by Fuyumi Ono
“Um, Miss, are you going to report this to the constable?”
Shushou looked up at him. “Won’t the government offices be closed by now?”
“Then tomorrow?”
“I appreciate your concern. Thanks for getting my bags. And helping me look for Hakuto.”
“Ah, no problem.”
Shushou again checked out her surroundings. Dusk had settled on the town. Hakuto was nowhere to be seen.
“There’s nothing else I can do now but keep pressing forward, and all the more so without Hakuto.”
She looked at the people standing around her in confusion. The remainder of her itinerary would take an adult three days on foot. For Shushou, things would get a lot chancier. But she had no choice but to struggle on and see things to the end.
“Can anybody point me to a quiet, safe inn? I guess it doesn’t have to have stables.”
Part Two
Chapter 9
[2-1] The morning of the Spring Equinox, the innkeeper saw off the girl and the man she’d hired as her bodyguard, the concern evident on his face.
Gankyuu held the reins of the haku as they walked along the dark streets, swept along by the throngs. He sighed mightily. He had patiently explained during breakfast how crazy an idea this was. Not only did his remonstrations go in one ear and out the other, but Shushou lay her head on the table and took a nap.
He was left with no choice but to resign himself to the situation.
Gankyuu was no stranger to life in the Yellow Sea. Many people were going on the Shouzan and many of them brought along family members and bodyguards and hearty kijuu.
Escorting the girl to Mt. Hou and back again, not straying into dangerous territory in search of kijuu, was hardly impossible. He’d never worked in that capacity before but was familiar with the bodyguards—known in the trade as goushi or “guardians”—who made a living at it, and was friends with several of them. He’d heard his fair share of hard-luck stories. He figured he could weather it well enough.
While she was on Mt. Hou, he could work in a little kijuu hunting on the side. Not bad work for sixty-five ryou, he reminded himself over and over.
“Hey, Gankyuu.”
The handful of trouble he was stuck with hunched her shoulders against the cold and glanced guilelessly up at him.
“What?” he said.
“What are you wearing that poncho for?”
Instead of answering, Gankyuu clucked to himself. The reason he had the poncho draped over his head like a shawl was to keep from being spotted by his mates. He didn’t want it noised about that he was escorting a child across the Yellow Sea. He’d never hear the end of it.
“Son of a bitch,” he grumbled.
Shushou laughed. “You don’t know when to bow to the inevitable. You need the money, don’t you?”
Damn straight, he said to himself. Gankyuu glanced down at her. She’d removed her two-piece ruqun and replaced it with the humble underjacket he’d scrounged up the night before, and then wrapped her padded kimono around that.
He’d expected her to bitch and moan about taking off the ruqun and sneer at the underjacket even more. But without him pointing out that the long sleeves would be a pain to deal with, she’d agreed to the change without any fuss, thank heaven.
“Where did a girl like you come up with money like that?”
“I didn’t steal it, if that’s what you are implying. I took whatever I could find lying about the house.”
“You what?”
“Including the kijuu. But the kijuu was stolen by a bad-tempered man like you. A sad and sordid tale. And then to have my lodgings practically stolen out from under me. You adults really are a sorry lot.”
Gankyuu couldn’t help thinking that she’d broken even on the stealing business. He said, “A kijuu?”
“Named Hakuto. A moukyoku. Do you know the species?”
Shushou recounted how her moukyoku was stolen as they checked out the street stalls. The stores opened this early for travelers who’d left necessary purchases to the last minute. Although he’d put together provisions for two the night before, Gankyuu scanned the store fronts as well.
“He was tame and well-mannered, fast on his feet, so smart it was like he understood what I was thinking.” Shushou’s lips drew a tightly in frustration and regret.
“I see. That was a bad move on your part, Miss.”
“What do you mean?”
Gankyuu picked out a few dried apricots and tucked them away. He said over his shoulder, “Moukyoku are good around people. Not only yours, the whole species. Moukyoku in the Yellow Sea can be coaxed along with a little bait. They’re three-quarters of the way to becoming kijuu from the start, willing to trust anybody who calls out to them. You can’t hand over the reins of a moukyoku to anybody, especially in a busy city. You have to remain extra wary until you’re safely in a stables with trustworthy guards.”
“Really?”
“Really. Getting out of the saddle was your first mistake. You should count yourself lucky he didn’t haul you off to the constable.”
“If he did that, I would have come out on top. I’ve got the papers to prove it.”
“I bet he did too. As authentic as yours.”
Shushou blinked. “Authentic? How could his be authentic?”
“There are plenty of crafty hunters like them about. They do their hunting in Ken Province, not the Yellow Sea. Because hunters going to the Yellow Sea are bound to have kijuu. They probably had their eyes on you since Rinken. They pick out a kijuu boarding the ship and send a carrier pigeon to North Ken. Something like, There’s a moukyoku headed your way. Their colleagues in North Ken then select the proper certificates from the ones they’ve already got on hand, nab the moukyoku and make off with it. Since they handle a lot of kijuu, they’ve got a certificate for every one they’re bound to encounter.”
Shushou lapsed into a silent sulk.
“They would have secured a theft report from their colleagues in Rinken. They’ve got a whole network dedicated to stealing and selling kijuu. Yours is probably in the Kingdom of Han by now. I wouldn’t count on getting it back.”
“I am going to remember this,” Shushou said under her breath. When Gankyuu looked at her, she said, “When I ascend the throne, I’ll have them all rounded up. I swear, they are going to regret this.”
Gankyuu’s shoulder’s fell in dismay. “Going on the Shouzan isn’t enough? You’re already planning on becoming Empress?”
“What else does one go on the Shouzan for?”
“And you think you’ll be the one chosen?”
“Anything wrong with thinking so?”
“Not at all,” Gankyuu grumbled.
A moukyoku wasn’t a bad kijuu, certainly worth targeting by the criminal element. It’d fetch a fine price. A family that owned one would be well off. Upon a closer look, the kid had a genteel air about her and didn’t shrink from ordering people around. This well-bred girl, treated with kid gloves her whole life and naive to the ways of the world, had let it go to her head and launched herself on the Shouzan. He’d never heard anything like it before. But seeing it for himself, it didn’t strike him as all that strange.
“At least you can be grateful they didn’t rob you of your money as well.”
“That’s why I took off my ruqun when traveling. Dressed like a pauper, nobody would believe a child like me was carrying that much money, right?”
“That’s very clever.”
“It’s common sense.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure.”
“Why?” she said, tilting her head up at him.
Gankyuu patted the kijuu. “Couldn’t I just as well take off with all your money here?”
Shushou sighed. “You’re not as smart as you think you are. Your name is Gankyuu. You’re a corpse hunter, well known to that innkeeper. If you ran away, I would report you to the authorities at once. Do you know what province this is?”
“I Province.” Ken Coun
ty was a detached administrative territory of the capital province.
“That’s right. I am no stranger to the government officials of I Province. Or rather, my father isn’t. In North Ken, I was in a hurry so I gave it a pass. But if I ended up missing the Spring Equinox, you could count on me pursuing every legal option available.”
“Yes, Ma’am.” Hells bells, Gankyuu cursed to himself. What a shrewd little kid. “But what if somebody shut your mouth for good? Not a few people enter the Yellow Sea never to be seen or heard from again. I couldn’t carry the body out, Your Honor, and had to leave her there. Hard to made any of those legal options stick in that case.”
Shushou snorted through her nose. “That is not likely to happen either.”
“Why not?”
“If I die, then nobody will become Empress. It is unlikely the Gods would let such an injustice pass without a righteous response.”
Gankyuu’s shoulders sagged again. “Look—”
Shushou smiled and held Gankyuu’s hand. “When my moukyoku was stolen, I was afraid I wouldn’t make it in time for the Spring Equinox. But we’ve arrived right on time. Heaven must be smiling down upon us.”
“Sure seems that way.”
“When I become Empress, I am not going to do bad things. You are a lucky man.”
Gankyuu took a deep breath and let it out. Where the hell does such confidence spring from? “Mt. Hou is a long way away.”
“No problem. I knew we’d have a kijuu.”
But yours got stolen, Gankyuu was about to say. Shushou glanced at his haku and said, “I heard you say you’d left a kijuu in the stables. That’s why I hired you.”
Shrewd was right. Even at her age, she was far too scheming to be called precocious. There was no denying the look of resignation in his shoulders as he slumped a bit in his stride. “I’m impressed.”
Shushou patted him on the back. “Compared to me, there’s nothing for you to get discouraged about. Anyway, back home, I’m known as the brightest kid in the neighborhood too.”
Gankyuu didn’t have it in him say yay or nay. His shoulders only slumped further.
Chapter 10
[2-2] Gankyuu silently walked on. Shushou had to run a little to keep up. Unlike Gankyuu, her footsteps were light. The road before dawn was cold and covered with frost. A child’s stride made the distance all the longer. Even worse, she’d covered the three-day journey from the port city at a half-run, and a single night’s rest had done little to alleviate the fatigue.
But Shushou barely noticed it at all.
She’d really worried about getting to the gate before the Spring Equinox. But not only had she arrived the night before, she’d secured herself a guide to boot.
Shushou knew there were professional guides who escorted people on the Shouzan, quite necessary when venturing into the Yellow Sea. Alas, despite arriving in time, the theft of Hakuto hadn’t left her with enough time to hire a proper guardian. That she’d had the good luck of finding a guide experienced in the Yellow Sea led her to believe that no matter what happened next, she would figure something out.
Right now, curiosity overwhelmed any feelings of anxiety. Following the barrier wall, Gankyuu strode south. Though the boulevards weren’t as big as those in Renshou, the presence of lane partitions was unusual. The intersections of the main roads in Renshou had nothing of the sort, only street-wide square plazas.
In this city, the intersections were dominated by structures as wide as the roads. Some were made out of stone and secured on all sides by iron doors. The barrier walls and ramparts jutted out here and there. The stores and shops lining the streets were equipped with gates and sturdy doors.
Carried by the human tide to the southeast, Shushou surveyed her surroundings with intrigued eyes. Eventually they arrived at a single gate.
“To imagine there’d be a gate in a place like this,” Shushou said, raising her voice.
The loop road that circumnavigated the city inside the barrier walls emptied into the large plaza before the gate. Streams of people spilled into the plaza and collected there as if in a sluice pond. Before them, the watchtowers bracketing the huge gate soared into the sky.
Shushou glanced up at Gankyuu. “This is the southeast?”
Gankyuu let out a long breath. “That’s right.”
He tilted his head back to take in the five story pagodas. County seats and castle towns were usually surrounded by twelve gates at the twelve cardinal directions. The city of Ken did not have a Dragon Gate or a Serpent Gate. Instead, as if the southeast corner had been cleanly lopped off, a separate, larger gate, opening toward the mountains, had been placed there.
“The Earth Gate.”
The looming mountains seemed to press down against the gate. Beyond the layered ranges, the faint peaks were finely etched against the pre-dawn sky. A great black wall blocked the way. The summits reached out to the left and right like the sharp teeth of a lumberjack’s saw, melting into the distance while dissolving into the grey morning air.
The Kongou Mountains. Torn out of the skyscraping peaks and spires, a single road continued on and on. This was one of only four routes into the Yellow Sea.
Because it led to the Yellow Sea, this gate was taller and sturdier than any of the other city gates. Once a year, the doors of the Reiken Gate swung open and the magical beasts that made their homes in the Yellow Sea flooded forth. Or rather, they once did. These were vestiges from that time.
The outer borders of the Yellow Sea and the Earth Gates saw the construction of tall and sturdy towers. More centuries passed before a rugged fortress was built within the Yellow Sea. The youma no longer poured forth, leaving the Earth Gate to stand there in all its mostly meaningless majesty.
“An impressive gate,” Shushou said in hushed awe.
“You know, it’s not too late to reconsider. Take a look at the preparations. They go to such lengths to open the gate once a year for one day. Every building in this city is made out of stone. All of the courtyards are covered. That’s because of the youma.”
Not a single courtyard was open to the sky. The blue tint of the broad roofs came from the bronze plates affixed to the tile. The windows were small, and many covered with bars. The doors weren’t much bigger and invariably reinforced with bands of iron. The thoroughfares were dotted with “street castles.” Like the bastions in the walls and ramparts, they provided shelter when youma appeared.
There were ten times as many watch towers as the typical city, equipped with bells to warn of an impending attack. Protecting against youma here was a natural part of daily life.
Shushou responded to Gankyuu’s suggestion with a carefree smile. “Yes, living here would be tough. But I’m not worried.”
“Where does such confidence come from?” asked the astounded Gankyuu.
Shushou answered without a second thought, “Because I have the divine protection of the Lord God Creator.”
“Of course you do,” Gankyuu said wearily.
He pulled on the haku’s reins. Jammed up against the gate, the crowds came to a halt, like an army waiting for the drawbridge to lower so they could charge across. Watchfires burned brightly on the sentry posts. There were soldiers everywhere.
The crowded plaza notwithstanding, the mood was hushed. Only a low rustling and whispering could be heard. Even the cool dawn seemed tense, waiting in anticipation.
“It’s so quiet—”
“That’s normal. Because after this, there’s only the Yellow Sea. Everybody knows that once you venture in, there’s no leaving until the Summer Solstice.”
“That’s right,” Shushou murmured.
Gankyuu urged her on. They wended their way through the crowds. At the south end of the plaza, next to the gate, was a shrine. Purple smoke hung in the gloomy gray air. People thronged around. Shushou had never seen such a shrine in Renshou.
The plaza wouldn’t be there if the gate wasn’t. The shrine seemed almost an appendage of the barrier wall, wider than it
was tall and lined with dozens of votive candles.
Gankyuu faced the shrine, clapped his hands together, and prayed. Shushou couldn’t help gaping at him. She looked closer at the shrine. None of the usual patriarchs were enshrined there. Only a single statue. She couldn’t make it out in the shadows, except that the figure was wearing armor.
The figure was wrapped in a toga-like shawl, bringing to mind the statue of a fierce guardian angel she’d seen once in a temple. As she stood there eyeing it, Gankyuu pushed her head down in a bow.
“Hey!”
“Be polite and pay your respects. We are about to enter a world where humans do not belong.”
In the Yellow Sea, beyond the Earth Gate, the rules and reasons of men did not apply. All they could do was petition divine beings like this guardian angel to watch over them.
Next to the altar was a bucket filled with water in which bundles of bare peach branches were soaking. Gankyuu pulled one out and sprinkled water over himself, Shushou and the haku, then thrust it into the saddle.
The rock wall next to the bucket was covered with small wooden talismans hanging from the crevices. Gankyuu draped one around Shushou’s neck.
“What’s this?”
“You might think yourself too good for one, but wear it for now.”
Shushou picked up the card-sized piece of wood and examined it. “An amulet?”
“A Kenrou Shinkun talisman. It protects people traveling into the Yellow Sea.”
Gankyuu selected two more pieces of the weathered wood for himself and the haku. The black ink was faded and worn. Travelers who returned safely from the Yellow Sea expressed their thanks by leaving the talisman here. An old talisman was one that had protected its wearer for a long time. Experienced hands always chose the old over the new.
Shushou looked back at the shrine. That statue is supposed to be Kenrou Shinkun? “Never heard of him.”
“Don’t be rude. He’s the only person you can absolutely rely on in the Yellow Sea.”