The Wings of Dreams

empress then becoming a koushu is good too. You know, there’s nothing wrong with being a shushi either.”
    “So empress on one side of the scale and koushu on the other.”
    “What’s the problem with that? Don’t you know? Emperors and empresses don’t have census records either.”
    Gankyuu grinned. “Koushu like me don’t need either.”
    Gankyuu was born in Ryuu. Driven out of the kingdom by civil strife, his parents were stricken from the census records. They relocated to En, except that the Kingdom of En existed for the people of En and the refugees were left to observe the lives of its blessed subjects while sleeping at the side of the road. They could hope for no land or children of their own. As vagrants, they were cut off every aspect of society.
    “The emperor can do nothing for us. On the other hand, if there is no land to be had, no place to call our own, then we have no need of an emperor. And if Kyou goes to the dogs, there is nothing left for us to do except to say goodbye and wish her good luck.”
    “I suppose so.”
    “What does this world really need with an emperor? When an emperor strays from the Way, calamity awaits. I say they should lock them up. Permanent house arrest. Let the government grind to a halt. Sure, things may not improve, but they won’t get any worse.”
    Shushou tilted her head to the side, as if trying to shake free some meaning from Gankyuu’s words.
    “Does the benevolence of the kirin save any lives? Anybody can feel sorry for somebody else. If that’s all the emperor and kirin are good for, who needs them? All that matters in the end is resolving to live your own life and rejecting a kingdom’s handouts. People long for an emperor out of habit. They subjugate themselves before the emperor the same way refugees beg for mercy from the lord of the manor.”
    Rejecting the rule of the emperor, repudiating the will of the Lord God Creator, the koushu were subjects of the youma and their home was the Yellow Sea.
    “You can’t long for an empress and be a koushu, Shushou.”
    “Don’t be silly,” Shushou laughed. “I don’t long for an empress. I want to be empress. Hardly the same thing at all.” She looked up at the brightening sky. Dawn was breaking. “It’s getting light. Shouldn’t we be on our way? Or do you want me to leave?”
    Gankyuu got to his feet. “Lend me your shoulder,” he said.
    “Will you be okay?”
    “I should be able to hold out till we make it there.”
    “There—”
    Gankyuu raised his face to the sky. “The koushu village.”

Part Six
Chapter 39
    [6-1]  T hose who entered the Yellow Sea could not leave until the following solstice or equinox. They slept under the stars. If they got injured or sick, all they could do was cower beneath the shade of a tree.
    The koushu village was said to have started a long time ago. Shushi and goushi—every different kind of koushu—journeyed into the Yellow Sea to hunt beasts, forage for plants, or prospect for gems. They sought out sanctuaries in advantageous locations and collected stones and bricks for underground bunkers as a defense against the youma.
    The koushu had no place to call their own. Most didn’t have a home or a permanent address. In time, there emerged koushu who wished to settle down. They joined forces and began to build towns in the Yellow Sea.
    “But those aren’t real towns. They don’t have a riboku, ” Shushou said as she propped up Gankyuu.
    “They didn’t at first.”
    “At first?” Shushou said with a surprised look.
    “Do you know how riboku spread?”
    “No. I’ve never heard an explanation.”
    “Supposedly they’re all grafts. Only a cutting from the riboku in the Imperial Palace will suffice.”
    Each imperial palace was home to the mother tree of that kingdom, not only where a child of the emperor grew, but also where new fruit appeared when the emperor successfully petitioned for new domesticated plants and animals. The branch bearing that fruit could be cut off and replanted, thus creating new riboku, though only in that kingdom.
    “Huh.”
    “The koushu wanted a riboku of their own. If there was a riboku in the Yellow Sea, then children born from it would truly be citizens of the Yellow Sea.
    “Are you telling me they stole one from the Imperial Palace?”
    “What palace would they steal it from? The Yellow Sea belongs to no kingdom.”
    “But—”
    “The pleas of the koushu no tami were heard and the God of the Koushu