•Antique Shop•
The front door to the shop opened and three guys stepped in, one was a pale man with red hair, wearing a white disco esque suit and a pink undershirt, the second was a japanese man wearing a blueish shirt with a black leather jacket, black pants and a pair of bright and oversized orange glasses.
The third man looked like one of those odd bouncers you'd see outside a club, but had an odd complexion with a bandage over his nose, darkish blue hair and was wearing a black suit and pants with a white t-shirt.
"Is the owner of the shop here today?"
Alex stepped up to the front desk, thankfully having snuck the stone talisman into his jeans pocket before he got up.
"He's in the back, what are you looking for exactly?"
The men glanced around the shop, not giving many artifacts in display a second thought, until they rested on the dragon statue, and their eyes lit up.
"How about that?"
Alex looked over to the statue, remembering what Uncle told him.
'We must not let it out of our sights.'
"Sorry, thats not for sale, but we do have this, we just got it in today."
He grabbed the shield Jackie had brought it, showing it to them, and they immediately took a liking to it, seeing it gleam in the lights of the shop.
"Our boss will like this, for sure!"
All three agreed with that sentiment, setting the shield down on the table.
"How much for it?"
"I don't know, let me get Uncle."
The man went back to the backroom, coming back with Uncle in tow.
"Ah, welcome to Uncle's Antiques, what may Uncle do for you today?"
"How much for this shield?"
The japanese man fixed his sunglasses, which also gleamed in the lights of the shop.
Alex wondered how anyone could wear something like that, he certainly couldnt.
"$1500."
The three men looked at each other, considering his offer before answering.
"Alright, here."
The bouncer like man of the group took out a wallet, which was made of a black leather material, and he got out the exact amount of money, giving it to uncle and they grabbed the shield, exiting the shop.
"Thank you for business!"
"They didn't even haggle.."
"Uncle supposes money is no object to them."
"They did mention having a boss, maybe their antique pickers?"
"Either way, Uncle has made a sale, so Uncle is happy."
"Hey, how about we go out for dinner? Be a good way to spend some of the money."
Uncle took a minute or so to consider, it wasn't a bad idea, all things considered.
"Uncle will go put rest of money in special place, got get Jackie and his niece, and make sure the back door is locked."
Alex nodded and did as he asked, and after everyone was outside, they made sure the shop was triple locked, they headed for dinner.
Thankfully, there was a dim sum resteraunt nearby, so they didn't have to travel halfway across the city to eat.
Steamer baskets filled with dumplings, meatballs of all kinds, plates of pork ribs, and even what looked like turnip cake was on their table.
"So, what are we going to do about our demon houseguest?"
"Well, it can't exactly hurt anyone the way it is now-"
Uncle did the finger flick to jackie's head, only with chopsticks.
"Ow!"
"Demons are tricky beings! You have to be very careful when dealing with them!"
"So, what do we do, then?"
"Uncle will do research to find a way to keep the demon under control."
"But won't you need help?"
Alex got a chopstick flick to the head as jackie did.
"Ow!"
"Of course Uncle will need help! Do you think he is a spring chicken?"
No one answered, afraid that was likely a trick question.
"That is what Uncle thought."
Everyone continued eating after that, polishing off a few plates of food, as well a couple teapots worth of tea.
Though uncle did complain abit that the tea was too hot when he first took a drink, and then too cold when he let it cool down for a minute or two.
Alex chuckled quietly at that, as it reminded him of his grandma.
By the time they had gotten back, it was going from mid afternoon to evening, and everyone was full and tired, minus jackie's niece who had fallen asleep on the way home and who's name the younger man learned was Jade.
"I'll take her upstairs and put her to bed."
Both of them nodded as jackie headed upstairs, and uncle headed back to the backroom, likely to do research.
Which left him alone with the demon, and luckily, unlike the last conversations, he had a bargaining chip of sorts.
"Your stubborn as a mule, mortal."
"So i've been told, isn't the first and certainly won't be the last time either."
"But why are you here now? Couldn't wait until tonight?"
"We know about you, there's no need to hide."
The demon went silent, almost deathly so, and alex thought he either scared him, which was highly unlikely, or he was trying to think of a response.
It was likely the latter.
"And yet, you aren't afraid of me."
"Because you can't exactly hurt anyone as you are now."
The only real way the demon could hurt someone is if an earthquake happened and it fell off the wall and someone was standing under it.
Which is why he was standing about a good foot or so away.
"Besides, i think you may want this-"
He dug through his pants pocket, pulling out the talisman and holding it between two fingers.
"Where..where did you find that?!"
"Just lucky i guess."
Well, that was partially true after all, but he was just thankful those thugs hadnt seen it.
"But what i'm really curious about is what it does."
Before he could realize what happened, the talisman flashed brightly, the image of the rooster being outlined before the actual flash happened.
He looked around confused, seeing nothing around him had changed.
"Nothing happ-?"
Thats when he looked down, noticing he wasn't standing on the ground anymore, but was in fact about 5 inches off the ground, but was still standing up straight.
"Woah! I'm floating!?"
"Interesting."
Without meaning to, when he turned to face the demon statue, he accidentally moved his head too much forward, which caused the equivilant to a handstand.
Only, you know, he was floating in mid air.
"Was that sarcastic, or?"
"What do you think?"
"You tell me."
Before their conversation could continue, Uncle came out from the back room.
"Aya! Alex is floating!"
Jackie came running down the stairs, and became just as bewildered as Uncle was upon seeing him.
"A-alex, how are you-?"
"I don't know but can someone flip me right side up, please?"
Jackie walked over and flipped him so he was back upright, but was still floating.
"Ok, much better."
"Now, give the talisman to me, mortal!"
Both Uncle and Jackie stepped back a good few steps, abit taken aback by its command, but the youngest man just crossed his arms.
"No. Because i have a proposal of sorts for you."
"Alex, you must be careful, demons are very tricky!"
The man looked back at him, giving a nod in understanding, before turning back to the demon.
"You wish to make a deal with me? You are either courageous or foolish, mortal."
"I assume there are more of these talismans, correct?"
Of course, he already knew there were, as the illustration in the book showed 12 in all, and he had one, so there was still 11.
He just had to haggle, so to speak.
"Why should i tell you?"
"Because i know they must mean alot to you, seeing as your reaction to me having found one was what it was."
"...yes, there are."
He could tell reluctance was dripping from its voice, and yet, there was a hint of venom amongst it.
"And i assume that you must want to find them correct? After all, they were taken from you."
The demon seemed taken by surprised by that last part of his sentence, as its eyes flared like a fire coming to life and burning brightly, almost blinding him.
"How do you know that?"
"Uncle did his research."
He had stepped forward to stand beside the younger man, asjusting his glasses as he did so.
"Now, since you can't really look for them given your current situation, how about we help you?"
Jackie was now the one to speak up, of course being very, very hesitant about what the man was saying.
"Are you sure this is such a good idea, uncle said that demons can be tricky and how do we know that it won't betray us?"
He did raise a good point, in all honesty, they couldn't be sure that it wouldn't try to betray them, even given its current state.
Uncle looked back at jackie, giving him a look that said 'uncle has a plan for that, just wait.'
The demon let out a laugh that lasted for about a minute or so, before slowly quieting down, taking a few breaths, or at least thats what they thought it was doing.
"Why, pray tell, would you want to help me, and even more so, how can you be sure you can trust me?"
Well, they really couldn't, at least not yet.
"You've not given me a reason to not trust you."
Both uncle and jackie looked at alex, who surprisingly spoke up before they did.
"Im not saying i do trust you, cause i don't. You could have easily tricked me or you could trick me at any point in the near future."
"Your point mortal?"
"You have to show that i..we can trust you."
"And how do i do that?"
Trust had to be earned, plain and simple, it couldn't just be handed out, all over the place.
Besides that, there was an unlistable amount of ways to earn someone's trust, and just as many, if not more, to break it, so they couldn't really tell him, hell they wouldn't anyway, he'd have to figure it out on its own.
"You've got to figure that out on your own."
The demon went silent, not saying another word.
"Anyway how do i-?"
As if responding to his thoughts, the talisman deactivated, causing him to land on his feet, no worse for wear.
"Oh, thats how."
"So, what do we do with the talisman?"
Uncle took it out of Alex's hand, once again adjusting his glasses.
"Uncle will keep it in his study for now, and will do research to try to find a way to search for the other 11 talismans."
"Its getting late, we should go to bed."
"Go on ahead, Uncle will be up in a minute."
Both Alex and Jackie headed upstairs, but stopped in front of the bedroom doors.
"Im proud of you, by the way."
"Thanks, but we'll have to show that it can trust us as well, you realize that don't you?"
Jackie nodded, yawning.
"Maybe we'll have our answer in the morning, and hopefully whatever Uncle has planned will work."
"We can only hope, professor."
They both headed to their rooms, shutting the doors as they got into what they usually slept in, before going to sleep.
Meanwhile, Uncle was sitting in his study, looking through books, the talisman sitting under a nearby lit desk lamp, as he kept turning through pages, stopping at one that caught his interest.
"Its name..is Shendu.."
Outside, the statue's eye's flared brightly, as if it heard the older man say its name..