We are back to some more Miwa and Macaque time. :3
We also finally getting a little Mk and Miwa fluff. :3
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*A week later, at Pigsy's Noodles.*
Mk was leaning over the counter, letting out a heavy sigh. "This is boring, for the last few days we've hardly had any customers coming in."
"Yeah and it doesn't help with Pigsy getting frustrated about it, and threatening the guys on the other side of the street." Miwa pointed towards the second restaurant across the street.
"Well since you two have a lot of free time, why don't I share some more stories about the Monkey King." Tang suggested, sitting at one of the tables and eating a bowl of noodles.
"More awesome stories about the Monkey King! Oh, Tang please tell you!" Mk excitedly jumped over the counter and rushed over to him.
Miwa rolled her eyes and let out a tired sigh. "Tang as much as I love stories about him, it gets pretty boring very fast. Don't you have any other myths or legends that you can tell us?"
Mk let out an offended gasp hearing her say that. "What can be more awesome than the Monkey King himself?!"
Miwa gave him a deadpanned look. "It's one thing hearing about all of his stories all the time, but it's a whole other thing when he is my dad." With a sigh she turned her attention to just clean up the shop.
"Hmm, I could dig something up over at the library and bring something back tomorrow. But you know I'm not giving up my wisdom for free." said Tang eating his noodles in a calm manner.
"I'm not giving you free noodles Tang, the last thing I want is Pigsy coming after me." Miwa focused on cleaning the windows as she took a closer look at her own reflection. "It's already been a week, and yet I haven't gotten my whole monkey form back. Unlike last time when I got both ears, tails and white bangs."
"Stop worrying so much, Miwa, what he doesn't know can't hurt him." said Tang leaning back in his seat, and pulling out a book about the Monkey King and his adventures.
"Yeah Miwa, and we get to hear more awesome stories from Tang." said Mk with a bright smile.
"If I wanted to hear more stories from Wukong, I'll just ask him myself." Miwa crossed her arms, while using one of her tails to clean a table.
"Oh right because you are close buddies, and he lets you call him by his name." said Tang, giving her a skeptic glance.
"Now that you mention it, you two have seemed kind of close for the last week we've been training." Mk pointed out, raising an eyebrow at her before letting out a dramatic gasp. "Don't tell me! You've been seeing each other?!"
"What the fuck Mk?! We aren't seeing each other!" Miwa had a disgusted look on her face, just the thought of Mk thinking they were dating or something.
"Then why are you two so close, if you aren't seeing each other there has to be another reason. Besides, didn't he visit you at random times at your apartment?" Mk questioned, remembering her complaining about it each time.
"Fuck you dad, even when you are not here, you somehow make it worse." Miwa facepalmed with a frustrated groan as a cosmic aura started surrounding her. "Okay let me make this clear, there isn't anything going on between us. He is just giving me some extra training, and him visiting me was just because he wanted to mess with me since I kept messing with him."
"Is there by any chance you've grown to see him as a parenting figure?" Tang butted in, causing the other two to look over at him.
"W-What?" Miwa questioned, getting slightly defensive.
"I mean with how many times you've been kicked out of foster families, and haven't had one for a few years. Until you met the Monkey King and seem somewhat close to him, let alone using his name." Tang pointed out from what he had gathered.
"Now that you mention it, I haven't seen Miwa that lively nor comfortable around any of her old foster families, until Monkey King started training her and me." said Mk looking over at Miwa.
Miwa narrowed her eyes at both of them, while they were true she didn't want that kind of attention on herself. "I do not see him as a parenting figure! He is far from a parent!" She turned around and stormed out of the shop, ignoring them calling after her.
"Well, that was an interesting thing to see." said Macaque coming out of the shadows when it was safe enough with no one watching.
"W-What the fuck! What are you doing here at this hour? Shouldn't you be at work or doing whatever?" Miwa was surprised to see him at this time, even with him listening in on their conversation.
"I have a lot of free time, and I don't have work today." Macaque crossed his arms looking at her. "But we are not here to talk about me."
Miwa let out an annoyed sigh but tried to calm herself. "It's about our training."
Macaque gave her a nod and continued to speak. "We haven't had any time for the last week, so how about we do it now. I'm pretty sure you aren't going back to work, and by the looks of it you guys aren't busy today."
Miwa turned her attention to where she came from, thinking it over and looked back at Macaque. "I guess no time is better than now."
"Great, then let's get to it." Macaque summoned a shadow under the both of them to fall through, and when they came back out they were in the building they usually trained in.
"I'm never getting used to that." said Miwa trying not to fall over when she got out of the shadow.
"Well you better be at some point, but for now let's start it slow." said Macaque walking to the middle of the room.
".....I didn't think you knew how to take it slow in training." Miwa looked at him slightly surprised.
"Unlike your other powers, shadow manipulation is a lot more tricky to learn. So we need to take it slow otherwise it won't end well." Macaque explained to her, waiting for her to join him in the middle.
"Did it take you a long time to learn it?" Miwa asked out of curiosity while walking over to him.
Macaque chuckled at her curiosity of him, finding it endearing that she wanted to know more. "Yeah it did, but at some point I got the hang of it."
A smile grew on Miwa's face, her tails wagging in excitement. "What do we start with?"
"Let's start with you trying to make a shadow clone of yourself." said Macaque as he demonstrated it by summoning a shadow clone of himself, coming out of the shadows leaning over and resting an arm over his shoulder with a smug grin.
"And how do I do that?" Miwa questioned, slightly confused, but was a little surprised when she saw a clone of himself. "Already he is more interesting than dad, though if dad ever heard me say that. I don't think he would be happy about it."
"You need to focus and envision it, and the moment you feel a slight pull you take it. If you show any kind of hesitation you'll be pulled in instead, which we do not want." Macaque explained to her, crossing his arms.
"Okay doesn't sound that hard." Miwa looked over at some shadows, slowly raising her hand as she tried to focus on the pull.
"Like your confidence, but don't push it, Starlight." said Macaque watching her closely, and stood ready should anything go wrong.
Miwa kept her focus on the shadows, not moving a muscle and it didn't take her long to feel a pull. But it was different than she thought it was, it felt cold and dark causing her to grow nervous. Which was the worst mistake as the shadows acted out and grabbed her left arm, pulled her towards the shadows.
"M-Mac! Help!" Miwa shouted in a panic, trying to pull herself free but the hold was too strong and it only increased as she tried fighting.
Macaque acted as quickly as he could, grabbing his staff and swung it down on the shadows pulling her. The shadows lost its grip on Miwa's arm and returned back to normal.
With the danger now gone, Miwa let out a heavy sigh holding her left arm. While it wasn't serious it clearly had left a bit of a bruise. "T-thanks, Mac."
"I told you not to hesitate otherwise something like that wouldn't happen." said Macaque, walking over and pulling up the sleeve of her hoodie, taking a look at her arm.
"Sorry, the feeling I got from the pull threw me off." Miwa winched when he was touching the bruise on her arm, which was covered in a lot of old scars.
Macaque took a closer look at the scars on her arm, feeling slightly guilty that he couldn't protect her back then. "Well I can't blame you for that, I never said that it would be an easy power to learn."
Miwa watched the expression on his face closely, wondering what was going on inside his head. "I'm willing to give it another try, I'll be more careful this time."
Macaque looked up from her arm, his eyebrows frowning a bit. "You sure you're up for it, little star? This isn't something that you need to rush learning to please me, if that's what you think."
Miwa rubbed the back of her head, as her tails wagging ever so slightly. "No, no nothing like that. I promise, I just wanna be able to help out my friends by learning these powers." She told him but in all honesty she also wanted to make him proud, if she was able to learn how to control these powers.
Macaque raised a questionable eyebrow, but let it be as he patted her head. "Alright, if you say so, Freckles." He let go of her arm and moved to the side so she could try again, but was more on guard should something happen again.
Miwa pulled her sleeve back over her arm, then raised her other hand trying to focus on the shadows again. This time trying not to lose composure and fail again.
Macaque watched her closely but didn't say anything, crossing his arms it didn't take him long to notice a small movement coming from the shadows. Narrowing his eyes he stood ready to step in if needed.
Miwa once again felt the cold and dark feel from the pull. But this time she didn't resist it and instead took it in full force, as a fully shadow clone of herself came out of the shadows. "I did it!" She cheered happily with a bright smile.
"Did you see, I actually did it papa!" said Miwa turning to look at him, still smiling brightly.
Macaque smiled seeing how happy she was, but got taken aback of what she just called him. And it was clear by the look on her face being surprised by it too. "You remember?"
Miwa started to grow shy at this, grabbing her tails and fidgeting with them. "....Yes, at least a few things."
"When did that happen?" Macaque questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"....A few days ago." Miwa told him a little nervous.
Macaque observed her carefully with how nervous she was getting. "Is there anything, or anyone else you remember besides me?"
"....No, when I try it gets all blurry and it gives me those headaches." said Miwa looking at him. "Sorry I didn't say anything sooner, I wasn't sure how to tell you. Mostly if you didn't remember me."
A sigh escaped from Macaque, walking over and patting her head, giving a soft smile. "Don't apologize, I'm sure getting those memories back didn't make it easy for you."
Miwa had a small smile grow on her face when he patted her head, seeing this as a good thing and he wasn't mad. "Does that mean you will make training more easy for me?"
Macaque let out a laugh and flicked her forehead. "Just because you're my kid, doesn't mean I'm gonna make anything easy for you."
"Awww that's bullshit, most parents have a soft spot for their kids and don't give them crazy training." Miwa complained, crossing her arms.
Macaque rolled his eyes with a smug grin on his face. "Well unlike those kinds of parents, I at least want my kid being able to fight and protect herself. Being an overprotective parent isn't my style."
Miwa gave him a questionable glance. "Now I'm starting to question your parenting skills."
"Want me to change our plans to doing more martial arts training?" Macaque crossed his arms with a raised eyebrow, challenging her to talk back.
"....No thanks." Between the training she got from Wukong and Macaque, she would take Wukong over Macaque when it came to martial arts. At least her dad wasn't being all aggressive about it.
"That's what I thought, now how about we get back to training." said Macaque, carrying a smirk on his face.
"That son of a bitch, this is gonna be a long day." Miwa sighs in annoyance and went back to training.
*The next day.*
"Miwa I am so, so, so sorry!" Mk was leaning over the counter with teary eyes as he apologized.
Miwa was leaning slightly back when Mk was leaning over the counter, a little too close for comfort. Any closer and she might start blushing. "It's fine Mk, I guess you couldn't help seeing it as such."
Mk shook his head and had a determined look in his eyes. "Please let me make up for what I said yesterday."
"And how would you make up for it?" Miwa questioned, using her tails to push his head back so it wasn't so close.
Mk started tapping a finger against his chin, thinking deeply about what he could do and soon enough an idea came to mind. "I know how! But I can't tell you right now!"
Miwa looked at him confused when he rushed out back and up the stairs to his room. "I don't know if I should be slightly concerned about that."
"It's Mk, just relax. I'm sure he has something interesting in mind." said Tang who was here once again, eating a bowl of noodles.
Miwa rolled her eyes and leaned over a bit on the counter, another day without any customers. "Tang do you still have any of those random books about Wukong?"
Tang almost spit out his noodles, looking over at her when asked that question. "You asking me about the books about the Monkey King, are you really Miwa or did someone replace you?"
Miwa pouted a little at his accusation. "I'm bored and it's gonna be a long day with hardly any customers, might as well dig my focus into something."
Tang moved his bowl of noodles to the side and picked up his bag. "Well for once I don't have any on me, but I did find something else in the library. Since you wanted to hear about something else but the Monkey King for a change."
"Oh." Miwa's interest peaked up as she jumped over the counter and rushed over to him. "What did you bring?"
Tang chuckled at how curious she was, unlike whenever he brought up Wukong. "It's about–"
"What's going on? I thought you weren't interested in Tang's stories about the Monkey King." Mk had come back from his room and was surprised to see Miwa at Tang table with a look of excitement for once.
"I'm not, but he brought something else today that isn't about Wukong. Which makes it so much better." said Miwa with a bright smile. "If dad heard me say this, I'm pretty sure he would be hitting me in the head with a bamboo or something."
"Huh okay, though I have to disagree on anything being better than the Monkey King." Mk joined in as he and Miwa sat down with Tang. "Well what did you bring?"
Tang cleared his throat, gaining their attention. "I brought–"
"Hey guys! What's you doing!" Mei bursted through the doors with a big smile.
"Hi Mei! Tang is showing us something that isn't about the Monkey King, but we don't know what it is yet." said Mk waving her over.
"Ooo, now I'm curious on what it could be, since Mimi is sitting with you two." Mei took a seat next to Miwa as they all looked over at Tang.
"As I was saying, what I brought with me today is something that hardly anyone knows about." Tang picked up a book and a few old scrolls. "You wouldn't believe how hard it was to find anything about this. There is almost no info about this and even if there is, it's very little."
"Well what is it called? What is it about?" Mk questioned, getting curious along with the rest.
"It's about the Wishing Stars, known by very few that if you have a deep and personal wish they might grant it." Tang explained, opening the book that had some very old pages and some of them were hardly readable anymore.
Miwa's attention quickly caught on when he told them what it was about, though she couldn't help but feel a slight nervousness inside her.
"Wait, are you saying some random stars in the sky. If you make a wish they will grant it?" Mei questioned, finding that hard to believe.
"So if I wanted to make a wish, I just look up at the stars and say out loud my wish; they'll just grant it. Cool!" Mk eyes lit up in excitement.
"It's not that simple, according to these old scrolls. To make a wish to those stars you'll have to say a specific sentence, but sadly that part of the scroll has been torn off." Tang went on to show them the scroll and part of it being torn off.
"Awww man, and I here thought I might get a chance to make a wish on those stars." Mk complained, laying his head on the table.
"Even if you make a wish Mk, you still might not have it granted. They only grant a very few they can feel how deep and personal it is." Miwa explained, gaining the others' attention for a moment.
"How do you know that?" Mei being the first to ask.
Miwa opened her mouth to answer but stopped for a moment. "I'm not actually sure."
"Anyway, besides granting wishes it also says that only a very few people can actually see them in the sky." Tang spoke and the three looked back over at him.
"Why only a few, does it even say who can see them?" Mk asked, finding it a little confusing.
"The person who wrote this other scroll, mentioned that those that can see those stars are. Buddha himself, a wish, the person who made the wish and another Wishing Star." Tang pointed to the part on the second scroll.
"....What." Miwa started growing a bit skeptical. "I've always been able to see them...so....does that mean I'm a wish?....nah I'm probably overthinking it."
"Does it say anything else about what they look like, at least for us to know since we can't see them?" Mei asked.
"Surprisingly yes it does, right here. The Wishing Stars each glow in their own color in the sky, the colors are blue, yellow, purple and green." Tang showed them a faded image of the stars.
"That's not right, you're missing the red one." Miwa pointed out, causing the others to look over at her with raised eyebrows.
"Umm, no it's just these four. It doesn't say anything about a red Wishing Star." said Tang fixing his glasses as he took another look.
"Unless..." Mei let out a gasp. "Could it be that you can see them! Are you someone's wish?!"
Now they were all staring at Miwa, curious about this realization that she could actually see those Wishing Stars.
"No....I can't see them, and I'm not someone's wish....just thought I saw something that said red, my mistake." said Miwa leaning slightly away from them, and started getting a slight headache from all of this info.
"Hey Tang! What does this part say? I can't read these weird old looking words." Mei pointed to some words written in a different language it seemed.
Tang took a look at what Mei was pointing at and cleared his throat. "It's an old saying that was told as a story for children. Let me try and see if I can translate that."
But before he got the chance to, Miwa was the one to read it to them without any trouble. "Wish upon a star, and your wish shall be granted. When granted the wish, a star will fall from the sky and shine ever so bright. Becoming a shooting star. When the wish has been fulfilled, the star shall once more return to the night among the other stars."
"Miwa, I didn't know you could read ancient language, yet understand it." said Tang, very impressed.
"That was so cool! I didn't know you were into other language!" said Mk amazed, clearly by his big smile.
"Yeah, where did you even learn that stuff, I don't think they teached us that in school." said Mei just as amazed.
"Hey! When did I say you two could take a break!" Pigsy had walked in to see how business was doing, only to find Mk and Miwa sitting with Mei and Tang who was reading them some other random books about legends and myths.
Mk and Miwa quickly rushed back to the counter and into the kitchen, as only now did they notice all the missing order calls.
By the end of the day, a few customers had started showing up again and it looked like everything was getting back to normal.
"Hey Mimi, do you think you'll have time to hang out later tonight?" Mk asked when Miwa was about to leave.
Miwa took a glance over at the shadows and then back at him. "I believe so, I'll call if I'm gonna be late."
"Great! See you at my place tonight!" Mk waved with a bright smile, though he couldn't help a faint blush growing on his face.
Miwa waved back as she left, when she couldn't see Mk or the shop anymore she let out a sigh. "Are we gonna train more with my shadow clones?"
"No not this time, I'll say you've gotten the hang on it pretty quickly. So we'll be doing something different." Macaque came out of the shadows and ruffled her hair. "So, have you been busy today? Or was it just another boring day?"
A smile grew on Miwa's face as she batted his hand away from her hair. "It was alright, got a little busy later in the day."
"And your arm?" Macaque pointed at her left arm that still had that big bruise.
"It's fine papa, I'm already used to it being weak. The bruise doesn't change anything about it." Miwa rolled her eyes at him.
Macaque raised an eyebrow at her but dismissed her rolling her eyes at him. "Then let's get back to training."
A shadow portal appeared on a wall this time, and they easily walked through it and were back in the training room.
"By the way papa, I have some plans later tonight so I hope we can end training early today." Miwa told him when coming out of the shadows.
Macaque gave her a skeptical glance. "Going on a date with your boyfriend?" He crossed his arms.
Miwa's face started turning red. "I-I don't have a boyfriend!" A cosmic aura started surrounding her and tails lashing out in frustration.
"Didn't look like that to me, missy. Besides, I think you're still a bit too young for that." said Macaque in a stoic tone.
"What the fuck papa! Now you're being unreasonable. I'm nineteen already and old enough to decide who I can and can't date!" shouted Miwa in annoyance.
Macaque narrowed his eyes at her, tail slightly moving in annoyance but held it in and let out a sigh instead. "End of discussion, now let's get back to your training."
"Fine." Miwa crossed her arms following right behind him as they went to the other side of the room. "Mr."Overprotective is not my style", fucking bullshit. He is being way too overprotective about this."
"Today you'll be learning how to hide inside the shadows, and if everything goes smoothly I might teach you how to make your own shadow portals." Macaque explained, turning to look at her with crossed arms.
"And I take it there is a "but" in there too in this training?" Miwa questioned, still irritated at him.
Macaque ignored the attitude she was giving him, and decided to just let her calm down on her own. "But you need to have confidence, and stay relaxed when it starts feeling like you are falling. Just like with the shadow clones you can't hesitate, or the same thing that happened last time will happen again and we wouldn't want that now. Would we Freckles?"
"By the Buddha! Papa! It was one time, you don't have to remind me." Miwa huffed with tails lashing out.
"Correction, I need to remind you for your own sake." Macaque used his tail to poke her forehead, having her almost fall over. "Now focus and stop complaining."
Miwa rolled her eyes and turned her attention to the wall in front of her, rubbing her forehead slightly. "Stupid old man, at the moment I wish–"
Miwa stopped in her thoughts as she felt herself getting a headache, almost tumbling over but Macaque acted quickly and caught her. "Miwa, what's wrong?"
"N-nothing, just a small headache is all." Miwa rubbed her head.
"Another memory returning?" Macaque asked, since the only times she got a headache would be when she got another memory back.
Miwa was shaking her head. "No, not this time." Miwa let go of him and turned her attention back to the wall.
Macaque sighs but took a step back and lets her focus. "Hopefully it wasn't a memory about Wukong, that would make this more complicated.....I should probably start working on having her leave him, before she starts getting back memories about him."
Miwa watched her shadow on the wall closely, taking a deep breath and slowly took a few steps forward. Raising her hand and letting herself take the place of her shadow.
"Not bad, little shadow, looks like you did learn from what happened last time." said Macaque with a slight smirk, but inside he was actually relieved that nothing went wrong this time.
"This is both weird and cool at the same time." said Miwa, taking a look at herself now in the shadows.
"You still need to repeat this till you've gotten the full hang of it, until it becomes natural for you." Macaque explained.
"Do I have to repeat it as many times as I did with my shadow clones?" Miwa asked, but hoped she wouldn't because at some point. It just became a pain in the ass like her normal training with him.
"Yes, so don't start arguing about it with me, missy." said Macaque raising an eyebrow.
"But I'm gonna be late with my plans with Mk." Miwa crossed her arms, coming out of her shadows with a pouty face.
Macaque let out a heavy sigh, and patted her head. "I know, but this is importanted and you need to learn how to fully control your shadows powers. Otherwise you could put yourself in danger."
".....But he is my best friend, and I don't wanna leave him hanging like that." said Miwa looking upset at him.
"...Fine, but this once." Macaque let out a defeated sigh, the last thing he wanted was for her to be upset and start blaming him. Which would ruin his own plans.
A bright smile grew on Miwa's face hearing this. "Thanks papa."
"Don't thank me yet, we still have some time to train until you need to leave." Macaque ruffled her hair with a soft smile.
Miwa smiled, batting his hand away from her hair and went back to her training, with Macaque still watching over her.
*Four hours later.*
"There you are Miwa! I was starting to think you wouldn't come!" Mk smiled happily seeing her, after standing around and waiting for an hour and a half.
"Sorry Mk, got caught up in something." Miwa gave him a small smile, even though her training time got caught short. It still took a lot of energy out of her.
"I'm just glad you came." Mk smiled while a slight blush grew on his face.
"So what did you come up with, as to make up for what happened yesterday?" Miwa questioned, curious on what he had in mind.
"You'll see." Mk took her hand and started dragging her inside from the back of the shop, and upstairs to the roof of the building.
When they got on the roof, Miwa was surprised to see a blanket with a few lights, and a telescope. It was very simple but something Mk knew that she would like.
"What is this Mk?" Miwa looked at him, still a bit surprised.
"Well I know you like watching the stars, and being outside but with it being so dark I thought to add some lights. I asked Tang before you left if I could borrow his telescope, and we could watch the stars with it. Maybe we could even catch the sight of those Wishing Stars." Mk explained rubbing the back of his neck, slightly nervous if she wouldn't like it.
A bright smile grew on Miwa's face as she pulled him into a tight hug. "This is the best idea you've ever come up with, Mk, I love it!" Her tails was wagging in pure happiness.
Mk's face turned more red from the hug she was giving him, but he smiled just as happy. "So I'm forgiven?"
Miwa giggled looking at him. "Yes you are forgiven." She pulled away from the hug, blushing slightly by how close their faces were to each other. So she turned around and went straight for the telescope, ready to look at some stars.
Mk joined her at the telescope and they both enjoyed watching the stars and pointing them out, though they never so saw Wishing Stars.
Well Mk didn't see them, but even without the telescope Miwa could see them clearly and more than that, she could hear their voices.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
"Return.~"
"You can't stay.~"
"Undo what happened.~"
"Remember.~"