Between dodging flirty women, running missions with Mei, and mastering more styles of martial arts; time seems to fly by. Fon has come to the realization that all birthdays feel the same; eighteen was only special because they started paying him. Now twenty, he expects to feel some sort of difference. After all, he's not a teenager anymore. The only difference is realizing that Mei will soon be sixteen.
She's growing up fast and terrorizing the Triad in new, un-provable ways. Soon, no one is going to be able to hold her leash. He honestly can't wait. In the meantime, Fon enjoys watching the Triad dance around trying to get her to be a 'proper young lady.' Every time they suggest she 'stay home and start looking for a nice man' she would smile and take another mission. Mei's smiles tend to scare people just as much as her capabilities on missions.
Because Mei doesn't smile, (not at anyone but Fon and Sifu) she bares her teeth. Mei is pretty as a porcelain doll and just as unreadable. A smile should make her lovely and approachable, but instead people are unsettled and they don't know why. The long buried, instinctual part of the human brain recognizes the predator in front of them. Knows that those teeth could tear through their flesh. But humans don't listen to instinct anymore. Their eyes see a pretty young lady and they don't understand why they have the urge to run.
If Mei ever became Flame-Active, Fon is fairly certain she would be either a Mist or a Cloud. Maybe a combination of the two.
The standard theory is that for every Flame-type, there is a personality type considered 'typical' that fits the majority of that type, and an opposing personality type that was less typical but seemed to fit the rest of that type. If the Classic personality type was calm and collected, the atypical (or Inverted) would be high-strung and neurotic. These would be almost exaggerated in Active Flame users, but still noticeable in Latent Flame users.
Skies and Rains are Classically the calm peacemakers; with Storms, Clouds, Mists, Lightnings, and Suns Classically hitting a range of high-strung neuroses. The problem with standard theory is that it is most prevalent in Europe, where there is a high concentration of Active Flame users. Europe also tends to have specific social standards and roles for Flame users that they are socialized to meet from an early age.
This skews the demographics. And Fon thinks it's more a case of nature versus nurture. By nature, he would consider himself a Classic Storm (obsessive, perfectionist, high-strung when pressured) but anyone other than Mei or Sifu would say he was an Inverted Storm: passive, compliant, and socially adept. Fon knows that he is the way he is because acting the way that feels most natural is likely to get him or Mei punished. It's an extreme reason for being different, but it proves that Flame users are capable of breaking from their stereotype.
Flame theorists also believe that when Flame users Activate, it increases the likelihood of those around them Activating. Fon totally believes this one. The moment Fon Activated, other Flame Users just started showing up in his life and crossing paths with him. Mei is Latent, and Fon didn't notice any sign of it until after he started learning to use his Flames. Her Flames are swirling just on the edge of perception: enough to tell they're there, but not enough to tell what they are. If Mei was ever faced with death, or a fate worse than death, she would Activate.
Fon believes that it may never actually come to that. When Mei was young and vulnerable, Fon protected her from those situations. Now, she is extremely capable and it is feasible Mei might never become desperate enough to Activate.
But if she ever did, Fon wants to be clear of the blast zone. Both Clouds and Mist have an extreme dislike for being bound by anyone or anything; their main difference is in their response. Clouds tend towards immediate and violent retaliation. Mists prefer to mentally torture those that have harmed them, and sometimes driving them to insanity over many years of patient work.
On missions, Mei is a force of nature. She is in the Wo Hop To's top five in martial arts (probably in the world's top ten), though she prefers the beautifully elegant brutality of her weaponized fans. Against the majority of opponents, Mei wouldn't break a sweat. But in relation to the Triad, violence would only cause further problems for her, and so Mei tends to use psychological warfare. It has actually become her favorite 'long-term' strategy.
It's more proof for Fon's nature versus nurture argument. They've actually discussed this before. Mei is amused by the idea, but has no desire to make herself more valuable to the Triad. Fon is relieved, but they have an unspoken agreement not to bring it up again.
Usually, they don't talk about meaningful things. The Triad is always watching and they don't want to get each other punished. But when Fon is experimenting with his Flames, no one will go near him.
That's when Mei ambushes him with questions about his lack of appetite.
Fon hadn't even noticed. He tells her as much and apologizes for worrying her. It's strange because he usually has food difficulties when he's stressed, and things have been about as relaxed as life in the Triads ever gets. Mei tells him that she'll be keeping an eye on him and – thankfully – drops the subject.
But the conversation leaves Fon with a sinking feeling. It pokes and prods at the gnawing tangle of anxiety and helplessness in his chest. He tries to ignore it, but it just grows and grows till he ends up causing an embarrassing amount of property damage when he's ambushed.
That's the last straw. Fon resigns himself to lost sleep and spends the night in deep meditation. He has to know.
Deep in his bone marrow, he can feel it. The leukemia is back. Or maybe Fon hadn't managed to get rid of it all last time.
It's entirely possible. Fon isn't a doctor or a scientist. He's not a Flame expert either. He's improvising (read: flailing) based on the teachings of people who want to control him and faulty memories of a story his sister read to him when he was dying. The fact that it worked so well the first time is somewhere between a testament to Fon's will to live and a miracle.
On the bright side (Fon figures faking positivity will eventually result in real positivity) Mei pointed it out early.
Spending a few days using Modified Poison Disintegration to destroy the leukemia cells a little at a time is no trouble. He found out from the first time that doing it for long stretches is exhausting; due to the concentration it takes not to harm himself.
Within a week, everything is back to 'normal.'
Except for the cold resignation that he's going to have to keep an eye out for returning symptoms. At least the three years between the initial treatment and returning symptoms imply Fon won't have to worry about this constantly.
Worry is just another emotion he buries deep. Channeling the tension and stress into experimenting with martial arts and Flames may not be emotionally healthy, but at least it's productive. More productive than missions anyway.
At this point, Fon is sent on two or three missions a week if they are local (within a day's travel) or he's contracted out. These contracts sometimes involve acting as a bodyguard (which is often boring and irritating, and sometimes uncomfortable) or being sent to kill someone across the country or the continent (or the world, on rarer occasions).
It's one of these rare assassinations that his life changes again. Fon is in America for the first time since before. New York City is nothing like the Midwestern suburbs he had grown up in (it's not even the right decade), but Fon finds a melancholy sort of joy in being surrounded by Americans. Fon enjoys walking through Central Park for the first time ever, but it's reaching his motel room that evening that he encounters someone (something?) he didn't realize he was waiting for.
The man was waiting in his little motel room taking one of the two rickety chairs, with a pot of tea steaming on the equally rickety table in front of him. Fon sits across from the man and takes the cup offered him.
Something about the stranger reminds Fon of the Mountain Master and his immediate subordinates. It gives him the simultaneous and disorienting desires to kneel in obedience and break every bone in the man's body. Fon restrains himself to smiling amicably and sipping at the tea; using Poison Disintegration just in case.
The man tells him that he has something important that needs to be done. That it can only be accomplished by the World's Greatest Martial Artist and the World's Strongest Storm. The man – Kawahira, Fon realizes – tries to flatter him. It's a strategy that might work with the typical Inverted Storm; proud and eager to please as they are.
Fon amuses himself by turning the man down flat and catching the manipulative ass off-guard. It doesn't throw off the Man with the Iron Hat for long, but the momentary surprise is very gratifying. Kawahira has lived too long and conned too many people into becoming Arcobaleno to let an initial refusal stop him.
Fon allows the being passing as human to 'convince' him to take an 'impossible job.' He has to admit that Kawahira knows what he was doing. If Fon was the Fon he remembered from the story, he would do the job anyway. A human trafficker who specialized in children was well-protected by his wealth and his status. No one in the country the bastard lives in will touch him. Kawahira wanted the target dead, his network decimated, his customer lists stolen, and the children freed. All without leaving evidence of who did it.
Fon was looking forward to it.
