The Prince's Rebirth Chapter 3: A Kind and Wicked Demon, a manhua/chinese comics/漫画 fanfic

Exile: Thank you to everyone who reviews and alerts and faves this fic! It makes my day, reading all these reviews.

Challenge: (1) figure out which manga character's hair Fai's hair is similar to. (hint: Manga)

(2) Vocaloid _ sang the song _ _ (two words) which Kurotenshi got her player name from. (Fill in the blanks)

(3) What does yew wood represent, and why do you think that a demon priest likes using it? (Answer: Yew represents _ (Fill in the blank)

First person that PMs me with the right answers will get a sneak peek of the next chapter! (About 2000 words)

The Prince's Rebirth

A Kind and Wicked Demon

"Finally out of the newbie area!" I exclaimed happily, relieved. Fai gave me a glance and shook his head resignedly. Firebun flapped next to me, pausing every now and then to scorch nearby monsters.

WAAAAH… my pet is still smarter than me? And it's wiser? It's not faaaaaaair…

(Abilities: Scorching Flame – Ability Level 5, offensive ability, will use up 10 mana, causes up to 50 Fire damage / Aroma Release – Ability Level 7, can attract mobs, will use up 30 mana, lasts 20 minutes, range is 70 meters / Fire Wings – Ability Level 4, passive, allows for +50% movement speed / Bun Bomb – Ability Level 6, must be in Explosive state, uses up to 40 mana, deals up to 75 damage)

Bun Bomb was Fai's fault. I blame him.

Firebun was exactly like Meatbun in the way that it loved eating meat buns. One day however, when Fai was busy building up his arsenal of bombs, Firebun mistook the bombs for meat buns – how it managed that I have no idea. But either way, Fai and I unfortunately discovered that Firebun liked to eat his explosive bombs.

"Where do you intend to go, Zero?" Fai asked me. We were both Level 22, as I had accidentally gotten him killed twice…the first time was when Firebun at the bombs and I thought it was going to die, and the second time was when he tried to save me from falling over a cliff. Either way, both times had ended badly for him. But after that, he kept on kill-stealing from me! He actually had the gall to do that! I ranted in my head. "Hello? Zero?" Fai asked, waving his hand in front of my face to get my attention.

"What is it?" I said snappishly, irritated with Fai's continual kill-stealing. For two days already, I had barely been able to kill anything; I was extremely ticked off! I want to send him back to the rebirth point! But then he'll keep on kill-stealing! Waaaaah, this isn't fair at all!

"Where should we go now?" he asked again. I thought for a moment.

"Green Dragon City?" I suggested. "It's a good place to start." Fai shrugged.

"Sure. But first, let's focus on recruiting party members first, okay?" he said amicably. "We'll save a lot of money if we have a priest instead of having to use health potions." A dark smile appeared on his face. "Right?"

"Sure, sure!" I replied hastily. Fai, I had discovered, was a cheapskate. Not as bad as Yulian-dasao, but bad enough to be annoying. "Maybe we'll find one in the city?" he shrugged.

"Hopefully." Great. First skinning his snakes and organizing his inventory, and now walking to Green Dragon City, stopping me from getting lost, and making bombs AT THE SAME TIME? This guy is…argh, such an XXX!

Green Dragon City, like the rest of Eastern Continent, was highly stylized after ancient Asia, although each city was based off a different country. White Tiger City was based on China, Red Phoenix City was based on Japan, Black Tortoise City was based off of India. What about Green Dragon? Well…

"Fai, what country is this supposed to be?" I asked, dumbfounded. We were standing at the city gates, and so far the place reminded me more of France than any place in Asia. The former GM gave me a cross look.

"Isn't it obvious?" he snorted, "It's based off of Vietnam, baka." Fai's Chinese was pretty good, but he still tended to cuss at me in Japanese, a habit which I wanted to kill him for.

Hey, Fai, I've read enough old comics that I know who Kenshin is based off of; so that means I know that you just called me an idiot! So shut up! I ranted. I really wanted to cleave that guy in half and send him to the rebirth point for all the times he had ticked me off, but this guy was literally a ninja! And he doesn't care that I'm a woman, so he actually dared to hang me upside down from a tree once while he killed all the monsters in the area, by himself. It pained me to see someone fighting and not be a part of it; so I'm starting to suspect that he knows something about me being Prince… all well, food is first priority! "What do you recommend to eat?" I asked, staring at the food stalls hungrily.

The redhead shrugged. "I don't know. I'm Japanese, not Vietnamese! How should I know?" he glared at me, and I glared back. And here I used to think he was a gentleman!

"If you want good Vietnamese food and you're new, get phở." Someone remarked behind us. I spun around to see a girl of the demonic race, holding a bowl of steaming hot noodles and chicken soup.

"What's that?" Fai asked, wiping the drool from the corner of his mouth. The girl's mouth dropped open.

"It's the best food in existence!" she exclaimed, taking a bite. "Mu mo mwat? Ollow 'e an' ll mreat you woo."

Having had experience with talking with my mouth full, I translated for Fai, "She said "You know what? Follow me and I'll treat you two." Let's follow!" the rogue looked back and forth at our party moneybag and the steaming bowl of irresistible-smelling food. Finally, he gave in to his appetite. So he IS human! I thought he was an N-player! Wait, N-players can't be GMs…never mind!

Following the girl through the thick crowd, I thanked the gods – ah, the Dictator of Life - for sending this girl to lead me to good food. We reached a small food stall and the girl plopped herself at a table and waved at a waiter. "Two more bowls of phở, please!" she called. Fai and I took a seat at the same table.

"What's your name?" Fai asked, "I'm Fai Blaze and she's Zero." The girl regarded us with a weird look in her eyes.

"My name is Black Angel." She introduced. "And just so you know, I'm not Vietnamese. I only know the food because I've been to Vietnam before." With that, she went back to eating. I couldn't help but glue my eyes to the delicious bowl in front of her. Fai's eyes were also slightly glazed over. We had been eating nothing but mantous, snake meat, and fish filets for the past two weeks, and eating any one type of food for more than a week is enough to make a person sick of eating it. *sigh* I miss my roasted meat. I contemplated.

Eventually, the waiter came back to our table and placed two steaming hot bowls of noodles in front of us. I promptly snatched up my bamboo chopsticks and gingerly took a bite of noodles and a sip of soup. Fai did so at the same time.

AAAAAH…THIS IS SO ASFAFTADSADELICIOUS! I thought. The moment my tongue had touched the food, I had gone to heaven. It was that delicious. This is on par with the wontons in chili oil!

"This…is so good." Fai complimented between bites, concentrating on eating his food before it grew cold. I too, started gobbling up the phở, and when someone tapped my shoulder, I unsheathed my sword, ready to kill whoever dared interrupt my meal.

"Customers, here is the bill." The waiter from earlier said politely. "And it seems that your friend has disappeared." Fai and I looked at where Black Angel had been and our eyes widened. The polite grin of the waiter's face shrunk. "One moment, what was that person's name?" he demanded.

"Black Angel." Fai informed. The waiter turned pale and then dashed off, opening up his inventory.

"Kurotenshi is back!" he called to the chef, who turned pale in a similar way. "May I have my pay now?" the chef nodded rapidly, handing him a moneybag. The waiter pulled out 10 silver coins and slid them across the counter. "This is payment for what she ate. See you later, Chu phở!" making his way back to us, he explained.

"Black Angel is the alias of an infamous eat-and-runner, Kurotenshi." he said kindly. "My player name is Exile Wrath. Could you possibly help me catch her? She's eaten over 100 crystal coins worth of food, without paying."

Immediately, I replied vehemently, "Yeah! Fai and me will help you! Anyone who eats such delicious food as this and doesn't bother to pay should be corpse camped back to Level 1!" Fai stared at me with disbelief.

"Are you kidding me, Zero?" he croaked. "Do you really think that we can catch someone like that? That person in probably a rogue at least, to be able to escape that fast."

"So?" I declared, "She pulled an eat and run on such delicious food! She needs to be taught a lesson!" Turning the wai- I mean Exile, I nodded rapidly. "We'll help. What are you?"

He gave me a kind, grateful smile, "I'm a Level 24 bounty hunter."

"What a bounty hunter?" I asked. Exactly how many Continent-specific classes are there?

Fai rolled his eyes and elbowed me in the side. "A bounty hunter is a really hard class to get, and it's common to all five continents. The only way to become one is to encounter the NPC while hunting an outlaw. Bounty hunters specialize in PKing people. They're really strong and agile. They are allowed to learn some magic spells in order to make their jobs easier. They're like the police of Second Life."

"Wow! I'm impressed; not many people know that!" Exile complimented. "Anywho, I thought it was Kurotenshi when I saw her earlier, so I cast Track on her." Fai raised an eyebrow.

"What class bounty hunter are you?" he demanded. Exile, having changed out his waiter's uniform, thought for a moment and shrugged. He had black hair pulled into an extremely short ponytail, similarly black eyes, and was dressed in at least Class C armor, black leather gauntlets, loose, formfitting pants, and a light gray shirt obscured by a giant dark blue overcoat. I couldn't see his weapon anywhere.

"I have no idea." Exile confessed. "I'm only a bounty hunter because I got lost and asked the NPC for directions back to the village. I ended up accidentally killing the outlaw for the class quest. I've been to the guild twice, so I think I'm a C class hunter." Fai's eyes widened, his jaw dropped, and the single spike in his red hair lengthened in shock, like a character out of an old comic.

"I have no idea what you two are talking about." I cut in bluntly. "Can we hurry up and kill that stupid eat-and-runner? I call first hit." Fai shook himself out of his stupor and held a hand out to Exile.

"We'll help if you join our team." he offered to him. "We're looking for more party members at the moment. I'm a Level 22 rogue and Zero here," nudging me, "is a Level 22 warrior. And before you bother asking, the white thing that was on her head earlier was a Firebun pet."

Exile was silent for a moment before shrugging. "I really don't care. I'm usually a soloist, so I might not work well with parties."

"It's fine!" I interrupted, exasperated with all the talk, "Besides, strength in numbers, right? And I can we please hunt and catch that criminal NOW?" Exile looked my way and then nodded hesitantly.

"Sure. This way." He agreed shortly, walking away from the food stall. He seemed focused on something in front of him, but I couldn't see anything.

Before I could complain about being lost after the 3rd U-turn that Exile made, Fai laid a warning hand on my arm. "Track is a spell that allows you to track and follow the target. Apparently it appears as a small diamond that points in the direction that the target is in. At higher ability levels it appears as a line tracing their path."

That sounds handy. I grumbled. If I had that, or if stupid Gui was a bounty hunter instead of a bard, then I wouldn't have gotten lost all those times!

Exile stopped in his tracks, causing me to bump into his back. "Ow!" I complained, rubbing my nose. "What was that for?" Exile looked at me from the corner of his eye and gave me a warning glare.

"Quiet, Zero." he hissed. "Kurotenshi is in that food stall right there." he pointed at a familiar figure that was currently enjoying itself a bowl of some sort of noodles in a red soup, and with things that looked like meatballs floating in there. Before I could charge over, Fai grabbed the back of my neck.

"You baka. He knows what he's doing, if he's a C-class at Level 24!" he hissed dangerously. "If you make one sound, you might draw her attention and she'll recognize us and run!" I shut up, as I felt something as pointy as Fai's stringed kunai poke the small of my back.

"Elves of thunder, heed my call." Exile began chanting with his hands raised. "Strike with the wrath of an Exile on they who dare commits crimes and repeat them! Paralysis Chain!" With a cry, Kurotenshi dropped her chopsticks and started writhing on the floor as sparks danced across her body, forming almost like a yellow, electric chain.

(Player Exile Wrath has used Paralysis Chains on Player Kurotenshi HP – 15/sec)

"Clear out! I am a bounty hunter, and that girl is my target!" he commanded, and the area cleared within a matter of seconds.

An evil grin formed on my face as I dashed forward, drawing out the dao that I had obtained from the warrior NPC. It was a lucky growth-type weapon, but it was nowhere as strong as my Black Dao. "Nine-headed Dragon Strike!" I declared, lashing out at the girl with nine successive slashes. My Attack Succession combined with Nine-headed Dragon Strike always did quite a number of damage.

(Player Zero has attacked Player Kurotenshi HP 50/260)

Wow, she's nearly dead already! I thought gleefully, raising my sword for one final strike. Something flared up in the girl's eyes; something dangerous.

"Demons of wind and leaves, hear me and heal my wounds that I may wreak havoc upon those who dare defy my mighty race!" she exclaimed, pulling a long yew staff from her back. "Moderate Heal!" A soft white healing light issued from her staff as she healed herself.

(Moderate Heal successful, Kurotenshi HP 250/260)

Shoot, she's a priest! I panicked. And a really strong one at that! Only a Moderate Heal and she's nearly at full health! "Nine-Headed Dragon Strike!" I declared again.

"Leaf Barrier!" she cried, raising her staff and summoning a whirlwind of leaves to protect her, rendering my Nine-Headed Dragon Strike useless.

"Zero! Get over here!" Fai cried, backing up a few steps. Exile was staring impassively at the Leaf Barrier, as if it wasn't surprising. Turning around, I only saw his foot as he leapt off the ground, and used my head to jump above her Leaf Barrier. "Seven-Bomb Blowup!" he cried, dropping 7 random bombs into the center of the whirlwind.

"Did you have use me as a jumping platform?" I yelled angrily once he landed back on the ground. "I am a woman you know!" Fai just gave me a disdainful glance.

"Urusai, Ouji-san." He said sarcastically. I froze. "Lolidragon is my cousin. I'm half Chinese, half Japanese." Fai PMed me. "So I know who you are. She told me to look out for a girl like you, and ne that seemed to be used to being chased by girls. I figured it out after I saw you beat up the Winged Snake King and use Nine-headed Dragon Strike. Don't try to lie, or I will kill-steal you for the rest of the week." He threatened over the PM channel.

"Fine." I PMed back. "Just don't tell her that you've found me." Switching back to open chat, I spoke, "Exile, what should do know? She's sealed herself off." He looked at Fai appraisingly.

"Hey, Fai, what bombs did you use?" he inquired. My brow furrowed.

Does Exile swing that way? This whole time he's hardly talked to me and has only focused on Fai! I debated inwardly.

"I used an Explosion Bomb, a Poison Bomb, a Rash Bomb, a Static Bomb, a Wildfire Bomb, a Frost Bomb, and a Smokescreen." Fai answered. "The Explosion and Wildfire were for damage and the rest inflict really annoying status ailments. With Smokescreen, she won't be able to concentrate properly." Exile nodded in approval.

"Good job. Arms of Earth!" he declared. A brownish light surrounded his gauntlets. "Moderate Dispel!" Abruptly, the Leaf Barrier died down, leaving Kurotenshi blinking in confusion.

"Fangs of the Viper!" all of a sudden, Kurotenshi once again dropped to the ground, blood staining her clothes. I squinted and looked closer.

(Fangs of the Viper successful, Kurotenshi HP 10/260)

"Woah…is his weapons those gauntlets?" I asked Fai, who was squinting as well. Exile's index and middle finger had pierced a vital pressure point in Kurotenshi's back, and they were buried in her skin. I estimated that Fai's Seven-Bomb Blowup had done around 150 damage, so Fangs of the Viper did around…90? Gah, math hurt my head. That's why I became a literature major.

"I surrender!" she shrieked, blood around her mouth. "You win!" Exile grinned smugly, eyes narrowing as he pulled out his fingers from her back.

"As repayment for the 500 crystal coins that you've eaten, you have to do whatever the bounty hunter that gets you orders you to do." He said coldly. My jaw dropped. 500 crystal coins? He only told us 100! GAH, that little XXX! She deserves to die until Level -1000!

"What do you want then?" she hissed. Exile pointed at us.

"They're looking for a priest. Also, since they helped defeat you, they're included in the Criminal's Law." seeing her confusion, "Join their party and help them. And keep out trouble." He clarified. Her face twisted into a sneer.

"So? It's not like I have any money to pay for the food I've stolen, so now you're going to make me help them out?" she spat. "Fine. Now give me back my staff!" Exile, who had taken the yew away so she couldn't use it, placed in back in her hand. "Moderate Heal!"

"Just remember this…" Exile flashed a thin-lipped smile. "Ever get a negative reputation again and I will bloody corpse camp you to Level 1. Understood?" Fear flashed through her eyes and she nodded rapidly.

"Happy now?" I muttered to Fai. "We now have a priest and a bounty hunter." Fai frowned.

"Exile, where are you going? Aren't you joining us?" he asked, gesturing to me and Kurotenshi. In the meantime, I approached the disgruntled demon priest.

"Hihi!" I said cheerfully.

She looked at me with a fierce gaze. "What, are you mad that I dumped the bill on you?" she snapped. "Well, I'm not sorry." I faked a surprised look.

Of course I'm mad! I thought. "No, I'm not." I said diplomatically. "But I want to say thank you for letting us taste that really good food earlier! By the way, what were eating before we took you down?" She gave me a surprised look. "Look, I'm good at cooking. If you join us, I'll cook you meals everyday so you won't have to eat and run anymore. Just tell the name of the foods that you like. I'll look them up and make them for you."

"…"

"Hey, I'm serious here! And I'm a warrior, so this is offering a huge amount of my time to cook for you!" I snapped. For the first time, her lips curled into a small smile.

"Okay. You better keep your word! And by the way, I live in B city, which is near the Vietnam and China border, so that's why I like Vietnamese food so much! You can call me Kuro for short. Kuro or Angel. And I'm Level 21!" she rambled. I was taken aback. So she's usually mean and snappish, but she's a chatterbox with her friends? I shook my head. I don't think I can ever attract normal people. First an elf rogue that behaves like a gentleman on the outside and is a notorious kill-stealer on the inside, and now a demon priest that is like this? Great…although I can't really be talking.

"So you've agreed?" Fai asked, walking to us. I noticed that he looked particularly downcast.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

He sighed, never a good sign, "Exile left. He's said he doesn't like working with people." I patted his shoulder in consolation.

"Don't worry Fai! Even if you get rejected once, there are plenty of other people out there!" I exclaimed. Fai gave me a confused look and then took out his kunai.

"I'M NOT GAY, BAKA DA NE!" he screamed, chasing me.

"Angel, save meeeeee!" I cried, running around in circles to avoid the redhead's wrath. Our new priest looked at us and shook her head.

"Don't worry." she advised. "I'll heal you before you die, so then you don't have to retrain."

"I didn't mean it like that!"

From the roof, Exile looked down at the group. They're pretty interesting. She mused to herself. Maybe I'll join them someday. Maybe.

With that, the two groups separated, an exile going one way, and the new companions of the to-be-reborn Prince the other.

Exile: I'm sorry if Lan was a bit OOC here. Writing her IC is fun, but I figured that this is how she'd react after not being able to kill anything for TWO DAYS STRAIGHT.

Terms:

-Corpse camp- camping at a rebirth point and continually killing players as they are reborn.

-Party bag/ inventory- in games like Second Life, teams have a special, team-specific inventory which everyone in the team can access. When joining a team, whatever money and quest items you have go into the party inventory. If you ever leave, you leave with the amount that you contributed while you were in the team. This came with the week-of-reprogramming-and-peace-talks-patch.

-"C Class armor"- In Second Life, armors and weapons are divided into "classes", going from F-Class to SS-Class. Growing-type weapons change classes as they level up. F class items only give one stat (such as the newbie pants with +2 defense) and SS-class items may give 7 stats [(i. e. : The Bloody Tiara, growing-type accessory; strength +10, agility +10; Equip: HP recovery speed +10%; Defense: 10% of damage received negated) even though it only have 5 stats, it has very high stats and is growing-type, so it is SS-class]

The armor classes, from weakest to strongest, are: F, D, C, B, A, AA, S, SS

-Reputation system – doing "bad" things, like PKing people without due cause, eat-and-running, and committing crimes in general make your reputation go down. Doing good deeds (like saving an NPC, donating lots of money, saving little kiddies) raise your reputation. Kurotenshi has a bad rep because of her history.

-Bounty hunter's guild – the bounty hunter class has a guild exclusive to that class and their teammates. There they receive bounties to either kill people with negative reputation, bizarre monsters that haven't been beaten yet, or receive missions to protect people from "man-made accidents". The guild has a ranking system for the missions, and you have to be a rank equal to or higher than the mission that you want to take in order to accept it. In order to rise in rank, you have to take Hunt Tests, which will appear later in the story.

-PKing (Player Killing) – this is the most basic gaming term ever, I'd be surprised if you actually have to read the definition for this. PKing is killing other players. (DUH)

-Soloist – someone that plays the game without taking the aid of a team or party. They go through the whole game doing quests by themselves. It's not as bad as it sounds.

-Review - an action which make fanfiction authors so happy that they want to do weekly updates :D