51.ii Wondrous and True

~ Bodhi ~

Everything from the monk’s perspective felt good. Too good. They thought they might pass out from it. Anari — that Anari from several seasons ago who they’d never thought they’d see again was…here with them. Pressing and sweating against Bodhi in this too hot shower with all of these overgrown houseplants right on the other side of the curtain, just ogling despite them having no eyes.

Afterwards, Bodhi took a seat on the bench protruding from the tub, trying to catch their breath while Anari rinsed off. Soon she was handing them the soap, and then bending down to kiss them again while they lathered their hands and tried their damndest to breathe through the heat.

“How bad do I smell?” they asked when they were back on their feet, running circles over Anari’s warm skin. “Because once upon a time, you said I smelled like a wet frog.”

If Anari was guilty of it, she didn’t show it. Smiling through Bodhi’s well-timed touch, she said, “You don’t smell like that anymore. Now it’s more like… average everyday sweat, the cotton in your clothes…” Two of her arms brought the monk in by the waist, kissing them more deliberately. “The rice you ate this morning.”

“What do proper spirits smell like then? I wouldn’t know.”

Bodhi only knew the scent of sudden spiritual abnormalities, like the tiny plague that rooted in Ham Song’s essence and Ritsu’s sudden flares of Immortal awareness. While older, more permanent spiritual imprints often went unnoticed by them.

Bodhi’s hands slowed down, lingering in the places where they knew the spider needed them the most.

“The smell of a spirit is…” Anari hummed. “Heaven and earth… sometimes the sea.” She caught their lips in another restless kiss, as if determined not to breathe a sigh or any other needy sound.

Bodhi made a satisfied sound. “I think you’re clean.” They whispered something else after that. A question or a gentle taunt. Whatever it was, it made Anari chuckle and nod. From there, the steam in the room intensified as Bodhi made their way south, onto their knees.

They were happy with it this time, to be looking up at the spider.

.

.

.

“What’s that up there?” Bodhi asked once they were both back in the main part of Anari’s paper space. She tracked the monk’s gaze towards the dark concave ceiling where a trapdoor and braided rope of spider silk dangled.

“That’s my lair.”

Bodhi went to work on making a fresh cup of tea for them both. “Right. Because you’re a spider and an assassin. Of course you need a private lair to do your business.”

Anari shrugged, her bones clicking from the movement. “That’s correct.”

The two spirits got serious once they were sitting with their tea on the assemblage of layered rugs and scattered floor cushions.

“So what are we up against exactly?” Bodhi said. Then they emphasized, “You don’t have to be dodgy about it anymore, Legs. Whatever you tell me, I won’t hold it against you.”

At the time, they had been too preoccupied with their addiction to care how Anari behaved in certain conversations. Now all of those things they had noticed were coming together in the realization that Anari was working for someone very, very bad.

Anari thanked Bodhi for understanding before going into the details. “My employer is named Sun Bai. He’s a very powerful esper and martial artist.”

The esper thing was way out of Bodhi’s capacity for dealing with, but the martial arts was where they could possibly prepare for an attack.

“What’s his specialty?”

“He knows Northern mantis style. He only engages when he really wants to do the kind of damage that can’t be undone.”

Anari spent the next few minutes describing Bai’s psychic signature and what it felt like when he was in your head. She instructed Bodhi on how to keep their mind blank and protect their most private thoughts.

Bodhi looked down at their tea. “Sounds like you’ve had to do that a lot.”

“Only recently. He’s quite paranoid right now, so he’s checking more. I think it also pissed him off that I was seeing someone over my last vacation.”

Bodhi looked up. “Are you two…?”

Anari took a sip of tea and looked out the window where the mouth of a cave seemed to materialize around the outside of the arching panes.

“We used to be, a long time ago. Bai wants to believe he has some hold over me.” She shook her head. “I play along because it’s easier that way.”

A wrinkle formed in Bodhi’s brow. The way Anari so casually spoke about this ticking time bomb scared them. “Legs… do you have a way out?”

Anari didn’t answer right away. She simply watched the sea level rise and water drip down from the cavern ceiling through the window. “I don’t know, Bodhi. Even if there is a chance that I can get free of Sun Bai, there are things that I have to do first.”

What those things were, the spider did not care to elaborate.

By the end of the conversation, Anari and Bodhi had both agreed that Ritsu should hold off on activating the Golden-Hooped Rod of Compliance’s true form.

“It shouldn’t be that hard. He can’t get there without his Immortal State, and that’s banned anyway.” Then Bodhi suddenly remembered to ask, “How does your boss know that the staff is still in Kawaii Village, anyway?”

Anari told them about Bai having a spirit on the inside. She hadn’t been able to figure out who, but she brought up Sun Surina’s name as a possible candidate.

Bodhi came swiftly to Surina’s defense, saying that they didn’t think it could be her. Or rather, they found it too hard to imagine it. What with Suri going out of her way to help them out so many times.

“But if it’s someone who has been close to us and knows about the staff’s capabilities, it might be…”

Seven?

Bodhi worked their jaw. True, Seven had never seen the Golden-Hooped Rod in its true form, but that good for nothing gold-toothed grifter had sat in on too many conversations. Bodhi had never minced their words around him and neither had Ritsu or the pig.

“I think I know where to start looking,” Bodhi said.

Right before Bodhi was about to leave, they wondered if they should mention what Ritsu had told them earlier.

But it was Anari who didn’t let them leave without asking, “How is he?”

Great Sage, she can’t say his name either.

Bodhi wanted to erase the guilt from her conscience. They could even tell how hard it was for Anari to ask them in the first place.

“When we first started training, I asked Ritsu where he draws the will to do the impossible. He mentioned you.”

The spider looked both thankful and regretful at the information. Her eight arms broke through her glamour to hug herself, or rather… to hold herself together.

“I’m not saying you have to talk to him, but if you don’t want us to lose, then maybe you should consider giving him a sign. Anything to let him know that you care enough to see him get to the top. It could make all the difference.”

“I think seeing me would disrupt his game completely,” Anari whispered. “I don’t want to hurt him anymore.”

Bodhi wasn’t good at comforting people, but they reached up anyway to drag a tear away from the corner of Anari’s eye.

“It would definitely cause a disruption in our handsome monkey king,” they said. “Not the one that you would expect. Or any of us for that matter.”