"So it seems I am lost now," Deliah finally determined to herself and crossed her arms. She had left her house nearly an hour ago in search of the supermarket that her aunt Esmira had told her was close by, only to find out that the store wasn't as close as Ezmi thought it was. All Deliah could see out in public was lots of people, noise, and confusion. The best choice for Deliah to sit down on a nearby bench and collect her thoughts. "Why did I not ask Ezmi for a map? I rarely leave the house," she mentally kicked herself at her negligence and scratched her head. "Perhaps I should have been more specific about directions... " Deliah looked left and right on the street she was resting on. For some reason, she felt a bit uncomfortable being by herself grabbing errands. It didn't help that she didn't know where she was going at all.
From the bench, Deliah noticed that the busy steep street was full of people walking to and fro their destinations. Some (from what Deliah assumed) were probably going on errands like she was. This idea made her want to reach out and ask someone for directions, but she inwardly frowned at the thought. Deliah was a reserved person, and she had grown used to being by herself and doing things her way no matter the risk. Being stubborn will not help me get anywhere, she told herself and swallowed a semi-shaky breath.
A white man who appeared to be in his 40s strolled by Deliah as if he were taking a walk in a park. He was wearing casual and loose clothing with a bucket hat on. He was visibly jamming to some music with headphones on to block out the goings-on of the outside world. Deliah walked up behind and tapped him on his shoulder, gaining the man's attention as he turned to face her and removed the headphones from his ears. "Yes?"
"Excuse me. I am looking for the nearest supermarket. Do you have directions on how to get there?" Deliah politely asked.
"I'm not from around here. Sorry," the older man answered with a sympathetic smile and shrug. He put his music and headphones back on and continued on his way.
"That went well," she grunted in disappointment. Then she caught another person coming her way, a tan woman in either her late 20s or early 30s in a sharp black business suit with black heels. She carried a strong and confident gait that told the people walking around her that she was a busy woman not to be messed with. In her left hand, she was holding a black suitcase and some stapled papers. In her right was her flip phone put to her ear as she was talking on the phone. If she didn't know any better, Deliah would've said it looked and sounded as if she was not happy with the recipient on the other end of the call.
"I already told you I'd be going to Europe next week and won't be back until September! I have important business to take care of there. What part of that don't you get?!" the woman demanded to know. She kept quiet for a couple of seconds listening to the person on the other side before furiously jumping in to interrupt and stuck her hand in the air. "No no no! You don't get to put this on me!"
"Ahem, excuse me," Deliah cleared her throat.
The older lady kept walking and talking on her phone. "Maybe if you turn up the dial on your earbuds, you can listen better and understand what I'm saying."
Deliah frowned at the woman ignoring her and cleared her throat louder. "Hello? Excuse me?"
"Look Z, you can flap your gums all you want. You're not going to stop me doing what I want because I'm-" The lady said, then felt something tap her on the shoulder. She turned her head to Deliah and cocked a brow at her. "Hold on, I gotta take this," she muttered into her phone.
Deliah let out a small sigh before speaking. "Excuse me miss, do you know the directions t-"
"Listen! I heard you the first time! I don't have time to be giving out directions to anywhere. I have more important things to go to take care of. Find a damn grocery store yourself," the woman stubbornly marched off and put the phone back on her ear to continue her phone conversation.
Deliah watched the businesswoman walk down the street like nothing happened and let out a low growl. "So the lady heard me and disregarded me on purpose," she huffed. She untightened her fists and let out a deep breath to calm herself down. "[Maybe I should have just kept to myself,]" she grumbled.
Deliah reluctantly walked down the street and carefully looked at the different-sized buildings around her. She saw banks, businesses, small stores, some apartments. Nothing that closely resembled a supermarket. She was tempted to ask some more passing civilians, but her conscience restrained her from doing so. Deliah would rather not be embarrassed again. She was beginning to feel awkward in her own skin, like she was a large square trying to fit in a small circle-shaped hole. "[After today, I refuse to go to any supermarket by myself for a long, long while]," Deliah deadpanned and reached the corner of a street. She stole a quick glance to her left and right before walking over to the other side and continuing down the street. She walked for a few feet before she stopped and hummed in thought with her hands on her hips. "Perhaps I can find a map to get directions and-"
Suddenly, Deliah felt a startling, strong wind that nearly made her lose her balance and stumbled backward. She caught a glimpse of two fast blurs narrowly passing her and riding down the street in their scooter and inline skates. The scooter blur kept on moving while the one on the skates stopped a couple of feet away from Deliah. The blur revealed itself to be a white girl with straight dark brown hair. She had on a white shirt, green cargo shorts and sky pink skates strapped around her ankles and feet. The girl had black skate pads on her knees and elbows and a black helmet on. She wore a proud smile on her face and she exclaimed, "Did you see that?! Totally nailed it!"
Deliah paused and looked to her left and right to make sure the little one was speaking to her. Before she could open her mouth, two other kids whizzed by to catch up to the inline skater girl; one had a skateboard and the other was on a bicycle. They both traded looks at each other before turning back to her. "You mean did we see how you nearly fell on your face?" the skateboarder chuckled. She had on an orange hoodie, blue jeans, and red shoes. Her helmet was teal and her elbow and knee pads were a cream white. From Deliah's perspective, she couldn't see the skateboarder's face because of her teal colored helmet. "I don't know how you didn't fall over, Evelyn. You nearly tripped over your own skates."
"What? I did not fall!" the white girl, Evelyn, hotly said and stomped her skates. "You don't know what you're talking about, Jade."
"You did stumble a bit," the bicycle boy chimed in. He wore an over-sized red shirt with khakis with a white undershirt. The boy had a green helmet and knee pads.
"This is coming from Sam Bloom, who doesn't do any kinds of tricks with his new bike," Evelyn argued and pointed at his bicycle.
"Hmph. At least I know my limits and aren't trying to show off all the time," Sam crossed his arms.
"Well, you guys can keep arguing. I'm heading over to the new skate park before Malachi does! Last one there's a rotten egg!" the Jade girl exclaimed as she skated off after the scooter boy Malachi.
Evelyn flipped her hair from her face and followed after Jade. "Hey, wait for me!"
"Ooh! Me too!" Sam followed.
As the kids skated off, Deliah brushed off the dirt from her clothes and glared in the youngster's direction. "Those kid's recklessness nearly ran me over. They hadn't even stopped to apologize," she scowled. She took out her money again and re-checked it in hand to make sure nothing was lost. "At least I did not lose this. I certainly need a map... "
Later...
"Hey, Jade! Evelyn's about to show us a trick with her inline skates!" Sam called to her friend. Him, Jade, Evelyn, and Malachi had finally arrived at the Spring Grounds Park, one of the popular skate parks in San Francisco. By the time the group of four had gotten there, there already were many other kids going up and down the half-pipes and rails, laughing, chatting, and having fun and celebrating their summer freedom. Jade went over on one of the half-pipes besides Sam and Malachi and looked up to see Evelyn on the edge of one side. Kids were on the ground floor creating a crowd around to see the inline skater girl's next move.
"I'll show you what I can do!" the brunette announced to her friends below. Jade, Sam, and Malachi looked up at Evelyn and gave her a thumbs up.
Malachi used his hand to shield the sunlight from getting into his eyes at Evelyn. He was a dark-skinned black boy wearing a yellow shirt and blue jeans with black shoes. He took off his helmet and smoothed out his kinky tapered haircut and tipped his helmet to the inline skater. "Let's see it!"
"Be careful on the pipe Evie!" a light-skinned black teen girl called and gave her thumbs up.
"Tchyeah! Don't be like Mikey over here!" an older white teen guy smirked and jokingly poked his friend beside him Mikey in the ribs, causing the crowd to laugh some. What made the quip funny was a month back, Mikey had fallen doing a stunt from the half-pipe and sprained his ankle. The boy was on crutches for a while until a couple of weeks ago, but even then Mikey still had to wait for a couple more weeks to get back on his skateboard.
"Not funny, Nik," Mikey gave his friend a fierce but friendly noogie.
"I got this!" Evelyn returned the thumbs up. She tied up her hair, then put on her helmet, knee, and elbow pads on.
"Three! Two! One!" The crowd collectively counted down. "GOOOO!"
As soon as the crowd cheered for her to go, Evelyn put on a brave face and pushed herself off the edge onto the half-pipe. The girl went down the slope and up to the other side and slid on the edge before coming down again and rolling to the other side. This time, she did a front flip and landed on one foot as she slid to the other side. Then, Evelyn climbed up on the edge and did a one-handed handstand and held it for a couple of seconds. The crowd gasped and many of the spectator's jaws dropped in surprise.
"Whoa!"
"That. Was. Crazy!"
"Go Evie!"
The kids watching went wild as Evelyn continued going up and down the half-pipe and showing off to the onlookers what she could do and a few had taken out their cameras to start recording. Evelyn ignored the cameras and did another one-handed handstand on the edge, shifting from one hand to the other, almost like a cartwheel.
"You're about to give Evelyn a whole five bucks dude!" Malachi joked at Sam. The boy frowned and crossed his arms with a doubtful eye roll.
"Man, whatever."
"Don't be like that Sam. When was the last time you did a trick with your wheels? You got that bike about a week ago and you were bragging all week about it," Jade nudged Sam and snickered.
"And ruin my new bike? No thanks. If I'm going to do any trick, I'm using my other bike. I just wanted to take this one out for a ride to see if it rides smooth," Sam said as he turned to Malachi and Jade. "But since you both are getting on me, what have you done so far?"
"I actually did a couple of tricks before you, Jade, and Evelyn even got here. Ask anyone that saw me!" Malachi gestured to the kids around him with a gummy smile and leaned on his scooter.
"I'm up next," Jade pointed to herself. "I've been practicing my tricks for a straight week!"
"Can't wait to see that," Malachi fist-bumped Jade. "How were you able to practice with your uptight uncle?"
"Wasn't a big deal. All I had to do was finish my homework and chores and Jackie couldn't say anything then."
"Sweet."
"I told you I could it," Evelyn ran up to her friends and removed her helmet and ponytail. She had finished her moves on the half-pipe and strutted back to her set of friends with the biggest winning smile. Around her, some kids clapped and cheered at her display of moves. Evelyn smirked and put her hand out in front of Sam. "Where's that five at?"
Sam grumbled as he reached into his pocket, pulled out his pocket and put the five dollar bill in Evelyn's hand. "There you go."
"That was pretty impressive, Evelyn," Malachi clapped for her.
Evelyn put the five in her back pocket and nodded mischievously. "Alrighty. Jade, you're up next on the half-pipe. Don't trip."
Jade stepped on the nose of her skateboard, flipping the board up into her hands. "Tch! Your moves are amateur! Lemme show you how a real pro does it."
Later...
"And that, guys, is why if I want anyone to teach me how to do anything on a half-pipe, I'm asking Jade," Malachi patted Jade's shoulder. Jade, Malachi, Sam, and Evelyn were returning home from Spring Grounds after a long day of tricks, wheels, and entertainment. The sky was beginning to get darker and the sun was getting close to officially reaching the sunset phase of the day. The children were sweaty, a bit tired and worn out, but it was completely worth it to them, especially Jade. When it was her turn on the half-pipe, the Chan girl nailed many awe-inspiring tricks and flips with her skateboard. Even though she fell once and got a small scrape on her ankle, Jade had gotten more applause and more praise than Evelyn, much to the latter's slight chagrin.
"Ah, it was nothing. You know what they say: 'practice makes perfect'," Jade replied humbly.
"Yeah, yeah," Evelyn haughtily huffed and rolled her eyes. "Ya know, I could've done what Jade did too. And my handstands were pretty awesome."
"You have inline skates. Jade has a skateboard. Those are two completely different sets of wheels. You can't fairly compare the two," Sam simply replied.
"Yeah, and Jade ran on top of one of the railings while her skateboard was still running and jumped on it right on time! It was so cool!" Malachi exclaimed.
"Everything was good until I messed up on that kickflip down the set of stairs and fell," Jade said and lifted her ankle up for her friends to see. There was a bandage that one of the older kids placed on the scruff for it to heal, but the rip on the edge of her jeans was quite the attention grabber. "I didn't think that trick would work out so well to begin with. But I'll have the time to work on that move more this summer."
"Yeah. Practice makes perfect, right Evelyn?" Malachi asked and playfully nudged the inline skater girl, who slapped the hat off his head in return. "We know how competitive you get when it comes to doing tricks."
"Whatever. I still got five bucks from Sam," Evelyn stated and proudly flipped her hair behind her.
Sam let out a groan and threw back his head. "How many times are you gonna keep talking about that?"
"Just wait. Before the end of the summer, I'm going to nail a 360 kickflip down the stairs and everyone's gonna cheer! Raaah! Raaaah!" Jade jumped on her skateboard and rolled down the street, letting her imagination take control of her. The street was a little steep, giving Jade a little more momentum going down and leave her friends behind for a moment.
"I think Jade can do it," Evelyn nodded to her friend then turned to Sam and Malachi. "What about you guys?"
"I'm not doubting," Malachi put his hands up.
"Same here," Sam quipped and turned to Jade. The boy then did a double take and loudly gasped, pointing ahead of him in front of Jade. "Jade! Look out!"
"Huh?" the Chan girl turned to her bicycle friend with a bewildered look. By the time she turned around to see exactly what Sam was talking about, but it was too late. Jade felt her skateboard suddenly hit a hard and solid stop. The stop was so abrupt that the blindsided Jade ended up flying forward and hitting what felt like a hard wall, then bouncing back and making hard contact with the cement. Fortunately, Jade had her helmet, knee, and elbow pads on that protected her fall from being serious as her body bounced a bit on the ground.
"Jade!" Sam, Malachi, and Evelyn cried and immediately ran over to help their friend up. Evelyn and Malachi took Jade's arms and sat her up while Sam lightly dusted her off her clothes. He checked up Jade's ankle and lightly turned it from side to side. "Jade are you okay? Does it hurt?" Sam asked worriedly. "Did you sprain anything?"
"I'm fine, nothing's broken or sprained," the Asian girl let out a small moan and touched her helmet, silently thanking her uncle Jackie for pestering her to make sure her helmet and pads were on. Jade dusted off her jeans, stood up and gasped; there splattered all over the sidewalk was a huge mess. Plastic bags, apples, squash, an egg carton, some spilled liquids, some sticks of butter and other groceries were lying on the sidewalk in front of Jade, Evelyn, Sam, and Malachi.
Oh, and a dazed woman, Deliah, fallen to the ground on her back covered in spilled groceries.
Deliah mumbled some curses under her breath and rubbed the back of her neck as she tried to sit herself up. Evelyn rushed over and knelt down over to check on her, flicking off some mustard from the woman's forehead. "Ma'am, are you okay?" the inline skater girl asked and stuck her hand out.
Deliah blinked up at the child and touched her forehead. Evelyn could almost see the two and two add together in the woman's head when she gasped and shook off her dazed vision. She wasn't paying attention to Evelyn; her eyes moved past the girl to look at the mess of food on the ground. "The groceries," Deliah murmured with wide eyes. Some products were safe with a small scratch or two. Other products were ruined, blended and oozed together on the cemented path.
"This looks bad," Malachi winced.
"Oh no," Jade whimpered in a small voice. She undid the buckles on her helmet and shot to her feet to help pick up whatever groceries were salvageable. "I'm so sorry, miss! Let me help!" Jade quickly said. Her friends were right behind her helping to pick up the food and put it in the plastic bags lying about.
Deliah picked up a small half-full container of spilled blueberries and let out a disappointed sigh. "[$65 worth of food—gone.]"
As the boys and girls scrambled to get the groceries that weren't damaged too badly, Jade caught Deliah saying some other things in her native tongue. It briefly reminded her of all the times she messed up really badly and how sometimes, Jackie and Uncle would say some words in Cantonese to express their frustration and disappointment. It didn't take a genius for Jade to see out that this woman was definitely not happy. "Sorry!" she said again, this time with worry behind it. "Sorry!"
Deliah sat in silence for a moment, watching the kids work to hep her out. Her brows furrowed at the mess once more and she scowled. "Look what you've done!" Deliah boomed. She snatched up a carton of eggs from the sidewalk and opened it to find two-thirds of the eggs smashed and dripping from the container. She let out an exasperated yell and threw it down.
"We're sorry ma'am," Sam timidly croaked. The boy wasn't sure if he wanted to hand the angry woman the tomatoes he held or to leave them for her to pick them herself. "We're trying to-"
"Trying to what? Create trouble?!" Deliah yelled. Her breathing was labored and her fists were tightly balled. Her purple eyes were full of anger with undertones of fatigue tied to it. "Ugh, so careless!"
Jade exchanged looks with the rest of her friends before turning back to the older woman with a brave face. She may be young and small, but she wasn't about to let some lady come and disrespect her and her friends over a simple mistake. "Hey, I accidentally ran into you and made you drop your groceries. I get it, my bad. But my friends and I are trying to make up for it by helping you out, duh."
"And we said we were sorry, like, five times already," Evelyn said as she held out a half-full bag of groceries to Deliah.
Deliah snatched the bag from Evelyn and looked inside. The messy sight made her stomach turn and gave a sour look to the child. "A simple 'sorry' will not fix this."
"And we can pay-" Jade started to offer.
Deliah huffed loudly and held up her hand to stop Jade. "I do not want your money. Your foolish behavior has done enough damage. Next time, look where you are going."
Jade deeply frowned and cocked her head back. "'Foolish'?" she repeated in an offended manner.
"Er, lady, I know you're mad at us, but we're trying to make up for it," Malachi said in his remorse as he picked up a plastic bag and held it out to Deliah. "Can't you accept our apology? We're just kids."
Deliah looked down at Malachi and blinked, considering her next words. Her eyes were like a glaring scanner as she moved to Evelyn, then Sam, then Jade. "Your youth is not an excuse. If you were-" the woman raised her voice to say. She saw the looks in the kid's faces and held her tongue with a low growl. She gulped down a sigh and smoothed down the back of her head, noticing a piece of mushed tomato in her hair. Deliah scrunched up her face in disgust as she yanked it out and threw it on the ground. "Nevermind. I do not feel like dealing with this anymore." With that, she let out a final huff to let her final bits of anger out, turned on her heel, and marched away.
Jade, Evelyn, Sam, and Malachi again exchanged nervous looks and watched as Deliah stormed away. "Hey, don't you want your stuff?!" Jade called. The woman simply ignored her, not sparing a moment to answer.
Sam drummed his fingers along his helmet. "This sucks."
Malachi frowned and set the ruined groceries on the sidewalk. "You're telling me."
"That lady has a serious problem. Like we apologized a buncha times already. Get over it," Evelyn remarked and rolled her eyes.
"Yeah! I tried to tell her it was an honest accident, and she called us foolish! Talk about rude!" Jade huffed and dropped the plastic bag.
Sam looked to the spilled mess on the ground with a slight grimace. "I mean, I can't entirely be mad at her. All that food looks like it costs a lotta money and now it's down the drain," he commented and guiltily rubbed his neck. "My uncle always said you should never waste food."
"Speaking of uncles, it's a good thing mine isn't here to see this. He would've grilled me!" Jade replied in her relief.
"Hey, don't get too worked up about it," Malachi said and patted Jade's shoulder. "That lady's just mad she won't get to make an alphabet soup special tonight."
Evelyn chuckled. "She probably sleeps with a dictionary and a thesaurus under her pillow every night so she can absorb all the words in her brain."
"Tch! I think that lady could give Principal Heiden a run for his money in a word contest," Jade added, the jokes helping put her at ease.
"'Good day, Garden Valley Middle School! This is your principal Mr. Heiden giving you the special early morning announcements. 'Be the change that you wish to see in the world'. This quote is originally from the Indian civil activist leader Mahatma Gandhi'," Evelyn lowered her voice to mimic her principal and Sam, Jade, and Malachi cackled harder.
"I wish there was a translator on the principal so when he talks, there'd be subtitles at the bottom," Sam added, earning more giggles from the wheeled gang.
"Yeah! Today when I said good morning to him, he saluted at me and said, "Salutations!", like he's from the 1700s," Malachi added. The children's jokes helped ease the tension in the air and soon enough, the jokes made them forget about their encounter with the stranger and continue home like nothing happened.
30 minutes later...
"Ah, back so soon?" Esmira asked aloud as she heard the front door close. She came out from the kitchen and into the hallway to see Deliah and froze. There were a lot of things wrong with this picture. She cocked a brow at her niece, seeing that she did not have any bags in hand. The only things young woman came back was dirt stains and bits of food and wet spots all over her clothes and body, causing Esmira to raise a suspicious eyebrow at her niece. "Where are the groceries?" She asked. Deliah muttered a low curse under her breath and tossed her shoes in the closet. "Language," the African wizard warned. "But what happened? Did someone hurt you?"
Deliah let out a deep agitated sigh and yanked off the elastic tie that tied her hair together. She shook her head from side to side and used her hands to let her black curls loosen themselves. She flicked off a half-dried pickle that was stuck to her sleeve and growled. "While I was running errands, I had many, erm... problems."
"Like what?" Ezmi innocently asked. "And why are you dirty?"
"[When I left with the list and money in hand, I lost my way because I did not have directions. I didn't want to ask for help, but I did and was ignored and even yelled at! When I did find a supermarket and got the things you needed, a group of callous children on wheels knocked me down and caused me to spill everything! Some of it even got on me!]" a heated Deliah told her story and raised her fists in anger. She let out another deep breath and did her best to calm down. "[Those kids are fortunate to live in a very forgiving modern era.]"
Ezmi deeply frowned listening to Deliah's account and crossed her arms. "So we won't have any prepared dinner for tonight, my money was wasted, and I will spend another night fighting my nightmares and trying to get sleep. Not a good way to end the day."
"I hate getting dirty," she glared at some spilled milk that stained on her shirt. Deliah spared a sympathetic look to her aunt and placed a consoling hand on Ezmi's shoulder. "My apologies, Ezmi. I tried to salvage some of the mess and ingredients you wanted, but it was too damaged to take home," Deliah said softly and guiltily pursed her lips together. "The sleeping potion is still in the attic and it's halfway full. Why not just use that to put yourself to sleep?"
"The sleeping potion is a little too strong for my tastes. I'm afraid if I drink that, I'll sleep for too long. As much as I don't like reliving the same nightmares every night, it's relieving to wake up and realize it was all a dream. With the sleeping potion, I can't do that easily," the woman stated with a slight bout of hope in her voice. She trudged back to the kitchen.
"Then... then what will you do?" Deliah asked as she followed Esmira. "Sleep is very important for humans. If you do not sleep, you can put yourself in serious danger."
"Don't worry Deliah, I will be fine. I will just make sure to eat a teaspoon of sugar right before bed."
Deliah furrowed her brow at her aunt. "A teaspoon of sugar? What good will that do?"
"A teaspoon of sugar will ensure that I have sweet dreams, ehehe," Ezmi winked at her niece and let out a hearty chuckle.
Deliah blinked at Esmira for a moment, allowing the joke to sink in. When she understood it, she closed her eyes and massaged the bridge of her nose. "[Another pun.]"
The older woman laughed a bit harder seeing Deliah's reaction. "But seriously Deliah, don't worry about me. As long as my barakah flows freely and my juju is good, I can handle anything, even bad dreams."
The brown woman gave Ezmi an uneasy look. "You have been trying to "handle" this dreaming issue ever since we arrived in San Francisco and that was too long ago. You need your sleep so your body can repair itself."
"I know and it's hard to. Usually when I start having serious recurring nightmares like this, there's some kind of meaning behind it that it wants me to watch out. So far I haven't found anything yet, which is weird for me. I can't give up until I found out the dream's meaning exactly. After then it will go away."
Deliah looked to the wizard with a small grin. "Fine. Do what you must." The woman grimaced again at her dirty state-of-being and groaned. "As for myself, I am in need for a shower."
"Jade... "
"You're so gonna make me suffer this summer and it's not fair! I had way more excitement in the s-word courtyard with my friends," Jade pouted and crossed her arms. Both Chans were at the new-and-improved Section 13 in Jackie's room changing into their new matching blue training uniforms. When Jade had arrived from skateboarding with her friends an hour earlier, Jackie thought it would be a nice idea for the two of them to train.
"Jade, stop complaining. I work at the museum and the university doing archaeology work as an archaeologist, not dangerous missions and secret agent stuff. We talked about this, remember?" the Chinese man firmly reminded his niece. "What's the s-word?"
"The s-word is 'school'. I call it that because my summer vacation is supposed to be so awesome and fun that I forget about school, but my summer's gonna be lame," the girl groaned and threw her head on Jackie's pillow.
"Do not worry Jade. Once we get to Section 13's training room, we can exercise together. Won't that be fun?" Jackie lightly proposed. He stepped out from behind the room divider and showed off his attire in a slow spin. "How do I look?"
"With your eyes, Jackie," Jade replied and slightly lifted her head. Even if Jade wasn't in the best mood, she still found time to crack a joke.
"Hahaha, funny," the uncle deadpanned. His eyes caught something off about his niece and spotted a band-aid on her ankle. He cocked an eyebrow and pointed to it. "What happened to your ankle?"
"Ankle? What ankle?" Jade smiled sheepishly and sat on her ankle to hide it.
"Jade. How many times have I told you not to show off with your skateboard?"
"I wasn't showing off, Uncle Jackie! Really! I tried to practice my kickflip off the stairs at the skate park and-"
"Kickflip? Stairs?! Are you crazy?"
"I had my helmet, knee pads, and elbow pads on. No biggie."
"Yes biggie. How many times have I told you to be conscious of the tricks you show off to your friends? Don't you remember what happened to me when I was a kid?" Jackie wagged his finger in front of his niece.
"I was being careful. And besides, it's just a band aid. S'not like I broke any bones or hurt anyone," the Asian girl admitted. "But when I... " Jade opened her mouth to say and immediately cut herself off. She thought back to the women she literally ran into earlier on in the day and slightly cringed. If she told Uncle Jackie what had happened, she would never hear the end of it from him. The last thing Jade wanted was to be grounded on her start of summer vacation for something she accidentally did, so Jade redirected her thought. "... But anyway, when I was coming home with my friends I had this idea that you could take me on some educational field trips or something."
"And what do these "educational field trips" involve?" Jackie raised a suspicious eyebrow.
"Ya know. We find some cool artifact, bad guys want it, we kick their butts... "
"Does that mean I should give you homework after these "educational field trips"?"
"Tch! As if! The only people learning will be the bad guys learning not to mess with us!"
Jackie couldn't help smiling at his niece's enthusiasm. He wouldn't admit this to her, but he was glad that her eagerness for adventure and action hadn't changed. "'Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere', Chinese proverb."
"Learning is only fun when it's something interesting and worthwhile," Jade rolled her eyes.
"{Sir?}"
"{Yes?}"
"{Ms. Jiang has requested to see you, sir.}"
"{Bring her in please.}"
The office door opened and a Chinese woman appearing to be in her middle ages stepped into the room and closed the door behind her. The woman wore little make-up on her face, which accentuated more of her natural beauty. She had on a long, light brown overcoat and had a plain black long-sleeved shirt, slacks, and dress shoes to match. The woman had black finger-less gloves on for her fingers and thumbs to move freely. Ms. Jiang had a warm smile on her light pink painted lips and deeply bowed to the man she was looking to see. "Good morning Kamimura," Ms. Jiang elegantly greeted.
The man referred as 'Kamimura' stood up from his seat to return a bow to Ms. Jiang. The windows in his office were tilted so the rays of the early morning sunlight were shining into the office room. He was an older Japanese man, looking to be in his 50s or 60s, with black combed back hair and some grays. The man had a neatly trimmed beard that comfortably covered his upper lip, jaw, and chin. He was a handsome man that stood tall at 6'5" and was dressed in a dark blue suit and matching blue tie. "Good morning," the man acknowledged with a grin and sat down. "Thank you for receiving my message, Jiang-san."
Yuzhu smiled and took the liberty to sit down in the chair in front of his desk. "I recently had an idea and I wanted to run it by you to know what you think."
"An idea?" the man asked with a curious glint in his eye. There was a cigar sitting on a glass tray that he picked up to smoke in contemplation. "Go on," he goaded with a head nod.
"For our arrangement to work, I will need to get in touch with some useful assistance."
"Are Jun, Lele, and my men from the Sunrise not good enough?"
"Jun and Lele can only do so much and your men are only human," Yuzhu replied and comfortably reclined in her chair. "I'm thinking more... magical assistance."
Kamimura narrowed his gaze at his partner and leaned back in his chair. Jiang had gotten his attention and the man gave her a humored look. "And how exactly do you plan on getting this kind of "assistance"? Are you going to bring out an Ouija Board or do a seance?"
"Oh no," the woman softly laughed at the man's jest. "Ouija Boards and seances are for amateurs who want to fool themselves thinking they can speak to ghosts and spirits. I was considering something like summoning a demon."
Kamimura brought his cigar to his mouth to smoke and nearly choked on the fumes hearing the woman's last words. "Summoning a demon?"
"Yes. Jun and Lele will create the potion and I will do the summoning. You are welcome to watch if you'd like," Yuzhu suggested.
"And when do you want to get this done?"
"Are you available tonight?"
The businessman set down his cigar in his ashtray and heaved a long and heavy sigh. After spending some few moments in his own silence, Kamimura nodded. "I can clear my schedule then. Let's arrange to do this in my office at the Sunrise Headquarters at midnight."
Yuzhu smiled. "I'll see you there."
"I am sick of this shit!" a young demonic voice bellowed. His loud complaints carried into the demon void and bounced back at him like a painful echo reminding him of his current reality. The son of Shen Du sat on a large rock far away from the rest of his dysfunctional demon brethren. It had been mostly quiet in the time Drago was banished to the Demon Netherworld, or so it seemed. One could be banished for a mere matter of minutes and it could feel like years. This was indeed the case for Drago; it was almost 16 months since he was banished but to the demon dragon it felt like 16 years—perhaps even more. Ever since he was reunited with the rest of his family after centuries of time spent apart, the young dragon did his best to stay as far away from them as possible. They could truly be headache-inducing when they weren't trying to be.
"The Earth was within my grasp! You never let me have what I want!" Drago complained and pushed against his father.
"I told you not to play with your father's world!" Shen Du yelled back and tried to push against his son's grasp.
"Why not?! You weren't using it! You're always too busy fighting wizards!"
"That is far from my fault, you insolent pest! China is a vast empire! It was my duty as China's grand ruler to protect and secure my domain!"
""My duty" my ass! You had those talismans powers and wanted to go out an' be a fuckin' show-off! No wonder why Lo Pei turned your subjects against you!"
"Wretched, ungrateful little whelp! Even in my weaker moments I did my best to raise you and this is how you repay me?! You do not deserve to rule Earth!"
"Lies, lies, all lies! And I'll be damned if I pay you shit! You're just jealous of my plan working so well that you just had to stick your huge scaly ass into it and-"
"Agh! Stop with the arguments! If I must listen to you two constantly quarrel, I will become deaf," Hsi Wu grumbled. The dueling dragons looked up to see the Demon of the Skies perched up on a floating rock above them with an annoyed look.
"If we all must listen to you two bickering, I will make both your imprisonments a living nightmare," Tchang Zu came in behind the Demon of Sky with his hands clenched in yellow lightning. Following him in were the rest of the demons: Xiao Fēng, Tso Lan, Dai Gui, Po Kong, and Bai Tza.
"Nephew! Long time no see," the Water Demon exclaimed. If their current circumstances were better, she would be a little more eager to see her nephew again. "The last time we had seen you, you were a tiny whelp."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. It's nice to see you all again too," Drago sarcastically replied and dusted Shen Du's prints from his being. "It's been what, centuries?"
"I would suppose so. You have grown so much. You are more... mature," Po Kong finished and leaned in to get a better look at Drago. "If you were not my nephew, I would be more tempted to eat you up."
"Considering how you eat nearly everything in your path, that is far from a compliment Sister Po," Xiao Fēng quipped.
"And once again, brother Shen Du is banished," Tso Lan said with a dry, but clearly frustrated tone. His eyes studied Drago again and hummed. If the Moon Demon wasn't so bare of emotions, he would have held a slightly surprised expression. "And I assume this is your offspring? He is... alive and well I see."
"Thanks for the recognition Unc," Drago coolly answered.
"Yes, well-" the senior Demon of Fire struggled to find words.
"So the half-breed of an offspring is here," the Demon of Earth blurted out.
"Yes, and it seems he has busied himself on Earth collecting our chi," Tchang Zu added with a narrow glare at Drago's large and mighty form.
Drago deeply frowned at the Demons of Earth and Thunder and let out a curt laugh. "Yeah, okay. I'm gonna pretend you didn't just call me a half-breed."
"Have you not taken a look at yourself, nephew? You feel sufficient with yourself in this form. Your logic behind collecting our chi from the mortals was to make yourself appear more powerful, was it not?" Hsi Wu smirked as he perched himself on Po Kong's shoulder.
"You can't be talkin' to me about power when you're a tiny ass bat freak!" Mega-Drago snapped back. "I, Drago, am a pure demon! I was born with power!"
"Too bad his mother is not here to confirm this," Hsi Wu tsked and snuck a sidelong glance to Shen Du.
The dragon caught his younger brother's look and glared back. "Do not look my way, brother. I would never lower myself to mate with a human for any reason."
The Sky Demon scoffed. "Humor me."
"Were you not the one He Xiangu distracted with her human femininity as Han Xiangzi flew the magic flute?" Shen Du sneakily hissed. All of the demons sans Tso Lan let out a raucous laugh at the memory.
The Moon Demon twitched his tongue and snapped his head towards his Fire Demon brother. "Mind your tongue! I have said never to mention that Immortal's name around me ever again!"
Instantly, all demons quieted their laughter to soft snickers so Tso Lan would not snap at them next. "Apologies, Tso. I had forgotten," Shen Du quietly mumbled.
"Huh, never would've guessed Uncle Hsi Wu has a thing for human girls," a smug Drago stroked his chin. This raised the volume of the snickers back into loud laughs and guffaws from everyone but the Sky Demon.
"I told Brother Hsi not to get involved with human women as they are tricky. Momentarily, I had to check on him to make sure he was not in any sort of mischief," Tchang Zu grunted.
"Shen Du and Tchang Zu lie! I do not toy with human women because of how tedious and unattractive they are. They vaguely interest me," the Sky Demon struggled to look for a good excuse and crossed his arms. "As for He—er, that Immortal, there was nothing on her to see. She is built like a sliver stone slab."
"I am sure Tso Lan can relate," Tchang Zu discreetly jabbed to whoever was in his earshot.
Tso Lan ticked his head towards his brother and narrowed his eyes. "You have something to say, Tchang Zu?"
"I said nothing," Tchang Zu denied with a sly smile and shook his head.
"Hsi Wu does not tell the full truth," the Earth Demon chortled. "He hardly troubled himself over looks when it came to his infatuation with her."
"I was not infatuated!"
"Once in Dai Gui's domain, Hsi Wu requested the female courtesans to adorn themselves to look just like the Immortal. He once demanded that a servant to play the flute for him just like she did and was angry with the servant when she could not!" Dai Gui pointed out and laughed. In retrospect, the memory was amusing; back then, the Earth Demon wasn't happy his younger brother was in his territory uninvited and bossing around his servants.
"And you requested me to set you up with a courtesan and did not know you had buried her alive until the week after!" the Sky Demon retorted. "Do not think I had forgotten your blunders either!"
"LIES!" Dai Gui roared and threw some close by rocks at the Sky Demon, who swiftly dodged them with ease.
"I knew Dai Gui would do something like that," Po Kong mumbled and turned to Bai Tza. "And you doubted me."
"Contrary to all your beliefs brothers and sisters, Drago is veritably a pure demon, but he has not fully developed yet. You should know about development yourself since you have not advanced much in terms of height," Shen Du argued to the Sky Demon.
"Shen Du's point does ring true," Xiao Fēng quirked a brow to his brother. "Granted, Drago is still young and has plenty of time to grow. Who knows? He may grow to be even taller than Hsi Wu."
"I resent that," Hsi Wu hissed.
"I blame Drago's mother for his lessened power and size, as she was a somewhat smaller dragon than myself," the senior Fire Demon admitted.
"Speaking of power and size, who gave you the authority to seek out our chi?" Bai Tza asked with a raised eyebrow towards the Mega-Drago and carefully eyed his mighty form. "I hardly believe you had any right to do so."
"Dai Gui wants his Earth chi back!" the Earth demon thundered.
"As do I," Hsi Wu seconded that.
"Heyheyhey! I was doing you all a favor by getting your chi to take over Earth so we could all rule!" Drago pointed out and gave a pointed glare to his father. "Had it not been for Selfish Du over here, it woulda been a reality!"
"Need I warn your thick-headedness again that Earth is NOT your domain!" Shen Du retorted sharply. "I have accomplished more than you have to release our brethren. If you ask me, you should not get to rule a domain because of your blatant disrespect and immaturity!"
"Yeah, well no one asked you! You had over nine centuries to rule Earth and you blew through it!" Drago snarled.
"Lo Pei trapped-!"
The demons loudly groaned in unison and rolled their eyes at their brother's same old excuse. "Lo Pei this! Lo Pei that! Everything is that damn Lo Pei's fault and not yours! Take some responsibility for once, old man!" Drago called out with an accusing finger.
"Next, Shen Du will blame Lo Pei for deciding not to free us while he was ruling China!" Bai Tza screeched.
"Shen Du, you have accomplished getting us right back to where we began; with our initial banishment," Tso Lan remarked.
"If Dai Gui was stupid, he would assume you went through the trouble of releasing us just to allow Jackie Chan to trap us again," Dai Gui growled at the Fire Demon.
"But it is the mortal Jackie Chan and his family who got us all in these putrid predicaments. Why not blame him?" Shen Du spoke up again to defend himself.
"Because you let Chan trump you numerous times!" Xiao Fēng called out.
"Shen Du delayed our release for so long so the rest of us would not threaten his hold of China and of the Earth," Po Kong cut in. "If it amounts to anything, I can respect Drago for doing what Shen Du refused to do on Earth; consider his brethren."
"Po Kong, that is far from the truth and you know it!" Shen Du hastily disputed. "I just needed the proper assistance and-"
"The only thing Shen Du needs assistance in is knowing about sharing and loyalty," the Sky Demon sneered at his brother.
"All those centuries spent deceiving us of our freedom so he could keep to himself. Shen Du could not think of a plausible excuse," Xiao Fēng said.
"Satirically Shen Du, you have been banished five times!" Bai Tza seethed. "This is Drago's first."
Drago stuck his tongue out at his father and made a face at him with his arms crossed. "Nyah!"
"And each time Shen Du left us for the human realm, he would not even think to make way for us!" Tchang Zu thundered. "The previous time Shen Du left, we did not realize he was gone until too late!"
"What happened, Brother Shen?" Bai Tza added a hissing emphasis on the last word. She, along with her other siblings, had wanted to know how Shen Du was able to leave without the rest of them knowing about said escape.
"The last time I had left the Netherworld, I made an arrangement with a dark wizard for my talisman powers in exchange for the power of dragon combustion. I betrayed him and attempted to get the rest of my powers, but Jackie Chan and his accursed family trapped me into stone, took my talismans, and left me in his underground base. It was only recently that I was released because of the Chan's uncle so I could stop Drago."
Drago stared at Shen Du for a minute to let what he said sink in. When Drago came to terms with what his father was saying, his eyes bugged out in wide red circles in heavy disbelief. "THAT old geezer?! THE OLD-TIMER freed you from stone so he could stop ME?! ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?!"
"You consulted with Chan's chi wizard relative to stop your son?" Tchang Zu asked in his rising anger. "Have you no shame?"
"What was he trying to do?" Hsi Wu asked.
"He was trying to take over the Earth domain," Shen Du explained.
"And you betrayed your own flesh and blood from taking over the humans out of spite?" Bai Tza asked, her tentacles twitching in slight anger.
"We all have to each other in points in time," Tso Lan nonchalantly said. "Shen Du especially."
"Shen Du's betrayals weigh more than all of us combined," Dai Gui said.
"I was far from spiteful. My only intention was to retrain a lesson to him about his elders and honor," Shen Du reasoned.
"Pff, honor my ass," Drago huffed and crossed his arms defiantly.
"And speaking of which, I did not truly finish said lesson... " Shen Du gave his son a side-long glance and cast both fists on fire.
"Aw, I'm ready any day Daddy-O! Just promise you won't break your hip on me!" Drago beckoned his dad with both hands and gave him a wide toothy grin.
"As much as I would relish seeing this match, the nine of us are here because this is strictly a family meeting. Save the row for another time," Hsi Wu flew in between the two demons to gain their attention before landing one another rock on the side.
"Drago is part of our brethren, therefore I believe we can allow his Earthly chi thieving to pass this once, as I am content it is he who took our chi rather than some random mortal," the Moon Demon added and turned to Shen Du. "From what I understand from the other demons banished here, Drago escaped Lo Pei and his group of chi wizards after you were put in stone thanks to... good fortune."
"Not fortune, just smarts," Drago grinned and flexed his muscles to show off to his elders and shot a look at his father. "S'good to know that some people appreciate me."
"Gratitude does not counter the fact that we want our chi back," Xiao Fēng nonchalantly blurted.
"Sorry to disappoint ya Kermit, but when all eight powers got combined they can't get separated!" Drago proudly crossed his arms in front of his large chest and gave an evil smirk to his aunts and uncles.
"You cannot truly be so dense!" Shen Du cried out.
"What?"
The senior Fire Demon scoffed at his son's foolishness and widely gestured to his siblings. "The chis you currently possess originate from them, so they can easily take back what was theirs."
"WHAT?! Bu-But-But the chis are fused together! It's impossible to remove them! I did my research—lots of it!" Drago roared back.
"Well, your research was wrong," Xiao Fēng darkly chuckled. "The chis are ours to give and take as we please and we prefer the latter."
"Try to understand, nephew," the Moon Demon reasoned. "We did not lie when I said you were acknowledged for your courtesy." On cue, he and the other seven demon sorcerers raise a hand and summoned a circle of a dark purple aura simultaneously.
"What do you think you're about to do?" the son of Shen Du demanded, beginning to feel antsy. Suddenly, he felt his body get raised in the air by a strong force. One by one, Drago felt each demon chi get stripped from him and go back to the bodies of their owners, causing the young demon to massively shrink in size. When the transfer was finished, Drago was back in his original form and fell from the air onto his rock, sprawled out like a corpse.
"A pity for your demon chi. And your ego," Xiao Fēng bantered and the rest of the demons followed by laughing at Drago's misfortune.
"I question where he got that ego from," Tchang Zu suggested. Shen Du stopped his laughing and scowled at his brother as the other demons continued to snicker.
"Shen Du is quite the perfect model father to his son. I almost cannot blame Drago for his behavior. Almost," Tso Lan caustically replied.
The dragon narrowed his eyes at his moon-powered sibling. He is his elder, yes, but that comment strongly rubbed him the wrong way. "Do not judge what you know nothing of, brother," Shen Du rebutted.
"We do not have to know about being a parent to know you are a terrible one," Po Kong said to the Fire Demon and pointed to Drago. "You must try to be light on him sometimes. He is still your offspring."
"If I was light on Drago, he would have been easily killed. Toughening him up is the sole method to teach him how to survive," Shen Du retorted.
"Dai Gui says even if Drago was toughened up, the weakling would still be easy for the mortals to kill," the Earth demon sneered at the junior dragon.
"Well I'm here, aren't I?!" Drago yelled and took out a breath. "And I'm not a weakling!"
"Only a simpleton would think it takes only strength to evade being captured or killed," Tso Lan countered. "You were the first to be banished by the Drunken Immortal Lan Caihe and Hsi Wu followed."
"All because of the damned Lady Immortal," Hsi Wu grumbled out of Tso Lan's earshot.
"All because you could not mind your own business and restrain yourself, Brother Hsi," Po Kong cackled.
"If I had a son I would have raised him to be much better, much stronger than this insolent brat," Tchang Zu crossed his arms and turned from the junior dragon.
"I already am strong, you giant blue cockroach!" Drago shouted.
"You would have raised him to be a hard-headed fool who fancies attention," Tso Lan dryly snarked.
"Tchang Zu would have a son to be even more hot-headed than he is now," Bai Tza added.
"I wager that Tchang Zu's hypothetical son would have been killed by the same chi wizards hunting Drago," Hsi Wu said.
"I second that," Po Kong agreed.
"RAAAAAAGHH! YOU TAKE THAT BACK!" the Thunder Demon boomed and use his powers to smash some rocks floating nearby him.
Xiao Fēng narrowly dodged some debris and moved from beside him to a rock on Shen Du's right. "That temper proves enough for me," he added.
As the rest of the family started going back and forth with one another, Drago (still injured from the chi removal spell) hopped from rock to rock away from the family meeting. "The big dysfunctional family I know and love... "
The son of Shen Du growled and kicked a pebble off his rock and watched it fly into the bottomless abyss below. "I can't believe I was so damn close to winning and getting rid of Chan!" he hissed. "There has to be another way out of here. Father somehow got out after Lü Dongbin banished him. I just have to wait until I find the chance."
It all happened so fast. He couldn't help but think that it could have all been avoided if he had planned ahead for this very moment.
He had heard the Chinese Court had discovered his true identity and had sent soldiers out for his arrest, and so he ran as far and fast as his energy could take him. The man was tempted to use his magic to hep him escape, but he knew that would give him a higher risk him of getting caught. After some time he needed to rest to save some energy, so the ex-court official took refuge behind an abandoned house deep in the forest. The wanted man stayed there until nightfall to keep going, for his goal was to escape China and exile himself into the Gobi Desert. The ex-court official had run nearly a mile when he felt something activate below him and trap him inside a strong green bubble. Only then did the wanted man know that it was over for him. He wore a torn and muddled dark green robe with loose sleeves. His inside upper garment was a white yi with a large white collar that became loose in the run. The lower garment was a shang that matched his robe and a white belt that was near falling at his waist. His hair and his facial hair were damp and unkempt from the sweat that plastered his face.
Once the court official was trapped, twenty soldiers slowly advanced to their prisoner from all sides in the dark as if the prisoner would burst out at any given moment. The ex-court official was startled at this and placed his hands on the force field. The walls were solid shut. Instantly, he was struck with what felt like a thousand volts of light chi coursing through his body. The man screamed in pain and fell back. "I demand that you release me!" he thundered.
The soldiers ignored his pleas and faced away from the criminal to deeply bowed at another figure walking up behind them. On their orders, the twenty men parted the way for their superior in green robes to come through. When this superior came into the court official's view, the imprisoned man snarled. "Lo Pei!"
The sacred warrior in green met eyes with the trapped court official. "I see my trap has worked well, Wu Zhenyi," the man grimly replied.
"Why?! Why do you do this?! I stand before you an innocent man and you dare chase after me?! I demand you release me at once, Lo Pei!"
"You are far from innocent, dark wizard! The Chinese Court has ordered me and my men to find and arrest you for your crimes."
Wu sneered at the Ling Dynasty warrior and bellowed out a confident laugh. "You? Arrest me? You have no warrant. What am I being accused of?"
Lo Pei sharply snapped his fingers. A soldier to his left pulled out a scroll from his side and swiftly unraveled it. The young man cleared his throat into his hand and began to read. "By order of the Chinese Court of Magic, you are to be captured alive for the crimes of abusing chi magic, evading arrest, disobeying a direct penalty, trespassing into forbidden territory, assuming false identity of a Chinese Court official, deception, and eight counts of creating destructively dark magical objects. Do you understand these charges, Wu Zhenyi?" the man finished reading.
"Your cowardly actions have highly disgraced the Chinese Court of Magic, therefore making this warrant and your arrest wholly legal. Expect to be given a thorough punishment," Lo Pei coldly stated. He placed his hand on the bubble and muttered a small incantation, deactivating the small prison and making Wu fall face first in the grass. "Seize him." Two soldiers grabbed the faux official by his arms and held him up. "Empty his pockets."
The warriors dutifully nodded and checked the fake scholar by patting him down from head to toe. "I found something, general," one signaled to his leader and reached into Wu's shoes with both hands. When he pulled his hands out, he held four gemstones in his left hand: green, blue, orange, and red. In his right, there were also gemstones in yellow, indigo, purple, and white.
"Just as I suspected," Lo Pei glared at the magical objects.
"You will not get away with this Lo Pei!" the wizard threatened and tried to kick out of the soldier's strong grasp. "I will make sure of it!"
The sacred warrior ignored Wu Zhenyi's threats and gave his men a nod. "Secure him and the jewels so we can return him to the court to be suitably dealt with."
"Huh?!" Tohru loudly snorted and woke up. He briskly wiped his eyes and the corners of his mouth. He blinked several times and looked at his surroundings. The shop was quiet and it was dark outside and inside. Tohru was sitting in a chair downstairs to the left of the cashier register table. There were three chocolate chip cookies on his stomach, crumbs all over his pajamas, and an opened purple soda can placed on the floor. "I must have fallen asleep in the middle of my midnight snack," Tohru deduced. "But something is not right." The ex-apprentice put his cookies and soda on the counter and went up the stairs to check on Uncle. When Tohru opened his door, the senior wizard was wide awake in his bed mat staring back at Tohru with wide eyes.
"Tohru?" the man squinted and put on his spectacles.
"Sensei?" Tohru asked. Uncle did not like to be referred to as 'sensei' anymore, but there were times where Tohru slipped back into habit. "I did not know you were awake."
"I was asleep until a strange dream woke me up," the Chinese wizard said and wiped the corners of his eyes. "Why are you not asleep?"
"I had a dream also and I came to check on you," Tohru said. "It seemed strange but very real. There was a fugitive man who was a dark wizard and was captured inside some sort of magic chi bubble."
Uncle cocked his brow at Tohru with a look. "Was Lo Pei there?"
Tohru's eyes widened in shock. "Um... yes. He-he had arrested a man named-"
"Wu Zhenyi!" Uncle gasped. There was a stunned silence between the two wizards as they exchanged troubled glances.
"That seems impossible. How is it that we both had the same dream at the same time?" the large man questioned.
Uncle hummed and cupped his chin. "When Uncle was doing inventory in afternoon, he come across a page in a mythology index talking about the dark wizard Wu Zhenyi and how he created nine gemstones for a dark purpose."
"And the dream that we both shared had Wu being arrested by the warrior Lo Pei and having his gemstones confiscated," came Tohru's input. "Do you think this could be a coincidence?"
Uncle picked his spectacles off the floor and put them on. Then he threw off his sheets and took to his feet. "Come, Tohru," the Chinese elder commanded and marched out of his room. The larger wizard could only stare blankly at his ex-sensei as he walked down the steps. He reluctantly followed behind him with distance.
"Where are we going?" Tohru asked.
Uncle went into the library and used the stepping ladder to find and grab the book he had looked at before. He stuck a finger in the air as he quickly flipped through the pages trying to find the page he had seen before. "We must do research!"
"Research? Now? But I thought we were safe from the forces of darkness," Tohru questioned. While his back was turned, Uncle beckoned Tohru to him with an index finger and Tohru objectively came forward. When he was within arm's reach of Tohru, Uncle dope-slapped him across his forehead. The Japanese man recoiled back and held his head. "Ow!"
"I did not say aaaanything about forces of darkness! We are both chi wizards who just had same dream about Lo Pei arresting a dark wizard pretending to be someone else to create dark magical objects. Our coinciding dreams must be important! To find out what, we must do research!"
A/N: [Arabic], {Japanese}.
And that concludes the second chapter! Originally, I wanted to upload this during the weekend, but time slipped from me and I nearly lost my work so I'm uploading it today. I hope you all enjoy reading this chapter as much as I did writing it. To be honest, I kinda wanted to add more, but I didn't want this chapter to be overwhelmingly too long so I left it like this. Either way, I'm pretty proud of this chapter. As always, reviews, PMs, ideas and/or criticisms on your thoughts about this chapter are highly appreciated! I'll see you guys next time!