Sea of the Wind, Shore of the Maze, Prologue

She saw the already turbulent air spinning even more, as it  opened up and devoured the branch.
    "No!"
    This was how the small golden fruit was drawn into the twisting air. That fruit that should only have  been tenderly plucked by Sanshi after ten months, otherwise should never have left the branch, was harshly  swept away.
    "Help!"
    Sanshi reached out and tried to save the fruit with both her hands, which had been scraped by tree  branches and was dripping with blood. However, the distance between her hands and the fruit became farther  and farther until she despaired.
    "Someone come quickly!" Sanshi shouted with all her strength, but it only reached the end of her  outstretched fingers before it dissipated in the wind.
    The golden fruit gradually disappeared into whirlwind in this way.
    The first sound that Sanshi made after she came into this world was the name of Taiki. And then who  would have guessed that the second time she opened her mouth, it would be in a sorrowful crying--a crying  that received no replies.
    The end came just as suddenly as the beginning.
    Sanshi stared blankly at the white branch.
    There was no longer a golden radiance at the end of the branch, the solitary fruit had already  disappeared leaving neither a shadow nor a trace.
    "Sanshi!"
    The sound came from all directions as a number of nyosen all ran towards Sanshi.
    The first to arrive at Sanshi’s side was Gyokuyou.
    "Ah... Gyokuyou..."
    Sanshi clutched tightly onto the two hands Gyokuyou had reached out.
    First, she shouted Gyokuyou’s name, and then she let out a sorrowful cry and began wailing.
    "How could this happen...?"
    Gyokuyou hugged this nyokai, who had been born not too long ago, as she gently stroked her wind- blown hair as well as her scarred body.
    "Of all times, it had to happen when the fruit of the kirin was growing..."
    The nyokai at her chest was continuously letting out a mournful cry. Originally, in the ten months  before the kirin hatched, the nyokai would not leave her post under the tree. The nyokai’s feelings toward the  kirin were that deep. Now this nyokai had watched wide-eyed as the kirin was taken from her. Gyokuyou  could understand her pain.
    "Don’t worry."
    She patted the nyokai’s back.
    "You don’t have to cry like that, Sanshi. We will definitely find Taiki."

    Gyokuyou said this quietly. In fact, she was also telling herself this.
    "I will return Taiki to your side as quickly as is possible."
    "Genkun..."
    She nodded to Teiei, who had just arrived.
    "Let Suzaku fly to every kingdom and quickly find the direction of the shoku!"
    "Yes."
    "It must be done before the moon rises. Quickly, assemble the nyosen and prepare to open the gate."
    "Yes, I’ll go immediately."
    The nyosen scattered, and Gyokuyou looked up.
    No matter how she looked, there remained no traces of the golden fruit on the white branch.
    - - - - -
    The shoku had begun on the west side of the Yellow Sea and had swept its way east.
    On the Five Mountains, which are protected with divine might, and the even more closely guarded  Houro Palace, all the flowers were fluttering about from the crush of the shoku. The shoku brings destruction  to any kingdom it arrives at, but the nyosen of Mt. Hou were not concerned with this result. To them, the  most important thing was the kirin.
    The question was, where had the shoku taken the fruit?
    Shoku are able to travel between this world and another. The worlds outside of this one are called  "Hourai" and "Konron." It is said that Hourai lies on the edge of the world and Konron is situated on the  other side where the sun never shines.
    Regardless of whether this is true or false, the people of this world are unable to enter or pry into the  other. Only shoku and the Gogou Gate, opened by the use of moon incantations, are able to connect the two  worlds.
    This world is surrounded on all sides by the Empty Sea. If the shoku continued east, the Taika would  also follow it over the Empty Sea, until it reached the edge of the world--Hourai.
    Though ordinary people are not able to travel to Hourai, nyosen are not ordinary people. On  Gyokuyou’s instruction, several nyosen passed through the Empty Sea searching for the Taika. However, the  Taika’s whereabouts were still not clear.
    --This is how the kirin disappeared.
    From that day forward, many people saw the  shadow of Sanshi, east of Mt. Hou in the Yellow Sea,  constantly searching back and forth.

Chapter 2
    Youka