The four of them stood all at once. Hiroshi first, followed quickly by Itaro Ansei, and then finally Huan. They jumped to their feet and stared down at Yoshitaro. He sneered up at the four much smaller people before he finally climbed to his feet.

“You kids have a problem?” He spat at them.

Kisaku was the one who broke away from his dinner and looked at the people squaring off over the dinner table. “What’s going on?” He asked after he slurped up a mouth full of noodles.

“Yoshi broke something Hiroshi was working on for his mother,” Itaro explained.

Kisaku looked up at Yoshitaro incredulously. “Why would you do that?” Kisaku shook his head and sighed. “That’s messed up,” he continued before eating a dumpling.

Yoshitaro ignored Kisaku and glared down at Itaro, who was matching the larger man’s glare. Hiroshi wasn’t sure what to do. His body vibrated in anger as he looked up at rikishi.

“What’s going on down there? All of you sit down and eat. What’s the problem?” A voice came from the end of the table. It came through soft and friendly and full of mirth. Everyone quieted when the yokozuna spoke down the table.

Hiroshi looked down and saw the man’s thick-rimmed glasses peering down to their side of the table, a wide smile on his face that didn’t reach his eyes. His eyes screamed with concern. Hiroshi closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He held it for a moment before he blew it out and explained what had happened.

The rest of the table ignored the situation. They were busy eating dinner and Nishikigi was getting involved. Without the Masters of the stable, he was the de facto leader of the beya. Still though, Hiroshi noted how the eating sounds seemed slow as the drama unfolded right at dinner. It would have never gotten this far if Kenjiro or Botan were seated at the top of the table. The more relaxed atmosphere of dinner was giving everyone more confidence to do things they normally wouldn’t do.

A loud sigh came from Nishikigi, and he climbed to his feet. The bottom heavy man walked down the length of the table. Each wrestler stopped eating and eyed Nishikigi as he went by as if they were holding still so they didn’t attract a predator. When he reached the group squaring off, Nishikigi stood behind Hiroshi and held out his hand.

“Let me see,” he said. It wasn’t a question, nor really a demand. He sounded just like what he was, an elder in the house looking to understand the drama that was ruining dinner.

Without hesitation, Hiroshi handed over the broken wooden piece that would have been a beautiful rose sitting raised on a pedestal. Nishikigi looked it over and squinted through his glasses. “Well, at least it wasn’t closer to being finished.”

He looked it over a little more and then put his free hand on Hiroshi’s shoulder. “May I keep this? I will bring it to Botan’s attention once the timing is more appropriate,” he asked the boy.

There was an audible gulp from across the table as Yoshitaro realized there might be real consequences to his actions now.

Hiroshi’s friends smiled and looked over at the bully, their eyes still narrowed at him in anger. Hiroshi instead turned and bowed to Nishikigi. “Of course, senior. Thank you for the consideration,” he said after he lifted his head to look back at the Yokozuna.

Nishikigi nodded his head and the friendly smile the man was known for came back. “Don’t worry, little brother. I’m sure we’ll figure something out for you. Are you able to do anything else with this piece?”

Hiroshi nodded his head and explained the plan he had formulated in his head right after Yoshitaro broke it.

“Good, good. Alright, I’ll give this back after I’ve spoken to Botan. For now, finish your dinner,” Nishikigi explained.

Hiroshi bowed once more and sat down to his dinner.

“The rest of you, too. Sit down, sit down, eat,” Nishikigi said and motioned for them to sit. He quickly amended his statement, though, when he saw Yoshitaro move to sit down as well. “Not you Yoshitaro. Your dinner is done. Clean your place and head to bed,” Nishikigi commanded, the smile on his face once more gone, replaced by a stern expression.

Yoshitaro stuttered as he tried to argue, but Nishikigi simply lifted a finger. “You are done with dinner,” he said simply, and lowly. He dared Yoshitaro to continue trying to argue with those words. The lower ranked rikishi stuttered but finally stopped talking.

Yoshitaro gave a quick curt bow and then left the room after bending over to pick up his dishes. “Thank you,” he mumbled to Nishikigi as he took his exit. He didn’t look at anyone else as he walked out of the room and went towards the kitchen. With the man sufficiently chastised and cowed by the yokozuna, no one else really dared look at him, let alone say anything else to the man.

Nishikigi watched the bully leave the family room with narrowed eyes. His look didn’t soften until Yoshitaro was out of the room. Once he was through he smiled and looked at Hiroshi again with a big grin. “I am sorry about my junior Hiroshi. Like I said, I will talk to Botan or Oyakata once I can see what we can do for you to fix this. You should not be subject to bullying during your stay here.”

“Thank you, senior,” Hiroshi said and gave Nishikigi a bow.

Nishikigi nodded his head a little and then walked off towards his seat once more to finish his dinner among the sekitori.

When Hiroshi sat back down, his friends were already seated once more and went back to their dinners. They stared at Hiroshi wide eyed though while they slurped up noodles. Hiroshi gave a nervous laugh before he frowned and realized he was going to have to start all over on the piece if he didn’t get the broken one back.

“Dammit,” he mumbled. “I already wasn’t sure if I was going to finish it, now I definitely won’t if I have to start all over.”

Itaro shook his head and ate through a mouthful of dumpling. “Don’t worry, they’ll make it right,” he told him with a confident nod. “If it’s one thing they won't put up with is bullying.”

“Yeah, the only one allowed to bully us is Master Botan,” Ansei said with a grin, and everyone gave a small laugh.

With the tension eased, they all returned to their dinner and ate their fill. Or in Huan’s case, over his fill. He went to bed with a stomachache and loud deep farts that kept Ansei and Hiroshi up through the night from the foul smell. They finally scolded him so badly he took his pillow and a blanket and went and slept in the hallway.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

The next morning, the three junior disciples went about their normal routine. Tiredly getting the practice area ready and building the practice dohyo. They worked quickly and quietly as they normally did while they tried to wake up before actual practice began. As usual, Itaro was the first to arrive to help them finish up before the rest of the wrestlers showed up. Hiroshi took note that Yoshitaro took special care to not even look at him and his friends.

The yokozuna was the last to enter. He moved into the room and smiled and looked at all his fellow stablemates and gave everyone a nod. Hiroshi looked at him and smiled and nodded in return, secretly wondering if Nishikigi had been able to speak to someone about his wood carving. Then the boy actually looked at Nishikigi. The man was smiling, but it seemed hollow. The man was smiling like he normally did, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes.

“Alright, do I really need to tell you guys what to do? Do we see Master Botan or Oyakata? No. Let’s get into our shikos,” Nishikigi commanded before he took his position in front of the rest of the stable and began. The stable followed his lead and spread their legs, then squatted down. An arm extended and lifted to the Heavens, then they’d stand as one and lift their leg as high as they could before they stomped it back down into the clay.

About halfway through their training, the door opened that led to the stairs. They had just started doing their pushing training when they heard the door slide slowly open. As one, they looked towards the door in hopes, they’d be able to find out what was happening.

Ezra walked through first. The old man looked ruffled and unkept as always. His features seemed softer than normal, though, sad. Behind him was Botan, followed by the massive figure that was Oyakata Kenjiro. Botan and Kenjiro both looked stoic, although Hiroshi supposed that was the normal look for Botan. Kenjiro, however, while being serious, always had a kind grandfatherly air about him. Any hint of that was gone at the moment. Pure stoicism radiated from the man. His expressionless eyes, lack of facial expressions in general.

No one was expecting it, but there was a fourth man who entered. This man was older and smaller, very much not a sumo wrestler. He probably wasn’t even a retired sumo wrestler. Hiroshi had heard about small rikishi who could dominate the sport if they were skilled enough, although it was rare. They were usually known as giant killers. He had heard about one rikishi from years ago named Enho. The man was barely taller than Hiroshi was now and was much lighter.

Hiroshi shook his head, waving off the thoughts of rikishi of old. If Botan looked strict, and Kenjiro looked serious, this new man looked as if he was the kami of severeness. He had short cropped gray hair and a matching goatee which struggled to hang onto the original black in his hair. Hiroshi looked over at the man and he was dressed in a firmly pressed black formal robe. The inner robe was gray and had beads that kept the outer closed around him. When Hiroshi looked over his robe, there was a stylized icon on the right breast.

The icon was a shrine for the Kami. This specific one was for Kentaro. Each Kami’s shrine had slight differences between each other and Kentaro’s had thick braided ropes that hung from the primary structure. In the middle hung a sign that spelled his name in the old language of Hiroshi’s island home, Kokokan. Hiroshi gave a small gasp when he realized he recognized the symbol. This was a man from the Sasuke Sumo Association, the governing body over sumo.

The four men stood in front of the wrestlers, the representative in front and the other three standing behind. They all had their hands at their sides and were looking out over the wrestlers. Itaro audibly gulped in anticipation of what they were going to say. Hiroshi himself grew a little nervous, wondering what the association would say. He knew the man was here because of the incident from yesterday.

“Greetings disciples and junior disciples of the Hajima stable. My name is Morimoto and yes, I am here from the Sasuke Sumo Association. If you don’t know, we overlook the stables and ensure there is fair play. We also make sure everyone is being treated fairly. It is also our job to go to the great emperor and make sure we have funding to pay those of you in the top two divisions and others.

Part of receiving the funding from our great and glorious Emperor is that we check on allegations of assault and violence in the beyas. While we practice a violent sport, it’s all in glory to the great Kentaro. Outside of the entire ceremony that is sumo, we frown heavily on violence and the Emperor has decreed that we investigate allegations and dole out punishment as we see fit,” the man, while looking stern, gave an air that he was kind. Hiroshi got the feeling that this was for the benefit of the younger wrestlers, though. While he seemed friendly here, Hiroshi definitely got the feeling, this was a man you did not want to get on the bad side of.

“Yesterday Oyakata Kaisho came to us and told us your Oyakata Kenjiro struck him,” Morimoto continued. “He brought his own assistant coach, Shifu, and a couple of higher ranked wrestlers as witnesses. So, now, I’ve been sent to investigate. Until the council has decided and made a judgment, Oyakata Kenjiro is on suspension. He will still live here and be available for advice and teaching. We can’t let his experience go to waste. He, however, will not be in a leadership position until we figure all of this out. Botan will be the acting master for Hajima stable for the time being,” the man explained.

Hiroshi had to physically clamp his mouth shut to stop the groan before it came out, and he felt Ansen stiffen next to him.

“I’m going to try to make this as painless for you, the wrestlers, as I can. You all can go back to your practice and training and periodically I may pull one of you away for a few moments to speak with you privately.” when he was finished talking, he raised his arms and Botan stepped forward.

“You heard Morimoto. For now, listen to Nishikigi as we get things settled and I’ll be back in to check on you,” Botan commanded.

As one the entire stable bowed towards the group and then Nishikigi stepped forward and turned towards his stablemates. He directed everyone to get back to practice. The three stable elders and Morimoto stepped from the room and Hiroshi heard them go back upstairs as he was directed to do his butsukari training. Itaro stepped in the middle of the practice ring and braced himself, ready for Hiroshi to charge him.

The rest of the day went about as usual. The sumotori did their various practices and, like the man said, he came and grabbed one of them here and there and took them away to question them. No one would say anything about the questions they were asked afterwards, just saying they were told they weren’t allowed. “Shove off,” was Yoshitaro’s only response when he was asked by Itaro.

Oyakata sat in his usual place. The man who usually smiled and offered bits of advice sat there subdued. He only gave advice if someone walked up and asked, and everyone who did was overly formal with the usual laid back Oyakata. He still always answered, and he’d give the wrestler a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. If he wasn’t being spoken to, he watched the practice session with a faraway look in his eye. His mind was somewhere else, yet he always seemed to have an answer to the questions he was asked.

Botan took on his usual more active role in the practice. He may have been the acting Oyakata as per the man from the Association, but he didn’t act any different from he normally did. He still differed from Kenjiro’s judgements if he was called upon and any command the Oyakata gave.

Hiroshi didn’t get called in until they were ending practice and everyone had begun to wash up. Morimoto came to the line of the washroom, where Hiroshi and his fellow juniors waited for their turn.

“Hiroshi?” Morimoto questioned and looked at the boy.

Hiroshi got wide eyed and looked up at the man. He offered a bow. “Yes, sir,” he answered.

“Come please. Since you have a bit of a wait anyway,” the older man said. He didn’t ask, and sounded like father used to when he was getting ready to question Hiroshi about something bad he had done. His father had already known the answers to the questions, but felt the need to ask, anyway.

“Yes sir,” Hiroshi said calmly and followed. As he walked behind the man, he turned his head to look back at Huan and Ansei wide eyed.

They offered weak smiles and gave their friend a thumbs up. They had been wondering what to say earlier in the day. If they should try to cover for their master or give some alterations to the truth. They asked Itaro and a couple of their other seniors, who scoffed at them. Hiroshi would always stare at their response. Did that mean they should try to cover for their master?

Honor would dictate that they should stay loyal to their master, no matter what. However, honor would also dictate that they tell the truth in a situation like this. It was their master’s superior, questioning and investigating the situation. In the end, they sighed and shook their heads.

“He’s asking everyone, and Oyakata Kaesho had his own witnesses, including a Yokozuna. Morimoto will already know what happened. If you lie, it could lead you to trouble,” Kisaku offered when he overheard their plight. “Tell the truth,” he suggested with a firm nod before it was his turn for a practice bout.