“You sure you’re ready for this?” Botan asked Kenjiro once they were both in the carriage.
“No, no, I’m not,” Kenjiro answered with a sigh.
They felt the carriage rock back and forth as Ezra climbed up and got on the driver’s bench. “Alright then, hold on to your butts, we’re off,” he called down to them both once he was situated.
The pair of stable elders were dressed in their formal robes this morning, as the situation dictated. Black outer robes with deep gray inner. They didn’t have any designs on them save the emblem of the SSA; the stylized shrine with the white yokozuna robes hanging from it surrounded by a gray circle. Kentaro had this symbol on each of his chest, while Botan only had it on his left side. His right side had the shrine of Enyo, the water kami, symbolizing that he was a water cultivator.
It’s too bad it was going to be such a down and depressing day. It was a beautiful morning with the sun peeking over the horizon. The chill from spring was long gone at this point, but it wasn’t too warm yet. Botan breathed in the sweet morning air and closed his eyes and listened to the horse's hooves clopping away as they drove down the busy morning street. Different merchants hurrying along to their shops, farmers crowding the streets with their carts heading to the market to sell their goods.
“You know, you may end up with the beya,” Kenjiro snapped Botan from his revelry and the cultivator looked over his boss.
Botan snorted. “I doubt it. I was never a sumo wrestler,” he replied.
Kenjiro nodded his head in acknowledgement. “Yes, which is why it’s weird for you to be an assistant coach even. Still, you are, and you know how the beya runs and the rikishi in it. You’re the easy pick if they choose to dismiss me.”
Botan narrowed his eyes and shook his head. “You don’t really think they will? You were the gem of the ring when you wrestled.”
Kenjiro shrugged and looked out his window. “Who knows?” he answered shortly.
“What’s been going on with you, anyway? First you break out in song randomly, you beat on a fellow stablemaster, and Ezra told me you nearly beat some cultivator to death when you were bringing Hiroshi back,” Botan questioned the master.
Kenjiro glared through the carriage up towards where the driver sat, but finally relented and shook his head with a sigh. “I don’t know, my friend. It’s been a weird time for me.”
“Are you okay?” Botan asked him, a touch of actual care in his voice for his old friend.
Kenjiro shrugged. “I think so? Would I know if I wasn’t?”
Botan looked at him and shrugged as well. “I don’t know. I’m not a doctor, and you’re not a cultivator,” he answered.
Kenjiro chuckled and nodded his head. “Speaking of the stable, how do you think they’re doing?” He looked over at his assistant.
Botan nodded his head. “They’re good. The wrestlers of the stable are quite skilled and show heart and passion in their practice. They have good forms and show promise, like you told them last week,” he answered.
Kenjiro nodded along. “What about the juniors? Hiroshi, in particular, I have high hopes for.”
Botan sighed and leaned back in his seat. “The three of them are good. They show promise. Hiroshi…” he trailed off. “I made an ass out of myself when the boy first came to the house.”
“Oh?”
Botan nodded and sighed again. “I told him I knew his father,” he said softly. “That he wasn’t a good man.”
“Oh. Well, it’s not like you lied. It was probably better not to say anything about the boy’s dead father but…” Kenjiro shrugged. “That can’t be helped. The boy is here because of his father, and that passion comes through in his sumo. Did you tell him…?”
Botan snapped an answer to the question before Kenjiro could finish it. “No, I didn’t tell him about how I knew what happened to his father, and why. I may not be a wise man, but I’m not a monster.”
Kenjiro nodded his head. “Well, that’s good. That boy cares much for his father’s memory and legacy. He only does so well in order to honor his father’s memory. He may find out what happened one day, but let’s try to delay that as much as we can.”
Botan nodded his head and agreed with the stablemaster.
“Alright then,” Ezra called down to them. “We’re here,” he said just as he pulled on the reins of the horses and brought them to a stop. The carriage rocked a little as he climbed down and then opened the door on Kenjiro’s side to let them out. It was also the side towards the building they intended to go into.
Kenjiro climbed out and Botan followed, and they looked over at Ezra. While they were both dressed formally and looked well with their hair done up in the proper ways. Kenjiro wearing the chonmage of a retired yokozuna and Botan having his hair in the high, pulled back topknot he preferred. Ezra was dressed in the opposite, in his normal well worn and wrinkled gray robes. His hair matted down and greasy and his beard was at different lengths. The man clearly needed to go to a barber.
“You’re waiting out here, then?” Kenjiro smirked and shook his head disapprovingly.
“Aye sir,” Ezra said with a smirk. I’ll be right here with the carriage when you guys are done. “Oyakata Kenjiro,” he paused and looked uncomfortable.
Kenjiro looked over at him with a cocked brow. The man never used Kenjiro’s full title.
“Good luck. Don’t let the bastards strip your position away,” he said and offered a small bow to the stablemaster.
Kenjiro gave a chuckle and nodded his head before he patted Ezra on the shoulder. “I’ll do my best. Thank you for the ride,” he said before he walked off.
Botan glared at the carriage driver and shook his head before he walked away. Ezra just smirked and showed the man’s back a rude gesture as they walked away. He then climbed back up to the driver’s bench and pulled out his pipe. Perfectly content to wait for them to do their business.
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They walked away from the carriage up a long walkway that had stones pressed into the dirt. Along the walkway were large manicured gardens and bushes that came to the waist of the two men. A few men and women worked in the gardens and paid the duo no mind as they tended to their plants. One man worked on moving large rocks here and there, adjusting the aura of the area.
The two men walked through a large entrance way that opened into a vast courtyard that had more bushes and trees. In the middle was a large three-tiered fountain with a tall cherry blossom tree over it. The blossoms were open and wide, and Botan could smell the beautiful scent they put off as they walked through the courtyard.
Off to either side were small one-story buildings that the outer wall turned into before turning back into a wall on the other side of the building. From experience, Botan knew these buildings were just office buildings for the Association. It was where new disciples would come and sign up and meet their new masters. It was the building that they now stood directly in front of that concerned them today, though.
It was three stories tall and tiered like a pagoda would be, but was much wider. It had an open entrance and when the pair of men walked in, there was an attendant who swooped right over to them. There were desks on either side, each with a door behind it for various members of the association who did whatever it was they did all day. Kenjiro figured mostly this was an association of people who just wanted to be seen in the world of sumo. Very few of them had ever actually been inside of a dohyo.
“Greetings Oyakata Kenjiro, Cultivator Botan,” the attendant said with a bow. He wore the formal robes everyone wore around here that matched the robes Kenjiro and Botan were wearing. It was the formal uniform for sumo. This man, though judging from his worry form and short cropped hair, told the pair that he was not a sumo wrestler.
“Welcome to the head office of the glorious Sasuke Sumo Association. Your appointment is scheduled to be held upstairs in front of the council of elders. They have just been awaiting word of your arrival. If you would follow me?” He continued. The man didn’t wait for their answer, instead he turned and led them towards the back of the room towards a staircase.
Kenjiro walked through the door the attendant held open. He walked tall, with his back straight and his head held up high. These men would not see him, the proud retired yokozuna and stablemaster bow and scrape for forgiveness. He did it; he attacked the opposing Oyakata in a moment of decision making, he would not cower because of his actions. There was no point. He could not change the past.
Botan followed the Oyakata into the room and matched his proud peacocking. He was a cultivator, and assistant coach at a formidable beya, furthermore he did nothing wrong. He looked around the mostly empty room. It only had a long table in front of the opposite wall of the doorway, with five men sitting behind the table. On one end of the lineup of men behind the table sat the man who had been staying at their stable, Morimoto.
In front of the table was one chair. The attendant moved close to Botan and tapped him on the shoulder before leaning up and whispering in the man’s ear.
“We are expected to wait outside for the time being, Master Cultivator. If we are needed, they will call for us. For now, it is simply the Oyakata and the Council to speak,” the attendant notified Botan.
Botan gave a nod of his head and bowed towards the council before he backed out of the room with the attendant. “So, what are we supposed to do?” He looked at the wiry man and cocked a brow.
“We wait,” he said with a shrug and motioned towards a bench for them to sit on.
Botan grumped and huffed, but he sat on the bench. He breathed in deep before he lost control and looked around the long hallway. Everything in this entire building was the very definition of lavish, even this hallway and the bench they sat on. Wooden with golden inlays everywhere. The hallway was decorated with images depicting the different kami, Kentaro being the most prominent one, which was expected. The kami he himself followed only had a small painting on the other end of the hallway. It depicted Enyo floating above a storm of waves with his hands held out and arms extended. The painting told of a time when the kami went to war to defend some of his followers on a small island nation far from the Empire.
Botan began cultivating to pass the time. He sat straight with his hands on his knees and moved the surrounding aura in the world. His mana flowing through the channels in his body. He heard a sniff coming from the attendant. He didn’t think how he would be received by people who praised someone who was a mortal turned kami. The followers of sumo prided themselves on not being cultivators. They didn’t need to cultivate for power, they’d say. Botan snorted.
If someone like Kenjiro formed channels in his body and grew a core, the man would instantly become the pinnacle of a body cultivator. The man just had to grow a core and cultivate a little and bam the heavens would give him a heavenly tribulation. If he survived that, which Botan was sure Kenjiro would, the man would be an immortal of the very Heavens themselves.
Botan frowned a little, trying to remember the different ranks in body cultivation. For the most part, body and spirit cultivators followed the same ranks until the end of their paths. Then the names changed a little. He couldn’t remember what they called themselves. No one had reached that point. Maybe they didn’t even have names? No mortal man has reached the peak of the mountain and reached immortality through cultivation. There was a story of one mortal man, a storyteller named Ami.
No one knew much of the history of the man, but it was said Daichi himself, the Kami of Knowledge, gave the storyteller a peach. A peach from his immortal gardens where the grandmother oracles retired. This peach granted the man immortality. It was said he received the peach for being such a grand story teller that Daichi favored him so he could go about the realms expanding knowledge and stories.
Botan scoffed and shook his head. He doubted any Kami, especially Daichi who was known to never leave his gardens of fate, would give a mortal a peach of immortality. He calmed his breath and thoughts one more time and went back to cultivating. He had just gotten into his rhythm when he heard the door open swing open and bang into the wall.
“HA!” The loud voice of Kenjiro came.
Botan jumped to his feet and looked at his friend. “What? What happened?”
Kenjiro moved to Botan, and the cultivator had to grunt when the large retired sumo wrestlers grabbed him by the shoulders. Botan had to cycle the mana in his body to his shoulder to withstand the force of Kenjiro. Yeah, he would definitely survive anything the heavens would throw at him so he could reach immortality.
“They said I get to keep the stable,” Kenjiro exclaimed with a wide grin.
Botan’s grew wide, and he clasped the stablemaster on his shoulders now in return. “That’s amazing! You’re fine then? Everything will go back to normal?”
Kenjiro frowned and slumped a little before letting go of Botan. He shook his head and answered. “Not quite. They're keeping Morimoto stationed at the stable for the time being. He’s still going to report on everything he sees and make sure I’m a good little lapdog. I’m not getting kicked out or anything though. They said if I hadn’t provided years of exemplary service to sumo and was a yokozuna, they would have thrown me on my ass.”
Botan laughed and nodded his head. “Yes, well….”
“Well, there’s more. I’m also going to go see a doctor. Some sort of therapist or something? I don’t know the details exactly, but they think I might have anger issues,” Kenjiro shrugged. “Once a week, I’ll miss a day of practice,” he explained. “That’s all I really know for now.”
“Well, that’s fine. I’m sure I can cover for you once a week,” Botan laughed.
Kenjiro nodded his head and looked at the attendant who had still been seated on the bench. When he received attention from the stablemaster, the man stood and bowed towards him.
“I’m glad you received good news, Oyakata. I shall lead you out to your carriage,” he told them both and moved towards the staircase.
The pair followed the attendant downstairs and out of the luxurious offices until they were standing in front of Ezra’s carriage. The old carriage driver climbed down and looked Botan and Kenjiro over and grinned.
“We’re good, aren’t we?” he asked them.
Kenjiro nodded his head and gave his first genuine smile since the incident. “Yes. We’re good. Let’s go home. Botan, send something ahead to Auntie Yu, will you?”
Botan nodded his head as they both climbed into the carriage. “I’ll see if she can make something special for dinner. Or maybe see if the Chens are still around?”
“No, no, not the Chens. By the Kami, I’m still paying for that dinner. See if she can whip up something though,” Kenjiro nodded his head as the carriage rolled toward the beya.