Sun looked at his audience, steeling himself for the story.
"Our story begins with a tale of two sisters. The Huong sisters to be exact."
The camera projected upwards and shifted to a scene of two female silhouettes; one pink and one gold. As Sun narrated, the gold female silhouette stood before a male gold silhouette, stepping into his arms. A smaller red silhouette stood in front them, followed by a slightly smaller white one.
Their names were Rosa and Vanna. They were very different from each other, both in looks and in personality. Rosa was the younger of the two, and she had kept her maiden name regardless of her marital status. When she turned eighteen, she left the tribe in search of a mate, believing that all the good suitors were already taken. But by the time Rosa came of marrying age, Vanna had already married Altan Sanzang, the chief of the Sanzang tribe, and had two children with him- a boy, Shiva, who is to become chieftain one day, and a girl, Starr, who would eventually settle down in Vacuo City by creating her own dojo. That however, would come much later.
The silhouette of Rosa Huong had turned into an image of her, based upon the picture of her that Sun had kept. As Sun imagined the scene, she was shown working in a tavern/bar like restaurant, placing what looked like fried dough balls onto a table. Later, she walked by a shadowed form of a pig-tailed faunus. The two were shown meeting at a restaurant, with the shadow giving her a bouquet of orange flowers. A few moments later, she held a positive pregnancy test in her hand. Not too long thereafter, the shadow vanished into nothing. Rosa was shown sobbing thereafter.
When Rosa left, her travels soon took her to the city of Coquina. After settling in and finding a job as a waitress, she found someone she thought was perfect- a pig-tailed faunus named Daizi. From what my aunt Vanna told me when I was thirteen, he seemed really nice at first, and that he had showered her with gifts. Rosa had stated to her sister that she 'fell fast and fell hard' when they were seeing each other. About a month into their relationship they did... adult things, and soon thereafter, discovered she was pregnant. She had told Daizi what had happened, and she stated that he was extremely shocked. She initially thought that he was stressed and was just freaking out. The next morning however, he was gone. No note, no explanation, and no warning. Just gone. It was theorized that he left her because she was pregnant, but no one can say for certain.
My mother was devastated, heartbroken beyond belief, and for the first time in her life, completely alone. Due to displays of outward emotion being frowned upon in tribes, she feared her grief and sorrow would put her and her loved ones in danger. So she stayed secluded in her apartment, never going out except to work at her job and get groceries and other needed supplies. However, even that went downhill. Four months after she had been abandoned, she was fired for supposedly slacking off and for her poor handling of a customer who attempted to flirt with her. Her boss was said to be selfish, and Vanna believes that he was too harsh on her. My mom tried finding other jobs, but she had no luck. As time went on, her downward spiral continued, and it was believed that she was suffering from prenatal depression.
The imaginary vision continued to find a shocked and saddened Vanna seeing Rosa crying on the ground. Vanna extended her hand, helping Rosa off the ground and scene switched to the desert. She was then holding a baby boy, wrapped in a white cloth.
Several months later, Vanna came to visit her, having grown concerned for her due to lack of responses from her. By this time, Rosa was already eight months along. Vanna was horrified to learn of her depression and how she had suffered. Admitting that she needed help, they returned back to the tribe. The doctors treated her best as they could, and within a month, Rosa gave birth to a boy. That boy was Zhu Bajie Huong. Despite being able to heal from most of her depression and heartbreak, she was angry and embittered. She didn't trust any man who tried to flirt with her, and may have even disliked men in general. Well, save for Altan who was her brother in law and was already taken. And one might think this would be how it ends. A woman with a broken heart and a baby all alone. But the story does not end here.
Enter Jinjing Wukong, my father. He came from what was once the city of Tuff. Roughly twenty years ago, Tuff was destroyed and turned into a wondering tribe calling themselves the Tuffians. However, my father was not allowed to join them. According to what I was told, he had a bad reputation with the townsfolk, and he was called a thief. Some say that they would have blamed his parents, except he didn't have any. He never really had anyone from what I was told. So when the Tuffians all packed their bags, he was left in the dust. For a guy with little to no food and that same amount or less in water, it's a miracle that he managed to survive for a few months.
By the time he wandered into the Sanzang settlement, he had collapsed and was suffering from dehydration, starvation and misery's kiss, aka a sunstroke. Vanna swiftly took him in and cared for him. At first, she was the only one who treated him with any real kindness. During his recovery, he had seen Rosa and was immediately smitten with her. She couldn't have cared less when she first saw him. After a week or two, he was in stable condition to help the tribe. Being a former thief, Altan assigned him to the fields of gathering and hunting. Normally, he would have been in one field alone, but it was done to keep him in line and tire him out to prevent him from stealing.
Many people didn't trust him for quite some time. It wasn't until a month after he started working in the tribe that he managed to earn some respect from those around him. And it wasn't until another month thereafter that Rosa started to warm up to him. One day in summer, while Rosa was working in food preparation, Vanna was babysitting Zhu when she was called in for an emergency meeting. She began worrying since there was no one else to look after Zhu, and Jinjing stepped up. After finding Jinjing singing Zhu to sleep with a lullaby, Rosa accepted him as a friend. She slowly warmed up to him, told him bits and pieces of her past and the two fell in love over time. After dating for nearly three years, they married and I came into this world soon thereafter. Seems like the perfect ending, right? I have my parents, Zhu has a father figure, and my mom healed her heart and trusted love.
Unfortunately it wasn't meant to be. My parents were killed in a Grimm attack when I was just a year old. As a result, me and Zhu were both raised by our aunt and uncle. Growing up in Vacuo, especially with your parents dead, is not easy, but Zhu actually had more memories of them than I did, so it was even harder on him. Because of our loss, we both vowed to become huntsmen one day. Alas, Zhu was lazy and unmotivated. He didn't like working hard, and felt that even when he did put in effort, that his attempts to accomplish anything were fruitless.
The scene returned to the present.
"One such example occurred while we were setting up a temporary settlement." Sun started. "I was seven years old and had recently unlocked my aura. While pitching some tents, I was constantly channeling aura trying to unlock my semblance. Starr, noticing I was draining myself, advised me to rest under a tree while she set up the remaining tents in the east end. I did so, and much to my surprise, I unlocked my semblance, Via Sun not too long thereafter. Zhu on the other hand, had unlocked his aura four years ago in an attack by bandits, and to the best of my knowledge, has yet to gain a semblance. Another thing is that he hated his tribe's food. He was always a picky eater, and more often than not, either skipped meals when no one was watching him or he had to be forcefed. He always complained about food, and how sand was in it. Although we were given three meals a day, he was always hungry. When I was younger, I used to think that he was talking about physical hunger. But perhaps his hunger was for something else..."
"What exactly is your tribe's cuisine like?" Ghira asked.
"Staples of Vacuan food in the wastelands usually consists of fried worms, cave beetles, cactus tea, and gecko cake to name a few."
Kali and Blake were grossed out as Ghira's eyebrow twitched. "I will admit that sounds... less than appetizing, but who am I to judge you based on your culture alone?"
"I appreciate that, albeit Zhu didn't. Over the next few years, Zhu began to hate his tribe and culture even more. He hated moving around all the time, and when he was fifteen years old, suggested that we all settle down in Vacuo City. The idea was rejected, much to his anger and frustration."
"So why don't you settle down permanently?" Blake asked. "I mean, wouldn't it be safer than facing the desert and all its creatures?"
"A good idea in theory, but the only problem with that is when tribes settle down... things usually don't end well." Sun began. "Whenever tribes settle down in a permanent settlement, they often break into smaller groups called clans. Best case scenario, the tribe members simply forget about each other, which is really sad. Worst case scenario, these clans fight each other, and everyone else gets caught in the war, which is even worse. Thirty years ago, long before I was born, Altan's father chose to settle down the Sanzang Tribe in Vacuo, and it was not good. The tribe broke into five different clans, many of which grew to hate each other. To make matters worse, the Kenyte Tribe was also there, and they had broken into seven clans when they settled. The result? A massive two-year clan war that shook the city and nearly brought it to its knees. After countless deaths from both tribes, and ordinary civilians caught in the cross-fire, Altan's father Aurelio and the Kenyte leader, Shyamala, were able to find a way to end the war, and both tribes vowed to never settle in a permanent city again. But Zhu didn't know that, or alternatively, he didn't care. Soon thereafter came one of the worst days of my life.
"August 4th, 72 AGW. I was twelve, and Zhu had turned sixteen two weeks ago. Zhu ran from the tribe. No note, no explanation, and no warning. It was believed that he had taken a month's worth of rations, several canteens of water, and all of his belongings, including a picture of Daizi, which I never got to see. We searched for him all over our settlement, but he wasn't found. By sunset, everyone had given up on searching for him and pronounced him as legally missing/presumed dead. Heartbroken from his betrayal and trying to be optimistic, I refused to accept that he was most likely dead. I silently kept that hope tucked away as I tried to move forward with my own goals; to become a huntsman and protect my tribe. And to do that, I had to get into primary combat school to enhance my combat skills and aura.
"Due to Zhu's desertion, it was not easy convincing my uncle to let me enroll, but after doing extra chores and going above and beyond for two weeks, he finally caved in. Three weeks later I started my first year at Oscuro Academy. It was also during this time that Starr, who had recently turned 17, decided to peacefully leave the tribe to open her own dojo. Although she loved her tribe, she believed her skills would be better spent outside the tribe to help all Vacuans in general. She also did not want to live in her brother's shadow, but her parents had known of her desire to help others in the cities for the last three years, and they supported her.
"There's three ways to make a living in Vacuo, regardless of one's profession. You can either live with a nomadic tribe, and travel from place to place. You can settle down in one of the few permanent settlements and try to live a normal life as much as you can. Or you become a criminal. All three of these people can be found anywhere, from the wastelands, to the cities and villages and everywhere in between. There are only four permanent settlements in Vacuo; Vacuo City itself, Feldspar, a village always at risk and thus, always staffed with Vacuan huntsmen and huntresses, the city of Coquina, home of Oscuro Academy, and Hauyne, a village settled nearby a large oasis with a thriving marketplace.
"All of them suffer from overpopulation in one way or another, with Vacuo City being the worst, and Coquina being the second worst. Even jobs that normally wouldn't be competitive, such as jobs in the service or retail industry, can be difficult to find. And jobs that would normally be very competitive, such as doctors, professional musicians and engineers to name a few, are extremely cutthroat. As you can likely imagine, crime rates are pretty high in the permanent settlements, with Vacuo City being slightly better due to Shade Academy being a source of law and order, but alas, that same order was not found in Coquina during my first year at the academy. Among the Coquinan criminals was a prominent pig-tailed thief known as Ganglie."
A twelve year old Sun stood in his dorm room all alone and looked upon the TV, watching the news. The screen showed a faunus figure with a ripped cloak, only covering his upper half. He wore long, dark pants and sandals. Most notably, he had a pig-tail.
I saw his features and he had an uncanny resemblance to Zhu. Believing that this Ganglie might have been him in another form, I had become obsessed with stopping him and trying to catch him. I wanted to ask him why he had left the tribe and perhaps even get him to rejoin us. Almost all of my free time was spent trying to catch him, predict where he would strike next, and try to form strategies on how to stop him. I didn't tell anyone about this endeavor, not even my three closest friends- Jayden, Boyd and Sandy. Even Jayden, who was my roommate during my first year at Oscuro, didn't know anything.
The camera showed Sun's friends from his view, left to right. The first was a boy with brown hair, pale skin and green eyes, wearing a blue t-shirt with a green bird soaring in a yellow arc from a cloud, jeans and blue sneakers. Jayden was shown smiling in front of Sun.
The second was a boy with blond spiked hair, fair skin and yellow colored eyes. He wore a chocolate colored sleeveless shirt, black shorts and black rain boots with yellow laces. Boyd was looking at Sun with a raised eyebrow.
Finally, the girl was shown. Sandy was a girl with tanned skin, curly brownish blonde hair and amber eyes. She wore a barely knee-length beige dress with two side pockets and knee-high tangerine wedge-heeled boots. To finish the look, she wore a sand-colored bow on the front of her head. Sandy was shown looking at Sun lovingly, but he didn't acknowledge the look she was giving him.
All three were shown silently speaking with Sun as he continued to narrate.
I didn't want to drag them into my personal issues, so I never told them anything. As time went on, it slowly became harder and harder to keep the truth from them. They kept asking me questions that were hard to answer, or some cases, couldn't answer. But I was determined- both to keep the truth from them, and to capture Zhu. I believed that once I could get Zhu, I could detain him, interrogate him on why he left, and with luck, return him to the Sanzang Tribe. Slowly but surely, it began to affect not only my personal life, but my academics as well. Some of my grades slipped from top notch to middle ground or even barely passing.
Young Sun was shown silently speaking with one of his teachers, before walking away in anger.
The teachers interrogated me, but just like before, I refused to tell them, telling them it was none of their business. Eventually, a few days right before finals week, on May 17th in year of 73, I heard reports of fancy high class restaurants being raided, and I went out, hoping to find Zhu. Sure enough, I found Ganglie at a high-end steakhouse and seafood place that had yet to open that day. Once I did find him, I relentlessly chased him down.
Glass was shown breaking as the pig tailed thief jumped from a fancy dining room, carrying a big burlap sack of food over his shoulder as he fled. Sun jumped down after him, spinning his staff to stick the landing. He was then shown chasing down the thief through the streets of Coquina. The thief scaled the wall, and the monkeyboy conjured his clones to throw him up high enough to get over it. He landed on the ground with perfect precision and continued his chase. Ganglie ran through an empty street, and soon the lights turned green, causing several cars to start driving by.
The monkey faunus jumped from one car to another and continued his chase, crying out, "Get back here!"
I was relentless, and unwilling to give up. The thief however, was surprisingly fast. And as he threw several obstacles at me, the gap between us began to widen even more.
Ganglie was shown at the edge of town in a construction zone, filled with many large, wide holes.
We were in a construction zone, and Ganglie was using his speed to zig-zag himself through the heavily holed terrain. I however, began to stumble. And I was hallucinating when I thought I heard a woman call my name.
Sun turned around, his neck behind him as he still ran. He was shown screaming as fell head-first into a hole.
I made the mistake of turning around to answer someone that wasn't there, and I found myself falling. I screamed as I fell who knows how many feet into a trench.
His aura broke and bones were heard snapping before blacking out.
In the present, Blake winced in painful sympathy. "Ouch. That sounds extremely painful."
Kali and Ghira exchanged worried glances.
"Indeed it was." Sun answered. "Several bones broke upon impact with the ground, and it was the worst physical pain I had ever felt. As my bones cried out in pain and my head spun, I soon lost consciousness, and believed it was the end for me. Fortunately, I'm still here. Unfortunately, the impact was still painful. When I came to my senses, I awoke in a hospital, under the care and watch of a woman named Dr. Som."
Dr. Som was a tall woman with pale skin, short orange hair in a bobcut and blue eyes with blue rimmed glasses over them. She wore black pants and shoes. Over her shirt she wore a white doctor's coat. In her left pocket above her chest she had two different pens securely attached.
A silent scene was shown of his friends entering the hospital room. Boyd and Jaden were both glaring at him. Sandy just slapped him.
My friends had all abandoned me to preserve their social status. They didn't want to be associated with a so-called lunatic and numbskull. Even Sandy, who apparently had a crush on me and I didn't notice, 'dumped' me even though we were never actually dating. Some friends they were. Then again, perhaps I deserved it for being an idiot. But that wasn't even the worst part. The worst part was facing my family.
In the present, Sun spoke, "Starr had to travel from Vacuo to Coquina, which on camelback, is a three hour trip. During this time, I was given dinner, which unfortunately, was really gross, even by Vacuan standards. Zhu wouldn't even look at it if he was there. I ate it anyway, mainly because I didn't want to starve while waiting and also I believed this was part of my punishment for being so stupid. Sometime later, Starr had arrived, and she was not happy with me."
The scene showed Starr arriving in the hospital. Now being eighteen, she had more of a feminine grace with her tomboy look. Her hair was still spiked, but she wore a different outfit from her younger self. She wore yellow track pants with zipper pockets and sported a red tank top with the left spaghetti strap visibly worn out and broken. Faintly sticking out from her left side was a red strapless bra blending in seamlessly with her top. She wore white sneakers with blue laces and her phoenix necklace was gone. Instead, she wore a blue headband and red fingerless gloves.
She looked at her cousin worriedly. "Sun, are you okay? What happened?"
"That's what we were hoping to find out." Dr. Som told her. "He was found unconscious and injured, a broken arm and leg, and he refused to say anything to his friends. Or to me. I was hoping you could get him to talk. He also refused to say anything to the teachers or other staff members."
"Sun, what happened?"
Sun sighed in his bed and he continued the narration.
And so, I told them the story. The story of a boy named Zhu. Zhu's story was told, and I confessed how I had been hiding my grief for nearly a year. And by the time it was all said and done, the sun began to set over us. Both my cousin and the doctor wore painful expressions of sorrow on their faces.
The scene showed Sun still in the hospital, trying not to cry. Dr. Som appeared saddened by the story she had been told. Starr was sad and maybe a little bit annoyed.
"Sun..." Starr began. "I know you're feeling angry and saddened that you lost Zhu, and I can understand that because he's your brother, but the truth is that he's gone. You need to let him go."
"I hate saying this, but she's probably right." Dr. Som began. "According to statistics reports I read every month or so, only about five percent of people who desert their tribe and leave without warning manage to survive long enough to make it to a permanent settlement. And even then, those guys were all adults, who likely planned their leave. But Zhu? He was sixteen when he impulsively chose to leave. The chances of him still being alive are slim to none. And even if he's still alive, how would you find him? For all we know, he could be dead or dying right now as we speak. The chances of you finding him are even more slim."
"No... it can't be... Zhu..."
"And besides, this Ganglie guy and Zhu might not even be the same person." Dr. Som added. "You could be looking for something, or rather someone, that isn't even here."
"But... I could have sworn it was him!"
Dr. Som leaned her head towards her patient. "Was it? Or is it that you miss him so much that you were hallucinating?"
"No!" Sun lashed out. "It can't be! I know what I saw! Ganglie has to be Zhu!"
"Sun, think about it." Starr began. "What are the chances that Zhu survived, made it to Coquina, and chose to become a thief with an alter ego, all without dying or without being caught?"
Sun blinked in sorrow, slowly realizing that Starr had a point. "Zhu... Ganglie... It can't be..." He sobbed into Starr's chest.
"I'm sorry." Starr spoke.
And so, came the difficult aftermath of the situation. I stayed in the hospital for three full days before we got clearance to leave. The entire time I was thinking to myself, "How could I let this happen?", "How could I fail to help Zhu?", and "Have I really lost my mind, searching for something, or someone, that isn't even here?" among many other bad thoughts. These thoughts heavily plagued me for months, and to an extent, still plagued me years later.
Before we checked out, we spoke with my teachers and the headmaster of the academy. They didn't expel me, and surprisingly, they felt nice enough to exempt me from finals and let me pass every class with the grades I currently had. But it didn't help to make me feel better. Even if they weren't angry with me, uncle Altan certainly would be. I wouldn't be seeing him right away, but I knew that he would find out before I saw him in person. By the time me and Starr got out of the faculty meeting, it was mid-afternoon. After that, she had to take me back to her dojo in Vacuo, which was not an easy task. Due to the vendor being cash-only, she had to spend all of her physical money on a camel cart, then there was the matter of getting me safely secured in said cart. Once that was done, she gave me a bottle of water, some street food for the road and we began our journey. By the time we got back, night had fallen.
The scene showed Sun and Starr in a purple room with black yoga mats scattered about a wooden floor. The former was lying down in a big green reclining chair while Starr was at her desk, writing a letter.
An imaginary vision of an angry Altan was seen before Vanna, smirking, put her hands on his shoulders and he seemed to calm down.
The imagination ended and was replaced with Sun now standing up, his bones mostly healed but now wearing leg braces as Starr held a white frosted chocolate cake with two candles; 1 and 3, lit and next to each other.
Shiva, Vanna and Altan were all present as Sun blew out the candles and they cut into the cake. Sun smiled contentedly as he ate.
The next day, Starr had to write a lengthy letter to her father explaining what happened, what I had done, why I wouldn't be returning to the tribe that summer, and how much I regretted my actions. I was extremely scared that he was going to pull me out of Oscuro Academy for my stupidity, and, for a while, he was highly considering doing so. Fortunately, my aunt Vanna was able to convince uncle Altan to let me stay. I'm not entirely sure how she did it, and I'm not even sure I want to know, but nonetheless, I was able to continue going to Oscuro. Alas, like all things, there was a price to pay. Despite my legs being healed by the time my thirteenth birthday rolled around on July 31st, I did not return to the tribe because Starr wanted me to focus on emotionally healing and reorienting my combat skills. Still, I was fortunate enough to get to see my family, as they made their next settlement only a mile away from Vacuo. But once the festivities were over a few days later, I was back to wrestling with my demons.
A brief montage was seen of a thirteen year old Sun being depressed as he walked down the halls of Oscuro Academy. A few people, such as his former friends and a few others, were shown snickering whenever he walked by. He was shown to be alone and lonely in a single person dormitory. Then he was shown being glared at by teachers for a kitchen fire, with a brief cry of, "It's not my fault!" heard in the background.
Sun, now fourteen, was shown drawing a picture of the night sky in his dorm room, smiling to himself.
The monkeyman, now eighteen, was shown on the ship before jumping down and running away from the detectives at the docks. Sun showed Blake the picture of him and his whole family.
The next three years were mostly spent in solitude. No one wanted to be associated with me. I was either invisible, or the subject of ridicule for how I got injured. I had little to no friends, and I was mostly just trying to stay out of trouble. Sometimes, however, trouble found me. But this isn't about me and my days at Oscuro Academy. This is the story of Zhu Bajie Huong, and after the fall, I had to accept the difficult truth; that Zhu was gone. And so, for seven years, he was missing. For six of those seven years, I believed him to be dead, and mourned privately for him and failing to save him. Many times I was trying to distract myself just to forget him, and by the time I arrived at Beacon for the Vytal Festival Tournament, I had been able to forget him completely. That is, until Blake asked why I decided to become a huntsman. But I was scared to tell her, or anyone else the truth. As a result of being abandoned by my former friends and my own insecurities and faults, I was a coward. For seven years, Zhu's betrayal, and all the negative emotions that came with it had been hidden... Until now.
The montage ended with the photograph of a younger Zhu burning to ashes and returned to an angry, sorrowful Sun in present time.
"And now, I learn that Zhu's not only alive, but I was right about him being Ganglie this whole time, and to top it off, created another alias as Wungeng and joined the White Fang?! I just... I... I can't! I..." Sun let loose a loud growl-scream and the camera shook. "How could he?! That liar, that deceiver! THAT BASTARDOUS TRAITOR!" Hot tears fell from Sun's face as he punched the wall over and over again. After doing this for around fifteen seconds, Sun sobbed. "Zhu? How... how could you have fallen so far?"
With his arms against the wall, he slid to his knees and let the tears fall. Blake shivered, holding herself, tormented from what Adam had done and nearly done. Kali was heartbroken, silently crying. Ghira saw each of them in their own sorrow, breathed in and addressed the monkeyman first.
"Look, I know you're hurt, and you probably want to tear Zhu and Adam to pieces, but right now we need to find a safe refuge before the White Fang find us again." The panther clawed faunus addressed everyone. "None of us are emotionally stable right now, and I hate admitting it, but I'm barely keeping it together! We must leave now!"
"But how?" Kali asked. "We are in a city full of criminals! There's no safe haven for us!"
The older catwoman sobbed.
"Actually there is." Blake answered semi-somberly, and Kali looked up a little. "I've been here several times and I know this city by heart. There's one place where Adam Taurus, nor any White Fang member would dare step foot in." She gestured for them to follow her. "This way."
The other three followed her lead.