by Fuyumi Ono
"In the back--there's a kyuuki in the back yard!"
Keikei began to wail. A kyuuki was a fierce, man-eating youma. It meant the end of the town. A kyuuki would devour every last person in sight.
Even now, the kingdom was still in this much chaos.
The back door reverberated with a crash. Rangyoku jumped back. She grabbed Keikei. Enho put his arms around them and hustled them into the main hall. Splinters came flying as the kyuuki tore through the wooden door with its claws. They bolted the door to the main hall and ran into the courtyard. Somehow they had to get to the Rishi. No youma would attack them beneath the riboku.
They rushed down the corridor toward the inner gate, down the stone steps, and emerged into the front yard. Behind them the screams of the children continued.
She wanted to help them but couldn't think of a way how. She knew it was inhuman to abandon them like this. She knew if it were Keikei back there, she would have turned back, even if it meant sacrificing herself.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
They reached the eaves of the main gate to the orphanage, Keikei suddenly shouted. Without thinking, Rangyoku turned and followed his gaze. Her eyes flew to the roof of the inner gate, to the crouching form of the kyuuki.
"Get going!" Enho urged them forward. "Run to the Rishi and don't look back!"
"No," said Keikei, clinging to Enho's coat.
"The others, they're probably already dead!"
"Gramps!"
Rangyoku took Keikei's hand in hers. She'd at least save him. She'd abandon Enho, use herself as a shield, and at least save him. The kyuuki licked its chops, crouched down low. Rangyoku watched it launch itself into the sky and fall on them. Transfixed, she held Keikei's hand.
A bright splash of red shot past them, grazing the creature's muzzle.
"What?"
That shock of red was a mane of red hair. Somebody had rushed past them and up to the youma. The image frozen in her eyes as she turned was that of the flutter of crimson and the brilliant flash of a naked sword cutting an arc in the air.
A boy, and a not very big one at that. His silhouette and that of the pouncing kyuuki merged together. Rangyoku hugged her brother to her chest.
The claws and fangs of the kyuuki, limbs as fat as logs. It's entire body was a weapon, yet the sword danced as it nimbly slashed at the youma. The spray of blood and gore belonged to the youma. The sword severed the steel-clawed limbs from its body. The youma slumped, howling, until the tip of the sword pierced its throat. The boy drew out the sword, swung it around and down. The blade bit deeply into the kyuuki's thick neck.
The kyuuki shuddered and toppled over. The boy jumped back and out of the way and then without a second thought, ran forward again and delivered the second blow to the beast's neck. Gripping the hilt with both hands, coming down on one knee, in a single blow cutting off the kyuuki's head.
Rangyoku fell to her knees. "I don't believe it." It was impossible, felling a kyuuki like that. She closed her eyes only briefly, only time enough to scream. She sat down on the ground, Keikei still in her arms. The boy wiped the blade clean and looked back at them.
"You okay?"
She couldn't answer, could only nod her head, yes.
Mouth agape, Enho finally put down the hand he had raised to hold them back. "And you are, sir?"
Before he finished asking the question, Keikei shouted, "Look out behind you!"
In a flash, the boy spun around, in the same split second drawing the sword as another kyuuki leapt down from the inner gate, throwing its entire weight against him. He feinted and ducked the charge. The kyuuki's bloodstained fangs closed on empty air. The sword connected, a mortal blow to the back of its head and then plunged in between its shoulders. He drew out the sword and in the same movement twisted his body and thrust backwards, impaling it through the throat.
Again, he made short work of it.
The sword was buried in the kyuuki's neck. Yanking it out, the boy tottered backwards in a manner Rangyoku found strangely affecting. He was so small compared to the kyuuki.
"Wow! Wow!" Keikei let go of his sister's hand and jumped to his feet.
Again, the boy wiped down the blade and glanced back at them. "It looks like you're not injured."
"Yeah. You were so great!" Keikei grinned happily.
The boy turned toward the heart of the compound. "I heard screaming."
Enho staggered up to him. "The other children--"
Not waiting to hear the rest, and without a second thought for the kyuuki, the boy leapt over the carcass and ran into the grounds of the orphanage.
Rangyoku and Keikei and Enho hastily followed after him, coming upon the ravaged exterior wing of the orphanage. Not a breath of life was left in the place. Three children between the ages of seven and fifteen lived there. They had lived together as a family until today.
The big window gaped open. The door hung from its hinges. A frigid wind blew into the quiet, cold room. Every surface was splattered with blood so fresh and acrid it almost seemed strange that no steam rose from the bodies.
They laid the three bodies out in the courtyard and covered them with matts of reeds. Hearing the commotion, the townspeople flocked to the orphanage, lending their assistance and sharing their grief and they bore the bodies to the town hall. By that time, news of the incident had reached the neighboring communities, and the center of town was crowded with unfamiliar faces.
Rangyoku looked at the spectators surrounding the orphanage, all keeping their distance, then at the boy. He stood in the courtyard, holding the sword in one hand, watching as the dead were born off. He had crimson hair and dark green eyes. His skin, darkly bronzed by the sun, had a vibrant quality to it. He was wearing a short, plain coat, but the sword he had killed the kyuuki with was magnificent.
"Um . . . " she said. "Thank you for saving our lives."
"It was nothing," he replied, in a quiet voice that somehow left a matter-of-fact impression on her. He seemed a little older than herself. They were both about the same height, so she guessed his age based on his overall stature.
"Are you from Hokui?" She asked, as he did not look like anyone she had seen around these parts.
"No," he answered.
Rangyoku tilted her head to one side. It being first thing in the morning, this struck her as a bit odd. The town gates opened at daybreak. In order to have gotten in so early, she reckoned he must have camped out the night before. When she asked him this, he nonchalantly nodded. "I considered seeking shelter in one of the hamlets, but there was nobody there."
Who would seek shelter in the hamlets at this time of year? Then the thought occurred to her. "Are you perhaps from Kou or Sou?" She had heard that in the kingdoms further south, people stayed in the hamlets year-round.
"No, from En."
"En is a cold country this time of year. The hamlets in En would all be empty, wouldn't they?"
"Probably so."
There was a smile in his voice. She turned to see Enho returning from where he had left Keikei in the care of the neighbors.
Enho said, "A kaikyaku."
Rangyoku looked at the boy with wide eyes. Enho said, "You're Chuu Youshi, correct?"
"Yes. And you are Enho-san?"
Enho nodded and glanced at Rangyoku. "This is the child I told you about, who was sent to the orphanage. Your new roommate."
"My what? But . . . . "
Rangyoku gave the boy a good long look. What Enho was saying was, this was the girl, a girl her same age, that he had been telling her about. "Oh! I'm sorry! I completely misunderstood!"
The girl smiled pleasantly. "No problem. I've gotten used to it."
Enho turned to Rangyoku. "Youshi, this is Rangyoku, one of the residents of the orphanage. She's the older sister of the boy you just rescued."
"I'm pleased to meet you," Youshi said with a slight bow.
When Rangyoku smiled and bowed in turn, Enho gave her a nudge. "While Youshi is changing her clothes, w
hy don't you go fetch Keikei? He's still in something of a panic."
"I'll do that," she replied with a nod. Enho watched her hurry off and then looked up at the girl standing next to him. "With all these people about, we never greeted you properly."
"Understood. It's fine."
"I apologize. I'll see to it that you are properly treated as a resident of the rike."
"Well, that is why I came here."
Hearing her soft voice and seeing the look in her eyes, Enho nodded. "We are very grateful to you for saving our lives."
"Do youma still come into inhabited areas like this?"
"Yes, but less often since Kei got a new Empress."
Chapter 23
Waiting for the ship to depart, Suzu leaned back against a bollard on the pier and examined her travel papers. Her passport was in the form of a small wooden token that she was to carry with her during the journey.
The people of a kingdom made their living on the partitions they were granted by the government. And the kingdom in turn governed the people using the land partition as the primary instrument of its control. Meaning, when you left your homestead, you gave up the rights and protections granted by the government.
Because of this, when a passport was issued, your name was inscribed on the face of the wooden token, and the back of the passport listed the name of the issuing prefectural office. The passport was placed on the person's koseki, or census record, and at three places along the edge of the token, a dagger was driven into the koseki. By lining up the grooves in the passport token with the puncture marks in the koseki, the authenticity of the passport could be confirmed.
It was also not uncommon for a guarantor's name to be inscribed on the back of the passport.
With a passport in hand, even when a person left his homestead, if circumstances required it, he could seek assistance from the nearest government office. It was the same when traveling abroad. Traveling abroad without a passport made one an itinerant or displaced person, and you lost all your rights. A passport was necessary even when going to a city in a neighboring jurisdiction. Consequently, you carried it with you everywhere you went, if only out of habit.
As Suzu's passport had been issued by the Royal Sai herself, the back was inscribed with the Imperial Seal. The passport was affixed to a small plaque called a rakkan, or financial guarantor. The seal burned into its face was that of the issuing bank.
The Royal Sai Kouko had given Suzu a generous sum for traveling expenses. These funds were deposited in a bank in Yuunei, the bank that issued the rakkan. Banks formed powerful trade credit unions by establishing strong and secure relationships with banks in other municipalities and even other countries. If you had a rakkan issued by a bank in the trade credit union, no matter where you went, you could withdraw money or establish a credit line at another bank in that trade credit union.
On the rakkan, the issuing bank and the stated credit limit were written in coded characters that could not be read by anybody outside the trade credit union.
"Unbelievable," Suzu muttered to herself. She carefully replaced her travel papers inside her jacket pocket, and secured it further with cord running through her belt.
It was too bad she wouldn't be working at the palace. However, if only a little, things seemed to be moving in the right direction now. Kouko arranged for the cavalry to fly her to the port of Eisou on the Kyokai. After a journey of ten days, they arrived at the coast and passage on a ship was arranged. She was asked whether she preferred a cargo or passenger ship. A passenger ship could only be booked as far as Sou. She would have to transfer several more times to get to Kei. If she went on one of the cargo vessels that plied the Kyokai around the Twelve Kingdoms, she could sail all the way to En, with a stop in Kei.
Suzu said that a cargo ship was fine with her, and the agent spoke with one of the commercial outfits on her behalf. This would get her to Kei. With the endorsement of the Royal Sai on her passport, getting a meeting with the Royal Kei shouldn't be too difficult.
I'm going to meet her. Somebody from Yamato, like her. Definitely the only person on the planet who could really understand her.
A tan-colored flag was raised. It was a small boat and there was only one flag. A small wheel was affixed to the top of the flagpole. It was a good-luck charm issued by the Ministry of Winter, called a junpuusha, a wheel-like talisman affixed to the top of the mainmast to ensure smooth sailing. As there were no deep harbors on the Kyokai, large ships did not travel these routes. Primarily cargo ships, though upon request they could take on passengers.
This takes me back.
Suzu looked down at the dark sea from the side of the boat. The ink-black sea, the faint, starlike flicker of lights. Swept away from her long-lost home, the first thing she saw of this world was this ocean. Suzu still didn't understand it. This ocean she almost drowned in, how far was it from her hometown in Japan? Told that the lights glimmering in the midst of the ocean were some kind of fish, that was good enough for her.
Glowing you-fish that lived deep in the ocean. They looked small to her, but in fact some were big enough to swallow a barge. Because they never surfaced except during storms, they were not considered dangerous. The youma that attacked people at sea were mostly beasts and birds that came from the Yellow Sea.
The boat left from a port in the south of Sai and sailed in an eastward direction across the Kyokai. They chose routes across the Kyokai rather than the Inner Seas because midway they would have to pass close by Kou. The king of Kou had fallen and the kingdom was in chaos.
"Usually, we don't see youma like that but once every three of four years," a sailor she'd gotten to know told her. "Youma are way worse than natural disasters. The Sonkai Gate up to the Reison Gate are particularly bad. They say that when sailing back to Sai from En on the Inner Seas, the flocks of youma from the Yellow Sea blot out the sun."
"Wow."
The Yellow Sea in the center of the world was completely close off by the encompassing range of the Kongou Mountains. You could only enter the Yellow Sea at one of four gates, called the Shirei Gates. The gate in the southeast quadrant was called the Reison Gate. The narrow strait between the Yellow Sea and Kou was called the Sonkai Gate.
"He must have done something bad, that Royal Kou. He hasn't been dead but a couple of months and look at the state they're in. Must be rough for the people of Kou. Until they get themselves a new king, you got to wonder how much worse things will get."
"So it's really bad . . . . "
The countries in this world are so strange, Suzu thought. It was one thing to say that the God in Heaven created the world, but children that grew on trees and all these strange creatures--she would hardly be surprised if God really existed. But if God did exist, why didn't He make it so kingdoms didn't go to pieces like that? If God did exist, it'd be nice if He'd make it so people didn't get turned into kaikyaku. And it'd be nice if He'd help her out for once.
The boat followed the coast of Sou east. Along the way, it stopped at three ports. The last was a small island close to Kou. From there, they passed through the straits between Kou and Shun and headed north. The water of the straits was a dark navy blue, somewhat bluer than that of the open sea.
"Why is the ocean a different color?" she mused as she rested her elbows on the railing and cupped her chin in her hands.
Out of the blue, a voice next to her said, "Because it's more shallow."
Suzu jumped and turned toward the sound of the voice. Next to her she saw a boy stretching as he peered out at the sea. At first, Suzu had been the only passenger on the boat. After three ports of call, the number had increased to eight. He must have been one of the passengers who came on board at Bokko, the last port of call.
"Shallow?"
"Shallow seas are bluer than deep water. You don't know much about the ocean, do you?"
Suzu glared at him. "I've never lived close to the ocean before."
"Really?"
The boy let go of the railing a
nd laughed. He looked to be twelve or so. With his freckles and hair the color of oranges, he made a cheerful impression. When he laughed, his whole face lit up.
Suzu asked, "Are you going to En or Kei?"
"Kei," he answered.
Oh, Suzu smiled. "I'm Suzu. Pleased to meet you."
The boy cocked his head to one side. "That's a funny name."
"I'm a kaikyaku."
"Kaikyaku?"
So there are things people here don't know, either. "I'm from Yamato. I was washed ashore here."
The boy's mouth gaped open in surprise. "No kidding? That's great!"
"It's not great. It's pretty awful. It means I can't ever go home again."
Huh, the boy muttered, and stretched again. He looked down into the waves. "So your luck's not so good."
"No."
White waves washed the sides of the ship, vivid against the dark surface of the ocean. If you shifted your gaze to the open sea, your eyes met the clear line of the horizon dividing the heavens from the water. Somewhere beyond that distant horizon was the country where she had been born. She had wept profusely when she heard she could never go back again. She knew that it was possible for wizards to cross the Kyokai and had indulged the fantasy that if she served Riyou well, she would get a promoted to the class of wizard who could do so. But when she found out that she would have to become a wizard of the air, and a count as well, she gave up on the idea.
"Hey, cheer up." The boy hit Suzu on the shoulder. "There are lots of kids who can't go home again."
Suzu scowled at him. "No, there aren't. There aren't that many kaikyaku here."
"Even if you're not a kaikyaku. Like when your kingdom gets all messed up, your home gets burned down, there are people like that."
"That's different from what I'm talking about! I can't go back to the place I was before. Your house burns down, you can build a new one. Do you know what it means to never return to a place you once loved? Do you have the slightest idea what you're talking about?"
