The spirit world is broken and in desperate need of a restoration. True heroes and ancient beasts that once walked are now a thing of the past. Between the empty spaces of forgotten treasure halls there are whispers of one who has returned. One lege...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Everyone just sit tight! We'll be moving on shortly now." Sun Surina gripped her star-tipped scepter, which she had bewitched to function as a microphone.
"By the way, the referees just wanted me to remind everyone that forfeiting is totally not cute." She said the last bit with a chiding wag of her finger.
It seemed that the officials were still scrambling to adjust for Sun Yong Kid's sudden departure, which resulted in them not noticing Sun Ritsu's leaving and coming back.
Upon returning, our hero didn't expect three members of his competition to be huddled around his seat, watching him closely as he jogged up to them.
Like students hanging out in an afterschool club, the three graduates from Sheer Will Academy had arranged their seats to be very close to one another, while also leaving Ritsu's spot open right in the center. He couldn't help but notice that Zhaoling had taken up Yong Kid's empty seat.
Sparkplug looked pretty happy to see Ritsu return. Zhaoling tracked him with a curious, reserved expression. Tie Quan still glared with distaste, but he seemed to have dropped the intimidating front from previous encounters.
It was Blue Force that spoke first. "Went to go rub salt in the child's wound?"
Sparkplug spoke up for Ritsu. "Tch! Come on, Senpai. Ritsu's not that kind of guy." He gave our hero a friendly punch to the bicep. "You were trying to get the kiddo to come back, weren't you?"
"Yeah, but..." Ritsu looked sheepishly at his hands. "I didn't try hard enough."
"Where do you know Sun Yong Kid from?" Sun Zhaoling asked, leaning a bit closer for the information.
At this proximity, Ritsu could tell that the color of the Barefoot Sun's eyes were an earthy hazel, leaning more into the brown side of the spectrum over the green. His scent of crushed cherry blossoms and tree resin caught Ritsu off guard. None of these revelations were helpful while Ritsu was trying to answer the contender's question.
Fighting the urge to draw back, our hero looked from Zhaoling to Blue Force to Sparkplug before answering truthfully, "I didn't know Yong Kid before this tournament. We ran into each other yesterday at a theme park, but that's it."
Blue Force finally leaned back in his seat, retreating further into the second row. "So, in other words, you failed to convince the little twerp to reconsider."
This time Zhaoling straightened up and narrowed his eyes at his companion. "None of us had the guts to talk him out of it. Sun Ritsu might have been successful if we all had gone together."
Blue Force didn't argue, but he didn't seem pleased with being chastised in front of other sun clones.
Ritsu tried to settle the tension between them. "It's okay. Sun Yong Kid is kind of hard to talk to sometimes."
Sparkplug said, "Zhaoling's right though. We were taught this kind of thing at the Academy. Motivating each other to get to the next level is kind of a big thing they strive to drill into our heads."
