53.ii Nebula's Parting

~ Ham Song ~

“You really got me good there, Sifu,” Seven said brightly as he dabbed his nose with the collar of his jacket. “You gotta teach me how to do that.”

“Sure thing,” Bodhi replied. “You can practice on Ham Song until you get the hang of it.”

The both of them laughed, but Ham Song ignored them because he knew Seven wouldn’t dare. He ended up falling asleep beside the water while the monk and the sun clone swapped trivia about the tournament contestants and threw out predictions on how each of them would approach the trial.

At one point Seven went back to repurchase some sandwiches. When he returned, Ham Song lifted his head from the shore of the pool and asked, “Where did Sun Ritsu say he was going today?”

Bodhi shrugged. “He hadn’t made up his mind the last I saw him. He’s probably back at the hotel by now.”

Seven suggested that they go to meet him so they could all share dinner. Of course, Ritsu wasn’t at the hotel, which made Ham Song break out into a sweat.

“We should look for him,” Ham Song said, already marching towards the sliding doors. Bodhi caught up to him and dragged him back by the porky scruff of his neck.

“Heel, old man. The sun hasn’t even set yet.”

Ham Song was patient enough to wait for the sun to go down, but as soon as the last of the light disappeared from the sky, he was back on his feet again.

“See there? The sun’s down and Ritsu hasn’t shown up. Let’s go look for him. Now.”

And look for Ritsu they did, Dear Traveler. They looked for him high and low all over the hotel. They even made a trip all the way to the Lunch Hero to expand their search.

It was only with the help of Ham Song’s nose and a lot of Luck that they were able to find poor Ritsu still in his semi-coma stranded in the middle of the theme park. The three spirits had a rough time making their way through what appeared to be an endless graveyard of abandoned cheeseburgers. Bodhi was leading the charge, sifting through the burger-infested darkness like one possessed.

“He’s unconscious.” Bodhi dropped to their knees and dug Ritsu out from underneath a mound of patties and buns.

“Ritsu! Ritsu!” The monk rasped desperately as they flipped Ritsu onto his back and smacked his cheeks a few times. “Wake up! You gotta wake up!”

Horrified by the sight of his sweet monkey king’s head lolling from side to side, Ham Song kicked his back legs as hard as he could until he reached them both.

“That’s it!” Bodhi cried the moment Ritsu let out a groan. “Stay with me, okay?”

With Seven’s help, they hauled Sun Ritsu up onto his feet. With one arm wrapped around the monk’s neck and the other around his sponsor’s, Ritsu was brought back to the hotel. Neither spirit complained about Ritsu’s dead weight or the fact that they had to walk several miles to their destination.

Ham Song followed behind feeling helpless and worried beyond belief.

He dug his hooves in the meat under him and grinded his teeth. “What kind of soulless degenerate would do this to him? And on the day before his match? Villains!”

“Shut up, Ham Song. Just shut up!” Bodhi grunted under Ritsu’s weight. “Didn’t you see all those patties? They were lunch heroes. No one did anything to Ritsu. He went overboard on himself.”

“Hey, you two. Don’t start!” Seven snapped. “This can wait until we get Ritsu in his room and cleaned up. Plus, we can’t be drawing so much attention to ourselves out here in these kawaii streets, if you catch my drift.”

Ham Song bit back his retort because Sun Seven was right. Carrying an unconscious companion through the Province in the dark of night was probably something that was likely to result in some form of punishment.

For the rest of the walk, Ham Song kept his thoughts to himself. As much as he wanted answers, he didn’t like the idea of disturbing Ritsu’s chances to rest just to figure out what happened. But what choice did they have?

The Sevenfold Peach was happening tomorrow.