49.ii Wondrous and True

~ Bodhi ~

Bodhi sat alone in a booth, lost deep in thought despite the high energy atmosphere within the Lunch Hero. The monk was staring straight ahead out the far window that overlooked the parking lot. Their soft drink was left untouched. What they really wanted was some hot tea, but they knew that wasn’t something that they could get here.

Bodhi’s light gray eyes may have been fixed on the window, but their mind was elsewhere. Specifically, in the kitchen where Ritsu had mesmerized them with the way he commanded the grill.

Damn. Even before I ate the food, I was under his spell.

Sun Ritsu had even synced up his breathing to go with his movements, making each one of those impressive patty flips all the more divine.

So he understands breath control. That’ll make things easier going forward.

Bodhi remembered the buns being suspended in midair while all of the dressings and amendments fell into place. Even through all of that, they noticed that Ritsu had his eyes closed the entire time.

Bodhi needed to find a way to get Ritsu to tap into that state again. Without the crutch of the kitchen and the routine of his old job.

That’s when someone tapped on the monk’s shoulder.

Bodhi blinked and glanced over to the right to see who had broken their concentration.

A canary spirit wearing the mustard yellow Lunch Hero uniform made an apologetic gesture and asked, “Um, you said that you and Ritsu didn’t have a place to train, right? Does it have to be somewhere really big?”

Bodhi turned to face the spirit better. “No, why?”

The canary spirit led the monk to the Lunch Hero rooftop. Up there, the surface was packed with gravel and jets of smoke funneled out from the metal chimneys. It smelled of asphalt and over-processed starches, but the breeze at this level was nice and the sky was clear.

“I already asked our manager if it was okay. Will this be–”

“It’s perfect,” Bodhi whispered, already taking in all that the space had to offer.

When that crazy work shift was over, Bodhi dragged Ritsu up to the roof and said, “Get a load of your new training ground.”

Ritsu’s glamour momentarily dissolved as he inhaled the air of his new surroundings. A sharp wave of peach soda pop rolled off his skin, the scent of which caught Bodhi a little off guard. The sun clone flashed his simian fangs in a hopeful smile.

Good, Bodhi thought, steadying themself under Ritsu’s sudden burst of spiritual pressure. He likes the idea of training so close to the Lunch Hero.

“What made you pick this spot, Bodhi?” Ritsu asked, his tone curious and his features wiped clean of the spike in excitement just moments before.

Bodhi patted the rough edge of the building. “You can absorb all the natural energy you want up here. That paper space back at the stadium wasn’t designed to let you do that. But here you’ve got it all – the wind, the energy of traffic, and the sun. You’ll have water from days that it rains and wood from the paper trash rolling around or sitting in waste baskets.” They walked up to Ritsu and pressed a finger to his chest. “You can transform that energy into qi and store it for later.”

“I’ve heard of qi before,” Ritsu said quickly. “It’s like vital energy, right? Everything has qi.”

Bodhi looked pleased. “Right. That’s one way to think of it. Qi is going to be your resource for the next trial. You’ll draw on that to make your flashy thing. The more qi you have stored up, the more options you’ll have. And listen here, Sun Ritsu!”

Ritsu straightened his spine. Even though the top of Bodhi’s head only came to the middle of his chest, he gave them his full attention.

“You better take this seriously because the other contestants can do this stuff in their sleep and probably even when they’re awake and walking around too. They’re light years ahead of you in terms of their spiritual awareness. You got that?”

Ritsu swallowed. “Yes, Sifu.”

Bodhi ignored the flutter in their lower belly at the title. Even though Seven called them Sifu all the time, it felt very different coming from Ritsu.

The monk decided to back off before Ritsu’s carbonated scent made them sneeze.

“Go sit there on that ledge and cross your legs butterfly style. Best way to start storing up qi is through meditation.”

Ritsu obeyed, but not before calling out the honorific again. The fluttering was back and Bodhi was afraid this was not going to be a one time thing.

Trying not to take their agitation out on Ritsu, Bodhi showed the sun clone how to spend the next few minutes breathing and absorbing the natural transference of energy from the environment.

Once Ritsu was all squared away, he said in the middle of his meditation, “Bodhi? Can I ask you a question?”

“What is it?”

The monkey opened his eyes, but kept his gaze soft and overlooking the parking lot.

“Do you think I’m cool?”

Another wave passed over the spirits, but this time it was wind. A swirl of old salt crystals and dust leftover from straw sleeves and ketchup packets got kicked up in the breeze, winding a path around Ritsu’s seated form and sweeping his hair to one side.

Over the sudden wind, Bodhi found their voice.

“I think…”

That stupid feeling was back. Like a sweet, tangled knot of fuzz where there should be none.

They took a step closer. “I think you need to stop wasting time,” they snatched a cluster of salty crumbs flying by Ritsu’s ear, “and breathe in some of this damn trash so you can have something halfway decent to show those judges two weeks from now!”

Ritsu nodded so hard, he almost made himself go over the edge of the building. “Right! S-sorry about that, Sifu.”

The sun clone righted himself and went back to meditating. Bodhi stared at the monkey’s back, their expression growing dark as they forcefully channeled the fuzzy tangled feeling from before into something strong enough to pulverize the crumbs they were holding into a fine sand.

Bodhi let the sand seep out from their fist and onto the wind. They exhaled and relaxed a bit. The feeling had passed, but the monk’s heart was still pounding a little too hard for their liking.