those thoughts away from his head, it was treason now, he had his master, he had his dignity and he had his honor, in truth he had all he needed. Hurrying up a bit he soon entered the palace.
The tanuki was relatively small, with simple black pants and a black sleeveless jacket, on the back of which was written the kanji for 'mimicry', one of his favorite words. In addition to this he wore a Japanese Sun Hat, though he never payed it much mind. His fur was predominantly brown, but his arms and legs were pure black, as were the stripes on his big bushy tail. He had a black facial mask around his eyes, and a single leaf, perpetually sticking out from the side of his mouth.
He bowed down low when he entered his master's chambers, which were really far more of a throne room, bare and empty as it was.
Except for the giant fish tank of course.
The Daimyo floated within his abode. He was large and bright red. Sword scars decorated him throughout his body, his long sword-like whiskers chaining down besides him. He shook the tank when he spoke, loud and commanding, his voice echoing throughout the empty room, Danzaburo knew.
"You called Masuta-dono"?
"Yes, Danza-kun. Come closer. Kenji-kun! Bring the documents"!
Danzaburo waited as the servant scurried off to obey the Daimyo's orders. As they waited, the catfish suddenly leapt into poetry, a habit he was quite fond of doing.
"Stark, fragile beauty,
Branches heavy with snow, ice,
Precious, fleeting".
The servant called Kenji bowed himself in and placed the sheets of paper into Danzaburo's paws. "Read it", the Daimyo commanded. Danza did as he was bid, scanning the letters and finishing them quickly, they all spoke of something quite interesting. "The Chinese have a shapeshifter"? He couldn't hide his curiosity, well he did, but not right away.
"There is a shapeshifter in China, yes, but whom it belongs to I don't know. Shapeshifters are ever so valuable", once again the Daimyo burst into poetry.
"Forms, morphing every,
Moment, Skins changing every,
Few seconds
Danza-kun bring him back here, or eliminate him should he prove troublesome. Understood"?
"Yes Masuta-dono".
"Dismissed".
Danzaburo bowed himself out. Despite himself he felt a sort of hope, an inkling, something small. Maybe I'm not the last tanuki.
Saras stared at the casks before him, shivering as a gust of wind blew in from outside. Despite the heavy winter Saras wore his usual attire, his yellow woolly jumper remarkably sleeveless, his cloak a thin little thing of green silk, his pants a just as thin cloth of blue, his rice hat piled with the pretty white flakes of snow, his Talon Claws freezing to the touch and a scarf that stuck rigid to his neck. He was desperate to leave, but he was waiting, and waiting required patience. Patience is a bitch. He thought, as another stronger gust pierced through his fur and sent goosebumps all over his skin.
He continued staring at the stacks of barrels before him, trying to calculate in his mind how much their was. Each barrel contained one duo of vodka. Ahead of him lay side by side three barrels of vodka. That made three times a duo, so three duo. He shivered and the maths left him all at once. Counting vodka makes you go to sleep, I should remember that the next time I have nightmares.
"Done boss"! Shan Qu's head popped out from behind the vodka barrel with an energetic squeak, one that made Saras jump. "Three hundred duo of vodka, all stable and not frozen".
Unlike me. Shan Qu was the type of person whom Saras could trust. He was dumb, physically weak and unrelenting in his loyalty. The two of them were the same age, that had been Aang's doing of course, but for all his lack of wit Shan Qu lived up to his name. A mountain will always be there no matter what, Shan Qu had the same principle. But for all his criticism Saras had grown fond of the bat wrapped up in a scarf that would have looked big on a bear, and wearing a thick woolly cloak of black.
"Okay, so we can go now"? Saras asked through chattering teeth, already he was eager for the warmth of Mr. Mann's little spare room.
"Sure boss, just have to make sure whoever buys this junk doesn't freeze on it". The bat flapped off in the direction of the cave mouth, Saras shifted into his warmest form, a dragon and flapped after him, wondering which idiot would buy three hundred duo of vodka. A drunk one.
Night for some was the day of others, and that rule was not exclusive to nocturnals.
The Night Life on the streets of Gongmen was generally quite, except well in some parts.
The gorilla was big, no huge, no massive. Well anyways he was big, even for his species, he towered over all, squashed all and sent the est into shadows beneath him. He rubbed a hand against his suit, silken, yellow and decorated exquisitely in skulls, painted of course, and fake wooden ones dangling from his belt, but they retained the shape all the same. His pants were similarly exotic, black with striped shades of red and blueish hue, his fur as gray as an old mammal's beard. He was Tin Zu, the Drug Lord of Gongmen. Damn, that sounds nice.
Tin Zu relaxed on his throne, it was really more of an old chair. He gazed down lovingly at his son, who played at the foot of the chair with a few brand new toys. Yang Chao was on his way to collect his debt and once everything was done and dusted he would be rid of the hare. Life was a dream, he stretched himself further, stifling a yawn.
Somewhere outside the old mill that formed the headquarters and hideout of Tin Zu, one of Gongmen's greatest drug lords, crouched three figures, a croc, an ox and a rhino, conveniently known as Masters Croc, Ox and Rhino.
"Okay so according to what we got Tin Zu's snug little ass is in there right"? Ox spoke, in a whisper that someone seriously should have heard.
"Yeah, that's right", Rhino explained, cracking his knuckles.
"Can we just bust in there now before I freeze to death"? Croc asked, shivering besides the pair of them.
"It's not that cold", Ox argued.
"I'm cold-blooded"!
"Guys quiet"! Thundering Rhino had spotted a patrol coming straight for them.
"Serves you right for not wearing a shirt". Ox continued, oblivious to the danger.
"Oh, because you have one tucked away in you belly, don't you"? Croc countered.
"Guys quiet"! Rhino commanded again.
"What is it"? Croc snapped popping his head out from over the little rock they had been crouching behind.
"There they are"! A voice cried out.
"Run"! Shouted another.
"Time to go to work", Ox mused as he leapt over the boulder and landed a vicious slap to the side of one wolf's muzzle, sending the lupine yowling into the snow. Croc had leapt out to his left and slammed a tail into an owl's wing, throwing the avian upon the ground in half a second. As a few more of Tin Zu's men came charging at them with hopes of gold and glory, Thundering Rhino leapt from his cover and charged right into the center of them, sending them scattered across the snow, while Croc and Ox made short work of them.
"Warmed up yet Croc"? Rhino had to ask as he slapped two wolves head's together.
A flaming arrow flew past their heads, before a few more rained down from the sky.
"You had to ask"! The reptile flung himself forwards.
Ox punched another wolf in the teeth, the canines slipped from his mouth as he fell down face first into the snow. He would have rested there quietly had a flaming arrow not taken him in the rump. The lupine flew ten feet into the air yelping like a puppy, clutching his but with both paws. "Try not to sit on it", Ox called out after him as he zig zagged down the hill. After that the arrows stopped coming.
It made no matter anyways, because by then Rhino was at the door.
"Let us in in the name of the law"! The rhino bellowed.
"No by the hair on my chinny chin chin"! The guardsman mocked from the other side of the door.
"Have it your way then", shrugging the rhino turned and landed a roundhouse kick to the wooden structure, flattening the guardsman on the other side as the trio of Kung Fu Masters walked in. "Remember guys, everyone we catch goes either into the City Jail or we take them to the Tower of Scared Flame if we have to. Oh and everything they stole we're giving it right back"!
Fenghuang was an owl, an eagle owl, as big as a crane, but wider. She wore a purple silk vest and pants of a deep blue, she wore no jewelry though, but she did and didn't. She wore two leaf shaped silver earings around her crown. A necklace of knives, exotically decorated with gold and silver. But it was the blades noone saw that punctured hardest. Now she sat with a group of others, petrified as Tin Zu stood there bellowing at them.
"Fools ! All of you are fools ! Who was responsible for guard duty today ? Who was responsible for the gold ? Who was responsible for my son"!
Noone dared point out that as his father noone should be held to blame more than him.
"Now those guys have him, those stupid Kung Fu Masters"!
"They are the least of your worries Tin Zu". Suddenly the room was a lot more quite. Yang Chao walked in. He was a snow hare, all cute and white and fuzzy, with a pair of pants and a black vest, aside from his usual bright red neckerchief, yet somehow he instilled fear into the heart of everyone inside that room. "You owe me Tinny, how much was it again ? I lost count".
There was something off-putting about how he talked, something cold and icy about him, then the hare looked concerned.
"Noone got hurt right ? Noone died, how many arrested, no bad injuries"?
Noone replied verbally but Fenghuang mentally did the maths. Forty arrested, of those ten injured, and Fuzzy Fujin was still missing after the arrow took him in the rump.
"Good, no answer means nothing bad right"? His face broke into a grin. "Now where's the money Tinny, 'coz I can't see any here"?
"Ill get it back", the gorrila was several times the hare's size, but still cowered like a child before him. "I just need another month".
"You already had a month and you lost it. Nah, I just can't wait that long. I'll give you a week Tinny. But if you dissapoint me again, well you really don't want to know."
With a smile that screamed charming Yang Chao exited.
"Anyone got any bright ideas"? Tin Zu grumbled, silently wondering how far away he could get in one week. Not far enough he figured.
Fenghuang herself also thought. We could sell stuff in the market, something people will buy a lot of and pay a lot for, and something we can get cheap. Vodka's kinda expensive this season.
Footnote: Hello it's me !
This story is a collaboration fic with Berserker88, and to a lesser but no less important extent Mind Jack. Danzaburo Danaki and Daimyo Masuta belong to Berserker88, while Yang Chao belongs to Mind Jack.
So far the rest are Dreamworks and of course myself.
Dono and kun are japanese honorifics. Dono is used in respect to a greater person, while not humbling oneself. Kun is to talk to a student (from the teacher) or from a parent to a child. It can also be used in a derogatory fashion for men.
In case you were wondering how much vodka rests in that cave one duo is equal to ten metric litres, so the three hundred duo would equal three thousand litres of vodka.
This idea was originally Berserker's and then Mind Jack wrote a Death Battle on the thing and bada bing bada boom this was created.
So enjoy and update soon.