by Fuyumi Ono
Around dawn, those riding kijuu slowed their pace so the rest of the caravan could catch up. Having set off at the speed of a galloping horse, the wait gave them a bit of breather.
As he always did, Gankyuu sought out the right place to rest and secure his haku. He glanced over his shoulder. “We’ll take—” a break here, he was going to say, but instead found Shushou standing there glaring daggers at him.
“We need to talk,” she said.
“What about?”
“Let’s go someplace where there aren’t people around.”
“Don’t be silly.”
“No, I want you to come with. I don’t think even you’ll want anybody overhearing what I have to say.”
For a long moment, Gankyuu took in the sight of the enraged young woman standing there in the gray morning light.
“Fine.”
He untied the haku—still saddled with the travel packs attached—and climbed on. Then turned to Shushou and extended his hand. She quietly joined him.
“I’ll go too,” Rikou volunteered.
“I’d rather you didn’t,” Shushou said.
“Don’t misunderstand. I won’t interrupt. I promise to simply observe without saying a word.”
Without pausing for a yea or nay, Rikou mounted up. Shushou said nothing more. Gankyuu didn’t object either and urged the haku forward. The haku picked its way through the maze of fallen trees. A minute later, they reach a small hill overlooking the rest of the caravan, that had stopped halfway down the slope.
At the crest of the gently rising knoll was a overgrown grove of still-standing, still-green trees, old branches piled up around their trunks. Gankyuu stopped behind the grove. Rikou brought the suugu to a halt a few yards off. He sat on a fallen tree. The resting caravan was visible through the branches of the thick undergrowth.
Gankyuu sat down in the hollow formed by the dead tree. Shushou stood in front of him. With a glance at Rikou, Shushou drew in a deep breath and returned her gaze to Gankyuu, sitting there on a moss-covered stump.
“What were you and Kinhaku talking about last night?”
Opening the mouth of the leather satchel he was carrying, Gankyuu responded to the pointed question with a wan smile. “You made a point of calling me out about that? I’m sure you heard what we were talking about.”
“You were discussing how you’d like youma to show up.”
“Indeed we did,” said Gankyuu. He upended the satchel in front of the haku. A part of a feathered wing rolled onto the ground with a dull thud.
“Hold on. What’s that?”
“That is a piece of a youma.”
“What are you doing with it!”
Gankyuu looked back at her, the expression his face telling her that was a stupid question. As if waiting for a treat, the haku buried its snout in the carcass.
“The haku’s eating it? A youma?”
Gankyuu shrugged. “Kijuu don’t mind the flavor.” He sliced off a chunk of the wing with his sword and heaved it into the air. It traced a long arc and landed in front of Seisai.
Watching the kijuu eagerly devour it, Shushou shuddered. “Don’t make them eat weird stuff like that.”
“Even a kijuu will waste away if not fed regularly. Haku are omnivores. Suugu can get by on an agate diet, but they need meat. Their bodies won’t function properly without it.”
Shushou grimaced. She looked back and forth from the haku to the suugu, and with a single shake of her head turned her attention to Gankyuu.
“You hoped that youma would show up. And youma showed up. What is going on?”
“What’s going on is we got lucky,” Gankyuu said, wiping off the sword with a handful of grass.
Shushou balled her hands into fists. “You expect me to believe that was mere chance?”
“Well, it was, so what do you want me to say?”
“You’re lying. I don’t believe in coincidences, and certainly not when it comes to coincidences like that. Last night, you and Kinhaku were wishing for an attack. There’s no other way to interpret it. And an attack happened. An attack happened and people died—”
“You don’t know that anybody died.”
“That’s not the issue!” Shushou’s voice grew louder. “Why were you wishing for a youma attack? You hoped for them to show up, and they showed up. What’s that all about?”
Oh, good grief, Gankyuu’s sigh said. “I also said you were smart enough to be a little handful of trouble and a big pain in the ass.”
“Answer my question!” the girl looked up at him, all but ready to stamp her feet.
“Yeah, I wanted the youma to attack. The next three days down the slope from that lake will be dangerous going.”
“You’re telling me you wanted the scent of blood in the air?”
“That’s right. The next three days will be bad enough. This takes at least one worry off the table.”
Shushou fixed her eyes on him. “So you summoned them?”
Gankyuu shrugged. “Who knows? Kinhaku hoped they would show up, and I agreed. That’s all we did.”
“Then I’ll ask it a different way: are there ways of summoning youma?”
“There are. Sacrificing a goat or horse or bird usually does it. But I’d hardly call that summoning them.”
“You—you beast!” Letting her anger get the better of her, Shushou flung out her arms in a rage.
Gankyuu seized them easily. “I’ll tell you this. You hired me, and told me to take you to Mt. Hou.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You being the one who hired me, and I being the one hired to protect you, the end result is no different than you protecting yourself.”
Shushou gaped at him. “You must be joking!”
“Why? It is what it is. We’re not here on my account, but yours. Try exercising that imaginative mind of yours before you go shooting off your mouth.”
“I didn’t—” Shushou wrenched her body, but couldn’t tear her wrist free of Gankyuu’s firm grasp. “Nobody here told you to do awful things like that!”
“That’s what asking for safe passage means. A goushi protecting the person who commissioned him has to make maximum use of every resource, person or thing, at his disposal. There are no exceptions. None.”
“That can’t be—”
Gankyuu released his hold. Abruptly finding herself yanking against nothing, Shushou fell on her behind. However she wanted to jump to her feet and fling herself at him, she didn’t have the strength left in her legs.
“I never expected such despicable means.”
“You think that is despicable? You are naive.”
Gankyuu glanced up at Rikou, sitting on the broad bench of the fallen tree, arms folded across his chest, silently looking down at Gankyuu.
“The Yellow Sea is not a place where humans should be. Setting foot here was madness in the first place. You think killing every youma would be the end of it? That’s the joke. Take that approach and your bodyguard, meaning me, would be dead on his feet in no time. Forget about me, there are youma out there that an armed regiment of twenty-five hundred men couldn’t handle. And yet you tell me to put my own life on the line and protect you. Failing that, are you going to use me as a shield while you scamper to safety?”
Shushou was at a loss for words.
“Do you think that with a bodyguard close at hand, the youma will just give you a pass? That’s the kind of thinking that makes you a troublesome brat. This is youma territory. We’re the ones who crossed the line onto their turf. They’re going to come at us, no matter what. It’s a month and a half to Mt. Hou. Did you think you’d be so lucky that none of them would run into you? How long did it take you to get here from Kyou? Was it smooth sailing the whole way?”
“That’s a—”
“You couldn’t get here from Kyou without having your kijuu stolen out from under you. Did you think there was no risk of having your life stolen out from under you after traveling for a month and a
half in the Yellow Sea?”
“Just because—”
“How is using me as a shield any different from using them for the same ends? The moment you put your trust in others and stepped foot into the Yellow Sea, you chose to sacrifice them to ensure the safety of the journey for yourself.”
“No! I didn’t!”
“Unfortunately, safety and security come a bigger cost than money alone. Why do those going on the Shouzan travel in groups? A big crowd makes it dead simple for youma to sniff us out. They can spot us coming a mile away. And yet, instead of standing alone in a field, we’d rather be one among many. Why?”
“Stop it.”
“Because your best odds of getting away are while the guy next to you is getting attacked.”
Shushou bit her lip. It was the bitter truth.
“Not only people, but all living things that are powerless by themselves form groups and herds and schools. By dividing the risk among all of them, they ensure the greatest safety for the greatest number.”
“This is a grotesque conversation.”
“Grotesque? Don’t pretend to be stupid. There’s nothing grotesque about it. It is natural providence.”
Providence, Shushou repeated to herself.
“By gathering ourselves together while traveling in the Yellow Sea, the risks are suffered by only a few of the total number. I could hardly guide five-hundred to Mt. Hou. Do you think a dozen goushi could do the job? All I can do is protect the person who hired me. As long as my employer remains unharmed, I have done my job. If some other poor chap dies, and his blood draws the youma away from me and mine, then I can only be grateful.”
“Okay. Enough.”
Shushou hugged her arms around her knees and hung her head. Gankyuu sighed. He looked up at Rikou sitting on the tree. He didn’t say anything. Rikou didn’t say anything, except for a nod. The setting moon floating eerily behind Rikou cast his countenance into shadow, masking his expression.
“Shushou—”
“It’s okay. I know how naive I am.”
“Why did you come to the Yellow Sea?”
Shushou raised her head. She couldn’t see Rikou’s face, but from his tone of voice she could at least surmise he wasn’t smiling.
“Have you forgotten why you are going to Mt. Hou?”
“I haven’t forgotten. That’s why—”
“In order for a dynasty to endure, to ensure public peace and order throughout the realm, a ruler must require that blood be shed. Even if the ruler does not shed that blood himself, when his subordinates do so on his behalf, the responsibility falls upon his shoulders. No matter how you define it, there never was such a thing as a bloodless reign.”
Shushou looked back at him.
“You will shed the blood of others for your own good. That’s what it means to sit upon the throne.”
“I—” Shushou started to say. She cast her down her eyes. “Yes. Yes, that is probably quite true.”
Chapter 19
[3-3] Shushou returned to the campsite, settled down in the hollow amidst the pile of fallen trees, and took a nap.
Gankyuu silently watched over her, scabbard in one hand. Rikou similarly remained in the saddle on the suugu’s back. The sky was turning bright when Shushou slipped into a deep sleep.
That was when Gankyuu said to Rikou, “Mind if I ask you a question?”
“What?”
“Do you think she’s going to become the next empress?”
Rikou tilted his head to the side and gazed up at the sky. “I wonder. To start with, there’s this little matter of making it to Mt. Hou. She’s got as much guts as any kid I’ve known, but no matter how you look at it, she’s awfully small to be crossing the Yellow Sea.”
“The way you were talking to her earlier, it sure sounded like you expected her to become the next empress.”
Rikou smiled. “You know, Gankyuu, if Shushou makes it to Mt. Hou, I do believe she will ascend the throne.”
Gankyuu’s eyes opened a notch wider. “How’s that?”
Rikou chuckled, as unfazed as ever. “Figured it from the minute we first met.”
Gankyuu sighed deeply. “What confidence. You and Shushou both. Where does such great faith in yourselves come from?”
“Hmm. Good question.” The smile vanished from this face. “Call it the cumulative acts of Providence.”
“The cumulative acts of Providence. Huh.”
“That girl was in a bind. I was in a position to help her. Another person may not have. But it was the kind of whimsy that struck my fancy.”
“I’m not surprised.”
“Shushou met me and then met you. That’s the kind of thing I’m talking about.”
“I needed the money.”
“You were made for each other: a shushi short on funds with an encyclopedic knowledge of the Yellow Sea, and Shushou in need of a bodyguard.”
“Her kijuu was stolen.”
“But not her life, and not the money to hire you. It’s amazing enough that she made it all the way to the Kai Straits on a moukyoku.”
You may have a point there, Gankyuu thought. He jested aloud, “Ah, so you sized up her talents and abilities and came here to protect the future empress. Quite the gallant knight.”
“Less gallantry than the luck of the draw. I would caution you not to think of me in such chivalrous terms.”
“Eh?”
“Anyway, did you really summon them?”
He didn’t identify them but Gankyuu got the inference. “I have no idea. The conversation went down as Shushou says. The outcome was as I desired. Perhaps Kinhaku and the others did something.”
“Perhaps or probably?”
“I can’t say.”
The circumstances hadn’t been that pressing. Although Gankyuu welcomed a youma attack, he was no less surprised than the rest when one came.
“I see. So it wasn’t something either of you was responsible for.” Rikou said it aloud so Gankyuu didn’t have to. “In that case, why not explain as much to Shushou? I dare say she came away concluding that you had intervened.”
“She can believe what she wants to.”
“You don’t care what she thinks of you? A widely-shared attitude among koushu, it seems.”
Gankyuu responded with a thin smile. “You’ll be back to calling us corpse hunters and dog’s tails before long, so read it anyway you’d like. It won’t change a thing in the long run.”
“I suppose not.”
Rikou didn’t say anything more. Gankyuu got to his feet. With a little wave that said, She’s all yours for now, he stepped over the rotting timbers. Wending his way through the maze of fallen trees, he circled around a small mountain of dead wood overgrown with moss, and came to the gathering of Kinhaku and the other guardians.
“Yo, there’s the shushi master himself. What a lifesaver.” One of the goushi raised his arm in a kind of salute. “I swear, that was some great timing.”
“How many died?” Gankyuu asked.
Kinhaku said, “One person. Two horses. In all the confusion, they tore into the pack animals. We got lucky.”
“So I take it that you didn’t summon them. Figures.”
Kinhaku raised his eyes and said drolly, “Meaning you didn’t either.”
Gankyuu sat down. One of the goushi handed him a bamboo canteen. He accepted it gratefully, took a sip, and passed it on.
“We’ve just been talking about how it was too bloody convenient to call it coincidence. So you must have summoned them. Not that that current state of affairs necessarily called for such measures. But it sure helps, no doubt about it.”
“Damn right.”
“Yeah,” muttered a goushi. “We’ve got one with us.” When Gankyuu glanced at him, he added with a wry smile, “This caravan’s got a phoenix along for the ride.”
When Gankyuu glanced back at Kinhaku, he nodded too. “Thirty casualties so far. That’s low, and the victims are spacing themselves out quite nicely. The rive
r we crossed a while back usually runs high and fast, with youma fish swimming the currents. A tough crossing. You can lose ten people in the process, easy. This time around, the water was practically stagnant.”
“That’s true,” another chimed in. “This rotting forest is a helluva place when the rains come. The ground turns into quicksand and the trees come down like there’s an army of lumberjacks at work. But we’ve barely suffered a drizzle since leaving the fort.”
Kinhaku nodded again. “We’re riding on the wings of the phoenix. None of this would be happening otherwise.”
The journey that saw the selection of the next emperor saw far fewer hardships than normal. “Riding on the wings of the phoenix,” the goushi called it. The person on the Shouzan destined to become the next emperor was called a “phoenix” or a “fledgling phoenix.”
“Then who is this fledgling?” Gankyuu asked.
Kinhaku smiled. “The little girl who hired a shushi to be her goushi, of all things. Who else in this caravan has the chops to be the next ruler?”
“I’d hardly call my being hired the product of executive decision making.”
“Call it the workings of fate, then. Being able to work fate to your advantage is what makes or breaks any leader. Appearances and personality don’t mean a thing in the Yellow Sea. The strength of will and the good fortune to cast a net and reel in total strangers, to reel in an entire kingdom—that’s what it takes to be in charge of the whole shebang.”
“Well, keep such claptrap to yourselves, if you don’t mind. She’s got a big enough head already without anybody giving her any reasons to be an even bigger ass about it.”
“Call her the provisional empress, then. She sure is what a real one would be like.”
“Emperor or empress, nobody’s been chosen yet.” Gankyuu glanced down at his hand. He felt a numbing deep in the muscles. He’d forgotten to wash his hands after slicing apart the youma flesh earlier.
Kinhaku smiled. “Well, it’s good either way, as long as we bring back our employers with arms and legs intact. Otherwise a fat fifty percent of our fee goes poof.”
“If you die,” someone jested, “just leave half that fee to us and what comes with.”