Okay, just got this idea and now I'm insane about it.
This happens before the series by a few centuries. Around the time Wukong was still on his jttw.
Enjoy.
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The peach garden of the celestial realm. A lush garden filled with fruits of immortality. You'd expect such a garden would be heavily guarded, but no. In fact, it was empty on many occasions. And one of such occasions, a miracle happened.
One of the peach trees suddenly started to glow mystically. Had there been anyone to witness this scene, they would have called it beautiful. The tree began to glow more and more until its light became blinding.
Then, it began to dim as the tree disappeared to reveal a young boy with flowy peach colored hair. A toddler in the garden of immortality. The spirit of the peach tree.
The boy's name was Taro.
The young boy stared at his hands and arms in shock. He stared at them in a trance as if the shock had left him speechless.
"I'm...not a tree anymore?" He asked in shock, never taking his eyes off his arms and hands. "But why do I look like a toy?"
Snapping him out of his trance was the sound of a conversation close by.
Taro turned to the location where he stood as a tree and saw the marks he left. He didn't want to become a tree again. He had heard gossip of the celestial beings during his time as a tree and didn't trust they would let something like him go so easily. So he hid amongst the trees hoping he wouldn't be found.
Suddenly, he heard an audible gasp at the missing tree. This was the peach boy's que to run. He ran and ran until he reached the edge of the celestial realm. A literal edge that oversaw a seemingly endless fall through the sky that he nearly slipped off of causing him to pant rapidly in fear.
"There's no where else to go?" Muttered Taro as he internally panicked.
Suddenly, Taro heard a stern yell. "Stop right there!" He turned to its source and saw an angry looking person wearing a pink tunic and gold circlets.
"I made people immortal; that means I'm immortal too, right?" Taro muttered as his gaze switched between the edge and the angry warrior.
The peach spirit quickly made his choice and hopped off the edge before promptly passing out mid air.
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In the past.
Taro wasn't always a magic tree that created fruits of immortality. At some point, he was just a normal young teen living in a modern world. Until the day just before his thirteenth birthday.
"Taro, can you go fetch me some party supplies from the store?" Asked his mother calmly.
Taro pouted. "Where's the surprise in that?" He asked dejectedly as he sat on the couch.
"You'll get a surprise birthday party when we have the time." Replied his mother calmly.
Taro sighed before he got off the couch and took the money and the list to get the party supplies with a bored expression on his face. "Everything is so boring." Taro muttered tiredly as he walked through the streets of his quiet town. "I just wish something exciting would happen."
As if on cue, Taro noticed a toddler crossing the street as a truck sped towards them. There was no way to pull the child out of the way as they were too far across the street for that. That meant that pushing the child out of the way was the only option.
Taro instinctively ran towards the child to push them out of the way, but he wasn't fast enough to save the both of them and Taro was hit by the truck...and promptly perished.
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Present time, somewhere in the mortal realm.
The peach boy opened his eyes groggily to an unfamiliar ceiling before sprung awake to notice he was in an unfamiliar house wearing unfamiliar clothes. The house looked very modest, as if it was made for one or two people and no more than that.
"Oh! You're awake!" He heard an elderly voice say. He turned to its source and saw an old lady holding a bowl of soup entering the room.
"W-where am I?" Asked Taro in confusion, ignoring how everyone looked like Lego toys.
"You fell into our little village from the sky." Said the old lady with a soft smile. "I can't believe the heavens finally answered our pleas."
The peach boy let out a sound of confusion. The confusion must've been apparent enough for the old lady to notice as she started to explain her village's situation.
"Not too long ago, our village was a peaceful place free of any conflict. Then, a demon attacked." Said the old lady dejectedly. "The demon pillages our village to this very day. But now, the celestial realm has sent you to save us!"
Taro froze. "There seems to be a misunderstanding. I-" before he could finish his sentence he heard a child crying. He silently walked out of the room and out of the house to see a wrecked village with crying children and adults buried in rubble. Instinctively, Taro rushed to a mother trapped under a large piece of rubble and tried to lift it off of her. In hindsight, it was a stupid idea to try and lift something this big when he was currently child. A magic child who's actually a tree of immortality, but a child nonetheless.
But by some miracle, Taro lifted the piece of rubble as if it was paper. This shocked Taro; he didn't expect to have this much strength. Alas, he was gonna use it. Upon recognizing his newfound strength, Taro headed out to help the other people in the village. Once he was done and was thanked by the people he helped, he returned to the old lady with a solemn expression on his face.
"You guys...live like this?" Taro asked dejectedly as he sat in front of the old lady's home.
The old lady paused before sitting next to the boy. "It isn't the best situation, but we make do." She said with a smile. "And now, we have you to help us."
Taro gripped his knees tightly as he thought about the situation. On one hand, he still had a lot to process and the on the other, these people needed help. He could lie to them and try to defeat the demon himself, but was he really about to do that and risk not only getting caught by the celestial realm but also getting killed by the demon? He always wanted excitement before, but after dying once and becoming a tree for who knows how long he didn't know anymore.
Taro took a deep breath. "...do you have any kind of weapon I can use to fight the demon?" He said as he turned to the old lady with a nervous smile. "I sorta lost mine."
The old lady smiled before she led Taro inside her home once more, but this time she led him to a chest that she opened to reveal a sword. Taro could feel a mystical power from the sword as the lady held it to Taro as if telling him to take it.
The moment Taro took the sword, the lady spoke. "It was my husband's sword. I hope it serves you well." She said cheerfully.
"Thank you, I'll make sure to return it when I'm done." Taro replied with a nod.
"Oh, nonsense. My husband would've been proud to know his sword is in the hands of a celestial warrior." The old lady's words made Taro flash a nervous smile. "The demon lives in a large cave up north, that's where you need to go."
Taro took a deep breath before nodding. The peach boy then proceeded to leave the village and head up north. As he headed north, he felt something familiar approaching. He quickly panicked as the familiarity felt like something from the celestial realm. Taro quickly hid behind a tree before he saw the angry guy from the celestial realm descend from the sky on two magic wheels.
"Hmm, I thought I saw that thief's hair." He said with a frown as he scouted the area.
The angry looking person in question was the third lotus prince, Nezha. "Not even the Monkey King tried to steal a whole tree." He muttered with a deep frown. "I have to keep looking." He continued before dashing away into the sky.
Seeing that the threat was gone, Taro let out a sigh of relief. But what he heard Nezha say sparked his interest.
"They don't know I'M the tree, they think I stole it." He muttered narrowing his eyes as he clenched his fists. "I can use this."
With a determined expression, Taro continued trekking north before he heard a pained whimper. Taro turned to its source and a had fateful encounter.
He saw a dog with fluffy white fur laying on the dirt with claw marks on its stomach left for dead.
One of three loyal companions that will always be there for him.
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I'll give the three companions of momotaro names from the comments. So comment away names you'd like to see for the dog, the monkey and the pheasant!
This fic was inspired by pokemon and the Japanese story of momotaro. Pokemon and the loyal three is what lead me down this rabbit hole of making a beast tamer/healer/ranger momotaro oc. Also, in journey to the west there are some tree spirits like Taro in this fic (though, not of the immortality peach trees). They are murdered by Pigsy at Wukong's request, but they did exist.
Also, his name in chinese (like MK's Qi Xiaotian) is 桃如 or Taoru. Which should mean peach like or peachy. It's also very close to Taro which is cool.
Taro's powers will probably be colored blue cause with MK, Mei and Red Son they'd make the main colors in RGB and RYB color models.
Tell me if you want more.
Toodles.
