ZHANG MING.

STORY

"Hey! If you don't hurry, you're gonna miss the show!" Hua Xian looked back at his two friends with a grimace, rushing them along with one feathered hand as he ran ahead.

"And if you don't shut up, we're gonna get caught and thrown out!!" Shuzi snapped back, equally as loud, causing Zhang Ming to wince as he ran beside her. Glancing at his reaction, Shuzi huffed and crossed her arms.

"Look, we're already here... What was the big fuss about?" Shuzi watched as Hua Xian took hold of the rusty ladder first and ascended the rungs. With every step, they creaked and cracked, almost at the end of their time. Hua Xian guessed they only had about two or three more ascents before the damn things gave out. His calculations weren’t too far off when he heard a familiar yelp from below after he had helped the smallest of their group onto the roof.

"Awww, is someone stuck!?" He couldn’t help but bellow out in genuine laughter, watching as Shuzi scrambled for any sort of stability, one of the rungs split into sad pieces under her foot.

"I swear to Ugin, if you don't help me up ...!" Shuzi hung there, embarrassed and helpless.

"Alright, alright ... don't get too worked up now!" Hua Xian was lucky he wasn't met with a sharp slap across the face as soon as he lifted Shuzi up onto the roof. Instead, she only huffed at him before turning her attention to Ming to offer him a forced smile. This had been Ming's first fireworks show; the poor viscet had always been far too nervous to venture out into the palace of Zhong Yi. So, for a moment in time, Zhang Ming allowed himself to forget. As rose-colored eyes lit up with the reflection of blues and purples, Ming thought there was nowhere else on Auwei he would rather be.

The sound of the grand finale shook him from his quiet reverie and he continued to watch on with awe. Every time he thought the fireworks couldn't get any better, they made him out to be a fool within his own mind! With every colorful 'boom!' and incredible 'pop!', Ming grew all the more amazed; he promised himself right then and there that he would never say no to sneaking up to the palace again. Up there on the dilapidated roof of a years-abandoned building, there were no eyes on them. They were basically invisible, and they would continue to be, even after the show ended and the massive crowd below started to scatter.

"Aw man ... is that really it?" He couldn't hide the disappointment he felt. After all, he truly had never seen anything quite like that before.

"Ha!" Hua Xian nudged an elbow into his friend's side, cackling, "so what you're tryin' to say is you wish you would have come out here with us sooner, huh?" He then turned to Shuzi. "See? What'd I tell you?"

Shuzi managed to crack a smile as well. "He knew you'd love it. I had my doubts, but here we are." There was a pause before her smile turned into something a bit more devilish ... "and now it's time for the real excitement."

The apprehension was clear on Ming's face and he turned to look at Hua Xian as if silently asking what Shuzi could possibly mean.

"It's not as bad as she's making it sound. You only need to stay cool, alright?" Hua Xian glanced down and over the rooftop as he spoke. "You gotta master the art of blending in."

Ming squeaked in surprise, eyes wide. "Master the art ..." He rolled the thought around for a bit, "master the art!? You realize 'mastering an art’ takes much longer than the time we have on this rooftop, right???"

Hua Xian knelt down with a grin, grabbing a part of the roof and pushed it aside to reveal the room underneath. It was a little musty from a lack of any real use and the foundation wasn't very steady either. Following the other's lead, Ming jumped through the small opening. It didn't take long for the trio to find themselves at the front door of the dark home, though Hua Xian made the other two wait before allowing them passage.

"Alright, so! In all seriousness, it's almost impossible to be spotted in a crowd this big, especially with everyone on the move." Before continuing, he shot Ming a reassuring smile. "I'm going to open the door and we're going to meld in as organically as possible, okay?"

Hua Xian had picked the location years ago because of its accessibility. A while back, the building was home to a family of nobles who relied heavily on work from outside sources, so the way the back alleys led straight into their back patio from the Outskirts made it the perfect way into the much richer city. As such, the front door opened right onto the main sidewalk; the nobles who once lived there had one of the greatest views in all of the capital. And now, they were most certainly rolling in their graves, knowing their home with the perfect view was being used as an illegal shortcut for three troublemakers!

The thought actually excited Ming! He walked through those beautiful golden streets like a natural. The confidence was rolling off of him in waves, though it wouldn't last much longer, unfortunately. He realized he had been accidentally split up from his friends within the crowd.

Panic mode activated !!!

He didn't have a single idea how to get back to the house, let alone back to the Outskirts! All he knew was that they walked for quite a ways from it, going this way and that ... what was he supposed to do!?

'Alright, okay. Stay calm! It's alright.' He tried to talk himself down, but the panic was winning this battle. Horrible thoughts and visions flashed before his eyes. Scenes of him being arrested and then thrown into jail! Vision of Emperor Byakuya beheading him with his own hands ... ! He had to find his way out!!! He just had to --- Oh!

His panicked musings were put on hold when he backed up into a much larger figure. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't m--." Ming turned and was silenced by what was in front of him: a royal guard. Not just any royal guard, either ... The viscet in front of him was none other than Tunshi Zhe, Emperor Byakuya's personal guard. There was no fooling him! Immediately, Ming fell to the ground, kowtowing and mumbling apology after apology.

"Get up." Tunshi Zhe growled under his breath, nudging Ming with his boot. "You're making a scene."

Ming did as he was told, dusting the dirt from his pants before standing straight to look at him.

"With me." Tunshi Zhe didn't wait for Ming to consent. Instead, he grabbed the smaller viscets wrist and pulled him in the opposite direction.

"I know I shouldn't have come here. I'm so sorry, sir. I promise it won't happen again. If you let me go I mean ... but if you don't, then I completely understand that, too! If you have to kill me, I just really want to say good-bye to my friends first so that they aren't worried about me... You know, this wasn't even my idea! I never do anything like this, and of course ! I'm the one who messes up! I truly should have known better than to trespass where I don't belong!" As much as Ming wished he would stop rattling on and on, he just couldn't! His anxiety turned him into a bumbling mess. Oh, how embarrassing.

Tunshi Zhe made a sharp turn into an alley where the population was a little less dense and only when they were completely alone did Ming start apologizing again. "Please, sir! I'm so very sorry. Truly. I really shouldn't have come, I --."

"Stop your groveling, boy. Do not speak until spoken to, do you understand?"

Ming nodded his head quickly, tears of fear lining his eyes.

"Good. Now, first and foremost, what exactly are you doing here?"

Ming could have attempted to lie and spin a story about how he and his friends lived in one of the homes along the palace city, but he knew Tunshi Zhe would see right through that and it would only raise even more suspicion and cause even more problems. Plus, he was an absolutely horrible liar! Yes, honesty was the best policy.

"I ... I wanted to see the fireworks with my friends. We were on the roof of one of the abandoned houses, but my friends wanted me to see even more, I think."

It only just hit him that he wasn't even sure why Hua Xian and Shuzi wanted to bring him down to the ground.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not sure what else they wanted to show me."

Tunshi Zhe stared straight into Ming's face, his grip on Ming's wrist tightening even more. The pressure caused him to flinch, but he didn't dare make a peep.

"What's your name?" Tunshi Zhe asked in that dark, intimidating voice of his.

"Z-Zhang Ming, sir." Curse his nervous stutter! He had to find his confidence again!

"And you're from the Outskirts?" His tone grew a bit softer, but the grip on Ming's wrist certainly didn't.

"Yes, sir. That's correct."

"And where are those friends you mentioned?" The nicer tone was a fleeting moment in time, it seemed. The mention of Ming's friends had the guard glaring.

"I-I'm not sure..." With the return of Tunshi Zhe's annoyed tone came the return of Ming's stutter. Gods, he didn't want to die! "I got split up from them in the crowd. I ... kept getting distracted by all the booths and the architecture." At the admission, Ming felt his entire body heat up from embarrassment. He felt like such a child ...! His embarrassment and shame must have been more than visible because the death grip upon his wrist was finally released.

He could breathe again! Maybe he wouldn't die tonight after all!

"Even though you've still committed a crime, I appreciate your honesty. I'm going to escort you out, but if you come back again and run into another guard, I can't promise they will be as understanding."

Ming could have hugged Tunshi Zhe right then and there, he was so full of glee over the outcome, but he resisted the urge. Instead, his appreciation revealed itself in tears of relief. "Thank you, sir ... I don't know how I can repay you."

Well, that was certainly a situation Tunshi Zhe had never been in before. What the heck was he supposed to do? What was he supposed to say?

"Yes, well ... Just don't let it happen again."

It was very clear that Zhang Ming did the exact opposite of what Tunshi Zhe had told him: he certainly let it happen again! Anything to see the royal guard again. Soon enough, the two were planning secret meetings and sharing passing glances. How could Tunshi Zhe resist the bashful, bunny-eared viscet?

As the years went on, things had been good. Sure, the relationship was a complete secret to those within palace city, but with their closest friends, they were safe. Tunshi Zhe had even spoken about retiring his spot as royal guard and moving to the Outskirts to live the rest of his days with Ming, free to shower the smaller viscet with all the affections he wanted and in front of anyone he wanted. The two had a plan that their friends supported entirely. Admittedly, it had been a little weird in the beginning ... Shuzi and Hua Xian didn't agree with the blossoming relationship between Tunshi Zhe and Zhang Ming, considering the stipulations surrounding it, but as time went on, they started to warm up to the guard.

Over time, fantasy started to seem closer to reality and Ming couldn't have been happier. The fact that someone would give up such a perfect life behind the great walls of the palace city to live with him in the Outskirts was mind blowing. It seemed like something straight out of a fantasy novel, yet ... he was living it himself!

As more time passed, however, things started to change. There was a shift in energy, in the very air around him. There was a shift in everything.

There was something dreadfully, painfully wrong.

Tunshi Zhe was set to retire his position as royal guard so that he could move out of the palace city without issue, but none of it was right. Ming hadn't seen him in weeks, and it was very unlike him to simply disappear. He knew something horrible must have happened, and he would find out soon enough.

"Tunshi Zhe gave up his position last week." Ming was told by an inside source after sneaking into the palace city with Shuzi. "None of us have seen him since."

Dread ate at his heart; he could feel the anxiety squeezing his lungs into nothing. Shuzi simply thanked the other viscet before getting herself and Ming out of there and back to the Outskirts.

"He already left the palace city?" Ming finally spoke once he was sat down in their shared apartment. "Where would he have gone if he left? He's supposed to be here."

Shuzi shared a look with Hua Xian who was standing just behind Ming. "Didn't you say he had been acting a little weird just a couple weeks ago? Maybe something happened. Maybe he has something he's gotta take care of before settling down? Maybe something dangerous and he didn't want you to worry?"

It was a nice thought. Far nicer than the other thoughts rattling around in his brain, and he was willing to accept it for now. Perhaps Hua Xian was right. After all, Tunshi Zhe was a very important part of the guard for so long ... It would be foolish to think he wouldn't have loose ends he needed to tie up, right ...?

Well, month after month came and went. Ming was starting to lose hope that Tunshi Zhe was even alive! After all, how could he just disappear without a single word? Without any explanation at all?

Much to Ming's surprise, a sliver of hope came in the form of a knock at the door one night. He had been alone in the apartment after he sent his friends off to go hang out without him; it was a good thing, too. They definitely wouldn't have been happy to hear the news the knock brought.

"I have been debating for quite a while. Wondering if I should come to you or not, but I figured it was only fair." Jinhai, a member of the royal guard who once worked with Tunshi Zhe, sat across from Zhang Ming. His eyes were fierce just like Tunshi Zhe's and it caused Ming's heart to sink into his gut. "Weeks before his resignation, he'd been acting differently. You know how sharp he is, but he had been completely vacant. Nothing he said made much sense, so Shift and I decided to look into it." Sighing, Jinhai produced a few notebooks from the bag at his side.

Ming's eyes scanned the contents as the other viscet opened the notebooks. It was Tunshi Zhe's handwriting, but none of the writing made sense, except for one name in particular.

Ming's blood ran cold when he read the name.

"It can't be ..."

Jinhai sighed again as he pushed the notebooks into his bag. "I said the same thing, but unfortunately, it's true. Shift found him, actually. Got out of there just in time." Jinhai wasn't one to show much emotion, but when it came to his companion, Ming could see the shift in his mood at the mere mention of Shift nearly getting caught in the crossfire.

"Take me to him." Ming wasted no time at all. He had already made up his mind even before this visit. If he could find a way to see Tunshi Zhe again, he would do it in a heartbeat.

It would prove to be his biggest mistake.

Jinhai agreed to take him to where Tunshi Zhe had been staying, but he was on his own. Once Ming was dropped off, Jinhai was nowhere to be seen, leaving Ming with nothing but his thoughts, fear, and a small sliver of hope. He could feel the energy swirling around him; it was deafening. It forced the air from his lungs, but he had to keep going. He needed to find Tunshi Zhe! He needed to bring him home.

As he continued on through the vacant field where there was no sun, only darkness, he thought back to the night they met. By this point, three years had already passed! They had an entire future ahead of them ... Ming couldn't fathom the idea of Tunshi Zhe throwing it all away for a false god ...

Jianyu, the false god.

Sure, he was powerful beyond measure, but he was nothing. What was Tunshi Zhe to gain from serving him? Was it all for power? Perhaps Jianyu had a grip on his mind. Ming had to believe that he wasn't himself, and that he could help his lover climb his way out of his madness. He was sorely mistaken.

Oh, how wrong he was ... He never saw it coming either.

He saw him! He was right there! Oh, how he could have cried tears of happiness! Except, Tunshi Zhe wasn't happy to see him. Instead, he looked at him with a disgust that shattered his heart in two. All of his begging and crying. Pleading. Hoping, Praying. Anything! Nothing worked. Nothing phased the viscet he had dedicated himself to.

And then everything suddenly stopped. He remembered hearing Tunshi Zhe threaten him. He threatened his life, uncaring. Ming thought it was a bluff. It had to be a bluff, right?

Right ... ?

But he felt the air leave his lungs. He felt the pain in his heart. He smelled that rich iron. He saw crimson. And he saw those eyes ... Those eyes he grew to love and cherish through the years. Oh, not him. Why did it have to be him? "I ... know better. I should have known better than .. than to trespass where I don't belong." His final words, parroting the night he met Tunshi Zhe. How ironic.

Most viscets didn't remember their death once they died. They didn't even realize they had a soul anymore. They were given a new job, and that was it. They would remember small snippets sometimes, but other than that, they were either reborn or they moved on as spirits.

Zhang Ming was different. Instead of moving on, he clung to any bit of hope he possibly could. He clung so hard onto the life he once knew, that he couldn't move on. He found himself stuck with no way out. Stuck in nothingness. A void. A vacant expanse where he could do nothing else except relive his sorrow. He wouldn't let go. At that point, he couldn't let go.

There were viscets on the other side who knew of him and his plight. They had felt a disturbance within the veil, and they were determined to get him out. Every so often, he could feel them reaching out. He could hear their voices ... But he didn't want to be rescued. He didn't want to move on. After all he had been through, how could he? So close to happiness, only for it to be snatched away from him by the one he trusted. How could anyone else know what that felt like?

Many others knew the same feeling, but it was hard for Ming to see past his own grief in the moment. He needed only time, and perhaps a little more of a push to escape the loneliness of the Veil. So, a push he would get! As if it were planned, those voices he had heard so much had been closer than he originally thought; he only needed to look up to see.

"If you come with me, I will grant you the power you need to destroy the monster that haunts you."

Of all the things they had spoken of, there was only one thing Ming cared about. There was a new glimmer of hope in his eyes. Would that make him just as bad as Tunshi Zhe? Oh, he didn't care! His demise would be the only thing that would bring him any sense of peace.

"I'll do it." He said quietly, "if you promise I will get my revenge, then I'll leave this place."

The unknown viscet smiled wickedly down at Zhang Ming, offering a hand as they walked free of the Veil once and for all.