Destined Checkpoint

**Destined Checkpoint** is the forty-second episode of Tales of Dikuda. It is also the sixth episode of the fourth season.

## Summary

In order to improve LingDang's balance, Bayroff takes her to an Osteopathy clinic, where he bumps into someone familiar.

## Episode in Detail

Following the mission with Gwady, Loco is now being plagued by persistent memories of what happened. One late evening at the police station these bothersome thoughts become too much and in a fit of despair she ends up cutting her hair with a knife. Further, life threatening, damage is prevented only through an intervention by Yuw, who forcefully stops Loco.

Meanwhile in the morning at Su HowYu's mansion, Bayroff is trying to figure out what is keeping RuYi from further improving her martial arts skill. After coming to a conclusion that she's not flexible enough, he then takes her to an osteopathy clinic in order to have her musculoskeletal framework adjusted.

At the clinic's front desk, RuYi is pleasantly surprised to meet a fellow student from her school, a young platypus that took up the job to help out his family, something the girl can sympathize with, given how her own family is poor. They have a brief conversation while she fills out a few papers required for a first time patient and proceeds to lead her and Bayroff to the doctor's office.

Inside the room they meet the doctor of the clinic, the lion Ghess, along with one of this students and Derbri. After a quick Q&A and a balance test, the lion understands the problem, however it is Derbri that offers to do the actual treatment, to which he happily agrees.

While Derbri prepares RuYi for the treatment, Bayroff recognizes her as the woman he met briefly on the bus a while back. As it turns out, she doesn't work in the clinic, but used to be Ghess' teacher, something that surprises Bayroff, since she looks rather young in age. She and Ghess then give the curious RuYi an explanation on how poor body posture can affect the entire body.

Derbri follows through with the treatment, which is a rather painful ordeal during which the positioning of the spine and hips are readjusted in order to help RuYi's balance, among other things. Despite a very pain filled 2 hours, RuYi pulls through and afterwards she can already feel the effects of the treatment, namely feeling lighter and being able to balance herself properly.

Bayroff, curious about Derbri on a personal level, has a brief conversation with her, during which he asks her if she heard of the Sky Spider, Adato. Her reply leads him to wonder, so he asks her if she worships any gods. Given her reply that she believes in fate, as in the laws and rules of the universe, he feels enlightened, but decides to continue the conversation another time, instead leaving with RuYi.

On the way home to the mansion following a brief grocery shopping, RuYi asks Bayroff if he has any stories to share, given how he traveled the world. While he sorts the groceries, he thinks on which story to tell, though he doesn't look happy about the question itself. He settles for talking about his early life as a thief and how he ended up killing parents, who were in a dire situation with not enough money, in order to "put them out of their misery."

Though the situation is uncomfortable, RuYi remains open minded and curious, wondering what changed him, with the reason being explained to be the girl he is still looking for. Despite having learned much on his travels, he still plans on keeping up with the promise he made, which is killing said girl.

In turn Bayroff now asks if RuYi ever traveled outside of Dikuda, which she denies. Since as such, she has never been to a desert before, Bayroff settles on another story of his past to tell her.

## Characters

The following characters appear in this episode (in order):

* Loco Wish
* Gwadeweido
* *Pey Marvelous (mentioned)*
* *Esperanza "Ranza" Castillo (mentioned)*
* Tenyu Eesh Yuw
* Rutbouc
* Bayroff
* LingDang
* Rhylee Harris
* Ghess
* Falehi
* *Su HowYu (mentioned)*
* *Bayroff's parents (mentioned)*

## Trivia

* The treatment in an osteopathy clinic was based on Zenny's personal experience in such, and the effects the adjustments had on her body. Though the problems RuYi suffered from differ from the ones Zenny had.

* Rhylee Harris, the platypus, was the winning entry of Zenny's OC contest back in August 2015. He was created by Zeta.