WHO IS THE OLIVE FOX? (ep. 2)

Summary
In the two days after the play, the Cherry Blossom Troupe's members have time to themselves.

Sena spends it in nature and quiet.

Aki, who more than anything wants to make Commander Shu look like an idiot, is still at the planning stage of her conspiracing.

Cerise, on this morning — Grandpa's birthday —, is walking with Grandma to this one tree, where the tip of the cave is. Cerise fills up his grandpa on what he's up to; he could have Sena talk to spirits but thinks that would be the easy way — also, Grandma wouldn't let Sena do it.

Now that the waters are more calm, Rill is visiting a friend, catching them up on the events, keeping ears to the ground about things.

It is not too much of a surprise when Wanted posters for the Olive Fox, with a reward offer, surface: the Fire Nation occasionally sneaks propaganda. The face on the posters is an artistic rendering of Cerise during the play.

All see one of these posters.

Aki just tears it out.

Rill, thinking Cerise did it, takes it with them and reflects on his delusions of grandeur.

Cerise collects and autographs several of them.

Rill goes find him in the workshop as he is working on a support system for the cherry costume he is currently wearing. Rill wants to talk to him — sans costume — about security protocols. Cerise unwittingly knocks down a lit candle; Rill extinguishes the budding fire that ensues before confronting him about the posters.

Cerise protests he has nothing to do with them — but ''Wow! Looking good!'': he appreciates how they got the nuances of his beauty. Rill would like to know more, because it's annoying. As far as Cerise is concerned, this could be any Cerise; or rather, it must have been a mistake: his portrayal of the Olive Fox was too convincing.

Rill keeps asking questions, they're now wondering who may be out for him. Cerise can't see; remembering what he did recently, he recounts how he told secrets to a stranger. Rill inquires about this new friend of his; Cerise gave them all the answers they needed. He remember his name as Rollo.

Rill would like to meet this Rollo, but Cerise can't help much: they didn't exchange numbers. Cerise knocks down another candle and Rill does triage again.

Rill would like to have Sena around. Rill's meditation works : they connect mentally; Rill's message is delivered by a root spirit: "Your friend asked for you; they said it was important."The spirit didn't understand the whole message about cherries; Sena does get she has to go to the cherries — the cherry farm — and lets the spirit hop on her shoulder.

Back at said cherry farm, Grandma Avo is making soup — Grandpa's favorite stew. She is happy to see Rill.

Cerise is now taking care of two trees with rot; he is rubbing powder on them, which makes him feel weird. Rill takes a big white bag full of this white powder, carries it up to the sick trees and starts helping with the rubbing. The good smell of the stew reaches them.

Rill resumes their conversation: someone is after Cerise and could also target his family. Cerise reckons Rollo didn't know a lot before he answered his questions.

Cerise offers Rill some hot soup; awkward soup transmission ensues — and soupbending. Cerise would like to be a soupbender, or, in Rill's words, a cabbage-stew-bender. Rill can use waterbending to help with the rot, provided it is caused by too much water.

While Cerise shuffles out of the cherry costume and throws powder at a tree, Rill uses waterbending on a tree, despite the risk of angering Grandma. The tree stretches and makes the tree equivalent of a relief sigh — and Cerise believes his rubbing is working.

Rill resumes their conversation once more: they need to talk to the Olive Fox because they would have more information ... and Cerise is in awe at the mention of the Olive Fox, again. Sena sees him in this happy state when she arrives, holding up a poster of Cerise where she has noticed the lace in the petticoat — she reckons the poster was made by someone versed in textiles and strange priorities.

Rill asks: What should we do about this?

Cerise, in turn, asks: Why target us? Maybe his acting with the sword worked? To him, the posters are nothing to worry about — just a joke, an homage from a competitor.

Rill reminds him: "You have no competitor left."Cerise retorts:"That's why everyone is jealous."Then he offers Sena some soup. Grandma reminds her: "No spirits, no pandas."As Cerise goes for stew and puts on the cherry costume, Rill fills Sena — someone who'd listen — in on his encounter: He met some stranger in an alley and answered a lot of probing questions about the Resistance; his new friend is named Rollo ... Rill is extremely suspicious because this Rollo didn't give any other information about his whereabouts.

Sena reckons they can't let Cerise go anywhere alone and she'll have to keep her ears out for somebody by the name of Rollo.

Cerise comes back with a bowl of this good — perfect, even — stew he hands to Sena. He offers her a spoon or a fork — Are you a fork person?

Sena thanks him and takes the spoon.

Rill resumes the conversation:"I think we should contact the Olive Fox; I think this must be some kind of Fire Nation plot, or otherwise possibly a consortium of evil cherry growers plot — I'm not ruling it out — but I'm just saying the Olive Fox might know more."While Sena offers her own take on Rill's hypotheses — Maybe the Fire Nation infiltrated the other cherry growers — Cerise focuses on whether the Olive Fox may want to hang out afterwards.

Cerise reacts strongly to Sena's subtle suggestion that his indiscretion with Rollo might inadvertently have sold the Olive Fox to the Fire Nation:"I would never do that! If anything, I am making sure that the Olive Fox is safer, because they think I'm the Olive Fox ... So I'm helping the Olive Fox out."Sena asks why they're eating out here rather than inside; Cerise explains they're powdering the trees.

Sena wonders:"Do they have oil ... excessive oil ... Are they going into puberty?"Cerise tells her about the rot; the powder is supposed to make the trees feel better. Cerise can't tell Sena why they are rotting. This rot puzzles Sena because it's very dry now, there is no moisture.

Cerise kicks the bark of a tree; it just crumbles, a little like mushy grass, to the ground. Cerise then throws more powder at the hole he's just made in the tree. Sena, looking up at her little flower-root spirit, asks: Have you ever seen this before?

The spirit, not getting her intent, replies they've seen trees before, and this is a cherry tree. Sena gets them to focus on the rotted hole and the spirit is not sure what this is... but a lot of their friends have been getting sick lately ... it's almost like there is too much water, but they don't think there is too much water: it's so dry. Look, they say, I'm just flaking — I'm so dry.

The spirit, seeing how Sena is trying to pick them off from her head, winds down her arm. Sena asks Rill for a favor:"Trust me ... Will you splash a little water on my forearm? Please?"Rill, who is very impressed by Sena and by spirit benders generally, wants to show off and is happy to oblige:"Of course, spiritbender, I trust you."Sena, however, has no use for the powder Cerise offers:"No powder. Powder is just gonna dry out the situation."Rill has three little vials of water they have on them to waterbend something very beautiful. They could also use water from the stew — but if it's a root stew, maybe not. Rill instead chooses to pull water from a pretty wide field: dew from the grasses, and leaves and the flowers — but not the stew water that may contain dead relatives of the spirit.

The water Rill splashes on Sena's arm makes what looks like arabesque shapes, almost inspired by the lace of these beautiful petticoats rendered so lovely on the posters; these interconnected, geometric patterns flow into a little bit of a band over to the forearm. Rill makes it clear for Sena they're drawing water from the top of plants rather than deep roots.

As Sena's arm is getting wet, the tree root stretches out its rooty arms about: It's so good — I like it; it's so delicious. They're good to go home now, but — Sena belatedly clarifies — they could stay here, too. The spirit hops off with a Bye! and disappears into the ground. Cerise, thinking Sena was speaking to him, is Sorry I misread the situation and also says Bye! Sena calls him back, explaining she couldn't acknowledge the presence of a spirit in the cherry tree grove.

Cerise wisely advises her to Keep your voice down, but not before Grandma thinks she's heard something about spirits. Time for damage control: Cerise, throwing powder at the trees, says that was just all the powder; Sena adds I feel that my own spirit is alive today ... lively. Grandma accepts this with an Okay; Cerise continues Sena's story: Because of the stew ... of the very good stew and Sena concludes it with My spirit is lifted; thank you, Grandma Avo. Cerise thanks her too.

Now that this crisis has been defused, the group returns to their objective: getting ahold of the Olive Fox. To this end, Rill reminds them that the Tipsy Badgermole has historically been a very good place for rumors — and of course, Rill now highly suspects that someone they know there has an intimate connection with the Olive Fox.

In her room upstairs at the Tipsy Badgermole, Aki has a war-room section, the equivalent of a conspiracy board with a picture of Commander Shu and maps of the Fire Nation. A string hanging from the commander's picture leads to a picture with a question mark on it: What's he doing? Aki is trying to make Shu look so stupid he has to retire in shame.

Aki is looking at the board, considering the new information she's recently gathered — beyond spies being in the play's audience: there is a Fire Nation spy in the city; but Commander Shu is not the one giving them orders because they were sent by a higher-up; this spy might be a way to get to Commander Shu because he's super-pissed about it — he would not be happy that someone else is here that wouldn't have to listen to him. Aki also knows the spy is looking for a person — a specific one.

Aki ponders the best next move regarding Shu. He's been playing the siege long game; he hasn't got quick results and is likely to turn up the heat, especially with this new spy on his turf; he's gonna act sooner now: knowing what he's planning would behoove her. Moreover, whatever he ends up doing is gonna be rushed and not well planned; it's going to be untidy and unsubtle.

Also, if the spy was not sent by Shu, they must have been sent directly by one of the Fire Nation's top commanders. The issue, from Shu's standpoint, is not that they are higher authorities, it's that the spy doesn't answer to him.

Cerise discusses with Sena and Rill how they need a plan to go real sneaky-like and get all the questions answered once they are in the bar. He concludes he should do the talking and opens the door.

Aki is poring over the data, making all these connections, when Cerise, Rill and Sena, looking for the Olive Fox, create a commotion downstairs.

Cerise, never one to be quiet, enters with a loud ''Wooh-ooh! HEY EVERYBODY!''. It is now mid afternoon, around 4 p.m.

Cerise immediately wonders whether he should have come in disguise, because there is all these pictures up of me displayed on the bar's wall. The good thing is, on the pictures he is in an avocado costume, and — he reckons —the pictures don't even look like him: you'd never tell.

Sena asks him in jest:"Would you, in disguise, not be in a cherry costume?"That doesn't sound right to Cerise; he was thinking more of a mustache — he saw a bunch of them backstage the other day — no one would recognize him.

Cerise keeps yelling:"Who wants to talk about secrets?"This attracts dirty glances from the only patron in there that time of the day.

Rill shrugs this off: This is fine; let's go in. They walk to the proprietor, a very burly, no-nonsense bartender type innkeeper guy who goes by the name of Hershul. Hershul is behind the counter, doing what all bartenders do: polishing a glass — the same glass as last time. He asks:"Cerise, what are you doing here?"Cerise answers: Secrets ... then turns around, pleading for ''help! help! help!'', and pushing Rill and Sena in front of him.

Hershul crosses his arms, and reminds Cerise that:"The last time you and your friends were here .... — the last time you were selling me mead — but, the time before that, you announced to everybody you were putting on a play, so ..."Rill interjects: And we did! to which Cerise adds, no less proud: And it went great, critically.

Cerise, hearing the bartender confirm to Rill he saw the play — there is very little entertainment happening in this city — and call it  a delightful theatrical experience, grabs a Wanted poster, signs it and hands it over to him. As Hershul adds: "It was a little amateur, but with some polish I feel like you have the makings of a fine actor."Cerise thanks him, and Rill quips: "And you certainly know about polishing."Hershul picks up the glass and begins polishing it again: Yes, I do!

Aki comes down upstairs at this time, with a bag over her shoulders and an art tube sticking out of it a little bit. She looks surprised to see the group in the Tipsy Badgermole at 3 p.m. Cerise greets her with a joyful Hi, hey, I like you too!, to which Aki replies with a quick thanks before resuming her walk toward the exit, thus showing she has no intent to take part in whatever they're up to.

Rill, holding one of the Wanted posters, takes a smooth step in front of her to block her path and asks: "Would you like to help us continue taking down these erroneous posters around town, or otherwise go with us up on a walk, a stroll even?"Aki replies: I grabbed a few of them already, but ... sure. She has figured, from the tone in Rill's voice, that they has something else in mind than a stroll.

Rill also tries to enlist the bartender, to let them know if he finds out who's distributing the posters. They just keep appearing, he replies, it's very strange. In exchange for him keeping an eye out for them, Rill promises the troupe will not any more plays' marketing schemes here — Don't make any promises, Cerise advises. At any rate, Hershul finds it nice to have the arts reemerging in the city. Aki point out he is a real patron, and he confirms I am, pointing to a little stage in the corner with a wistful stare that lays bare how much he misses the arts. Aki can also attest to her boss's heavy baritone.

Aki exits the Tipsy Badgermole with the group, ostensibly on a stroll, but really waiting for the shoe to drop. Rill knows a lot of furtive places, alleyways that take a particular bend you can disappear from; they navigate the group on a windy path, talking about hot nonsense until they get to what they deem to be a secure location.

Cerise starts a new conversation with Aki:"How have you been?"Aki talks about their theater time, and working for her good boss at the Tipsy Badgermole — she gets to eat and sleep, so ...

Cerise takes this opportunity to say:"I love eating and sleeping; that's so good to hear that you're doing that too. That's awesome. I'm sorry you had to run off before the end of the show, but the Olive Fox showed up, and it was really cool. Next time you should stay around for the next play we do."Cerise thinks the Olive Fox is going to come to all of them because we're friends now.

Sena and Rill watch closely as Aki agrees with Cerise: Yeah.

Rill can now talk to Aki. They start referring to the work that takes her around the city and the very rejuvenating walks she goes on, here and there ... Rill would love to know if, on her walks at night, she has noticed anything like the unusual rot they've seen on the cherry farm's trees.

Aki, clearly holding off while furtively glancing at Cerise as if this will be the dumbest reveal of all time, replies she has seen nothing specific. Sena, catching Aki's eye, tries to distract Cerise. As she starts gesturing, Cerise asks what she's doing with her hands. Sena explains:"I was thinking of our next play."Cerise inquires about her pantomime, and she explains:"I think, what if we did interpretive dance with no words?"She has caught his attention: Okay, hold on! He hyper-focuses over on Sena and goes on: "Show me what you got!"Aki just keeps walking — thinking Okay, this is good. She keeps going in a direction away from the general conversation that's going on here — and Sena's continuing interpretive dancing. Rill appreciates Sena's good work, as Cerise, still focused on Sena, says:"Oh, I like that twirl; do that twice and I thing you have something here."Sena does the twirl twice.

Rill eventually leads Aki to a piece of the wall surrounding the city that's falling into disrepair. It's a cascade of stones falling down; and even in an Earthbender city, the resources are spread too thin to be able to fix every fortification perfectly; but around the corner of one of these, you can step into what used to be a little guards' room that has been blocked off on two sides; and so it's a perfect little quiet place to rehearse your pantomimed wonderful creation — or spill secrets without being overheard.

Aki is reasonably nervous about revealing any secrets to Cerise, but if they are all together, he will hear. Fortunately, Sena has been buying Rill and Aki some time. A confident Rill uses the moment they have to tell an embarrassed Aki something Cerise, obviously, doesn't know: "I know the sword is yours."As Sena is still dancing in the background, admits the sword is hers — and the logical conclusion. Rill continues:"I don't know why you work alone; the Resistance could really use your help, you know; but I have no choice but to admit that what you've been doing around the city has been of mutual benefit, so ... I'll keep your secret, you keep mine."Aki replies she doesn't plan to tell anybody's secrets to anybody. As for mutual benefit, she adds, I'm not working for the Resistance, I'm working for myself. Still, Rill acknowledges that Aki's targets have been occasionally useful to the Resistance, and I'll take that. Aki does agree their goals coincide. Rill would inquire deeper about Aki's goals — they want to know so bad — but there is no time now ... as Cerise barges in this excellent quiet rehearsal space where no one would be able to hear secret dances. Cerise turns toward Aki, squints, stares at the tube, and then back at Aki, and then back at the tube, and back at Aki again — thinking — until he comes out with an explanation: "I think I know what you brought us here; I know what's in that tube: art supplies; you're the one putting all these pictures of me up as a goof, because you thought it was fun advertising for the play. I love it; I love it and I'm gonna tell you: you should keep doing it, that's great!"As Aki tries to convince him she did not do that, and that these pictures are linked to the siege of the city by the Fire Nation, he just winks: Sure you did. Aki adds, gesturing at the very obvious direction of the ships, that she happens to know — because she works in a bar — there is someone here, someone important — or working for someone important — within the Fire Nation; and whoever they are, they seem to have decided Cerise is the guy that they're looking for; this is not a playful or happy fun time situation; this is a Cerise is very likely to be imprisoned and die in a Fire Nation jail situation. So, she concludes,  "Let's try and be serious about it ... for a second ... okay?"Cerise is the first to interrupt the ensuing silence:  "That is an excellent scene for my next production. I love that; we're gonna use that, because political commentaries are really in right now."Aki rolls her eyes super hard: I don't know how I can be more ...

Cerise reckons:"This might be your best writing yet."Rill sides with Aki, reckons they need to find out more about this spy. Sena hears a little rustling and a little pop sound as her little spirit friend, her root friend, pops out of the ground, climbs up her leg onto her shoulder and whispers into her ear that there is now some people in that place where she dropped it off yesterday; they're doing a lot of yelling, and throwing some stones around. Trees? Sena inquires; The trees aren't throwing rocks is the spirit's puzzled reply. Sena clarifies her question: No, but they're at the trees? The spirit confirms the people with the rocks are indeed around there, where the trees are.

Sena turns to the group: Cerise, we need to go. She thinks something is happening at his family farm, because of what — pointing at her shoulder — this little root spirit the others cannot see or hear just told her. Cerise gets quiet for a second and just runs; Ri runs behind him, followed by Sena and Aki. They are not far from the city, and therefore not in great danger from the Fire Nation.

Cerise runs his way across the city — fast —; he hears the sound of rocks and earthbending noises — ground shifting and moving; large thuds and cracking noises —; he hears some yelling he can't quite make out until he gets closer; and this is happening right outside the housed area; he sees Grandma Avo standing there, she is full-on earthbending, she has lifted up a bunch of rocks, she is facing is a couple of people who look just like regular Earth Kingdom individuals who had very clearly been trying to fight her with earthbending; he sees all this evidence of thrown boulders and she has them pinned down at this point. As Cerise sees her, looking like she has the situation pretty well in hand, he runs up and gets in the way of her and the people she's trying to destroy.

Grandma Avo grunts, takes a few deep breaths, and explains she hasn't bent that much earth in a while.

Cerise takes a little container out of his cherry costume and hands it to her: It's okay, grandma; I have some water. Then he asks: "What's going on?"Grandma points and waves her cane at the individuals who are pinned in strips of rock: They came here and started yelling and throwing ... — she points at the house, onto which a boulder clearly landed — they started bending the rocks in my direction; they were looking for you.

Cerise picks up a stick, starts poking the couple, and asks why they bothered his grandma. They confirm they were looking for him. As he pokes harder, the woman says Stop it!; she looks back at Cerise, tries to earthbend some rock; Grandma Avo goes: Don't!, and she stops in her tracks as Cerise warns: "No, I wouldn't do that; Grandma Avo is good with earthbending rocks but she can also toss them because she has these big arms."The pinned woman explains Grandma is the one who escalated the situation from yelling and looking for him to rock-throwing. Cerise has none of it: the couple could have found him without throwing rocks at his grandma — even though he wasn't at the farm when they came.

The woman realizes they don't have the upper hand in this situation; if only Cerise would stop his grandma, they would just leave. Cerise, still poking at her, wants to know:"How do I know you won't come back and bother my grandma again?"The defeated couple look at their rock restraints, and the woman replies:"I don't think we could win."As Cerise asks what they wanted with him, he notices a rolled-up poster he recognizes, poking out of one of their pockets. He grabs it, signs it, and puts it back on top of the woman, who protests:"I didn't want your signature."Cerise, in turn, remarks:"Well, you didn't want to get crushed by rocks, but here we are."The woman clarifies what they actually were after: the reward. Cerise doesn't get it and is told IT'S ON THE POSTER!

The woman elaborates for Cerise, who hasn't read the posters: the Fire Nation offered a reward ... and the couple needs money; they want to get out of the city. Cerise can't believe they are ready to turn on their own people in the process but We have to survive. The woman is getting cockier now: "It says you're already a vigilante ... Maybe you shouldn't let people find out who you are — put your grandmother in danger."Cerise interrupts this speech; he and grandma are both poking now. He only turns to grandma and suggests Could we let them up? when he thinks they're turning purple. Grandma Avo agrees; she motions and the rocks fall away from the imprisoned couple, who turn and run. Cerise still throws a stick at them, but lets them go away with a parting BYE, jerks!

Grandma is a lit tired; she'll have to sit down and make some tea. Cerise puts her arm over his shoulder and says he'll be right back. Grandma, brushing off his help, smacks him and says:

''I'm fine! I'm 87 years young! I am more than capable of fending off whippersnappers and walking back to the house ... I just need some tea.''

Aki tells the group she is going to keep an eye on the couple, because this is a problem that may propagate. She starts following them, the regular way — for a while — then she climbs off the side of a building and keeps following them above ways; she does a couple aerobatic leaps between rooftops so as to stay with them until they settle. During this pursuit, she is still dressed as Aki, not as the Olive Fox.

Meanwhile, Sena, Cerise and Rill go inside. Grandma Avo make some tea — cherry tea, probably — and pours something else from another smaller, unlabelled, bottle in her own cup. She serves the group tea. Rill barely broaches the subject of how to deal with the people looking for Cerise before Grandma Avo interrupts her: What's all of this about? — and, pushing one of the posters on the table — ''Cerise, are you up to your antics again? the theatrics.''

Cerise explains: "No, we have a good idea for a script, but we're still in the working phase of it ... I don't know, I guess the performance was so convincing that they thought that I was the Olive Fox? But ... it's weird that ... you know, people from the town were coming to collect."Rill reckons people are desperate; Cerise accepts you can't blame them; Grandma Avo pours herself a little more tea and adds that:"Desperate people make difficult choices ... not always good ones. I'm not mad at them, just disappointed."Sena concurs: Disappointment is the worst. Grandma experienced it a lot: she's old.

Cerise excuses himself to take off the cherry costume: I'll be right back. He sets the teacup down, squeezes out of the chair, and through the door, going out for a moment.

Grandma, looking at Rill and Sena — still giving Sena the stink eye a little bit —, extols the virtues of her grandson: "He has a good heart ... Foolish, but a good heart; not sure he understands that this is war."She sighs and goes on, when Rill asks about the more than a handful of spies she's met: they send in people to take information; she can't imagine this particular spy is particularly out of the ordinary. That commander Shu hasn't managed to take an ounce of ground out of her city of Taku: He's tried, but he's failed.

Rill keeps pressing on: "Have you ever ... you know ... counter-interrogated a Fire Nation spy?"Why would I do that?, Grandma Avo asks in return, that's a spy thing.

Rill thinks Grandma Avo is tough, and they came to steal her cherries. Rill won't say they're now convinced Grandma Avo has a very colorful past, more so than she has let on — as shown in the story she tells then:"You know, I caught them once; they were doing something to the water outside the city, but we stopped them that time. There was another time they were setting fire to a bunch of fields. They try and pick off things around the city. They go after the food first . If they starve people out, they get extra desperate: that's why they leave."This brings Sena back to the topic of the rotting trees; she'd like to know when the rot started — A few weeks ago, Grandma thinks. Sena finds this weird, because the weather has been so dry. Grandma agrees, it has been a pretty dry summer. She has heard a few other farmers talking about that rot, too. And the Herbalist Institute, they useless: only the powder, for which they paid good money, is what has been working against the rot.

Sena tries to catch Rill's eyes, she is very concerned now about this rot and Grandma's revelation that They go for the food first.

Rill changes the conversation; they better go check on Cerise to make sure he's not stuck in a new costume. They thank Grandma Avo, who assures them, before they leave, that "It will die down: this Olive Fox has been a thorn in Shu's side for a while, but he's got a lot of thorns ... in a lot of his sides."Rill agrees: That he does. As they walk out with Sena toward the workshop — or wherever Cerise said the costume change was happening —, Rill suggests they need to know more about the Fire Nation themselves. Rill has this idea — probably a bad one — they want to plant: they are going to turn in Cerise; but this would be a lie, they would only pretend to turn him in as a way to meet the Fire Nation. Rill doesn't think they should discuss this idea because they're afraid it is horrible; they should just go and check on Cerise right now. At any rate, Sena reckons, that as his friends, they have to tell him what they're doing — to which Rill agrees. But, Sena continues, if we tell him what we're doing — Rill finishes the sentence for her: He'll think it's a play. Which is precisely why Sena reckons it probably won't work. In Rill's words: There is the rub — there is the tree rub. Still, Sena thinks Rill may be right; maybe if they tell him it's one of those moving performances, interactive theater where they move about the town ...

Rill suggests they just let this idea incubate and throws open the doors of the workshop. Then ..."As you enter the workspace, you see the tools; you don't see the cherry costume. You also don't see Cerise — Cerise is actually in town, right now, standing in the middle of the square, saying: 'Olive Fox here ... Fire Nation spies, come get me, I'm turning myself in. Come on — come one — come all — The Great Olive Fox.'"With the spy looking for a person, the posters that mistakenly identify Cerise as the Olive Fox and have led to this latest crisis, the rot that has been infecting and killing trees on farms, one thing is clear:"Things are escalating in the city of Taku."Cerise, after running all the way from the cherry farm, is standing in the middle of the square in the city of Taku, still wearing his cherry costume. He keeps yelling:"Hey, Olive Fox here, Fire Nation spies; come and get it ... come and get everything; come out — it's me, the Olive Fox —; I have all of the papers; I've been ripping them down off the wall, because that's what I'm here for, rebellion and stuff."Taku is not a bustling city; there is not that many people in the square even at this time of day. Cerise's yelling elicits mixed reactions; some people take their children, pull them closer and just walk away from him, wondering What is this person doing? A couple of people just ignore him, going about their day; and then a couple people seem to pause, with that look of thinking: they are considering whether or not they want to act in this moment, but before they do ... a woman moves up near Cerise; Cerise doesn't notice as she comes up, until she taps him on one of his flailing arms to grab his attention. This young woman — about Cerise's age, sixteen — in very plainly, very worn-looking Earth Kingdom clothing, has a scarf wrapped around her head; her eyes are gray, her skin is sort of brown, and she says: "What are you doing? Stop!"He asks whether she's a spy — she shushes him; he counters that I'm trying to turn myself in to the spies — she grabs his arm and he doesn't resist as she pulls him away. She tugs him into a street, and asks, again, what he's doing. He replies, again, that he's turning himself in, and adds that I'm the Olive Fox after all. The girl explains she needs his help; he thinks she is a spy and says he wants to get information and protect his family. She succeeds in making him go quiet and says she's not a Fire Nation spy; she's heard rumors about him, thinks he's in the Resistance; she's been asking around — she needs help — and was told to talk to the Olive Fox: they, or someone in the Resistance might be able to help. Please, she begs, tell me you can help me.

Cerise hesitates; he can help her, but they gotta get out of here and go back to his place now because he was yelling.

The girl asks, one more time, why he was doing that. Because, he replies, how are you gonna get the Fire Nation to reveal itself?

The girl, still whispering, asks if the Fire Nation are in the city. She thinks it makes sense — she hadn't really thought about it that far — when Cerise explains "Someone has been throwing up these really cute pictures of me."Cerise signs a flyer, which he gives over to her. He takes it back and just puts it in his pocket — with the rest of the posters he signed — when her reaction is I don't ... need this.

Cerise now urges the girl on; he wants to go back to the farm and explains "Never mind! Never mind! It was a joke; it was a good joke; okay!"Cerise intends to hop over the wall and then just take the normal path along the road, to the farm. He's not particularly sneaky, especially given that he's in a giant cherry costume. He tries to pull off an Olive Fox jump, but can't get more than two feet off the ground; the girl hears the rustling and the bending of the papier-mâché.

Meanwhile, Aki has followed the two individuals for a little while, until they stopped at a place outside of the wall that used to be a farm. But there are no crops there; there is almost nothing left of what was a farm; several of the buildings look like they have been burnt down and these two individuals go to the most sturdy structure that is not completely fire-damaged — because, thankfully, many things in the Earth Kingdom are made of stone. Aki climbs up and looks in, and watches them: they're living here, this is their home, with a smattering of belongings around this only room.

Aki hears the back and forth between them. One of them feels very guilty about what happened: We did a bad thing; we shouldn't have done this, we need to stick together; and the other one goes: ''Shut up! We need to survive, like, we gotta get out of the city: this was our way out''. Aki, though not heartless to the situation of desperate people making a move and trying to figure that out, changes into the Olive Fox attire she has in her bag; sword on her hip, she hops down and goes inside with no subtlety, ready to confront them. When they notice her, the two look up and scramble to their feet with a gasp: Uh ... what are you doing here? In response, the Olive Fox holds up a poster on which Cerise is wearing regular Cerise clothes, tapping it and shaking their head in a way that conveys You're stupid if you think this is me.

The woman — or girl —, the one who thought We oughta do this is definitely the one that Cerise had been poking, and who is also Aki's age looks at Aki and she's like:  "We didn't really think he was the Olive Fox. Cerise is ... sweet, but not that kind of person; but the Fire Nation wasn't gonna care; I hoped maybe they would just turn him away, or send him back, when they figured out he wasn't the Fox, but we'd be gone by then."She swallows very nervous-like, still not really sure what the real Olive Fox is doing there.

Aki, who has been trying to avoid speaking, says from underneath the mask, a little bit muffled: "They try and split you up; that's what they do. If you let them, it's hard for everyone."Aki's words definitely make the two back off: they're not going to go after Cerise gain. But they're going through hard times, and Aki's speech doesn't ring as true as it could. Aki doesn't get the sense that they're going to try and stay: they're out as soon as they can.

The girl promises they'll leave Cerise and his grandmother alone, as she rubs the clear bruise on her arm. Before she turns to leave, Aki still replies:  "Do whatever you need to. Cerise is not the one you're looking for ... maybe proliferate that."Aki will just let them go, having said what she meant to say: now, they'll either do it, or they won't. At any rate, they're not gonna meet up with any Fire Nation spies or suchlike; they're just desperate.

And so she goes.

Back at the farm, Sena runs into the orchard as soon as she realizes that Cerise is gone. Rill starts looking for a note Cerise might have left. Rill finds no note, but notices that the cherry costume is missing — so, Cerise should be fairly straightforward to find. What's more, Cerise has had to dye some of the fabric in cherry juice due to the lack of paint; therefore, the papier-mâché material kind of does crack off and flakes, so Rill and Sena will see some of that and be able to follow the trail of cherry droppings. At any rate, Cerise not being the most subtle of individuals, they will be able to track some of his movements throughout the city.

The young woman, watching Cerise try to climb the wall on the other side, wonders Why don't we just take the stairs? Cerise continues climbing; he gets over the wall and she looks at him expectantly. She asks where they are going now, assuming he's going to some secret Resistance hideout. Most people in the town absolutely believe that the Olive Fox and the Resistance are working together, which is why the girl was told the Resistance would be able to help her find the Olive Fox.

Cerise does reply that he has a ... secret Resistance base. He urges his companion to come with him and meet the other friends who are also in the Resistance: Right this way! She follows after him, but still declines to introduce herself ... she doesn't say anything, actually. Cerise, in contrast, introduces himself:   "My name is Cerise; I am a cherry farmer. My grandpa died a few years ago, but I live with my grandma on this cherry farm slash secret base; and I'm the Olive Fox and I have been forever."The girl, impressed, asks why he decided to become the Olive Fox.

Cerise, embarrassed, replies: ''Oh, this and that ... You know, stuff ...''

She just keeps watching him as he goes on: ... and justice, and such.

She reckons it must be really dangerous; which he confirms:        "Oh yeah ... yeah, there was one time where I got stabbed at."Then he asks, again, what her name is — Yiri, she answers.

That's a nice name, he says, you from around here? — No, she replies, ... just passing through.

As Cerise wonders  'cause you're a Fire Nation spy? and turns around to talk to her, Yiri shakes her head; and at that very moment, she gasps as she sees, over his shoulder, three Fire Nation soldiers between them and where they were headed ; she gasps and she points at them.

Cerise keeps his cool: I got this ... Turn around and walk the other way; pretend we were talking. As Cerise himself turns away from the three Fire Nation spies, he sees another two that have snuck behind them.

Cerise, still calm, hails the soldiers: "Hello, Fire Nation. How are you doing today?"There is a moment of silence before one of them replies:"We're here for you."The soldiers heard Cerise's yelling, among other things. As their leader steps forward, Cerise asks their name. The leader just wants to know if the Olive Fox is turning themself in — which Cerise says he is, if they let his friend ... this person he just met ... go. Cerise adds, whispering so that only the soldier hears: I think she is a little weird.

The soldier reckons Commander Shu will be very happy to meet the Olive Fox, and thinks their friend should be ... will be coming with them. Cerise, in turn, would love to meet the commander, but doesn't think his friend should be coming, because I'm a handful — you can talk to my friends. As Cerise is saying this, the soldiers just circle up around him: he is now surrounded. How do you want to do this, he asks, everyone surrounding me right now? You know I'm the Olive Fox and I can take care of you all at once. The soldier lays it out for him: Typically, the way an arrest goes, is that you give us your hands and we will put you in ..., pointing at a pair of handcuffs he's holding up. Cerise finds another reason to drag this out: ''Oh, I don't think my arms will fit around my back in this suit; so, do you mind if I just walk with you? I like moving my hands around; I'm very ... my friend Rill says that if I gesture with my hands... The soldier is growing impatient now: Take it off! by which they mean The suit! ''As Cerise is now asking for help untying the apparatus, the soldier draws a sword and pokes the suit. Cerise protests it won't work; they keep poking, poke ... poke ... poke ... until they cut a hole in the suit. Cerise is not happy: Now you just cut a hole in it, which is gonna be more repair time, so ... Stop talking!, comes the sharp reply.

Yiri's eyes go big, so big, with panic, seeing Cerise just go all the way into the suit — going turtle, in effect. The situation has now grown so tense something is clearly about to happen. That's when Cerise suddenly jumps up, arms and legs tucked in the suit, and just barrel-dives at the people in front of him , squashing the soldier to the side underneath him as he lays prone on top of them — putting himself in a disadvantageous position. On the plus side, this provides an opportunity for Yiri to flee — which was Cerise's goal — even as several guards come tumbling on top of Cerise. In the ensuing tussle, they are going to attempt to grab Cerise, and one soldier is going to attempt to grab Yiri ...

This is precisely when Sena and Rill, looking ahead, see a circle of Fire Nation soldiers. They are outside the city walls, and the Fire Nation are known to show up here sometimes. There is a moment when Sena and Rill go like Maybe we should just avoid them ; but then they see the soldiers are like circled up, and there is someone in this circle; for a moment they don't see what's there and then they just see this bright red orb launch out of the center and land on one of the soldiers, and now they know who's there.

Sena also notices that there is not just a cannonballing cherry; there is also someone off to the side that she doesn't recognize. She is going to approach them, circling around to try to avoid the Fire Nation eyes as much as possible, as long as possible. She proceeds to flank the Fire Nation soldiers because she's curious about this person who doesn't seem to be with them — and is very Earth Kingdom dressed —; she is ready to help, too, and successfully punches the soldier who's going after Yiri.

Rill tries to get the attention of this now confused soldier so that they spread out and give some space off to Sena and this stranger; they waterbend some little tendrils that sneak at this soldier's ankles as they turn and trip them up : one of their heels is actually lifted up off the ground by a tendril of water that immediately freezes; they are yanked and tossed into a convenient pile of hay nearby.

As this one soldier has been successfully haystacked by the combined actions of Sena and Rill, no one has managed to help Cerise, who is still surrounded — he is even restrained, now, as three of the Fire Nation guards go in and just grab at him; hands pull him out of his cherry suit and, like, these three guards now have him. Cerise, at first, intends to use his big, strong, cherry farmer arms to struggle fervorously out of this, as the squashed soldier is in the process of getting themself out of their own situation with the help of their friends. He finally opts for a squirmy rather than violent escape, relying on his paper-mâché to have made him hot, sweaty, slippery ... and, ultimately, so hard to grab that he can slip free.

Unfortunately, the soldier he squashed gets themself to their feet, thus getting Cerise up: the soldiers have him; they have such a grip on him that no amount of sweatiness is going to help him out of this situation. It would be a great moment for the Olive Fox to shop up, at this point where Cerise, no longer just surrounded and restrained but also arrested, will remain not particularly helpful unless someone can help him out of this situation.

Aki, still in her Olive Fox attire, sees the Fire Nation soldiers, runs up and makes herself obvious to them. She takes out her sword and declares:          "You have the wrong person, and your intel has been wrong this entire time, and now you're gonna pay for it: come and get me!"Cerise sees her and is clearly in awe but the soldiers, unfortunately, don't even notice her ; and that hurts a little bit, being ignored as she is brandishing her sword.

The captain — the leader of the group who was talking to Cerise — has turned his attention to Yiri. There is this moment where she moves out of the way, as he is trying to arrest her. Sena, who has kept observing Yiri, notices the grace there is to her very elegant and trained movement: Yiri moves like an airbender.

Rill, meanwhile, can see that now is the right time to fulfill their oath to protect Cerise's whole family. They intend to free him of his restraints. As the three soldiers surrounding Cerise make it difficult to get to him, Rill uses ice-shaping to slice the ropes from a distance. Cerise immediately uses his regained freedom to elbow a guard; the supernatural mist caused by the interaction of the waterbending and gusts of wind in the previously dry area makes his move hard enough to see that he successfully lands a hard boop on the guard's face. This poor soldier who's just got up after being squashed is now doubled over in pain, and his nose starts bleeding — that's Cerise's payback for the stab in his cherry costume.

Aki makes the soldiers not ignore her by hitting one in the head with her ceremonial — decorative, sort of — sword. She is definitely not intent on killing anyone. She aims for the captain, because if the captain falls, the others will run away — that's traditional maneuvers. The fog has also shortened his distance of vision, and Aki comes in at such a low angle he doesn't expect it; she grabs his wrist and presses two fingers until it is in a certain way and then she pulls down on his arm to swap over to the other one, pushes it toward them and hits him in the wrist again; his fingers are all tingly now and he can no longer firebend. The captain's eyes go wide as he looks at the Olive Fox, who caps their action with a Take that, captain guy! and, now that they've got the upper hand, encourages their companions to finish them off.

Sena, trying to walk the pacifistic line, grabs someone through the fog and tries to pull them disorientedly in the direction of the Olive Fox, to kind of team up. Aki puts herself ready to receive the Incoming! Sena sends her way.

The Olive Fox, surrounded by the mad captain who's drawing his sword and a goon, is now in a slightly more complicated situation — but that's fine to Aki, because I live for this.

The one who was booped shakes it off and stumbles around in the fog — stumbles into Sena. Cerise, who's now freed from the Booped and the Squashed, picks up the cherry costume; he just shoves in on top of a soldier that's facing away, trying to put in on wrong , so he couldn't get his arms out if he wanted to; maybe he'll even be able to give him a shove and roll him away. Cerise's move does make his victim cherry trapped; it also leaves him in a dangerous position.

As this fray is happening, and there is this curious fog going on, Rill wants to seize the opportunity Cerise's cherry trap provides by sending the soldier careening into some hay, via some waterbending: Rill sends a wall of water — very thin, because it's still from their vial —; it slams into their target, knocking them over and sending them rolling into this hay until they knock up against a building.

The last soldier who was still holding on to Cerise sees this, grabs him and shoves him into Rill ; both end up tumbling over and landing on the ground, grounded. They are prone, which is not too hard — they can recover from that —; but the soldier is now standing over them, with the intention of dealing some violence.

Sena asks her little root friend that's stuck around to go tickle the ear of the guard who's just stumbled nearby — this may spook them, and lower their morale enough to get them to run; at this point, this person's had a day, for sure — while Sena herself just stands there in her spooky grayish white clothing. The spirit hops on the guard's shoulder as instructed and begins tickling them, but the person shakes it off, wondering ''What's happening? What is my day?''

Yiri comes to help Sena; she probably recognizes that Sena figured something out and, seeing that she is struggling at this moment, gives her that extra push she needs to trip the guard — they actually trip over something that's not there; and then they get pushed and stumbled away. Sena thanks Yiri for helping her into success.

Aki goes for the ending blow; she intends to disarm the captain and convince him to run. She twirls his sword out of his hand but leaves herself open to the counter-attack because she's fair and she gives him a chance to run away. He looks, gives a command to the rest of his people, and sees that they are clearly outnumbered; then he makes very direct eye contact with the Olive Fox, implying We will be back. Aki's mask is slightly shifted ... but Aki feels her eyes could be enough to identify her anyway. Maybe it's a glimmer of recognition that he will take with him as he runs back to report to captain Shu, thinking I'll get you next time, and the little dog too!

And with that, the fog disappears inexplicably; there is a breeze and it blows away.

As the group come together, the defeated soldiers leave, carrying each other back. They are limping, and one is still wearing the cherry costume. Cerise, who, fortunately, was wearing clothes underneath his costume, starts to run after the guy in his suit until the Olive Fox orders him to Stop! and he stops, sitting down, legs crossed, mesmerized again.

Yiri seeing Cerise in this position, and seeing Aki as the Olive Fox, looks between them and says, pointing at Cerise: You're not the Olive Fox!; then she asks, pointing to Aki; You're the Olive Fox?

As Aki answers ''Yes! I am!'', Yiri makes her request:       "I need your help."