At the highest seat sat a boy wearing an insolent expression, radiating raw authority. He alone sat upon a cushion, a clear sign that his rank was far above the others. Suiboku and Sansui knelt directly on the wooden floor and bowed low. Sansui, almost instinctively, offered the deepest respect befitting a junior sage before a great elder.
“Once again...it has been a long time, Great Tengu Cel.”
“Yes, it really has been.”
That boy was the man who had undergone more training than anyone alive—a master craftsman of mystical treasures, the Great Tengu Cel. His expression was relaxed and almost breezy. Even knowing full well who Suiboku was, he showed no sign of caution.
“When I first saw you, I thought one hell of a monster had shown up...and somehow you’ve gotten even better over these last twenty-five centuries,” Great Tengu said.
“I am honored.”
“Don’t ‘I am honored’ me. Look at my disciples here. Who do you think is shrinking in fear? It’s not you or me.”
The Great Tengu spoke with an easy familiarity, grinning as he gestured to the Tengu around him. Every one of them sat with tense expressions, warily watching Suiboku. While Tengu and Immortals were technically different, their essence was the same; they could perceive just how abnormal Suiboku was, and their apprehension showed.
“Not so long ago, Fukei showed up here saying he was going to kill you.”
“Fukei came here?”
The unexpected name darkened Suiboku’s face, but the Great Tengu continued unfazed.
“I wanted to see what he could do, so I had him spar with one of the Rapid Iron Style practitioners...and he was strong. My disciples watched the fight and became convinced that Fukei was unbeatable.”
When one has a clear point of comparison, strength becomes far easier to judge. Having witnessed Fukei firsthand and felt his overwhelming might, the man who defeated him naturally appeared even more terrifying.
“How was he?” the Great Tengu asked Suiboku.
“My elder brother Fukei...was stronger than anyone I have ever fought.”
“Did you struggle?”
“No. Not at all.”
Suiboku answered with complete honesty.
“Compared to me now, he was no match whatsoever.”
“Of course not, you monster.”
The Great Tengu laughed in delight as he commented on the crestfallen Suiboku.
“No matter how far Fukei honed himself, he was still just an Immortal—a user of Immortal Arts. As long as he used the same techniques as you, he was fighting on the same playing field. There was no way he could win.”
He chuckled still, shoulders shaking.
“After all, you’re the unbeatable monster—the one even dragons couldn’t stand against! If you had existed ten thousand years ago, the gods wouldn’t have bothered making the Eight Sacred Treasures!”
The peculiar remark made Sansui tilt his head. Dragons as a metaphor for strength, he understood. But “ten thousand years ago,” and “Eight Sacred Treasures”—those statements were far too concrete. It sounded as though there was a specific, factual reason the gods created them.
“Mmm... Great Tengu, if I may be so bold, my disciple here is a man granted by the gods. If it pleases you, would you share one of your old war tales with him?”
“Hm? Oh? A warrior of the gods, huh? Doesn’t look all that special, though...”
Sensing Sansui’s doubt, Suiboku steered the conversation so that the Great Tengu would speak rather than himself. Before a living piece of legend, he likely wished to avoid offering a clumsy explanation.
“Fine, I don’t mind. I’ve met warriors of the gods several times. According to them, humans in the world you people were born in have history stretching thousands, even tens of thousands of years. Dig up the earth, and you’ll find bones from tens of thousands of years ago.”
“Yes, that’s true.”
To Sansui, that was simply common sense. It should have been the same in this world—human bones from millennia past ought to exist. Even if none had been found, to truly have none at all should have been impossible.
“They don’t exist here. In this world, more than ten thousand years ago, there were no humans—and no ancestors of humans either.”
Ten thousand years was a blink in biological history. Whether you spoke of Homo erectus or Australopithecus—or depending on how broadly you defined humanity—it was impossible for there to be no human ancestors at all. Even prehuman lineages should have existed.
“The humans living in this world are the descendants of people who immigrated here from a ‘different world,’ just like you.”
Hearing the Great Tengu’s explanation, Sansui was convinced despite himself. Indeed, even he had never found any trace of ancestral bones anywhere in this world... If humanity had migrated here ten thousand years ago, then the story matched perfectly.
“More than ten thousand years ago, the ancestors of the people in this world lived in another realm—what they called the ‘Old World,’ or ‘Mother World.’ There, alongside humans, were other creatures who used language, all wrapped up in that lovely little game called survival of the fittest.”
To Sansui—and to the Japanese—this world was the fantastical one: Magic existed, legendary weapons could speak, Immortals lived for millennia. Yet there were no so-called monsters. No beasts that preyed on humans, no creatures that spoke like humans, no beings that wielded magic like humans. Because such things did not exist, one could never meet them.
But the Great Tengu before him—and the Eight Sacred Treasures—were exceptions. They had met such beings in a different world entirely.
“But then one day...the dragon, the strongest creature in that world, said something outrageous. Knowing full well that the ‘god’ you met actually existed, it declared: The god is beneath my notice. I alone am the greatest being in existence!”
Dragons. The strongest species in that world. A boastful declaration. Humans did the same all the time—Sansui found nothing strange in that alone.
“The other monsters didn’t stop it. Makes sense, right? Why protect the dignity of some god who never shows its face, when you can flatter the dragon that’s standing right there ready to stomp you? But humans were different. They had the guts to say they were greater—and picked a fight.”
The Great Tengu burst into youthful laughter.
“Should’ve quit while they were ahead. Humanity as a whole went and challenged the dragon. Worse yet, they attacked the other races who swore fealty to the dragon, trying to wipe them out. Naturally, the dragon and its followers turned right around and decided they’d exterminate humanity instead.”
In Sansui’s eyes, the Great Tengu looked every bit a yokai. This man did not think of himself as human; he clearly considered humans some entirely separate species.
“At this rate, humanity was finished. So the god made the Eight Sacred Treasures and bestowed them to the humans.”
So that was why the Eight Sacred Treasures had been created—to oppose beings beyond human. It made a certain sense...yet Sansui could not fully accept it.
“Forgive my forwardness, Great Tengu... I have laid eyes on all Eight Sacred Treasures, but none of them seemed powerful enough for such a purpose.”