There's a New Sheriff in Town
Mao Mao stirred from his slumber, his drowsiness attempting to keep his eyelids shut. He opened his eyes just enough to see the light that was cast from his window. Judging by the angle of the light, it was just before nine o'clock in the Morning.
Mao Mao went to feel his arm, brushing his fingers over the spot where the wasp buried its stinger. Before, searing pain would've spread across his arm when he touched it, now it merely felt like a sunburn at best.
Casting his gaze at the calendar, he knew what today would have in store for him. Even if he couldn't perform his sheriff duties, he still had two important appointments to attend. The first being the start of his rehabilitation process, the second was his bimonthly therapy session with Ol' Blue.
Forcing himself up from his mattress, he made his way to the door. As he reached for the handle, he noticed that the lock was still in place. Looking back to the bunk bed, he saw that the two bunks above his own were empty; not even that, they were untouched.
Mao Mao cursed himself for being so careless, in his self loathing yesterday, he accidentally locked his friends out of their shared bedroom. He'd apologize before he left for rehab.
Opening the door, he walked out on to the stairs, the top of which gave him an overhead view of his office. Looking down at his desk, he saw the Amulet of Borflagon, which rested on a stack of papers. After his (supposed) friend, Bao Bao, left Pure Heart and left the amulet behind, he's been using it as a paperweight.
Every once in awhile, he'd catch himself wondering where that dog would run off to. Bao Bao had returned to Pure Heart on several occasions, and Mao Mao often wished he knew where he was.
Making his way down the steps, Mao Mao heard a rambunctious noise coming from the kitchen. Sounded like Adorabat and Badgerclops were attempting to make breakfast again; last time those two tried to make breakfast on their own, they had to scrape bacon off the ceiling.
However, as Mao Mao edged closer, he was able to discern three voices. The first was Badgerclops, he was complimenting someone on their cooking. The second was Adorabat, she was laughing about something, but Mao Mao couldn't hear over the sizzling of meat on the stove to know what she was laughing about. The third however, was familiar but he couldn't place it.
As Mao Mao turned the corner into the kitchen, his eyes widened, his mouth fell agape, and if he had been holding anything, it would've shattered as he dropped it.
He never expected to wake up and find one of his sisters making breakfast for his friends. Minori was standing at the stove with a frying pan in hand, she was telling a story about her and the other siblings back when they all still lived at home together.
"-and then Mao Mao thought that he could nail the triple flip corkscrew like Hinata, and just ended up face planting into one of the training room's support beams."
Adorabat was about to fall out of her chair as she laughed so hard, she didn't have enough air in her lungs to even make a sound. Badgerclops on the other hand was simply wiping away the tears in his eye.
"M-Minori?" Was all Mao Mao could muster. Apart from his father, he hadn't seen any of his family in almost a decade, so he wasn't even sure what to say.
Everyone in the room took notice of the shocked cat. As Badgerclops and Adorabat took a minute to settle down, Minori just set down the frying pan and rushed the shocked hero.
She tackled him so hard they practically flew into the living room. Minori had her arms wrapped tightly around Mao Mao's torso, so instead of taking air in, it was blown out when they made contact with the floor.
"Little brother!" Minori cried, pulling herself off of her brother to take a good look at him. "It's so good to see you!" Pulling him off the floor, she took notice of the height difference between the two of them. Minori, although similar in stature, was only about half a foot taller than her brother.
"W-what are you doing here?" Was all Mao Mao could sputter out of his mouth, as he attempted to get air flowing through his lungs once more.
"Well, I was having a talk with Pops a couple months back, and he brought up how you were making a name for yourself," replied Minori.
Adorabat and Badgerclops, having an outsiders perspective, assumed that when Minori talked about "Pops", she was talking about Shin Mao. The visit was still fresh in their memories, the head of the Mao clan condescended every little thing that they did, it was utterly soul crushing to their egos.
"Father said that?" Mao Mao asked, unable to believe his ears. Even if his father had acknowledged him for slaying the Shadow Dragon, he wasn't expecting for him to brag about it.
"I know right?" Minori stated, her tone implying she couldn't believe it either. "When he told me you were making a name for yourself, I just had to come see for myself."
This wasn't right, Mao Mao couldn't believe that his sister came by just because, was there an alternative reason? Or was what she said true, she simply wanted to know that father wasn't pulling her leg.
"Okay, but how did you know where I lived?" Mao Mao asked, curious how Minori came by this information.
"All Pops told me was that you lived in Pure Heart," she started to explain, making her way back to the kitchen with Mao Mao in tow. "But he never gave me an exact address or anything, so when BC here told me he was a member of the Sheriff's Dept. I figured someone there could help me out. But imagine my surprise when I learned that you lived here as well."
"Wait," said Mao Mao, so many questions going through his head at the moment. "How did you and Badgerclops meet?"
"I'll take it from here," said Badgerclops, letting Minori get back to the stove before the meat burned.
Badgerclops went on to inform Mao Mao about how Minori had accidentally brought a monster with her to Pure Heart, and how she and Badgerclops teamed up to take it down. After they had taken care of the monster, they brought it to Sheriff HQ, where Minori spent the previous night butchering it.
As Badgerclops brought an end to the story, Minori had placed four plates at the table. Mao Mao took notice of what was placed in front of him, Minori had made pancakes with a strange kind of bacon.
"Hope you like it," Minori said, pulling herself up a seat. "I spent all morning trying different ways of cooking that beast, and I believe I've found the best way to do so."
Mao Mao could tell she had stayed up late trying different recipes, over in the sink were dishes that piled high up. Mao Mao picked up his fork and poked at the food, like he was expecting it to come to life.
"This isn't going to kill me is it?" Mao Mao asked, wary of the food.
"Rude," said Minori, feigning an offended look across her face. "I'll have you know, my gourmet skills are on par with that of five-star chefs!"
Mao Mao couldn't believe that even if he were to see his sister's picture on a gourmet magazine. Back when he and his sisters still lived at home, Minori would often cook in her spare time. The downside was that everyone would come up with a reason to skip out on taste testing. Except for Mao Mao, being as young as he was, never had a reason for avoiding those horrid meals.
"Last time I ate your food, I went straight to the E.R.," Mao Mao retorted flatly.
Looking over to his friends, Mao Mao saw Badgerclops and Adorabat engorging themselves on Minori's food. He couldn't hide the shock on his face when they asked for seconds. As Minori took their plates to provide a second portion, Mao Mao reluctantly took a piece of Razorback Bacon, and brought it to his mouth.
The tidal wave of flavor hit him like a truck that had its breaks cut. The juices enveloped his tastebuds in an angelic embrace. Before he realized it, he was taking a second bite, then a third, then a fourth. The second he cleared his plate he held it out for a second serving.
"So you were saying," said Minori, taking his plate with an obviously visible sneer on display for him to see.
"Okay, I'll admit," he said through gritted teeth. "Your cooking is on a whole other level."
"Well if you like that, you should try my soufflé!" Minori stated.
Shortly after every single morsel had been devoured, the doorbell chimed, alerting the four heroes to a visitor.
"I'll get it," stated Mao Mao, rising up from the table, he made his way to the door. Opening the door, he was greeted to the company of Mail Mole, Pure Heart's resident mailman.
"I have an invitation for the Sheriff Dept.," said the mole, holding out an envelope to the cat.
Accepting the envelope, Mao Mao took a moment to look it over. The envelope was white with decorative gold markings, and holding it closed was the wax seal of the King.
Closing the door, he returned to the kitchen where Minori was washing dishes, while Badgerclops remained seated where he was, and Adorabat was scribbling something on a piece of paper.
"Who was it?" Badgerclops asked, noticing the envelope in his friend's hands.
"Mail Mole," he replied, waving the fancy piece of paper. "The King sent us an invitation of some sort."
"An invitation?" Adorabat inquired, forgetting about her scribbles.
"Yeah, hold on," Mao Mao said, opening the document. "It says in two weeks time, the king will be throwing a party in honor of the Sheriffs Dept. for all of our hard work, naturally our attendance is mandatory."
"Do we have to go?" Badgerclops asked with an audible whine. "I don't like wearing suits, the material always gets caught in the seems of my robo-arm."
"I just said our attendance is mandatory, we'll find a way around your robo-arm problem." Mao Mao said, assuring Badgerclops that there's no way out of this for him.
"I think it sounds like fun," said Minori, working her way into the conversation. "And it gives me a reason to stick around."
"Yeah, about that," said Mao Mao, rubbing the back of his head. "How long are you planning to be here? It's not that I don't want you here, it's just-"
"Actually Mao Mao," said Badgerclops, fiddling with his fingers in a nervous manner. "The three of us were talking about that earlier, and we were thinking that until your wound heals, Minori could take over as acting sheriff. If that's okay with you?"
Mao Mao was utterly baffled at the thought, he had spent so long being the protector of Pure Heart Valley, he never actually took a moment to ponder what procedures to take should he find himself injured and unable to perform his duties.
Thinking about it, who else would be better suited to protecting Pure Heart other than his own sister. She was trained by the most legendary hero this world's ever seen, while he was self taught. Until he could pick up Geraldine again, he couldn't see any other viable option.
"I suppose it would be better than just waiting for me to get better," he said answering the question.
"Yaaay! Hear that Minori? Your an honorary member of the Sheriff's Dept." said Adorabat, launching herself into the air and flying around his sister in excitement.
"Happy to be here," said Minori in an elated tone.
"I should get going anyway, got some appointments to get to." Excusing himself from the kitchen, Mao Mao made his way back to the door. Before he could lay his hand on the doorknob, he was stopped by a large hand that gripped onto his shoulder.
"Are you sure you're okay with this?" Badgerclops asked his friend. "You said you were fine, but you looked... I don't know, sad?"
Without even turning to look his friend in the eye, Mao Mao replied "Yeah, who else is a better suit to protect the kingdom? I should really be going."
Before Badgerclops could refrain him from leaving any further, Mao Mao opened the door and went out in one fluid movement.
Making his way to the escalating platform that would take him down the steep slope, Mao Mao caught himself thinking where the rest of his sisters were, and how they were doing.
Incidentally, in a certain family household far away from Pure Heart, there was a black cat in humongous golden armor who was thinking the same thing.