TITLE: Foreign Devils
AUTHOR: Indri
SUMMARY: The tale of the Chinese slayer.
SPOILERS: "Fool for Love".
RATING: PG-13.
PART: 2 of 3. Series is complete. 4800 words total.
DISCLAIMER: The Buffyverse is not mine.
FEEDBACK: archaeoindri@yahoo.com
This owes more to Tsui Hark than history, but corrections of glaring
errors more than welcome.
THANKS: To my brother "Inego" for answering my strange questions about
the uprising. All errors mine, though.


FOREIGN DEVILS

2. FISTS

When Shuhao wakes it is already dark. She has a little breakfast and
then she patrols the nearby streets. She only does this for a few
hours, as Master Bao is anxious that she get plenty of rest before
they hunt whatever ill has brought them to this place. She finds the
streets eerie despite their bustle precisely because she recognises
them. She's been travelling for so long that she always expects to see
something new around every corner.

She studies the faces of every person she passes, thinking, is that
man my brother? Is that woman over there a long-lost friend? She
wonders if anyone will know her.

She falls asleep again before it is even light but wakes, restless, in
the mid-afternoon. Master Bao won't wake for hours and she can't spend
all her time eating. She thinks she will practice her skills in the
yard, but then another plan occurs to her, and soon she is pulling on
her footwear and scurrying out of the inn.

She remembers the market, so she will start there. She tries to recall
what the world looked like when she was half her present height. She
needs to find the alley next to the wheelwrights'---there it is! She
walks down it. Left at those steps, she thinks. A long way down these
streets, past the temple, until she sees the doctor's store. And then
she's running, because she can see her old home and---she persuades
herself---can even smell the hot scent of the kiln. Her feet fly
effortlessly over the ground. And when the door opens, to a woman
thicker and greyer than Shuhao remembers, there is no doubt in
either woman's eyes.

Mother and daughter embrace.

*

Shuhao is overjoyed to be home. She never expected to be here
again. But there is her eldest brother, sitting at the wheel, shaping
bowls. Out in the yard is a sister-in-law, a nephew and two nieces
that Shuhao's never met. And here is her mother, her hands stained
with dye and smoothed with fine clay, holding her close.

"Look at you!" she says. "You became her, then, the Slayer? Bao
Zhi-Jian was so sure! You're strong and healthy and, my, look at those
swords!"

"I am the Slayer," Shuhao says. "I have been so for a year and a
half. But I was fighting demons before then with Master Bao as
training and before that---" but she barely knows where to begin. She
smiles. "I am not used to telling stories. Please tell me how you
are."

So they sit down next to the wheel so her brother can work as they
talk and her mother can apply the careful glazes. Shuhao is so
overcome by the familiarity of their voices that she can barely take
in what is being said . She answers a few of their questions and her
nieces and nephew grow wide-eyed.

"But where are my other brothers?" she asks, after a while. "I have to
return to the inn before Master Bao misses me."

No-one speaks for a moment, and then her eldest brother says, "They
have joined the Society."

Shuhao looks at him. "Of the Fists?"

He nods. "They left a few days ago. They did not say for what. They
think that because their sister is a great warrior for the people that
they should be ones too."

"They are stupid," her mother says. "The magistrate will have them all
arrested."

Her brother shakes his head. "I do not think so. I think he would
support them openly if he could." He shrugs. "But if they return soon,
we will send them to see you. How long will you being staying in this
town?"

"I don't know," she says, truthfully. She never knows. "This may be
the only time I'll have to see you." She looks at the colour of the
sky. "And I must leave."

Her mother hugs her one more time at the door. "I missed you after you
left," she says, "my only daughter. But I never regretted letting you
go. I knew you would turn out like this. Always righteous, always
taking the correct path. I'm proud of you."

Shuhao holds these words close to herself as she races back to the
inn. She's very late, but Master Bao is still lying on his cot. He's
only pretending to be asleep, for she notices that his empty breakfast
bowl has been nudged under the bed. He gives an exaggerated yawn and
feigns waking. He must guess where she's been.

Master Bao's only family died decades ago, Shuhao knows, during the
wars with Hung Hsiu-ch'uan. He never mentions them.

*

She listens more carefully now to the gossip at the inn. People are
still bewailing the poor harvest, but there is also other news. There
has been much violence at the coast and the outbreaks have been
getting closer. Foreigners are fleeing; Chinese Christians are being
forced to recant. The Fists have accused the ocean men of worshipping
demons---they think the armies of heaven will rise to assist them with
their cause.

Shuhao repeats these rumours to Master Bao. "If there are demons
involved, I will find them," he promises her. "In the
meantime---patrol."

But she finds few demons in the streets of the town. There are too few
for a place of this size. Either something has already driven them
away, or they have all left to join the tumult at the coast. She feels
as if she's waiting for the onset of a storm and she can't stand it.

Her other brothers come to visit her on an evening when Master Bao is
out. Her brothers are young men now, with a swagger in their steps and
guns across their backs. They laugh too easily.

"You should come join us and help the Fists," they say. "You could be
our figurehead. People know you are righteous and would flock to our
cause.

"The foreign devils have corrupted us for too long. They control us
through opium and their superior guns. But they are uncivilised,
Shuhao. They squabble endlessly amongst themselves. They are
fighting now over the carcass of our poor country. They are our
inferiors in every way but one and that is firepower. But our courage
and righteousness will defeat them."

It has been so long since she's beheld her brothers that she cannot
bring herself to say no. Instead she says she will consider what they
have said and talk to Master Bao.

When Master Bao returns he tells her he hasn't found any sign of
demons being involved. "But they're coming," he says. "The violence is
getting closer, to the north and east. We have a day, two at most."

She nods. There is little she can do to prepare. All she can do is
eat, sleep and practice her fighting. She fetches them something to
eat and then sits down beside him.

She has been thinking of Mr Bellwether and of the help they receive
from the magistrates.

"Do we work for the Manchu?" she asks him.

"Yes," Master Bao says. His answer surprises her.

"Do we work for the ocean men?" she asks.

"Them also," he says.

She's silent for a long moment, so he looks up and reads her face. He
moves to take her hands in his and forces her to look in his eyes.

"We work for the Manchu," he says. "We work for the ocean men. We work
for the Han. We work for every living thing against every unliving
thing. Do you you understand me?" She nods.

"I know these times are troubling. There may be war. But those wars
are for other warriors, we have other battles to fight. If civil
unrest breaks out, then the demons will come. They seek out the fear
and lawlessness of such situations. The Slayer---she kills them. That
is her mission, her only mission."

She whispers, "I understand." She hopes she does.