"The Factory (I)"
Situated well outside of Gongmen, there was a place.
This place was quite ludicrous and completely stuck out against China's vibrant hillsides and lush greenery. It also differentiated significantly from Gongmen's bright red, tall architecture and buildings - covered in grey, dull, coldly indifferent paint and a flat structure surrounded by hundreds of wolf guards armed to their fangs - it certainly stuck out. The entire area felt like a giant, grey playground firmly rooted in the demolished dirt and lack of life and/or landscape around it - only a tall, cylindrical chimney at the top emitted some smoke.
The closest word to describing it - was a factory.
Although the factory was nothing in comparison to what was inside - for if an observer would dive through the tiny, miniscule gaps in the armed wolf guard forces and peek inside the twin metallic doors leading inside - and then look past the massive cauldrons of boiling metal, lava, fire, wolf workers, high metal ceilings, conveyor belts, and random machinery -
"What do you mean he hasn't reported in yet!?"
"I don't know boss - he just hasn't!"
"He's my best soldier! Find him at once!"
The peacock - as if it was truly necessary - slapped the young wolf across the face, forcing the inexperienced soldier to trot away as if he had just received the gift of a lifetime. Shen meanwhile, turned back to the present scenario - equal parts excited as he was nervous.
He had grown tired of toying with the Seeker after a while. While he couldn't possibly risk anyone knowing the location of the cave - and hence why he had opted to leave the boy unguarded - Shen was confident that no one would be able to find the fleshling tied up, weak, and unable to cry for help deep in the recesses of the cave. The peacock had made sure that even from his relatively far distance from the cave - standing atop a metallic railing and surveying his wolf workers diligently melt metal beneath him in massive cauldrons - Shen would make sure to keep the Seeker down. He was tied, completely broken, and for the large part - just waiting for Shen to come back and continue his "experiments" - even given how unsuccessful they were.
But nothing could compare to the turmoil of Zhong. Since the Tower collapse, Shen had barely seen his most trusty wolf warrior anywhere - and given the relative lack of obscurity that the peacock had with dealing with his oldest friend… something felt off.
Different.
Zhong was definitely alive - he was too tough to die.
But where was he now?
"HELP!" a sudden cry came. "THE FURIOUS - ERGH!"
CRASH.
"What?!" Shen roared, looking suddenly below him.
A stream of movement.
The ceiling of the factory was cracking.
Glass was being shattered all around the large space.
Cauldrons tipped over.
Yelling from his wolf soldiers.
Shen turned his vision to the ground floor.
Swathed in a horde of rapidly approaching wolf soldiers - seven individuals stood in a tightly-knit group.
A tiger, a panda, a praying mantis, a snake, a monkey - and - Master Shifu?
Shen growled.
BANG.
This noise stopped everyone in their tracks. Shen had barely enough time to react to the new arrivals, oscillating his head up to look at the much more massive, second source of noise - peeking beyond the iron-framed windows that allowed a small slit of light from the outside to shine through.
Shen gasped, seeing China's sky act odd.
A massive green cloud loomed in the farthest distance.
. . .
"Piece of shit."
She stopped.
"No good, old motherf - "
She stopped again.
Yu gasped, tired and out of breath.
Because of the fact that she was never properly seen to be hanging around with the other members of the Jade Palace - the very ones she was cursing out right now - Yu found it very easy to blend into Gongmen's local populace. It was midnight nearly, and a cool breeze ran through the city - and yet the place was still bustling - active wolf soldiers hurried along villagers along cramped corridors beset by tall red roofs - all in pursuit of metal and iron. Yu personally felt it quite subpar, considering that under stress the villagers were inclined to do anything to keep the wolf presence off their collective backs - but this didn't seem to matter for Shen's mindless grunts.
Speaking of Shen - and Yu's bigger interest and obvious charge, Alf - the Tower of Something Flame was apparently not even there. After covertly speaking to some villagers, Yu realized that the Tower had been destroyed - which she inferenced to be from the Five's attack.
But nothing on Alf.
There were whispers, of course.
Rumors.
Some people - when they thought no one was looking - would often murmur names and places, recalling a "fleshling" that Shen had captured.
Many were shocked.
Most disbelieved.
A few were simply in awe.
But nothing on where he was.
Absolutely nothing.
She had been searching for nearly an hour.
The worst part was that it didn't even remotely surprise Yu. Just the fact that there was a Seeker in Gongmen seemed to be a laughable matter that no one she had spoken to was taking seriously - or at least something no one discussed. It was perhaps foolish to expect the same people to know where this "imaginary" Seeker was.
Yu groaned, leaning against a vacant pillar in Gongmen's central marketplace, feeling more defeated than ever as a few stray lines of villagers were hurried along by guards in front of her.
She tugged at the drawstrings of her pants, staring at the brilliant moon embellished into the night sky. It felt so painful, so stupid, so short-sighted to seriously think she alone had any hope of finding Alf - and it felt even more hurtful to know what Shen was likely doing (or had already done) to him.
It wasn't even about telling him about the Yongshi. It wasn't even about telling him about Shifu.
It wasn't even about telling him how she loved him.
It was the fact that she might not see him again.
It was the frustrating feeling of never seeing his smile.
His lips.
His sweet words.
No goodbyes.
Yu sobbed, covering herself into her knees. She had been a fool.
She couldn't find him. There was no way.
BANG.
The fox grimaced, looking up into the sky.
A massive green cloud.
A/N
Many questions? Good!
1. Where were you the last two weeks!?
A: Out of country. Poor internet + hacker made uploading sh** very, very difficult. :( On the flip side, new chapter coming this Friday!
2. Why is this chapter so short? So random? So - sort of jumping ahead in timeline?
A: This - this is one of my riskier chapters, to pull off - artistically. This chapter is actually A RIDICULOUS AMOUNT OF FORESHADOWING for the rest of KFP 2 - you have to sort of analyze each and every line to to see what's happening - I sort of did this to reward long-time fans who follow this nonsense :D - as well as deliver a really tightly-packed chapter which might or might not be easy to understand at first - at first read that is. ;) I took GREAT care to hide the subtext as much as possible.
Let's put it this way: on the surface, it has a shen scene wondering where zhong is, then a yu scene.
On the deeper lever? MUCH, MUCH more.
Have fun analyzing and speculating!
Oh, and next chapter will be quite dense so prepare yourselves - think we're all in for one hell of a ride! This'll be the last time I post a sort of "experimental" chapter like this - future chapters will be back to my usual style. But let me know if you thought this was cool!
Support = better than words.
~TW
