36.i Like Scooping the Moon from the Water

~ Bodhi ~

Bodhi wasn’t sure why the pig and the village thief had decided to pay them a visit.

“Looking for Sun Ritsu?” Bodhi held up the mostly empty Lunch Hero bag and gave it a shake. “Well, you just missed him.”

Ham Song grunted something unkind under his breath and refused to look Bodhi in the eye.

Sun Surina poked the pig’s butt with the end of her scepter and said, “Ham Song actually came by to see you, Bodhi. I was just giving him a lift.”

Bodhi raised their eyebrows. “What, pig? Did you come all the way out here to tell me that it’s my fault Ritsu got stuck working a job that’s beneath him?”

Ham Song rolled his eyes and snorted. “No. Though that definitely sounds like something I would say.”

Sun Surina looked back and forth between the pig and the monk a few times before taking a deep breath and saying, “I’ll give you two some privacy. Oh, and uh, no hard feelings about the whole trying to swipe Ritsu’s staff thing, right?”

Before either spirit could respond, Suri skipped away to go admire a piece of teddy bear decor.

Ham Song sheepishly approached the monk, who slowly rose to their feet.

“Have you by any chance heard about this?” Ham Song lifted his hoof where the tournament flyer was still attached.

Bodhi bent down in order to gently peel it off. “No. Unfortunately, this is jail. They don’t tell us anything except which motivational speakers are presenting during our mandatory circle time.”

The monk shifted their focus to the flyer, their detached gray gaze absorbing all of the information. After a while, they voiced what was important.

“Eight hundred thousand cash grand prize, huh?”

Ham Song got right down to it. “Ritsu refuses to be convinced. He won’t listen to me!” The pig shook his head and hunkered down on a strawberry-shaped pillow. “Come to think of it, getting Sun Ritsu to agree to anything these days… it’s like scooping the moon from the water. Damned impossible!”

Bodhi tried to stifle their snort, but the pig jerked his head up at the dismissal. “Don’t laugh.”

The monk took a seat on the floor with their back against the wall of whimsical painted murals. They propped an arm on their knee and studied the flyer some more.

“You say the most outdated things, pig.”

Ham Song opened his mouth to deliver his plea, but Bodhi beat him to it.

“If you couldn’t convince our handsome monkey king to enter this tournament, what makes you think that I can?” Bodhi gently set the flyer on the floor. “You know he doesn’t take well to stuff like this.”

Ham Song wrinkled his snout. “Stuff like what?”

Bodhi gestured at nothing in particular. “Rivalry and fighting to increase his rank. You know, stuff that puts him in close proximity to other Suns.” They glanced meaningfully at Sun Surina, who was still enjoying her gallery walk around the nursery-style prison cell. Then they looked back at the pig. “I have no business telling Ritsu what he should do with his time. He’s trying to work off my debt for crying out loud.”

“Did you know that you could apply for a pardon?”

Bodhi and Ham Song both turned their heads at the interruption. Suri approached with her hands folded behind her back. Matter of factly, she explained, “If your friend Ritsu has any hope of getting his application approved for the tourney, he’s going to need a sponsor and a trainer. Sponsors are not that hard to come by. At least not a novice if you’re looking to start small. But as for a trainer, Bodhi, you could do it. You’re learned in martial arts, correct?”

Bodhi stared blankly at Surina for a moment before saying, “Yeah, I am, but how–”

“That pardon I was talking about,” Suri said with a smile, “it applies to you. If you volunteer as Sun Ritsu’s trainer, there’s a strong chance that the court judge will pardon your sentence.”

Ham Song and Bodhi shot each other incredulous glances and blurted why at the same time.

Suri chuckled. “Because it’s the Sevenfold Peach Championship and it’s good for business.” The sun clone twirled her scepter and tapped her chin with it. “I could also put in a word to speed up the process.”

Yes, Dear Traveler, Suri’s status as a local pop idol even gave her sway in the Kawaii Village judicial system. It isn’t that just absurd.

It’s all so likely in fact that in less than a half hour, Bodhi was standing before a judge, holding up their right hand swearing in the name of Downright Adorability that they would fulfill their duty as loyal trainer to Sun Ritsu in the Sevenfold Peach Championship.

Now all that was left to do was to convince Ritsu to actually compete in the damn thing. Or else it was back to jail for Bodhi, with triple the punishment this time.

I know that’s harsh and doesn’t make sense. Don’t ask me to explain the Kawaii Village penitentiary code to you, Dear Traveler. Everything there is crazy, okay?

Anyway, the three spirits were off to convince Ritsu, which is… better easier said than done. Especially with Bodhi feeling responsible for this whole mess, even if they didn’t say so aloud. Even if they were defensive or in denial about it. Truth be told, they were in emotional shambles. Thanks to the detoxing phase that came free with their intake at the Kawaii Correctional Facility, Bodhi was as dry as a bone and unwillingly receptive to the brunt of their feelings.

All of their shame. Their guilt.

No, no. This debt that they had with Sun Ritsu would not be easy for them to pay off. Master of kung fu, they were, yes. They could train Ritsu. But apologizing and owning up to the guilt… that wasn’t the monk’s forte.