Sedge Hat leaned back on his heels, belly full of Danny's chicken, and tapped the rim of his oversized hat with one crooked finger.
"Code of fists, eh?" he mused. "Mr. Chan, you are barely old enough to grow whiskers on your chin, and you think you can challenge an elder such as myself?"
Danny clenched his jaw. "Elder? You've done nothing but steal my tea and food."
"Oh, ho ho! Steal? Why, no, Mr. Chan." The old man wagged a finger. "Borrow. Food, tea, and occasionally sanity."
Danny rose to his feet. His muscles tensed beneath the fabric of his gi, and though he was trying to act calm and composed, anyone could see he was two breaths away from losing it.
"Stand," Danny commanded. "If you eat a Dragon clan warrior's meal, you must honor our clan's code. I challenge you."
Sedge Hat slowly stood up, brushing dust from his robes. "My, my. How dramatic. Very well, Mr. Chan. If it will calm your troubled spirit, I accept."
Danny set his feet into a Dragon stance—left foot forward, knees low, hands out, one palm open, one closed. He inhaled deeply, grounding his energy.
Sedge Hat's stance, on the other hand, looked like he had simply remembered he had legs and decided to stand on them. His knees bent inward, his shoulders slouched, and his cane dangled loosely from one hand.
Danny exhaled through his nose. "I will not strike an old man unless you attack first."
"Oh? Is that so?" Sedge Hat replied. "Then allow me."
Sedge Hat instantly vanished.
Danny blinked—once, twice—then felt a tapping sensation on his forehead.
Tap.
Before he realized what was happening, Danny was on his back staring up at the night sky, his senses ringing.
He pushed himself up, outraged. "What… what did you just do?!"
Sedge Hat stood where he'd been before, humming peacefully, sipping the last drops of stolen tea from Danny's empty flask.
"Ah," he said, wiping his mouth, "you're still alive. Good! Some try that move and explode."
"Explode?!" Danny yelped.
"Small explosions," the old man clarified cheerfully. "Very tidy."
Danny glared at him, fists tightening. "Again."
"Oh dear." Sedge Hat sighed. "Must we?"
"Yes!" Danny leapt forward faster than most humans could even see, his heel slicing the air toward the old man's jaw.
Sedge Hat flicked his cane upward.
Clink.
Danny's kick froze mid-air, blocked effortlessly. The cane hadn't budged.
Then—
WHACK.
The cane tapped Danny's ankle.
Just a tap.
Danny spun through the air helplessly, crashed into a tree, and slid down the trunk like a deflated cloth puppet.
He groaned. "You're… a monster."
"No, no." Sedge Hat's grin gleamed beneath the brim. "Not a monster. A teacher."
Danny blinked. "A… teacher?"
"Hmm? Oh yes. To the ones who deserve it. To the ones who survive me." The old man set the cane down and leaned on it. "But you, Mr. Chan… you charge in without thinking. You are strong, yes. Skilled, perhaps. But your mind? Soft as tofu."
Danny tried to stand, failed, then tried again, wobbling. "Why are you even here? Why are you following me?"
Sedge Hat tilted his head. "Following you? Oh no. I simply walk where I please. Sometimes I arrive where someone needs me. Or"—his grin widened—"where someone is about to die horribly."
"That's not funny," Danny snapped.
"It will be," Sedge Hat murmured.
Danny froze.
The flames of his campfire sputtered. The air thickened. Far in the forest—too far for a human to hear—a sound echoed.
A laugh.
High-pitched. Cruel. Hungry.
Danny's blood ran cold before he even understood why.
"What… what was that?"
Sedge Hat's expression darkened for the first time. He turned his head slightly toward the sound, hat shadowing his face.
"That, Mr. Chan," he said quietly, "is a problem not of this world."
Danny swallowed. "What kind of problem?"
Sedge Hat answered with a whisper.
"One that came from the sky."
Danny didn't understand, but before he could ask anything else, the old man stood straighter than he had before—back straight, chin lifted, aura shifting from silly to ancient.
"Your journey," Sedge Hat said, "has just become far more difficult."
Danny shivered. The fire crackled weakly. The trees around them seemed to lean closer in fear.
"What should I do?" Danny asked, voice unsteady despite himself.
Sedge Hat slowly turned toward the darkness.
"You should run," he said.
Then he added with a sinister little chuckle—
"And pray it chases me instead of you."
Without another word, Sedge Hat stepped into the forest and vanished, swallowed by shadows as if he had never existed at all.
Danny stood alone.
The laughter came again, closer this time.
Much closer.
He grabbed his pack, drew his black katana, and backed away from the fire, heart pounding.
Whatever awaited him in the darkness did not belong in China.
It came from the stars