The Twelve Kingdoms: Dreaming of Paradise

is—?"
    "You're always in that form."
    "Ah—" said Rakushun, looking down at his gray, furry body. "This isn't because I came to En. I've always gone around like this."
    "Even in a kingdom that discriminates against hanjuu?"
    "Yeah, but it doesn't make any difference what you look like. What you are is recorded on your koseki. And besides, we were poor. I don't need to worry about clothes when I'm like this."
    "Of course." Meiken said, a touch of irony in his voice, "But when you think about it, it's still got to cause a lot of problems. You not being used to your human form is why you're so lousy at archery."
    Archery was considered an aspect of ritual and deportment, a required subject. The emphasis was on learning conduct and decorum and less on hitting the target. Nevertheless, skills required to actually hit a target were necessary, and the archer had to be able to go through all the motions before firing an arrow.
    "You do have a point."
    "Same thing with riding a horse. If you don't master your human form sufficiently to shoot and arrow and ride a horse properly, you'll never fill your card."
    "I can't argue with you about that." Rakushun's whiskers drooped dejectedly. "I must confess that I've been thinking the same thing."
    Watching Rakushun practicing horseback riding and archery was like watching a randomly bouncing ball. It seemed to Meiken that he simply didn't have a good command of his own body. Looking down at the stool he was sitting on, it struck him that Rakushun was so short he'd need it even to open the window. The differences between his human and rat forms were significant enough that he couldn't exactly sell the former as his "true form."
    "The more you do it, the better you'll get. You're never going to graduate if you can't get a handle on it."
    "Yeah."
    "Well, chin up, and prove the folklore wrong."
    Meiken grinned, and so did Rakushun. "You too, Meiken. The legends have it that nobody has ever graduated who matriculated before the age of twenty."
    Meiken clucked to himself as he got to his feet. "More folklore. And that one's going down, if I have anything to say about it." He headed to the door in high spirits, then stopped and looked back over his shoulders. "Tonight, after dinner," he said, pointing his finger at Rakushun.
    "After dinner?" queried Rakushun. "What?"
    "Don't give me that. Archery practice, right?" Meiken laughed as he left.

    Rakushun went to stop him, but decided against it. He scratched his head and said to himself, "Not really the time for him to be worrying about other people."
    He heard a chirp behind him. Turning, his eyes met the gaze of the blue bird perched on the windowsill.
    "Yeah, I guess we kind of startled you."
    The bird again flew over to the desk and cocked its head to one side. Rakushun got another grain of silver from the jar and presented it to the bird. Watching it peck at the expensive feed, he said in earnest, "I'm a lucky fellow, thanks to Youko."
    There was no denying that Kou was a tough kingdom for a hanjuu. When Rakushun came to En from Kou, he felt like a refugee leaving a devastated country behind, like he'd escaped by the skin of his teeth. He'd heard that a hanjuu could attend school in En, could find employment, could even become government officials. Get a koseki like any regular person, and a hanjuu could receive an allotment and stipend. He'd be treated like anybody else. He had longed for En as if for a lover.
    "Well, it didn't exactly turn out to be heaven, either."
    When he saw the place with his own two eyes, he saw that there was good, bad, and everything in-between.
    "But there are good blokes like Meiken. Just getting into college has proved a real windfall for me. My only real problem is keeping at it and graduating."
    Rakushun rested his chin on the desktop and muttered, "Along with paying tuition."
    He saved some money anticipating the time when he might make it to En. But it wasn't nearly enough to last him all the way to graduation.
    "I've opted out of everything I could this year. But once this economizing starts to hurt my grades, that's where I draw the line."
    Would he graduate? Could he keep on living in En until that day came? And if he did graduate, then what?
    In any case, compared to his life in Kou, living here was like night and day. Though his mother had given away her last farthing to get him an education, Nothing existed for Rakushun beyond that. As long as he remained in Kou, every avenue was blocked. He