Chapter Text
Racing across the city, slipping effortlessly from rooftop to rooftop, all ears pressed against his hair as he runs to muffle the panicked screams from below, and the destruction up ahead. Hunting this demon had taken him nearly two months. It was a huge, kaiju-level demon, why was it so damn hard to track?
A roar from up ahead is heard, along with another loud boom, shaking the Six-eared Macaque from his thoughts. He furrowed his eyebrows and slipped into his shadow to get closer.
Here it was, in the middle of Megapolis City, tearing buildings apart, and sending cars and rubble flying. A giant bear kaiju with sandy fur, eyes white and void of sense. It had long, razor-like claws it used to swipe at buildings and anything that moved, attempting to hit some of the people. Citizens who hadn’t yet gotten away ran in a panic, Megapolis police officers rushing citizens away while they themselves were trying to not get crushed as well.
Strangely, as Macaque glanced down at the street, there were two craters in the ground, side by side, one with demon of sorts laying in it, and the other with a human laying similarly. A larger, blue demon looked panicked, rushing between the two craters uselessly.
They’d be fine. Probably. They didn’t look like pancakes from what Macaque saw.
There was another roar, and the ground shook, snapping Macaque back to attention once again. He shook his head to get rid of the distractions as he rushed over buildings towards the kaiju, summoning a staff out of shadow like he had thousands of times before. He had to get rid of this thing before it wrecked the whole city.
He flung his staff at the kaiju midair with practiced accuracy, rolling onto the next building and immediately jumping back into a sprint. It hit the demon, causing the bear kaiju to turn towards Macaque with a roar.
The giant demon raised a claw to swipe at Macaque, but it was slow, and he was faster. He slipped into the shadows right as its claw slammed down into the building, creating a huge crater where Macaque had been standing. Macaque was already behind it by the time the kaiju lifted its paw, and he summoned dozens of shadow clones to attack and distract it while Macaque tried to get to its weak spot. They crawled out of the shadows like they came straight from hell, then jumped into action.
The bear kaiju swiped at the clones like one would swipe at flies, eliminating one only for another to take its place. Rubble and sand flew every time the kaiju hit something, making it difficult for Macaque to find anything to use against it. The clones got a few hits in, but it didn’t take long for the kaiju to somehow spot a pattern in the clones’ movements. It let out a deafening roar, catching Macaque off-guard and causing him to stumble. The clones seemed to be stunned too as a reaction to Macaque’s momentary misstep. The kaiju took that chance to wipe out the rest of the clones, turning towards Macaque with a rumbling growl.
Macaque cursed under his breath for such a rookie mistake, before slipping into the shadows and out of sight. He appeared behind the kaiju and summoned another shadow staff. He spun around to give it more momentum before flinging it as hard as he could towards the back of the kaiju’s head.
It landed with a muffled boom, causing the kaiju to stumble and sway for a moment. Macaque silently pleaded that this was finally it, but the kaiju was much more resilient. It shook its head, turned partially to give Macaque a glare. It growled before it slowly dissipated into sand.
The bear kaiju stormed off.
Literally.
Turning into a dust storm and flying off before Macaque could get it.
Macaque let out a long, exasperated groan, letting his makeshift staff melt back into his shadow before looking over the horizon after the demon.
Great. Another week of tracking wasted.
The monkey demon took a breath, dusting himself off before walking to the edge of the building. He put a hand over his eyes to block the sun out of his view, trying to figure out if the kaiju was still in range. He might be able to catch up to it if he left now.
Before he could do much else though, there was a yell from behind him. “MONKEY KING HI- AH-” just as Macaque turned to see what the hell that was, there was crash. Macaque stared confused at the edge, unfurling two of his ears to see if whatever, or whoever that was, was still there.
“-MONKEY KING!” “AH!” Macaque jumped three feet into the air as he whipped around to see a kid was suddenly right behind him and right in his face, tail puffed up like a cat’s. “MONKEY KING THAT WAS SO AWESOME THE WAY YOU JUST-” The kid stopped mid-sentence with a gasp and immediately leaned away from Macaque, who was looking at the kid with wide eyes and a flabbergasted expression. “Oh, you’re… not the Monkey King.” The kid said sheepishly.
He had wild brown hair held up and out of his face by a red bandana, minus one piece that just hung over the side of his forehead. The kid had a white t-shirt with a target on it, covered mostly by a bright yellow hoodie with a cloud logo on it. But Macaque was less focused on how this kid was dressed, and more on what he was holding.
It was a staff. Monkey King’s staff. The staff.
Macaque’s right eye itched as he saw it but tore his gaze away from the thing with a sigh, rubbing his face. He the kid a strained smile. “Yep, I get that a lot.” Macaque gave the kid a once over before speaking, “And you’re… the Monkie Kid I assume?”
The kid looked at Macaque like he’d just done a magic trick. “How did you know?” Macaque let out a small laugh as he crossed his arms, amused by the kid’s mystified expression. He nodded his head to the staff. “The staff kinda gives you away bud.”
He’s heard of this kid appearing pretty recently. Apparently, he’d gained a lot of fame for defeating the Demon Bull King about a month ago. This kid had somehow managed to get his hands on the magical staff that had trapped the Bull King. But him being able to lift the staff like it was any regular stick didn’t mean nothing.
The kid looked at the staff like he’d forgotten he was holding it, and then rubbed his head sheepishly. Macaque let out a breath and held out a hand. “Macaque. The Six-Eared Macaque.” The kid smiled and shook his hand enthusiastically, shaking Macaque’s entire arm and almost sending him flying at one point.
Geez this kid was WAY too strong. “MK! The Monkie Kid! But- you already knew that.”
Macaque pulled away to regain his balance. He gave the kid another smile, this one feeling much more awkward than the last one. “Cool, cool, yeah….” They stayed there for a short moment, Macaque glancing over the kid’s shoulder. He cleared his throat, then stepped around the kid so he could maybe catch that kaiju and get the hell away from MONKEY KING’S SUCCESSOR.“Well, see you around, bud.”
But, before the demon could get far, the kid was suddenly right back in his face with a desperate expression. “CAN YOU PLEASE TEACH ME HOW TO FIGHT LIKE THAT?!?” Macaque jumped back again, ears pinning back as the kid shouted, “Jeez- would you stop that!?” Macaque sighed as he looked at the kid. He rubbed the back of his head as he looked uncertainly at this kid. The Monkie Kid. Who is currently learning under the Monkey King. The same Monkey King who Macaque has been doing his best to avoid for literal centuries.
Yeah, Macaque did not want to be part of that.
“Look, kid, I’m busy, and I’ve got to go find that demon before he goes destroying any more cities like yours. And don’t you already have, y’know, the Monkey King training you? What do you need some random dude teaching you for?” The kid looked surprisingly annoyed as he thought. Wow this kid does not have a good poker face, Macaque thought absentmindedly. “He’s just having me hit a stupid wall with a hammer. And when he’s not having me do that, he’s having me go on ‘scavenger hunts’, to go get him a new bag of peach chips. I’m not learning how to fight, I’m doing chores!”
Macaque thought for a moment before shrugging. “Well, the wall thing builds upper body strength. And precision if you can manage to hit the exact same spot.” He wasn’t even going to comment of the peach chips.
Macaque understood where the kid was coming from. Hitting a wall with a hammer is very boring. And maybe-…. No, yeah, Wukong was probably making the kid do chores, but at least the reason had some rhyme. “I’m plenty strong! I’m so strong even! I beat the Demon Bull King! That takes someone pretty strong doesn’t it? Plus, you just taught me something! Like why hitting a wall is any good at all! Even though hitting a wall is still boring….” The kid tried to argue back with a determined look, only looking away to mumble the last part to himself. Macaque looked very uncertain; eyebrows furrowed.
He worked alone; he always has ever since he was reborn. He was used to flying under the radar, going unnoticed, but it would be hard for him NOT to get noticed if he started training Monkey King’s successor. And he didn’t consider himself to be a very good teacher.
“I don’t know kid, I don’t think your mentor would appreciate some strange demon you just met ‘mentoring’ you. That’s probably not cool. And I’ve got a job to do! I’m only going to be here for like, maybe a week and a half, at most! Maybe even less. Or more than that, but not much more.” MK throws his hands up in exasperation. “Then just teach me some stuff while you’re here! Like- like that awesome thing you did with your staff! The cool spinny-thingy you did! Or just general, fighting stuff! Maybe how to actually use this thing! Come on! I could be a danger to society!” The kid held out his staff, then waved it around absentmindedly as he spoke, almost hitting Macaque with it before he could duck.
Ah geez, if Macaque really did know anything about Wukong, it was that he probably was just letting this kid free-style it with one of the most dangerous weapons in the universe. Macaque mulled over the many, many, MANY ways that could go wrong. This kid could probably manage it with a little bit of guidance, the trick Macaque had done with the staff wasn’t that hard- wait, NO. MONKIE KID. MONKEY KING. DON’T GET INVOLVED??? WHAT??? NOT HIS MONKEY NOT HIS CIRCUS.
Macaque began shaking his head, opening his mouth again to deny his request again, but the kid beat him to it, giving the demon puppy dog eyes. “Please please pleaaaase?” “Kid I-….”
Well......................... It would only be for.......... maybe a week..................................
“Damnit.” Macaque mutters under his breath before sighing in defeat. The demon pulls at his scarf as he answers.
“Fine, I guess you can never have too many teachers…. But only- only, while I’m here. And, again, I’m not going to be here very long. AND, I might make you do the exact same stuff the Monkey King does! I might even be worse! You like hitting water bud?” Anything Macaque said after agreeing seemed to go right over the kid’s head. The kid jumped up and down and pumped his fist in the air, running around Macaque before turning to run backwards.
“Thank you Mister Macaque! I swear I’ll be on time and I won’t let you dow-AH!” The kid trips over the side of the roof, immediately disappearing over the edge. Macaque takes an instinctual step towards the edge until he hears the kid shout “I’m ok!” In the distance before springing back into view, jumping away on his staff as it underneath him. Macaque lets out a sigh, both in relief and exasperation.
What the hell just happened??? What just- he just agreed to train Monkey King’s successor. He could NOT be that stupid.
But apparently, he was. He was so dumb. And if that kid spilled the beans to Monkey King, he would be dead. Again.
This was going to be a very long week.
Macaque turned around to start searching for some signs of the kaiju before pausing. How the hell is the kid gonna know where to find him?? Or when??? Yet another problem. Macaque ran a hand over his face with a groan before disappearing into a shadow.
Training the Monkie Kid. What could possibly go wrong?