Alright guys/girls or whatever you go by, this is a little important because this preview, and most likely the rest of the chapter will not be refined/revised for errors or grammar mistakes by Gemini ai like I have been doing for all my chapters. If you didn't know this, I have mentioned this before multiple times, though I know it was mostly on WebNovel. Don't worry, I NEVER let the ai add anything new that I didn't write and I sometimes ended up adding more to the segment after it was revised. The main reason I used the ai to refine my chapters was because I'm legally blind and often miss any mistakes I made when writing, no matter how many—mostly—times I read through it.
So I would appreciate if you let me know of any errors in any of my stories, even if it's just commenting the word and nothing else for those who don't feel too comfortable commenting in general.
Thank you for taking the time to read this notice and my story.
Warning; the end of the chapter gives reasons as to why I've been taking so long on this chapter, most Wattpad readers who follow me may already know this.
Alt-title:
Return
"Speech"
'Thought'
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(3rd POV)
In the Valley of Peace, the various species of villagers—pigs, geese, rabbits and sheep for the most part—went about their day, doing business such as selling clothing, jewelry or furniture, selling food from stands, restaurants, small shops and more. Some couples came out from an orphanage, with a happily smiling child in tow, while young siblings can be seen chasing each other around their parents. Nearby, a small group of performers were playing music with their instruments, along with a few ribbon dancers that consisted of two snow leopards and one cheetah, a rare creature to see in China.
Further down the path, in an alleyway, a large, gray python with familiar markings, a single green scale and a black conical straw hat similar to Wu's, slithered out, rapidly garnering the attention of the nearest villagers not only due to her unique appearance, but also due to the fact that she was a snake, a creature that rarely ever passed through this village excluding the one that inhabited it. Though she kept her posture unthreatening as she could whilst slithering, she still sensed some fear from the attention she quickly received from the locals, though some showed it more openly than others. Akria huffed semi-indignantly. 'Racism, how disgusting.' She scowled, glancing around at the many different shops and restaurants, before deciding to stop at the entrance of a small noodle shop.
Akira slithered through the archway and headed toward an empty table, careful as to not hit the other tables with her large body as she ignored the fearful glances—that mainly came from mothers who pulled their children closer—until she took her seat. It only took a few minutes before a male goose walked up to her with a small menu book in hand before placing it on the table. "Hello new customer! What kind of noodles would you like?" He asked. "We have regular noodles, vegetable noodles, we even have tofu noodles but we don't really talk about those." He mumbled the last words about the tofu. "We also have three different sizes of bowls shown here." He added, tapping the menu.
Humming thoughtfully, Akira only took a moment before replying. "I'll have a large bowl of regular noodles, please." She tipped her head downward in respect before pulling out a golden coin, and pushing it toward the goose. "If this ends up being too much then keep it." His eyes widened at the coin, before quickly snatching it from the table and rushing into the kitchen. "Po! Get the biggest bowl you can find and fill it up with noodles for the generous snake at table 8!"
Akira chuckled, before a male ox at the table behind her spoke. "Hey, lady." Akira turned her neck to look at him. "How much did you give him for him to get so enthusiastic? Mr. Ping is usually pretty stingy with his food and the price of it. Though it is pretty delicious, so I'd say it's worth the price." Akira simply flicked a gold coin in the air before catching it, answering his query as well as bringing even more attention to herself as the creatures at the other tables began to murmur. "Are you royalty or something, lady? Because not everyone can or will buy food in a place like this with gold coins... or gold in general." A male leopard at the same table queried, causing the other creatures to become silent to hear the answer.
Akira smirked, though it was unseen by the leopard. "You could say that." She took notice of how the leopard and ox stared at each other before nodding. They both got up in unison, the ox drawing an axe from his back with the leopard brandishing a dagger, their actions caused the civilians to freeze with fear and the panda who had just exited the kitchen with a large bowl of noodles—a size or two larger than what is stated on the menu—to step back into the door. "Hmm, hehhe. You want these, yes?" She seemingly split the one coin into three different ones; the second being jade, and the third being diamond. "Then fetch." She threw the coins into the air, their sunlight enhanced shine immediately catching the two bandits' attention. "Oh, and don't blink."
Quite literally in the blink of an eye, Akira whipped the leopard's face with her tail, knocking him to the ground before wrapping her lower half of her body around the ox and throwing him out of the shop after knocking him into unconsciousness. The leopard groaned in pain, opening his eyes only to see Akira—who had raised her body to her full height—staring down at him. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. Aw, I told you not to blink, you missed all the fun." She mocked before knocking him out. She glanced behind her when she heard the exclaimed word of awesome to see the panda gently placing her noodles on her table before rushing up to her as fast he could without knocking over the other tables.
"Whoa! That was amazing!" The panda complimented. "You were like; whapow! Bam! And then you whipped the leopard guy with your tail and—." His enthusiastic words and gestures were only paused when Akira gently placed the tip of her tail over his lips with a chuckle. "I get it, thank you for the compliment. I'm more surprised that you noticed it with how fast I moved." She said, before slithering back over to her table, the panda following behind before standing on the opposite end of the table to her. "What kind of Kung fu was that? Was it even kung fu? Oh, uh, sorry for my rambling, I'm kind of a kung fu fan if you couldn't tell." He said, his enthusiastic tone quickly shifting to a mock mature tone when he thought he was being a bother.
Akira took a large sip of noodles before giving him her attention. "You're names, Po, yes?" She queried, to which Po nodded in response. "Well, Po, let the first thing I tell you is that these noodles are delicious, hmhm." She complimented with a humming chuckle. "And no, that wasn't Kung fu, though I do know some." Po tilted his head at that. "Then what was it? If you're not a mysterious Kung master, then are you a mysterious warrior?" Akria giggled at his guesses of what she was, turning to another sip of noodles before she replied. "I am a ninja." Po's eyes widened. "Well, I'm more of a warrior than a ninja, but I've been leaning more towards ninja lately." She added with a kind smile, using it to calm the panda's clearly seen worries.
"You don't need to worry, I'm not that kind of ninja." She said knowingly, further calming the panda. Po gained a sheepish expression, scratching the back of his neck. "Sorry." He muttered an apology. "I shouldn't assume things like that." Akira waved him off with her tail. "It's fine." She glanced over to the downed leopard who groaned. "So, do you want me to deal with them or...?" Just as she asked, a green mantis landed on the leopard's chest. "No worries, we got this from here, hot stuff." The male mantis said with a flirtatious tone, only for the viper that came in after him to hiss. "Mantis! Don't be so vulgar!" She sighed softly after, before glancing at Akira, whilst Mantis—yes that's his name—muttered questioningly about how he was being rude. "I'm sorry about him, he can be a bit...." She glanced at her teammate before switching back to Akira. "Well, vulgar. Even if unintentionally."
"Enough chat." Before Akira could reply, a female, bipedal tiger walked through the arch, the unconscious Ox being dragged by his armor. "We need to bring these two in." The tigress turned her intense gaze to Akira, though she remained unaffected and simply smiled and waved with her tail. She pointed a clawed finger towards Akira. "You. What did you do to make them attack you so suddenly?" Akira tilted her head at the question. "Oh. And you assume that it was I who did this and not the panda? He is not only bigger than me, but has more than enough natural strength to do so." She replied with her own query.
The tigress narrowed her eyes into slits, a barely concealed growl exiting her throat. But before she could retort the viper intervened. "The reason Tigress is assuming as such is because those two are notorious for their greed, cunning intelligence and their higher than average skill with weapons." She glanced up at Tigress. "But that gives her no reason to be so harsh about it." Akira huffed a sharp laugh, pulling out another coin with her tail. "Then I assume that their greed far outweighed their cunning intelligence." She waved the coin around, and it was only then that Po realized the coins on the ground were gone.
A crane with a straw hat landed on the arch. "Viper's right, Tigress." He said, before glancing at Akira. "But we still need to bring you along with us for the guards to question." He waved his wing. "Not to worry, it's just normal procedure with this stuff. Especially since you took them down." Akira tilted her head up at the crane. "And how could you tell?" She queried knowingly. The crane jumped down, flapping his wings to slow his descent. "Well, based on Ying's—the leopard—injuries and bruises, you most likely whipped him with your large tail, whilst you threw Bing—the Ox—out of the shop." He gestured to the mentioned injuries as he spoke. "What you did to Bing before you threw him, I don't know. This is also not mentioning that I saw when you ended the fight." Akira stayed silent for a few moments before abruptly chuffing into laughter.
"You are correct... and funny." She said after calming her laughter. "But... I also cracked Bing's horn ever so slightly." Tigress' eyes widened just barely before she quickly lifted up on Ox to see the small crack on his horn. She looked back at the grey python. "Even so, we still have to follow the law." Akira sighed softly, but nodded in acceptance before gesturing toward her unfinished bowl of noodles. "But before that, I still have noodles to devour." Akira turned to her bowl and began to continue to eat the noodles. Tigress sighed with irritation before helping her teammates tie up the bandits, all the while Po was silently geeking out, frozen with excitement.
(Scene break)
As she was told, Akira was taken in for questioning after she had finished her noodles. It was mostly standard stuff, like questioning her about what she was doing, eating noodles, when she entered the village, about a day ago, why she came to the village, traveling, what style of combat she used since she easily defeated the bandits, to which she answered that she was a warrior. After that, they had sent Akira on her merry way... or so they thought. Akira was currently invisible atop the building the rhino guards had been using as their base, sleeping quarters and prison, waiting for the Furious Five—as she learned their team was called—to walk out the door.
And it didn't take much longer for them to do so, they were even having a conversation about the bandits. "We found out where they've been keeping the riches and artifacts they stole, Tigress, why are you so upset?" Viper asked as she slithered a little faster. Tigress' brows furrowed in irritation, but not at her serpent teammate. "That python." Tigress began, clenching her fists, this had also slightly surprised Akira, with intrigue beginning to enter her gaze as she coiled her body into a spring before hopping onto a nearby roof. "She was far too calm, warrior or not. For all we know, she could also be a thief with how she flaunts her gold coins." Crane hopped beside her. "I actually think I saw a jade coin as well. Maybe a diamond one but they just... disappeared before I could get a good look, especially with how shiny they were."
A golden snub-nosed monkey suddenly burst into giggles to their right. "Isn't it obvious? Ms. Snake is clearly a master of the sleight-of-hand." He said, pulling out a bronze coin before making it seemingly disappear in thin air with a simple gesture. "As an entrepreneur myself, I can tell. ...Though she moved really fast, I barely noticed she'd grabbed her coins." His four teammates stared at him with a deadpan expression—yes, even Tigress, who usually had control over what expression showed on her face, showed a visible expression, and Mantis, who was usually always on his side, whether it was for pranks or something else.
"Really, Monkie, an entrepreneur?" Crane gawked at the now named "Monkie"—even his hat seemed to droop downward a bit before quickly returning to its original shape—before he sighed. "Monkie, you need to take these things a little more seriously." The green tree viper berated the snub-nosed monkey with a motherly tone, something surprising for one so young, Akira assumed that she was the one who had to deal with the two pranksters shit the most. Akira continued to hop across the rooftops until the Furious Five reached a very, very long set of stairs that led to a temple at the top of the mountain, she jumped down, landing right behind them and if anyone could see her, they'd notice that her underbelly was faintly glowing the light blue of the element of sound nullifying any noise she would have made from moving around otherwise.
She followed closely behind as they all climbed up the steps at a steady pace. '200... 625, 732... 810.' Counting mentally, she rounded the number of steps to about 1,000. 'Really? I mean, I guess the steps would deter most thieves away from robbing this place.' Akira mused when they were halfway up. Once they reached the top, Akira paid no mind to the details of the temple—she's seen so many that it didn't really matter to her anymore—but hey, if you really wanted a detail then the temple itself has a jade theme to it. There were currently two different sets of large doors in front of them—one set to the left and the other to the right—the Furious Five moved towards the left side, so Akira promptly followed them. Tigress pushed open the doors, inadvertently revealing to Akira the vastly sizable main hall that clearly housed many different artifacts, weapons and armor.
'Oh, they are so lucky that I'm not in one of my collecting moods right now. So many things to... borrow.' She thought as she looked around, passing by armor for a rhino with wings on the back, before quickly sliding toward a pedestal for what the sign said was some kind of invisible trident of destiny or what not, she didn't care, it looked like any normal trident to her. Akira continued to look around the hall, the Furious Five having already continued on at this point, slithering between a few sets of armor, Akira stopped in front of a sword, one that she felt had a faint presence. "Did you just try to cut me?" Her eyes slightly once she realized this, before she narrowed her eyes as silver tendrils surged from her now open mouth and wrapped around the blade. The tendrils began to squeeze, not to break the blade, oh no, Akira held no desire to break the blade itself, in fact her tendrils passed through the metal like a ghost, she instead targeted the presence within the blade, pulling it out enough to see its blob-like form in a "game" of tug of war before slicing its midsection and allowing it to return to the sword.
With a newly acquired satisfied expression, Akira slithered to explore more of the temple, slithering through the smaller hallways and passing by what looked to be sleeping quarters. In fact, they were quite similar to the First Spinjitzu Master's Monastery, only older with how the beds were just wood, with how much Po got excited about her possibly being a kung fu master—and with there being five of those here—she had no doubt that this place was more strict with their rules. Though with how Tigress acted, it seemed far more personal. Akira continued to slither further down the hallway, glancing left to see the kitchen before slipping through the doorway to see... how fucking basic it is, like seriously, this temple was obviously loaded so at least give its residents some decent beds. Akira uncloaked and began to search through the cabinets when she couldn't smell any meat, she slammed the cabinet door shut, annoyed with how there was essentially just rice and vegetables in the kitchen, oh and tofu as well as the cookies that were obviously meant to be hidden on top of one of the cabinets. Opening what looked like a fridge—more so a freezer—Akira sighed with relief when she saw a few eggs. She was honestly about to crash out about how this place had no protein, so she decided to take an egg as payment for the trouble, easily swallowing it whole before leaving, not bothering to re-cloak herself.
The next door she encountered was one of the larger ones, with the sounds of multiple people—or creatures in this case—grunting from their training, as well as some bangs, clinking of what sounded like metal rings colliding, and the sound of rushing fire. As she continued to listen in on the training, she decided to use one of the elemental power of sound's lesser used abilities; echolocation, to "see" all of what was going on inside the training ground, she roared at a pitch that could not be heard, sending invisible bluish-purple waves of sound through the small space under the door that give her a 3d map of the room. It was fairly simple to someone like her, but definitely better than what the ninja were using to train in terms of quantity and variety. Akira suddenly began to charge pale blue elemental ice energy within her maw, the pattering of small footsteps coming closer at a steady pace, a clear sign that they were unaware of her presence and the danger she could pose.
Shifu was walking through the jade palace at a casual pace—his stride being quite long for someone his size—following his usual routine for the current time of day, heading for the training hall to announce to his students that it was time to stop their training for the day and eat dinner. Though many wouldn't be able to tell, Shifu was a little tense, his Master; Oogway, who was also the Grand Master of the palace, had told him about a powerful entity that had appeared outside the village of peace a few days ago, luckily so far it hasn't seem to have caused any problems... yet.
He froze in place at the sight of a very large grey python leaning its head against the training hall door, before he slammed his staff into the ground, eyes narrowing. "State your business, trespasser, and don't even try to say my students brought you here, because I would be the one they ask to allow such." Shifu stated, his tone stern as could be. Cautiously stepping toward the python, Shifu never expected to get blasted by freezing cold pale blue beam of energy when Akira suddenly turned, her glowing elemental energy filled maw aimed at him, luckily he had dodged in the nick of time, but his fur still ended up being covered with a little frost. Shifu was not given any time to process the elemental attack, his instincts forcing him to dodge if he wanted to survive, not that Akira was trying to kill him or anything, then again, she should probably lower the intensity of her frostbite beams, not everyone can survive being a cold block of ice for as long as back home, animals like this... raccoon were not built for the cold. 'Yea, definitely lower the intensity.' She mentally decided—with a brief pause—after seeing a pillar crumble into shards when the "raccoon" used it to bounce toward another pillar and multiple more after to get further away from her.
Akira decided to nerf her own aim after that as well, killing the raccoon wasn't her intention after all, she just needed a bit of excitement with how bored she was getting, watching the Furious five train made her scales bristle with curious boredom. They definitely had better combat training than the ninja, but the Furious five were not only older than the ninja—which clearly amounted to more experience—but it seemed to her that they were confined to this village for the most part, which is honestly disappointing to let such potential go to waste in a village with peace in its name... unless of course, it was just a name and this place was far more chaotic then it seems.
She narrowed her eyes as the raccoon stupidly charged toward her when she paused her frostbite beam, clearly assuming that she'd exhausted her power in "trying" to hit him. Akira let him come closer before suddenly twisting into her silver Spinjitzu tornado, she watched as he spun uncontrollably at rapid speeds before she launched him through the training hall doors, throwing them open and even breaking off one of the many hinges. The five occupants of the training hall stared at their downed master in shock and disbelief, before that all turned to the entrance to see the python from earlier in the day. Tigress' eyes became slits. "You!" She snarled, beginning to rush toward Akira. Akira's lips curled up into toothy smile, only to immediately frown upon her noticing the very universe around her shifting ever so slightly, so in response to the sudden shift she unsuppressed a small portion of her power, her scales brightening to a matte silver before she glanced behind her to see a bipedal tortoise walking towards her—or just her general direction—as if he were talking a casual stroll. 'It hid him from my senses?' Akira's smile crawled back up her lips, before she caught Tigress in her Spinjitzu and threw her back toward her teammates.
The elderly tortoise raised a hand, getting the attention of everyone there, Akira's mainly due to her curiosity. "Please, there is no need to fight." He said, nearly diffusing the situation, with Tigress and Shifu remaining the most tense and wary out of the six. He turned his gaze toward Akira. "Come, join us for dinner." The tortoise turned, walking towards the kitchen. "I'm sure you didn't mean any true harm. Our conversation will be very interesting." Tigress seemed to have a mental overload at the tortoise's words. "B-but... Grand Master Oogway—excuse my disrespect—you can't be serious!?" She briefly gestured toward Shifu, her angered tone becoming more pronounced. "That python blatantly attacked d-our master, throwing him through those doors," she pointed a claw toward the door that was holding on by a single hinge. "She should be arrested and locked up... possibly in Chorh-Gom prison." The other four of the furious five gasped in shock at their teammate's words, Shifu's eyes widening visibly, but decided to keep quiet and trust his master.
Oogway's eyes seemed to open a little more, before he smiled dismissively. "Let us all go eat dinner, before it gets cold." A brief moment of confusion crossed the kung fu masters, as they normally made their own food. Akira glanced at them, before following Oogway to the kitchen/dining room.
(Scene break)
The clonking of wooden spoon hitting bowls of very expensive soup were heard as everyone ate at the table, even Tigress—who just about always ate tofu—had a bowl, mostly out of respect then the enjoyment of a skip meal, she was far too preoccupied with glaring imaginable flames at Akira. The now brighter grey python exaggeratingly smacked her lips when she finished her bowl of soup. "Not the best thing I've eaten so far since I got here. But it's alright." She commented, unable to truly shrug her shoulders at the moment, but that didn't really stop her from spinning her spoon on the tip of her tail, her smile only grew antagonistic when she saw Tigress' annoyed expression become more pronounced. Placing the spoon back in the bowl, Akira pushed her bowl away before using a portion of the lower half of her tail to prop her head up, her smile softening ever so slightly when she still saw Viper's terribly hidden curious gaze aimed toward her.
"Speak your question, or forever hold your peace." Akira said in a mature tone, causing Viper to sputter in surprise. It took the green snake half a minute for her to stop sputtering, and another half to finally ask her question. "Uhh, well... actually, we never got your name miss...." She began only to realize that none of them had asked for the grey python's name. "Akira." Viper nodded at her reply. "Right. Well, Ms. Akira, if you don't mind me asking...." Said python muttered something along the lines of; "I don't mind at all", in her draconic language before Viper continued. "...what was the silver tornado technique that you caught Tigress in? It was like nothing I've ever seen before, definitely not kung fu at least to my knowledge." Viper's query got Akira to ponder, the other kung fu masters—with the exception of Oogway, who had simply hummed his own curiosity—nodding in agreement that it was at the very least not a known kung fu technique, Tigress reluctantly nodding as well a moment after the others. Akira once more grabbed her spoon with the end of her tail before pointing it at Tigress. "What I used against you," She began before pointing at Shifu. "...and you, is known as Spinjitzu; an advanced martial arts technique created by the First Spinjitzu Master, who then passed it onto his two sons and so on, yada-yada-yada, that's all you need to know right now." Akira finished, giving them the briefest possible explanation. At least one that would make sense, there was no harm that they could do with the information anyway as she could activate her Spinjitzu in multiple different ways.
"No." Akira immediately denied the moment she saw Mantis raise one of his... claw, paw, pincer thingys, she honestly couldn't remember what they were called. "I-I didn't even say anything." Like, she knew what they were called, but she couldn't remember for the life of her, she'd most likely remember it when she leaves... it was actually pretty annoying, her, essentially a cosmic dragon and she was forgetting what a mantises paw things were called. "So, what brings you to our village young...." There was a brief pause in Oogway's sentence, but Akira could feel the world around her shift ever so slightly, as if it was wary. "...Dragon." He finished, and Akira's eyes became slits, but her outer expression remained cheery, a more visible telltale sign of the shift was her posture, Oogway was slightly surprised to see her body becoming more fluid than stiff, unlike most other creatures and even Kung fu masters. It was hard to train, especially with how ingrained it was in your instincts.
But Akira obviously was not in any danger, even if she was her body wouldn't become so tense. But she understood it now, Oogway hadn't known what she was until she had felt that shift in this universe, which means that it had hidden the tortoise from her senses—extraordinary even when greatly suppressed—which also meant that it was sentient to an extent. Silver light suddenly enveloped the python, rapidly returning her to her Dragonian form as she "gently" slammed her arms onto the table, leaving deep scratches as she pulled them back with a ferocious smile that—unknowingly to the others besides Oogway—made the very universe shutter. Everyone else in the room tensed up—yes, even Oogway—getting ready to fight when Akira suddenly just dropped back down onto her seat, shifting slightly to adjust for her tail as one arm dropped to her side, hanging loosely in the air beside the chair, and the other arm lifting up a large Senbon needle to her mouth before she began to chew on it.
"Relaax. I have no reason to harm ya." She stared at the others as Oogway was the only one who relaxed when finding out her relaxed demeanor was not falsified, with the other six masters being unable to tell, especially since Akira's eyes had become red. "There isn't anything that you've done, or could've done to harm or offend me until this day, which you have not." She added, before drinking from a cup of coffee that appeared out of nowhere after crunching the Senbon, something that baffled everyone there. Shifu smacked his paws onto the table, which had looked so adorable to Akira with how he was trying to act with that cute stern expression of his. "That still gives you no right to follow my students here, and attack both them and I." Akira snorted, amused at the fact that he was trying so hard to hide his fatherly tone and love that was clearly aimed towards Tigress.
She crossed her legs as she folded her wings around herself like a blanket just before a goose in a royal messenger outfit slipped past the door before quickly coming back to said doorway, the exhaustion clear on his face as he panted heavily. Master Shifu... [huff] there... [huff] there are bandits in the village. [Huff]." The messenger straightened up when he saw Oogway, before quickly bowing in respect. "Oh! Uh, Grand Master Oogway. My-my apologies, I should've greeted you first." Oogway smiled kindly as he waved him off. "Oh, there is no need for apologies." The messenger then spotted an empty seat at the table, it was something he would have normally disregarded had he not seen the empty bowl. "Oh. Did you recently have a guest for dinner?" He queried. "It must have been another Grand Master if they had left so suddenly." Everyone turned to empty space, baffled. Tigress clenched her fists, slamming them against the table before rushing out of the kitchen. "Tigress, wait!" Viper was the first to follow after coming out of her shock, the other three of the five coming out of their shock at the sound of her voice and the sight of her slithering out the door to follow their enraged teammate.
(Scene break)
Down in the village, Akira—in her python form—was expertly taking down the surprisingly large horde of bandits with incredible ease and precision for those watching, the spectators whilst mostly consisting of the average villager, still had a few warriors and novice kung fu practitioners, one of which included a young male snow leopard who had an awe filled gaze. To the more experienced fighters, Akria clearly toying with the bandits, weaving between the numbers with unexplainable fluidity, using the blue tinted transparent blade attached to the end of her tail to disarm them of their weapons—shockingly enough—pulling them into her Spinjitzu before knocking them out and throwing them out of the silver tornado. Further down the road, a trio of three crocodiles could be seen, with one in particular yelling frustratingly at another. "God, damn it Gary!" Yelled the one with a small hat. "I told you, Fung, it's Garhi, not Gary!" Argued Garhi, who was even more frustrated with how often Fung mispronounced his name. "That doesn't matter right now! I knew we should've gotten more bandits to help us, maybe even the bigger crime bosses." Fung retorted before arguing that they should've done what he'd suggested earlier.
Garhi was baffled by his leader's forgetfulness, making multiple frustrated gestures before he spoke out against the statement, unaware that Akira was not only getting to them, but also laughing silently at their banter. "You know exactly why!" Garhi placed his hands on his head. "They literally chased us off after they laughed in our faces!" As the two crocs continued to argue, they did not notice that the fighting had stopped, with only the third croc taking a quick glance at the lack of the secondary sound before looking back at his fellow crocs, eyes widening in shock as he turned back to see Akira coiled around a fully formed spectral blade that was embedded into the ground, with the upper half of her body resting atop the hilt and handle of the blade. Akira let a fond smile curl up her lips, something that was usually exclusive to Lloyd's eyes. "Uhh, guys." The two arguing crocodiles ignored the third's tapping of their shoulders in favor of continuing said argument. "You're all so adorable with your little arguments about mispronounced names and what you could've done." Akira cooed, finally getting Fung's and Garhi's attention as well as causing them to cease their squabble to stare at her with fear, especially when noticing all the downed bandits behind her, of which they didn't know if they were even still breathing or just straight up dead.
Her smile slowly became sickly sweet as her eye color shifted from red to pink. "Since I find you three so funny, I'll give you this one chance to escape before the furious five arrive and beat you to a pulp anyway." She said, waving the tip of her tail around as if she were gesturing with her hands as she spoke. Taking her advice, the three croc bandits immediately began to run towards one of the village exits before the five kung fu masters arrived, who would most certainly knock some of their teeth out. Luckily for them, they were able to flee the village before the team of five landed behind Akira, though Tigress was far too focused on the dragon to care let alone notice that they had even been there to begin with. Akira turned to the female tiger as she walked toward the dragon in serpent clothing with an incredibly angry expression. "Who do you think you are to not only trespass on the palace grounds, but also attack our master!" Tigress exclaimed as quietly as she could muster so as to not cause too much of a scene.
"Ah, ah, uhh. Come on Tigress," Akira shook her tail in a similar gesture to shaking her finger. "Don't want to get too aggressive in view of the common folk, especially not after I took down all these bandits alone." She whispered into Tigress' ear with a knowing smile. "After all, you don't want to be seen in the same light as your brother." Tigress raised her brow in confusion, she didn't have a brother, and even if she did, how could Akira know about him? "Oh, what was his name?" Akira mock queried, pulling off a pondering expression before glancing into Tigress' eyes with a mischievous glint in her own. "Tai Lung, was it? Hmm, yes, I believe it was." She chuckled, with Tigress' eyes widening in shocked disbelief, before her expression shifted into pure fury as she attempted to take a swipe at the dragon with her claws only for Akira to yank herself backwards, as well as pulling her blade from the ground as she took it with her.
Akira only began to chuckle harder at the attempt, after all, no need to use the element of propulsion when she's more than capable of dodging a simple swing. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. Aww, don't worry, Stripes." She cooed mockingly, a lime green fog beginning to surround them, obscuring them from the view and causing the crowd to become hazy before they fell asleep. The furious five gazed at their surroundings in confused silence, becoming more wary of the dragon who had begun to giggle. "Sorry to say, but I'm gonna have to cut our little interaction short. I have very important places to be." She added, before conjuring a golden vortex. "Damn, I really need to find a better set of words for this type of shit. I feel like I'm just repeating myself... like Kai does a lot." She complained to herself as slithered through the vortex, as well as mocking the amount of times Kai had said; "Not so fast", in a dramatic manner, which is something she would normally applaud if not for the fact that it was getting repetitive.
The vortex closed behind her, leaving a shocked Furious Five, but a still infuriatingly angry Tigress. "What was that?!" Mantis questioned, barely able to believe what just happened even though he saw it with his own eyes. Crane immediately hopped toward the closest villager, tapping their shoulder and checking their pulse before finally letting out a sigh of relief when not only found an unhindered pulse, but also felt their chest rising as they breathed. "The villagers are alright... just sleeping." He said, with Monkie nodding in confirmation after he had checked on the other villagers. Viper looked concerned not only at the sight of the villagers, but also at the sight of her female friend's heavy breaths, someone that she was quick to check up on.
(Scene break)
(Ninjago)
It was near midnight in Ninjago city, a golden vortex open in an empty alleyway, with Akira still in her python form slithering out moments later before the vortex closed. She took a quick glance at her surroundings before shifting to her Dragonian form in a flash of light, as well as deciding to wear a green variation of her "ninja GI", with a silver dragon that replaced the gold, and the addition of a purple scarf that was seemingly made from cloth-like metal due to its beautiful sheen. She then lifted the scarf up to cover her lower jaw as she began to walk out of the alley, the metallic silver sheen of the element of metal covering her body before patterns of bioluminescent light appeared on the parts of her body not covered by her gi, their purpose being to make herself more visible to anyone wondering about the city, whether they were walking home or just having a nightly stroll, she rather not have to deal with frightened civilians tonight.
Akira did end up passing by a few civilians— with a couple of them still ending up slightly frightened by her appearance in the dark—before she spotted both Wu and Nya sprinting towards the Doomsday Comix store, which it had its once glowing neon sign blocking the door after it had clearly fallen in three segments very recently based off her observation. Eyes narrowing, Akira began power walking toward the comic shop, not even letting out a chuckle at the sight of both Nya and Wu struggling to lift a part of the fallen sign out of the way due to sensing a familiar presence that wasn't Lloyd or the ninja. She rested her hands on their shoulders to get their attention, both of whom had looked at her in surprise. "You're back." Nya muttered, with Akira giving her a quick nod of acknowledgment. "Get back." The elder ninja and young samurai quickly moved out of the dragon's way before she grabbed the sign and tightened her grip as her hand glowed dark red, causing the sign to decay into pieces. Before Wu and Nya could rush in, Akira raised her leg and kicked the door down—as well as taking some of the already weakened wall with it—before they all headed inside to see a dinosaur-like, yet monstrous creature that trapped the ninja and Lloyd in a corner. "The Grundal." Wu muttered, reminiscing about his last encounter with one of these foul creatures. It was a bitter memory.
Akira glanced at Wu. 'Is that what they call it?' She glanced back at the Grundal. 'Eh, it's a better name than the one I originally gave it.' She mused with a shrug. "Everyone out!" Nya exclaimed for everyone who was able to exit the building as fast as possible, with the ninja—who were currently a similar age to Lloyd—still being cornered by the Grundal. "Uhh, still a little trapped here, guys!" A young Cole exclaimed. "Yeah, we're still cornered ninja food, so a little help please!" Jay added with a frightened tone as the Grundal slowly closed in on them. Akira snorted, and before Wu even got the chance to throw the small bottle of strange blue liquid toward the ninja, she spoke up in her draconic language, raising an arm encased by a goldish-green glow. "ȘӃΘ⟠ ȤҮ ѴЯΛӃ ΛЯ ΠΪΠ-ȤΉΛΣ, ΣŦ ȤҮЯ ⟠Θ-ΜΪ... ΜҮΠ ѴΛΣ⟠ȘҮΠ." {Cease your attack on the ninja, and come to me... my creation.}
Bioluminescent light the same color as the light currently covering Akira's arm rapidly began spreading across the Grundal's body in a unique pattern, before it reached its eyes causing them to glow a ferocious yellow. As commanded, the Grundal ceased its aggression toward the ninja, turning to its newly reinforced master—slowly as it was now much more mindful of its surroundings—before bowing its head until it lay on the ground in submission. Akira placed her glowing hand on its snout, stopping it from instinctively moving to attack the ninja as they ran past it toward Wu and Nya. "How is she doing that?" Kai questioned, looking up at his sister due to how short he currently was. Nya had shrugged in response, though a small smirk curled up her lips with a sharp, stifled snort at his current appearance. Zane shrugged. "I do not know either. The Grundal was said to be a very aggressive creature." On the contrary, Zane was still very confused with how he became as small as a child when he was a Nindroid, therefore his height had never changed within his entire lifetime up until this moment. "ȘΛӃΉ ΜΪ, ӃѴƱ ȤҮ⟠ ȤҮЯ ⟠ΫΠ ǤΉƱ⠠-Λ Λ'ӃҮΠ?" {Tell me, how have you come to be among the living once more?} She asked with a soft, yet still commanding tone, getting soft growls from the monstrous dinosaur in reply, in turn telling her about how it was brought back when it heard a voice commanding, it to return from the departed realm to hunt the ninja, as well as mentioning a golden staff and how as it could sense the darkness within the holder of the voice as it regenerated its body.
Her eyes began to twitch in annoyance, which only became more apparent after the Grundal had finished its explanation. Akira turned around to face the ninja, allowing them to see her twitching eye. "You lost the Golden Weapons." She hissed, almost disbelievingly, but she knew it to be true. She glanced down at Lloyd—who had just shaken his head to remove any daze left from getting knocked into the wall by the Grundal. Not that Akira knew that yet—her eyes softening slightly. "Lloyd." He glanced up at her, eyes shining with immediate recognition. "Please tell me the sword is still in my ship." Lloyd was quite surprised by her plea, though he was the only one who could tell that it was a genuinely worried one because she had asked with a flat tone. Lloyd shook his head in affirmation. "No, it's still there." Akira took a glance at the bottle of special tea—she found out it was tea due to her sense of smell—before snatching it from his hand with her tail and bringing it to her eye level. "Hey!" Jay exclaimed, reaching out for the tea as snatched it. "Come on, Akira. We need that to become... well, older." Akira playfully smirked down at Kai, bending down to his level, but still much taller than him. "Tsk, tsk. Aww, does the wittle baby want the bottle?" She snickered after her mockery of the red ninja. Nya joined in with her own snickers before letting out a sigh. "Okay as much fun as this is, we really need to get them back to normal." Nya gestured to the ninja and the bottle.
"Eh, alright." Akira conceded, but did not hand over the bottle. "But not here." She added, before gesturing to their surroundings. "It should be done in a more private area." She looked down at the ninja, a smirk still plastered on her face. "After all those child sized suits may end up being a little too tight for when they're teenagers again." She finished, glancing down at Lloyd when he tugged at her sleeve. "What're you gonna do with the Grundal?" He queried, gesturing toward the dinosaur. He hadn't moved too far from her side as he was still very wary of the creature, the only solace he had was that it for some reason obeyed his... sister. She turned to face her creation, something she had made so long ago after a group of daring—stupid if you personally asked her—humans tried to kill her. So in response she made the Grundal—mini-dragon as she called it and those after—to purposely hunt these humans—of whom she had so generously given so many chances to leave her be—and those like them given the opportunity.
Akira knew that they had elemental resistance similar to that of the Anacondrai—she had yet to meet any, and thus Arcturus at the time—only much stronger, in fact it was one of the first things she gave it since one of the hunters was an elemental master of figment, one of the first actually, though it didn't help them against her... or the first Grundal. 'But that doesn't matter right now.' She thought, before raising her hand towards the still bowing Grundal, goldish-green light wrapping around her arm and the creature once more. "Your time has long since passed, my creation." She began, shocking the ninja, Wu and Nya. How could they not be? The knowledge that Akira had created the Grundal; a creature mostly known for its efficiency in killing ninja, though it would make sense to those who had known the reason behind its creation—no one did—and the fact that most ninja were elemental masters. "It is time for you to return to your eternal rest in the departed realm." Clenching her fist, the Grundal's flesh rapidly deteriorated until it was just bone, and whilst this normally would've shown its muscles and sinew as it returned to fossilized bones in real time, Akira had the courtesy to wrap her dinosaur in the goldish-green light to protect the eyes of those who still held some innocence within them. ...It was mainly because of Lloyd and surprisingly Nya but still.
Akira's arm dropped to her side lazily as she looked back at the others. "Alrighty then!" She began in a chipper tone, momentarily distracting the others from the informational bombshell they were given. Akira patted Cole on his head as she walked out of the building, with everyone beginning to follow behind after completely getting over their informational shock. "You four are gonna have to stay as small children for a little while longer, as we'll be using this...." She shook the bottle of tea in her tail. "...inside of my ship, and away from Lloyd or anyone else so that they don't get affected." The four mentioned ninja groaned in annoyance, clearly understanding that she'd just wanted to keep them as young children a little longer so that she could continue to tease them.
(Scene break)
Currently inside of a room in Akira's ship, the four ninja sighed softly in relief the moment they returned to their original age—body size in Zane's case—with each of them stretching before quickly wincing at the tightness of the cosplay ninja suits they had still been wearing before they use the Tomorrows tea. "Humpf. It's a little tight." Cole commented, with Jay scoffing a moment later. "A little? I need to get this off immediately, it's hurting my... well you know." He remarked, slightly struggling to move without him wincing. "Come on, guys, it isn't that bad." Kai said, though if one paid enough attention, they'd be able to hear the strain in his voice. "Fortunately, I cannot feel the same struggles." Zane immediately grunted after a few steps, followed by the sound of tearing fabric. "Though I would appreciate it if we could get changed into our regular ninja suits, or at the very least, clothes our size." He added, and not a moment later, the door opened to reveal Akira with crossed arms. "It took you long enough, now hurry up and get out of my ship." She said matter of factly, baffling the ninja.
Jay raised his arms and shook them in a brief crossing gesture. "Whoa, whoa, hold on." He quickly began, get a raised brow of curiosity from the humanoid dragon. "I thought you gave the ship to Lloyd?" Akira shrugged, before pointing her thumb behind her shoulder toward the door as she spoke. "I did. But I rather not leave him alone, and I still have a say on whether you can stay. And I say I want you out, so you can either leave on your own or I can throw you out." She confirmed, before giving them two options of leaving in an unnaturally sweet tone. "Alright, alright, we're leaving." Kai responded, and unluckily for him Akira hadn't liked his tone, a cruel smile growing on her lips. The ninja groaned in pain as they hit the wooden floor of the Destiny's Bounty, with Akira cackling in the background as she flipped them off. "Sayonara, bitches! Haha!" The side bay doors closed with a loud clang as Akira bag shut them harder than she should've. Akira turned to Lloyd still laughing from when she started dragging the ninja out, and Nya who was trying her hardest to stifle her own laughter, trying to be the mature one of the three. "Did you really have to be so rough?" Nya asked through her stifling laughter. Akira's cackling slowed, taking a few seconds before they paused. Her smile softened as well as her eyes. "Oh, I wasn't too rough on them." Akira waved off Nya's semi-genuine worries. Nya finally began to giggle as she slowly stopped trying to hide her laughter. "I know, it's just, Kai's still my brother so I had to ask." Akira nodded in agreement. "I get it, I really do." Nya raised her brow with curiosity. "You have a brother?" The dragon chuckled softly with amusement. "Multiple." She answered. "Sisters too, but I only ever really bonded with a select few. Some days you're worried about them, and others you're the one who has to put them in their place." Akira clenched her fist, reminiscing about a particular chaotic dragon she had to beat some sense into, before ultimately leaving him to deal with their mother. "But that's a story for another time, let's go play some games." She said in a suddenly chipper tone, leading them to the main console. "There's these ones I found called; Transformers."
(End)
Additional delay.I have not been feeling well lately, hopefully a d most likely due to a slight lack of proper sleep. I like to think I'm almost done with the current chapter but I would rather triple check everything with how out of it I am right now. If I'm lucky, my eyes aren't deteriorating in vision and I'm just tired, which would kind of be a weird feeling for me because of my insomnia
Dec 18, 2025 04:57PM
Feeling better so far :). So that's good, I'm still not used to my brain not running at 1 million mph. ...Would it be strange for me to think that I should ask for a beta reader? Idk. The current Ninjago chapter I'm working on (hopefully nearly finished) is the first chapter since my first chapters of both my first two books without Ai assistance (simply revising/refining the chapters for any errors that I couldn't find.) though ever since I started writing the chapters on Google Docs I've felt like I needed Ai less in general since I could more easily find the errors myself (despite there still being some). No, it didn't write the stories for me, not counting the one I said was completely made by ai, I'm pretty sure I deleted that one though. I just personally feel like I should (maybe) ask/find a possible beta reader, especially with how out of it I was with being so exhausted I was. (Still a little out of it, but am feeling a little better) I'll probably add this question in the actual chapter, maybe. Oh, and I may just make the dinotrux fic a slow burn with slightly shorter chapters than I normally do (I still want them to be at least 2-3k words) that way I can get it out. :))))))))))))