The Twelve Kingdoms: A Thousand Leagues of Wind

crying. It was like we were never going to stop crying for the rest of our lives."
    "Even you?"
    "Even me. At least I thought so at the time. The way I see it, there's two kinds of crying. People cry because they feel so sorry for themselves, and they cry because they're sad. People who feel sorry for themselves are like children who want something done for them. They want their big brother or mother or next door neighbor to help them."
    Suzu just looked at him.
    "It's because, in situations like this, children don't have any way of protecting themselves. That's why I say they cry like children."
    "Huh," Suzu replied. Seishuu didn't speak for a while, either. She said, "So, Seishuu, where did your family live in Kei?"
    "In the south."
    "When you're feeling better, why don't we go check it out?"
    "Together?"
    Seishuu uncurled himself. He had all of Suzu's clothes wrapped around him. The horse cart was cold, and he was covered up all the way to his nose. He peered at her with his eyes only.
    She said, "You don't want to?"
    "Going anywhere with you is such a pain in the ass, Suzu."
    He grinned. Suzu laughed.

Chapter 33
    T he town of Kokei was adjacent to the city of Hokui, appended to its northeast corner. The only government office was the town hall. The other buildings belonged to the twenty-five households, the smallest size of an incorporated city.
    Youko and Rangyoku passed through the gate of the rike and onto the Main Street. Most towns were surrounded by a tall stockade a hundred yards in every direction. The small houses circled the inside the wall. The town hall, Rishi and rike were located in a row in the northern sector of the town. The Main Street ran east-to-west in front of them. The street running north-south from the Rishi to the main gate was the Center Street.
    The town hall housed the government offices and the elementary school. The Rishi was the official town shrine where the riboku and the gods were enshrined. A common configuration was for the state shrines of the Gods of the Earth and Gods of Five Grains to be located along the western wall, and the ancestral shrines along the eastern wall. But the faith of the townspeople was focused on the riboku. Because it was through the riboku that children were bestowed and livestock were granted.
    "Very interesting," Youko said to herself.
    Rangyoku leaned toward her. "What is?"
    "Oh, nothing, just thinking about the Rishi. It seems like the state and ancestral shrines were tossed in as an afterthought, a sort of consolation prize."
    In fact, the state and ancestral shrines were small and mostly just sat there gathering dust.
    Rangyoku giggled. "You do say the most curious things, Youshi."
    "I do?"
    "The riboku brings children. No matter how many offerings you bring, or how many prayers you pray, the harvest won't necessarily be plentiful and you won't necessarily be protected from calamities. So the riboku is always first in our minds. That's bound to be the case, no matter what, don't you think?"
    "You're a very pragmatic people, that's for sure. But Tentei--Lord God of the Heavens--and Seioubo--Queen Mother of the West--are different."
    Tentei and Seioubo were often enshrined together in the Rishi, but there were also districts in the town set aside for shrines dedicated to them.
    "That's because they're the ones that give you children."
    "Tentei and Seioubo?"
    "Yes. A couple who wants a child prays to the riboku and ties a ribbon to a branch of the tree."
    "And if you're not married, you can't?"
    "Nope. The Amanuensis records the names of all the people who want a child and sends it to the Queen Mother of the West. She makes a request to the Tentei, who chooses the most suitable of them to receive a child. Then Seioubo commands the goddesses to create a ranka. "
    "Huh." It struck her as quite different from any of the old fairy tales she'd heard back in Japan. Not that she could remember them with any great detail.
    "The Internuncio implants the seed that will become the child inside the ranka, and then bears the ranka to the riboku. Isn't that how they do it in Yamato?"
    "Not at all." Youko said slyly, "Do you believe all of it, Rangyoku? What you just told me?"
    Rangyoku laughed. "Not literally. But a ranka does appear. And if a ranka doesn't appear on the branch that you chose, you just can't go pick one from somewhere else. It won't come off. Amazing, isn't it? That's why it's got to be what God gave to you."
    "Of course," Youko smiled.