The Twelve Kingdoms: Shadow of the Moon

point."
    "Do you really think they'll go to the bother?"
    "I don't know of any other way."
    "This is all a pain in the ass."
    "We're talking about the real important big shots, here. It's their way or the highway."
    "Huh."
    Finding herself in the eye of a hurricane certainly gave her a different view of things.

    After leaving the municipal building--it was the local county ward building--instead of returning to the inn, Rakushun started off for the plaza. "Where are we going?"
    "You'll see. I think you will find it quite interesting."
    The municipal building was located in the heart of the city. It faced the town plaza. Rakushun headed across the plaza. Youko tagged along behind him, scratching her head in confusion. Rakushun went to the front entrance of a white building. The alabaster stone walls were adorned with gold and richly-colored bas-relief engravings. The roof tile was a gorgeous blue enamel. The name of the city was Youshou. On the gates to the building was hung a framed sign that read "Youshou Shrine." All the cities they had visited so far had such a shrine. It was the central civic institution.
    "Here?"
    "Here is it."
    "A shrine, it says. For worshiping God? The Tentei?"
    "Once you see, you'll understand."
    Rakushun gave her a reassuring smile. They went inside. Inside the gates were a pair of guards. "Just observing," Rakushun said. They were asked for and presented their identification papers.
    Through the gate was a narrow garden, and further on toward the heart of the shrine, a big building. The handiwork of the doors was exceedingly fine. A large, square window graced the facade of a rotunda-like hall that reached deeply into the building. Through the window a courtyard was visible.
    What looked liked an altar completely encircled the window. Flowers and candles and offerings were piled upon the altar. At the altar, four or five men and women faced the window, fervently praying.
    They must be praying to something in the middle of the altar. But all that was there was the window. Was it something you could see from the window? From the windows you could see the courtyard, and in the center of the courtyard, a single tree.
    "That is . . . . "
    Rakushun reverently faced the altar and clasped his hands together. Then he took Youko by the hand. To the left and right of the walls against which the altar was situated were two wide corridors that lead deeper into the interior. From the corridor she could see the courtyard grounds covered with white pebbles. And what she saw in the midst of the courtyard took her breath away.
    It was a white tree. When she had been wandering through the mountains, she had often sought the shelter of these strange trees. This tree was much bigger than those. It was no different in height, but was nearly twenty meters in diameter. At its highest point it stood maybe two meters, and at its lowest its limbs brushed the ground. The white branches bore neither flowers nor leaves. Here and there a ribbon was tied to a branch and there fruits were ripening. The trees in the mountains bore rather small fruit in comparison. These were big enough to wrap your arms around.
    "Rakushun, that is a . . . . "
    "That is a riboku. "
    "A riboku? Where the ranka grow?"
    "That's right. Inside each of those yellow fruits is a child ."
    "Wow . . . . "
    Youko gazed at the tree in amazement. She had surely never seen anything like it back in Japan.
    "You see, when you were like that, there was a shoku and you were carried off to Japan."
    "I find it all hard to believe."
    The branches and the fruit had the luster of polished steel.
    "A couple who wish to have a child come to the shrine. They make offerings and pray that a child will be entrusted to them. Then they tie a ribbon to a branch. If the Tentei grants the petition, a fruit grows on the branch where the ribbon is tied. The fruit ripens in ten months. When the parents come to pluck the fruit, it falls. After resting for a night, the husk of the fruits breaks and the child is born."
    "So a fruit just can't grow on its own. The parents have to petition first for it to happen."
    "That's right. There are parents who are never rewarded, no matter how many times they ask. And parents who receive the gift almost at once. Heaven must determine whether or not they have the qualifications to raise a child."
    "It was the same with me? I had parents who tied a ribbon to a branch of the tree?"
    "You did. And losing the ranka was certainly a profound