"Where is she!?"
Chifu sat up suddenly. He'd just been having a wonderful dream. The Emperor himself had been about to promote him! The Emperor! The dog heard footsteps coming his way, and before he could put any of his training to good use, the door burst open and flew off it's hinges. The figure was fearsome yet strangely familiar. The canine recognized him from the tournament. He had never seen the spider up close, and now, his face filled with churning emotions, he looked like something right out of hell.
"Where is she!?" He bellowed again, slamming the dog against the bed. His arms were around his neck.
"I-I-I wh-oo?" The grip was tightening, Ba was shaking, his face was streaked with tears and his eyes were red.
"You know who!"
Just when Chifu thought he was about to pass out the spider released him and pulled himself backwards. The dog swallowed the air greedily.
"The tournament..." He heard Ba say in a hoarse whisper. "She's gone to the tournament." The arachnid scrambled out the door and vanished.
The detective rubbed at his neck. "What... the... hell..."
Dianbo could have expected almost anything. Fifty wooden dummies. A big boulder. Even a Deathworm. What he had not expected was a plumped-up chair facing a tall mirror. He frowned at it and approached cautiously, his whip drawn and dragging behind him. The jackal scanned the small room. No signs of anything horrible. And yet, no door. A dead end perhaps? Then why was there a chair. At least it wasn't wet inside.
He padded to the mirror, frowning deeply at his reflection. To his surprise the chair came shooting forwards, slamming into the back of his feet and forcing him to sit. The chair was then dragged back and the mirror was no longer a mirror. It snapped to life before him and Dianbo was powerless to do anything to stop the... Was that his mother? What was she doing here?
"My son."
Where had the noise come from? And what was this? If this was Chaonao's idea of a joke-
And then it was a mirror again. Only he was not staring at himself as he was. How had the tournament gotten his baby portraits!? And since when did he have baby portraits!?
That was when he spotted the large character of 'life' painted above the mirror. And then it was more memories manifesting themselves before him.
"I never sucked my thumb! This is a lie!" The penultimate challenge... Was his life.
Despite the worry that filled his mind, Badr thought that the tournament was going well. The batch of finalists were not perfect... but they would do. Dianbo was the former student of Master Flying Rhino. Han Guan did come from a prominent clan in Japan. He was a bastard but... usable. The babirusa was the biggest mystery but was competent enough to get this far, which spoke highly of his skill. The fox was his best bet but seemed frightened by the prospect of responsibility. If he chose to win now then Badr would take him under his figurative wing, and make him into something great. There was money to be earned and redemption to find. Orphanages to open, food to be distributed...
But he had a bad feeling he would get the bastard.
Yet that was not why he was worried. Safi had not been in her room that morning, nor had her guards reported seeing her leave. Perhaps she had snuck off to watch the tournament with her... peasant friends... It seemed likely. She'd been trying to leave him since she could crawl. She loved him of course but love was, like everything, not so simple. Hopefully once this tournament was over they could sit down and talk freely. And hopefully she would stop trying to leave him...
This was painful. In painful ways that he had never experienced. Nothing, not even a giant squid, could have hurt Han Guan more than his life. It made his fur stand on end and his stomach was doing a violent kagura. Every time he gazed upon the familiar forms of his mother and countless cousins his insides would stop suddenly and start again, dancing quicker and in another pattern. He hadn't seen his mother in... how long had it been?
Presently he was hanging from a tree, surrounded by children who pointed and laughed and the laughter cut through him like a thousand knives. It was a particularly bad memory, highlighted perhaps by the fact that he already knew what came next. Sure enough his mother was berating him. Then he was shouting at his mother. Then he was slamming the door shut. Then he was sobbing against it.
The kagura was more violent than ever. It was a good thing he had skipped breakfast then...
"Over on the Gate of Metal it seems like Wong is trying to rejoin the action. I bet he can't get past the doors!"
The doors were shattered on impact, and Wong -red-eyed and furious- stepped onto the sheet of cold, wet metal.
Badr suddenly felt an icy chill pass through his form. But maybe that was just because his umbrella had burst and he'd been drenched in rainwater. Or maybe it was because Wong was glaring at him.
"Um... He's not supposed to be going there. Can security deal with him? Or did we blow the budget with all those magic mirrors? I bet they don't even work! SQUAWK!"
Wong was now beating the metal floor with his tail, creating dent after dent.
"He used to just be an overweight idiot, but now he's an overweight idiot with attitude problems and muscle-power! So much off-sight character development! SQUAWK!"
Now he was tearing apart a bunch of spinning, whirling blades with his... Teeth?
"And he must have a really good dentist... Though he is technically vandalising private property! Badr should we do something about that?"
The cat mulled this over in his head. Yes he had to do something about that... If Wong won... well... Wong was definitely the worst option. He turned to Chaonao. "Just tell the crowd that anyone seeking game or glory and a small reward can have it, as long as they beat up that crocodile."
"First one to smack Wong something hard gets fame, fortune and... Er... It'll look funny!"
Saras was surprised by the next challenge. The chair was soft and plumped with pillows and the hut was warm. The pattering of the rain outside was nice to hear from within the hut. If only he could make sense of what he was watching. Why was a kit being carried away by a masked figure? And why was the kit wailing and crying? And why did it have his eyes?
It frustrated him that he had to watch the mirror, when for all he knew something horrible was just waiting to run him through beyond it. Yet if he did not calm his nerves and stare at the baby fox he would probably loose out on something important.
He was growing mad of boredom now. He could have sworn he had caught a glimpse of Aang in the corner.
And then he wasn't mad and Aang was standing before him. No, he was in the mirror and- so was he! This... This was his life!
Then what was the first part? "Wait! Waitwaitwaitwait! Go back! Go back!"
But alas the mirror did not obey.
"Geez Wong, I get we're not your friends or anything, and yeah you're probably pissed you only got to round three, but really trying to kill us isn't a nice thing to do. Neither is wrecking this place. And how come you're so violent to begin with. You're not usually like this. Did you get high or something? Your eyes are really red. And how did you get so strong all of a sudden? I kicked your butt pretty easily the last time we fought."
It was not really beating Wong that was difficult. Li I was faster, Kunjingle and Mulaohu were stronger. The difficulty lay more in the terrain. The Gate of Metal was a long sheet of metal that extended, directly forwards as far as all eyes could see. It was lined with all manner of spinning blades and sharp weapons, which would have been trivial and tokenistic if one didn't have to dodge them whilst fighting a suddenly-much-stronger-than-usual opponent.
Still Li I had hopped (almost literally) at the chance of fame and fortune. Why... Depending on the fortune he'd be famous! And then his dad would finally hear about him! Of course, he had to focus on staying alive first.
Wong made as if to bite his head off, but Li hopped out of range just as the jaws came snapping shut. Before the reptile could retaliate Kunjingle's fist crashed into the side of his head and hurled him towards a row of ever-falling axes.
Another issue with fighting this new, angrier Wong, was that the crocodile was fighting recklessly and none of them wanted to be the cause of his death, dislikeable though he was.
Thus before the axe could behead him, Mulaohu dragged him to the relative safety of her incoming fist.
"And I figure you'd want revenge." Li I added, ducking under a sweep of Wong's tail. "But really this is a bit pathetic for revenge, isn't it? Try a stinkbomb. I know a guy who kinda makes them... Well he doesn't make them, he is one. Which means he can make them. Coz life comes from life and stink comes from stink."
Distracted as he was with spouting wisdom, Li was hurled across the air by a powerful swing of Wong's tail. Kunjingle's paws shot out and snatched him from the air. The bear promptly tensed and watched as the reptile's appendage shattered on impact. Li I winced.
"I know it's not your fault big guy but... That probably hurt a lot..."
What probably hurt a lot more though, were the twin blades that burst through the back of Wong's torso.
Both bear and bunny screamed and even Mulaohu was stunned. Ba looked downright murderous. The frozen crocodile did not help with the image.
"Duyao... Is... Sabotaging... The... Tournament." Panted the spider.
"Forget that! You just murdered Wong!"
Ba's face hardened. "He's already dead. And your friends are in danger. She's... She's going to kill Badr, I think. But... I don't know how."
There was a moment of silence.
"For real?" The rabbit sounded like he didn't want to believe what he was hearing.
"Why would I lie?"
"Er... As a joke? Or because Duyao told you to... There are other options."
Mulaohu shook her head. "I think he's telling the truth."
There was another moment of stunned silence.
"We should evacuate the arena, well technically the arena's the village so we should evacuate the village." Mulaohu snapped into action mode, drawing her immense sword for all to see. "Li, stay here and deal with Wong. Kunjingle, we're going to get the others out. Ba you're with us, and as for the rest of the village..." Scrolls were flung into the air, apparently at random, and in puffs of smoke burst into the Chongqing's armoury.
"Um... What was that for?"
The crowd did not share Li I's confusion, from where they stood watching they could quite clearly see the character for 'evacuate' drawn out. Badr felt his insides turn to lead.
Mulaohu heard the screams of panic. "They got our message. Come on."
The dog and spider began to race and scramble forwards respectively. Kunjingle paused to put Li I back on the ground, having not let go of him since he'd caught the bunny. He grunted and sneezed and whistled and did a kind of sniffle.
Li I patted his nose. "Don't worry, I'll be fine. Besides, I'm never really alone, am I?"
Footnote: A kagura is a traditional Japanese dance. If you were confused by what Han Guan's insides were doing then it was because I was being metaphorical.
