Chapter Text
It was a fairly normal day for MK, well as normal as his new normal could be! Which was, incredible! Gaining new powers, training with the monkey king, fighting demons! That one while not exactly the most fun, he was enjoying himself more with each fight! And sometimes he’d run into Redson! Sure he was a pain but… he was interesting, his fiery personality was fun to watch as he was very expressive. Mk couldn’t help but think something about him felt a little off, and not in the fact that he was a demon, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. Well at least the demon wasn't too bad on the eyes. The robotic bulls were a pain to deal with on the regular but he had to keep people safe, it was his job now! The overall city destruction that happened when Redson arrived however was…difficult to avoid. Everything the hothead did was passionate and intense, a burning fiery spirit encasing his personality. A protective shroud hiding parts of himself in the scorching heat. At times MK couldn’t help but wanna try and pull back that curtain of magma, to see how far back the heat goes, how deeply rooted is it in his personality? What is he like when they aren't fighting? Why does he fight? Would they ever get a chance to just chat? Maybe one day.
Honestly he found going out and practicing in the wreckage was the safest and best place to practice with the staff, no one was around! He could break as many buildings as he needed to accidentally wreak! No issues or danger if no one was around, he could go all out.. or play around without anyone to worry about, it was a bonus that smashing the larger stuff helped the clean up crews significantly. But something felt… off about today like he was being watched. Like someone.. or something was there. He stopped suddenly, very anxious about whether or not there were other people here.
A movement in the corner of his eye… what was that? Was it lingering debris?
!! There! A tail? He ran towards where he saw the flicker of life, but when he turned the corner there was nobody there, just a collapsed building, no one could be there. How would they even get in, how would they get out? He paused and approached the building carefully. There was a shattered window as the only entrance and he called out to whoever may be there using his gold vision to seek out any life.
“Hello? Is there.. is anyone there?” No response, not a single sign of life anywhere. He muttered to himself “I swear I saw something…. Maybe I should go home and sleep” a headache erupted in his forehead, a pulsing pain he was unsure where it came from. “Definitely should go home” he turned on his heels grabbing the staff and starting on his way back home.
“ I know you want a body again but his. His is not yours to take” the spirit hissed and growled angrily writhing in his grasp. The monkey tightened his grip around the aggravated specter
“Life.. tAkEn… WAnT BaCk!”
“I will give you your life back, but you cannot take his. Let’s go. You can sleep and wake up with a brand new life.”
“But… miNe”
“You’ll get a brand new one. You were displeased with this one anyway. Let us go. Don’t you want to sleep?”
“…..reSt….”
“Yes you will get your rest, it is not far now, I shall guide you” the soul stopped struggling and his grip loosened and the spirit climbed up him nestling around his shoulder. “That.. should be the last of you” he spoke to himself none other than the souls of the dead could hear him anyway. But that kid.. strange fellow… maybe he would keep an eye on him. That staff was….. something that normal folk wouldn’t even touch. And the kid talked about seeing someone… did he? See him? Maybe the boy’s time was coming soon, he should definitely keep an eye on him then. See if maybe he could do anything about it. Well he probably couldn’t and it really wasn’t his problem until the kid actually died but things rarely sparked the ghouls interest anymore.
Mk stopped training alone, it was freaking him out. He swears every time he’s alone something is there, eyes burrowing into the back of his skull. But no one is there, it’s only the wind. A creeping gaze from somewhere he can’t see. He tried over and over to use the gold vision but to no avail. There’s nothing. Just cold hollow emptiness, and sometimes it feels like he’s being followed. He couldn’t quite be as careless but at this point he felt like he had to bring someone, anyone with him when he trained. Just to stop the feeling of being watched (it didn’t stop but he could at least pin it on someone now) he needed sandy to cheer him on and be supportive. He needed Mei to tell him that he was hearing things, he was starting to get worried. But the terrifying feeling of being stalked disappeared when in lively places, if he wasn't alone then that means whatever is approaching him can’t be there, that’s what he’s learned. He can feel safe in the crowd.
He felt almost ashamed of this, that he feels like he has to hide behind people to keep himself safe, but what was he supposed to do? Whatever was chasing him… if there was something chasing him. Hearing things, seeing flashes of darkness and shadows from the corner of his eye. Mei always assured him there was nothing there, and using gold vision it showed nothing. But he could feel it, he could hear breathing not his own, not Mei’s or Sandy’s. Why was he seeing things other people weren’t? Why.. why couldn’t they see it? Why did it disappear with the gold vision?
Was,…. Was he hallucinating? Is that what this was? Even pigsy was getting worried letting him take some extra time off or even just closing early. Once the city was cleaned up he thought maybe whatever was following him would stop. It slowed down for sure but it didn’t stop. Sometimes he swears he sees shadows, climbing farther then they should naturally be able to climb with eyes staring at him, he did his best to ignore them. He heard Tang and Pigsy start talking about medical help. He was fine though! J-just because he could see and hear things they couldn’t didn’t mean he wasn’t fine! He just… he just needed to figure out how to fight this thing. But… how do you fight something you can barely see? Something you hear that follows you in the corners of your eyes reflecting in the mirror. A foe you cannot even approach but it stalks you like a predator slowly getting closer and closer.
He didn’t know things could get this much worse. Whyyy why did Redson have to show up today?! This made things so unbelievably hard. The destruction the hothead brought which MK once paid little mind too, made him panic. He didn’t want to deal with the invisible foe once more! He’s been handling it almost daily and it seemed to leave him alone the more people there were but if red kept this up! No! He had to stop him.. again! But as he approached the redhead he couldn’t help but shiver feeling like he was being watched more intensely than before. Redson boasted about how MK should be trembling with fear but paused when he noticed the brunette was… NOT EVEN PAYING ATTENTION TO HIM?
“NOODLE BOY!” He yelled to get his attention, the monkie kid’s head snapped towards him, even he could see how deeply unsettled he was. “What are you doing?” The brunette sputtered dumbly as the Bull got closer. “You aren’t paying attention. That’s a sure fire way to lose a battle, and I may be a villain but it’s insulting both to win with you distracted. And even more so that you aren’t paying attention. I put a lot of work into my schemes and you aren’t even paying attention at all!”
“I cANT HELP IT! ITS FOLLOWING ME AGAIN!” Redson looked at him, confusion painted on his face.
“What’s ‘following’ you noodle boy?” Mk’s hands grasped at his head.
“I don’t Know! I! I can’t see it but I hear it and it chases me!” Clearly the peasant wasn’t doing well considering he’s confessing his anxieties to his enemy. Redson sighed and sat Mk down, sitting nearby putting his head in his hand. There’s no way he’s getting a proper fight like this.
“Are you sure you haven’t seen it?”
“Well… I do but only glimpses of it. It’s got black fur?? It follows me around …I hear it breathing sometimes it talks but it’s hard to understand..I.. I don’t know what it is, it stares at me and follows me everywhere it hides in the shadows and sometimes I swear the shadows have eyes looking at me!” He buries his head in his hands. “But only I can see it! Mei, Pigsy and sandy.., no one else sees it, hears it” he dragged his hand across his face. “The less people there are the more active it becomes! It’s like a ghost chasing me, hunting and haunting me.”
“Well if it is a ghost you’d be right to be frightened by it. There’s little you could do against something without a body, you can’t really punch a ghost-“ he paused when he realized that this would probably make him worse. And he was right the unreasonably powerful kid remained shaking ever so slightly. “But honestly the possibility of it being a ghost is incredibly low. There haven’t been any ghosts here since long before my father was sealed. It’s probably some creep with binoculars. I dunno what you might be seeing but the watching could just be some people around keeping an eye out or some demon playing tricks. The likelihood of it being a ghoul is very unlikely. And with that out of the way, you can hold your own against the great demon bull clan, you are more than likely able to fend off some stray demon that wants to play a prank on you.” this seemed to calm the staff wielder significantly.
“Do you… know why?”
“Know why what?” He bite back harshly
“Why did the ghosts stop showing up?” This left him with a pause, standing up as he thought. What exactly did cause the restless spirits to halt their assault on the living?
“I…. Do not know. It happened a long time ago and I doubt anyone really remembers” the brunette looked at the now standing redhead." Now are you going to take our fight seriously or not? Because i am not against kicking you while your down” this made him laugh as he picked himself up.
“Alright get ready for another beat down!”
“You wish Peasant!”
While the feeling of being watched increased after the fight with Redson, Mk wasn't nearly as nervous anymore. Everyone else seemed relieved that he was able to be more calm than before, sure he’d still hear things and try to catch whatever showed up in the corner of his eye but knowing it was likely just some unruly demon helped him calm down. He wasn’t crazy and that was more than enough to settle his worries…. That is until he caught more than just a glimpse of the creature. It was black and was humanoid, it lurked in the darkness and the shadows, in dark alleyways most of the time, but it stared at him before he blinked and it disappeared. His anxieties rose once again when he remembered if it was a demon, then the gold vision should work on it… he calmed himself with the idea that maybe it was at a distance or that maybe the figure was the illusion! But what did it want? He really wished it would just leave him alone. His frustration built and built, ugh! Why couldn’t it leave him alone!?
“Hey pigsy? My shift is over. I'm gonna head out and run around!”
“Eh? Well sure, stay safe out there kid” odd kid. Mk however was determined, so what if Redson was the only one to believe him!? Now he knew he wasn’t crazy! He would have to find this demon! To be honest the frequency of the staring has… gone down but he needed to at least know what it looked like to fight it off. He ran around the city taking in the sights. Putting himself out in the open in more secluded areas. Why is it that when he wants the invisible foe to chase him he won’t? Did the foe prefer it when he was scared? He sighed what was he gonna do if it didn’t even show up? He jumped when he heard something from an alleyway, he… he saw it! It looked like…. A monkey? Almost like monkey king. It looked at him, eyes staring deep into his soul with charcoal fur, he blinked and it was still there… why…. Why did this feel more weighty? More heavy than the last times he’s seen the creature? Was it because he made eye contact? His heart was pounding in his chest as a chilling fear cascaded around his body. The creatures ear flicked, it’s like it heard his heart his fear…he was shaking. But the monkey.. didn’t approach it turned its back to him, and began to climb.
“W-wait I need to talk to you!” Shoving down the fear he raced over and began climbing. Vaulting himself onto the building… the monkey was gone but.. there was someone here, on the edge of the building. Was… was the monkey he followed gonna push them off?!? “Hey um…” he cleared his throat “are you…okay?” The person whipped around and looked at him like a deer in the headlights.
“H-huh? W-who are you? W-why are you up here?”
“Oh… uh I’m MK… and well I thought I saw something come up here and wanted to check if everything was.. okay? Are you alright?” He gently approached the person who looked ready to run at any second.
“….No…”
“Oh well.. what’s your name?”
“….sela”
“That’s a pretty name” he smiled warmly “why don’t we go down and chat okay? I know this fun arcade and one of my friends has just the cutest cat!” He was unsure why he rambled but it seemed to ease the frightened look on the others face and soon he was guiding them off the rooftops. He couldn’t help but watch his surroundings and see the black furred monkey stare at him from the side of the street. He pretended the monkey wasn’t there. Sela was pretty fun, Mk took her to where he worked and even introduced them to Mei, the group had a lot of fun and it was nice to see the frightened girl smile. They liked Sandy’s cat the most, and he offered to take Sela home so she could play with the cat longer, she happily accepted. Mk stood by the table next to Tang.
“Hey… what’s up MK?”
“….Tang?”
“Yes?”
“Are there…. Any other monkeys besides monkey king?” This made Tang pause as he Adjusted his glasses.
“Well why don’t you sit down and I’ll tell you about the celestial monkeys” Mk sat beside him ready to listen intently.