Chapter Text
Death was very sudden.
It wasn’t something slow, there was no build-up like in the movies, and there wasn’t even any pain, in MK’s experience. He just ‘won’, but he felt something strange, like how cutting your skin with glass feels like, but without the pain. His whole world turned blue. Then black. Then it was nothing.
No colors, no sounds, no feeling to it. He couldn’t even think now, in this…void. Just feel. A whole lot of feelings that he couldn’t think about. Death was confusing, he could tell.
He was sad, at first. No more friends, no more family, no more love, no more hate. Nothing. Then he was angry. How dare she kill him?! And right when he won too! Then it was regret and guilt. Overwhelming dismay and pain. How would everyone be like without him? Better or worse? Would they cry? Would they even notice? He knew that Mei and Red Son and all of them were around when he died, but he had no clue if they even saw him die. His vision went dark before he could tell.
…Death was cold. And kinda heavy too. Not like her type of cold, where it felt like your fingers and toes could fall off from frostbite. More like the kind of cold that drinking ice water on a summer day would feel like, or the last snow of winter, or even sitting under the shade while the sun scorches everything. MK was gonna miss that. He was gonna miss everything.
He was gonna even miss hate and anger and sadness and despair. He was gonna miss the sun and the sunburns. He was gonna miss playing in the mud and earthquakes. He was gonna miss cooking and food poisoning. He was gonna miss his friends and loneliness. He was gonna miss Wukong and Macaque. He was gonna miss cleanliness and dirtiness.
He was gonna miss life. Life was good. It had its ups and downs, but that didn’t mean he didn’t enjoy it. He loved life. He wanted to go back.
…Death was starting to warm. He felt something that felt like a hug, but not quite. More like a sludge trying to take a humanoid shape and hug him in the process. It kinda felt nice as this void started to melt the cold away. An orphic feeling in his soul formed. Death was nice now. Death was like being comforted after a long nightmare. Death was like being carried to your room when you fell asleep during a party. He could almost hear the laughter from the other room.
Death was hot now. Hot like a day when you forgot sunscreen on the beach. He wanted to wake up from this and scream for a moment, then realize it was all some strange dream and go back to sleep. But there was no sleep now.
He wanted to wake up. MK wanted to go home. He wanted his dad, or his best friend, or his mentor. He wanted to go back to…huh. That was weird. MK couldn’t remember his name. The pig one. Why did he want to go back to him? How important was he again?
MK could feel the weight on him lighten, and a subtle yet seemingly important sound returned to his senses.
Thump.
Thump thump.
Thump.
Thump thump.
What was that sound? What was that feeling? Since when could he feel the ground beneath him? That heavy feeling had completely gone now, replaced with that feeling you get just before you open your eyes when you wake up. A small want to keep sleeping, but mostly a fog of drowsiness. He felt the small rise and fall of his body from his breathing. Breathing? That couldn’t have been right. He was dead. At least he should be. There’s no way he could be alive.
He felt an electrical numbness fall over every bit of his body. He had been still for too long, he could tell. A loud groan of discomfort echoed in the air. Was that his voice?... Yeah. It was his voice.
Death was suddenly gone, and his eyes opened. Everything around him was much too bright, like if you stared at the sun immediately after a blindfold was taken off. He growled (since when could he growl?) and turned his head away, jolting from the assault on his eyes.
“Grrr…hmph.” He mumbled, shaking his head. He then sighed, sitting up. Something was off, he could tell. Everything felt different, but this was his body. His…what was his name again? Whatever. Not important now.
His hands went to cover his eyes, which opened, only seeing the darkness that his palms and fingers, which were a bit longer than he could remember. That being said, he couldn’t remember anything, but that didn’t matter. Then, he forced himself to slowly pull his hands back, his eyes adjusting to the surroundings around him.
Beneath him was grass, with a few flowers sprinkled around. Light pink flowers that were beautiful. The air around him smelled like various fruits and plants, filled with a tangy and fresh scent. He took a big sniff in, then stood up. He was wobbly at first, almost falling over until something propped him up. Not something from anything else, but from him.
He turned, seeing…a tail. A brown-furred tail that was pushing off the ground and keeping him from falling over completely. He looked further down, seeing more and more of that brown fur. On him. Even his feet were different now, they looked more like hands than feet. He wasn’t even wearing any clothes!
“...Eee?” The noise that left his mouth was similar to a bird call. A sound that showed his confusion and curiosity. One moment he was the farthest thing from alive, and now here he was, breathing and having a heartbeat and moving and…living. Living. He was alive. Alive!