19.ii Ripe Peach Mountain

~ Sun Ritsu ~

The hollow eyes of the skeleton spirit waxed as Sun Ritsu approached his booth with an ornate serving tray of roasted duck.

Collecting himself and sharpening his knives with a little more gusto, the skeleton grunted, “So I take it you found your sweet little ham alive, then?”

Ritsu nodded with a smile. “Yes. We were able to save him in time. Truthfully, I had nothing to do with it. The monk that sold the pig to you was the hero in the end. They swiped this on their way out.”

Ritsu offered up the plate, but the skeleton spirit did not reach for it right away. In fact, he seemed to recoil at the boon. He did, however, pause in the sharpening of his knives.

“What are you holding that up for, monkey? I’ve had my fill of debts. Don’t need another one.”

Ritsu chuckled. “This isn’t a deal. Just a gift. No strings, I promise.”

The skeleton spirit snorted. “You expect me to believe that a sun clone would just hand over a fully intact caramelized barbecued duck for me to slice up and sell to the general public? With that I could make a tiny fortune. Surely you’ll want a share.”

Sun Ritsu sighed. “I wanted to get my pig back, Mr. Skeleton Man. And I did. You shouldn’t have to sacrifice so much to earn the right to stand here and butcher meat. That’s not fair.” Tired of arguing, Sun Ritsu dropped the plate on the spirit’s work station. Then he added, “It’s your duck now. Enjoy the rest of the festival.”

The monkey turned his back on the gawking butcher.

“Strange, benevolent monkey.”

Ritsu looked over his shoulder.

The skeleton set down his knives and sighed. “Pardon my rudeness, but your actions betray your essence. Never have I seen one of your kind go so far to help someone else. You know not the gratitude I feel for you and your humanae friend. This act of kindness is more than you can even…” He struggled to find the right words. “Sun, you are... Equal to Heaven.”

Ritsu grinned softly as he shrugged. “No, sir. I’m just a monkey.”