The Twelve Kingdoms: Dreaming of Paradise

hundred."
    "That big of a change always struck me as odd. A kingdom used to traveling in a rut is likely to topple over when the king jerks the reins in a different direction. That was the first time I'd seen the opposite."
    "Reminds me of En," said Rikou. "I didn't think En was going to last its first decade. But things turned around with that first big hurdle." He folded his arms. "If Rohou was following suit, then Ryuu wouldn't be in such dire straits. I haven't seen anything like this before."
    En and Sou alone had passed the three-hundred mark. That's how fragile the other kingdoms were. Three-quarters didn't make it through the first gauntlet. A dynasty survived several decades and then died. So Rikou had seen many a dynasty rise and fall.
    "I never get used to the way they fail," Fuukan muttered.
    Rikou cocked his head to the side. "Never get used to it?"
    "I don't understand why Ryuu has begun to fail now either. Or rather, I don't understand what's happened, except that, to put it bluntly, Rohou seems to have reversed course yet again."
    "Now?"
    "Now. Not only has Rohou become oblivious to the fact that the laws he promulgated are being ignored and trampled upon, but he is acting in a manner that undermines the very edifice he constructed."
    "He's undermining it?"
    Fuukan nodded. "The law requires three components to work together. Simply forbidding something by statute is not enough."
    "An organization is needed to ensure that that prohibitions are applied where intended and faithfully carried out. Else the law is simply an ornament. And the third?"
    "The law must affirm as well. Laws designed to outlaw tyranny and the corrupt must respect the incorrupt and make the most of their contributions. The one will not work without the other."
    "I see."
    "Ryuu did this remarkably well. But Rohou has set to wrecking it. He changes one and leaves another alone. Nothing is done in a consistent manner. That is how discord is born."
    "And that is very strange." Rikou pondered this and exclaimed, "Perhaps Rohou is no longer sitting on the throne."
    "No longer occupying the throne?"
    Rikou nodded. "Maybe he just got tired of the whole thing. Gave up the reins of power."
    "I could believe it," said Fuukan. He got to his feet and went to the window. The rays of the early summer sun were beginning to slant across the city. The cacophony from streets below was growing louder.
    Voices of drunken merriment like a pack of baying hounds unleashed. Flirtatious, cooing voices like musical instruments played wildly out of key. As if the entire city had turned into one giant block party.
    "Rohou set up a very sound system. So even if he threw away his authority, it should have lasted this long. The real chaos will start to set in after this. But Rohou would have abandoned the fight a long time ago. So much so that Heaven withdrew its favor."
    Rikou drew his brows together. "What do you mean by that?"
    "Youma have appeared along the Kyokai coast."
    Rikou hadn't expected this development. It could only mean that the end of the dynasty was on the horizon. And yet the chaos remained at a low enough level that it was only apparent to an outsider like Rikou.
    "Snow piling up in areas where snow is ordinarily scarce, and the like. Heaven is not happy. The chaos is buffeting the countryside before striking at the seat of power. It's usually the other way around."
    "It's progressed that far without revealing itself?"
    "So it seems. En has begun posting troops along the border," said Fuukan, as if discussing a situations removed far from them.
    Rikou glanced at him and nodded. "In any case, Ryuu hasn't got long to go." The Imperial Court was in a very brittle state.
    The commotion drifting in through the window grated painfully in his ears. Invisible fissures were opening in the earth beneath their feet. The gates of hell were opening. Nobody could stop them now.
    When a king strayed from the Way, the kirin who chose him grew ill. When that happened, it became clear to all what was going on, no matter who the king was. All a monarch had to do for the kirin to recover and the kingdom to catch a second wind was return to the Way. And yet Rikou had rarely seen that actually happen. There were kings aware of how far they had fallen. But examples of a king repenting and reforming the kingdom were few and far between.
    Once that downward slide had begun, a kingdom's fate quickly became inevitable, and the king's tragic efforts a drop in the