Countryside road
"~Hmm~" Hummed a young woman by the name of Meilin, her steely black eyes set on a city in the distance. A wild mane of dark brown hair went over her shoulders and halfway down her back. Her outfit was made up by a form-fitting yellow vest with black floral designs, and a tiger skin skirt kept up by a fuzzy brown belt, under her skirt were black tights that went down to a pair of red shoes.
"Finally! Changwei City!" Meilin cheered, jumping into the air even with a bag twice as wide as she was on her back. "Hihihi! I'm coming for you, master!" She got down low as if at the starting line of a race. "In a 1! 2! And 3!" In the next instant, she went into a full sprint sending dust and leaves flying behind her.
"What in the world was that!?" A truck driver yelled when they nearly went off the road by Meilin's burst of speed. "Damn, Thugs and their bikes!"
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Changwei city
"~Okay~ Now all I need to do is find the Temple Of The White Tiger!" Meilin sang out, walking around the streets of Changwei with her smartphone in hand, looking at a map app, making things quick and easy for her...
"Ugh, this confusing?" She groaned after coming to the same square that had a fountain made up of tiger statues for the fifth time in the last hour.
"Excuse me, uhm, miss..." Came a small voice and a tug at Meilin's bag.
"Huh?" Meilin turned around, but at first, she didn't see anyone then looked down. "Oh? Hello?"
Looking back up at her was a small boy no older than 10 or 11 with a pair of sky blue eyes with black bags under them and a head of spiky unkempt white hair. He only had a brown cloth covering himself for clothing and was barefoot, held in his left hand was a walking stick wrapped in bandages while in his right was a rice bowl with some coins in it.
"Please, miss, could you give me just one more dollar? I almost got enough of some rice?" He asked, shaking the rice bowl around in Meilin's face.
"Ugh..." Meilin looked at the poor kid with a trail of snort coming down from his nose that was quickly pulled back in. "...Just look at this little guy!" She thought, reaching around behind her to get some coins out of her bag. "Here you go, and I'll throw in a bit more for another bowl!" She dropped more than enough money into the boy's rice bowl, and his face lit up.
"Oh! Are you sure!? I-I don't need this much!" The boy gasped then tried giving Meilin back some money, but she held his hands and smiled.
"Nope! I'm giving it to you! So take it or just save whatever you don't use for tomorrow," Meilin insisted then made him close his hand before looking back at her phone and frowned. "Ugh, where is it?"
"..." The boy looked at the money in his hands then back at Meilin as she was having trouble with something and nodded. "Uhm...? Excuse me again, miss? But can I at least help you with your problem?"
"Problem? What problem? No problems here! I don't see a problem! Hihihi!" Meilin giggled, the last thing she wanted to do was to trouble some street kid. "Just run along, get some food in you! You look like you need it, and I was just playing a game on my phone, yep! That's it!" She waved her phone around a few times then pushed the little guy away lightly.
"Oh, then you've been to the Temple Of The White Tiger already then?" The boy asked while getting pushed away by Meilin, making her stop and turned him. "Ugh?"
"How do you know about that, kid?" Meilin asked in a slightly suspicious tone while looking at the boy, as far as she knew no one here knew what she was doing here.
The boy stared back at Meilin blankly. "But...you were muttering about going there the first time and all the other times you passed through here." He pointed out making Meilin hang her head low. "Ah, miss are you alright?" He asked, petting her on the head like she was the child here.
Meilin nodded as she looked back up at him. "Yea, I'm fine, it's just that I can't believe a little kid saw through me." She grumbled out slowly, then let go of her little friend. "Ok, you can help out me so take a look!" Meilin showed the boy her phone, but he pushed it back after taking a glance at it with an odd look on his face. "Huh? What's up?"
"I'm sorry, miss, but the temple doesn't seem to be on here, but I can show you the way if you follow me." The boy offered, pointing his stick in a direction.
Meilin looked at the map again. "Yea, you're right, I thought it had a name change or something but you live here, so you should know more than me." She put away her phone and cracked a smile at the boy. "I'm Meilin, by the way, nice to meet you!"
"You can call me Jianbing, miss Meilin." Jianbing gave out his name with a bow of his head and held out his walking stick to Meilin. "And this is Mumei, my best friend!" Then he brought Mumei to his ear. "Hmm? What's that? You don't want her to know about you? Since when are you a shy girl, Mumei? Hey! I'm not an idiot! Take that back!"
"Okay...? He named his walking stick and talks to it...right..." Meilin wondered, watching Jianbing argue with this 'Mumei' smacking it against the ground now. "Alright, Alright, that's enough, Jianbing! You can lead me to the temple now...oh and you can just call me, Meilin, no miss, please, I don't think I'm that older than you."
Jianbing stopped beating on Mumei and nodded to Meilin. "Fine, then Meilin it is! Now follow me!" He cheered, walking away as happy as a young boy could get.
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Sometime later
Meilin and Jianbing were now in a much less urban area of Changwei with trees and streams around them. "Sooo? Meilin, why did you come all the way to Changwei for some old temple?" Jianbing asked while jumping across the tops of stones in a river balancing his rice bowl on his head. "Your turn!"
"Easy!" Meilin did a couple of flips to get across the stones and landed next to Jianbing in a handstand getting some claps out of him. "Hihihi! Thanks, little guy!" She rubbed her nose and continued to walk along with Jianbing. "...and it's not really the temple that has me going to it but the person that might be there..."
"A person?" Jianbing asked, raising an eyebrow and used Mumei to push aside some bushes in their way. "You mean like a priest or a monk?"
"Nope, someone way more important..." Meilin stopped to look up at the sky. "...I'm looking for a myth, a legend, a symbol of greatness and power! I am looking for The White Tiger Of The West!" She yelled up into the trees, causing some birds to fly off from their nest.
"Hmm? White Tiger of the West?" Jianbing just looked at Meilin after her outburst and was left a bit confused then tried to climb up a ledge. "Ngghh!" But the top of it was out of his reach until Meilin came up to help him up. "Thanks and is that tiger all that? A myth, a legend, a symbol of greatness and power..."
Meilin nodded as she got up. "That's right, and there's more! The White Tiger is part of a group called the Four Divine Masters; there's The Azure Dragon of the East, The Black Turtle of the North, The Vermilion Bird of the South and The White Tiger of the West. Each of them is a god who've been around for thousands of years, have magical powers like shapeshifting, ~AND~ the best part is that they're some of the greatest martial arts masters in the world!" She explained, getting more and more pumped up as she spoke. "From what I've read anyhow?"
"But what makes you think that someone or maybe something like that is here?" Jianbing asked, and they were now walking on a stone path with broken pillars here and there. "I mean this doesn't look like the kind of place a god or whatever would be."
Meilin rubbed a hand through Jianbing's hair, getting some of his bangs over his eyes. "I just have a feeling and looks like I might be right." She pointed at some trees that had brown and orange leaves on them, the strange thing about them was that all the other trees before them were perfectly green and healthy.
"What about those trees? Seasons change, you know?" Jianbing wasn't sure what Meilin was getting at if it could happen question marks would be around him. "Hmm? What's that, Mumei? Spring started a week ago?" He looked at Mumei then back at the trees then his ear went to Mumei again. "My hair? Oh, right!" He passed a hand over his bangs to get them out of his eyes. "Even now I don't get it, Mumei?"
"Hihihi! That's a sign of the White Tiger's power..." Meilin giggled as they were now walking through an autumn forest with leaves slowly falling to the ground. "...It's said that the Four Divine Beasts rule over the cardinal directions as with their titles but they also rule over the four season and four elements, I don't know about the other three, but White Tiger's got Autumn and metal under its paws."
"That sounds so cool! Could that tiger thing turn this into gold!?" Jianbing took a coin from his rice bowl and put it in Meilin's face then brought it to his. "If this was gold or better yet, platinum! Then I could eat rice for the rest of my life!" A loud growl came from his stomach as he said that making him blush and gave Meilin a sideways glance. "Don't laugh at me!"
"I am not...yet..." Meilin said back, but her face was turned away to hold a hand over her mouth. "Aww! Even if his thinking with his stomach that was kind of cute!" She thought, turning back to face Jianbing before he caught on to her. "Yep! I think as long as it's a type of metal the White Tiger can do anything with it or change the season around to Autumn..." She explained, enjoying the way Jianbing was looking up at her like she was a teacher, then an idea popped came to her. "...Hey! Remember when I said that Four Divine Beasts were martial arts masters?"
"You mean five minutes ago?" Jianbing answered, watching Meilin walk over to tall a tree that she tapped a few times. "What're you doing, Meilin?"
"Just watch, okay?" Meilin told the boy and got into a stance where her body was turned with her left side facing the tree, her feet apart, her right hand pulled back into a fist, and her left used to aim at the tree. "..." She breathed in deeply and exhaled slowly. "...Oh? And sorry if something hits you!" She warned as her muscles tighten up.
"What do you me-!"
"HOH! TIGER'S ROAR!" Meilin yelled out as she stepped forward and struck the tree with her fist once it hit its mark the base of the tree was tore right through with a perfectly shaped hole in it as big as a watermelon.
"..." Jianbing was at a lost for words since he just saw someone punch a hole through a tree that was bigger than their fist. "Huh?" But when his eyes went to Meilin, she had a gloomy look on her face. "Ugh, Meilin, what's wrong?"
"Well...I've gotten everything down with that move except for the *rawr*' part," Meilin answered, holding up her arms and faked a roar which only got a laugh out of Jianbing. "Don't laugh at me!" Her face went red as a tomato, and she covered her face.
.Aha, I am not...hahaha!" Jianbing, unlike Meilin, wasn't able to hold back his laughter and let it all out while Meilin was trying to stuff her head in the hole she made. "Ahaha, sor-hah-rry! I just thought you were cute." He was all smiles and went to rub Meilin on her back. "Please come out. I think we're almost at the temple."
"Really?" Meilin whispered from her hole coming out to see Jianbing looking up at her. "Okay! Back to it!" She cheered, getting back to her old self and walked along the path without Jianbing. "Coming?"
"Of course!" Jianbing called out to the girl walking away. "Hmm?" But took a look at the tree Meilin punched before following her.
Soon after a bit more walking, they came to the entrance of a large but ruined temple with two rows of tiger statues going up to a grand flight of stairs. "Oh?" Meilin looked around the temple with a disappointed look on her face.
Jianbing simply sat down on a boulder with Mumei in his lap. "Not what you wanted?"
Meilin turned around with a smile. "Nope! Like I said earlier; I here to find the White Tiger Of the West!" She answered, slapping a hand to her chest. "Thank you! Jianbing!"
"You're welcome..." Jianbing waved her off then paused to think about something. "...but what are you going to do if you meet that thing?"
"Oh, that?" Meilin couldn't answer Jianbing right away turning to the temple, hopefully just maybe her goal there waiting for her.
"It's not all that hard to guess...I'm not here for enlightenment or spirituality, and it's not like the world's in danger and needs saving. What I want more than anything in my life is..." Meilin took up her fighting stance. "...to make The White Tiger of the West, Beast of Autumn and Metal! My master and make me the strongest in the world!" She cheered, throwing out a punch with a small shockwave coming off her fist.
"Well, that's my reason! Sorry, if it wasn't something super amazing but why are you so curious about ~me~? Are you trying to get on my good side...little...boy...?" But when she turned around to tease Jianbing, he was gone without a trace. "Where'd he run off to? Hmm? Maybe he went off to pee and used that to get me to look away?" Meilin wondered about to go out looking for Jianbing when the sound of gunfire rang out from the temple. "What was that!?"
"Hey! Get back here you little white-haired shit!" Yelled a bestial voice after more shots were fired followed by echoing footsteps.
"Jianbing!" Meilin let her bag fall off her back, and before it hit the ground, she was already halfway up the stairs. "Jianbing!" She yelled into the temple, hearing her voice coming back to her a moment late. "Grrah!"
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"What was that!?" A voice different from the first yelled in answer to Meilin's call that came from path to her right.
"That wasn't Jianbing, but it's a start!" Meilin dashed down the path while keeping her ears focused on any other sounds that could help find where to go next.
"There he goes! Get him! You useless bastards!" The first voice ordered now coming from a path on the left.
"Down here!" Meilin ran down that path then kept changing with each echo that she heard until a light was seen at the end. "Finally!" She jumped out into an open area that had overgrown trees and grass all over stone walkways, wall, and tiger statues.
"What the!? Who the hell is that?!" Came from a man dressed in baggy pants, boots, and a black t-shirt that had a teacup on it, in his hands were a net and rope.
"Don't know!" Another man wearing the same thing as the first answered with a pistol in hand. "Boss! I think we've got company!"
The person he yelled at was far different than the other two since they were a large brown bear that stood upright. He wore red boots, dark green pants and blue battle armor covering his chest and shoulders with blue arm-guards and a battle axe at the ready. "Grrrah! More problems, huh!?" He growled in the bestial voice Meilin head the first time.
"A Bear-man?" Meilin thought and looked around for Jianbing, finding a fuzzy ball of white hair sticking out from a tall tree in the back which the three men were standing in front of. "Who are you guys and what are you doing to my friend back there!?"
"So that little fur-ball has a girlfriend, huh?" The bear-man asked in a mocking tone as he swung his axe over his shoulder and turned around to show a giant teacup on the back of his armor. "I'm Yosh, the Steamy Axe! Of the Wild Oolong Bandits! And that friend of yours is going get captured and sold to the highest bidder! Ain't that right boys!?"
"Yea! That's right! We're going to make a killing off that little guy!" Bandit #1, holding the net yelled out, rubbing his thumb against his fingers.
"So you better have said your goodbyes to him! Causes once the boss gets a hold of something he ain't letting go!" Bandit #2 warned as well, holding his gun at the ready.
"Pfft!" Meilin had to slap a hand to her mouth to stop herself from bursting out laughing. "Hihihi!" But giggled a little forcing her to hold onto her stomach. "~Oolong~"
"HEY! That wasn't a joke girl!" B #2 yelled up at the laughing girl about ready to shoot her.
"Yea! Anyone who's caught wind of the Wild Oolong Bandits pisses their pants like a baby!" B #1 added, twisting his net around threateningly.
"AHAHAHAHA!" Meilin was now on a full-blown laughing fit, going to her knees and waved a hand at them with tears in her eyes.
"GAH!" Yosh had enough of this and jumped after Meilin, swinging his axe down Meilin.
"Whoa!" Meilin stopped all her laughing and rolled out of the way then got into her fighting stance. "Can't a girl get a laugh?!"
"Not when it's at my gang!" Yosh growled, pulling his axe out of the wedge it made in the stone floor. "Now, if you don't want to get your head chopped off and used as my teacup! LEAVE!"
"~Oh~ Can't we just all get Oolong?" Meilin joked only for Yosh to snap his fangs at her. "...Ok, then I'll just have to 'beat' you so bad that you leaf first!"
"Shut up already!" Yosh stomped forward with his axe in swing.
"!" Meilin took a back step to dodge. "HA!" Then jumped back in to land a punch right to his gut, sending him back a few feet.
"Not bad, I felt that!" Yosh patted where he got hit with a massive grin on his face. "You got a little bit of power to you, girly?"
"Hihi, that was nothing, I just didn't want to hurt you is all," Meilin mocked the bear but kept her guard up against Yosh until something came flying from her right. "What the!?" Falling on top of her was the net from B #1.
"Haha! Well, guess what? We're planning on hurting you real bad!" He laughed and tugged at the rope tied to the net. "Ngh! The fuck! Come on! RAAH!" But Meilin didn't move an inch from where she stood. "What are you a cow!?"
"Hey! It's bad to joke about a girl's weight!" Meilin puffed out her cheeks at the bandit's insult. "And for that, take this!" Then she spun around quickly.
"Whoa!" B #1 got pulled off his feet and came flying towards Meilin. "No! No! N-GAH!" with a kick meeting his face and knocked him out.
"That's one!" Meilin cheered, throwing the net off herself.
"Why you littl-" B #2 came up next aiming to bash Meilin over the head with his gun, but she caught his arm. "Ah?"
"You little what?" Meilin asked, twisting his arm around until he dropped his gun and looked him in the eyes.
"A-a-ah?! You little cutie pie...?" B #2 answered, sweating bullets and was trying to get out of Meilin's hold. "Why didn't I shoot her?" He told himself thinking that Meilin was about to break his arm in half, but she put on a happy smile that scared him. "ARGUH!" But the next thing that hit him was a knee to the chest, and he went to the ground next to B #1.
"Don't call me cute!" Meilin yelled at B #2 even though her cheeks were red and puffy, making her hold on to them. "I'm a super strong badass that fights to the death!"
"Good, cause you are all kinds of dead!" Yosh swung at her, but like the other times, she dodged it. "Stay still! You little-jumping rat!" He growled, taking wild swings at Meilin the only things they hit were pillars, walls, and the floor tearing through all of them in one go.
"I'm a tiger! Now come at me!" Meilin stopped dodging and stood still to breathe in. "I've been needing to try this out on a live target!" She aimed with her left hand and readied her right then breathed out.
"Gladly!" Yosh held his axe up high coming down with a heavy two-handed swing.
"HOH! TIGER'S ROAR!" Meilin moved faster than Yosh could swing and hit him directly at the center of his armor, shattering it to pieces.
"GAAH!" Yosh immediately dropped his axe and was sent flying back into a wall on the far side of where they were fighting that crumbled under the force and weight of him smashing into it.
Once Yosh was down, Meilin got out her stance and cracked her knuckles. "Phew! It looks like I can use it on people if I hold back." She muttered, looking at the other two Wild Oolong Bandits still laying on the ground in pain. "Can't believe these guys wanted to sell poor Jianbing off to someo-huh!?" She was about to give the two of them a kick when a flash of white from the tree caught her eyes. "Jianbing! It's me, Meilin! You can come out now! Those bad guys are down!" Meilin dashed over to the tree to see how her friend was doing, but what waited for her was something else. "Wha?"
"Grrrmoew!" Looking at Meilin after she pushed some grass out of the way was a small white tiger cub backed up into the tree growling at her and striking out with its claws.
"It's okay little guy. I'm not with those guys come here, Suu! Suu! Suu!" Meilin called out to the tiger cub with open hands after a second or two it understood her and jumped at her. "There we go! Aren't you just the cutest little thing! Just like Jianbing!" She rubbed it against her head with it purring all the while.
"Ugh..." While Meilin was playing with the tiger cub B #2 was picking himself off the floor. "...what happened?" He asked, reaching for his gun.
"Ngh!" Next up was B #1 holding his now broken nose. "I think that girl kicked our asses!" He groaned then looked around to find Yosh's axe next to them. "I hope the boss got her for that?" He asked, and a tug at his shoulder made him turn around. "What?" He asked B #2, but he found his answer with Yosh put through a wall.
"BOSS!" Both of them yelled at once before running over to him.
"Hmm?" Meilin stopped, playing with her new friend to watch B #2 and #1 running over to Yosh and tried to wake him up.
"BOSS! BOSS! BOSS! Get up!" B #1 shook Yosh's head, but that didn't work, so he raised a hand to slap him. "...Ugh! I can't do it!" But dropped it hand to his side.
"How could The Steamy Axe, get put down like that!?" B #2 yelled, and both of them turned to Meilin holding up the tiger cub with the two of them looking back at the bandits. "IT WAS YOU!?"
"Well? Do you see anyone else around here?" Meilin asked, putting the tiger cub down to get into her fighting stance. "Want another demonstration?" She offered, smiling at them while the tiger cub tried to roar at the bandits.
"Shit! Let's get out of here!" B #2 grabbed Yosh's arms and pulled them over his shoulders with all his strength. "GRRH! You get his legs!"
"But what are we going to do about the tiger cub the buyer is going to have a meltdown!?" B #1 asked, breaking his back to get Yosh's legs up.
"We'll deal with that once the boss gets up!" B #2 answered before the two of them carried Yosh away as fast as they could.
Once the Wild Oolong Bandits were gone Meilin looked at the tiger cub. "Huh? They were going to sell you off?" She asked, going down to pet the little tiger with it rubbing into her hands. "Aww! Don't they know that you should be with your parents." She continued to play with it until a pair of shadows came over her. "Oh?"
Turning around slowly, Meilin was greeted by two fully grown tigers that both had orange coats of fur, but the white cub went up to them in a flash. "...So that's them?"
"..." The two tigers looked at their cub then Meilin. "GRRAAH!" And they both flashed their fangs at Meilin pushing their cub away.
"Uh, hey, now? No need for that I was just helping your kid!" Meilin tried as best she could to tell the wild animals what happened pointing at the now empty spot where the bandits were. "AH!" But that didn't stop one of the tigers from slashing at her with its claw forcing her to jump back and go into her fighting stance. "Okay! If you want to go so badly then fine! I'll just have the title of Tiger Crusher! After I'm done with you!" She gritted her teeth at the tigers copying the way they were glaring at her. "If you can't reason with it then beat it to a pulp!"
"GAAAAAWWWR!" But just as the two tigers were about to jump Meilin a loud thunderous roar rocked the entire temple, shaking it, Meilin and the tigers to their cores. "..." Just as it came, there was silence in the air, even the sound of a leaf falling from a tree could be heard.
"What was that...?" Meilin held her stance both too afraid and awestruck to move by the sense of danger in the air. "...and's your deal?" She meekly asked the three tigers as each of them were looking up at something behind her. "Okay? Turning away from the animals that tried to kill me..." She glanced back up at the tree and went up to its top. "!" And froze on the spot.
Perched high on top of a pillar overlooking the area Meilin and the tiger family were in was a white tiger that seemed to appear out of thin air yet at the same looked like it was there the whole time. "..." It silently gazed over the group that was looking up at it with a pair of glowing white eyes that left trails of light whenever it moved its head around and seemed to be giving off a white mystical aura.
"Is tha-huh?" Meilin finally came out of a daze she was put into by staring at the mystifying beast only to find that it had left her field of view as if it was never there. "Wait? What?" She whipped her head around everywhere to find it, but the only tigers she saw were the three who were now walking away. "Uhm, bye?" Meilin waved at them with only the small white cub turning around to her. "Okay, that happened but where the heck is Jainbing...?"
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3 hours later
"Ugh, why...?" Meilin was currently dragging herself aimlessly through the streets of Changwei, looking at a list of other cities and places on her phone then checked a box at Changwei off being the last on the list. "There wasn't anything there but old scrolls and tiger statues just like the others..."
After searching through the entire temple 5 times over from top to bottom, there wasn't any sign that magical white tiger anywhere, leaving Meilin in total despair at the complete waste of her time. "Just once couldn't I get my way?" She muttered, stopping in her tracks and let out a black aura that made people avoid her by an arm's length, then something even worse happened *Growl* "And now I'm hungry..." Her aura got even bigger pushing more people away. "Hmm?" Until something good found its way to her nose.
"Rice?" Meilin turned to a restaurant that had a bowl of rice as a sign. "Well, I haven't eaten since I got here..." She muttered with another loud growl coming from her stomach. "...Ok! Ok! I wasn't against it, and after you're full we can go find Jianbing too!"
"Welcome! Welcome! Welcome!" A cheerful greeting was sent Meilin's way as she entered from the owner of the rice place who was carrying a tray of large bowls to a booth at the back where tall stacks of empty bowls were. "I'll be right with you in a moment miss! Please, take a seat over there!" The owner motioned over to the counter after setting down the bowls, but some coins from behind the stacks were thrown at them. "Three more!? I'm running low but if you're paying like this...!" The owner pocketed the coins and went back to the kitchen.
"Well, someone sure likes rice?" Meilin thought, taking a seat at the counter and dropped her bag to the floor. "Hmm? I wonder if Jianbing just ran off to get some rice like he wanted?" She asked herself since the small white-haired boy was nowhere to be found in or around the temple. "I hope he's alright..." She muttered, reaching for the menu of the place.
"Boss, seriously, what are we going to do about the buyer they were really out for a white tiger?" The familiar voice of B #2 asked as the three members of the Wild Oolong Bandits walked into the rice place.
"Grrr! That little bitch! She cost us a lot of scratch!" Yosh growled out, now wearing one of the shirts his gang mates had and didn't have his axe with him since it was left at the temple. "Next time I see her! I'll just RAAGGGHHHA!" He choked the air in front of him violently imagining that Meilin was in his claws.
"Ugh, these guys again!?" Meilin groaned, putting her head in the menu to hide. "I don't want to cause any trouble for the owner right now." She thought since getting into a fight would wreck the place.
"Yea, that's right! Next time we'll all gang up on her and put her in her place!" B #1 agreed as they went past Meilin without giving her a second look.
"Then, she'll know not to mess with the Wild Oolong Bandits!" Yosh roared, punching the air along with his boys not noticing Meilin giggling behind the menu. "Oye! Chief! Three bowls of rice with everything for me and my boys!" He slammed down a claw at the countertop.
"Aww! Boss, you're so nice!" Both #1 and #2 cheered holding on to each other's hands.
The owner came up with the order but it went right to whoever was at the back then walked up to Yosh wiping their hands. "Ah, sorry, friends, you can get everything but without any rice at the mo-AHHH!" Yosh suddenly grabbed the owner by his collar and lifted him off his feet.
"What was that?! You're a rice place! How are you out of rice!?" He growled, shaking the owner around. "Answer me!"
"W-w-w-well I was just b-b-brought out by them!" The owner meekly pointed at the customer at the back with the sound of chopsticks chipping away from there. "So, if you got a problem then take it up with them!?"
"I think I will!" Yosh tossed the owner aside and went up to the back booth to take it up with the person there.
"Hey! Watch it!" Meilin quickly caught the owner before they slammed into the floor.
"Ah, thank you, miss!" The owner thanked Meilin while getting back to his feet.
"Hmm?" B #2 noticed her, and after seeing the crazy girl that beat them earlier, he glared. "Shit! It's her! Boss!?" He turned around to call for Yosh, but he was too business ranting at the buyout customer.
"HEY! YOU! How the hell can you buy out a whole rice place! HUH!? Other people have to eat, you know! You greedy bastard!" Yosh yelled, flashing his fangs at them and smacked his fist down on the table, causing the stacks of bowls to jump into the air and come back down with a loud clang. "So? Just be nice and let me take these!" He reached out to one of the fresh bowls of rice it, but a small hand grabbed his claw. "Huh?"
"Let go of the rice." The owner of the hand ordered in a cold, almost vicious tone.
"Jianbing?" Of all voices that Meilin could have heard at the time, the voice of the small beggar boy was not one of them, and she instantly tried to move up to stop Yosh from hurting him but B #1 and #2 moved in front of her. "Move!"
But before she could take care of them, Yosh slapped Jianbing's hand away. "Hah! Let go? Yea! Right! Like I'd listen to a shitty little thing like you! HAHA!" He laughed in Jianbing's face then raised the stolen bowl up high. "Thanks for the food, friend!" He opened his mouth wide about to throw down the bowl into his throat...
"GAAAAAWWWR!" Next thing that happened was the sound of furious tiger's roar booming inside the restaurant followed immateriality by a massive shockwave blowing out most of a wall leaving behind a huge hole in it.
"What was that...?" Meilin stood shell-shocked at what just happened in front of her, looking out the hole to find Yosh put through several other buildings until he stopped after crashing into a construction site.
"BOSS!?" Both B #1 and #2 ran out of the hole and went to see if Yosh was even alive.
"MY RESTAURANT!?" The owner cried waving his hands at the hole in his place and fell to his knees. "Why!? Why!? Why!? Oh, sweet baby emperor Jet Min!? WHHHHHYYYY!?"
While the owner was having a mental breakdown, the smoke where Jianbing was finally cleaned showing him without that brown cloth he had on before, now he was wearing a white loose-fitting silk jacket with gold trim that was tied up by black knots and a pair of black pants going down to his shins, swinging behind him was white tail with black stripes.
The rice bowl that was stolen from him was in his left hand, but more importantly, was that he was in a stance that Meilin knew all too well. "Don't take other people's food bear."
"The Tiger's Roar...?" Meilin whispered, staring at Jianbing in awe for what felt like a lifetime with a faint white glow coming for him as he stood.
"Rice! Rice! Rice! I love rice!" Jianbing sang out, spinning and dancing around while grabbing a pair of chopsticks from the table and got down eating. "Ah!" And emptied the bowl in seconds then moved to the next one. "...Huh? What was *eating* that *eating* Mumei?" He asked, moving to the third bowl and looked at his walking stick inside the booth. "What about *eating* Meilin?" He finished off the last bowl and dug down into his pockets from more coins. "It's a good thing I met her. I got an enough for an extra bowl today!"
"Uhm...Jianbing...?" Meilin's quietly whispered but it reached Jianbing's ears, and he froze in place slowly turning to face her.
"Eh?" Was all Jianbing could say in return.
"No, wait? Master!" The teen bowed with her head as low as it could go.
Chapter End