Jade nearly leapt out of her skin with utter excitement as Uncle's dingy old rental car finally pulled in front of the shop, Uncle's voice heard from within the car cursing the dying automobile in Chinese as Sef discreetly plugged the ear aimed in Uncle's direction. She stood at the door, waiting for them to enter and preparing to pounce on their new houseguest the second he got out of the car.
She had remembered she had been skeptical at first about having an exchange student come to stay with them considering how crowded the shop and their home above it already were, but when Jackie had told her the boy that was arriving was around her age, her entire outlook on the situation had changed. Considering she got picked on routinely at school with her seemingly made up stories about ninjas and demons and so forth, it would be fun to have someone in the house who had no choice but to honor her request at telling the endless tales. As a guest in their household, she would be sure to manipulate his debt to them.
Uncle got out of the driver's seat and kicked the side of the car, muttering that it was a useless piece of junk and various other things in Chinese that Jade did not wanted translated. Sef looked like he'd been through the underworld and back the way he was grasping the seat for dear life with one hand and still plugging an ear with the other; Uncle wasn't exactly the most careful driver in the world and still didn't seem to understand what stoplights were meant for. Sef was probably lucky to still be alive at this point.
Sef finally unbuckled his seat belt and wrenched himself from the ancient vehicle, stepping out before the shop and gazing at it with a mystified expression. Jade thrust open the door and stepped aside as Uncle stormed in, still complaining about the lousy transmission as he had been for the past few days. Jade continued to observe Sef, who seemed spellbound and terrified of everything around him, looking all down the streets as people filed down the sidewalk and nearly trampled him.
"You gonna stay outside and wait to get mugged?" she said blankly and suddenly with a slight smile, and Sef jumped back, startled by her sudden attentions towards him. He seemed so nervous, but that was to be expected considering he had just arrived to an entirely new place. She remembered back to when she had first arrived to the strange and populated New York City, and she pushed aside some of her earlier desires to make his life miserable since she could relate to how he felt. She sighed and awaited him to answer her, crossing her arms and unafraid to show the boredom settling in over her expression.
"Uh, yes," Sef said hastily, getting off of the sidewalk and entering into the shop, looking all around him in renewed wonder at all the artifacts and treasures surrounding him. They had lost their luster to Jade a long time ago and she didn't understand what he saw in them. He carefully walked up to a life-sized statue of a legendary samurai, tracing his fingers down the dulled sword that the stone warrior held tightly in his hands. Jade personally thought the statue was a little creepy, always coming downstairs in the middle of the night and thinking it was a Shadowkhan waiting in the dark for her.
"You're acting like this is a museum or something. Aren't you going to properly introduce yourself or something?" Jade inquired, her eyes drooping a bit with coming weariness, and Sef once again seemed surprised by her voice, taking an involuntary back step away as though an enemy were advancing on him. 'Man, is he paranoid.'
"Why are you so afraid of me? It's not like I have foot-long fangs coming out of my mouth and green oozing skin for crying out loud. My name is Jade by the way," she said, extending a friendly hand to the shaken individual, who accepted the gesture immediately with a weak smile. His grip was a bit stronger than Jade would have imagined from a skinny kid like him.
"My name is Sef, though you probably already know that..." he replied simply, shaking her hand profusely to the point where Jade thought her arm was in danger of coming off. It seemed all he needed was to be shown that he was welcome here to loosen up a bit, though she could feel him shaking slightly under his grasp.
"You got a last name attached to that somewhere?" Jade asked curiously, mainly for the purposes of introducing him when they went to school tomorrow. She was already considering how nervous he was going to be entering a new school without a single friend to confide with, but at least she could guide him around and make sure he wasn't pushed around, being the new guy and all.
"Well, my full name is Sef Un-Nefer Artaxerxes," Sef replied with a wide smile, and Jade just stared with her mouth hanging wide open. So much for remembering a name like that.
"Sef-un-fer-xer-what?" she asked with an awkward expression, and Sef actually laughed a bit, shaking his head as though he had gotten this same reaction many times before. With a name like that, she wasn't surprised he had.
"My father is a bit eccentric I guess, but you can just call me Sef. There isn't any need for formalities or anything, especially considering I can barely pronounce my own last name," Sef said casually, a relaxed grin on his face and another quiet laugh as he seemed humored by her reaction. She straightened her face again but allowed herself a faint smile as well.
"C'mon, I'll show you where you're staying and then we can come back down here and get ready for dinner. Uncle's making Long Soup tonight in honor of your coming here," she said with a suddenly cheerful demeanor, gripping his wrist and leading him to the iron-cast spiral staircase in the corner of the shop. Sef cringed; his wrist was still throbbing from earlier when Uncle had been dragging him out of the airport.
"What's 'Long Soup?'" Sef asked with a curious gaze, beginning to smell faint traces of it from the unseen kitchen.
"Just a combination of different meats and vegetables, some chicken and shallots and cabbage and pork all mixed together. Trust me, you'll like it," she turned after she had halted for a moment and bent in to whisper into his ear, "And just between you and me, it's probably the only decent meal he cooks around here. Usually we toss whatever he prepares while he isn't looking and replace it with take-out, and he never even knows the difference."
Sef laughed at this, covering his mouth to minimize the noise they made. Jade giggled for a second as well and then continued to pulled him up the staircase and into a lonely corridor, yanking him into a bedroom to the immediate right, the lights already on and the door open for them.
Jackie was in the room making up the second bed in there, and as he did so he merely turned and smiled at them as they entered, planning to introduce himself once he was done. Sef observed his new bedroom, plain and dull compared to the cluttered shop below, but it still carried a warm and welcoming feeling within it.
"You're gonna be bunking with me while you're here. We'd give you a room of your own, but we don't have a lot of room to spare," Jade explained, plopping down onto her own messy bed and seizing up a small moose doll that was once propped up on the pillows. She held it close and became fascinated with twirling its small cape in her fingers, acting bored once again. The excitement of Sef's arrival seemed to be passing.
"Oh, it's no trouble at all. I don't want to be a burden upon anyone," Sef replied meekly, turning as Jackie finished wrapping the sheets around the mattress, throwing the two layers of blankets upon the bed for him to use and turning to finally get acquainted with their new guest.
"My name is Jackie Chan. It's a pleasure to meet you Sef," he said in a friendly tone, and Sef immediately took his hand as he had when Jade had introduced herself.
"Well it seems you already know me, but then they do always forward information on an arriving foreign exchange beforehand I suppose," Sef said, and Jackie nodded in confirmation, happy to see that Sef's feelings of awkwardness had passed and he was beginning to feel welcomed into their home.
"I read that your father is an archeologist over in Egypt, a very respected one in fact. I've heard of him before from some of my colleagues," Jackie started, and Sef nodded, beginning to toy with the amulet strung around his neck.
"Yeah, I read that you were an archeologist here, so it'll be just like I never left home," Sef replied, and Jackie nodded this time.
"It seems we will have much to talk about then," Jackie said, glad to see someone of his age that seemed to enjoy archeology, but Jade interrupted before their conversation progressed any further.
"Yeah yeah yeah, it'll make for great conversations over dinner. I want to talk to Sef before we have to head down to eat supper Jackie," she whined as she placed her doll aside and cast her legs over the edge of the bed, kicking them into the air impatiently. Jackie decided to leave them alone even with her rather immature request. At least Jade was showing interest in becoming the boy's friend, something that Jackie had, for a short time, had feared would not happen. He exited the room and walked down the stairs to go and helped Tohru lock up the storage compartment in the back.
"So Sef," Jade started once Jackie had departed from the room, watching as Sef walked across the faded and stained carpet and plopping upon his own bed, which he found was very comfortable.
"How was the trip getting here?"
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"You are completely useless idiots!" Valmont's enraged voice rang through the chamber, reverberating off the hallowed walls as the three minions cowered to it. The echoes eerily cast off the walls as Finn attempted to explain their failure, though he noted the dark undertones that Shendu added in to give it a far more terrifying affect.
"Chan's uncle got involved before we could get to him, and besides, that airport was packed! It was more than likely we would have been spotted kidnapping the kid, so it was probably doomed from the beginning," Finn explained weakly, and he was immediately met with a savage response as Valmont continued to spew hatred down at them.
"I do not care if Chan's uncle was there! You could have simply tricked the child into think you were his host family, or claimed you were sent to pick him up if you didn't think he'd believe you!" he spat, and the three of them all hung their heads, feeling stupid for having not thought that up themselves.
"It didn't occur to us, but we can still snag the kid sometime during the day, maybe on his way to school or back sometime," Finn replied, but Valmont's temper ceased to calm even with his promise that they would not fail again.
"You had better capture the boy soon. The time is drawing near and I will not stand to have this opportunity pass us as so many others have, especially not to your foolish clumsiness!" he shouted, and the three of them shuddered with fear, observing the red glint appearing in Valmont's eyes as the demon within him reacted to his unsuppressed anger.
"We...we promise not to fail again," Chow said weakly, his voice shaking as Shendu took over Valmont's body once more, towering over them with clenched fists and bared teeth.
"I have heard that claim before, but I suppose now that we are able to obtain the child in more discreet locations that Hak Foo will now be able to aid in his capture, since it is becoming increasingly obvious that you three are incapable of restraining a small boy. It is just too bad that airport was so crowded, or else I would have sent him to take care of this, but he would stand out too much in a crowd so I had to rely on your pathetic abilities," he said in a venomous hiss, and suddenly from the shadows emerged the tall and threatening warrior, Hak Foo, pressing a fist against his other hand as though preparing to go into battle as he always seem. Valmont, however, smiled at this enthusiasm.
"I'm afraid brute force isn't going to be necessary in this case Hak Foo. You could tear through the little whelp like tissue paper, and that would ruin everything. I merely need you and these fools to await the boy to walk home from school tomorrow and snatch him away before Chan becomes involved. I'll be watching as well to step in if necessary, considering the mistakes made earlier this day, but I doubt with your leadership that it will be necessary," he said, glancing for a mere moment at the other Enforcers, who continued to hang their heads in shame and shudder in fear.
"Yes master. It would be disgraceful to use my power on such a frail and weak child, not to mention an unjustified waste," Hak Foo responded, though sounding disgruntled that his physical strength wasn't needed. Valmont turned to a device sitting upon a small pedestal only a few yards from where he stood, approaching it with a defiant stride.
"The newest tracking device available, courtesy of Section 13, and thanks to Hak Foo's efforts of course. It should help to watch every move that little Sef makes," he said, walking up alongside it and pressing a button upon it, a hologram instantly appearing over it, faltering and cast in static but still forming several shapes.
Sef could be seen sitting on the edge of a bed talking to Jade Chan, laughing every now and then and sometimes playing absent-mindedly with his amulet without a care. He seemed to be adjusting well to his new home. Valmont was pleased with this; it would lower the boy's defenses if he felt more comfortable in this new environment.
Shendu's voice spoke within Valmont's mind once more, who cringed and hated how the demon always made himself present. It was like a large void forming within him and consuming him, but he had gotten used to the sensation in the past.
"The child is completely unaware of all this. It would work to our advantage if he comes willing..."
"What do you mean by that?" Valmont asked back within the realm of his mind, continuing to watch as Chan entered the room and guided Sef and Jade out, probably telling them dinner was ready. Sef followed along last, halting and looking around with an expression that revealed something was troubling him. Perhaps he knew he was being watched, but he never looked up and noticed the small, disguised camera capturing his every move.
"It could be possible that the child will be able to resist what we wish to do, but if you can somehow convince him that this is the path to take, there will be no risk of disruptions and mistakes, and it will come far more easily..."
"First we have to worry about possessing him, let alone convincing him that we're his friends considering we've been planning his capture for over a month now," Valmont replied, but the demon spoke no more, instead fading back into the depths of his mind. Valmont sighed and closed his eyes momentarily to consider the suggestions made by the demon, opening them to see Jade and Sef now descending the spiral staircase back down into the shop.
He smiled suddenly in a dark manner and reached up, tracing his finger against the flickering hologram and down Sef's image, causing it to disrupt and temporarily die as the interference caused only more static to come.
'Who would have thought a mere child would hold precise what we need desperately...'