Sun Ritsu

While Sun Chop was delivering his bows to the audience, Sun Shan aka Sparkplug was breathing into a paper bag. The summoner had his two friends from Sheer Will Academy plus Sun Ritsu doing what they could to help him work through his nerves.

"Remember," Zhaoling calmly reminded him, "your idol, Sun Terra, is watching. Take this time to put yourself in the right mindframe so you can impress her."

Although the Barefoot Sun was doing what he could to encourage his friend, Sun Ritsu wasn't so sure if that was the best way to lift Sparkplug's spirits.

Blue Force wasn't any better.

"Get it together, Spark! You're already on thin ice with your fans. If you choke, you'll only piss them off even more."

Sparkplug's eyes bulged as he wheezed into the bag. "M-my fans! I can't – *wheeze* – let them down!"

This earned Blue Force cautionary glares from both Ritsu and Zhaoling.

Sun Tie Quan balked at their expressions. "What? I'm just trying to help!" Then he leaned back in his seat and grumbled to himself, "Not trying to have another Sun Yong Kid situation."

Now let's pause right here because Tie Quan's last words set something off in our witless hero. Sun Ritsu lowered his eyes and spoke softly to the distressed Sun Shan.

"There is a way out, Spark. You could walk the same path as Yong Kid. Then you wouldn't have to face any more of these trials."

Zhaoling and Tie Quan froze to exchange bewildered looks with each other. Sun Shan's breath caught very suddenly as he tore his eyes off of the field and made incredulous eye contact with Sun Ritsu.

"W-what, you mean leave the competition. Like f-forfeit?"

The two other sun clones wouldn't hear anything of it. They tried to move in, pushing Sun Ritsu away in order to protect their little brother from this crazy talk.

But Ritsu managed to hold the other two off, maintaining a line of conversation with Shan.

"Yes. That's exactly what I mean." Ritsu held his gaze. "But you won't do that, Spark."

Barefoot and Blue Force suddenly stopped trying to separate the two of them. Sensing that Ritsu was on to something, Zhaoling eased off and encouraged Tie Quan to allow their former classmate to finish his conversation.

For a moment, Sparkplug seemed conflicted.

"It's just..." He glanced from Tie Quan to Zhaoling. "Everyone's performances have been so badass. At first I was super excited for my chance, but then the pressure got to me. I didn't expect to feel like this."

He closed his eyes and let his head droop. Sun Ritsu waited. Blue Force looked like he wanted to say something, but bit his lip and thought against it.

Finally, Sparkplug made a decisive sound in his throat, opened his eyes and set his gaze firmly on the field.

"But you're right, Sun Ritsu. I'm not going to walk away. That's not the kind of guy I am."

Ritsu and the others drew back as Sun Shan shot to his feet.

Lifting his fist inches away from his nose, he declared, "I'm the kind of guy who goes out there and leaves everything out on the field! If I fail, I'm going to fail spectacularly without shame or regret. I won't be a loser in the dark, but one for the entire damn heaven to see!"

Blue Force scrunched his nose a bit. Zhaoling did so too, albeit in a way that was more subtle. The two shot each other similar looks.

"I... think he missed the point."

Zhaoling shrugged. "Yeah, but he's not going to quit, so it's fine."

The crowd was still cheering when the challenger Zheng Zheng returned to his seat. As he passed the Sun Shan still in mid-pose, he clapped him on the shoulder and said, "You like your new sideburns? Consider them a gift. Good luck out there, Sparkplug."

It was then that Sun Ritsu noticed how well Spark's sideburns were trimmed down and shaped into broad lightning bolts. The words of encouragement broke Sun Shan out of his reverie. He thanked his opponent in his usual genuine way before nodding to each of his friends and setting off for the field.

Now what transpired afterwards would not, in my personal opinion, be considered a spectacular failure like the one Sun Shan had prophesied. But compared to the rest of the competition so far, it probably wasn't going to hold up against the final scores.

"So now we have our third and final alum of Sheer Will Academy about to show us what he's made of."

"For those who did not know, Sun Zhaoling graduated valedictorian of his class, Blue Force was salutatorian while Sparkplug –"

"Was just a torian."

"A... graduate, yes."

"Regardless, Sun Shan has always strived, ah, I mean striven... actually. Is it strived or striven? Have strove? Hm. Anyway, He's always tried to follow in the footsteps of his two extraordinary peers."

Like Sun Terra, Sun Shan decided to show off his summoning abilities. With a clean staff formation, he summoned a giant hamster wheel equipped with – yeah, you guessed it – a giant yellow hamster.

The crowd made awestruck sounds when the adorable thunderbeast emerged from a massive electric cloud.

Everything was going well at first. Sparkplug guided his summoning onto the wheel and encouraged it to start walking. Once the thunderbeast assumed a brisk, steady pace, the lights in the stadium started doing unusual things.

"What's going on with the lighting, Chow?"

"Not sure, Dan. I think this might be a part of Sparkplug's performance."

The uneven flickering transformed into a funky multicolor light show. The three giant orbs after which the arena was named began to roam and rotate much like they had during Sun Surina's opener.

It was so reminiscent of the opening ceremonies that Sun Liu leaned toward Sun Chop and said, "Haven't we already seen this sort of thing?"

Based on some of the unimpressed expressions Sun Ritsu saw on the faces in the crowd, there were others that felt the same.

Sun Shan's strength in that moment didn't appear to come from the lightshow itself, but rather the giant furry lump that labored dutifully in the middle of the arena.

When the hamster slowed down to release a pent-up yawn, the audience couldn't get enough of it.

Exclamations of awwww and soooo kawaii!!! piled up and up until their voices became high pitched squeals.

Sparkplug was doing his best to keep the hamster calm and focused, but he stole nervous glances when it became clear that the baby talk was stressing out his thunderbeast.

Too flustered to continue at an easy pace, the hamster broke into a frantic run, causing the spinning wheel to become a blur. Lights above flashed like crazy. Some bulbs popped, raining sparks on unsuspecting fans.

"Easy, girl!" Spark tried to shout over all the noise. But it didn't seem to help in the slightest.

The hamster only charged on, cooking up electric currents that threatened to snap at anyone who came too close.

"Move!" Shan screamed at the section in the crossfires. "Get out of there!"

No one was listening to him. They were all too preoccupied with cooing at the seriously agitated hamster.

The lights were bursting into brighter and more dangerous explosions.

The thunderbeast had stopped, all of its fur standing on end. Like the lights above, it looked ready to burst.

"No!"

Sun Shan dived with his staff, redirecting the electric wrath of his summoning. The rope of lightning passed through the sun clone swiftly yet violently. Afterwards, Sparkplug barely had the stamina to send the thunderbeast from whence it came.

"Well, er... that's uh. Ahem. Crisis averted, I suppose."

"You're not usually one for understatements, Dan. But it might be best to leave it at that."

The casters kept trying to downplay the recent events while the judges put their heads together to decide what this could mean for Sun Shan.

The crowd, on the other hand, booed and raged in their seats because, in their minds, it was far too soon for their thunder-pet to have to leave. No, I don't think they realized they were about to die seconds ago, but you know how it goes in here in K-Vill.

"He won't score well," Sun Terra said from the back row, "but to be honest, he handled his summoning fairly well before it got spooked. And towards the end there, he demonstrated remarkable control and precision when redirecting the lightning. All despite the chaos going on around him."

To Ritsu's surprise, the veteran challenger actually sounded impressed by Spark's performance.

Unfortunately for Sun Shan, Dear Traveler, the Earthbound Sage was the only one with positive reviews.

Ham Song

"Tough break for Sparkplug," Sun Seven said once the scores were revealed.

"It's good news for us though, isn't it?" Ham Song grunted. "Because now the bar is low enough for Sun Ritsu to beat."

"At the same time," Bodhi interjected, "Ritsu's probably the only challenger that could score worse than Sparkplug."

"Ever the cynical one, huh, Sifu?" Seven gave Bodhi a rough elbow to the ribs before telling them to lighten up and have a little more faith in their handsome monkey king.

"Yeah, well he's only got one more champion ahead of him and by the looks of everything I've been seeing happening below, he's more concerned with giving his competition pep talks than he is building up his qi!"

Seven did the right thing and put a little distance between himself and the small, fuming human. Ham Song also thought it was best to keep his thoughts to himself. The pig simply prayed that this next challenger, Sun Liu, would fall completely flat for the judges.

However, similar to Blue Force and the Barefoot Sun, the Artist's performance called upon one's inherent respect for the traditional and the divine.

Sun Liu used her paintbrush staff to draw a design on the platform. What was strange about this, Dear Traveler, was that the brush left behind no trails of ink or watercolor. This caused a wave of curious murmurs throughout the crowd. Then people in the audience started to shout.

"Look up!"

"There! In the sky!"

When Ham Song looked at the arena ceiling, he saw himself somewhere impossible – the treasure hall known as the Scattered Cloud.

In this very realistic reflection the whole audience saw themselves in the most pristine glamour and fitted in nobles' robes. They were all sitting at a very long table with a heavenly feast stretched out before them.

Let me be the one to tell you, Dear Traveler, that this was nothing but a decorated upside down mirror. Still, such things spark certain emotions in spirits. When you see what you could have, all the things that you could be... well, it has a way of making spirits believe that certain life improvements are not so out of reach. That if they looked a tad better or felt a little prouder to be here, then all would be well.

Both the audience and the judges like to see this sort of positive message in a competition such as this. Not only that, but this spectacle was also a nod to the era of banquets and pristine treasure halls.

Our dear old Ham Song, however, didn't waste any more energy gawking at what was. If there was anything he learned from the last performance like this, it was that his here and now was more important. His champion was what deserved all of his attention. Not some upside down mirror of dramatic opulence.

Ham Song glanced over at Bodhi, who to be frank, looked sicker than a dog.

It seemed that Seven also noticed because he rested a hand on the monk's shoulder and asked, "You all right, Sifu? Need a bag?"

Ham Song didn't like what he was seeing with the monk.

They must be worried that this stunning performance could hurt Ritsu's chances. True, but... Bah! This is not the time to be breaking down! Not when our benevolent monkey is about to go next.

Then Ham Song growled at Seven, "Bring that old carryout bag and take Bodhi somewhere no one can see. Do it quick before Ritsu starts!"

Seven gave a swift salute. "Aye, aye, Hambro."

To Ham Song's relief, Bodhi didn't resist as Seven helped them out of the section and off to the restrooms.

More than anything, Ham Song wished he could be down on the lawn with his benevolent monkey king, sharing more of his Luck and words of encouragement. But by the looks of it, the friends that Ritsu had made were already huddled around him.

The pig sighed. This was it.

Ham Song looked up at the sky, into a world of a treasure hall restored. He searched not for his own reflection, but for his monkey king's.

At the end of a very long table of finely dressed nobles, one spirit sat slightly apart from the row of guests. He had his forearms anchored atop his knees, his mind completely elsewhere from this grand feast.

A battle dress of leather and gold. Gathered over one shoulder and pooling down by his feet, a ribbon-cut cape cast the illusion of a red oil spill.

Though the guest's head was bowed, his foundation was strong. Three feet of rooster feathers arcing out of his golden headband floated in his meditative stillness.

"As I thought," Ham Song whispered.

Because only when the warrior tipped his head back and looked skyward – only when his gold gaze touched the surface of the reflection...

... was the moment when the restoration of the Scattered Cloud felt complete.