Anari

With practiced care, Anari the Spider lifted the refreshment to her face and gave it a thoughtful whiff. When she was sure her nostrils hadn't registered anything odd, she took a small sip.

Everything was clear, so she brought the cup to the featureless block floating next to Sun Bai's armchair.

"You're watching the trial alone today," Anari observed as she set the cup down. Normally, Sun Bai sat in the lounge reserved for the most elite spectators. Today he was in his own box, located one level below the larger one.

"It's hard enough keeping conversations afloat with my constituents. Even with all of that spectacle going on in the arena. This trial however," he gestured to the wide glass window, "will force me to put more effort into engagement than I have the capacity for."

Anari understood exactly where Bai was coming from. The nature of the third trial had been announced the day before. It would be a meditation round, where contestants would have to demonstrate their skill in balance and endurance by standing on top of their upright quarterstaff.

"Will you stay?" Bai asked when Anari edged backward. The spider would have preferred to perform her observations of the trial in solitude. But there was no saying no to Bai in this instance, so she braced herself to watch everything going on in the stadium next to his sometimes probing mind.

"Of course," Anari said as she eased into the recliner next to the ghost-haired esper.

To her relief, Sun Bai wanted to get her thoughts on Sun Zhaoling.

"He isn't perceivably boastful about his staff," Bai noted, "but his level of comfort with it is beyond that of half the other contestants."

"Nebula's Parting, isn't it?" said Anari, having read somewhere that the Barefoot Sun's staff had its own name.

"Hm," Bai confirmed. "A gift from the luminaries, so he says. Were it to be the Compliant Rod, that would be an excellent cover up."

Anari and Bai continued to theorize on the possibilities. This allowed the spider to relax now that there wasn't any danger of Bai's attention fixating on Sun Ritsu. At least for the time being.

When the trial began with Sun Xiao Dan and Chow Jia Hui's introductory commentary, Bai's lip curled into a sneer.

"Turn that off."

Anari smoothly located the remote to the speakers and disabled them. Beside her, Bai dipped his forehead against the pads of his fingers and began massaging the spot between his eyes.

"Sorry, Nar. That was rude." he lifted his head and adjusted his glasses. "I just... can't fucking stand those two."

Anari had been working with Sun Bai long enough to know when his irritability had nothing to do with her. In fact, she predicted that he would reach this point after being in a position where he had to socialize and conform to the activity of everyone else in the room for long stretches of time.

Not many spirits knew how sensitive Bai could be to repetitive interactions and noises. He would never say it, but she could tell by his body language that he was grateful for this break from an environment where he had to network and constantly be pleasant to talk to.

Bai slouched further into the leather armchair and went to loosen his hair. "This trial looks like it's going to be a waiting game and I just made it more boring. You don't have to stay here if you want to actually hear what the casters have to say."

Anari shook her head and drew her knees up on the cushion. "I'm fine. Do you want me to keep it interesting? I've done enough research on the contestants to walk you through it."

Bai looked over at Anari, his hair completely loose and spilling over his spectacles. There was no tint in his lenses today, giving Anari a clear view of his dark slate gray irises.

With those eyes, he gave her a very subtle once over, considering her offer, her familiarity with him, and her will to stay.

"Yeah. I would like that."

Anari was pleased to see that Bai was pleased. Because now she could further direct his attention where she wanted it to go during the match. And while it would seem suspicious to avoid the topic of Sun Ritsu altogether, she could at least play a role in shaping what impression he would have on Bai.

So the spider turned her gaze on the arena and got to work weaving an invisible web of protection around our otherwise hopeless hero.

Bodhi

"You have nothing to worry about, Sun Ritsu," Bodhi the monk said. "Winning this round will be easy. All we have to do is knock you out."

Our chump of a hero blinked into the sunlight. He narrowed his eyes. "Wait... how would that be easy?"

Bodhi's fist shot out while Ritsu was distracted by the sun's glare.

"Annnnd... Gotcha!" Seven grunted as he caught the tall sun clone before he could slump to the ground.

Bodhi rolled their shoulder a few times, smirking down at the champion.

"That's how."

Both the monk and the manager braced themselves for Ham Song's shrill cry of rage mixed with confusion.

The pig wasn't set completely off, but he did drag his back foot against the ground a few times and demand what the monk was up to.

"Isn't it obvious, pig?" Bodhi said, waving at the tournament staff. "This trial was made for Sun Ritsu."

There was a short exchange as Bodhi handed over the Golden-Hooped Rod of Compliance, which was cloaked in light mode. Appearing as if Ritsu took the jade jewel from his ear and transformed it into the size of a normal quarterstaff, there were no traces of that enormous black-tipped golden design that Ritsu brought to life seasons ago during his faceoff with Sun Surina.

When the unconscious Ritsu was handed over to the officials, the rest of the cadre returned to their seats. Each champion's personal team did the same.

From the ground, Ham Song hissed, "Explain yourself, monk!"

Seven stepped in between the human and the pig and cracked his knuckles with flourish.

"It's like this, Hambro. The third trial is a meditation round. Each champion has to balance on their quarterstaff. For as long as they can. It's one of those last spirit standing scenarios."

Ham Song bristled. "I got all of that! What I want to know is why we sent our benevolent monkey king in there knocked out cold."

"Because every champion is allowed one non-peach induced buff," Bodhi said, slipping their arms inside their robes before taking their seat. "Sun Chop, for example, opted to take a paralysis juice to help him maintain that position longer than he could naturally on his own. I haven't been able to tell what the others are doing to increase their odds."

Both Sun Seven and Ham Song took their seats on opposite sides of the monk.

Seven gave his beard a thoughtful scratch. "It seems that Sun Zhaoling has altogether rejected his buff. I saw him arguing with his managers about it."

"I don't care about that barefoot monkey," Ham Song snapped. "What about Sun Ritsu? How in the name of the Great Sage is going into this round unconscious considered a buff?"

"Think about it, pig," Bodhi said, "Sun Ritsu performs best in this state. You know he does."

It was true, Dear Traveler. Think back to the very first sudden death round in which Sun Ritsu was KO'd by Blueforce's staff, yet found a way to STEAL MY SPOT IN THE TOP EIGHT! UGHHHH – I FREAKING HATE THAT GUY!

Sorry. Uh... sorry, Dear Traveler. I didn't mean to – yeah, I know, I know. My eyes bulge a little when I get mad. And I sweat too. Hand me that towel. I'll clean myself up now.

Right. So. Back to the story.

Let's see what the spider has to say about Ritsu's methods of taking control of this round...