64. Wake to Sagehood; Increase Sevenfold

I gotta be honest, Dear Traveler, I was not expecting for Sailor Sun to show up like that. I mean, just imagine how freaked out Anari must have been to learn that Surina’s people had eyes on her as well.

As for whether Surina is truly a threat to Anari, of that I am not really sure…

Whatever the case may be, if Sun Ritsu was an intelligent spirit, he could use the tension between Surina and Anari’s employer to his advantage. He could secure protection for himself as long as whatever this Sun Yugo was asking for wasn’t too costly.

Have I ever heard of Sun Yugo, you ask? That’s a good question, Dear Traveler, but no. I’m not familiar with that name.

Now! Enough of all this pondering. We need to move on.

… What do you mean you’re not ready to move on? More questions. Sweet immortal peaches, what are they?

Oh. You want to talk about the monk, huh. There’s not much to say. Between Lucky Dungeon and the pamphlet from their parole officer, there’s one too many secrets Bodhi has chosen to guard from Sun Ritsu. Still, what with Ritsu needing to focus on the competition, I’m sure the monk’s heart is in the right place.

Yes, that’s right. According to Bodhi’s old cellmate, Billie the Shiba Inu, her prototype game program is designed much like a paper space. However, one key fact about paper spaces is that they cannot be moved whenever occupied. If something is forceful enough to make a paper space collapse, that would mean all who reside in would perish.

The monk, it would seem, wonders whether this is true for this new technology surrounding Lucky Dungeon. Billie had told Bodhi that if they were in a tight spot, they could start the game and be safe inside until they beat it. Was she taking into account the program’s ability to be moved without explicitly expressing this to the monk? Well, I believe you can think for yourself, Dear Traveler.

As for the continuation of construction projects fueled by Next Dimension, I don’t think Bodhi is necessarily wrong for withholding this information. Because if Sun Ritsu wins the Sevenfold Peach, then it won’t matter anyway. Bodhi would be free to leave. And so, from Bodhi’s perspective, what good would it do to come clean to Ritsu about such a thing?

To spare his feelings should he find out some other way?

I suppose you have a point there, Dear Traveler.

Like I said before, it doesn’t do us any good to sit around speculating about what the monk will or won’t do.

Let’s get this story going again in order to see for ourselves.

Sun Ritsu

The Fry Cook Hero’s body was standing just outside of his hotel, but his mind was elsewhere – back at the Heavenly River.

Sun Ritsu remembered how in the moment he smelled the rush of seawater, his mouth had called out for the Spider. Even though he knew that she wasn’t there. She couldn’t be. Whatever he saw dashing out from under the streetlamp was probably some homeless spirit who wanted to be left alone.

So Ritsu left his jacket behind just in case it might come in handy for whoever needed it. There was no harm done.

As it was, Ritsu did not want to walk into the hotel and have his friends see him brooding over a broken heart. Truth be told, he was otherwise genuinely happy with how things were going and wanted to appear to be in good spirits for his friends’ sake.

Ritsu could hear the growing voices of Ham Song and Sun Seven as he approached the room where they said they would all meet up.

That’s when our hero noticed someone else coming down the hallway from the opposite direction.

Bodhi the Monk rounded the corner with flushed skin, a damp towel around their neck, and a set of monastic robes hanging loosely about their frame.

Ritsu noticed that Bodhi’s torso was wrapped in strips of gauzy cloth. This wouldn’t have been strange if not for the fact that their arms were covered in it too, as well as each of their fingers.

Bodhi, whose keen gray eyes missed nothing, caught wind of the confusion in Ritsu’s expression.

“I was training.” they said, as if answering an unspoken question.

Though Ritsu knew Bodhi to be a fully realized martial artist, he’d never seen them train on their own a single day since they met.

“What for?” Ritsu asked, genuinely curious.

Bodhi gripped the ends of the towel and averted their eyes. “What do you mean, what for? Pft. It’s none of your business.” And then, to take the sting out of their words, Bodhi added, “Congrats on the win, by the way.”

“Thanks,” Ritsu said, not quite satisfied with leaving the initial line of conversation alone, but not sure how to pull the answers he wanted out of the monk.

Student and mentor came to a stop before the door. Neither one seemed eager to open it yet. And based on the oinking and egregiously loud talking, Seven and Ham Song had no idea that their friends were just on the other side.

“Disappeared again after the trial, huh?” Bodhi said with a dull smirk. “Can’t be bothered with us these days. At least not until you run off and do whatever the hell it is you do.”

And just like that, Dear Traveler, the sting was back.

Ritsu’s first instinct was to defend himself, but Bodhi wasn’t sticking around to hear his excuse. The monk’s hand went for the doorknob but…

… Ritsu’s hand got there first.

Ritsu secured his grip around the door handle and blocked Bodhi’s path with a subtle shift of his weight.

“Where do you think I was?”

Ritsu wasn’t sure if Bodhi was looking up at him in anger or shock, but he was sure that he was throwing his mentor off.

A muscle in Bodhi’s jaw flexed before they replied, “I don’t know. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it was under another contestant’s roof.”

Suddenly Ritsu understood. He let go of the door.

“You’re upset because I didn’t tell you where I really was during the intermission.”

Bodhi sneered at the word upset, back to their usual air of as if they could give a damn. Still, with the way the monk broke eye contact, Ritsu was sure that was it.

“I... I did go to see Zhaoling yesterday–”

“Huh.” Bodhi snorted, failing miserably at masking the depth of their disapproval.

“But I wasn’t with him tonight. Okay?” Ritsu fired back, hoping Bodhi would believe him and just calm down for now.

As if realizing that they might have been overreacting, Bodhi gave a half shrug before brushing Ritsu out of their way.

“The Barefoot Sun is your opponent, Ritsu. Please don’t forget that. I know I once said that you could learn from him, but he’s learning from you too.”

Ritsu almost laughed. “I doubt that.”

“Well, don’t.” That authoritative edge was back in Bodhi’s voice. “Sun Zhaoling doesn’t strike me as the type to let a potential chance for enlightenment to go unmarked. He’s studying you, Ritsu. Every time you get his attention, he’s taking notes.”

“Equal to Heaven!” Sun Seven hollered from one of the TV chairs, “why is it taking you two a whole cycle through the Lake just to walk through that sweet immortal door!”

Both Ritsu and Bodhi dropped the subject so they could have a nice evening with the rest of Team Lemon Lime.

As he entered the room, Sun Ritsu noticed how quiet Ham Song had gotten. The pig was tracking him with his dark, flinty eyes, suggesting that he had heard the tail end of that tense conversation.

Great, Ritsu thought. Just what I need. Another lecture.

Thankfully, Ham Song had the tact to save his grievances for later. And even if he hadn’t, Sun Seven wasn’t letting anyone change the course of his own agenda.

“An interview is so close I can practically smell it!” Seven’s zeal that night was particularly over the top as he paraded around the latest edition of Upward Dog Magazine.

Bodhi was already reaching into the minifridge for a peach soda pop. They asked, “What makes you think they would want to do a feature with us?”

“Are you kidding me, Sifu? Upward Dog lives for fresh juicy upsets like Ritsu. They haven’t landed a story like that in ages!”

Eventually Seven stopped waving around the magazine and actually went into detail about the most recent article on Sparkplug. It mostly covered details on how he had been losing support in his fanbase and how his recent performance caused an uproar among some of his diehards.

“They want him to dye his hair white as an apology.”

“Why white?” Ritsu asked.

“Because sparks – lightning. Duh!”

Ritsu shook his head as he sat down in one of the TV chairs and helped himself to the Lunch Hero takeout Seven brought.

“Right before his trial,” Ritsu said, “it seemed all Spark could worry about was upsetting his fans.”

The sun clone continued his tale about how he and the other two graduates from Sheer Will Academy struggled to help Sparkplug calm down. Seven threw out his opinions on what might be in store for Sun Shan now that he was out of the competition.

Everyone dug into the packages of lunch heroes and fries while they speculated the next phase of the championship. Bodhi said it was time to talk strategy even though the tournament coordinators were keeping them in the dark for the next few days.

The monk pointed out that since Ritsu knew how to build up his qi, it was now time to focus on regulating it, especially when under pressure.

“Basically, you can’t blow your top off every time you cross paths with a helpless degenerate,” Ham Song grunted.

Bodhi said, “A little harsh, but the pig is right.”

“It’s getting late,” Sun Seven interrupted. “Time for you lovely people to leave my room. I need to wake up bright and early so I can sell the rest of these t-shirts!”

“How did you make those so fast anyway?” Ham Song grunted.

Seven sang ah-ah-ah and with a wag of his finger, reminded the pig that a business man never gave away his secrets.

On the way out, Ritsu asked Ham Song if he wanted to hit up the Lunch Hero with him for breakfast.

“Hamburgers and fries first thing in the morning?” Ham Song pondered for only a moment. “Count me in, benevolent monkey.”

Once the pig parted ways with Ritsu and Bodhi, the strange tension that had been growing between them started creeping back again.

Ritsu had to admit that going to bed with Bodhi was becoming harder and harder. For reasons he still couldn’t grasp.

When the two spirits reached their shared hotel room, Ritsu fished a key from the pocket of his joggers and tossed it to Bodhi.

The monk awkwardly caught the key before arching an eyebrow at Ritsu.

“You said that I needed rest. Now you don’t have to worry about waking me when you’re coming and going from your own training sessions.”

Bodhi blinked a few times. Gripping the small brass key between their taped fingers, they whispered, “These go to the room I was supposed to have?”

Ritsu turned slightly away from Bodhi. “I don’t want to ask if I can trust you. Please…” Ritsu pulled out his own set of keys and began working them into the lock. “Don’t make me feel stupid for believing in that trust.”

Bodhi was quiet. Even when Ritsu looked back for some kind of confirmation, they said nothing. Only when he sighed and pushed the door in, did he hear them say, “A parole officer caught me on the way back from the restroom today. He said I’m automatically signed up to work on construction… for more of those bridges.”

A painful iciness took root in Ritsu’s gut and flooded his veins. He turned, fighting back the horror that threatened to overwhelm him.

“So don’t lose sleep over me, Ritsu. I haven’t forgotten why we’re here.”

Ritsu felt the ice in his blood boil into something he couldn’t suppress. He gripped the doorframe.

“Bodhi. We’re leaving. We can’t stay here.”

“We’re going to finish this competition,” Bodhi said with a deliberate calmness that only worsened Ritsu’s reaction.

He did not feel his legs give out from under him.

When did Bodhi move, Ritsu wondered. It all happened so fast. How long had the monk’s hand been leaning against his chest, supporting his weight?

“Shit,” Bodhi breathed, guiding our hero against the doorframe. “This is why I didn’t want to tell you. You take things too hard, Sun Ritsu.”

Then Bodhi made it clear. It was their will to stay. To stay and fight in the Sevenfold Peach.

“You believe in me, right?” Bodhi asked, the heel of their palm ever gauging the tempo of Ritsu’s racing heart.

Head tilted back and eyes closed against his battle with the debilitating panic, Ritsu managed a small nod.

“Well the same is true for me.” Their voice hitched. “I believe in this Fry Cook Hero standing before me.”

Ritsu tried to sink to the floor.

“Nuh-uh! Gettup!”

Bodhi heaved the tall sun clone back upright and shook him once so he would open his eyes.

“Sun Ritsu, I believe in your game. Today you showed us all how deep down you know that you can take this Sevenfold Peach. And now I can’t get it out of my head. I see it happening no other way.”

In this current moment, Ritsu didn’t see it Bodhi’s way. In fact, Dear Traveler, our hero saw mostly failure – some inevitable idiotic mistake he would most definitely make along the way.

But the ice was subsiding in his veins now that he knew that Bodhi truly believed in him.

It at least felt good to know that the monk felt that way.

Bodhi stayed with Ritsu until he didn’t need their help standing up anymore. Then they left and Ritsu went to bed alone.

Our hero still believed that Bodhi would not relapse that night, but he suddenly wondered why he had sent them away.

He laid down and hugged himself like the jacket he had given up for a ghost Spider. Then he pressed his hand to his heart like the Monk had. He held it there, imagining not one, but two essences. Burning for them, he was. For things beyond what any single spirit deserved.

All night, that monkey king burned, Dear Traveler.

And still, the bed was too cold for him.