Sea of the Wind, Shore of the Maze, Prologue

saying these things." After  Keiki said this, he deepened his voice. "You must listen to me calmly. --Shirei will eat kirin."
    "Huh?"
    "More accurately, they eat the corpses of kirin. After they eat a kirin's corpse, they are able to possess  the kirin's power for themselves."
    Taiki turned back to look at Hankyo. Hankyo, who had been resting his large head between his  forelegs, turned to look with his expressionless face. Taiki couldn't tell from his behavior any changes in his  heart.
    Keiki smiled uneasily.
    "You don't need to be afraid. Hankyo will not attack you. Kirin are part of the light, and youma are part  of the shadow. Unless we specifically give it to them, they cannot take our power without our permission."
    "Y...yes."
    "Kirin rely on their power to tame youma and pull them into the light. However, youma have their own  innate magical powers, so in order to tame a powerful youma, you must have the power to match him.  Youma will, from the power a kirin uses when he is taming them, measure that kirin's abilities."
    "Yes..."
    "They will assume that after the kirin dies, his power will be given to them, so they will first determine  if it will be worth it to become this kirin's shirei."
    "I think I understand what you're saying."
    "If you have successfully tamed a youma, they will never refuse your command, because they know  that after you die, your power becomes theirs."
    "So that's why you said it was a pledge?"
    "Right. Because in order to take a creature from the shadow and put them in the light in a way that they  not return once again to the shadow, it is necessary to bind up their chain, and to also protect ourselves."
    "So that they can live under the light?"
    "Yes. The chain that binds the shirei and protects us is their 'name.' Kirin rely on their will to draw  forth a youma and discern his name. And then, the kirin formally confers this name upon the youma and  accepts him as his shirei. The youma then determines the power of the kirin through the kirin's will and  accepts the kirin's command while keeping the right to acquire the kirin's power after his death. This is what  taming is."
    "Then the youma eats the kirin's body after he dies, obtains new powers, and then regains his freedom  once again?"
    "Right. However, the conditions are that when a youma is the kirin's shirei, he absolutely must not defy  his kirin. He can only use all his strength to protect his kirin, but never harm him."
    Taiki took a close look at Hankyo. He had originally thought he was an interesting creature, but now he  felt like he was completely impenetrable.
    Hankyo glanced a Taiki and then opened his mouth widely. "...!" Taiki crouched down in fright.
    Hankyo yawned casually and smiled.
    "Hankyo!" Keiki smiled dryly as he rebuked him.
    "Actually, older kirin all use a few tricks. Do you know what divination is?"
    "Do you mean like fortune-telling?"
    "You could call it that. When we are hunting powerful youma, we borrow some techniques from  divination or sorcery, geomancy, those types of things. However, these are all very profound areas of study.
    If you ask the nyosen, they will teach you, but it isn't something you can learn in a short amount of time."
    "Yes."
    "We must first choose the day, the land, the direction and the youma. When we subdue the youma, we  seek a situation where the youma's powers are weakest, and where we are strongest. However, even if you  don't plan it out like this, it doesn't mean that you won't be able to subdue the youma. It is the same with the  incantations. Because the effects are not as powerful as in divination or sorcery, they are not essential. But if  you are used to saying them, then when you don't say them, it will feel strange. That's all."
    "Then does it matter if I don't learn them?"
    "Would you like to learn them? Even a little will help you out."
    Taiki nodded. Keiki then reached out his hand and held onto his shoulder to straighten his posture.
    "First of all, you must have proper posture. You must engrave this in your mind."
    "Yes."
    "Spirit is divided into seiki, the spirit of life, and shiki, the spirit of death. The morning is full of seiki,  while the afternoon, shiki. It is best to tame youma in the early morning, which is filled with seiki. The air  that we inhale through our noses is seiki, and the air that we exhale from our mouths is shiki. When you're  breathing, you must pay attention to this. You must never reverse this. When you