The Warden's Summer Peak - Jin Qiu Dislyte

"..."

"This feels disgusting."

Jin Qiu muttered, spitting out his words with the pure embodiment of disgusted embedded in them. There he lay, on the warm golden beachside of Papaya Island, all while scowling with a glare that could melt an iceberg.

"I shouldn't be here... I should be at the Gaol... Disciplining the scum in there..."

He grumbled, his trembled claws crumpling the cheesy Wuxia novel he held until tears ran along its creased frame. The flowery beach umbrella perched next to him did little to conceal the seething frustration simmering in the tiger's body language. Whilst his shades were meant to shield his eyes from the blinding sun, it was more that they were the only thing protecting everyone else from his perturbed glare.

"Those damned Pollyannas are bound to be mollycoddling the inmates by now..."

Jin Qiu grunted, abruptly rising from his comfy seat and began subconsciously patrolling around the shoreline with one arm behind his back, the other wielding his paddle. The other tourists immediately sidestepped to avoid his gait, which repeated for about ten minutes whilst he grumbled and seethed. Soon enough, it was too much for Jin Qiu as he uttered a sudden growl of frustration out loud.

"Agh, this isn't working... I need to cool off for now..."

He stomped off to the boardwalks, hoping that the disconcerting cacophony of Espers cheering and flashing lights would distract him from his paranoid duty.

Stepping through the inflatable fruit arches, Jin Qiu found himself overwhelmed by the overly enthusiastic aura the Papaya Island entailed. Upbeat EDM music blanketed the air waves, paper lanterns swung on the strings overhead, and a whole smorgasbord of beach-themed decorations sporadically plopped at every corner possible.

"I'm starting to regret my decision."

Jin Qiu rumbled as his nose wrinkled up in slight annoyance at just how overkill the entire thing felt to him. He stalked forward, his broad paws thudding heavily against the boardwalk as foam spritzed from a passing bubble cannon. His eye twitched. The scent of roasted pineapples and sweat-drenched Espers filled the air like a heady fog, and Jin Qiu’s scowl only deepened when he passed by a dancing mascot in a watermelon suit trying to hand out neon leis.

Then, his gaze settled on a raucous circle near the shoreline, Espers jeering, cheering, and hollering as they took turns crushing massive tropical fruits atop golden pedestals. A giant, glittery banner read in bold, childlike font:

“✳️ FRUIT SMASH BRAWL – UNLEASH YOUR JUICE! ✳️”

Weapons of all shapes and sizes tore through melons, coconuts, and papayas, whips, hammers, scythes, even conjured fireballs. Fruit guts sprayed like battlefield gore. Jin Qiu raised an unimpressed brow.

“Hmph. Overcompensation.”

He strode past the crowd, letting his huge frame and leery gaze force the audience to part away in concern like the red sea. Upon reaching the front, the game host immediately caught onto the potential new participant.

“Oho! Look who we’ve got here! Big muscles! Big paddle! You in, tiger?”

Jin Qiu glanced back at his paddle. He considered using it for the competition, but after seeing the rest of the participants, he decided to give himself a little handicap out of pity. Smirking coyly, he slammed the blade of his paddle deep into the golden sand.

“Of course, but I don't need a weapon for this.”

The tiger's ears flickered slightly upon catching the surprised gasps from the crowd, bolstering his confidence even further. Jin Qiu rolled his shoulders with a satisfying crack, his muscles bulging with every twitch. The setting sun glinted off his sweat-slicked white fur, tracing sharp shadows along the mountainous terrain of his abs and the ridges of his veiny forearms. He reached for the first fruit, a fresh, ripe papaya, and held it out in front of him with one paw. Glancing at the crowd, he paused momentarily before-

SPLORT.

The papaya burst between his fingers, its golden insides gushing out and spraying across the onlookers. A few Espers in the front row ducked with shrieks, while others stared wide-eyed in stunned silence. Jin Qiu simply growled and raised his chin, allowing the juice to run down his chest like a victorious war god bathed in his enemy’s blood.

"Easy..."

The next batch of fruits came and followed, and the feline made a show of his strength each and every time. What few fruits that were unable to fit in his paws, he crushed it in between his pecs with a firm flex. Thicker coconuts, oversized pineapples, even a giant jackfruit as wide as his torso. The host barked out encouragement, the crowd roared, but Jin Qiu was no longer paying attention. His pupils were razor slits, jaw tight, breath steady. A fire had lit inside him, the kind he only ever felt in the gym or deep within the Gaol’s riot corridors. This was a battlefield now.

He reached down, lifting a coconut in one clawed paw. With deliberate slowness, he brought it to the peak of his bicep and held it in place with his other hand. Then, in one smooth motion, he flexed.

CRACK.

The coconut exploded, shards and milk flying everywhere as his arm swelled like a drawn bow. The crowd screamed with excitement, and a few cell phones were raised at once to capture the moment. Jin Qiu bared his fangs in a grin, welling with pride and eagerness.

He held a thick pomegranate, burying it in the fluffy crevice in between his granite pecs. Flexing firmly, the fruit creaked louder and louder as his pecs hardened to steel until-

SPLOTCH.

Juice burst out the sides, running in rivulets down his abs, mixing with the coconut milk and pulp already coating his fur. He inhaled deeply, chest rising and falling like ocean waves, his sunglasses long since tossed aside to reveal his amber eyes glimmering with mirth.

Then came the finale. One final fruit: a colossal jackfruit, nearly the size of a beach cooler. Even Jin Qiu blinked in surprise. But the challenge only made him grin wider.

He crouched down, wrapped both massive arms around it, and roared as he pulled the fruit against his chest—biceps bulging, veins protruding like vines, until the jackfruit let out a horrific wet crunch and collapsed in on itself, juice spraying in every direction like a tropical bomb. The crowd erupted, chanting his name, or at least variations of it:

Covered head to toe in sticky fruit pulp, Jin Qiu stood victorious. His white fur was nearly dyed pink-orange from the sheer saturation. Pulp clung to the ridges of his abs like jam, and strands of fibrous jackfruit dripped from his mane fluff. He exhaled hard through his nose, standing tall like a statue of judgment reborn.

The host, wide-eyed and grinning, approached with the prize: a burlap sack filled to bursting with native rice, tied off with a golden ribbon and stamped with a smiley face.

“Your prize, oh pulp-splattered champion!”

Jin Qiu didn’t respond at first. He simply grabbed the sack, hauled it over one thick shoulder like a seasoned farmer, and flexed for the crowd. His deltoid surged beneath the weight, as if mocking gravity itself. The crowd went ballistic. Somewhere, a tourist fainted.

And somehow, a slight smirk crossed his lips.

"I guess I did enjoy myself."