The Twelve Kingdoms: Shadow of the Moon

everybody?"
    "In order to prevent floods, the king orders that dikes and dams be built."
    "Or, say, frost damage?"
    "So there won't be famine at such times, wouldn't it be up to the king to manage the distribution of food?"
    I don't get this at all. What she did get was that these people weren't like the people she knew at all. "So what you're saying is, nobody says prayers to pass a test, or save money, or stuff like that."
    It was Rakushun's turn to look surprised. "Don't things like that all depend on the effort of the individual involved? How would you go about praying for them?"
    "Well, yeah, but . . . . "
    "If you study for a test, then you'll pass. If you work hard, you'll earn money. What exactly is praying about it supposed to accomplish?"
    So that's what this is all about. Youko laughed cynically to herself. Nobody crosses their fingers, nobody makes promises to God. So if you've got the chance to sell a kaikyaku into slavery, make yourself a little on the side, hey, what's the problem? Waste not, want not.
    "Yeah, I guess it figures," she muttered, but there was a coldness in her words that made Rakushun look up at her and made his whiskers droop in disappointment.

    It was something he usually boasted of only to himself, but Rakushun was well-studied and had an unusually sharp mind. He found it painful to think that despite this he should become a burden on his mother, and only because he was a half-human hanjuu.
    Rakushun wanted to ask more about Youko and about Japan, but she had nothing more to say.
    And so it was, on the sixteenth day of their journey, that the attack came.

Chapter 43
    E vening approached. Goryou, the city they planned to stay in that night, had just come into view.
    The travelers moving hastily along the highway had created a crush of people in front of the gates. Youko found herself caught up with them and quickened her pace. It was about five hundred yards to the gates. As if to hurry them along, from within the walls a big drum began pounding. When the drum stopped sounding, the gates would close. Everybody started running. This only added to the throngs jammed up at the gates. Then amongst the crowds somebody started yelling.

    As if drawn along by the voice, a person, then two, then more looked back and up at the sky. Here and there the crowd came to a standstill. Noting this with great suspicion, Youko glanced back over her shoulder. Already she could clearly see the silhouette of a great bird. A great bird like an eagle with a horn. And there were eight of them.
    "Kochou!"
    The screams reverberated, a wave of humanity rushed toward Goryou. Youko and Rakushun took off at a sprint, but it was obvious that the kochou would get there ahead of them.
    With total disregard to the flood of people, the huge gates began to close.
    Those idiots. They certainly had the right to defend themselves against the kochou, but even if there were nobody else but those inside the gates, what good would closing the gates do against these flying monsters?
    "Wait . . . !"
    "Wait, please!"
    The cries echoed out around them. Youko suddenly pushed Rakushun away from the crowds. They were fortunately still a good distance from the gates. Had they been alone at the gates, they would have been trampled and crushed by the onslaught of people pushing and clawing their way through. It looked like some inner circle of hell.
    Putting distance between her and the human tidal wave, Youko ran toward the city. She permitted herself a hollow laugh.
    This is a country that asks nothing of God.
    Even being attacked by youma, they expected nothing from their Gods. So they thought nothing of tearing down the people in front of them to get there faster. Yet the gates closed on the travelers as if they weren't there. Whether or not they were being attacked by youma, wasn't it up to them to keep on their toes? And wasn't being rescued or not all up to them, solely the product of their own efforts?
    "The fools," she said aloud. This bunch couldn't be more powerless.
    That sound grew nearer, like the wails of a crying baby. Youko stopped on the spot. Running along next to her, Rakushun looked back over his shoulder and shouted, "No, Youko, it's pointless! We won't make it!"
    "You keep heading toward the city!"
    The circling kochou was now close enough that she could see the spots on his breast. Glaring at it, she again motioned Rakushun toward the gate. She undid the shroud wrapped around the sword. That familiar sensation