Another day, another paycheck to be earned for the hardworking citizens of Saigon.
If only to take their still scattered minds off the overly energetic incident that had occured just a couple of days ago, its seemingly endless circulation on the headlines of every local paper in the city not exactly helping with the people's case but for most it was the same morning routine of making bills as usual, along with the additional of multiple therapy sessions.
Although in the case of Khai, there was no paycheck to be earned nor a familiar morning routine to be followed. Only soaring amounts upon soaring amounts of devious debt coupled with several hours of his usual free time being occupied that kept piling on and on in neverending stacks even as he was barely able to hold them down by the skin of his back breaking work ethics with no breaks and double the shifts.
That ferocious fine for the the damages he had committed on Nguyen Hue Street had done a destructive job at prodding a pretty penny out of his pocket, in no small part thanks to Chun-Li even though he could not hold it in him to blame her for doing her job, and if he was ever going to think of being able to pay it all back by the end of the season, month if he really wanted it done, he would have had put in three times the effort in his shift both day and night, sometimes consecutively with little to no sleep, too.
Now, on his very own volition, Khai could have afforded to access and manage the debts and payments all by himself relatively fine, the only sacrifices having to be made being the weight of his horns hanging substantially heavier than usual, several more mugs of hard black coffee than usual to keep him awake and his botanical back broken and bent in several sensitive and strangely unnatural locations for a creature of his type that would probably have rendered any normal man in a wheelchair and crutches by now.
But Khai was first and foremost, a very sociable individual by nature, and even if many a mortal man or woman would be in their right minds to stay as comfortably far away as they could from the walking, talking, three eyed eldritch entity of unspeakable horror sitting silently next to them on the nearest bus station while he busied himself with a book or two, the moc tinh had be able to find surprisingly amicable acquaintances and very enthusiastic volunteers to be of aid in his currently precarious endeavor.
One of them being almost as ominously mysterious and elusive to the public as he was.
—
General Science Library of Ho Chi Minh City, Saigon
OPEN!
STEP! STEP!
CLOSE!
LOCK!
"Thank you once again for your assistance today, Carrie, even though you did not necessarily have to seeing as this was supposed to be your day off."
The individual standing next to him in question, a young teenage Japanese American girl just below his height on the paler side of the spectrum with a modest black short cut obscuring one her glowing golden eyes and wearing a simple two tone red and black dress held together with a long sash, had a simple smile of satisfaction at the moc tinh, her right hand holding onto the obscenely large black steel tetsubo club she was using like a walking stick, the mere sight of the giant weapon catching the perplexed glances of passing pedestrians.
Not that she really minded when every day of her morning shift was spent stacking science and history books and handing out late notices in the library, with every hour getting odd glances from the patrons that came and went being an accustomed tradition at this point.
"Eh, think nothing of it, Mr. Ha. As far as having my day off spent for anything other than rest and relaxation, this is merely the start of it all."
"Oh?" the moc tinh tilted his head lightly. "You need to be somewhere soon, I assume?"
"Yeah." she nodded curtly. "Michael's working late again. Got a call from someone calling in sick in his place today so somebody's gonna have to pick up the slack for a couple of missing hands."
Khai simply hummed in note of that.
"That wildly dressed young man, always a riot whenever he is around the library." he cupped his chin with a rooted finger. "Although I have to say, he should really consider dropping that perpetually pale face he keeps insisting on wearing. I cannot imagine how uncomfortable his fellow workers and patrons can get whenever he is around with that thing on."
The girl smirked with a light snicker to his two cents.
"Like how everyone on Nguyen Hue got the hell scared outta them when they were attacked by a murderous matador in a mask with Freddy Krueger's claws and Mike Tyson's long lost older brother from prison?"
Khai turned to her curiously at her knowledge of the event he recognized all too well.
"You read the news about that?" Carried nodded in confirmation.
"It's been all over the city for a few days now, even if nobody around is really looking to talk about it ever again, which is understandable on their part." her golden eyes then softened for a moment of genuine worry, a fallen frown replacing the smirk as she turned to the moc tinh in red.
"But it really got to me when I first heard about it, especially when I saw that you were involved in the middle of the incident. I was so sure that you had gotten yourself brutally killed that night and that you'd be put in a bloody body bag. I wouldn't know how to live with that fact if the worst were to have happened."
The creature noticed the saddened look on Carrie's face and turned away for a moment as he breathed a solemn sigh of guilt. This was most certainly affecting his young assistant a lot more than what he had originally anticipated, and that was something he could not have forgiven himself for even if he lived to tell the tale about it.
So he simply resorted to placing his rooted palm on her shoulder, somewhat easing her tense posture as she slipped in a small grin in her frown as she met Khai's gentle white eyes.
"You are right. What I did that night was by all means very stupid."
"And incredibly insane."
"And incredibly insane."
"And unimaginably dangerous."
"And unimaginably dangerous."
"And with absolutely no carefully laid plan of action or simple common sense put into place at all."
…
"Alright, now you are just trying to get a rise out of me, Carrie."
"Only because you needed to know the full weight of your stupidity, Mr. Ha."
A short burst of soft but cheerful chuckles bleated out of the two after a short pause, having been caught in another dragged out act that strung them silly. But nevertheless, the effect was very much needed for the both of them to ease the tension as Khai was the first to catch his breath with a few quick pats to his chest before looking back at Carrie in his serious tone once more.
"But again, I was very stupid that night, and I am sorry that what I did caused so much worry for you."
The girl smiled softly with a short nod in response, comforted by his understanding.
"Just try not to get yourself into those kinds of situations again, okay? If you're gonna go and confess to her, you can start by trying to stay alive long enough for her to get the signal from you."
"Yes, of course." a short silence allowed Khai to do a mental repeat of that last sentence and the moc tinh stiffened slightly with his horns curled.
"Wait, what? Carrie-!"
He turned upwards, and the golden eyed teenager in red was already gone from his sights. Completely vanished into thin air from the space she had once occupied next to him as if she was little more than a ghost or a fleeting figment of his own imagination.
A common trick that Khai could not have helped but chip in a small chuckle with a small shake of his head at her sneaky exit from their conversation.
"That cheeky Carrie Arai…"
And with nothing else to busy his mind with, the moc tinh then turned around to tend to the ox-horned beauty in blue and gold with the black spike-studded bracelets in her arms who has been standing right behind him just long enough before Carrie made her swift disappearing act, her brown eyes staring wide in shock at the space the golden eyed teenager once occupied for a moment as he stepped up to her with his armed crossed behind his back and his horns loosening to his sides.
"So… what do you think of my protégé?"
"W-what in the h… I-IS THAT WEAPON EVEN STANDARD REGULATION AROUND HERE!?"
"Only restricted to government controlled places of worship and small local eateries owned by cantankerous elderly men with a grudge, Chun-Li." he leaned into her with a curious look in his three white eyes.
"But my question to you now is, what are you still doing here? From what I can assume, your duties should have been done the moment those two belligerents were in safe custody."
His tone had a little bit more of a biting remark than the Interpol agent would have wanted, but she knew that it was all in good spirit as she shook off her temporary stupor to meet him.
"Oh, well… I have a little bit of extra time, several weeks in fact before I have to go back to Lyon and deal with processing Balrog and Vega, so I supposed I had nothing left to do but to just… have a little walkabout and take in the sights and sounds."
The moc tinh gently nodded in response as he held up a rooted hand in gesture.
"I see, and how would you describe the experience so far?" a warm smile lined onto Chun-Li's lips.
"Friendly… and surprisingly a lot quieter than back at home in China even with all the bikes."
"Not too quiet that it resembles the public library, I hope."
…
"That was horrible."
"I know. I am sorry." his head lowered in shame at the poor attempt at a joke as the Interpol agent simply shook her head with her arms crossed and a short sigh to go along with her smile.
"What am I ever going to do with you?"
Khai risked raising his head up to meet Chun-Li once more and soon enough, the two of them found themselves in each other's endless gazes, beautiful brown eyes meeting warm white ones as their individual features compared to one another.
Short ox-horns tied in white buns to outstretched longhorns formed from dark gray branches.
Brilliant blue qipao traced with sharp accents of gleaming gold to relishing red ao dai trimmed in blunt lines of black.
Long white combat boots hugging into firm and powerful legs to simple black business brogues hidden among dark jeans.
The two of them risked an inch closer to each other.
And another.
And another, until they can feel the warmth on their soft sighs passing onto each other's cheeks, their heads slightly tilting from one side to another as if trying to read what the other wanted to say from their minds.
But that was not the case at all, as Chun-Li and Khai Ha stood where they are at the gate of the library with the evening sun slowly setting in the sky to the shadow of the moon, warm smiles and soft stares bouncing from one another as they simply enjoyed the sweet silence of the company each other, not knowing nor wanting for the serendipitous to ever break even as the odd pedestrian passed them by with odd looks.
"So…"
"So…" the Interpol agent did not have a real reply to that, only wanting to softly repeat whatever it was that the librarian would say.
"I suppose…"
"Yes?"
"Seeing as how you are more or less off duty at the moment and my shift had just recently ended…"
He held out his wooden hand to her invitingly.
"Would you care for a little night in town with me for dinner? Who knows, maybe we will come across a wandering cuong thi this time instead of murderous masked matadors and brutish boxers in blue."
A short pause and a stare at his hand, followed by a soft smile and her hand gently clasped onto his.
"Dinner would be great."
—
Gods and Demons around the World - Kim Quy
While Arthurian legends have the Lady of the Lake, Vietnamese myths have the Turtle of the Lake. Gleaming in a shell glistening with glimmering gold, the Kim Quy has appeared in several well known Vietnamese traditional myths, one of which including the turtle presenting itself to emperor Le Loi to bestow upon him the the legendary sword Thuan Thien, for use in his battle to drive out the Chinese oppressors and establish the Le dynasty. The Turtle Tower found in Hanoi has since commemorated this legend.
—
Van Kiep Street, Saigon
SIZZLE!
CLATTER!
CHAT!
Fast flashes and flickers of blinding neon signs on nearby buildings.
Boisterous beeps and honks of rows of bikes and cars coming and going on the road.
Lively talk and chatter from labored patrons indulging themselves on cheap cartons of cigarettes and several cheaper cans of beer.
And the warm, savory liquid of the golden brown broth in a freshly cooked bowl of beef pho noodle soup in the breezy open evening air.
Or at least that was what Khai would have focused on his end of the red plastic table if not for the fact that he was distracted by the disturbingly large spike-studded steel bracelets on Chun-Li's arms.
"Must you always dress yourself in those arm bracelets?"
The Interpol agent halted her slurp of her own bowl of pho for a moment to give the moc tinh a taunting smirk.
"That depends, must you always hold your horns up high like that?" the creature took one notice of the stretch of his horns, the length of both of them taking up more space than the tiny red table they were seated at and not at all to the other patrons' comfort.
"Touché." he let his horns drop to the side as the pair returned to their dinners, a hum of delight escaping Chun-Li as she had another taste of the white noodles and broth.
"I can't believe I've been missing out on this. I mean seriously, this is absolutely delicious!" the creature nodded in amusement of her admittedly infectious enthusiasm as he took a gentle sip of his own broth.
"The Vietnamese have always had a pride for their culinary expertise."
"I'll say."
The next few minutes were like nothing the two had ever thought they would have been able to experience as they simply sat and talked away at anything that came to their mind.
Art.
Music.
Literature.
Even video games.
It was a rollercoaster of unrestrained laughs and jabs, and seeing the Interpol agent so free of the shackles of her work and just being able to enjoy herself without worry or fear truly like this really warmed the fire underneath Khai's wooden heart.
So imagine his stunned surprise when casual conversations discussing adult contemporary pop music from the eighties suddenly turned into a briefing of an underground international organization that had been secretly planning the assimilation of a new world order that would have seen humanity itself brought to it knees in servitude of its new masters, although considering his fight with Balrog and Vega, he probably should have connected the dots sooner.
"And this 'Master Bison' as you called him, I assume he was in charge of this entire Shadaloo operation?" he had to resist the urge to snicker at such a stupid name as he faced the Interpol agent.
"Yep." her hands rested solemnly on the table, her fingers wrapped. "Him along with his three high ranking lieutenants, Balrog and Vega you have already known, and another named Sagat, though as of this moment Interpol has been having trouble with his whereabouts."
The moc tinh leaned in his chair for a moment, trying to process this new information he had been given before turning back to Chun-Li.
"You said that they were looking for able bodied soldiers to add to their ranks in aid of their plans, and so they hosted an unofficial fighting tournament to test the strength of worthy combatants all over the world."
For his summary, a short nod.
"The World Warrior Tournament it was called. I joined it in hopes of infiltrating Shadaloo and shutting it down from the inside."
She breathed a small and sad sigh as she looked down, almost defeated.
"Although I feared all we did was spread them further into the world than they already were."
A warm and consoling touch jolted Chun-Li out of her sorrow as she looked up to Khai's rooted hands clasped gently onto hers, his three white eyes still and sympathetic.
"Do not beat yourself up over things you could not have predicted. You did your duty and there is no shame about it."
A small smile sneaked into her frown. He really was too good for her.
"Now, about this World Warrior Tournament you were telling me about, how did you handle yourself in there?"
His hands slowly let go of hers and her mind began recollecting muddled but clear memories of her battles leading up to the head of Shadaloo.
"Well, it all started in South America with my first opponent being a Jamaican dancer."