Meanwhile, the phone call was heard, and the shadow figure of the person walks through, passing by the heads of every animal, mystical and celestial beings, and demons, etc. on the wall. They picked up and answered in a bored tone.

"Speak."

A muffled voice is heard on the other end of the line.

"Huh? A big cat? Really?"

Then a last line from the phone got them thrilled as their eyes widened.

"A dragon?!"

They immediately hung up the phone and walked past the animal control soldiers with their arms folded behind their back.

"When l was seven, l strangled my first parrot, flushed my first goldfish..."

They walked up to their desk and stroked the snake pencil holder.

"...punched my first snake." they said before chuckling.

They stroke the fur of the white with black stripes with a hint of blue that's hanging on the chair behind the desk that looked like a coat.

"Especially, my most favorite part of childhood is killing one of the Five Heavenly Beasts. The white tiger of the West. Now l have finally reached the moment l have been preparing for my entire life."

They opened the cabin to reveal the traps, weapons, and everything they use to kill and hunt. They took out the gun and places the red dart inside and spins it.

"The pinnacle of my career: to hunt the most powerful dragon of the world!"

They held up the tranquilizer gun and shot it perfectly towards the wooden wall as the dart stabs it. They start to pack up their things as they places their weapons and traps in their pockets and around themselves. A sadistic grin was shown through the ray of light with a big long scar on their left cheek. As soon as they're ready, they gathered their men and drove off in their motorcycle to find Nuo and Chiang. The dart they shot at revealed the chalk line of the head of the dragon with the golden name tag said "Dragon".

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nuo wakes up from the ray of sunlight hitting her face and lifts her head up, stretching her limbs before yawning. She looks around to see she's in Mk's home, making her frown and wishing it was the dream. Nuo shapeshift into a human form as she approaches a sleeping Chiang and goes through the bags from the saddle that held. She takes out a water dragon sword gifted by Raya, which made her smile fondly then brings out a big spine axe gifted by Tong as she gives it a swing before placing them back inside. She digs inside and pulls out a big pouch, which made her realize she had jades inside that people use to buy items. She hopes these could help when she discovers the whole city. Nuo dug her hand back inside when she felt something and pulled out to reveal the recipe book. Opening it, she remembers asking Boun for a recipe for her to learn how to cook as well as from her friends. She felt tears pouring down as they drop onto the paper and she closes her eyes briefly, already missing them.

The sound of the door opening snaps her out of her grief and quickly wipes it off. She turns to see a sleepy Mk as he yawns, stretching his limbs before heading into the bathroom. Nuo starts thinking of how she could return his kindness for bringing them in. She looks down at the recipe book and gets the idea. Nuo starts heading towards the kitchen and gets nervous since she'd never seen these kinds of kitchen before and is willing to try. She pulls out the book and looks at it before getting it and looks at the strange looking door and opens it to reveal some ingredients she might need. Nuo shivers a little at the coldness, not knowing that she opened a refrigerator. Whelp, time to get to work.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As she's by the stove, there's a pot on every burner. Boiling eggs. Boiling rice. She though it would be good to eat the rice with some eggs. Nuo, reading from a cookbook, adds in ginger and shrimps, starting to mix as she cooks. Suddenly, the eggs begin to boil over. Nuo grabs the pot, but she ends up burning her fingers and dropping the pot as she yells in pain. Countless eggs roll across the floor.

"Mother-!"

She looked at the time to see it's already three minutes. Nuo quickly removes the pot from the heat and leans forward, to stir the rice full of shrimps as she adds in some salt. As soon as she believes it's done, she scooped the congee into each bowl and let them cool off for a bit. She leans against the stove, looking a little sweaty as she places her arm near a little too close to the burning stove top, she forgot to turn it off. Her sleeve catches on fire. Nuo smells something burning.

"What the?"

She looks over and screams in fright and starts to panic. Nuo tries to pat it out, but it ends up making it worse as the fire now caught onto her chest. Trying to find some resolution, she grabs two pot lids, slams them onto her breasts, putting out the flames. But the breasts and her sleeve continue to smolder. Large amounts of smoke are pouring out. Mk, meanwhile, is in the bathroom when he smells something. He looks confused and sniffs his armpit. Finding out he's not stink; he shrugged it off and continued what he was doing.

Back to Nuo as she quickly turns on the water from the sink and water bends it towards her as they splash on her breasts and her arm and puts out the fire. Nuo stands there, dripping, her clothes wet, slightly charred. She looks at the heater and tries to find something to turn it off until she found a switch and the heater on the stove is now turned off along with others, much to her relief. She looks at the mess she made and sighs, picking up the pot she dropped with Chiang helping out by picking up some eggs with its teeth, knowing they're hot.

"Look at this. My first day of cooking in an unknown world, and I'm getting hot flashes."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just as Mk was finished cleaning himself, he smelled something really good that made his mouth water. He opened the door to follow the scent as he heads towards the kitchen. He then was surprised at what he's seeing. Nuo was slowly getting used to this new kitchen that she managed to clean before he got here as she finished the final touch by adding some diced green onions. She looked up to see him and smiled, placing the two bowls on the table while placing a big plate of meat on the floor for Chiang to come over and eat.

"Hey, Mk. Breakfast is ready."

Mk approached the table and sat down, looking at his plate.

"What is it that you cooked?"

"It's shrimp congee. They're very delicious. I learned that from my friend Boun. He's a great cooker."

Mk eyed the bowl hungrily.

"Oh! And one more thing! Two house specials!"

She pulls out a bottle of hot sauce and spins it in her hand.

"How spicy would you like it? Hot,
hotter, or Boun-goes-the-dynamite?"

"Whoa-ho! Bring on the heat!"

Mk happily dips some hot sauce in his bowl and takes a scoop with his spoon and slurps his congee. His eyes widens for a moment before letting out a single teardrop from his eye.

"So... delicious! So homemade! So full of love!!"

Nuo slurps her congee and smiles, getting the taste right.

"Glad you liked it. I can give you seconds after you finish yours."

"Yes, please!"

Mk starts gulping down on his congee, enjoying it. He stops for a moment, feeling some heat hitting him.

"Man, that's hot! I like it!"

"You should've seen the look on Sisu's face when she put too much hot sauce in her bowl. It was hilarious!" Nuo laughed, making Mk laugh too.

"I can imagine! My boss Pigsy can handle anything that's hot."

"Sure, he can."

As soon as Mk finished his breakfast, he dressed himself up and helped wash the dishes with Nuo. He then started heading towards the door. He stopped for a moment and turned to Nuo.

"Wanna come and explore? I can give you a tour. And maybe after that, I can introduce you to my friends."

Nuo looks surprised.

"Really? Are you sure?"

"Yeah!"

"But... I'm not ready. What if they find out about me being a dragon? I don't know about your friends, and I'm afraid..."

"Don't worry. I promise I won't tell anyone about you and your cat until you're ready."

"You promise?"

Mk smiled and crossed his heart, showing he really mean it.

"I promise."

Nuo looks at Chiang, who gives her a nod, and sighs.

"Okay. I am curious about this world I'm unfamiliar with."

"Great! But uh, I'm afraid Chiang has to stay since she's a big cat and it'll be risky."

"I understand. You gonna be alright being home alone?"

She pats Chiang's snout, who purrs and nods. Nuo smiles and follows after Mk as he closes the door not before looking at Chiang.

"Don't mess with my stuff."

Once the door was fully shut, Chiang looks around the room before heading towards Mk's room where there's a bed and lies down on it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The guard was waiting anxiously for them to come over already until he heard an engine roar. Everyone that are walking by saw the incoming motorcycles and quickly run out of the way as the motorcycles skid to a stop with a loud screech from the wheels, creating a smoke. The smoke showed the figure of the person until it cleared to reveal a man with a scar on his cheek and swept back hair on top of his head. He wears a full black uniform with a blank red name tag on it.

(That second image next to him will be explained in the future chapter.)

His face held a serious and cold expression as he looked unamused with people running away as they are clearly in his way as he parked his bike. The guard came running towards him with a relieved expression.

"Captain Draven, l am so happy to see you! You will not believe..."

Draven grabs him by the collar and slaps him several times with his own hand.

"Get back, you fool! Your cheap cologne is obscuring the animal musk!"

"Oh, my face!"

He drops the guard and sniffs something in the air. Draven leans down and begins sniffing the ground on four, trying to find the dragon and the big cat's scents. One of the security animal control guards was looking at Draven weirdly until one of them notices and slaps them in the face to snap them out of it and ignore their boss. Draven then catches onto the scent as the smoke fills in his nostrils and his eyes widens with glee. He sees the smoke figures of Nuo and Chiang running away as it leads to the direction of where they're heading.

"Poor, poor animals. You should never have left your home."

He then smirks.

"Now you deal with me."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Before Nuo knew it, she's in a cart as Mk places the bags of noodles in the back before starting an engine and turning on the radio as they drive off. As they're going around town, Nuo is awestruck by how advanced this world was and is both confused and amazing by everything around her. She helped Mk deliver the noodles as he showed her the places before delivering to another places. As soon as they believe they're done, Mk continues his tour as he's by the drinking stall with Nuo besides him as she looks at the menu. As Mk ordered his usual, Nuo decides to try a Strawberry Lassi. The stall worker then told them the total cost of the two drinks. Nuo was confused and was about to pull out the Jade in her bag when Mk ended up paying. They eventually get their drinks as Nuo take a sip of her drink and her eyes widen.

"Wow! This is good!"

"Glad that you liked it!" Mk smiled, sipping his mocha drink.

"Mk, you didn't have to. I shouldn't be a burden and I should repay you for your kindness."

"It's okay. I insist. Plus, the currency you're paying with the jade is different. I'll help you with that later. Let's go with the tour."

Nuo smiled and nodded as they kept on exploring. Everywhere they go and the things they like to get, Mk ends up paying for everything much to Nuo's dismay.

Nuo keeps looking wide-eyed and delighted and yes, more than a bit overwhelmed. She passes store windows... and more windows... and so much more she had ever seen. Suddenly, she sees something shiny and goes over without Mk noticing as she was in a fancy jewelry store. The worker comes over from the back.

"May I help you?"

"Do you have any jewelry? You know, like rings and stuff?"

"Of course. Right this way."

He leads her to where the rings and other jewelries are. Nuo's eyes landed on something that caught her eyes.

"Ohh! Let me see that one."

She pointed to a beautiful blue dragon diamond ring.

"Sure!" he smiled as he brings the case out from the glass box and hand it to her.

Nuo's eyes sparkled as she held it up to her face as the diamond left a little spark. She looked up to him.

"How much?"

"$3,899.00"

Nuo almost cringed at how expensive that ring itself was. She clearly doesn't want Mk to keep buying things for her and wants to buy it herself, even though she doesn't know about the currencies. She pulls out a pouch and brings out jades that are almost a lot. The worker's eyes widened in awe as he checked them out.

"My, my, where did you get these magnificent things?"

"It's kind of a secret. I'm new to this city and I hope these would help. Maybe you could use them to make some jewelries out of this jade."

"It's a deal! I could give you the good amount of cash so you can buy some things."

The worker happily takes the jades and gets over to the cashier and pulls out the good amount of cash that are a lot as Nuo happily places the rest of the jades back inside of her pouch. He then gives it to her while handing her the case that held the ring inside.

"Pleasure doing business with you, ma'am."

"Thank you so much, sir!!"

Nuo waves at him before leaving the store while the worker happily counts the jades. But what he doesn't notice is when he was by the cashier, Nuo sees the big blue diamond that made her want it.

So, she swiftly takes it out of the camera sight as she learned that from Mk and places it inside her bag. With a smile, she looks at the case and opened it, placing the ring on her finger and admiring it. She glances down at the blue diamond and smiles mischievously. She eventually catches up with Mk to continue to explore the city without him knowing she stole the diamond. They then stopped by the food stalls and Nuo order a very spicy food and she eats it. But later regrets it and tries to find water to cool down, much to Mk's amusement.

As soon as they finished eating, Nuo is passing by with Mk as they continue walking when two nice, dressed girls her own age looks at her, turn away and giggle. Nuo notices that and ignores them, thinking it's nothing. She stops at something that caught her eye, which Mk didn't notice and kept walking while talking. By the window, there's a beautiful clothing.

It comes to a posh woman's boutique. She hesitates for a moment before entering. Nuo is no sooner in the door than she is subject to the disapproving stare of a Saleswoman standing behind the counter.

"May I help you?" she asked cooly.

"I'm just looking, thanks."

Nuo tiptoes through the shop as if it was filled with delicate glass objects. She cautiously examines the clothing she was admiring earlier. The Saleswoman quickly comes around the counter and approaches her.

"Are you looking for something in particular?"

"Yes. Something... conservative."

"Yes..."

Nuo eyes the Saleswoman, puzzled at her tone. She examines a clothing.

"You have beautiful things."

She receives no reply from Saleswoman and continues.

"How much is this?"

"I don't think it would fit you." Saleswoman said.

Nuo is beginning to get the drift.

"I didn't ask if it would fit. I asked how much it was."

"It's very expensive."

Nuo's body tenses as she stares at the Saleswoman.

"What is with you?"

"Excuse me?" Saleswoman asked, unblinking.

"I'm going to spend money." Nuo said firmly.

"I don't think we have anything for you here. You're obviously in the wrong place."

Nuo is speechless. She turns and stomps toward the door. She stops and spins around staring at the Saleswoman. Nuo gives her an intimidating glare that shows dragon eyes with a hint of a growl, which send shivers towards Saleswoman. She throws the door open and storms outside. The Saleswoman calmly, a little nervous about her intimidation, strolls back to her counter and returns to her place. Nuo comes out onto the street and stands, lost. She takes a deep breath, trying to control herself. Two women, in elegant designer outfits, stroll by, eyeing Nuo as if she were a freak. Nuo suddenly feels naked. She turns and hurries away to find Mk.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At the same time, the animal control is still on the hunt for the dragon as they stopped at Mk's apartment. Draven goes over and picks the lock before coming inside. Chiang's ears perked up and got up, sniffing something unknown and growled. She got off of Mk's bed and saw Draven and his soldiers looking around the room. Chiang looks around for anything to hide until the eyes landed on the window. Draven senses something and brings out his tranquilizer gun along with his soldiers as they cautiously approach the bedroom door. As soon as they're close, Draven swiftly kicks the door open and aims his gun only to find no one. He glares and walks in as he finds anything suspicious. He looks towards the window and pops his head out only to find nothing either. Chiang is seen hanging on the roof out of Draven's sight. He scoffs and starts heading out of the apartment while making sure everything is back the way it belongs like nothing happened before locking the door as Chiang heads back inside with a relieved sigh.

"That dragon cannot be gone. It can't, it can't, it can't!" Draven shouted, kicking the trashcan away and scaring his soldiers.

He starts pacing around for a moment until his eyes widens.

"Unless... the dragon may have blend in with the humans! Dragons can change their form according to the legend. Just like the dragon can form into a white horse! Yes, that's it!"

He pulls out something in his jacket to reveal thermal reading goggles as he puts it on. Draven could see heat figures of his troops and looks around until he spotted something on the ground. He looks down to see dragon footprints along with human footprints as they lead to the place where people like to go shopping.

"Bingo. Follow me!"

Draven and the soldiers drove off again to follow the hidden trail.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nuo couldn't help but feel angry and sad that she could not fit in with other people judging her based on how she looks. She wished she would go back to Kumandra where no one could judge her. She looked around the crowd to find any sign of Mk as she finds herself at the park. Nuo sits on the bench with a sigh, feeling a little tired of searching.

"Maybe I don't belong here..."

A meow sound was heard, and she looked up and noticed a little girl trying to get her cat from a tree.

"Come on. Please get down. You're making this harder than it looks."

The cat just meowed in response. Nuo finds anything to help that little girl when she sees a water foundation. She smiles and does a motion as the water bends it towards the cat and gently grabs it as the water covers half the body of the cat. The little girl was surprised by such magic as the water places the cat into her waiting arms before it was sent back to the fountain. Nuo approaches the little girl and the cat.

"I believe that cat is yours." she said, gently petting the cat, who purrs.

"Y-Yeah. Did you do that water magic?"

Nuo looks at her as she could see that she has shoulder-length black hair and bangs. The girl wears a sea green long-sleeved jacket over a white shirt, with a pink skirt, and white shoes with little black cats on the side. She wears a pink hairband.

"Yes. That was me."

Her eyes sparkle.

"Wow. Thank you. What's your name?"

"Nuo. Yours?"

"I'm Bai He."

"Lovely name. You might keep a better eye on your cat. You need each other."

Bai nodded, hugging her cat close to her.

"Nuo! Nuo? Where are you?"

They looked over to see Mk calling out for Nuo. Nuo looked back at Bai.

"Gotta go. You know where to go? Where's your parents?"

Little girl looked down sadly.

"I... don't have any. I'm an orphan. I was just let out to go for fresh air and going back to the adoption center before night."

"Oh, I'm sorry. You sure you're going to be okay?"

Bai nodded.

"I'll be alright. Thank you again for helping my cat down."

"No problem. See you later."

Nuo gives Bai a pat on the head and heads over to Mk, who sees her and looks relieved to see her.

"Nuo! I am so sorry for leaving you behind! Let me make it up to you!"

"No, no, it's okay. I just got lost into sightseeing."

"No, I insist. You look tired. Let's get some ice cream. It's on me."

Nuo tilts her head in confusion.

"What is ice cream?"

"Oh, you're going to love it. Follow me!"

Mk pulled her over to the ice cream truck that was parked in the field. Meanwhile, the animal control made it to the park as Draven kept following the track until he made it to his destination as it showed the heat radar figure of the dragon behind the human disguise. He removes his goggles to find Nuo enjoying ice cream with Mk as she kept on eating the ice cream until she got a brain freeze as she held her head in pain, making her friend laugh before getting a brain freeze too for eating ice cream a little too fast.

"There she is! Let's get her!"

Draven and his soldiers drove their motorcycle faster as they charge towards Mk and Nuo. The two were just walking when they heard an engine roar. They turned around when they see them heading straight towards them. They wondered what was going on until they see them held tranquilizer gun.

"We got you now, dragon!"

"Oh, no! He's onto us!!" Nuo gasped.

"How does he know you're a dragon?!" Mk exclaimed.

"I don't know. But we need to move now!"

They ran back to the delivery cart and Mk quickly start his car and pushed the gas pedal. Off they went as he pushed the gas pedal as hard as he could to go faster with the men on their trail. Nuo searches for any water until she finds the fire hydrant and motions it. Water bursts out from the hydrant as she created a water whip and throws it towards the pole to help Mk make a turn without falling. Though they thought they're going to lose them since they can't make a such fast turn, but with their skills they made a perfect turn. Nuo water bends it towards any objects she can grab before throwing it towards the men. Mk keeps driving ahead while dodging some cars that are in their way while apologizing to them. Random things get thrown and they hit Draven in the face a couple times, until he managed to dodge the big one and it made him angry.

"Crazy man gaining!" Nuo yelled.

"We gotta find something to slow them down!"

Nuo looks around until she finds barrels of fish. She gets an idea and sees the barrels and water bends it as it whips at them, causing them to fall over as the fishes were spread with oil covering the entire road. Draven sees that and glares. He then brings up his motorcycle and slides through along with three of his soldiers, but one slips off. As soon as they're out of path for them to slide, Draven makes it out as he jumps over the car and hops back onto his motorcycle. One of his soldiers wasn't lucky and crashes into the car while the other two manages to get through and follows Draven. Nuo was speechless.

"He's good! Tell me who he is!"

Mk did quick research on his phone while driving and his eyes widens in recognition and horror.

"We have a serious problem. Captain Draven. China Animal Control. Perfect case record. Meaning, he's a very bad news. He even one time killed one of the legendary creatures that everyone had known until it was gone."

"Well, that's not good..."

They drive through the tunnel and two of Draven's soldiers accidentally drove towards the edge of the ocean as they crash through the fence and into the water. Draven is now by himself, but that doesn't stop him from chasing after them.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Nuo asked.

"Yeah, totally! I know a lot of places!" Mk quickly assured through his nervous smile.

"You don't know, do you?"

"Well, I mean..."

"Seriously?!"

"Don't worry! I got this! I totally got this!"

"I don't know if I can trust you."

"Relax, everything is totally fine."

As the two argue, Draven is standing on his motorcycle as he's now by the window. He looks annoyed to see them arguing like children. Nuo immediately noticed him and tapped Mk on the shoulder.

"Mk! Mk!"

Mk stops arguing and sees him. He smiles nervously at Draven.

"Hi, officer. Is there a problem?"

Nuo looks over at Draven and waves awkwardly.

"Hi."

In response, Draven brings out his tranquilizer gun and points it at Nuo. Just as he's about to shoot, a car is coming straight towards him. He notices and jumps over the car with his motorcycle. He drives towards the back of the cart and hangs onto it, causing the two to scream.

"He's on the back!" Nuo yelled.

"There's gotta be a way to go faster!" Mk yelled, focusing on the road.

Nuo tries to think of something until her eyes landed on the ocean.

"Hang on tight, Mk!"

"Huh? For what?"

She didn't respond and motions her arms out as she water bends the ocean towards them, creating a wave as they're above for a moment as Draven's eyes widens in realization along with Mk as Nuo shoots her arms forward and the wave started going faster and faster as they soar through the city. Draven tries to hold on, but due to the water as it wet his hands and he went flying. Nuo was relieved that they lost him while Mk was screaming the whole time. They eventually landed a little rough as the waves died down and Nuo bends it back to the ocean. Mk was panting heavily at the chase they've gone through until he started laughing. Nuo laughs along as they soon calm down.

"That... was awesome! Can we do it again?"

"Maybe later."

Mk then parks his cart and takes Nuo to Pigsy's Noodles. Nuo is nervously about meeting his friends, which he assured her with a smile before they went inside only to find an angry pink pig yelling at his face.

"Mk! Where have you been?! I have more noodles that needs to be delivered and you're supposed to be there after your break!! What were you doing? And why do you look like you've been running a marathon?!"

"Uh... well it's a long story. And I made a new friend. Pigsy, Tang, this is Nuo. She's new to the city and she just recently moved here, and I thought I'd give her a tour."

Mk moved to the side to reveal Nuo shyly waving at them.

"Hello. It's nice to meet you."

Pigsy's angry expression changed to a soft, happy expression while Tang, who's sitting in the table with a bowl of noodles, casually waved back.

"Hello! Welcome to Pigsy's Noodles! Would you like to try some of my famous noodles?"

"Really? Well, sure!"

Nuo goes over and sits down next to Tang.

"What would you like to try?"

"Hmm... How about you surprise me with something you enjoy cooking?"

Pigsy's smile went wide.

"Got ya!"

He then speeds off to get to cooking. At the same time, a girl with two pigtails come inside and gasps to see Nuo. She grabs Mk's shoulders and shakes him.

"Mk, who is that?!"

"Mei, meet Nuo. Nuo, meet Mei."

"Hi." Nuo greeted.

Mei zooms up to Nuo's face, surprising her.

"Hi! It's so nice to meet you! Where are you from? I love your hair! Are they natural?"

As Mei bombarded her with questions with Nuo trying to answer while paying for the noodles, Mk was glad that Nuo is making friends. Though he wondered about those men that chased them earlier and is worried for Nuo.

Meanwhile, Draven had landed in the ocean as he slowly rises up from it. He glares at where they had gone for a moment before smirking.

"Well played, dragon."

He smoothed his wet hair back.

"Game on."