“Wait a second, Hisai did what?!” I stared at Niku incredulously.

  We were sitting in the great hall of the sect, where the feast was going to be held. The wrestlers, sumo club members including Jonii and Hisai, were back in the room where the sumo club practiced. Niku and I weren’t allowed to go because we weren’t part of the sect, though I was starting to think Hisai was trying to get me to join. Nothing major, just some of the less than subtle things he’d say and wink at me.

  ‘You aren’t a member yet,’ he’d say with a wink and a grin.

  ‘Just think, the sect’s resources could be open to you.’

  Just random things like that.

  The hall was indeed great and seemed like it could hold way more members than I thought were actually part of the sect. Well, the hall was huge in size. In keeping with the Taria version of a Buddhist sect, it was rather plain. Simple, short wooden tables and cushions on the mat for people to sit on. We were just below a raised platform, and Niku was sitting at the table drinking tea while I paced around and listened to the incredible story she had just told me.

  Behind the raised platform was an open sliding door that led out to a courtyard. While I was standing, I could see some shrines of some kind, but I didn’t know what or who they were for. I was going to ask, but oh well.

  Niku looked up at me and blinked. “Honestly, I thought you knew. Everyone knows about Hisai’s past. He was reckless and caused a forest fire in his pursuit of power.”

  I stared at her. “And that village he burned down was he and Nenshoki’s?”

  Niku gave me a firm nod.

  “Oh man, so the kimono Nenshoki was wearing. The green with the red at the bottom,” I stared out at the courtyard.

  Niku took a sip of her tea and nodded. “Yeah, it wasn’t very subtle. That’s why Hisai came here. The man changed his element from fire to ash and has decided to live a life of peace. It’s difficult to change your element, and some think he repaid those hurt in the fire by doing so. He would have undergone great pain. Though, it seems to have been a boon for him. He’s more powerful than ever.”

  I couldn’t help but stare at her and finally nodded my head. I felt firsthand, literally, how strong Hisai was when I went to show him how to do a handshake and he crushed my hand. The cultivator crushed my hand so hard I needed a pill to fix my bones.

  _______________________________

  A few hours later we were called back to the hall where Niku told me a little about Hisai’s past. We had gone exploring the sect for a bit, and I saw the shrines they had in the courtyard. The shrines were for the gods of healing, knowledge, and (insert god here).

  We were in the woods just behind the sect, sitting and looking over the water, sitting close, and I admit, I was working on getting a little closer to the alchemist apprentice when a young sect member came and got us. I think it might have been the same one who opened the gate for Nenshoki and Hiroshi.

  The hall had been decorated in autumn harvest-sort of colors, and I whistled through my teeth when I saw it. While it was plain earlier, they must have gotten a small army to jazz up the place. Everything was still tastefully understated, but the sheer amount of decorations they had in the few hours since me and Niku had been kicked out was kind of surprising.

  “Yes, the outer sect members do great work, don’t they?”

  I turned a little startled at the voice and saw Hisai standing there with his hands at his sides and the knowing smirk he always wore.

  “They really do whatever they can to try to gain favor with the elders and inner sect members, hoping they’ll jockey ahead of the others so they can get a spot in the inner sect,” Hisai explained.

  I nodded along and then looked at him. “Does it work?”

  Hisai shrugged a little. “Maybe with some. I am a rather harsh taskmaster, though, so I have had no one come to me in quite a while.”

  “Well, since we found that boy trying to fend off those yokai for your bottle of plum wine you wanted so bad,” another elder walked up and spoke.

  I turned with Hisai to look at the owner of the voice, and I grinned. Hisai gave a soft, insincere laugh.

  “Ah, Elder Kuchiki, that was a simple misunderstanding, I assure you,” Hisai said. The younger elder never seemed to lose that knowing smirk he carried, but now it somehow seemed a little more forced than usual.

  Elder Kuchiki was a taller man that I remembered, and it seemed the man didn’t even remove the heavy leather apron he wore even for feasts. He was dressed in loose-fitting pants and a tunic of the sect’s burnt orange color under the apron.

  “Elder, that wagon you built for me is amazing,” I grinned. I couldn’t help but interrupt the pair and wanted to show my appreciation for it.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Kuchiki looked over me now as he inspected me. It took him a minute, but finally he snapped his fingers and then pointed at me. “Maikeru, wasn’t it?”

  “Yes, elder.”

  “Yes, we made that peculiar wagon train for you, right?” He asked.

  I nodded. “Yes, elder. The rune work and everything you did to it are amazing. It’s been quite a boon for me and Betsy, my ox.”

  He grinned and nodded. “Yes, that took us a while to build. I used my entire team to build and work on it. Don’t you still owe-“

  “Yes, and Maikeru appreciates it very much, Elder. Come, why don’t I show you to your seat? It is almost time to dine,” Hisai interrupted the crafting elder and even put a hand on the man’s shoulder and chest.

  Kuchiki looked at him and frowned but eventually nodded. “Yes, I suppose it is something if the sumo wrestlers are here. How did you wrangle that, anyway? And wrestlers from the beya where they had one of the literal Kami in disguise over them?”

  My eyes went wide, and I looked over at Hisai, very interested as well.

  Hisai looked at me and then sighed before he closed his eyes. “It’s something we’re working on with their cultivator assistant coach, Botan. We’re calling it body cultivation.”

  I inhaled deeply and if possible, my eyes went even wider.

  Kuchiki just looked at Hisai and then shrugged as if he didn’t care at all. “Alright then, whatever. Hopefully, it’ll help us finally get someone to break through.”

  Hisai looked at his fellow elder and then nodded. “Yes, maybe. That is the goal.”

  Kuchiki might not have noticed the bit of sarcasm at the end of Hisai’s statement, but I did and I narrowed my eyes at him.

  Kuchiki just breathed heavily out of his nose and then walked away to sit at a table that was elevated above the rest on the platform that led out to the patio and shrines.

  Hisai looked at me and then said just below a whisper. “As if that was my primary goal, to make sure we’re the ones who can finally break through and receive the heavenly mana and become immortal.”

  My eyes went wide, and before I could say anything, Hisai waved it away. “Nevermind that. So, Niku is over sitting at the table for special guests. You’re next to her, and then Hiroshi and Nenshoki will join you when they arrive. I guess you two have met previously?”

  “Yeah, I met him at a teahouse back in the capital on a job I did,” I explained to him, dropping the other nugget of information I learned. I could tell the man didn’t want to discuss it, and I didn’t want to pry and lose a contact or connection I had to learn more about, well, to learn about everything.

  “Very nice. They should be here any minute. Why don’t you take a seat next to your lady friend? I need to go make sure everything is ready to go for the feast.”

  I didn’t even get a chance to respond before Hisai walked away from me at a brisk pace. He went through the hall away from the courtyard and towards where the delicious smells were coming from. I just went and sat next to Niku with a little grin.

  “It’ll be nice to have a feast with you,” I said and put my hand on her shoulder. Yeah, I know it was corny and pretty lame, but I felt like the occasion deserved some sort of statement. We hadn’t shared a meal yet in our relationship.

  Niku just smiled and nodded her head and agreed. She had a small sparkle in her eye, and she leaned into me as we watched the crowds enter the hall. She didn’t break away from me until the two sumotori entered and sat next to us. Nenshoki closer to me and Hiroshi on his other side which put him and Niku furthest away from each other at the small four-person table. We were seated in a row so we could overlook the hall with only the elders behind us.

  There was no ceremony or preamble, just all of a sudden people who were wearing what was obviously chef whites with the houndstooth pants started carrying platters and large bowls of food out and placing them on all the tables around the great hall. Our table was served first, with the elders receiving dishes just after us and then the rest of the long tables that I couldn’t even tell how many people were there.

  Everyone in the hall besides the four of us wore the burnt orange and copper robes of the Cove Garden Retreat, which reminded me so much of the Buddhist robes back home. Let me tell you though, while this sect may remind me of Buddhists, these guys loved their meat. Roast duck, and pork and whole chickens, and a beef dish with veggies and a delightful thick sauce. Man, these guys definitely did not follow the precept of not killing animals.

  I don’t think I tried anything I didn’t like. From the main dishes, to the sides of vegetables and fried and plain white rice. Everything was so good that I was fairly certain I was going to have to be rolled to the room I was staying in. It was probably good me and Niku weren’t sharing a room because I was going to be quite gassy, and I didn’t want to scare the girl away.

  Nenshoki kept up an almost hostile attitude when he first came to the sect, but Hiroshi was the opposite. He ate so much and often filled his cheeks so they’d puff out with food. Honestly,dishes I really liked the kid. I tried to get some information about the Kami that was pretending to be his oyakata, but Nenshoki wouldn’t let him talk about it.

  “I was on the dohyo when he went mad and some stinky beggar rushed and saved me,” he did say before Nenshoki shushed him.

  I was going to need to learn more about body cultivation and see if I’d be able to help Hisai. I mulled it over while I ate and thought I might check the Wandering Dragon path manual I had. If I remembered right, it might have some notes or something about body cultivation since Long Wu Ying was a body cultivator. He may have had a broken spirit, but the cultivator in that story did reach the Heavens so maybe?

  The feast lasted for hours and was full of music, dancing, chanting and even a small sumo presentation by the sect’s sumo club. The pioneers, apparently, of body cultivation in this world. I looked over at Hiroshi and grinned when he offered to join the wrestlers and show them how to do a proper shiko. I have to admit, the kid might have been short and rather round, but the boy could almost do a split while standing.

  The feast ended when Hisai stood and cleared his throat. The hall went silent when he did, and he smiled over his sect.

  “Thank you all for coming. I’m only sorry our sect patriarch was unable to come since he’s in closed-door cultivation for the time being. May he find the path that will lead him to new heights in this world and give our name even more prestige. Thank you especially to Yokozuna Nenshoki and his Junior Hiroshi. It means a lot that we can bridge the gap between cultivators and sumotori. All in an effort to further our paths and devote our lives to the heavens. Go now in peace and with full bellies. Our regular schedule will resume tomorrow. I expect to see all of you for our morning cultivation session,” Hisai said and then gave a single clap of his hands.

  Then, just as fast as the feast started, it was over. Everyone filed out, and me and Niku made our way to our rooms, separately.

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