17.ii The Garden of Immortal Peaches

~ Sun Ritsu ~

Ritsu was less interested in the Jade Pool and more at the prospect of holding Anari’s hand again as they strolled through the tranquil enclave. Well, almost tranquil. There was still the knot of sun clones gathered at the wall that divided them from the Garden of Immortal Peaches.

As they walked on in companionable silence, following the aimless yet roughly linear paths taken by the rainbow koi in the pool, Sun Ritsu focused on the peach doll Anari clutched gently to her chest and the weight of the new piercing dangling from his ear.

The monkey edged closer to the spider, wondering how he might find a smooth, effortless way to disengage her glamoured hand from the peach and into his when she came to a stop to admire a turtle on a rock.

“How many provinces in the Ninth Heaven have you been to, Sun?”

He nearly ran into her. “Oh! I – er,” collecting his balance and adding to the space between them, he mumbled, “I’m not quite sure.”

Immediately, he wished he could take the words back. How could a spirit not know where they’ve been? But thankfully, Anari did not hold his lapse in memory against him.

“When you were in the Immortal State,” she said, “you told me that you didn’t know your way around the Ninth Heaven like you used to and that everything here has changed so much.”

Sun Ritsu reached for the peach in his pocket, pulled it out, and rotated it between his fingers. He grunted. “Sounds like something I might say, but I can never tell when I’m loaded up on holy peaches like that.”

Anari’s open, dark gaze left the surface of the pool and settled on him. “Then where would you go in the Ninth Heaven if you had the choice?”

Ritsu let the words out before he could second guess himself. “I’d want to go wherever you go next.”

The spider blinked at him and her glamour flickered.

Hastily, Ritsu added, “What I mean is… do you have a province that you would recommend? Which ones have you been to?”

A band of color faintly darker than Anari’s rich skin tone, edging towards magenta clung just below her eyes as she flicked her wrist and said, “I’ve been all over. For work.” She faltered to carry on the discussion, for which Ritsu wholly blamed himself. He was rotten company.

Before he could apologize for his failure to bring anything to this conversation, the background noise of the sun clones became very urgent foreground noise that demanded all attention.

“What are they getting all worked up for?” Anari muttered under her breath.

The clones, who were already hovering near the gate, were now practically trying to climb over it. They hollered and clobbered each other for purchase up the wall. It was quite the scene watching the outnumbered guards try to hold them back.

The most decorated guard roared at them, “Stay put, you insufferable clones! That side of the gate is for nobles only!”

One of the clones protested, “But we heard them yelling for security! They need our help!”

It was obvious that the clones hardly gave a care for the well being of the nobles. They were intent on proving themselves, using the challenge of a fight to increase their rank.

Some of the shorter clones broke from the crowd to try to find a way around the guards. They spread out across the enclosure, searching for a way to bypass their keepers. One strutted in Ritsu and Anari’s vicinity, stopped, and pointed at Ritsu.

“You! What’s that you’ve got in your hand?”

Ritsu looked down at the glistening immortal peach that was a pear just minutes ago.

Anari elbowed him in the ribs. “Hide that!”

But it was too late. The rogue clone’s eyebrows shot up in recognition. “Where did you get that peach?”

Ritsu froze. Although the other clone did not speak very loudly, somehow the mere mention of an immortal fruit attracted more and more Suns. The fuzzy peach in his possession was blood on the wind and the monkeys were nothing more than starving wolves.