Hello, Dear Traveler.

Remember when I told you to get ready for Sun Tie Quan's performance? Well, that will have to wait.

Right now, let's turn our attention to the spider Anari, who is currently busting her tail to ensure that her boss is not onto her.

The last we saw of Anari, she was catching up with her old friend, Bodhi the monk. Though the visit hadn't gone quite as she had expected, I will say that our spider was no longer so on edge with the knowledge that Bodhi had her back. She was certain that the monk would keep everything between the two them and do their best to investigate the thread they had on Bai's potential spy.

Meanwhile, Anari was narrowing down her leads. Over the course of the wondrous and true trial, Sun Bai had several consecutive meetings in which he had tasked Anari to stand watch outside the room. He had requested that she keep a low profile to ensure that his guests could be as relaxed as possible.

"People are more their natural selves when they feel they are not being monitored."

Anari didn't argue with Bai because this worked out perfectly in her favor. The lowest profile Anari could keep was posing as a fly on the wall. Or, in her case, a spider.

Instead of keeping watch outside of the room where Bai held his meetings, Anari used her small size to her advantage and crept inside, hugging the cracks of the ceiling.

For the most part, the meetings were boring and the guests were none that piqued Anari's interest. Until the very last visitor of the day entered the room.

By this time Anari was about to fall asleep right there in the dusty crack where the ceiling met the wall. But then she heard the adorable, slightly squeaky voice of someone she very much recognized.

"Uh, where should I sit, Mister..."

"You can sit there. No 'mister' necessary. Just Bai is fine."

All eight of Anari's glassy eyes sprang open as wide as they could go. There was no mistaking who she saw sitting across from her boss.

Baobei – the cute consultant that Anari had booked back when she and the rest of our spiritual cadre docked at the Heavenly River.

Sun Bai offered the green corgi some sweets and hot tea. If Anari could sweat in this form, she'd be dripping all over the leather cushions below. Waiting for these pleasantries to be over and done with was agonizing.

Finally, as they were finishing up with refreshments, Bai said, "If you would, Baobei, tell me everything that you know as it pertains to the Golden Compliant Rod."

With this simple command, the cute consultant corgi recounted what she knew about the legend of the Rod. According to her, the water levels of the Heavenly River had risen dramatically in recent seasons, indicating that the Rod had entered the boundary of the Rabbit Province.

You see, Dear Traveler, as a cute consultant, it was her job to know about the historical monuments all over town. Baobei insisted that the Heavenly River would only respond in such a way to the legendary staff that was born there.

Bai asked if she knew who might be carrying the staff.

The cute consultant tapped her chin. "It must be someone who has recently arrived in Kawaii Village. According to the water levels, they would have had to come before the tournament started."

Bai asked flat out if it could be Sun Surina.

Which – let's pause for a second, Dear Traveler – this information made Anari's eyebrows stand up. She probably didn't have any eyebrows in this form, but you get what I mean. The point remains that Bai wouldn't ask such a question if Suri was one of his charges.

But then, this begs us to wonder what sort of interest Bai had in our star scepter-wielding pop idol sun clone. Was this inquiry simply limited to her proximity to the Heavenly River and by default the Rod? Or did it go beyond that? Anari couldn't rule out the fact that Bai had been keeping tabs on Sailor Sun long before she herself had even stepped foot on the sun clone's territory.

Baobei shook her head and explained that Suri was a tireless performer, always working the streets for her fans. If she had taken leave from the Village, she would have made an announcement.

Great Sage, he's narrowing it down, Anari thought, her tiny spidery limbs tingling with painful helplessness.

"Did you happen to work with any sun clones that carried a staff prior to the tournament? This would have been around the time that the water levels were rising."

Anari was considering killing Baobei until the spider remembered Ritsu's lie. What once made her lose trust in our underwhelming hero now protected him from the wrath of her power-hungry boss. But only barely.

"Hmm." Baobei hummed while dabbing leftover crumbs from the corner of her whiskered muzzle. "I did escort one of the sun clones that ended up becoming a finalist. I remember that he was carrying around a staff."

Anari's hope was about to shatter. She felt her little exoskeleton might break.

Sun Bai, also eager to know, worked himself to the edge of his seat. He gave an encouraging nod for more information.

Baobei gave details. "He's the little red-tailed one. Yong Kid? Yeah, that's the one."

Anari breathed nothing but relief. Ritsu's lie prevailed.

Sun Bai sat back in his chair. "I see."

"His staff is covered in stickers." Baobei added. "It doesn't look like it could be the Golden Rod."

Bai shrugged. "You can never be too sure.... I think you've given me all of the information I need. Would you like some more tea before you go?"

Anari had to act fast. She crawled like the ceiling was on fire with the intent on making it back to the hallway where Baobei would eventually go on her way out. There was a short delay as Anari transformed back into her natural size. She hoped Baobei took more refreshments, but didn't hold on to that optimism in case she missed her.

As Anari shifted into her second skin, she wondered if what she was going to do next was the right path to take. But then reality hit her. If Sun Bai interrogated Sun Yong Kid and came up empty, he might bring Baobei back inside and ask for records of all of her clients since the changes in the Heavenly River. He might even bribe her to bring him records of everyone who had registered with her agency.

It would eventually lead him to Sun Ritsu.

To Anari as well.

Back in her leather and fringe, her dark shades and immaculate braids, Anari the Spider hugged the ceiling of the dark corridor. Her timing was perfect as she leapt towards the gently-humming spirit passing underway.

Anari used the ceiling to dodge-roll in Baobei's direction, soaring overhead and snatching off that prized glamour like it was a cheap wig.

Baobei stumbled sideways into the wall and released a not-so-tiny shrieking gasp.

Anari did not silence her because where they were was completely deserted except for them.

"So then," Anari said, standing up straight, her voice ominous and serene. "A fungal spirit. How uncanny."

Baobei's legs shook so badly they could barely keep her up. She pressed her back to the wall and stretched a spore-pimpled arm in Anari's direction. "Ah! Please, don't! I spent my entire life savings on that glamour. My job depends on it!"

Anari's heart pounded with the success of this reveal. She didn't know what she would find underneath this glamour. Thankfully it was something that could not survive on its own in this Kawaii Village.

"Here's the thing, Baobei. If I put this back on you, then I have to kill you. There's no other way around it."

Baobei collapsed as Anari came closer. She curled up into something small and meek.

"W-What do you want? I d-didn't do anyth-thing."

Anari chucked a heap of rolled up cash on the floor.

"Run away. Back to whatever swamp province you came from or wherever. I don't care. Just don't cross over the Heavenly River again." Then, gently, she added, "And make sure you travel by ferry or sky gondola. Stay away from the bridges."

The confused spirit stared wide-eyed at the cold offering. "Run...? M-my life. My life is here, Miss Spider." She looked up at Anari, no doubt trying to make her eyes as big and they would be if she were still glamoured. "How can you expect me to... to just?"

But Anari's gaze was cold as stone. There was no wanting to negotiate. Only plain killing intent should Baobei refuse.

To emphasize this, Anari said, "If you try to use the money to buy another corgi glamour, I'll find you and it will be over. I already have a tracker on you. You won't be able to find that either, so don't even try it."

The poor fungal spirit whimpered and curled in on herself. Her hand trembled as she reached for the money. She sobbed so hard, her pain could be felt through the walls. Satisfied with this, the assassin turned on her heel. Anari's braids and black fringe became a cape of ill fortune for poor Baobei.

The last of her old life she saw was the spider stalking off into the sterile darkness, dragging the green corgi glamour behind her.

"I have a hunch that our starstruck monkey king has forgotten everything I told him about using this time to build up his qi," Bodhi said over the roars of the crowd.

Sun Zhaoling had just reached the end of his trial. He was in the middle of bowing to the judges and getting a standing ovation from the audience.

If Ham Song could, he would have clapped his hooves for the Barefoot Sun as well. For a moment, Zhaoling made him forget that he had his own sun clone to cheer for.

As always, Sun Seven tried to lighten the mood. "You're probably right, Sifu, but what if Zhaoling's performance inspires Ritsu? I mean, how can anyone not be fired up after a feat like that?"

"Well, if that's the case, Ritsu better be inspired to kick everyone's ass when his time comes," Bodhi muttered dryly.

Ham Song sniffed the air. "Who's up next?"

"Sun Tie Quan it looks like."

Bodhi's gray gaze became hawklike. "We'll want to watch this one closely. Pay attention to the way he interacts with his staff, both of you."

Seven saluted. "Aye-aye, Sifu."

Ham Song grunted to himself. He was getting tired of these homework assignments.

Besides.

The pig glanced at the back of Ritsu's head way down in the finalist section.

Why would I waste time gawking at these rank-starved gorillas when none of them could compare to the one benevolent and true monkey king?

Begrudgingly, Ham Song took his eyes away from Sun Ritsu and followed the brawny blue form of Sun Tie Quan onto the lawn.

The longer he looked on, the more he couldn't help being mildly mesmerized by the levitating staff that followed Tie Quan to the center of the field. Its path took on that of an electron molecule once the sun clone came to a stop, spinning in sharp ellipticals around his form at faster and faster speeds.

"Behold."

Though Sun Tie Quan spoke calmly, his voice carried far.

"The power..." he lifted his hands. "of the Blue Force."

Ham Song rolled his eyes. "Oh brother."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! What is that coming off of Sun Tie Quan's staff, do you think, Chow?"

"Some kind of magical dust if I had to guess."

Ham Song draped his hooves over the concrete border of the aisle and squinted his eyes in order to track the glittery downpour coming from Blue Force's staff.

The staff reset itself in a horizontal position before taking off around the arena perimeter, dusting the lawn in this new shimmery coating.

When it came back around to Sun Tie Quan, he broke out into a run alongside it and leapt, landing on the topside like it was a surfboard.

Despite the narrow, rounded surface of the staff — not to mention Blue Force's considerable size — he did not waver or need a moment to find his balance.

Ham Song's jaw dropped as he followed Sun Tie Quan now with true interest.

"Huh." Seven scrutinized the performance with his blood red eyes. "Sifu, would you say that counts as holding the staff?"

Bodhi hesitated. "I don't... I don't know."

Ham Song gave no input on the matter. He was too busy being astonished by the way the sun clone surfed the invisible airwaves, stirring up those shimmering clouds of dust. And he looked really damn cool doing it, if the pig was being frank.

But that wasn't even the incredible part. That fine dust that the staff wept from the side that soared parallel to the ground was starting to build layer upon layers. Each time Blue Force coasted by those layers, he would shape them with his open palm. The mounds of glittering blue sand took on new forms.

In all, there were three giant mounds, rising higher and positioned in such a way that they formed the corners of a triangle.

Ham Song's hooves clapped against the concrete as he shifted his weight suddenly.

No. No, it can't be.

"Sweet Immortal Peaches. Is that... what I think it is, Chow?"

Ham Song's eyes burned without warning. When last had he felt tears fall up his cheeks? Had it been so long?

Had he never been moved so much since becoming cursed until now?

Blue Force's speed was manic and divine. He swept around each mountain of sand like a blustery gale, carving out the details as a time would a Himalayan rock.

The first mound shrieked and beat several pairs of great wings. Those wings burned with a blue fire.

"Blue phoenix flame," Ham Song whispered. "I must be going blind."

Huddled beside the firebird was one of those terrible, terrible creatures that Ham Song couldn't stand, but everyone else seemed to love back in his time.

"What's that other thing, Chow? It sorta looks like you, but scarier? Sorry, I didn't mean that in a bad way."

"No worries, Dan. What you're looking at is actually a lion dog. They're quite ancient and not spoken of much these days. Once upon a time, they would serve as guardians to the nobility."

Impossible, thought the pig. A phoenix followed by a Fu guardian?? Still, this wasn't even what made Ham Song cry in the first place, Dear Traveler.

What he saw in that last mound, made him want to heave until he was empty. Because it could not be. It could never be.

"Pig."

Ham Song looked up at the sharp-eyed monk, staring sideways at him, their aura level and more stable than anything else the pig had in this moment.

"Relax. It's just a puppet."

Ham Song knew this... and yet, to look up the moving, breathing glittery masterpiece was pure torture. All three Immortal beings were a painful reminder of a time that was dying so fast, it was practically mythical. Sun Xiao Dan was proof that no one even remembered what the Fu guardians were anymore. On the other hand, phoenixes were down to their embers, their legacies left scattered in murals on the walls of treasure halls.

Then. There was the dragon. Born before Ham Song from a womb of blue sand.

Dragons roaming the Ninth Heaven seemed so natural when you think about it. Yet today there were none. And what if... what if Ham Song was the last one?

"You old, stubborn pig, are you listening to me?"

What proof did he even have that he was a dragon?

"Close your eyes!"

Ham Song shut his eyes and in doing so, bit his own tongue so hard, he probably bled. He hated the idea of obeying the monk, but like I said earlier, Dear Traveler, Bodhi's intrusive awareness was the only solid thing Ham Song had to stand on right then.

All he had the power to do was try to catch his breath until all of this was over.

The monk would tell him when it was over.

When these glitzy bastardizations of his Immortal kin were gone from this place and he could finally breathe again.