LOVE STORY

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Chapter Three
Macaque
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❝Yup! The one and only.❞

YOU WERE LAYING ON your cloud while Mk was doing some work that you were lazy to do. That's the benefit of having an admiring successor whose willing to be "trained" by you.

"You know, when I found out I was going to be trained by the Monkey Queen, Great Sage, Equal to Heaven, I had no idea that I'd be stuck here hammering walls 12 hours a day. Why am I doing this again?" Mk who was hammering an ancient mural of you and your old companions complained as he threw the hammer away. You smiled at him in amusement, "Oh, so I can make a nice little breakfast nook. Get some light up in here." You replied to him before pulling the staff and spinning it in your hand. Your successor was stunned by your answer, "But I'm meant to be Monkie Kid. Not Construction Boy. How am I supposed to do the hero stuff if I don't know the fighting stuff?" He questioned, slowly getting annoyed by your boring training program.

"Oh? So you want to know the "fighting stuff," huh? Like this?"

You jumped off your cloud and threw your staff at the mural, creating a big hole in it. Mk stared with awe at the wall you had destroyed, "Yes, exactly like that. I am ready for some awesome." He exclaimed with determination. However, your laughter surprised him a bit, "Look, bud. You can't rush this stuff. You'll get there. You just need practice." You stated while still spinning the magical staff.

"But this isn't practice." Mk protested with a sad look on his face.

You groaned and crossed your arms, "I'm never going to teach you something you don't need to know, okay?" You declared firmly which made Mk huff and give up, "Okay. Now, this priceless, ancient mural is not going to destroy itself. So remember: Step into the strike." You added, but before the kid could go back to finish his work, his phone rang. You couldn't quiet hear who called Mk, but you could see that Mk was getting a bit excited, "A monster attacking the city? That's terrible. Dang. Guess I got to go do some boring hero stuff instead of this. Okay, bye." Mk exclaimed and immediately ran away to escape the training.

You just sighed and returned to lay on your cloud, "This kid is something."

-TIME SKIP-

For a couple of days, Mk acted in a very strange way. He was becoming more aggressive and distant even though you told him to be patient and focus. You could tell that he was abnormally frustrated, it was clear that this was out of his usual and cheerful character. That all was confirmed when Mk surprised you by doing the same exact move of throwing the staff at the wall, but only he did it way stronger than you.

Your eyes were wide in shock before you went to the broken wall by your cloud to inspect it, "How'd you learn to do that?" You questioned him before realization hit you and let out a gasp, "Have you been running around with other mentors?" You exclaimed as you felt backstabbed by your own successor. Mk didn't look you in face and turn around, "Patience and focus. Isn't that what you said?" He spoke up, his voice surprisingly monotonous. You frowned upon hearing his fake answer, "Look, kid. Using that much power, your body can't handle it." You warned seriously, having a frown of your own.

Mk growled and turned to face you, "You just don't like that there's someone who's actually teaching me what I need to know." He yelled and just left you. That's when you saw the symbol on the back of Mk's jacket smirking at you mockingly. Oddly, this symbol felt so familiar yet not. It was obvious that who was training Mk was putting a lot of pressure on him. You had to figure it out before it's too late.

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You took a form of an eagle and went to look for Mk. When you used your Gold Vision, you saw Mk following someone... Someone you didn't wish to meet again. You flew as fast as you could to save Mk, but you were too late unfortunately. Mk had already lost his powers.

You saw the boy being pinned by the staff against a boulder and HE was right before your successor. You returned back to your original form and leaped down, "Enough!" You exclaimed before landing down, creating a crater on the ground. You were now face to face with none other than the Six Eared Macaque. You frowned and crossed your arms as you glared at the dark furred monkey.

"Monkey Queen!-..." Mk called your name, but he went quiet when he saw your glare directed to him. Macaque smirked in a teasing manner, "Monkey Queen. It's good to see you, bud!" He said as he placed his hands behind his back.

"Are you ever going to get sick of living in my shadow? It's time to give back what you stole."

"You are such a gem. It's going to be so satisfying, killing you with your own powers."

With that, the two of you engaged into a fight. Macaque summoned shadow clones of himself while you plucked some of your hair and blow in it to create clones of yourself as well. The clones fought themselves as you and Macaque continued to fight, taking forms of different animals. Once you returned back to your form, you went to deliver a punch to Macaque. However, you were suddenly met face to face with Mk. You hesitated and held back which gave a chance to Macaque's clone to push you back and the fake Mk to punch you, sending you through a few mountains. You growled and went to attack again, but more clones came out of nowhere and held you back until you were pushed to the ground and pinned down.

Your eyes flashed gold when you saw the real Macaque laughing at you, "Seriously? You fell for that?" He told you this before turning to Mk, taking the form of his Smoke Monster. Upon hearing Mk scream, you forced yourself to destroy the clones and run to rescue the kid before Macaque could hurt him. You summoned your cloud and flew there quickly. Thankfully, you made it there just on time to block the Smoke Monster's large fist. However, you couldn't use your full power because you didn't want Mk to get hurt since he had lost his powers.

"Come on! Show me the real Y/N! The old you would have leveled this whole mountain range to stop me, but you're scared of hurting some kid? Pathetic!"

"Come on, staff. I can't. I'm not strong enough." Mk tried to move the staff, but he couldn't.

"Kid. We're definitely going to have words later. But it's time for the hero stuff!"

You tried your best to encourage Mk to try and free himself. You didn't know what he was doing, but you could hear him say, "Patience. Focus. Step into the strike." And then the staff was throwing toward Macaque, destroying his Smoke Monster. An explosion happened and you immediately went to cover Mk from the Impact.

Later thay day...

You and Mk sat down to rest for a moment. The kid couldn't face you because he was ashamed of what happened to him, "You did it, bud. You remembered what I told you." You were the first one to speak up and break the silence.

"I'm sorry." Was the only thing Mk said.

"Oh, oh, you totally should be. I can't believe you two-timed me on your training."

Mk looked down at the staff in his hands in disappointment, "I just wanted to be good enough. Like you." He reasoned, his grip tightening on the staff. You felt bad for scolding him like this, he just wanted to be like you on everything. You sighed and sat beside him, "Hey, your heart's in the right place, kid. We can work on the rest." You assured with a smile, placing your arm over his shoulders. Mk looked up at you with hopeful eyes, "So you'll keep training me?" He asked with a tiny twinkle in his eyes, a twinkle you missed in the past few days. You smiled at him and nodded, "Of course, bud. I've got something special in mind."

The next day, Mk was cleaning around the house while you were laying around. Mk surprisingly was working nonstop and without complaining, "This is totally going to be one of those "do the boring, hard chore thing", but secretly, it's "learn the awesome kung fu secret", right?" The kid took you off guard by his question, but you quickly composed your and smiled at him.

"Uh, sure."

You were glad that Mk was back to his old self, but you were still thinking about your encounter with Macaque. It has been a while since last you met him and seeing him yesterday made some old feeling bubble up to the surface.