Anari hoped that Bodhi got her message.

When the monk showed up at her paper space, they greeted her with, "Hey, you kind of suck at drawing maps. You know that?"

Sweet immortal peaches, it was nice to hear Bodhi's voice again. Not that they would know, but after spending so many seasons on edge at New Dimension, Anari welcomed the monk's familiar presence.

"I didn't think you were going to come."

"Yeah I can tell." Bodhi walked around the space. "You don't really clean up for guests, huh?"

The monk seemed intrigued by Anari's high ceiling and freakishly tall windows. The width of the space was actually narrow, taking on the interior of a small studio apartment. The kitchen merged with the bedroom. There was a single piece of furniture, a wooden bunk bed with an oversized futon on the bottom. Thanks to the piles of laundry and other personal clutter, there was really nowhere to sit.

There wasn't much room for Anari to run either, but she managed to sidestep the monk when they tried getting closer.

"What? Do I stink or something?" Bodhi asked as they craned their neck to scrutinize a lump of amethyst hanging from the deep ceiling.

Anari drew her hands up to her chest, cracking the fine bones in her knuckles. "No, but my boss might be wondering why I smell like humanae later on. So you'd better keep your distance."

Bodhi shot her a look that said how lame of an excuse they thought that was.

"What's he got against humans?"

Anari wished the monk would just drop it. "Nothing, but. My boss... he's very dangerous, Bodhi. If possible, you have to pull out of the tournament."

Bodhi snorted. "Can't do that. Ritsu's doing it for me. It would be like a slap in the face at this point."

Anari figured Bodhi would say something like that, but she had to try anyway. A dying sun blared its light rays through the window panes, throwing dark sunset notes across Bodhi's features.

"You seem different," Anari said, noting the clarity in Bodhi's eyes and lack of swagger in their movements. She finally shook out enough nerves to get down to making some tea for them like a proper host.

"That's because I'm as dry as a bone." They didn't sound all that happy about it.

Anari turned her back to them so she could put the kettle on. "Are you going to stay that way?"

"You know that's the last thing you should ask an alcoholic, right?"

The spider reached for a cup in her cupboard. "Wet or dry, you're still a bald pain in the ass."

Bodhi laughed pretty hard. "Don't look so proud of yourself, Legs. That was mean."

Anari could hear the monk trying to approach her again. She dodged them a second time, guilt knotting her gut because she'd thought they'd be over her by now. She called Bodhi here to warn them, not to continue whatever it was they had back at on the ferry crossing the Heavenly River.

"Oh, come on." Bodhi groaned under their breath.

Anari decided to simply ignore the tension between them. "You have to hide the true nature of the Golden-Hooped Rod. Bai wants it for himself."

Bodhi's freckled features turned defensive. "What?"

Anari explained, "And as soon as this tournament is over, get as far away from the Rabbit and Dog Provinces as you can. Take everyone else with you. And stay low."

When the water kettle clicked off, it was Bodhi who poured their own tea. "What are you, my parole officer?"

Anari took a step closer. "I'm serious." Then she had to dodge the monk again.

Talk to them. Talk to them and make them leave. Don't make them stay. Don't. Don't.

Finally, the saboteur spoke up, (If you mean it, then do it! Kick them out! But you can't. You knew you wouldn't be able to before they even showed up. You cannot lie.)

Bodhi definitely noticed the turmoil going on in Anari, what with her glamour refusing to stay put.

"Legs, what the heck are you so on edge about? Isn't this your paper space?"

Bodhi moved in again. This time Anari didn't dart. The monk whispered, "I want to show you something."

Anari's head was swimming with memory and longing. She couldn't have what was there before. She shouldn't. She shouldn't.

She fumbled for excuses, turned her back again. "B-Bodhi, your scent is too strong. My boss—"

Softly, Bodhi said, "Then take a shower after."

"After?" Anari's braids whistled as she spun around to face the human. "After what?"

Despite the spider spirit's mandibles clicking above Bodhi's vision, the monk smiled hopefully. "Can't you just wash the smell of me off when we're done talking? I'll even help you."

Anari consciously put her glamour back together and chuckled. "After we talk?" She closed the gap between herself and the monk, cupping their face and gently kissing that annoying mouth just to shut them up. Bodhi returned the spider's kiss, tentatively, as if they were remembering how to do so.

The kiss turned into slow, uncoordinated movement towards the washroom.

When Anari's back brushed against the door, she broke away from Bodhi. "Just. Don't laugh."

As soon as she opened the door and flicked on the lights, the monk snorted. "Legs, seriously? What the hell is this."

"I said don't laugh! I told you that I wasn't expecting guests."

Her shower room doubled as a little jungle. A grow light dangled lopsided from the shower head and several potted tropical specimens crowding out the tub. Anari told Bodhi they could get undressed while she made room. When she was done moving all the plants out and fixing the shower curtain, Bodhi approached her, bare only from the waist up. The spider soon realized why.

The scar from Ham Song's attack was just a silver wing flying across the right side of Bodhi's abdomen. But there were other scars too. Darker, identical half moons located higher up their ribcage.

Anari's large glassy eyes took everything in. "Those scars... they look surgical."

She didn't know if this was the right thing to say. But she had a feeling this was what Bodhi wanted to show her. She could tell by how quiet the monk got and how closely they watched her now.

The human lowered their gaze, wrapping their arms in a gentle cage around their torso.

"When I'm fighting, they go away sometimes. Everything changes. Like I'm traveling from one body to the next."

Anari remembered the fight at the Garden of Immortal Peaches. She saw what Bodhi's body could do.

"Does it scare you, Anari?" Bodhi looked up, their expression unreadable yet calm. Hearing the monk call her by her first name felt strange. Were they that nervous? Anari tried to meet Bodhi's gaze to check, but they were already looking off to the coral tiles of the shower wall, clearly bracing themself for the worst.

Anari said, "If this is who you are, then no. It doesn't."

It probably wasn't the answer Bodhi was expecting. And Anari had half a mind to tell them to snap out of it and finish getting undressed, but she decided to wait and let Bodhi finish what they started.

Bodhi dragged a hand over their thin shadow of hair. "I've never shown anyone before. Not on purpose anyway." Then they stepped around the plants to get to Anari, reaching up to help her remove her jacket, turning a fresher shade of sunset with each article of clothing that dropped to the floor. Before long, the shower head was rattling and steam clouded the room.

The spider made use of the wall to keep the humanae aloft. Bodhi helped by locking their legs around her waist, happy their gaze was finally level with the spider's instead of having to always look up. It was easy for Bodhi to get lost in the eroded parts of Anari's glamour — Her deep, enlarged eyes and that limber strength behind all eight of her arms. One smooth, spidery arm in particular had found itself between the monk's legs, bringing out a series of breathless human sounds that drove Anari into her own little delirium. She kissed the human's neck meanwhile, letting the vibrations deep in their bones overwhelm her senses.

Bodhi's lips flicked water as they whispered pleas into the shower. "Let m-me—"

Soon, Anari promised. Soon she'd let Bodhi down so they could wash all of their scent off of her. But she wasn't done exploring that strange glamourless warmth.

~

Did that talk go as you were expecting, Dear Traveler? Don't worry, you don't have to answer. I'm only teasing you.

Let's see what Bodhi the monk has to say about all of this.

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."