"Shan Xiao Feng?" Harry repeated incredulously. He looked at XJ, "I thought - "
"My apologies," The man interrupted, raising up a hand and smiling gently. "I meant Xiao Jun. That is what you've changed your name to, hasn't it?"
XJ's knuckles were white, her fists were shaking violently. One would have thought that she would have an expression of disgust, fury or even fear on her face, but she remained expressionless, and her features revealed nothing.
It was terrifying to see someone so infuriated that even facial expressions could not convey their emotions.
And it was even more terrifying to see that same person with a highly lethal weapon in their possession.
"I probably should have flown away before my magic ran out and I could no longer keep you under, nor could I keep my previous animal form," The man sighed and shook his head, like he was disappointed at himself, "But your dear friend over there," His eyes flickered briefly in the direction of Harry, who hadn't the faintest idea of what was going on, "Had taken the liberty of closing the window so that I couldn't."
"Who are you?" Harry asked. He narrowed his eyes, a hand gripping the handle of his cutlass tightly.
"You really aren't the most perceptive boy, are you?" The man mused, turning his attention to Harry. "I'm the man she wishes to kill."
"Shan Yu?" Harry asked, his eyes widening, his grip on his weapon momentarily loosening at the shock.
Shan Yu nodded slowly. "Affirmative. I am your girlfriend's father."
"We're not together anymore," Harry immediately blurted out without thinking.
Shan Yu raised an eyebrow, "Really? Such a shame. I had hoped that my daughter would continue the family bloodline. However, that does not seem to be the case."
Harry acknowledged what Shan Yu had implied and he blushed. "We weren't - we weren't thinking of - "
"I detect that there's something else you find shocking, other than the fact that I used to be the hawk that would peck on your window each night." Shan Yu interrupted again, something that he seemed to be fond of doing.
Harry blinked at the sudden interruption. He hesitated for a little bit before finally admitting, "Well, I guess I expected...more?"
Shan Yu leaned forwards a little bit, displaying interest. "Of what?"
"I don't know," Harry shrugged, "A little bit more personality, a bit more rambunctious and evil and less composed, I guess."
Shan Yu hummed thoughtfully before turning to his daughter, who had stopped shaking. "And what about you, Feng? Have you no words to convey how you feel about my sudden appearance?"
SHING!
The air whistled as it blew past Harry, tousling his hair. The pirate blinked in surprised as his red coat whipped around his feet and blinked a few more times in order to clear his vision.
XJ had lunged at her father, meaning to stab him with her spear. Harry expected Shan Yu to be dead on the ground, but instead found the man standing up, recovering from the roll he had performed to dodge XJ's attack.
Shan Yu tilted his head to the left, seemingly amused. "Not bad. So you didn't forget everything I had taught you."
XJ stabbed again, but her spear head was parried away by another spear that Shan Yu had whipped out. XJ growled like a tiger, baring her teeth and swung again, only to be met again with the tip of metal. She pressed forward, making Shan Yu grunt with the effort of keeping his spear against the other.
"You're strong," He commented, "Stronger than the last time we sparred."
XJ said nothing, but she swung once more immediately after her strike was blocked. This time, she did not aim for at her father's chest. Shan Yu jumped upwards with surprising agility for a middle-aged man to avoid the blow that was meant for his feet and landed back on the ground, just in time to block another attack.
"You've learnt new tricks," He commented again. "I'm not surprised."
XJ kept attacking and Shan Yu kept defending, commenting on her every move, as if they were sparring and his life did not depend on it.
"Good fake!" He praised as his back hit one of the medical beds, making a tremendously loud clang echo through the medical center as the metal frame of the bed crashed into the wall it was put against so hard that the brick wall cracked, causing Harry to cover his ears.
"Cunning strike!" Shan Yu exclaimed as he stumbled backwards to keep his footing, narrowly avoiding a blow from XJ in an attempt to pierce his stomach.
"Clever move!" Shan Yu shouted as XJ kicked a small table at him, managing to clip his side.
Harry jumped out of the way as XJ and Shan Yu fought, leaving a path of destruction in their wake. Medical supplies were crashing to the ground from metal basins, beds were being shoved and pushed this way and that as XJ tried to use her environment to her advantage and sheets and curtains were ripped mercilessly. At one point, XJ had even managed to stab through the glass of the windows and it shattered into pieces, emitting a sound similar to rain.
Harry looked through the small window built into the nurses' door, wondering why they weren't putting a stop to this, or hadn't even seemed to notice when he saw them all knocked out, unconscious on the floor.
"If you're wondering, boy," Shan Yu shouted from where he was still blocking XJ, whose ferocity hadn't decreased at all. "The magic that I released by changing back to my original form was too powerful. It knocked everybody within a fifty mile radius out. The whole school will be put under for at least an hour."
"Why are Xiao and I awake then?" Harry asked, tearing his gaze away from the nurses' room to look at Shan Yu, who was steadily looking more tired.
"I wanted Feng to be awake. I must have accidentally done the same to you." Shan Yu explained over XJ's feral snarls. "For that, I apologize. You wouldn't have to be in this mess if I hadn't."
"God knows I wouldn't have," Harry muttered under his breath. He looked up to see XJ, and unknowingly, he was entranced.
Some people would agree that letting emotions drive you during a fight would make you slip up. Harry begged to differ. XJ didn't seem to be slipping up at all. After all, from Harry's point of view, Shan Yu looked to be backed up against a corner.
Harry was hypnotized. Every swing, every strike, every stab...it was as if XJ was dancing. Her attacks seem to flow perfectly and she looked....absolutely gorgeous.
Huh, maybe he was insane after all.
But he had never seen XJ look so focused, so concentrated, so...angry. Even during her Coronation back at the hall, when she was fighting everyone at the same time, he hadn't seen her look like this. Every time she swung and missed, it only added to her rage, and her rage seemed to fuel her more and more.
On the other hand, Shan Yu was beginning to look tired. Harry didn't know why he wasn't attacking. Maybe he couldn't, not while XJ's wrath was raining down on him, compressing him and forcing him to do nothing but defend. Maybe he couldn't find a loophole. Either way, although experience, technique and wisdom came with being older, so did the physical effects of old age.
Shan Yu was no longer filled with energy, he was no longer capable of fighting for long periods of time, and for him to be going up against someone who was in the prime of their life, whose stamina was ridiculously high, and most importantly, someone whose sole purpose at the very moment was to kill him, no matter how long it took. It didn't matter how many skills he could perform, what did matter was how long he could perform them.
And Harry didn't think he could perform them for much longer.
Harry was proven right when Shan Yu's spear snapped, the sound of it pulling him back to reality. At the shock of his spear breaking, which was almost impossible, Shan Yu had faltered for not even half of a second.
But half of a second was enough.
Enough for XJ to sweep her own spear under his feet, hard, causing the man to crumple to the ground. She had some sort of pressure point without knowing, and Shan Yu's legs were numb and no longer functional.
Shan Yu landed hard on his back, and found his hands grabbing the spear head, trying to push away the metal tip of the weapon away from his throat.
XJ's father smiled, "It's been a while since I've fought. I guess I should have known to polish my weapons as well as myself."
XJ remained silent and stone-faced, but if you looked deeply into her eyes, you could see how proud she was.
How proud she was of finally finding her father.
How proud she was of finally being able to fight him.
And how proud she was of finally getting to kill him.
However, XJ didn't press. She could have if she wanted to kill him right then and there, but she sensed that the old man had more to say, and she wanted to hear him beg for his life, something that she had done one too many times during her time as a child on the Isle, whenever she had been caught stealing or pick-pocketing, without her father to protect her.
"You've grown strong." Shan Yu said, still smiling. "Stronger than myself. I have to apologize. I didn't think you could, what with you being a female. You understand that traditionally, a boy is to carry on the family bloodline and the family reputation, so it was no surprise that I thought that way."
Shan Yu waited for a bit, waiting for XJ to say something. When she didn't, his smile never faltered.
He continued, "Leaving you alone wasn't the best course of action, I will readily admit, but it did help you become the person you are today, didn't it?"
The old man had a point. If it wasn't for him being a horrible parent, then XJ wouldn't be the way she was now - strong, strategic, ambitious, brave...
Angry, hungry, emotionless...
Incapable of love.
Shan Yu must have known that his words resonated with his daughter, so he continued, trying to drive the point closer and closer home. "Now you can do what I couldn't do. You can take over and rule the world." He paused for a moment, before his sad smile widened. "I'm proud of you, Feng, and I don't blame you for wanting to kill me."
He sighed, and XJ thought with anticipation, Here comes the part where he begs for his life. That usually happens after apologies.
"However, I do have one request," Shan Yu said, catching XJ off guard. XJ blinked, but other than that, showed no trace of surprise.
Shan Yu took this as a sign to carry on. "Do you see that boy, standing in the corner, with the red coat and the metal hook?" He glanced at Harry briefly, making Harry's eyes widen at himself being mentioned.
Harry watched XJ, but she didn't react, and it stung more than he expected.
"He reminds me of myself. I, too, followed your mother to the ends of the earth. I, too, looked at her like she was the sun my life revolved around, and she was. She was everything I loved and everything I stood for. A world without her was a world I believed wasn't worth living in.
"I would do anything for her. The same way this boy would do anything for you. He's helped you, hasn't he, against his better judgement? He helped you research everyone in the school; I saw him pouring over your laptop until six in the morning, looking through every single detail and trying to read between the lines. He helped you with your plan with Cinderella's son, by sticking through with it, regardless of how little he trusted the other boy. He helped you with your method of manipulating the entire school, by not doing whatever he wanted, and showing respect to the airhead teachers of this place.
"I saw his heart break when you disappeared. He never stopped looking. He didn't even stop to catch a breath. He called for you until his voice was hoarse and he kept looking until he saw the trick you pulled with Mulan's daughter, which was very clever, by the way.
"I saw him help you in everything you did, even when you didn't need it. Most of all, I saw him agree to never speaking to you again, because it was what you wanted. He would have followed the rules of this contract had he been under normal circumstances, I know it.
"I used to be just like him, but I can't, not anymore. Your mother is dead. Caught in a crossfire, Feng. That was the day I decided that I would seek vengeance for her death, but look where it got me. I abandoned my only child to go hunt Mulan, and not only did I fail, but it left me with nothing, including the relationship we could have had.
"I'm not telling you to not kill me. I deserve it, after all, but as one of two of a dying man's requests, please don't make the same mistakes I did. The boy loves you more than anybody else in the entire universe. It's almost ridiculous. At least consider allowing yourself to fall in love."
XJ swallowed, not nervously, not angrily, but she was shaken, to say the very least, from her father's speech. Still, she said nothing as thoughts whipped around in her head like tornadoes.
"The other request is to hear you speak," Shan Yu said gently. "I've heard you speak before, but I'd like to hear it properly, when I'm not eavesdropping."
Silence.
Shan Yu sighed, "Never mind, I don't have the right - "
"You're right, you don't," XJ said emotionlessly.
She gripped the handle of her spear tightly and -