NI TANG
Chapter 24
Helifted hisgaze and slit his eyes. The morning sun shone brightly and caressed the city of San Francisco. The city had already woken up and was full of action, only few were still in bed.
Arriving here had been fairly easy. Tracking down his enemy had been the difficult thing.. Liao Su had spent a long time investigating the clues he had and going through the details. Finally he had been completely sure, his search would end in this city.
Shendu...
Finding and killing the fire demon was the only thing that mattered to him anymore. It had been important before, but now when he had faced the demon in a fight himself, lost and seen the death of so many of his companions he couldn't think about anything else anymore.
He was sure master Qian didn't appreciate his one man's war, the old man had dedicated his whole life to his guild and all acts of independence were considered rebellious. Not that he had tried to stop him from leaving, he had just looked somehow sad.
Like he had known something...
Liao Su shook his head and looked around in the street. His main target was of course Shendu, but there was someone else he wanted to find too. They were enemies with each other, but still on the same side and he wanted to find out what he knew.
Not that he believed he needed Hak Foo or anyone else's helpin this hunt, but only a fool over-looked useful information. But there had been no sign of the warrior and for a moment he had thought he wasn't in town at all.
Then he had come to the conclusion that a fighter like Hak Foo knew how to hid himself if he wanted it. Besides, this city was already familiar to him and he had the upper hand. That wouldn't stop Liao though, he would find what he wanted when given enough time.
Liao Su had never been away from China and all here was new to him. He still forced himself to look at everything in despise. He didn't actually have anything against the western people, as long as they didn't mess up with his home country.
And now he was here, in the heart of this corrupted western world... It angered him greatly, but he felt pleased too. Of course Shendu had escaped here where the disgusting western people lived. What else could havebeen expectedof him?
He hadn't even tried to dress up like the normal people in San Francisco. His clothes were completely black and he looked like he had escaped from some bad B-class ninja movie. Liao had expected to be admired and respected here, but these people gave him smiles and even sarcastic stares.
It made him hate this place even more andhe swore that after killing Shendu he'd bury the head of the dragon in the middle of this city. Nothing would degrade the memory of the fire demon and his family more and he would enjoy it all.
Where would a warrior like Hak Foo hide in a city like this? There were all kinds of dirty places of the underworld everywhere, but Liao Su didn't believe he had chosen one of them. Whetherhis honour wasstained or not,a warrior would never do it.
So he had to look for him elsewhere. In a city the size of San Francisco it wouldn't be easy, but Liao Su wasn't going to give up just like that. He had made some research and knew now that Hak Foo was wanted for serving someone called Valmont.
Because of that the man wouldn't be walking under the sun, but would be hiding somewhere safe from curious eyes. He would look for him for a whilein the traditional ways, but if he didn't find anything he had to use something else and more exotic.
Liao Su didn't really like using magic in situations like this, he considered it to be foolish and an act of being afraid, but this time he might be forced to swallow his pride. He didn't have time forever, he wanted to track Shendu as soon as possible and it was important to find Hak Foo really fast. When he knew where the man was and what his situation was like he didn't have to worry so much because of his possible moves.
He had taken a small locket with him and with it he could find all the persons he had met in his life and remembered well. It wasn't very difficult to use, but then again, it wasn't very effective either. It could really take some time before he found Hak Foo with it, but at first he wanted to try without.
Liao Su frowned when someone pushed himto the street and he turned to glare behind the disturber. There were lots of people in the street, he couldn't tell who it had been and it made him even more annoyed. Why didn't anyone respect him in this cursed city?
Immediately after arriving here he had known this would beavery unpleasant fight, but he had promised himself not to give up. Master Qian had left the responsibility of slaughtering Shendu on the shoulders of two who were not members of Jio Te Fa and he could never accept that. He wanted to be the one whose name was praised when they talked about the death of Shendu. He had worked for it his whole life!
It wasn't right that the honour was given to someone who just came in, not passing a single test or anytraining. Someone, who wasn't one of them, but a dirty traitor who had sworn loyalty to the demon! People like that shouldn't even be let to live, not to talk about demon hunting.
When all this was over and Shendu's cold body lay on his feet he wouldmake surethat Hak Foo never left this city. A traitor was always a traitor, nothing would change that and Liao wouldn't forgive.
But that wasn't important now, he just had to find Hak Foo. Then, after having a word with him and finding out what he was up to, he would continue his hunt and track Shendu down. Liao didn't actually know how he was going to match the fire demon alone when Shendu had bet so many of the warriors of Jio Te Fa, but he didn't let that depress him. He was a trained warrior and knew what to do when the time came.
If he didn't find the man in few hours he would use his locket. He would use it to track Shendu too, but it didn't work so well with demons. He had to find other ways to look for him, maybe even ask from Hak Foo.
Later that day Liao Su had to admit that he had overestimated his own skills and judged San Francisco and Hak Foo wrong. He had looked for the maninas many places as possible, but had went through only a small part of the city.
The sun was now above him and made the city bath in the heat of noon. His black outfit seemed to want to choke him, but he suppressed his desire to changeinto more comfortable clothes. He would never give up in anything here.
Except that he had to admit he had to use the Tiger Tear to find Hak Foo. He slipped his hand into his pocket and drew the porcelain necklace in front of his eyes. It was pure white and almost round, not a single scratch broke its smooth surface and the sun made it twinkle.
Liao slit his eyes, was it really a good idea to look for Hak Foo? He would of course find out the man's position and what he had achieved, but then Hak knew he was here too. Was it really worth it to loose his own element of surprise?
Yes it was.
He had another obsession besides slaughtering Shendu. He wanted to do it before, better and faster than Hak Foo ever and that's why he had to find the man. He wrapped his fingers around the locket and closed his eyes, trying to create an image of Hak Foo in his mind. It wasn't difficult actually, he had thought about the man a lot and didn't think he could ever forget him.
At the same time when he tried to give the necklace his memories of the man he also gave it the hatred he felt towards him, which made the Tiger Tear blaze and burn the skin of his palm. He yelped in surprise and almost dropped the item managing to catch it at the last moment.
The jewel was not meant for personal feelings, it could only handle neutral feelings and memories. If you tried to give it love, hatred or any strong feelings at all it usually revenged it somehow.
Liao Su grimaced when investigating the burn mark on his right palm. It smarted and wouldn't heal in a while. He glanced angrily at the jewel as if it was its fault and shook his head. Luckily he didn't have to concentrate again, he would probably never learn to control his feelings, but he had managed to activate the item already. Now it would lead him straight to Hak Foo.
He nodded at himself and started to walk in the direction the Tiger Tear told him to go.
He didn't know what to do.
Hak Foo had never been weak, a coward or stupid, but he was not a leader or the one who decided what to do either. He was a great warrior in service, but he would never become a master.
And that was why he sat there in his a bit shabby room, trying to come up with even one good idea.
He had returned to San Franciscoa few days ago and had not managed to do anything. Oh well, he had got a room, which was a total trap, but cheap enough for him.
But he had not seen or heard about Shendu. The man had no idea where the demon was and he knew he should go after him as soon as possible.
And yet he had done nothing.
Hak Foo knew he needed a plan, last time he had almost got killed and he was not ready to pay that price even if he was able to kill Shendu that way. He wasn't a stupid fanatic like Liao Su and would never become one.
Suddenly he felt like he wasn't alone anymore and he turned to look at the door. Perhaps he had heard something, perhaps his senses had warned him? Whatever it was, Hak Foo was sure he wasn't as alone as he wanted.
He straightened his back and slit his eyes, he would let the intruder come in and say whatever he wanted. Only a young and inexperienced fool would step through the door, it could be a trap and he didn't want to respect the intruder by opening the door for him.
After waiting fora short moment, maybe five minutes, he saw how the door handle was pressed down and the door pushed open. It wasn't a slow opening, so his guest was either stupid, proud or trusted himself too much to be careful.
He really had no idea who would walk in, but he had not been expecting Liao Su. For a moment he lost his self-control, but regained his cold features within seconds.
"You," he said coldly and Liao Su nodded.
"Yes, me," he answered stepping in and closing the door behind him. He looked around himself in prejudice.
"This poky hole fits you. I'm happy to see you've finally understood your place," he commented making Hak Foo slit his eyes, but the warrior didn't move.
"What are you doing here?" he asked sharply.
"You really have to ask that? Why, I'm after Shendu."
"In the case you didn't notice, Shendu hasn't arrived to the meeting of the WorthlessClub yet," Hak Foo answered and Liao Su laughed.
"Oh dear... I didn't know you can be sarcastic, Hak. I always thought you considered yourself to be above of behaviour like that."
"I make exceptions at times. I can't always resist the call."
"You are also unusually talkative, I've never heard you speak this much in row."
Hak Foo didn't answer to that, he was a bit surprised too. Usually he was quiet and said something only when it was necessary not letting his feelings show. Oh well, when Finn or someone else as talkative as him wasn't here someone had to do the talking.
"You should look for Shendu somewhere else, he is not here."
"I believe that, but I just wanted to check how you are doing. A real warrior always knows the position of the enemy."
"I see you are not dead and you haven't slaughtered Shendu either. So you can't be that ahead of me," Hak Foo commented making Liao Su's smile die. The man raised an eyebrow.
"Perhaps, but the situation won't be like that for too long. I will find you again Hak Foo, at least then when Shendu's blood is cooling," he said and left the room glancing at his enemy one last time.
Hak Foo frowned in annoyance, what an arrogant idiot!
When she opened her eyes she couldn't really say how much time had flown. Her last clear memory was the shuttle falling apart and after that everything was just a mess of red eyes, whispers and cold touches.
At least she hadn't been sleeping. She noticed she was still standing the Pan Ku box in her hands. Hsi Wu stood right next to her and the two older demons, Bai Tsa on Tso Lan, were some distance away.
The moon demon was just like Jade remembered. He floated above the ground, was dressed in a bright red robe, his skin was sickly bluish, eyes as red as the other demons' and his long black hair fell down his back. Jade couldn't see his feet, if he had any, but the four arms were crossed on his chest like he was waiting for something. The long tongue smelled the air and Jade flinched when watching it. Disgusting...
Just then she looked around and was surprised to notice that they were back in San Francisco. She had known the moon demon was more powerful than Hsi Wu and Bai Tsa, but that he had teleported them this far?
They stood right outside the abandoned warehouse and Tso Lan was the only one of the demons who was not in a human form. He looked around in interest before talking.
"So this is the place you chose to be our hideout?" he asked with a powerful voice which totally lacked all feelings. If someone had asked Jade somethinglike that she might not have known what to say, but Bai Tsa didn't even flinch under the stare of her big brother. It seemed behaviour like this was nothing new with the moon demon.
"Ni Tang made the decision and without our guidance. We are planning to find a new, much better hideout soon, but nothing has been done for it. We've decided it's more important to free as many of us as possible and waste no time in anything useless," she answered and Tso Lan nodded. Common sense, good. If the opening of his portal had been late because one of his siblings wanted a palace he wouldn't have been that happy.
"Where is Ni Tang?" he asked next. You could never be too careful with the youngest brother, who knew how this city had affected him?
"We left him here with Shendu. Neither of them was able to join us and we didn't want to take any risks," the water demon said making Tso raise an eyebrow.
"Problems?" he wanted to know.
"Ni Tang, despite our attempts, has not learned to control his powers. It happened once when he didn't think about it, but there has been no success after that. We were afraid to take him with us, since he had no way of protecting himself. And Shendu then, he was attacked and got hurt," Bai said.
"Badly?" the moon demon asked. Not that he was worried, but he wanted to know all that had happened.
"He's not in danger, but it's a pretty nasty wound anyway. Well, I think it was good for him to be beaten up by a mortal," the water demon said smirking maliciously. The more Shendu suffered the better.
"I have to think about this," Tso Lan said to himself and turned to step in. He wasn't as big as Shendu, who had been forced to take a human form to get in, but he didn't think it was proper for him to climb in while dressedhis red robe.
His bluish skin soon changed colour, his red eyes turned green, the two smaller arms disappeared and he landed softly on his feet. Now he wasn't that tall anymore, but it was still clear who he was.
Unlike his siblings, Tso Lan had changed himself as little as possible. His black hair still fell on his shoulders and he had kept the colour of his robe when choosing clothes. He was wearing clothes a common Chinese man could wear and he didn't look as nice as his siblings in human form.
Hsi Wu watched as his brother climbed in. He had hoped he could talk with Tso and ask questions, but it seemed he had something else in his mind. Then again, the moon demon had just returned to this world and surely a chit chat with Hsi wasn't on top of his list of what to do.
Besides, he himself had something else to do too. The sky demon took an arrogant grin on his face and turned to face Jade.
"You know slave, I've finally decided to ask Ni Tang to give you to me," he said. Jade answered to the stare of the demon's brown eyes and frowned in annoyance.
"I'm still no one's property. You can't just decide about things like that!" she snapped and Hsi Wu laughed. He grabbed Jade's chin and his grab was surprisingly strong even in this child form.
"You still haven't understood, little Jade? You haven't been anything else than a slave in a long time, the only reason for you to live is to serve your master. Master, who shall soon be me," he said slowly and brought his face close to Jade's own.
"We are going to have so much fun together, slave."
Po Kong closed her eyes, sipping her Japanese tea and enjoining its flavour. She had not been able to enjoy tea in the Netherworld, so she took everythingout ofit now. Besides, drinking tea made the old chi master trust her.
"Good tea," she said to Tohru, who had been dusting the same vase for a long while now. The man turned to look at her with a tiny smile.
"I made it myself," he said. Then he returned to his dusting and neither one of them said anything in a while.
"Would you like cookies too, Pomako-san?" Tohru asked after some time and his voice was reserved as if he was afraid of the answer. Po placed her cup on the table.
"Yes, I'd really like to," she said smiling and suppressed her desire to snort when seeing how the big man seemed to cheer up so suddenly. She had to act nice and play this pathetic game as long as needed and it was starting to get on her nerves.
Then again, she wanted cookies right now.
Other demons loved mindless slaughtering and massacres, others enjoyed sexual fun, but Po Kong was one of the few whose real passion was food. She knew nothing more enjoyable than making and tasting new and old dishes and that's why no one really understood her. They considered her to be simple and stupid, when she really was one of the best gourmets.
As the oldest of the family after Tchang Zu there had been many suitors despite her horrible appearance, but she had accepted none of them. They were all fools who wanted her just because of her position and were not interested in anything she liked.
This human then...
Firstly, he was an apprentice of a strong chi master and Po could sense the potential in him, one day he would be one of the strongest. And on top of that he shared her love for food.
If he had been a demon Po Kong would have married him right away and started forming her own family.
But since he was a human she didn't have to marry him, she could have fun with him nevertheless... Bai Tsa did that too, so why not she?
"Which flavour, chocolate or vanilla?" Tohru asked disturbing her thoughts and Po turned to look at him smiling.
"I think I'll take both," she said not even considering.
"Good choice, that's what I would have done too," Tohru admitted placing the cookies on the table. Then he returned to dust the vase, which had been spotless the last twenty minutes.
"You like dusting stuff?" Po asked. Tohru turned to face her again.
"Yes, it's my job," he said. Po took a chocolate cookie and leaned her chin against her palm.
"I also have some places which haven't been dusted in a long time," she said biting the cookie.
Thock! The feather duster fell on the floor.
"Uh..." Tohru mumbled in shock and Po had to smile. He was shy too, this human would be a titbit!
If you looked only at the appearance you easily thought thatamong the females of the family only Bai Tsa had got any action. Po looked simply so ugly, stupid and violent that few would be desperate enough to take her.
The truth was different. Even though Po was clearly more peaceful and decent than her little sister she had had some adventures with human males and some demons too. Not very often though and she suffered the reputation of a celibate big sister.
"I was joking," she assured and gave Tohru a vanilla cookie.
"You want some?" she asked happily and followed in amuse how the Japanese man took a cookie with his numb fingers.
She couldn't perform a straight attack with this man, she had to win his trust at first. Bai Tsa never bothered to do that, to her the most important thing was the action itself, not how you got it. That's why the water demon usually used magic to get what she wanted, but Po despised it. There just wasn't any challenge in it!
"Thank you," Tohru said shortly and sat on the opposite side of the table. He glanced at the book Po had been reading. The mountain demon noticed the man's glance and moved the book closer. Tohru looked at the characters in it for a while but shook his head then.
"I don't understand any of them," he admitted.
"Not a surprise, they are very difficult chi spells and meant for the oldest masters only," Po said.
"You don't look that old," Tohru commented and Po smiled. One could have mistaken it friendly or happy, but in reality she was pleased with herself. The human was already stepping into her trap, how pathetic.
"You can't know, I could hide my age with spells," the mountain demon said and her brown eyes twinkled with amusement.
"How are we going to fight against Ni Tang?" Tohru asked to change the subject.
"I know a spell which will destroy him forever. It's very old and I have not managed to fully translate it, but it shouldn't be that difficult," Po lied. There was no spell, but these idiots didn't know it.
Tohru stood up and nodded.
"I shouldn't bother you anymore, both of us have work to do and sensei will get furious if we just talk," he said unsure.
"Maybe so. But I wouldn't mind if we talked a bit more often," Po answered concentrating in her book again and munching cookies.
She should visit her siblings soon, who knew what kind of mess they had created while she had been gone?
"Ni Tang? I want you to do something for me," Hsi Wu said flying to sit next to his brother. The polar demon looked at him in suspicion.
"What? If you want me to take part in your silly games..." he started but the sky demon shook his head quickly.
"No, nothing like that. And I am sorry for what I did. At least a bit. Oh well, not at all. But I still did it for you, my little brother," he said emphasising the word "little" so that Ni remembered which one of them had the upper hand.
"So, what do you want?" Ni asked. Hsi tilted his grey head.
"It's about your slave, Jade. I'd like to have her as my own," he said and Ni looked at him in surprise. Hsi Wu wanted the skinny, weak and stubborn human child?
"Why do you want her? She is not a very useful slave..." he said carefully.
"No, but something in her fascinates me. She's so... full of energy and spotless eagerness. I want to see her inner self and destroy all that," Hsi said and his red eyes flashed with excitement.
"Besides, I will give you two new slaves when we have won this battle," he added quickly. Ni Tang shrugged, he had not spent enough time with Jade to learn to feel like he owned her. And the girl really was just a girl and no use for him.
"I think she actually is your slave already. You have been taking care of her and scolded her when needed," he said in thought.
"So you could make it official?" Hsi asked eagerly and Ni nodded.
"All right then, brother. If you really want her, she's yours," he said and at that moment nothing would have made Hsi Wu more happy.
Jade was his!
Tso Lan slit his eyes deep in thought and let his gaze wanderto Jade, who was sitting in a corner.
"So, we've come this far," he muttered quietly. Well, maybe he had to do something about it before all they had worked for was ruined.
To be continued...
