CH 19.2, Catch the Ball

OSHOKU
RELEASED DATE: 30 May 2015 (4 March 2017)

And so Zhenwu and Suoje played catch as they went up on the stairs towards the top of the hill where they usually play.

Suoje threw the ball to Zhenwu. Zhenwu caught the ball. Zhenwu threw the ball. Suoje caught the ball. And this repeats again and again as they went up the hill.

When Suoje caught the ball and thrown it back at Zhenwu, he heard something.

[Suoje] !

Zhenwu heard it too.

[Zhenwu] !

Quickly Suoje responded to that sound by getting out his smoke bomb from his pocket. He uses this whenever he hears something unusual.

[Suoje] Outta here!
[Zhenwu] Wa-wait!!

Poof!! The smoke came out when the smoke ball hits the ground!

[Zhenwu] :u

A few seconds have passed with Zhenwu still making that face reaction as the smoke disperses away. Soon enough, Zhenwu snapped out of it.

[Zhenwu] He left without me!

Zhenwu had nowhere else to go to except to go up the hill. He can't go down, because he is already up too high on the stairs and it would be tiring if he have to walk all the way down, so what's left for him is to go up to see what made that noise.

Zhenwu continues to walk up the stairs slowly and quietly afraid that if he made a noise, he would be sent flying off of the hill by something unknown.

Zhenwu continues. He begins to get a view of the surface of the hill. The place where Suoje and he play and hang out. As he continues to walk up, he gets a clear view.

[Zhenwu] ! (A girl! What is she doing here?)

There is a girl. With her basket, she sits down. She is picking up flowers.

[Zhenwu] (Why pick up flowers here after having to go through all these stairs?)

The girl noticed him.

[Zhenwu] !

Zhenwu almost tripped backwards down the stairs.

[Zhenwu] H-hi *shaking a bit knowing that he almost fell down*
[???] Hi!

Zhenwu sees the girl picking up flowers next to where he sits, on the stone. She’s picking up flowers near the tree. Out of curiosity, he asks.

[Zhenwu] What you doing?
[???] Picking up flowers.
[Zhenwu] *calmed down, knowing his foot is on the ground* I see *as he walks up to her*

The girl continued picking up the flowers and putting it in her basket.

[Zhenwu] Why you come all the way up here to pick up flowers? *in curiosity*
[???] There are rarely flowers in the Lantern Village. This hill happens to have flowers, and usually the pretty ones. So I walk all the way up the hill to pick them up.
[Zhenwu] Are you picking up these flowers for someone?
[???] Yes. I’m picking these flowers for my mom. I want her to feel comfortable here, especially since we moved here from the Plant village.
[Zhenwu] Oh I see.

Zhenwu looks down as she picks them up. He then thinks about his mom, and begins to miss er. Living in the house alone just doesn’t feel like home without his mom and dad.
A few minutes passed by.

[Zhenwu] hmm.. *still looks at the flowers, then looks at her) ..wanna be friends?
[???] Huh.? As she looked up at Zhenwu.

A few seconds passed by.

[Ming] Ok! My name is Ming. What's yours?
[Zhenwu] My name is Zhenwu.

It looks like Zhenwu is happy to be friends with her.

[Zhenwu] I have a friend I want to introduce you to, but he ran away from me.
[Ming] Why?
[Zhenwu] He thought something up the hill was unusual, but I'm sure he will come back.
[Ming] Oh I see. I can't wait to meet him!