“Alright, since we’re rushing tonight and the matches have already started, we’re going to rush getting you ready. Normally, someone will sense your spirit and get a feel for your level and aspect and all of that; for now we’ll work on the honor system. Just give me your name, rank, and aspect. We’ll make sure you’re being truthful later. If you’re lying, well, it just will not be good for you or your ox,” Jin Lao was explaining to me.

  We had moved inside the main warehouse, and there were way more people than I thought would be in here originally. They had not only built a small dohyo. They had even put up some small stands around the ring. Jin Lao, me, and his enforcers were standing off to the side next to some of the other more official people in this little underground fight ring.

  While we all moved inside, Betsy was relegated to standing outside a wide double door that was left open. It was the main entrance for the wrestlers to come and go from a tent they had set up outside for the people wrestling. She didn’t seem to mind, in fact she was pretty over the moon with being the source of someone breaking through to the next rank of cultivation.

  “If you’re lying, I’ll know,” came an old curmudgeonly voice from my right. He was introduced to me as referee Yamagata and was acting as the gyoji for this little circuit they’ve made. He wore brown and tan robes that I took for the robes of the cultivators who didn’t really belong to a sect. Wandering Cultivators in some stories. Though I had the feeling that the wandering cultivators in this world still had a sort of bond and supported each other more than in the stories I've read.

  He was older and was mostly gray with matching eyes. His fu man Chu mustache and beard made him look angry. He inspected me after Jin Lao gave the instructions and gave me the explanation of things.

  I just smiled and nodded to him with a shrug. “Yeah, man, no point in lying.”

  He guffawed. Jin Lao just looked at me expectantly.

  ”My name is Maikeru. I have no element, and I honestly have no idea where I fall in your ranking system. I’ve been told I’m powerful, though?” I looked at Jin Lao and smiled softly.

  “Oh, for..” Yamagata moaned.

  Jin Lao cocked his eyebrow. “No aspect? How is that possible?”

  He didn’t even fully get the question out before I felt not only one but two cold breezes shift through my spirit. I frowned and looked at them. “Isn’t that rude?”

  “I can attest to Maikeru. He indeed does not have an aspect, and I believe he is quite powerful,” a new cocksure voice came from behind me.

  Really… Cocksure?

  I blinked and stared at Hisai. Of course, Hisai was here. He just winked and gave me that knowing smile.

  Jin Lao and Judge Yamagata both stopped scanning me immediately and looked at the young sect elder.

  “Elder Hisai, welcome. You know you aren’t supposed to leave the stands, even if you have someone from your sect here to wrestle,” Jin Lao scolded him.

  Hisai inclined his head. “Yes, I am sorry about that. I saw my young friend though and decided he might need some help.He’s a friend of the Cove Garden Retreat.”

  “Even still…” Jin Lao had started.

  “He’s right though,” Yamagata said softly.

  Everyone looked at him. Hisai still smiled while everyone else, including me, looked confused.

  “He is powerful. I don’t even know. I can’t tell.” Yamagato’s eyebrows were high on his forehead. “By the hells, how did you do it without an element?”

  I stared at him and shrugged. “Uh…”

  “So, is my friend good at wrestling?” Hisai put his hand on my shoulder.

  That’s when an old woman, hunched over and relying heavily on a cane, walked towards our little group. She had shorter hair than was normal. It came just below her ears and looked like it might have been the lady's version of a bowl cut. She had thick-rimmed black glasses and looked me over. “I don’t know, has he paid the entrance fee?”

  “Uh…” My mouth went dry. I agreed to join because I didn’t have any money.

  “Of course, another bum with no money,” the old woman grouched and then looked at Jin Lao. “Figure it out. Make the smug bastard pay. If they’re friends, I don’t care, but he’s paying.” Then the old woman wandered off.

  “Smug? Mama Jun, you wound me,” Hisai said and put his hand to his chest, but the woman was already gone.

  He looked at me, shrugged.

  “Alright, that’s enough. Elder Hisai, to your seat. Maikeru, you need to go get ready. You’re fighting next. We’ve been goofing off too long,” Lin Jao spoke and broke through the bit of noise going on. The man got serious and looked at Referee Yamagata, who simply nodded and walked off, muttering how he shouldn’t have bothered coming back here.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  Hisai put a hand on my shoulder and gave me a nod and told me good luck before he walked off.

  The boy, Sho, ran over and bowed towards me. “Maikeru, this way. I’ll show you where the tent is to get ready. There are attendants to help you put on your mawashi and do your hair. We need to hurry.”

  He didn’t wait for an answer. The boy ran off and just expected me to follow. I stared for a moment before Jin Lao yelled.

  “Go!”

  I blinked and then took off after the young yobidashi.

  We rushed through a crowd of people, all of whom were fighting their way to the makeshift stands to find themselves a seat before the next round started. As we moved through, I could catch a glimpse of the ring and saw an elderly man standing next to a tall, bald, pale man with a short chin beard.

  The old man was yelling something about the best rice in the empire while the man in the robes was waving his arms around. I could feel the power he was weaving and able to see vast rice paddies all being worked by young, nubile young women.

  I stopped Sho with a pat on the shoulder. “Hold up, what’s going on out there?”

  Sho sighed, and without even looking back, he answered. “It’s Ami, the illusionist and storyteller. The old man is Inamori, a rice farmer and sponsor for our circuit. He pays a lot of money, so the Okami lets him advertise so often. Not sure how much he’s paying Ami. He’d be very expensive as the only immortal.”

  “Wait, it’s an advertisement?” I blinked. Of course it was, and of course it had young,suppose nubile women picking the rice. Sex sells no matter where, I suppose.

  Then the other thing Sho told me dawned on me. “Wait, there is an immortal?”

  Now, Sho finally stopped and turned towards me. “You don’t know the story?”

  “Um, no?”

  Sho sighed and shook his head before motioning me to continue following him as he explained. “No one knows whether it’s true or not. It’s told that the kami Dachi gave him a peach from his own garden and granted him immortality. It was a gift for being such a talented storyteller and expanding the world’s knowledge.”

  “Wow,” was all I could really say.

  Sho nodded. “Yes, but don’t focus on that right now. Focus on your sumo. If you’re going to pay the entrance fee, you need to win. If you don’t win or pay the entrance fee, Okami Jun will come after you.”

  I chuckled thinking about the old woman putting a hit on me, but Sho looked deadly serious.

  “Yeah, alright,” I said finally.

  “Good, now go get ready,” he said and shoved me into the tent behind me. I didn’t realize we had even made it outside. I wanted to check on Betsy before I went in and got ready, but when I checked our link, she still seemed content just watching the show.

  I turned and looked around in the tent and wondered what I should be doing or where I should go. The inside of the tent was wide open, with little closed-off sections of makeshift dressing rooms just separated with privacy screens in order for the wrestlers to get ready. It was packed with a cast of characters, all cultivators, some dressed in a mawashi, some in various states of undress from their robes.

  I felt a hand grab me on each of my shoulders, and I looked over to find two men, older than Sho, but also dressed as the yobidashi and well-groomed and smooth-shaven. They each tossed a rolled-up banner off to the side and then looked at me with scowls.

  “Come on, you need to get ready. We’ll need to be out there in just a moment with your banner,” the one on the right said as they both pushed me to one of the makeshift dressing areas.

  There was no time for bashfulness, or thinking about who the last person wore this loincloth as they and I ripped off my robes and then I held the loincloth covering my privates. I turned in a circle as one of them held the mawashi wrap steady and the other made sure everything was going alright.

  “It’s good you have a bit of a gut,” one of them said as they tied the wrap on my back.

  I blinked. I had been losing my gut, thank you very much.

  “More sumotori like, the crowd will like it,” the other explained, seeing my frown.

  I just nodded.

  It took only a matter of moments. While one was tying my mawashi, the other was doing my hair. It was messy and not greased, but I had a very small topknot now on the top of my head. One of them clapped me on the shoulder.

  “Alright, you’re as ready as we have time to get you. We need to go announce the match. Inamori is probably done peddling his shit rice. You stand by the double doors and watch and wait. Once me and I leave the stage, you walk on. Your opponent is Hideo.”

  One instructed me, and I nodded along.

  “Try not to let him hug you,” the other said as they walked out from behind the privacy screen.

  “Uh, okay…” I followed them out and left the tent. There were still the same people in there, still in the same various stages of undress or in their mawashis. Everyone seemed to ignore each other.

  I left the tent and went outside to stand next to Betsy, who was still watching from outside. I could feel the laughter as she saw me in the mawashi and I shrugged.

  “Come on, I think I look pretty good,” I said as I posed.

  Betsy gave a small bellow and then exhaled quickly in a bit of a laugh.

  “Alright, alright,” I said and shook my head before I looked out to the ring. The yobidashi brothers had banners and were walking around the stage. On the banners were the names of the wrestlers. The one who did my hair had my name written in their curvy language. I wasn’t quite sure how I knew it said ‘Maikeru’ but I don’t know, something about it just told me it did.

  I couldn’t read the other name, but I assumed it said Hideo, like the one had told me. Don’t let him hug me? Wasn’t hugging kind of inevitable in a sumo match? Well, I guess it depended on the techniques that both wrestlers used. When I used to watch back home, I always figured I’d be more of a pusher-thruster, and the little I wrestled with Johnny and the Cove Garden that was my main way of attack.

  Betsy nudged me with her snout and then pointed over to a big man standing on the other side of the open doorway. I stared. Big was an understatement. This guy looked like a boulder wall. He was definitely a farmer.

  He smiled over at me and even gave me a wave. “Hey man, you must be Maikeru? I’m Hideo! We’re gonna be wrestling!”

  My jaw dropped as the man did little fake sumo moves around in his spot.

  “No worries, man, it’ll be fun. We’ll just get in there and give it our all,” Hideo said and laughed.

  I nodded.

  “I expect you to give me a good match,” he said with a wink.

  I nodded. “I’ll do my best.”

  He clapped a little. “Yay! Hey you better get out there. The bothers are leaving the ring. You go up first, and I’ll follow a moment later.”

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