9 Part of the Plan

Bulu chirped lightly, flapping its wings in Lune's face for the twentieth time today.

"Stop," Lune gently chided, brushing the spirit's feathers away with his right hand.

Bulu compromised and settled its wings, resting on Lune's left shoulder calmly as any other bird would. But it wasn't even three seconds before the spirit ducked under his long hair and began messing with the hood of his hoodie, pulling at the thick fabric.

Lune shook his head and instead focused on walking, turning the silver necklace the old grandma's ghost entrusted to him back and forth in his one hand. He traced the rose pendant with his thumb, picturing every petal in his mind.

He made a promise, a promise that he would help fulfill the ghost's wish and help her continue to the afterlife.

It was, according to her, that she had died on a cold night trying to sell this very necklace for money to find help from a doctor to treat her granddaughter's cancer. The little girl's name was Zhu Ting, just a child at the age of thirteen who lives with her poor aunt in the capital slums and attends a public junior high school.

Since a ghost cannot move more than a few hundred feet from where they lost their mortal lives, Lune had to be the one to go back to the capital and then back again to where the old lady waited.

Finding the right girl may not be much of a problem, actually...

Bulu suddenly gave a loud screech in the hood of Lune's coat, twisting wildly.

Lune furrowed his brows, letting out a small noise of annoyance as he dug out the feathered spirit from behind his neck and the tangle of his hair, only to have Bulu bite his finger and give another piercing squawk. "What is it?" Lune stressed, moving his hands out of reach from the bird's beak.

Bulu swooped forward to Lune's face and startled the immortal by seizing the edge of his blindfold and flying away.

"Hey-!"

Lune caught his blindfold before it was gone from his reach, his eyes closed. "Let go!" he calmly ordered.

Bulu reluctantly gave in to his command and released his blindfold, letting him tie it back around his eyes and under his hair.

And then, the screams came.

It took Lune a great while to realize what was going on thanks to the spirit's distraction, who was now back on his shoulder, pecking at its own wings. Or maybe this was what the spirit was trying to tell him all along?

The screams were faint, well off into the distance, and Lune quickly picked up his pace, spreading out his qi to feel his way around faster in the winding streets.

Bulu tittered nervously in his ear as if it were warning him of something to come, and just on cue, a series of deafening bangs proceeded in the air.

The sound was new, unfamiliar to Lune. He'd never heard something like this before. The sound was like sharp and powerful firecrackers, but he couldn't quite grasp on to whatever it was.

It took him quite a while to notice the sensation of the small, bead-like metal spheres that zipped through the air around him, cutting through the qi in the atmosphere at quite an impressive speed for something mortal-made.

What is that?

He stopped when he suddenly sensed the energy belonging to a human falter then completely flickered away, disappearing from his radar.

A death?

Another bang rang out, and another mortal's qi was depleted.

Lune felt a slight pang in his chest once he finally understood what was going on. Whatever those things were, they were weapons used to take lives...

Mortals were killing mortals, and Lune could not help but feel a great disappointment weighing down on him. He knew that he would have to face this truth one day, just the same as he had to accept the fact that not every immortal was good and would murder their own kind just the same...but he had hoped that he would not have to come across one of these situations.

His job was to protect humans from their otherworldly dangers, but what was this? Was it even right for him to interfere? It's not like he could tell them to stop and expect them to listen?

Again, he was reminded of Quest's words. 'Some humans are monsters themselves'...

Lune shook his head and continued forward. Since he's here, he at least shouldn't avoid it.

At the intersection, a crowd of mortals were in the midst of fleeing the scene, screaming as they ran past him. "Call the police! There are shooters!" some yelled in a frenzy.

Lune grimaced at the wave of qi from the escaping mortals overwhelmed his spiritual view, and he carefully slipped past the crowd, pushing the opposite way.

Shooters...

Lune ran the unfamiliar information through his mind repeatedly. A shooter was what they called the one that wielded the unknown weapon. But what was it? What is the weapon? How come he had never heard of something like this before?

As he traveled down and down the street, he felt the slightest tug inside him.

Huh?

It was as if...someone was calling for him?

He was so distracted by the strange feeling that he couldn't hear Bulu squawking loudly beside his ear, thus it caught him completely off guard when an earsplitting bang resounded to his right, and he felt something zip across and graze the tip of his right ear.

All of a sudden, someone roughly seized his arm and pressed a cool, hard metal object violently against his head.

.

.

Channing and his men smashed through the glass doors as bullets rained on them, shattering the material in a non-stop frenzy. They hit the ground and rolled out onto the street pavement, Captain Wang and his team running quickly after them.

The fight was now taken outdoors, and the enemy has been reduced to ten.

Hong...where is that bastard?

Channing jumped and tumbled for cover behind an empty truck, clutching his firearm tightly in his right hand.

"Young Master, are you alright?" one of his guards shouted.

Channing turned his head left to see his subordinate crouched behind a smaller call pierced with bullet holes. He had his gun in his left hand, his right hand clamped over a bleeding wound on his left shoulder.

Fuck...

"I'm alright!" he reassured, ducking just in time as a bullet whizzed right by his eye. "Fenn! Cover for him!"

The tanned skinned guard quickly appeared in sight and dropped down right next to his wounded colleague. "Yes, I got him!" he responded.

Channing then reloaded his gun, and popped up from the trunk of the truck, aiming for the bartender with the rifle, who stood right in the center of the casino's threshold. He pulled the trigger and let the bullet sail right through the tattooed man's collarbone, blood spurting everywhere as he dropped to the ground with his rifle with a thump.

The captain suddenly appeared right beside him, refilling his weapon with ammunition. His lips were pressed into a thin line, tiny beads of sweat lining his brow as he cast Channing a side-glance.

"This was not exactly the plan," he muttered under his breath.

Channing scoffed. "Things almost never go as planned, Wang. You should at least know that."

The older man grunted, throwing a quick glance over the top of the truck before staring down at the gun in Channing's hand. "That," he said pointedly, "was not part of the plan either, Mister Yue."

Channing sighed and reached to fire a couple more shots at the enemy before dropping back down to avoid their retaliation. "Actually, I have quite the experience with these situations, Wang. Don't worry, all my weapons are legally purchased..."

"Young Master, there are six standing!" one reported.

"Well, why are you telling me?" he thundered in irritation. "Take them down!"

"Wait-"

"Cease fire! Stop!" a voice shouted over the chaos. "Channing Yue, you bastard! Where are you?"

Channing glowered, fired up with rage the moment Hong Qin's voice broke through the fight. That cowardly being had been missing for the whole time they were in combat, and only decided to show up now.

But the enemy really did cease-fire, and silence now replaced the flying bullets, the burning smoke mixed with the stench of blood finally registering in their noses. Channing clenched his teeth, pissed as Hong shrewdly called his name once more.

His group cast Channing uncertain looks, not sure what to make of the situation. "Young Master, what do we do?" they whispered.

Channing's grip on his weapon tightened till his knuckles were white. Did that lowly being really think he was one to call the shots right now? Who the hell does he think he is?

But what does he want?

"Hong! Qin!" he roared, and his eyes shone darkly.

He stood up from behind the truck and whirled around, gun raised and pointed straight at-

...Lune?

He stiffened, his voice catching in his throat as his wide eyes stared at the utterly unexpected scene before him.

The person he had been searching for the past month was finally standing right before his eyes. It was the same, lengthy black hair, the blindfold, the height, the skin...

It's him.

But...why now of all times?

Channing bit down hatefully on his lower lip as he watched Hong Qin press the barrel of his pistol against his head, and a newly rekindled fury burned inside his chest as he caught the man's sly look when he dragged him forward with his arm around his neck in a chokehold.

Lune...dislikes contact, he remembered furiously.

"Haha!" Hong Qin cried with joy as he saw Channing's expression, oblivious of his renewed feeling of hatred towards him. "What are you going to do now, you sick bastard? You wouldn't sacrifice an innocent life just to get me, will you?" He sneered and ordered, "Drop your weapons."

Everyone looked up at the president, frightened at the dark, malicious storm in the young man's eyes, and amazed when they saw his expression mixed with pained conflict.

What the hell was he supposed to do? He couldn't just surrender, but Lune also-

"Channing. Is that you?"

Both he and Hong Qin looked up in surprise at Lune's calm and steady voice, despite the firm arm Hong squeezed around his neck.

Channing hesitated on the spot, biting down harder on his teeth as he readjusted his grip on his weapon. "Yes...Lune," he strained. "Just...just hold on, I'll get you away from that filthy creature-"

"You know each other?" Hong Qin burst out cackling, enjoying the moment so. "AHAHA, this is getting better and better!" he cried. Then his expressions changed back in milliseconds, and he glared at his hostage.

"Shut the fuck up, you hear me?" he growled. "Just do as I say, and I might just possibly let you go...dead."

Channing's veins bulged and his muscles twitched involuntarily, finding it extremely hard to keep still.

Lune let out a breath, content. "I see..."

Channing blinked at Lune's calm composure, not understanding. "S- see wh-"

Before he could even finish his sentence, Lune reached up and grabbed Hong by the hand in which held the pistol and twisted, followed by the sickening cracks of a bone being demolished.

A blood curling screaming escaped the culprit's open mouth as his weapon dropped to the ground with a clatter, and his eyes rolled back in his head after only five seconds.

Everyone watched in shock as Lune dropped the fainted man on the ground mercilessly with a loud thud.

He then turned around towards the remaining tattooed gangsters who gawked at him with the same fearful amazement, his lips set on a firm line. "Leave while I give you the chance, I do not wish to bring you harm..."

The standing six glanced at each other, unsure, and it seemed they were going to retreat until the one with the red hair stepped forward, weapons raised. "What are y'all doing? Shoot that crazy fucker!"

Again, they opened fire, but somehow, Lune's movements were faster, faster than the eye could process.

He appeared in front of the shortest man closest to him and knocked the rifle out of his hands with a swift kick before using the same leg to swing across his head, and Channing swore he saw the man fly before hitting the ground many feet away from where he stood at first.

Lune's form flickered away as bullets flew at him, and rematerialized behind the next one, who he knocked out with a tap against the man's neck with the edge of his palm. The next wasn't so lucky and was sent flying across the street, and the next, and the next, and the last one he simply grabbed by the neck until his victim ran out of air and passed out.

An eerie silence hung in the air as Lune let the last person slump to the ground at his feet. It all happened in less than ten seconds, and all Channing and the rest could do was stare with their eyes bulging out of their sockets.

Channing swallowed as Lune turned his head towards him, not looking the slightest bit pleased with the bodies and bloodshed that lay all around him.

"Well," Captain Wang whispered beside him, staring at Lune in amazement. His eyes were wide, shining with disbelief. "That...wasn't part of the plan either..."