The Twelve Kingdoms: Shadow of the Moon

kaikyaku."
    "Huh."
    "It's said that the people of Yamato and Han live in houses made of gold and silver, studded with jewels. Their kingdoms are so wealthy that farmers live like kings. They gallop through the air and can run a thousand miles in a single day. Even babies have the power to defeat youma. Youma and wizards have supernatural powers because they travel to those other worlds and drink from magical springs deep within the mountains."
    Rakushun looked at Youko expectantly. Youko shook her head with a rueful smile. What a strange conversation this was. If she ever returned to her old world, they would never believe her. Fairly tales, they would say. And here, her world was a fairy tale as well. She laughed to herself. All along she had believed that this was a strange and mysterious world. But in the end, wasn't she and the place she came from even more so?
    That must be why, she concluded at length, kaikyaku were hunted down like dogs.

Chapter 39
    F or a long, empty moment, Youko thought about the past and the fate of so many kaikyaku. She said, "The kaikyaku who end up here are killed because everybody automatically associates kaikyaku with shoku."
    "That's what it has come to, I guess. What's your occupation, Youko?"
    "I'm a student."
    "Yes, yes," Rakushun said excitedly. "There are kaikyaku who possess skills that we do not, who know things that we do not. I've heard that they can survive with the protection of powerful patrons . . . don't you think?"
    But of course, Youko thought, an ironic smile coming to her lips. She didn't know anything worth anything in this world. She said, "Do you know of any way of returning to Yamato?"
    In response to her question, a frown came clearly to his face. "I don't." He hesitated, then added, "Perhaps I shouldn't say this, but I don't think there is a way."
    "That can't be true. If I came here, then there's got to be a way for me to leave here."
    At the tone of Youko's voice, Rakushun's whiskers drooped. "No mortal being can cross the Kyokai, Youko."
    "But I crossed the Kyokai. That's how I got here in the first place."
    "Even if you were able to arrive here, there's no way to leave. I have never heard of a kaikyaku or sankyaku returning to his home country."
    "That can't be right." She simply could not accept that it was not possible. "What about another shoku? I could wait for another shoku and get home the same way I came."
    In response to Youko's spirited objections, Rakushun only sadly shook his head. "Nobody knows when and where a shoku might occur. And even if you did, there's no way a mortal being could travel to that other world."
    No, that can't be true, Youko again fervently told herself. If she couldn't go home, then Keiki would have told her so. He hadn't said a thing about it. She'd sensed nothing in his attitude or manner that suggested that it was a one-way trip.
    "But I fled from Yamato to get away from the kochou."
    "A kochou? You escaped a kochou and came here?"
    "That's right. With a man named Keiki."
    "And he's the person you're looking for?"
    "Yes. This guy named Keiki, he brought me here. To tell the truth, it was because the kochou and the rest of them were hunting me. He said that in order to protect me, I had to come here." She looked at Rakushun. "By which I took it to mean that once I was safe, I could go back. That makes sense, doesn't it? He said that if I really wanted to go home, he would take me."
    "Nonsense."
    "Keiki had these creatures with him who could soar through the air. Animals who could talk, like you. As the crow flies, it was a one-day trip, that's what he said. It's not the kind of thing you'd say if you were going on a journey where there'd be no coming back, right?"
    Youko spoke as if pleading her case to a judge. For a while Rakushun said nothing.
    "Rakushun?"
    "I really don't know. But I'd say that something quite important is going on."
    "It's that big a deal, just based on what I told you?"
    "A very big deal. If a youma like a kochou showed up around here, it'd be a very big deal. Every town within shouting distance would empty out. And you're talking about a kochou going after one person, and going as far as that other world. This is the first time I've ever heard of such a thing. And then a man called Keiki brought you here?"
    "That's right."
    "It's said that youma and wizards and their kith and kin can take themselves back and forth. As for this Keiki person, no matter what kind a being he is, taking somebody else