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Two faint soul-lights slowly rose from Manji's palm. They were the soul fragments Indra and Asura had left in his care long ago.
Manji extended his hand.
"Buzz."
The two wisps started to move, pulled by a force no one could see. Little by little, they took on the shapes of Indra and Asura. A pale light surrounded them as their soul-bodies became more solid.
A moment later, both opened their eyes and looked around, confused by the strange world they saw.
Then their gazes settled on Manji. They were both shocked.
"TEACHER?"
"GRANDMASTER!" Their voices overlapped, both full of disbelief.
Then the brothers turned and saw each other.
"ASURA?"
"BROTHER?" Their voices carried the same stunned uncertainty.
From their perspective, it felt like they had just closed their eyes for a moment and then opened them again.
Asura could not hold back the questions pressing in his chest. He stepped forward and asked, "Grandmaster, what is going on? I clearly remember that I had already left the world of the living."
"Yes, Teacher," Indra added, forcing down the haze in his eyes as he looked at Manji. "What happened?"
Manji looked at the brothers before him and slowly shook his head. "For you two, it was only the brief moment between closing your eyes and opening them again. For me, nearly a thousand years have gone by."
The moment those words landed, Indra and Asura shook.
"Nearly a thousand years have passed?"
Indra looked around, his fingers twitching as everything felt unreal. "...It feels like I was just in the snowfield where I fell and lost consciousness. Then I opened my eyes and saw you."
Asura's expression tightened.
"Then that means hundreds of years have already gone by..."
He looked at Manji with urgent eyes. "Grandmaster, what happened to Ninshū??"
From beginning to end, Asura had never stopped worrying about the legacy Hagoromo had entrusted to the world. He worried about Ninshū's future, its people, and what happened to everyone after he died.
Beside him, Indra's gaze darkened as well. He said nothing, but he too waited for Manji's answer.
Manji's face grew more serious as he remembered the past.
"Ninshū... has been gone for eight hundred years. Sixty years after the two of you died, after years of internal strife, Ninshū collapsed."
"..." Asura's body trembled.
His feet staggered back a few steps, and loss spread through his eyes.
Although he had braced himself for the worst, hearing that Ninshū had fallen still hit him hard. He had just entrusted everything to the remaining people, and suddenly, he was told Ninshū had disappeared, all in what felt like a blink.
The difference between his memories and reality was almost too much to bear.
Then a laugh rang out. "HAHAHA. EXACTLY. JUST AS I SAID!"
"I told you long ago that an organization like that could never last."
"Ninshū was never really a nation. It didn't have a proper government to keep order, no strong economy to support its people, and nothing lasting to hold everyone together. From start to finish, it was just a loose group of clans who made and traded things among themselves."
"If Hagoromo hadn't been so strong and used his authority to keep things together, Ninshū wouldn't have lasted even sixty years. It would have fallen apart much sooner." Indra understood power, leadership, and survival much better than Asura, who was more straightforward.
"Asura, I told you before. If I had inherited Ninshū back then, I would have transformed it from the ground up. I would have used overwhelming strength to bring every side under one rule and unify the world early. Then it would never have ended in ruin."
Indra spoke with confident pride—yet despite the scorn in his words, his eyes grew dim for a moment.
Indra had also put a lot of effort into Ninshū. He taught ninjutsu and hand seals to others, gradually strengthening its framework. Although his ideals often conflicted with Asura's, hearing that something he had helped build was now gone still left him with quiet regret.
He ignored Asura, who was still grieving, and turned quickly to Manji.
"Teacher, what about the Thousand-Year Pact? Who is winning?"
"..." At the mention of the pact, Asura let out a soft sigh and looked at Manji as well.
"That," Manji said, "is easier to show you."
He took out the stone tablet and let it float before the brothers.
They stepped forward at once.
The score had reached four to three.
Indra's reincarnations were ahead by one.
"Heh. I knew it. My successors are stronger than Asura's." Indra glanced at the tablet and spoke lightly. "But the fact that Asura's side won three times is already embarrassing for mine. I thought this would end with a clean sweep."
He glanced at Asura. "It seems your successors had a few capable ones after all."
"Brother..." Asura sighed. "As long as you're happy."
Asura wasn't upset to see himself fall behind. If anything, he felt a bit relieved.
Let his brother win...
If Indra couldn't beat him, Asura worried his brother would just find another way to stir up trouble.
"There are two generations left," Manji said. "Those two will decide the final outcome. You may watch and wait."
Indra looked away from the tablet and finally asked, "Teacher, where are we now?"
"This is the Pure Land I created," Manji said. "The souls of the dead come here after death. Your father is here, as are the people of Ninshū."
Asura's eyes brightened.
Then that meant he could see his wife, children, family, and even Hagoromo.
Indra, on the other hand, remained expressionless. He looked as if he did not care.
There were very few people Indra truly cared about.
He had taken many wives in life, but he had never been close to them.
"Teacher," Indra suddenly asked, "are my reincarnations here as well? I would like to meet them."
"…" Manji looked puzzled.
"Grandmaster, I would like to see mine too," Asura added. He wished to meet his reincarnations to thank them and also to apologize.
If he and Indra had never made the Thousand-Year Pact—maybe their reincarnations would have had happier lives.
Manji smiled.
He had originally planned to release them after the Thousand-Year Pact ended, but since both brothers wanted to meet them, he could arrange it now.
In truth, if the reincarnations met one another, Asura's side would probably get along and might even become friends.
Indra's side, however, was another story...
With so many proud and stubborn personalities together, there was a good chance they would start hating one another on sight.
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