"Hiss, it's so cold..."
Old White Ape shivered and sat back up. "Heh, I've talked a little too much today."
"Forget it. You might never believe that someone like me could say a couple of truthful things anyway."
"Enough talk. See you."
"There's another big battle to fight tomorrow!"
"That Eight-Tailed Fox won't be easy to deal with."
Old White Ape rose and brushed the dust off his clothes-well, his mourning garments-then turned and left, leaving only his receding figure without saying anything more.
But beneath the setting sun, that receding figure seemed filled with a faint sorrow.
It seemed more like a kind of self-mockery.
At his own weakness, at the absurdity of this world, at everything...
Just as he had said while rambling through that dull story earlier.
"Someone like me has to be the villain in the end."
"So if I really could write a story, I'd want there to be a righteous white-haired monkey, and also a villainous... me."
"My heart yearns for justice."
"My body walks toward the abyss."
"This, perhaps, is the real me."
Ji Hong simply watched Old White Ape walk away, showing nothing from beginning to end. Yet for some reason, those words of Old White Ape's stayed with him.
"At this moment, are you yourself, or that... white-haired monkey you spoke of?"
He finally spoke, murmuring to himself.
Old White Ape halted and stood still, then suddenly turned to look at Ji Hong.
Beneath the setting sun, half his face was bathed in sunlight, while the other half lay hidden in shadow.
Half his body stood in the light, while the remaining half blended into the darkness.
He and Ji Hong simply gazed at one another from a distance.
After a long while, Old White Ape smiled.
But that smile was