"..and then Han went BANG and Badr was like 'NOOOOOOOOOOOO' and we were like 'YEEEEEEESSSSSSS', and then Badr hit him and we were like 'BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Li I was writing another letter to Jiao'ao, for earlier that day the peacock's reply had come.

"Dear Li I,

I am the son of Lord La, I think several people mentioned it. But I'm glad to hear you woke up! How are you feeling?

In regards to Shifty. I don't really have contact with him, but we did meet up not too long ago… Long story short he was getting married and Badr was trying to kill us. Luckily neither happened, though I'm not sure what became of Badr in the end.

Good luck finding your father.

Jiao'ao

Li I had then detailed his whole adventure and was giving a blow by blow analysis of the fight between Badr and Han Guan. "AND THEN THE CROWD WENT NUTS! WE were all like 'GO HAAAAAAAAAAAN!"

Several heads turned in his direction as he wrote those words.

"But then Badr got away and we were all like 'NOOOOOOO' but then he met Zorori… I don't think we'll hear from him again XD (my laughing face remember).

Anyways Han Guan is now the hero of this village and it's all getting rebuilt. From all I've heard of him Masuta sounded like a big-ass jerk, but he's actually pretty helpful with construction. I don't know if Han's reputation will stay though, he almost set fire to the mud bricks (don't even get me started on how he did it), still I don't think anyone's gonna antagonize him after his epic battle! Well my dad and mom (stepmum but who cares right?) And my baby brother (half-brother) all live in a village next door with Zorori, who we adopted. He's still not all happy and all, but give him time and he'll be back to normal! Plus he gets free Tai Chi lessons from some drunken pig. I'm sure he'll be fine! As for Jingles, well he's helping construction. I don't know how wedge he is, but he is doing a lot, like a LOT of heavy lifting. He also made this beautiful speech at the funeral for the guys who died in battle (not Badr, we kicked his dead body into a latrine pit, which Han blew up somehow… Well he's not getting ressurected any time soon. I'm gonna stick around here and hope for the best, life in Japan is pretty cool! I'm even learning the language! 'Sayonara' means 'hello'! But sushi is not easy to get used to and their dumplings are different. Still it's tasty! So I hope things are going well with you. If you're ever on some political mission to Japan feel free to pop in!"

Li I sealed the letter and posted it with a contented sigh. He had already sent one each for Mung, Mrs Yang, Fidget, Flower and Peng you. He grinned. Somehow he couldn't stop himself from smiling.

He wasn't the only one writing a letter either, though Danzaburo's was a different kind of Lord and his letter did not have laughing faces or blow by blow crowd reactions and it was arguably more important. It described Danza's leave of absence. Most of it was concocted half-truths.

According to the highly-detailed report he was writing he had heard of Badr Tamod as an alleged murder, upon noticing one of his goons brawling with a member of the Guan clan he had followed them on their journey. Naturally he had left out the bits involving Kentikarukage, he knew that a lot of the people involved knew about what had happened there, but Masuta had no idea it existed… And Danzaburo had no need to tell him. The kitsune were still in hiding, and most likely rebuilding the secret village, Zorori was living with the rabbit family, but had enough common sense to not go around waving his tails around. Then the rest was the truth. Danzaburo had found Han Guan and convinced him to warn the Guan clan of Badr's imminent arrival. He had done just that but Badr had still attacked. Danzaburo continued with an explanation of how he had helped save countless lives in the chaos, and how nobody could remember seeing him. There was still a search for a missing gorilla, but the tanuki knew that Tinzaburo was unlikely to be found. His cover was still intact and the town owed him one. Until he received Masuta's reply he would stay to see the progress of construction, and keep an eye on Zorori Pom-Poko. He posted the letter and left, swapping into a wolverine. He had a break for now, what need did anyone have on information on China if they didn't have roofs?

The removal of the Deathworm's corpse was the hardest part. It's outer shell had been mostly stripped and deemed valuable, with a good load of it being sent to the Daimyo for orders. It would make excellent armour. But the Guan got some as well. It's large, greyish body was a different matter. Burning it was risky as the fire could quickly go out of paw. Tearing it apart was not a job for the squeamish, so with a tremendous effort it was dragged off and buried whole in a huge pit.

The Thing tried to climb up to it's feet, but found they were not connected to it's body anymore. It dragged itself forwards with it's arms, but was stopped when Han Guan drove his sharp little claws through it's neck. It collapsed and the wolverine dropped the head to the floor.

"We should burn this as well!" He said, dusting his paws and grinning.

The past few days had been strange to say the least. He'd gone straight from 'kun' to 'sama' and suddenly everyone loved him. Countless people had apologized for things Han Guan barely remembered, and some were under the impression that he'd won a tournament and had even gone on a world tour! His mother's newfound attitude alone would have made his heart soar- the approval of his entire clan and all the townsfolk? It was like a dream come true!

Of course he was presently homeless, but that was not much of a damper. Neither was the fact that he had technically speaking been buried alive. It was frightening to think about and therefore he dedicated little thought to it. The important part was rebuilding.

"Hello Han-sama." Called several relatives he knew not the names of not had ever spoken to.

The wolverine of course waved, not that he could think of anything else to do. Luckily Li I came to his rescue.

"Hey Han! So I sent a letter to Jiao'ao and stuff, guess what, Badr tried to kill him too! Glad we're rid of him to be honest."

The wolverine nodded vigorously in agreement. "Oh yes, very glad. When did he get so crazy anyways?"

Li shrugged "Beats me! I mean we were kind of out of it, weren't we?"

"Yeah..." Han traced his scar with growing discomfort. He had become habituated to covering it up now. It would not do to be stared at.

The rabbit shrugged. "I'm going to see what Kunjingle's up to. Oh and remember, tomorrow night, Battai, my place. Dad owns a set."

"I can't do tomorrow. Mum wants to er- catch up." He scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Maybe another time?"

The rabbit shrugged. "Sure, anytime. How about tonight? Anyways I'll bet you're busy these days, Han-sama."

The wolverine's ears went a delicate shade of red. "You don't have to call me that."

"I know I don't have to! I want to! You deserve the respect man. Though I'm still going to wipe the floor with you when the cards come out. Tonight?"

Han Guan grinned. "You're on Li-sama!"

Footnote: A very happy ending for everyone! Except Badr, he doesn't deserve one XD.

Thus ends my latest fic, tying up Badr's tale and giving rise to a new life for Li, Kunjingle and the rest.

There will be a sorta sequel that's really a prequel called Suna's Orphanage, which is basically this story's prequel arc. I don't really need to plan for it (who needs to plan for random comedy?) and am stuffed with other projects, so I can't say when to expect it. Or exactly what to expect in it besides the characters and comedy.

We will also revisit Japan again in the Mongol Wars re-write (which probably needs a new title...)

But for now enjoy this happy ending!

Edited Note: Honestly I forgot how much I loved this story. Really something special. I don't know why exactly. I guess it was my first time handling lots of emotions while also being funny. Or trying to be at least. This ending is as they usually are, a happy one. And it feels good to be able to look back on something and think 'hey! This didn't totally suck!'

One thing I did notice while doing this editting, is that Hercules and Li have got a lot in common (Hercules' personality is basically Li's turned up to... A number with lots of zeroes.) Fret and Han Guan have also got a lot of things in common (...though this was something I noticed and so tried to subvert). Just interesting to see some parralel between my different fics.

Of course I probably can write better now (this story has so much head hopping) but I think this is good enough to not need a whole rework.

I changed up very little, I added the scene with Han here at the end, the Flower and Li scene was also changed up a bit and er... That's it really. Cleared up some typos, added lines. Didn't correct the punctuation but... Did I have to ?

Glad I got through this so quickly as well. Next up is One Form Too Many.