Cherry's Adventures of Mulan: chapter 4

Peach, Cherry, and Mulan stood in front of the camp. Mushu was controlling Mulan on how to walk and act like a real man, which made her walk awkwardly. A lot of the men at camp were staring at her. Peach felt like she was right at home, being the more masculine tomboy than Cherry of course.

"I guess you feel at home, Peach," Cherry spoke up, quietly. "You're a bit more like a guy than I am."

"A guy?" Peach glanced at her then shrugged. "Oh, well, if I'm gonna be a guy I may as well act like one." she then randomly burped and scratched her butt, without a care.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Mushu asked.

"That's disgusting." Mulan cringed, seeing a couple of men picking their toes with chopsticks and some men picked their noses.

"No, they're men," Mushu clarified. "And you three are gonna have to act like them, so pay attention."

Mulan, Cherry, and Peach watched carefully. One of the men was showing a dragon tattoo to a trio of other men, a very skinny one, a short one, and a chubby one. The girls decided to have a closer look to study guys. Peach felt prepared since she was very masculine and a perfect tomboy. Cherry was a great tomboy too but ever since she met Peach, she felt more feminine compared to her good friend.

"This tattoo will protect me from harm." the man with the tattoo boasted, feeling very sure of himself.

The shorter man glanced at it, then punched down the tattooed man whose tattoo was proved to be a fail.

The tall, thin man laughed at the downfall. "I hope you can get your money back!"

"I don't think I can do this." Mulan moaned.

"It's okay, if you can't, then Cherry sure can't." Peach told her, quietly.

Cherry glared at her a bit.

"It's all attitude," Mushu coached. "Be tough like this dude here."

The short man noticed their gazes. "What're you looking at?"

"Nothing." Cherry said quickly, and nervously.

"Punch him," Mushu told Mulan. "That's how men say hello."

Mulan punched the short man, making him bounce into the chubby man. 

"Oh, Yao, you made a friend." the chubby man told the shorter man, revealing his name. 

"Good, now slap him on the behind. They like that." Mushu advised.

Mulan did as told.

Yao let out a squeal, grabbing his butt as he noticed he was touched by the new people. He then grabbed Mulan by the collar, looking fierce. "I'm gonna hit you so hard, it's gonna make your ancestors dizzy!"

Luckily, Yao was grabbed before he could hurt the poor girl. "Yao, relax and chant with me..." the chubby man held Yao close and rocked him back and forth.

Mulan, Mushu, Cherry, and Peach eyed each other strangely as they watched this happen. What was that all about?

"Feel better?" the chubby man asked.

"Yeah," Yao sighed, then was placed back on the ground and glared back at the girls as they were about to leave. "Ah, you ain't worth my time, chicken boy..." he said directly to Mulan.

"CHICKEN BOY!?" Mushu hissed, shaking his tiny fist. "Say that to my face, you limp noodle!"

Cherry and Peach rushed to behind a bush as Yao was about to punch Mulan. He missed and ended up hitting the other men. Mulan rushed to the girls and they all ran away from the attacking man, nearly making a mess on the campground. The other men watched and looked at the fight. The men spotted the runaway girls and chased them all around the camp. The man suddenly fell like dominoes on the ground as they were getting food and the pot spilled several grains of rice. A new man came, he appeared to be the captain as he watched the mess and seemed cross. Each guy was fighting each other like children on the playground and the captain demanded to know what was going on and why.

"Soldiers!" the captain shouted at them, making them stop.

The men stopped as Cherry, Peach and Mulan were huddled together to protect each other from the aggressive fighting. 

"They started it!" the soldiers pointed to the three girls.

"I don't need anyone causing trouble at my camp!" the captain scolded the three of them. 

"S-Sorry..." Mulan deepens her voice and stood up with the other girls. "I mean, sorry, you had to say that! But you know what it is, when you got those manly urges... When you just gotta kill something...!"

"Kill!" Peach added, sounding eager to literally kill someone or something.

"What's your name?" the captain asked them.

"Uh... Umm... Uhh..." the girls stammered together, unsure of what to tell him.

"Your commanding officer just asked you a question." Chi-Fu prompted them.

"We've got names, and they're boys names too..." Mulan tried to consider.

"Erm... yeah!" Cherry added, not really changing her voice. She didn't sound like a girl enough already.

"Ling, how about Ling?" Mushu offered.

"His name is Ling..." Mulan whispered to the dragon about the tall thin man behind them.

"I didn't ask for his name, I asked for yours." the captain sounded impatient.

"Well," Peach stepped forward. "I'm Shun, and this is my brother, Zan."

Cherry glanced at her.

Peach glanced back and made a gesture to make Cherry go with the plan.

"Yes, I am Zan." Cherry falsely agreed.

"Good, but what about you?" the captain kept his gaze on Mulan, not leaving her alone until he learned her boy name.

"Uh, atch-chu!" Mushu spoke up.

"Atch-Chu." Mulan said.

"Atch-Chu?" the captain raised an eyebrow.

"Gesundheit!" Mushu laughed, wiping a funny tear from his eye. "I kill myself..."

"Mushu..." Cherry and Mulan glared at him, but Peach laughed quietly.

"Mushu?" the captain asked.

"No!" Mulan said.

"Then what is it!?"

"Ping!" Mushu finally thought. "Ping was my best friend growing up!"

"It's Ping." Mulan finally said.

"Ping..." the captain repeated.

"Course, Ping did steal my girl..." Mushu grumbled, folding his arms.

Mulan grabbed on her back to shut him up. "Yes, my name is Ping..."

"Let me see your conscription notice," the captain held out his hand for the papers.

Mulan reached in her bag and handed the captain the paper given to her father.

"We were adopted." Cherry covered up as Chi-Fu eyed her and Peach strangely.

"'Fa Zhou'," the captain looked at the scroll and looked surprised. "The Fa Zhou?"

"I didn't know Fa Zhou had sons..." Chi-Fu seemed suspicious, instantly.

"Erm, he doesn't talk about us much." Mulan replied, then tried to spit like a typical man, but had trouble.

"At least that wasn't you." Peach whispered to unlucky Cherry.

"I can see why," Chi-Fu said. "The boys are absolute lunatics."

Peach grinned at that.

"Okay, gentlemen," the captain made an announcement to the troops. "Thanks to your new friends Shun, Zan, and Ping, you will spend tonight picking up every single grain of rice. But tomorrow, the real work begins."

The troops mumbled at each other, then glared at the new 'boys' in camp. 

"You know, we gotta work on your people skills." Mushu told them.

The girls sighed and went to clean up the camp before turning in for the night. 

"I wonder if we'll get our lives threatened," Peach sounded hopeful. "I hope we do... I wanna be kidnapped."

"Peach, being kidnapped is bad!" Cherry stated.

Peach scoffed and looked at her. "You get kidnapped all the time, I'm sick of you getting all the luck!" 

Cherry rolled her eyes and continued to clean up.