Miwa gets into an interesting adventure that wasn't part of today's plan. XD
We are getting some new and old faces. :3
Also getting some interesting information.
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*Early the next morning.*
"Heyyy, boss. I know you told me to come early today, but I ran into a little problem." Miwa had gone on to call Pigsy, as early as she could in the morning. After finding out last night that she now had four ears, and her hearing had gotten a lot more sensitive.
Monkey King had tried to cheer her up and didn't really see what the big deal was with having two extra ears, he knew a lot of demons who had more than one set of ears. But Miwa wasn't happy about it, let alone with her sensitive hearing.
"What kind of a small problem? Are you sick or did you get some kind of serious injury from fighting Mk's clones yesterday?" Pigsy questioned over the phone.
Miwa slightly pulled one of her ears, trying to figure out how to explain her problem or at least say something that would make sense. "I've gotten a bit sick, I guess the stress I've had these last few days because of work finally caught up."
"Stress?! Why didn't you tell me sooner!" shouted Pigsy through the phone, causing Miwa to let out a painful whimper because of her sensitive hearing.
Miwa had to hold her phone as far away from her ears as she could, rubbing them gently to recover from Pigsy's shouting before pulling the phone back.
"I didn't want to be a bother or seem lazy, if I told you that I was getting stressed from the rush hours." Miwa slowly pulled the phone away from her ears, nervous of him shouting again.
Pigsy let out a long sigh over the phone before speaking. "You should have told me, I'd have given you extra break time. While I am your boss, that doesn't mean I'm gonna force you to work your ass off without any breaks."
"I know, sorry for not saying anything sooner." Miwa rubbed the back of her neck while speaking over the phone, feeling kind of bad from not saying anything to him.
"I'll give you a few days off until you're feeling better Miwa, but next time tell me if something is bothering you. Wouldn't want you getting sick from being stressed out again." said Pigsy with a slight sigh.
"Thanks boss, I'll remember to speak up if I need to next time." Miwa gave a little giggle. "Oh, and please tell Mk not to worry, I don't want him to think it's his fault I'm not feeling well."
"I will Miwa, now you better get well soon again. I'll need my second best cook back here and helping me." said Pigsy with a smile on his face even though she couldn't see it.
"I will boss, bye." Miwa let out a heavy sigh after ending the call. "Now, how the fuck do I fix this problem."
Miwa grabbed her laptop and started doing some searching on anything that could help her, in some way with her ear problem.
*3 hours later.*
"Magic items that can fix anything?" Miwa finally found something that might help her, but she did find it a little sketchy. "This seems more like a scam, by how they worded it. But I guess this is the best I've got that might help me."
Letting out a heavy sigh, Miwa got up from the couch and grabbed her keys and wallet before putting on her headset and pulling over the hood of her hoodie. Hoping it would somewhat hide her one set of ears, while the other ears was being covered by her headset.
Miwa did a quick check on her apartment, making sure everything was closed before walking out, and locking the door behind her as she left and started walking down the streets. She pulled out her phone and set it to GPS to the place that she had found.
Miwa tried sticking to the shadows and the less busy alleyways to avoid any sounds, along with avoiding running into Mei or Mk. If they saw her outside they would just start asking questions, even more so if they saw her ears.
While walking down an alleyway she started hearing some commotion further down, getting curious she followed the sound while keeping to the shadows.
Miwa went to grab her staff but noticed she was grabbing nothing but air. "Fuck, I can't believe I forgot to take my staff with me. I've gotta find some better way to carry it around, without having to pick it up each time. Damn Mk is lucky, he got the old monkey's staff that can change size. While I just got a normal staff."
Miwa moved further down the alleyway until she finally saw what was making that commotion. She was not impressed at all, if anything she was kind of underwhelmed by it. "What are you two doing? Jin, Yin."
"Who's there!?" They shouted, taken by surprise.
Miwa quickly covered her ears when they started shouting at her. "It's me you idiots."
"Miwa!" Relieved to see that it was her they ran over and pulled her into a hug.
"What are you doing here?" Jin was the first to ask.
"Yeah, shouldn't you be at work. Oh, wait did you skip out from your work like the times you did with school?" Yin questioned.
Miwa rolled her eyes as she pulled herself free from the hug. "No I'm not skipping work, I just got a few days off because of a small problem. Now, what are you two idiots doing?"
"Oh! We are trying to steal this magical artifact that can help us take down our greatest enemy!" said Jin excitedly.
"Yeah! With this artifact we'll show him what happens when you cross us! The silver and gold demon!" said Yin just as excited as both of them did a dramatic pose.
"Silver and gold? Don't you mean gold and silver." Jin pointed out, glaring at his brother.
"No, I meant silver and gold!" Yin started shouting.
"Gold and silver!" shouted Jin.
"Silver and gold!" shouted Yin.
"Shut up!" shouted Miwa, who was now covering her ears while trying to hold back the tears forming at the corner of her eyes, by her ears hurting by those two shouting at each other.
Jin and Yin stopped their arguing, looking over at Miwa as they noticed the painful look on her face.
"Sorry Mimi, are you alright?" Jin asked, reaching out a hand.
"Of course she isn't you idiot, you know she doesn't like us arguing." Yin went on to slap his brother at the back of his head.
"Well you were the one who started it." said Jin not looking at his brother as he rubbed the back of his head.
"No, you started it." Yin narrowed his eyes annoyingly at Jin.
"Guys! Just drop it already....okay." Miwa let out a small sigh, rubbing her ears while having a sad look in her eyes.
"Sorry Mimi, we'll drop it." said Yin, going on to gently place a hand on her shoulder.
"Yeah, so please don't be sad." Jin patted her back ever so lightly.
"Hey, I have an idea. Miwa what do you say to help us steal that artifact? Like the good old days?" Yin suggested, trying to lighten the mood a bit.
Miwa went on to give them a slight smile. "I helped you guys steal like two months ago, it hasn't been that long."
"Which for us is a very long time ago, but what do you say?" Jin smiled at her.
"Fine, I'll help. I haven't stolen anything for a good while now, and it would keep my mind focused on something else." Miwa smiled at them, though had a feeling she wasn't gonna get to that place she was heading to for today.
*At an antique shop.*
"Okay, let's go over the plan again. Last thing I want is to get caught because something got out of hand." Miwa let out a small sigh, pulling her hood more over her head.
"Right, right! Me and Jin goes on and cause some chaos!" said Yin.
"Distracting everyone in the shop, so they don't pay attention to you stealing the artifact!" Jin added in with his brother's excitement.
Miwa rubbed her ears, groaning in annoyance from how loud they were being. "First of all, could you two please lower your voices? We wouldn't want anyone hearing you. Secondly, you two still haven't told me anything about what this artifact even looks like."
"We haven't? I thought we already did." said Jin, giving her a confused look before turning to Yin.
A faint cosmic aura started surrounding Miwa, as her rage was slowly rising from all the stress from today and yesterday. "No. You. Haven't!"
Yin and Jin gave each other a nervous look when Miwa was losing her temper with them.
"Alright maybe we forgot, please don't be mad at us Mimi, we'll tell you." Yin spoke while raising his hands.
"You better, before I change my mind." Miwa narrowed her eyes at them.
"Okay, so the artifact is a gourd, around this size." Yin explained, as he tried giving the size with his hands.
Miwa took a deep breath and let out a sigh. "Okay, I can work with that. If something goes wrong you guys take the artifact and we split up, that way the police shouldn't be able to get us, should it come to that."
"Come now, when have we ever run into any trouble with the police?" Jin questioned with a cocky smile.
Miwa went on to give him a deadpanned look, with her left eye twitching ever so slightly in annoyance. "Every single time the three of us try to steal something."
Yin went on to hit his brother in the head with his fist. "Well, it's not gonna happen this time. Now let's get the chaos started."
Miwa shook her head with a sigh before walking into the shop, and went on to act like she was interested in some of the items. She kept looking until she caught the sight of the gourd that she was meant to steal, the only problem being it was behind a glass case behind the front desk.
"Great, this just makes it so much harder. Those idiots, better make enough chaos that the employees leaves to stop it, giving me enough time to hopefully get the gourd." Miwa made sure that her hood was still covering her face, along with her headset covering only one set of ears.
"No way, what are you doing here, demon girl?" said a person walking towards Miwa.
Miwa's eyes widened as she recognized that voice, turning her head ever so slightly she saw a guy with black hair, and what looked like a half burned face. "....Shiro."
"I see you remember me, and what you did. Monster." Shiro grabbed her wrist and pulled her towards him.
"I told you it was an accident." Miwa tried pulling her wrist free of his grip.
"Bullshit! If my family hadn't picked you from the orphanage, my parents would still be alive, and I wouldn't have this burned face!" shouted Shiro, pulling her harder that her hood fell off.
Tears started forming at the corner of her eyes from him shouting at her. "I never meant for it to happen!"
"If that was true! You shouldn't have gone off to explore in the woods, and then brought back nothing but chaos!" Shiro went to punch her, but thanks to some of the training she had gotten from Monkey King, she was able to block it with her free hand.
"What's going on over there?" questioned an employee as the staff and customers in the shop had heard the shouting.
Miwa looked up at Shiro with fear and pain in her face, tears now running down. "Please Shiro, I really am sorry about what I did, but I was only eight years old."
"I wish the orphanage had left you to die that night they found you, instead of taking you in. Would have saved every family you've been in from being ruined." Shiro tried going for another punch but the sound of chaos and stuff breaking at the other end of the shop caught his and everyone else's attention.
Miwa froze at his words as it hit a sore spot in her soul, she had been in so many foster families, humans and demons, but none of them had ever worked. So with time she had gone on to close her heart, and never let anyone get close to her most of all a parent figure.
She snapped out of her trance as she took notice of everyone's attention being on the chaos Jin and Yin was making, she looked at her wrist that Shiro was still holding on to. So without much thinking she bit into his hand causing him to let go with a yelp.
"Why you fucking bitch!" shouted Shiro trying to grab her again as she tried to run but was only able to grab her headset, pulling them off and revealing her set of ears. "Four ears, I know you were a fucking monster!"
Miwa covered her ears in shame as she ran and jumped over the front desk, smashing the glass case with her bare hand. Ignoring the pain and glass shards as she grabbed the gourd just as the sound of the police was showing up.
"Fuck!" Miwa summoned a star and had it destroy all of the security cameras, before running out from the back of the shop with Shiro and everyone else shouting.
"Miwa!" Yin and Jin showed up around the corner of the alleyway as they were now all three running away from the cops.
"Take the stupid gourd!" Miwa threw the gourd to them, and before they could say anything else she started in the air which soon turned to skating as she picked up the pace, splitting up with them so she wouldn't get caught
Jin and Yin tried shouting something to her, but she didn't hear it since she just wanted to get away from everything at the moment.
Miwa didn't know where she was going but after a while she landed back on the ground by a building that looked like a theater, she turned her head when hearing the faint sound of the police cars coming closer to the area.
"This place better work." Miwa pulled her hood over her head and headed inside the theater, she kept her head low while buying a ticket. Not saying anything as she entered the room where a few people was sitting, and waiting for whatever was gonna be played. She took a seat at an empty bench close to the shadows, so as to not catch anymore attention.
It wasn't long until the curtain opened to reveal a man in a black and red coat that was hiding his face, stood on the stage and when he spoke, something about his voice felt familiar in some way for Miwa.
"Welcome viewers to a shadow play, one that has never been shown before! It tells the tale of two demons wanting a happy family, which tragically ends in pain and sorrow." The man spoke with what felt like a hint of sadness in his voice, from what Miwa noticed.
"Why does his voice sound so familiar? I'm pretty sure I've never met him before." Miwa watched the man closely as her ears under her hood, ever so slightly moved to listen closely.
"Long ago two demons were living a simple and wonderful life, they were both happy and had everything they could ever need. But one thing they didn't have was a family, so one night when it was raining shooting stars in the sky. One of the demons made a wish to the stars, but not just any stars, But the wishing stars shining each their own color on the sky." The man used the shadows to show the silhouettes of two demons, as he was telling the story.
Miwa watched the shadows as the story was being told, and as she kept listening she started to feel a small headache as some faint memories slowly returned. But it was still a bit unclear.
"The demon had heard rumors about, in the old times if you wished to those stars they might hear it and grant it. But the demon didn't get any signs of the wishing stars hearing its wish." The shadows showed the silhouette of the demon growing sad by not having its wish being heard, and so it walked back to its home.
"But the next day as the two demons were relaxing at a tree and eating fruits, some of their followers showed up and told both demons some surprising news." The demons were surprised and went on to see what their followers had seen.
Miwa's eyes widened while listening, and a small tear ran down her face like something from this story felt familiar.
"Somewhere in the forest, there was a small crater on the ground, having destroyed a few trees. The two demons were surprised to see a baby laying in the middle of it all, even more so to see it looked like one of them." The shadows went on to form a silhouette of the little baby, though unlike the two demons the baby had two tails and four ears.
Miwa ever so slightly moved one of her hands to touch her ears. "A baby with four ears...."
"Not sure how the baby got there, and seeing it was alone. The two demons saw it as a sign and decided to take it in as their own, happy to finally have the family they had wanted for so long." The shadows showed the two demons being all happy while bringing the baby back to their home.
As the man kept speaking he took notice of Miwa, sitting in the shadows with the reaction she was showing from the show he was giving.
Miwa wasn't sure why, but somewhere in her soul she was getting some kind of warm and comfortable feeling that she hadn't felt for so long.
"But the happiness didn't stay long, after having the baby for three years the demons got into a serious war and lost it. While only a baby it wanted to save its parents but it wasn't strong enough and in the end, it was killed. Both parents were heartbroken at that and were never able to fully heal from the day they lost their child."
When the play had finished everyone started leaving the room until it was just Miwa, still sitting in her spot with tears running down her face, as her head was hurting from a serious headache as the story felt so familiar and painful.
"Are you okay?" The man had taken notice of Miwa still sitting at her bench, so he had gone over to check up on her.
Miwa snapped out of whatever just happened and rubbed the tears away, before looking up at the man giving him a slight nod. "Yeah, that story just felt so sad....and somewhat familiar."
"Familiar you say?" This caught the man's attention as he went on to sit down beside her. "What part of my story made it feel familiar?"
".....I'm not sure, maybe all of it?" Miwa had a confused look on her face, while pulling slightly at her hood.
While Miwa couldn't really see it since the man's hood was hiding his face, he did have a skeptical look when she told him that. "Why don't you tell me a bit about yourself?"
Now Miwa had a skeptical look when he asked her that. "Not to be rude, but why should I tell you anything about myself? You're pretty much a stranger to me and I don't trust strangers, even if they are a nice person."
"Fair, it's good that you don't go around and just trust a stranger you just met. Your parents must have raised you well." said the man giving a smug smile, but it slowly went away when he saw the sad look on her face. "What's wrong?"
"....I don't have any parents, not from what I remember." Miwa pulled up her legs and wrapped her arms around them with a sad look in her eyes.
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear about that. But if not by your parents, who raised you?" The man questioned, he ever so slightly placed a hand on her shoulder but she pushed it off. The man wasn't offended by it, but took notice that she wasn't comfortable with being touched.
"I was raised in an orphanage." Miwa slightly pulled at her hood as she took notice of it slowly falling off.
"What about a foster family? If you were raised in an orphanage, I'm sure some family would take you in." The man had been noticing for a while that she had been trying to keep her hood over her head, as if trying to hide her face or something like him.
Tears started forming in Miwa's eyes as she thought back to all of those families she had ruined so far. "....No, no one wanted me."
The man didn't want to make it worse when he saw the tears in her eyes so tried changing the subject. "So, I've been wondering for a while now, why do you keep pulling the hood over your head?"
"...I just like wearing it like this." said Miwa though wasn't looking at him.
"People don't wear a hood unless they are hiding something, or freezing from cold weather." said the man.
"I could say the same for you, mister dark and mysterious." said Miwa in a mocking tone but was just messing with him.
The man let out a chuckle at that. "Fair enough, but it's part of the job. Makes people more curious." He smiled, patting her head.
Miwa giggled slightly as she batted his hand away, causing her hood to fall off making her panic when he could see her ears. "Please don't look!"
The man was surprised when he finally saw her whole head, most of all the ears and her face. But he noticed the slight fear and panic when she tried covering her ears.
"Please don't look at them." Miwa was scared of what he would think, and if he would react the same way as Shiro did.
For a moment they just sat there in silence until the man spoke up again. "Do you have a sensitive hearing that hurts whenever there are loud sounds?"
Miwa gave him a slight nod but didn't say anything to his question.
"I might be able to help your little problem." The man gave her a soft smile.
"How the fuck would a theater person know how to help me?" Miwa questioned him.
"Hmmm, are you able to keep a secret?" The man asked.
"Depends on what kind of secret." Miwa gave him a skeptical look, not sure if this was a good idea. But if he could really help her, she would take it over what might have been a scam store.
The man chuckled at how careful she was being. "If you can keep the secret, I'll fix your ear problem. Simple as that, little star."
Miwa's ears ever so slightly moved as if she had heard that nickname before. "...Fine, but you better not be scamming me. I've had enough bullshit these last few days."
"I can clearly see that." The man had a smirk on his face before he changed form, and now standing in front of Miwa, instead of the man from before it was now a black monkey.
Miwa at this point had a deadpanned look on her face. "Another fucking monkey, and I thought Wukong was enough."
The black monkey gave a slight bow while having a smug smile on his face. "The names Six-Eared-Macaque but you can just call me Macaque."
Miwa was not impressed by this, mostly from everything that had happened these last two days now. "I swear, if I run into another monkey I'm gonna lose it."
"Hey now, don't give me that attitude. Or do you not want my help?" Macaque raised an eyebrow looking at her.
".....Why does it feel like I'm being scolded right now?" Miwa let out an annoyed sigh. "Sorry, it's been a stressful day. Yes I would like your help....Macaque."
"Good, now sit still while I do this." Macaque gently placed his hands on her ears, which felt a little weird for her but also somewhat familiar in some way.
Miwa thought it would take a long time, but to her surprise it was really quick when he pulled away.
"There, I've put on a spell that will muffle some of the sounds so it wouldn't hurt your ears anymore, I've also done so that you only have two ears now instead of four." Macaque explained.
Miwa slowly placed her hands on her ears and when she could only feel one pair of ears, she was so relieved that she didn't think much as she pulled Macaque into a big hug. "Thank you so much!"
A soft smile grew on Macaque's face and returned the hug. "No need to thank me, Starlight."
After everything that had happened today, Miwa was just happy that her problem was finally fixed. She slowly pulled away from the hug as still had a smile on her face. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but you were actually much more helpful than Wukong. That damn old monkey didn't even offer to help."
Macaque let out a laugh after hearing what Miwa just called Monkey King, though it was probably fitting for a child to say about their parents, even if she didn't remember it. "No surprise there."
Miwa smiled a bit until a thought came to mind. ".....I should probably head home, it's getting late and I have a feeling I might be getting a visit."
"I can offer you a way back if you want, make it an easy trip. I'm sure you wouldn't want to run into the police on your way out." Macaque offered.
Miwa raised an eyebrow looking at him. "How do you know about the police looking for me?"
"I didn't, you just told me and confirmed it for me." Macaque had a big smug smile on his face.
Miwa wanted to be mad about him tricking her to tell him, but instead was more impressed that he was able to get it out of her so easily. "Okay you got me there, guess I'll be taking your offer. But this better not be a trick."
"Don't worry, Freckles, I was just messing with you." Macaque ruffled her hair before using the shadows to make a portal under her feets.
Miwa tried batting his hand away from her hair, as she then fell through the shadows under her and ended up on a roof of a building, not far from her apartment. "Hopefully he doesn't start sneaking into my apartment too, like Wukong."
Miwa skated through the air until she landed back on the ground by her apartment and walked up to where her room was, unlocking the door and walking inside.
She took a look into her living room and for once, Monkey King wasn't there and Miwa couldn't help but feel a little upset about it. "Looks like he isn't visiting today."
Miwa lay down on her couch and turned on the TV, deciding to watch the Monkey King animated series for the rest of the day. Now that she could finally lay back and relax without anymore distractions.
"What happened to your hand?" A voice asked.
Miwa jumped up from the couch with a scream, taken by surprise until she saw a ladybug on the couch. "What the fuck Wukong!?"