EpilogueIt was a little more than ten minutes after the end of the intense battle onthe plains of Senjougahara.Kusanagi G.o.dou was brought back to normal life with a phone call fromSayanomiya Kaoru.Though I had worried if the situation might become very severe,Kusanagi-san, your victory was splendid this time.""Eh? From where did you watch our battle?"G.o.dou began to search with his eyes the plains of Senjougahara whichhad been turned into a dismal wasteland.Before he could report the outcome of the battle, the chance to break thenews was seized from him."When the decisive battle began, the barrier of the Great Sage EqualingHeaven was also destroyed so I was able to watch the entire processusing investigative magic all the way over from Toushouguu. In the end, Iwas fortunate enough to witness the cooperation of you kings. I lookforward to great things in your future, and the way you took command wassimply magnificent.""Ah, not at all, it wasn"t anything special... Anyway, how"s the damage thistime?"Praised in an unwanted area, G.o.dou felt cold sweat running down hisback."Damage... Hmm, Toushouguu has suffered complete destruction. If it wereto be restored, the time required would be on the order of years. As forhow the crater on the plains of Senjougahara should be covered up, I amstill discussing it with my subordinates."Kaoru"s voice did not sound calm or composed at all. She really seemed tobe worried.G.o.dou glanced at the great crater before his eyes, a little apologetic in hisheart. At some point in time, the boiling molten steel had somehowdisappeared.The beautiful wetlands were marred by a huge crater with a diameter of300m.Even if one were to call it a crop circle, it would be far too big..."All the various citizens and tourists who had turned into monkeys are nowrecovering consciousness. We have started providing them withpsychological counseling.""Psychological counseling?""Yes, the vast majority of the saved victims lost the memories from the timewhen they were monkeys, but a portion of them reported seeing a monkeyG.o.d and having a nightmare of transforming into a monkey, and in thatdream a frightful devil king appeared and threatened them, that if theydon"t help him out they would be turned into monkeys once again."G.o.dou had a great shock. Was this caused by the stress of the [Goat]!?"Plus there were unbelievable phenomena like those who were sure theyhad been at Toushouguu, but woke up at Lake Chuuzenji, or people whoshould be sleeping at home, but found themselves outside. It"s a bit difficultto cover everything up with a reason like ma.s.s hallucination, so we willstart using hypnosis wizardry to edit their memories."It seemed like things had become very serious.G.o.dou felt extremely apologetic and started acting very awkwardly."The victims need the provision of psychological counseling as well asma.s.s hypnosis and the implanting of fabricated memories. Though it is adifficult undertaking with thousands of subjects, we have already made fullpreparations during everyone"s battles, and we will definitely give it ourbest."This was the description of the efforts for preventing the disclosure of newsabout G.o.ds. It sure sounded like fictional dialogue from television.However, even if information could be manipulated, the physical evidenceleft behind in the real world could not be eliminated so simply...G.o.dou could do nothing but sigh as he hung up the phone, facing thema.s.sive evidence carved out of the great land."Looks like losses were unexpectedly small. Truly wonderful.""It feels particularly delightful to finally close the case on the Great SageEqualing Heaven. G.o.dou and Smith, I, Luo Hao, must surely reward theboth of you well for your contributions in our cooperative battle."Beside the sighing devil king were the other two Campiones.As a side note, even though the Great Sage Equaling Heaven had beendefeated, no one seemed to have usurped any authority. Was it reallybecause the battle ended with a three-versus-one finish?"Then I shall take my leave. Until next time.""You"re going already? Isn"t there still a lot of cleanup to handle? You"re notstaying to help?"As the masked king suddenly took his leave, G.o.dou immediately askedhim to stay without a thought.Even though they had only fought together as comrades briefly, G.o.dou feltthat, if he had to put it into words, Smith was a man who resonatedsurprisingly well with him. To be frank, G.o.dou felt a slight reluctance topart."Truly regrettable, but it won"t fit John Pluto Smith"s style otherwise. Whenthe curtain falls upon the stage, the actor must exit. When the battleconcludes, the hero and devil king must also vanish."Smith answered with an obviously posed tone of voice.Expecting this kind of answer from the start, G.o.dou could not help butsmile wryly as things occurred as predicted."As a return favor for the incident this time, I promise to help you out inAmerica if you"re in trouble.""Pardon my frankness, but if someone disastrous like you came over, whoknows what kind of tragedy would befall my homeland? However, if youreally did visit, I would have no choice but to take up the responsibility ofsupervising you."Smith extended his black leather-gloved right hand.G.o.dou shook hands in return. Inconsistent with the image of thepretentious n.o.bleman, the hand felt unnaturally soft."Your Beautiful Eminence, please take care, though who knows when weshall meet again. If possible, I, John Pluto Smith, never wish to make youmy enemy."The black caped king bowed elegantly and extended his hand towards thethird king.The demonic cult leader showed an expression that seemed to say "Couldhe actually be offering to shake hands?" G.o.dou frantically blurted out:"Nee-san, I think it would be very childish if you ignored him.""What — !? You are staring at me with those eyes again! I understand ofcourse. Your elder sister simply has misgivings as a maiden againstshaking hands with an unidentified man!"Delivering a contrived excuse, Luo Cuilian extended her hand in kind.Smiling like a prankster beneath his mask, Smith immediately transformedas soon as he let go, turning into the black demonic bird and taking flight.(Afterwards, a certain American lady was taking a return plane trip,anxiously worrying to herself: "That boy, really, seemed to be gazing at mewith such thoughtful eyes a number of times... Unconsciously I began tofeel happy and became more and more familiar with him. Perhaps, couldthere be some kind of fated bond between us... Annie, you idiot, he"s tenyears younger than you! And a super s.e.x maniac as well, completelyunsuitable! However, in the rare chance that..." Of course, Kusanagi G.o.douhad no way of knowing that such a little interlude occurred.)Only two of the three Campiones remained."You won, G.o.dou!"It was Erica, and all the rest of his female companions had arrived,apparently safe and sound.Erica led the way with Yuri, Liliana and Ena following behind.More surprisingly, even Amakasu Touma and Lu Yinghua arrivedimmediately after them."Cough cough, what a hard day"s work, Kusanagi-san. Originally Iwondered if I could help in some way, and rushed here from Toushouguuby car, but you seemed to have settled everything by yourself.""Spared the necessity of resolving ourselves to a sacrificial battle againstG.o.ds, we really need to cheer hurray."It was the arrival of the girls and the much-missed male faction. However,the new arrivals all suddenly froze in their tracks, because Luo Cuilian hadplaced her hands on G.o.dou"s shoulders."So G.o.dou, though it pains me to leave my "little brother" behind, there arethe sayings, friendship between gentlemen is as insipid as water, ^ whileall banquets naturally come to an end. Your elder sister now returns toMount Lu.""Little..." "Brother?" "And..." "Elder!?" "Sis?" "-ter!?"Erica, Liliana, Yuri, Ena, as well as Amakasu and Lu Yinghua were allspeechless.The demonic cult leader ignored them and continued, completely failing toregister their existences in her eyes."Until we meet again, you must work hard and improve. First of all, youhave to practice the proper way to address me, understood?""Uh, can"t I just use "Nee-san" directly?"Even faced with a solemn order, G.o.dou tried to muddle through withoutoutright agreeing.Since he had already learnt the basics of how to get along with this eldersister, and because the other party was someone who could not beunderstood with common sense, G.o.dou knew he cannot be caught up inher rhythm and must express an appropriate degree of self determination."You have no wish to express reverence to the supreme exalted eldersister?""It"s important to not be fettered by trivial matters of address. Rather,what"s key is the way I see you. Nee-san and I made a vow to becomesworn siblings. With such an important promise between us ascompanions, this fact will forever remain unchanged until the day I die. Isn"tthat good enough?"When facing Luo Cuilian, G.o.dou found himself somehow able to resistunlike the way the other girls always caught him in their whims.Perhaps thanks to the emphasis of the "sibling" relationship, as long as heavoided seeing Nee-san as a "woman", he felt like he could say anythingwithout reservation."What a handful to handle you are... I"ve heard that younger brothers arecuter if they are a little bit naughty so I shall grant you special permissionthis once. However, please do not forget, you are the only person in thisworld who is allowed to call me your elder sister, understood?""No problem. You take care too, may we meet again as willed by fate."Having bid their farewells, Luo Cuilian left G.o.dou"s side.Flower petals began to flutter all around her. Was this the tree peony?^As the elder sister and also transcendent beauty was surrounded by theglamorous blizzard of petals, she vanished with a whoosh."Uh... what is this about? Unbelievable that Master would..."With an extremely impressed expression, this time it was Lu Yinghua whoapproached."I never would have expected Kusanagi-sama to have entered a siblingpact with Master. The humble disciple Lu Yinghua, hereby congratulatesmy Esteemed Uncle!""Esteemed Uncle!? Don"t call me such a weird name!"G.o.dou reprimanded the youth who was saluting in the martial arts way withone fist held against an open palm, his head bowed respectfully."Well, since you are Master"s sworn younger brother, and also my superiorin martial might, I cannot casually address you... So, what about callingyou G.o.dfather?""That"s even worse, I"m not some kind of mafia boss!""Actually, since Master rules the Martial Realm and all Chinese-trainedmartial artists, it is rather like being a mafia boss... After furtherconsideration, I think it"s best that I call you Honored Uncle. So, HonoredUncle, Lu Yinghua takes his leave."Leaving with a smile devoid of his usual sn.o.bbishness, Lu Yinghuadeparted.As befitting of the qinggong master, he was gone like the wind in aninstant.— Getting acquainted with so many powerful people, and becomingunexpectedly familiar with them, let"s hope this incident is resolved withthat... It was just as G.o.dou was about to breathe a sigh of relief."I say, G.o.dou, when did you get so intimate with Her Eminence? It"s sointimate that it"s a little suspicious."Erica"s beautiful voice questioned.Why? Somehow it felt like there were hidden barbs in that glamorousvoice."It"s not so strange, right? In truth, she"s actually quite a friendly person...Uh, though I do think that she tends to be a bit disruptive, so it would be abad idea to let her loose in places with many people.""For you to find a way to get so intimate with that kind of woman, howexactly did you hook up with Her Eminence?""She seemed to be calling you "little brother", right? I feel the same as whatErica-san is insinuating, with just one or two days" time, it is verysuspicious for relations to have progressed to such intimacy. Really,G.o.dou-san you..."Even Yuri lowered her gaze as if heart-broken.She still had her bad habit of stopping midway in her sentences even whenthere was much more she wanted to say."Another person agrees, further confirming my speculation. I only took myeyes off you for a moment, and there you go settling such decisive matterson your own. You truly are a monster.""So amazing! Because it is too cool, even Ena doesn"t know what to say."Liliana nodded firmly, and even Ena was wryly poking fun at herself.What was going on with them? G.o.dou felt himself shrinking in retreat.Come on, all he did was gain something like a step-sibling, why were theyall reacting so subtly!?"Come on, could you all quiet down a bit? Yuri-neechan and all the otherOnee-sama should know your bounds. Onii-sama just finished this severeand deadly battle. Really, you have all failed to be mindful of that!"Help came from an unexpected ally in the form of Mariya Hikari who hadnot been seen earlier. Held in her arms against her chest were cans ofcoffee and bottled tea and water."I think everyone is acting a bit lacking in feminine delicacy... Right,Onii-sama, these are drinks I bought at the vending machine from a nearbyrestaurant. Which kind would you like?""It"s for me? Thanks."Having loudly chastised the older girls, Hikari immediately put away herintimidating anger and smiled at G.o.dou.She must have been absent earlier because she took a long route?Figuring that out, G.o.dou was very pleased with Hikari"s thoughtfulness.After going through such an intense battle, his throat did feel very parched.Hikari proceeded to narrow her eyes and gaze at him with a tenderexpression.This expression and gesture did not match her young age, and should onlybe displayed by mature women."Actually, I wanted to cook something for you, but it can"t be helped in aplace like this... By the way, I"m pretty good at making dishes. Not as wellas Onee-chan, but for a student of my age, my skills are not bad at all.Next time, please enjoy a lunchbox prepared by me.""I don"t really mind, but we go to different schools.""In that case, we can just go out together. Why not next Sat.u.r.day?""An acquaintance will probably be asking me to put in a shift for work...Eh? What is with everyone?"Starting at some point, the surrounding mood had changed.Erica deliberately shrugged with exaggeration. Yuri timidly gazed at G.o.douand her sister.Ena sighed uncharacteristically, saying something like "Hikari ended upbecoming His Majesty"s woman as well, this is far too shocking.""Kusanagi G.o.dou, looks like I have won the wager this time. Let alone amonth, the result arrived in less than a fortnight. This actually exceeds myexpectations..."Then Liliana proceeded to say something incomprehensible."No matter how things went, the fact of my winning remains unchanged. I,Liliana Kranjcar, will henceforth become your loyal va.s.sal like no other,serving by your side and offering everything to you as your premier knight."Hearing her sudden unexpected victory declaration, G.o.dou wasspeechless and completely bewildered by what she was trying to say.Greatly perplexed, G.o.dou turned to look at the only other male remainingat the scene, Amakasu. What on earth was going on?"Kusanagi-san... Because you dug your own grave, I cannot help you."The observing ninja descendant teased G.o.dou with a strained expression,trying his hardest not to burst out in laughter."Hikari... What on earth are you trying to do!? l-lf father and mother foundout, do you know how they will scold you? Please think a little!""It"s okay, Onee-chan."In contrast to the older sister whose face was flushed red, the youngersister was very relaxed and complacent."If I explained that we will be serving Onii-sama as sisters, I"m suregrandpa and grandma will be very happy. In that case, father, who marriedinto the Mariya family, probably won"t say anything while mother is just anoptimist. I don"t think she"ll mind."Hoho. Hikari seemed to be laughing as if gloating over her victory."My dear group of Onee-sama, this is the fact of the matter. Please instructand remind me well from now on... However, please don"t worry, as theyoungest member, I will humbly get along with you all, especiallyErica-neesama. Everyone, I will be in your care.""Looks like in terms of social apt.i.tude, Hikari surpa.s.ses the older sister byfar..."Erica murmured with great feeling as she reached out to G.o.dou besideher.Then she pinched his upper arm hard."Ouch! What are you doing!?""In exchange for absolution from me, this little punishment is nothing, sostop complaining... Or perhaps in consideration for the future, it"d be best ifI stab you once instead?"Completely ignoring G.o.dou"s protest, Erica pondered seriously.For some reason, Yuri, Ena, Liliana and Amakasu proceeded to nodvigorously in agreement.There was a beautiful little girl standing on the peak of Nantaisan,overlooking the distant world beneath where lights dotted the streets.If one were to look towards her hand, a heavy circular medallion wouldcome into view.A circular disc made of an alloy of gold and iron, it was about the samesize as the girl"s fist. Engraved with script that was reminiscent of a[Sword], the girl gazed unerringly at its surface for quite a while, as thenumber of patterns incremented and a second [Sword] appeared on thecircular sculpture."After Perseus, it was the Great Sage Equaling Heaven"s turn to bedestroyed, and both their steel have been left upon the earth. Clearly, thatGreat Sage will not be the last hero to manifest in this world..."The blonde girl who resembled a cla.s.sic western doll looked to be abouttwelve or thirteen in age. It was the Divine Ancestor who introduced herselfas Guinevere to Luo Hao previously."When the Great Sage called upon the power to defeat devil kings andbring salvation to the world, I actually thought it might be possible, thedestiny written in the stars for the "one who manifests at the end" tobecome the strongest sword of [Steel]... Though incomplete, the GreatSage managed to make skillful use of it, as befitted the magnificent herofrom the great land of China."Breathing a sigh, she put the circular medallion away and it was at thistime that Guinevere noticed a presence."Prince, though you may possess the power of G.o.d speed, you are reallyunskilled in the techniques of hiding in the shadows...""Hmph, you witch. Your sense of smell is sharp as ever."From the shadows of the volcanic rocks, out stepped a man. It was BlackPrince Alec.His real name was Alexandre Gascoigne. As suggested by his familyname, he was the Campione whose ancestry traced its roots back toFrance."I just wanted to find out what your true intentions are.""How scary... But regrettably, the open matter has already been settled.Guinevere will be heading back home now. So, let us meet again inEurope.""Very well, we shall meet again, Witch of Brittany."If the Black Prince were to pursue using G.o.dlike speed, even the DivineAncestor would be no match.Knowing that the cold reply of the Black Prince implied that he had nointention of giving chase, Guinevere flew into the sky, enveloped in goldenlight."What a waste of a trip... That said, the strength of this monkey called theGreat Sage Equaling Heaven really was too abnormal. What was thesource of all that power?"Watching the witch depart, Alec muttered to himself.After finding out there were three other Campiones present, he haddeemed it unnecessary to intervene. But for the sake of discerning thenature of that power, partic.i.p.ating in the battle would not have been such abad idea —Ending his contemplation here, Alec shrugged his shoulders.It was pointless to dwell any further on a concluded incident. If anothersimilarly alarming situation were to arise in the future, just start gatheringinformation all over again...References1 . t Friendship between gentlemen... ^CD^C): a saying thatoriginates from the Daoist philosophical cla.s.sic, Zhuangzi(^± : f). Thefull saying is "Friendship between gentlemen, they say, is insipid aswater; that of petty men, sweet as rich wine. But the insipidity of thegentleman leads to affection, while the sweetness of the petty manleads to revulsion. Those with no particular reason for joining togetherwill for no particular reasonpart." t Tree peony^i^l-): Paeonia suffruticosa is a type of peony nativeto China and historically renowned as the King ofFlowers. everyone, it"s been a while. I am Takedzuki Jou.The second half of the Volume 6 story, Volume 7 has finally publishedwithout incident.In this series, every time there are always ideas that I must abandon withgreat reluctance.Simply stated, sometimes it"s because of constraints in the number ofpages in order to make the story a better read. Within these lost ideas,there are quite a lot of interesting thoughts.Take Volume 4 the Perseus story for example. His origins were related tothe Babylonian deity Marduk and the worship of Mithras which flourished atone point in the Roman Empire. This religion has many connections withChristianity and it took great determination for me to cut out all thatcontent.This time in the story of the Great Sage Equaling Heaven, there werelegends like the battle between a centipede G.o.d and a snake G.o.d on theplains of Senjougahara, but a good many of these ideas could not be fittedinto the work.Particularly regrettable is a little story that didn"t make the cut, about thesecond strongest character besides the Great Sage Equaling Heaven,building a nightclub in the human world because of his frustrations.I had written about a chapter"s worth when I was told "This is not needed."In the end, it could not be used.Readers who feel it"s a shame that this character did not have a chance toshine, if you want to see the Campione story of the Hotel Master, pleasemake your thoughts known to the Super Dash Bunko editorial department.With that, perhaps "The Returned Zhu Bajie Strikes Back!" might bepublished one day.So, these Volumes 6 and 7 were written as the theme for the "Toei MangaFestival Cross Over."In the romantic comedy aspect, it became "Kusanagi G.o.dou"s Round."Always kept spinning around by the various girls, he was finally able totake control. Perhaps he can be like Gian^ in his feature film incarnations,awakening heroism and bonds of friendship. Though this kind of situationis particularly rare, I would be most grateful if readers continue to antic.i.p.atethis kind of scene.The next volume is slated to consist of slice-of-life short stories.