The Face: Tournament of Death, Chapter Five

It was about 11:45 am when I arrived at the docks to where I was supposed to depart. A field of countless, rot-wooden, rickety boats entered my line of sight, as the stench of raw fish floated about the air and stung at my ailing nostrils. A slew of fishermen were transporting large whole pieces of fish from the nets of boats to large wooden baskets on the dock before me. Foreign words bounced off my eardrums like a cultural shock like no other. I finally recognized the boat I was said to board and approached it.

“Hi, is this the boat departing for the Hanoi Islands?” I asked a lone attendant who was tending the boat. The long-mustachioed man looked to me and muttered few words. “Hanoi? Yes. Name,” he demanded. I put a hand to the back of my head, and then asked, “Do you know how long this boat trip will take from here to the islands?” The Chinese man looked at me without change of any expression whatsoever, and muttered once again. “Name,” he demanded yet again, as if he was unfamiliar with the English language. I pulled out my identification in preparation. “I’m a reporter from the Daily Times Headquarters in the United States, here to collect data on the upcoming Iron Clad Muscle Tournament…” At the hearing of these words, the attendant stopped my speech abruptly. “Reporter?” he cried. He then proceeded to blurt aggressively untranslatable words while spitting in my face. His fist was brandishing menacingly, as if I had offended him in some horrible way. I tried to block the shower of unpleasant moistness with my hands in front of my face.

Meanwhile, watching from above, beside the rail of the lugsail perched on the shallow shore of the dock stood a young woman. She looked to be in her late teens, and she wore a pink Chinese outfit decorated with patterns of small flowers upon them. She had brown pigtails on each side of her head sticking upwardly and outwardly, like that of an innocent young girl. The young girl quickly ran to my rescue, explaining in the Chinese language things I could not decipher, while her pep-happy face brightly shone while speaking to the gruff looking old attendant. After some brief persuading, the old man had a smile upon his face, as he reached for a piece of parchment from a crate nearby. The smile soon faded as his face turned slowly to me, and it reverted back to the emotionless, cold eyes that had begun the entire conversation. The young girl spoke to me. “He wants you to sign, then you can board the boat,” she explained, in her sweet ingenuous tone.

I reluctantly took the parchment and signed my name in the signature slot, and proceeded to board the boat. “Thank you,” I said to the young girl who was prancing around me while I docked the vessel. A sailor was behind us, carrying my luggage. “Your welcome, friend, my name’s Seung Taoyu. You can just call me Taoyu. Are you really a reporter? Reporters aren’t allowed on the island…” she asked excitedly, like a young child speaking of her first loose tooth. I raised a brow, at the talkative, quick-speaking young girl. “Then how did you convince surly over there to let me on the boat?” I wondered.

Hopping around me like a young rabbit, she explained in her harmless tone, “Silly reporter, all I told him was that you were a late participant to the tournament. All late-comers have to sign a waiver agreeing that whatever happens on the island, stays on the island, and that the island staff is not liable for any near-death injuries that occur.” I stopped in my tracks, dropped my briefcase, and let my mouth gape open like that of a befuddled cartoon character. “You WHAT!?” I asked in an outrageous tone.

I frantically turned back around to flee. “I gotta get off of this boat!” I cried, running for the dock. But the old attendant stopped me in my tracks, brandishing the signed parchment in front of my face menacingly, muttering to me angrily in Chinese. Taoyu grabbed my fleeing arm and pulled me back toward the boat. “Heh, I think I forgot to mention that you also signed a contract stating that you’ll stay on the island for the entire designated period of five days…” she innocently explained. My eyes boggled at what I had gotten myself into, and my head drooped in hopelessness. “Relax,” young Taoyu said, “Panda and I will take care of you.” I lifted my head up and wondered at the words she spoke. “Panda?” I muttered in question.

Taoyu led me to the deck of a boat filled with cluttered bags of luggage, crates, and a small group of working Chinese sailors. A few yards a way, a profound view zoomed into my eyes; it was the image of a rather large black and white panda, with a bow tied around one of its ears, standing on its hind legs like a colossal being. “A…a…real panda?” I asked the young girl, dumbfounded. “This is ludicrous…” I said unbelievingly. Taoyu took hold of her panda’s arm and explained things. “This is my panda…Panda. She’s my bodyguard. I’ve raised her since she was a cub. We’ve been through so much together, that she sobbed at the thought of parting with me for a long time, so she wanted to enter the tournament with me.” I couldn’t believe my ears. My mouth gaped open once again, and I looked at the odd pair that had somehow just leaped into the innards of my life. I glanced back and forth between the two unlikely tournament participants with widened eyes, disbelieving.

“Y…you mean, you’re both…entered to fight in the tournament?!” I wondered. “Yep!” Taoyu replied, waving her hands before her. “I decided that high school was too boring for an adventurous girl like me. So I packed my stuff, said goodbye to the bamboo haven and my parents, and headed straight for the Hanoi islands!” She explained. “By the way!” She continued. “Why don’t you get a snapshot of me…Taoyu the great Xiaolin fighter!” She said, posing for battle. “I also do interviews as well! I’ll be a smash hit in the United States!” she hopefully imagined.

I sat on a crate with head resting upon my hands, as she pranced around me like a hopeless fanatic of aspiring stardom, while her panda drooped down on all four paws and began following her, intrigued. “This is going to be a long ride,” I said, “A long ride….”