Once there lived a pair of brothers who loved to visit the pond by their village to swim. On this cold and raining morning however the brothers spotted something strange and glowing from the bottom of the pond. The first brother Tatsu dove under the water to retrieve the glowing item. The second and younger of the two brothers Hitoshi was simply not fast enough and proceeded to groan loudly. When Tatsu emerged from the water he appeared holding a strange maroon bag tied by a golden string. Hitoshi, being the more perceptive of the two boys, noticed a faded word Kyoudai written on it. Tatsu opened the bag and pulled out some rusted and damaged coins 1 side with a dragon on 1 side with a burnt face. Neither of the two boys had ever seen coins like this before.'they're probably worthless.' says Tatsu,'But I'm sure they'll turn out to have significant value someday,' Hitoshi replies confidently.They decide not to tell anyone about it, a few days pass with nothing of note. Tatsu starts to become agitated, feeling like he can trick someone in the village to give him money for the coins he takes the bag without telling his brother and runs off to sell it. While darting through stalls and dodging horses. Tatsu runs into an alley before crashing to the ground. Dazed, he looks up to see a smirking old man in old & dingy clothes wearing a strange hat. His eyes are an almost otherworldly orange. With a clear scar across his right cheek that looks as if he was burned."Welllllll oh my what do you have there?" he says in a labored breath"It's a family item," explains Tatsu, hoping that will satisfy the curious stranger
.
"Do you mind if I ask how much you paid for it?" he asks."Oh, we didn't pay for anything, We just inherited it from our dad." says Tatsu, annoyed by the question. "What do you mean?" The stranger points out that the coins are ancient and thought to have been lost centuries ago.He tells Tatsu it is not something to be handled lightly as he smiles.
Tatsu's eyes open wide as he realizes how much money he could make on the coins."Well, thank you so much!" exclaims Tatsu. He picks the bag up off the ground and tries to runs off with it. Before he can, a hand reaches out and yanks Tatsu back "wait a second" the stranger says eagerly."I will buy it off you" the words echo in Tatsu's ears as he smiles wide.
"How much?" Tatsu exclaimsThe man reaches for a bag on his waist and extends it out to Tatsu."All of the shells in the bag. A full bag of pengs for your bag of ancient coins." The stranger reaffirms to Tatsu there is enough for him to feed his family for the entire year."Wow I have never seen so many pengs before" says Tatsu in disbeliefTatsu knows he may never get this chance again as he reaches for the bag of ancient coins and as he does the strangers' orange eyes begin to glow brighter. Just as Tatsu is about to drop the bag into his hands he looks up one last time to see the scarred stranger and he has a feeling what he is doing is not right and changes his mind."sorry I just can't sell these to you" Tatsu says sadlyThe stranger's smile turns to a grimace as he lets out a creature like shriek kicking up dust making it very difficult for Tatsu to see anything.
As the dust clears... Tatsu notices a giant blue tail with an orange glow of some kind fading away with the dust.Tatsu runs home , Hitoshi stands waiting at the front door.
"You tried to sell the coins, didn't you?" Hitoshi asks with a laugh
"We can always keep it as a memento, And maybe one day it'll be worth something."
"You're right" Tatsu says agreeingly.
They go straight into their room and lock the door behind them.
Eventually, they both fall asleep.The next morning, Tatsu wakes up and finds Hitoshi standing right outside the bedroom door. He is surrounded by treasures of gold and silver the likes of which they have never seen before.
Tatsu looks at Hitoshi in disbelief. "What happened last night?" he asks. "where did all of this come from?""I had a dream," says Hitoshi. "In my dream, a merchant came to our house offering to buy our coins""He had orange eyes and a funny hat. Even in my dream I refused to give up our coins to him." Hitsohi says frantically"He smiled at me and whispered that by choosing to respect your brother and refusing to sell your coins you will be rewarded. He said this before transforming into a dragon which scared me and I woke up. When I opened my eyes we had treasures all over our room.""That doesn't make any sense," replies tatsu "I met a person like this in the village last night and how do treasures just magically appear?""Maybe I dreamed it because you saw it" he adds.
"Dreams don't work like that," says Tatsu. He reaches for the silver and gold. "All this stuff looks real enough, even though it's a couple hundred years old."Tatsu and Hitoshi hug each other tightly, smiling and laughing as they know their life has changed forever.The pair of brothers then remembered the bag they found in the pond read Kyoudai which meant brothers. The two searched day and night that week looking for the maroon bag with gold lacing, the ancient coins and the strange old man with orange eyes. They were unable to find any of the 3. They did however learn that not all things are as they seem and that their bond and respect for one another as brothers allowed them to live the rest of their lives with the wealth that most men can only dream of.