Tragedy of the Shadow

Your Shadow in the Crowd

It was a stunning day in the Megapolis. Warm sun shining from above and a gentle breeze coming from the sea. Hot light kissed the skin, and the wind brought a salty smell within itself. It was truly an unusual day for this time of year since it was just the end of winter and such nicely sunny days were rather a rare thing. So rare that it brought a lot more people out of the safety of their homes to the streets to enjoy such weather.

On this unusual day, MK was walking with Wukong through the city. They were going to the market for fireworks for the coming new year. The boy somehow talked his mentor into going with him, despite how crowded it was on the streets this day. He mentioned something about really good peach cakes being sold close to the market and that they could go for them afterward. Wukong couldn't say no to that.

Sun Wukong was wearing a big hoodie and dark sunglasses, of course. He didn't want people to recognize him on the street, it already was too crowded for his liking. He did like it when people cheered for him after the fights and when they spoke about him and how awesome he is, that was the part of his fame that he liked, but... but being suddenly crowded by so many people he didn't know, that would probably try touching him and all speaking at once, uhh... Well, he would rather avoid such a situation if he could. Especially when he came here for fireworks and peach cakes, not the loud cheers and excitement of strangers.

MK on the other hand was pretty chill about this kind of stuff. He wasn't yet as known as his mentor, true, but some people already recognized him and greeted him with excitement. He was a bit shy and nervous each time, but when someone approached him he tried to be as polite and nice as he could. He always agreed to any photos or autographs, and when he had some more spare time he even agreed to longer chats with his... Well, he didn't like calling them fans but that's basically who those people were.

Although today he for sure did not have that spare time. He could see Wukong being in a hurry from the moment they entered the crowd, and he wouldn't want to stretch his mentor's anguish unnecessarily. He was really thankful that Monkey King went with him in the first place and didn't want him to regret this decision.

"Oh, how about we buy some pink ones! Like peaches! Maybe we can even find some that are gonna be in peach-shape!" MK expressed enthusiastically, wanting to draw Wukong's attention away from other people. Monkey King's ears immediately perked up at this and his golden eyes glowed in excitement at the thought.

"That's a great idea, bud!" a rusty colored-tail wagged lightly under the hoodie, and the celestial monkey started to now be the one taking the lead, solely focused on finding the mentioned fireworks. He ran from one stand to the next one, eagerly looking around for them. Oh, how he wanted to see a peach firing in the sky in pinkish lights of small explosions.

MK snickered and kept running after Monkey King. The boy didn't really mind being dragged from place to place like that. He was happy to see his mentor this excited. He also looked around at the stands, and even though he couldn't find any peach-shaped ones, he saw a few monkey-shaped, ones that his companion missed and at some point, he let go of his hand to buy a few of those too. It was the year of the tiger, but the young hero didn't really care, as long as this could bring his teacher some joy.

And speaking of his teacher... shit, he lost him in this crowd.

While the delivery boy started to slightly panic over losing the celestial monkey from sight, the mentioned simian was just jumping from stand to stand in excitement looking for peach-shaped fireworks. Oh how they were firing in his mind, he was already in awe at only the thought of the sight alone.

Wukong forgot practically all the world around him, while he really just went on this journey after those specific fireworks. And after what seemed to him like at most twenty minutes, in reality, being around two hours, he finally found a stand where an old gentleman was selling fruit-themed fireworks. His golden eyes shined in excitement as he started to look around for peach-shaped ones, and practically glowed like two flashlights when he got his hands on three of them.