“Ugh,” I groaned as one of the sect cultivators bashed into me on the dohyo and I slid across the clay.

  While I watched, Jonii asked if I had wanted to join in on the fun since I seemed so interested in sumo wrestling. I, of course, had to say yes. I had never even seen a real life dohyo before and getting to stand inside one was a surreal experience for me. He had me strip down to the loincloth I got from that old lady back in the village. Sadly, they didn’t give me a mawashi. When I asked, Jonii said they all had the sect name and crest on it. It wouldn’t be proper for me to wear one, apparently.

  “Come on Yoriteru, you should be able to throw him from the ring. He hasn’t been training,” Jonii scolded the man who bashed me.

  I just frowned. I knew I hadn’t been training, but I wasn’t a weakling. A push back into the muscular man and I tried to get a grip on his mawashi. I may not have been training, but I had probably seen a lot more sumo matches than these guys had. I also resembled a sumo wrestler more in build.

  Well, no, I wasn’t. I may have been sporting a solid dad bod, but I had nowhere near the muscle those guys did.

  I nearly yelled out in excitement when I got an inside grip on the man’s belt. I knew that smaller wrestlers had luck with throwing their opponent and using their weight against them. This was the only real plan I had. He swept my other hand away whenever I tried to get a grip on the other side of his belt.

  He was the one who got a grip on the opposite side I had on him and now he was holding the wrist that held his mawashi so hard I could scream. It was almost as bad as Hisai’s handshake.

  “Don’t worry Maikeru, I have more pills if you get injured. Give it your all,” Hisai offered from the sideline. I could even make out the man making fists and doing shadow boxing against the wall.

  It took a little longer past that and Yoriteru had me on my back and I was staring at the ceiling with the wind knocked out of me. Using his super strength, he used his grip on my wrist like it was part of my loincloth and just kind of dragged me across his knee and then onto the ground.

  From my new vantage point, I looked over at my opponent’s coach. Jonii just gave a nod and a grin. I frowned and then climbed to my feet with Yoriteru’s help. The clay was wet and sticky on my skin and I wanted to get it off, but before I could, Jonii grabbed me by the shoulders and moved me back into place.

  “Now, instead of doing things, how they’re normally done. I’m going to wrestle with you,” Jonii told me. He was talking about how in practices usually the winner of the practice bout kept wrestling and picked his new opponent.

  I nodded and noticed I wasn’t breathing as heavily as I thought I should be. Being a cultivator rocked. A couple of steps forward and brushed some dirt off the white line on the practice dohyo. When I stepped back to my starting position, Jonii was already crouched down with his fists in the dirt. The man was ready to go. As soon as my fists hit the clay, the coach rushed towards me.

  I held my ground and this time and I tried to push and thrust the eager man away from me. I wasn’t that good. This guy was strong. Instead, he pushed himself into me and grabbed the sides of the loincloth.

  “Where are you from?”

  I blinked at the breathy whisper. “Huh?”

  He pretended to be knocked back by a thrust I never did before he advanced once more towards me. “Don’t have time for this. Where are you from? How long have you been here?”

  I widened my eyes and pushed forward to grab his mawashi so we could pretend we were locked in and struggling. “From, uh, somewhere far away.”

  “Yeah, no shit Sherlock.”

  My eyes went wide, and I felt my grip loosening.

  “Nope, don’t do that. How long have you been here?”

  My mind scrambled. Just like back home, life on the road made days and weeks seem to melt together and it was always hard to keep track of the days. “Uh, a couple of weeks, I think?”

  “What was the month and year when you left? Was it a weird-looking lightning?”

  Once more, he pretended to be pushed back and I chased after him in the ring, and I grabbed his belt and pulled him towards me. “February 25, you?”

  A grunt and his shoulder pushed into me. “Before that, I must have… That guy, Hisai. He’s powerful. Does he know you’re a cultivator?”

  “Yeah.”

  It was hard to keep up talking during the pretend match. We both grunted and huffed.

  “Oh, come on!” Hisai shouted from the corner. “You guys aren’t even trying.”

  “You don’t have an element, though, right? The animal you were transported with has one.”

  “Well, my truck was turned into an ox and yeah, it’s lightning based.”

  He paused, and I could trip him up and knock him into the clay.

  “What the fuuuuu-ugh,” he grunted.

  I leaned down and held out a hand with a smirk to help him up. He accepted and climbed to his feet. I just grinned at him. Jonni rolled his eyes and a little light went off in my head. “Oh, you’re Johnny!”

  Jonni stared at me flatly. “Yeah, that’s what Elder Hisai told you my name was.”

  I frowned.

  “Alright, how wonderful for the both of you making new friends,” Hisai said and walked towards us.

  I looked over at Hisai and blinked. Jonii just gave him a flat look.

  “How about we get my new friend here cleaned up? We do have a meeting and places to be,” Hisai said and looked at my mud caked body with an upturned lip.

  Jonii gave a slight bow to the young elder and extended his arm off to the right. When I looked to see where his arm was leading, I saw an opening in the dojo walls and assumed it must be the locker room, or well… whatever an ancient Japanese locker room would be called?

  Oooo, maybe there’s a hot tub.

  “Go ahead, just don’t be long,” Hisai prompted me with a shoo of his fingers, and then held out my robes for me.

  When I walked into the room, I couldn’t help but gasp a little. Everything was polished wood and there was indeed a large hot tub. There was also a large sauna sectioned off. I whistled through my teeth and then sighed. I couldn’t use any of it. Hisai told me to hurry.

  I found a hook to hang my robe up on and wandered around the luxurious spa locker room looking for something that resembled a shower.

  “It’s in the other corner, on the other side of the wall,” Jonii’s gruff voice came from the entrance to the room.

  I came back from the sauna and pointed at him. “You.”

  Jonni frowned. “Go get in the shower. You don’t have a lot of time. Hisai is already about ready to pull you out of here by the collar. The hell are you guys doing that has him all worked up?”

  “I’m asking them to make me a new wagon to replace my long one. Something more like a semi,” I said and shrugged and waved away his confused look.

  I walked over to where the man directed me. There were small wooden stalls that did indeed have a rainfall styled showerhead. I climbed in and Jonii leaned against the wall towards it and spoke as I took off the loincloth, kinda wishing I had another one.

  “So, you’ve been here a lot longer, huh?” I asked as I rinsed off.

  He sighed. “Yeah. That’s why I was wondering if maybe time worked differently. I showed up with my dog out in the woods nearby and Hisai got a hold of us. He found me interesting and let me join the sect. So I train sumo,” Jonii explained.

  I nodded my head along. “Wait, he found you interesting? He seemed super interested in me too, since I was a cultivator without an element.”

  A deep sigh from outside my stall. “Yeah. My dog got my element, and your truck or bull or whatever got yours.”

  “Ox,” I corrected.

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  “Yeah, well, whatever.”

  I frowned and finished washing off. I then took a few minutes to use some of the soap rock in the shower to wash my loincloth.

  “Aren’t you done yet?” Hisai’s voice came calling, now followed by soft footsteps. “The man we’re going to see is very particular and very busy. We’ll only be able to meet him definitely while he eats lunch, and even then it will be difficult. I’m sure I’ll pay hell for it later.”

  “I’m just finishing up,” I said and tried to ring out the water from my underwear.

  Eh, it was hot out and some wet undies might feel good. When I turned off the water there was a towel thrown over the door for me and I could hear the others talking lowly. I couldn’t make out what they said, but when I opened the door to my stall, Jonii was gone and Hisai stood there with his arms crossed, beaming.

  “Very good,” he said as he turned and left the room.

  I got dressed quickly and followed him out.

  “Come on, let’s go see the craftsman,” Hisai said and stood and tapped my shoulder before he left.

  “His office is right over here. Hopefully, he’s in and not in the workshop. Then we’d have to go back through the tunnel and find him,” Hisai said and put a hand on my back once I went outside.

  He gently pushed me along and led me down the wooden walkway, and I looked over at him curiously. Did he bring me out here just so I’d see the sumo and meet Jonii?

  “Yes, it’d be embarrassing if he wasn’t over here,” he admitted and nodded his head.

  Is he trying to recruit me? I blink and realized he was pushing me along harder than I thought. I didn’t think I’d be able to stop even if I wanted to. Before I realized it, we were standing in front of a small wooden building.

  “Elder Kuchiki, it’s me, Hisai Moronao. Do you have a moment? I might have some work for you,” he called out into the door.

  Blink. I thought Hisai was his first name? Or really, I thought we had a situation like Cher, like Bono going on. The door creaked open, and I found myself in front of yet another taller man. This one was much burlier than Jonii was, though. He looked like a lumberjack.

  “What do you need done?” An old, deep, grizzled voice asked. It wasn’t without a certain resonance, though. I found myself comforted when he spoke, and I smiled. It was like, whatever I needed done, he’d do it and it would be the best work of art the world had ever seen.

  “My friend here has an interesting idea for a new type of wagon,” Hisai explained and put a hand on my shoulder once more.

  Kuchiki looked between us both and then nodded his head. He motioned for us to come in and walked away from the door wordlessly. He led us over to a table and sat on a stool and grabbed a bowl of rice he was eating.

  I followed him in and looked around. It was a small, well put together workshop that had cork boards and unique designs pinned and hanging on them. There wasn’t enough room in the workshop to do anything major. He had a table setup with smaller tools to work on smaller projects, however.

  When we got to the table, he sat next to one of the cork boards. He pointed his chopsticks to two stools a little way away from his table. Me and Hisai grabbed them and sat opposite him. Without a preamble, Hisai took out the rolled up crudely drawn plans I did and unrolled it in front of him.

  Kuchiki didn’t say anything, just put paperweights down on the sides as he ate his rice. He stayed silent for several long moments as he inspected and ate. He nodded a little and made some grunts.

  “What child drew this?” He finally asked around a mouthful of rice while he pointed at my drawing with his chopsticks.

  I frowned.

  Hisai gave a snort and clapped his hand on his knee. “Yes, my friend here isn’t known to be a very good artist. We defer to your expertise, of course.”

  Kuchiki nodded his head and sighed and put his bowl down off to the side. He looked over the picture longer and scratched at his beard. It was the first full beard I think I had seen since I came to Japanese Fantasy Land.

  “It would be interesting. Useful. I can definitely see how it would have its uses. Especially for some of the bigger farms and businesses who want to transport their goods to different parts of the empire,” he said and nodded his head.

  “Exactly!” Hisai said and once more clapped his knee.

  Kuchiki looked at me. “You’ll drive this? What sort of animal will you have pulling it?”

  I nodded my head at the man. “Yes, and I have a spirit beast, an ox,” I tell him.

  His eyebrows raise at hearing that, and he nods. “Surprising. Strong then?”

  “Very. She has a lightning core.”

  “Ah, so she’s fast as well, then?”

  I nodded.

  “You’re planning on living in this thing all the time?”

  I nodded. “At least most of the time.”

  He nodded along. “Well, I take it you’re paying shiro for this?”

  “Ah, we owe him a small debt. We’re going to be doing this cheaply, I’m afraid. He helped one of our members out of a small bind, and I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if we didn’t repay the favor,” Hisai chimed in once more.

  He nodded a little more and once more picked up his bowl of rice. “Small favor, huh? So only a little will be paid.”

  Hisai frowned, but nodded his head. “If he must, if the sect can’t cover it. I guess it depends on the total cost of the wagon and everything you do to it.”

  I looked nervously at the two.

  This made Kuchiki sigh and put his bowl back down. “Well, you’re the young genius, so whatever,” he said once more around a mouthful and shrugged before he continued. “I have some ideas. It’ll take some time, but I have some ideas. You’ll be the envy of every wagoneer in the empire. It’ll even rival what I hear the Chens have.”

  I blink. I didn’t know who the Chens were.

  “Well, it should. He’s going to have an entire sect backing him. They’re just a cook and artifact peddler,” Hisai said, once more adopting that hurt tone.

  Kuchiki grinned and chuckled a bit. “True, true. Alright, leave me to it. I’ll let you know when it’s ready, Hisai. Then I trust you can get word to our friend here?” He asked and motioned at me.

  “Of course.”

  “Alright then, go on then. Let me finish my lunch and I’ll get with Soga and the team and get going on this,” Kuchiki said and waved us away.

  “Thank you Elder,” Hisai said and stood and walked towards the exit. He gave a slight finger wave on his way out of the door.

  I stood and followed and gave a slight bow. “Thank you Elder. I can’t wait to see what you do,” I told him just before I left his office.

  He just waved me off and nodded his head. I felt a hand on my shoulder and then I was being pulled away. Before I could react, the workshop’s door was being closed by Hisai.

  “He’s really not a fan of company, and we almost overstayed our welcome,” Hisai informed me.

  I nodded, and we walked along.

  “Well, your current wagon isn’t broken or anything, is it? It shall do in the meantime?” He asked.

  “Oh yeah, the wagon now is fine. It’s just hard to maneuver in cities when it gets busy and I’ll be able to have more room with the combination deal we’ll have going,” I explain.

  Hisai nodded his head as we went through the tunnel, and we talked.

  “What do you have planned now? Gotta be hauling cargo if you want to make money, no?” He looked back at me with a playful expression.

  I smirked and shrugged. “I’ve actually done pretty good, I think, with the couple of loads I’ve taken so far. Right now, my plan is just to go back to Sunjin and see some people I’ve become friends with,” I explained to him, and held out my little coin purse.

  He nodded along and then looked back at me with a raised brow. “Sunjin? Really?” He nodded his head, taking in the info, and seemed a little surprised.

  “Yeah, I had an accident there and some people really helped me out. Nakayasu and Niku specifically. They seem like good people. Is there a problem with Sunjin?” I asked, a little defensively.

  “No, of course not. It’s just a bit small. You seem like you’d settle into a bit of a bigger place. Though Nakayasu does have a booming tea business. I’m afraid I don’t know who Niku is, though,” he said as we walked back out in front of the main building.

  “Oh, she’s an alchemist apprentice. She’s, uh, nice…” I say with a small smile.

  Hisai cocked his brow again and grinned. “Oh, a lovely young lady, hm? Well, good for you.”

  I blinked and looked at him, then offered a little shrug as a response.

  He reached and pinched my cheek softly before giving it a soft slap.

  “Hey c’mon,” I tried to dodge the slap, but of course the young genius was much too fast for me and I laughed a little.

  He once more reached his hand out and I eyed it cautiously.

  “No, no, don’t worry. I learned my lesson. Besides, we can’t be giving outsiders our sect resources,” Hisai said with a nod.

  I took his hand, and we shook. This time the grip was close to being too firm, but I could endure. When we withdrew our hands, I looked him over. “Were you trying to recruit me?”

  “Perish the thought,” he said with his hand on his chest. “No, it’s a process to get accepted, and I’m not sure the other elders would accept you, anyway. You are somehow too far along your path to join the sect, I think, but I’m still not quite sure how that’s possible. You might want to look into visiting the Moon Lotus Pavilion sometime in your travels. See if they can and will help. I’d think they might since they’re more learned about the nontraditional paths to immortality.”

  He narrowed his eyes and looked me over, and I once more felt that icy shiver through my body. Before I could say anything, my old friend Zhong Fei walked towards us, carrying a long package wrapped in plain brown paper.

  “I’m here to show our guest to his wagon and beast,” he looked at Hisai and gave a bow with his hands clasped in front of him.

  “And it seems you’ve brought what I’ve asked?” Hisai asked as Zhong Fei reached the package out.

  Instead of Hisai grabbing it, he motioned to me, so I reached and grabbed it with a raised brow.

  “I just figured you were bored, always driving around, so I got something for you to entertain yourself,” Hisai explained.

  “You really didn’t have to-” but a raised hand silenced me.

  “Open it.”

  I nodded my head and tore open the paper. Zhong Fei took the paper as I unwrapped and uncovered what looked like a sort of guitar. The body was a square box, and it only had three strings. My mind reeled as I tried to think of the name of this instrument. I had seen it in movies and browsing various weeb websites but at the moment I couldn’t think of it.

  “A shamisen is a marvellous instrument to learn. While your ox drives you along, you can balance your time between cultivating and playing. There should be a little manual in there and the bachi that you use to play the instrument,” Hisai explained.

  I stared at it and held it by the neck before I looked over at the young Elder. “This is amazing, you really didn’t have to-”

  I was once more interrupted, and he waved away my thanks.

  “You’re a good man and we owe you a debt. I figured the instrument and new wagon would clean our karma and the young Soga told me you had a dream of Minoru, so I found this fitting.”

  I listened to him and nodded my head. “It’s really not needed, but thank you very much,” I said with a little bow. I didn’t think too much about Hisai mentioning the weird interaction I had with the wind kami. I figured it was just Hisai being weird again.

  “Go on now. Zhong Fei will lead you along the way. You’ll find your animal well taken care of and some extra rations and supplies for the both of you in the wagon. When your new one is ready, I will let you know,” Hisai said with a smile. “Now, begone. I do have things to do.”

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