30.iii The Golden-Hooped Rod of Compliance

~ Sun Ritsu ~

This… this was bad.

Dear Traveler, there is something you should know about our mediocre monkey king before we move forward. It is that he does his best to, at all costs, avoid coming directly in contact with another sun clone.

I mean, you remember what happened at the Peach Festival, don’t you? Those souped-up sun clones walked all over him. He didn’t stand a chance in a conversation against one of them. Could you imagine if he actually had to go head to head with another monkey?

Whenever Sun Ritsu met a clone, he always got the sense that they were sizing him up. He never particularly liked that feeling, Dear Traveler.

This is why Sun Ritsu found himself rapidly spiraling into something close to panic the closer Sun Surina came. The moment his gaze met hers, he knew.

He couldn’t hide from those eyes.

More than any other spirit, sun clones could recognize each other. No matter how thick the glamour. Monkeys could read the rank in another as easily as they could read street signs. And if Sun Surina could see through Ritsu’s glamour, that meant that she could see the secrets that even the Hall of Perfect Light had failed to illuminate.

All Sun Ritsu could do was swallow the lump in his throat and pray that this new monkey spirit wouldn’t give away that which Ritsu had managed to keep hidden this whole time.

But you know what, Dear Traveler? The poor, lawless monkey could pray all he wanted. There was no way it would stop Sailor Sun from taking advantage of the moment when Ritsu became distracted by Bodhi’s outburst.

Ritsu gasped at the sudden explosion of sparkles and glitter. It was just as he feared. When the theatrics cleared and Surina was nowhere to be seen, Ritsu didn’t waste any more time standing around. He snatched the half-empty can of soda pop from Bodhi and chugged it as fast as he could.

“Hey!” Bodhi shrieked, their already rosy complexion deepening in disbelief at Ritsu’s rudeness.

Ritsu ignored them as well as the sharp, burning sensation of the carbonated peach drink going down too fast. The other three spirits were left in a state of confusion. Sun Surina had already put a lot of distance between herself and our spiritual cadre.

When Ritsu finished the last drop of soda, he groaned from the stinging in his throat and gripped the can.

“She stole something from us! I have to…” Ritsu ground out in a voice not quite like his own.

“I hope you’re happy, Sun!” Bodhi whined. “That was the last of my drink! It won’t be enough to put you in the Radiant State, if that’s what you’re trying to do.”

Ritsu stood there with his eyes shut tight, his back hunched and the soda can firmly in his grasp. He gritted his teeth and jerked his head a few times.

“I have to stop her.”

Anari, who had been closely watching Sun Surina escape along the tiers of the distant roller coasters, finally turned her attention back to Ritsu. She placed her hand on the center of his back and tried to comfort him.

“She just took off with your earring, Sun. She didn’t take any of our money.”

A vein popped to the surface of Ritsu’s neck. He jerked his head again.

“Get back.” He said. “Everyone. Get away from me!”

Ritsu’s body temperature shot up so fast that Anari snatched her hand back from his spine. He kept his eyes shut, bent his knees and spread his legs into a deeper stance.

Ritsu opened up his hand to release the soda can, but instead of falling, it floated just above the center of his palm before suddenly shrinking inward. As if crushed by a mighty grip, the empty peach soda can went from a perfect cylinder to a colorful scrap of metal, dented along a thousand creases.

Bodhi didn’t seem to care that some kind of shift was taking place. They still loudly cursed Ritsu for helping himself to their drink.

“Who do you think you are? That was my last sip to enjoy!”

Anari hooked her arms under Bodhi’s and Ham Song hooked his tusk around the monk’s ankle. The two spirits pulled the humanae back just in the nick of time.

Now, Dear Traveler, listen to the next few moments told in verse. Bodhi was correct. That little bit of peach soda was nowhere near enough to engage Sun Ritsu’s Immortal State. But Ritsu didn’t need to go that far…

The ground formed a depression when Sun Ritsu leapt.

A crater of broken concrete where he had once stepped.

Ham Song was the only one would could make out

the insignia of the golden lotus shining, glowing, pulsing

in the center of the monkey’s spine.

Though this was no Immortal State

that monkey king was still so beautiful, so glorious

and so Divine!

He sprung, chest-forward into the air,

using the loops of the coasters to propel himself

closer and closer to that thief on the run.

The locally famous, pretty in pink: Sailor Sun

Anari’s eyes were the only ones keen enough to notice

the sharpening of Ritsu’s ears and canines

Bodhi turned their gaze to the ground to weep

over the crushed can of peach soda.

Nothing else mattered to them,

certainly not the lofty game of cat and mouse

between the two sun clones along the hills and valleys

in the jungle of theme park rides.

Sun Ritsu was so fired up, riding that brief yet intense high,

yet he could not catch up

to the sparkling, swift sun clone ahead.

It seemed the harder he tried,

the more she increased her range.

Finally, so fed up, that monkey king

stretched out his fist,

flashed his sharp teeth,

and spoke the words:

C H A N G E ! ! !