The Wings of Dreams

down the road. Only when the light of the bonfire and the sound of human voices disappeared behind them did they slacken their pace. But they didn’t stop riding.
    “Gankyuu, is this okay? Are youma going to pounce from the shadows?” However Shushou steeled her nerves, she couldn’t suppress the quaver in her voice.
    “We’ll be okay, Miss.” The answer didn’t come from Gankyuu, but from a rider who drew up beside the suugu. “They mark their territories and there’s usually no more than one. It’ll be a little while longer before the others flock in to fill the void.”
    “Oh. Is that so?”
    He nodded. He was a big man with a big sword strapped to his back. “More importantly, Miss. Who’s your shushi ? This fellow here?”
    “ Shushi ?”
    Rikou spoke up. “Not me. The guy on the haku.”
    “I see,” said the man. He wheeled his rokushoku —a kijuu that resembled a cross between a tiger and a horse—around the suugu and approached Gankyuu.
    “Rikou, what’s a shushi?”
    Rikou glanced back at Shushou. He brought Seisai to a halt. “You’d feel safer in front, wouldn’t you?
    Sitting there pinned against Rikou’s back made her feel both uncomfortable and uneasy. So she immediately heaved herself out of the saddle and Rikou pulled her back up in front of him. Perched between Rikou’s arms as he held the reins gave her a clear view ahead and no worries about anything coming at her from behind.
    “Shushi are corpse hunters,” Rikou said, slowing Seisai to a walk. “Guys like Gankyuu are called corpse hunters by outsiders, but they refer to themselves—people who regularly travel into the Yellow Sea—as shushi. ”
    “Gankyuu calls himself a corpse hunter.”
    “Well, that’s Gankyuu for you. Hunters who don’t haul out a trophy but only their partner’s remains—you wouldn’t expect them to talk like that among themselves. It’s a term of ridicule, not how they address one of their own.”
    “Huh.” Shushou looked at Gankyuu.
    “There are shushi and goshi and shumin. ”
    “Shumin? Are they different from shushi?”
    “You’ve seen traveling entertainers, Shushou. Do you know why they’re called shusei ?”
    “Well, um, I heard it’s because they carry red-colored passports.”
    Rikou nodded, and Shushou continued.
    “Entertainers, itinerants, and peddlers who travel through the various kingdoms with no fixed place of abode such as are known as shumin because of their red passports.”
    “Well, back before that,” Rikou said with a smile. “If you lose your papers, you can report to the local government office and receive a temporary passport, right? A temporary passport is marked with a red stripe. Originally, temporary passport were called shusei. Those issued shusei, who wandered from kingdom to kingdom with no permanent address, were also called shusei. In time, they came to be known as shumin. ”
    “Huh.”
    “Among these itinerants are the corpse hunters. As they are considered first among equals, they are called shushi. Men like Gankyuu who hunt in the Yellow Sea are the most respected of the shumin.”
    “Really? Then what about the goushi?”
    “The guardians are also shumin. And though they travel in the Yellow Sea, they make a living hiring themselves out to people who aren’t shumin. The shumin have more respect for the shushi than the goushi, whom they see as hired hands.”
    “So shushi rank higher than goushi.”
    “Shumin are also known as koumin. In general, they call themselves koushu no tami, meaning the people of the red and yellow. In spirit, they think of themselves as children of the Yellow Sea. It’s said that a long time ago their passports were yellow. Since yellow is the color of the kirin, the practice might have ended out of respect. Or was simply banned.”
    “You don’t say,” Shushou mused.
    That was when the voices of the people following behind finally caught up with them.

Chapter 16
    [2-8]  W hen a headcount was made that night, they’d lost three people. A youchou dove out of the sky and killed three of the men gathered around the campfire in the middle of the clearing.
    At daybreak, the rest of the caravan nervously returned to the campsite. Most had dropped their belongings and bolted with only the clothes on their backs. They couldn’t continue the journey without food and water and medicine, so had no choice but to retrace their steps.
    There they found the remains of the three men and the youma, their