“I can’t believe you sacrificed your life to save some strange g-girl,” Ashley spluttered. “Actually, wait, I can, you noble, stupid—” She finally stopped punching Jinyu and instead collapsed against him. He pulled her in for an awkward hug. I stifled a laugh. Given the wary expression on his face and the way Jinyu lightly patted her, you’d think he was subduing a plague-infested hedgehog.
“Don’t tell me you’re gonna punch me, too,” Jinyu said to Jordan.
“Tempted to,” Jordan admitted. “You can treat me to a bubble tea, and we’ll call it even. If there’s even bubble tea in the Underworld.”
Jinyu gave him an odd look. “Of course there’s bubble tea in the Underworld. And it’s good bubble tea, too.” He laughed and shook his head, muttering, “No bubble tea. Ha. As if any soul could survive in a place like that.”
“This is a very touching reunion,” Hongyi interrupted. “Believe me, I’m utterly moved. But there is a rather urgent matter at hand to take care of. You punks still have to deal with that powerful weapon, don’t you?” He tilted his head toward the Monkey King’s shining golden cudgel.
“What now?” I faced my ancestors. Forget Alex and Ba’s memory—first, I had to make sure we made it out of Diyu alive. “How can we bring the Ruyi Jingu Bang back with us to King Yama and then to the human world?”
Nai Nai stepped toward the glowing staff, cupping her chin with one hand and squinting at the weapon. “The Ruyi Jingu Bang is more than just a weapon,” she said. “It has amassed enough good karma that it’s well on its way to reincarnating as a human in its next life. If you take this weapon back to the human world, you’ll interrupt a sacred process. The Ruyi Jingu Bang might not be able to reincarnate for hundreds more years.”
“Nai Nai, we need the Ruyi Jingu Bang right now,” I protested.
Ren stepped forward. “The world needs it if we want to try to stop a war.”
My grandmother shook her head. “I’m afraid war is on its way already, warriors. One weapon—powerful though it may be—won’t be able to stop that.”
“What?” Ashley’s sword clattered out of her hand and onto the ground. She seemed to have forgotten that she was in the middle of being mad at Jinyu, too.
“What do you mean, war is on its way already?” Jordan demanded.
“We’re too late?” Ren added quietly.
Cixi stepped up beside Nai Nai. “Rumors travel quickly down here in the Underworld. Spirits grow restless with nothing better to do than wait in line or be trapped in their eternal torment all day.”
Nai Nai nodded. “We believe that as soon as the Hungry Ghost Festival ends in three days, Heaven will make its first move against the humans and demons.”
Ominous silence fell in the room.
“Three days? Only five days had passed when we arrived here in Diyu,” I protested. “We should have nine days left!”
“Time moves differently down here, child,” Nai Nai explained.
I exchanged horrified looks with Ren, Ashley, and Jordan.
“There’s no way we can stop this war in time,” Jordan moaned. “Can’t be done. Not in three days.”
“Better get a move on, then, shouldn’t you, sonny?” said Hongyi. He floated upside down as he crossed his arms over his chest.
The Ruyi Jingu Bang seemed to taunt me with how close it was. I wanted to scream in frustration. How could we do the impossible?
“There is one way for you to take the Ruyi Jingu Bang with you,” Nai Nai said softly.
“Name it,” I said without hesitating. “I’ll do anything.”
My grandmother gave me a wry smile. “I had a feeling you’d say that. You’re so like your father.” Her eyes flickered to the staff. “Everything in Diyu operates on an equal exchange. To remove one soul from the Underworld, you must be prepared to tether another soul to it.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. “You mean … one of us has to stay behind?”
Nai Nai nodded.
“Forever?” Jordan squeaked.
“Not forever. Just until the original object is returned here. Once the exchange is complete, the person’s soul will separate from their body. The soul will join us in the Underworld, while the body will continue to age as usual, until they are either rescued or … die.”
Definitely didn’t like the sound of that. “That’s not happening. Nope. No way. No how.”
“It’s the only way,” Nai Nai insisted.
“She’s right,” Jinyu said in a heavy voice. “The rules of the Underworld can never be bent or broken.”
I glanced around at the others, standing there with variations of “nope” written across their faces. “There has to be another way,” I protested.
“There isn’t,” snapped Cixi. “Do you think we’d lie to you if there were?”
There was no real choice here if someone had to stay behind. I just had to make sure to pass on the elixir to someone else so they could complete it and restore my father’s memory.
“I’ll do it,” said Ren, fists clenched at his sides. “I’ll stay behind.”
“What? You can’t,” I blurted out. “I’ll stay behind.”
Ren shook his head firmly. “No. How does that make sense? Faryn, if there’s one person here who needs to see the quest through to the end, it’s you.”
“Well”—Jordan coughed—“I had been kind of, like, hoping to, uh, survive, too.”
“You’re wrong.” I glared at Ren. “I have the least to lose by leaving the living world.” Mother gone, brother turned traitor, father memoryless. My throat tightened. Yep. It definitely made the most sense for me to stay behind in Diyu.
“I have no family left in the living world,” Ren said quietly. “My mother is somewhere here in Diyu. If I stay, at least I’ll be able to find her, and …”
He didn’t need to finish his sentence. I could fill in the words in my head. And stay with her.
My ancestors looked from Ren to me and
