60.ii First in the West; The Scattered Cloud

Bodhi

By now Sun Chop had entered the center of the arena. Instead of starting with his performance, he took the time to comb his already slicked back hair away from his face. The small gesture got the crowd even more hyped for the demonstration to come.

Pointing his comb at the sidelines to where Surina stood with her mic, Sun Chop gently taunted, “Speaking of being First in the West, it’s a good thing you’re not taking part in this competition, Suri. Then I’d really have to go all out.”

The pink-haired sun clone whistled into her mic. Wagging a finger, she played along, “Now, now, don’t get cocky, Zheng Zheng. The judges might not take that very well.”

Totally unbothered by the thought, Sun Chop flicked his bell sleeves, set his arms akimbo and relaxed his stance. “You know I jest, sweet sparkling Sailor Sun. I promise that it’s all in good fun.” The sun clone inclined his head to the judges in playful deference. “But you are right. I need to take this moment seriously. And so I shall.”

Everybody cheered.

“The crowd really appreciates a nice dash of banter here and there, Dan.”

“True, true. And by the looks of it, so do the judges. I think they’ll let Zheng Zheng’s cockiness slide for now.

“Alright, my darlings! Time to get serious!”

Sun Chop moved very suddenly, tossing his baton-like staff high above his head.

“Help me out! I can’t do this without the assistance of my beautiful clients!”

He briefly took his eyes off the staff to throw his arms out in a broad, sweeping fan. His move maximized the volume of his sleeves, drawing everyone’s attention to the confident glittering champion.

“Everyone! Say it with me!”

From where he struggled to see, Ham Song grunted, “What are we saying?”

“I chop! At wood!”

The stadium rumbled with the echoing chorus. Sun Surina along with Dan and Chow joined in.

“Very good! Now the next part –” Sun Chop had his eyes back on the baton. And then, after reading its descent perfectly, he cartwheeled to where it would land.

The staff morphed as it fell, spitting metallic confetti everywhere.

Sun Chop tumbled into one more backflip while everyone else chanted.

“Zheng! Zheng!”

He wrangled a massive pair of shears out of the air, hula-hooping it around his form.

“The Sound!”

A gust of air blew Ham Song back into his seat. Bodhi cursed as their eyes burned with the wave of shredded party paper. Sun Seven simply laughed before coughing on a gust of confetti litter.

“What the hell just happened?” Bodhi demanded to know once they got the bits of trash off of their face.

Seven shook some more dust out of his hair and blinked his blood red eyes. “Nothing by the looks of it, but wait… I feel kind of… different?”

Down on the platform, Sun Chop was already bowing over and over to his audience. Cheers were starting to rise up yet again.

“Look, Chow! I got a mani-pedi!”

“Me too, Dan. I think my eyebrows were waxed as well. Oh, and it looks like Sun Chop cleaned up your sideburns too.”

“Whaaa?”

“Don’t worry, it looks nice.”

“Aww. Th–”

“In fact, I would even go to say that everyone’s looking a bit fresher in the stadium today.”

Bodhi, who was already bald and very good at keeping their own nails filed down for wushu purposes, crossed their arms and snorted at the reality.

“That’s his talent? There’s no way he’s crossing over to the next round.”

“Uhh, I wouldn’t jump the gun just yet, Sifu.” Seven said, stroking the well groomed patch of hair on his chin. “People tend to like this sort of thing.”

Indeed, the judges were nodding and stealing glances of consideration among each other.

Bodhi made a sour face. “If it wasn’t for all of that yapping he did in the beginning – not to mention his flashy outfit – hardly anything he did was actually exciting.”

Ham Song, who was admiring his glossy, freshly scrubbed hide, grunted, “I think you’re just mad that you don’t feel a difference. It probably didn’t work on you since you’re humanae.”

“Check it out,” Seven redirected the monk and the pig’s attention back to the judges, “looks like Sun Chop is moving on to the next round. The judges loved his performance.”

Laozhi actually stood up and waved Sun Surina over to him. When she arrived, he asked for her mic.

“It is important to remember,” the elder sun clone said, “that things wondrous and true can be felt just as easily as they can be seen.”

Then he handed the mic back to Surina and waved her off.

Are you still paying attention, Dear Traveler? I didn’t quit my dream of becoming the next Sevenfold Peach champion just so you could nod off!

It would do you well to remember what the Old Laozhi said.

That what you feel is just as important as what you see.

Even more so, if you ask me.