Ryuu no Kumo o Etaru ga Gotoshi
(Like a dragon among the clouds)
It was a bright clear day. Two people walked along a road in a bamboo wood. One was a tall slender young man with dark eyes and dark long hair in a ponytail, his forehead shaven and a white headband around his head, in a simple black kimono with a white one showing under it, a short golden mantle on his shoulders, white fingerless gloves and white socks, a wooden box on a strap around his neck and a shakuhachi in his hands. Another was a tall slender girl with large dark eyes and long shining hair, in a white wide closed robe and red loose trousers, a sword at her waist. A large bird was flying overhead.
'Where are we going now, Yuusuke-san?' the girl asked.
'Yangzhou, Miyuki-kun,' Yuusuke answered.
'Have you heard anything about it?' Miyuki asked.
'No, but they have very good dorayaki there,' Yuusuke answered.
At this point from the bamboo wood suddenly came a tall thin man with brown eyes and wild brown hair, in a brown striped suit and long brown coat. He approached them and smiled.
'Hello, can I join you?' he asked in an English accent.
'Of course,' Yuusuke said.
At this point the bird flew down and landed, it was like an eagle but with nine heads. Its outlines blurred and in its place appeared a short slender young man with dark eyes and long dark hair in a ponytail, in a red wide closed robe tucked into white loose trousers and a cuirass made of tied together metal stripes, a sword at his waist.
The foreign man stared at him.
'I'm Kudou Yuusuke and these are Saitou Miyuki-kun and Kyuuhou Hajime-kun,' Yuusuke said.
'I'm the Doctor,' the foreign man said.
'Doctor who?' Hajime asked.
'Just the Doctor,' he said with a smile.
'All right,' Yuusuke said.
They walked together, the Doctor striding quickly.
'You're a komusoh wandering flutist, and Miyuki-san is a shirabyoshi dancer, and Hajime-san is a knight errant, right?' the Doctor asked.
'Yes,' Yuusuke said.
'Brilliant!' the Doctor said.
'Why are you here?' Yuusuke asked.
'Oh, just traveling,' the Doctor said.
'So are we,' Yuusuke said.
'Where are you going?' the Doctor asked.
'Yangzhou,' Yuusuke said. 'They have very good dorayaki there.'
'Good, I love dorayaki!' the Doctor said.
'Good,' Yuusuke said.
'Hajime-san, what are you?' the Doctor asked.
'A nine headed bird,' Hajime said. 'It's a kind of phoenix, very strong and fierce. There are a lot of them in Hubei, where I am from. There is a saying, 'In the sky live nine headed birds, on the earth live Hubei people'. They are also called nine phoenix, jiufeng or kyuuhou, hence my name.'
'How interesting,' the Doctor said.
'You speak Yamato very well, Doctor,' Yuusuke said.
'Thank you,' the Doctor said.
He looked at Yuusuke's shakuhachi appreciatively.
'What a beautiful shakuhachi, an old one,' the Doctor said. 'Care to play something, Yuusuke-san?'
'Of course,' Yuusuke said, put his flute to his lips and played a poignant melody.
'Very good,' the Doctor said. 'What it's called?'
'In the Autumn Garden,' Yuusuke said.
'Very beautiful,' the Doctor said.
'You're not human, Doctor,' Yuusuke said.
'What gave it away?' the Doctor asked calmly.
'You're powerful and unusual, and I think you are older than you look, and your name...' Yuusuke said.
'Right,' the Doctor said.
'Are you a kumo-otoko?' Yuusuke asked.
'A spider shapeshifter?' the Doctor laughed. 'No.'
'You look elegant but unusual, as they do,' Yuusuke explained. 'I know a fashionable tailor by the name of Akamatsuya Yoshihiko, and he wears a paper haori with landscapes and Chinese characters and has a tattoo of a red and yellow chrysanthemum on his cheek, and he's a kumo-otoko.'
'I see,' the Doctor said.
'Well, you're English, and they have their own youkai,' Yuusuke said.
'Oh yes,' the Doctor said.
'How old are you, Doctor?' Miyuki asked.
'900,' the Doctor said.
'I know an otoroshi, a temple guardian, who is 800 years old, his name is Kagemaru, 'dear shadow',' Yuusuke said. 'Youkai often have no surname, and their names are unusual. Yours at least requires no honorific.'
'It's like sensei, what one calls physicians and teachers, right?' Hajime asked.
'Yes,' Yuusuke said.
'Right,' the Doctor said.
'What are you, Doctor?' Yuusuke asked.
'A Time Lord,' the Doctor answered.
'What is that?' Hajime asked.
'Well, I can feel...possibilities, and what must happen,' the Doctor said. 'Also I can travel in time, on my ship.'
'Amazing!' Hajime said.
'And where is your ship, Doctor?' Yuusuke asked.
'In the wood,' the Doctor said carelessly.
'What if someone gets to it?' Hajime asked.
'Don't worry, nobody will get inside,' the Doctor said. 'No one will even notice it.'
'Oh, all right,' Hajime said.
'So you see, I just landed here, wanted to go to Venice but got here,' the Doctor said. 'And I have no idea where I am. Somewhere in China?'
'The Province of Hunan in the Kingdom of Eastern Wu,' Yuusuke answered.
'That's the Southeast of China, right?' the Doctor asked.
'Yes,' Miyuki said.
'Doctor, do you know Evelyn Ravenscroft?' Yuusuke asked.
'Can't say I have,' the Doctor said. 'Why?'
'He's a wizard from England that I know,' Yuusuke explained. 'He likes traveling.'
'Oh,' the Doctor said.
They continued walking by the road among lush green fields and groves.
'Oh, the Chinese countryside!' the Doctor said. 'I love it, it's so beautiful! I remember when I traveled with Qu Yuan, he was so intelligent and loved good tea.'
'You never stop talking, do you?' Hajime asked.
'No,' the Doctor said with a smile.
They came to a town surrounded by a wall with towers and a gate. They passed through the gate and walked along narrow streets between houses surrounded by walls with trees and Chinese roofs showing above them.
'Oh, just look at that!' the Doctor said. 'I love old Chinese towns!'
Yuusuke smiled, the Doctor was so exuberant.
At one corner Yuusuke stopped. Miyuki stopped too and came to his side. Hajime stopped and stood aside. The Doctor stood aside too. Yuusuke put his flute to his lips and played a tender melody. Miyuki danced gracefully to his music. A crowd gathered, people clapped and threw coins to their feet. The Doctor clapped most of all.
'Brilliant! Just brilliant!' he shouted.
When they finished, Yuusuke bowed and gathered the coins. Yuusuke, Miyuki, Hajime and the Doctor walked away.
'Now what?' the Doctor asked.
'Now we'll go to a teahouse and have tea and dorayaki,' Yuusuke said.
'All right!' the Doctor said. 'Allons-y!'
'What?' Hajime asked.
'It's French for 'let's go',' Yuusuke explained.
'Right,' the Doctor said.
They came to a house with a red lantern and open shoji, with tatami and people sitting at low tables and eating, with waiters and waitresses coursing between them. They came inside and sat down at an empty table.
'Well, I suppose I'm the oldest one here, but...I have no money on me...' the Doctor said.
'It's all right, I think I'm the highest ranking one here, as I'm a samurai and older than Miyuki-kun and Hajime-kun,' Yuusuke said.
'Oh, good,' the Doctor said.
A waitress came and Yuusuke ordered dorayaki and tea for four.
'What a nice place, Yuusuke-kun, Miyuki-kun, Hajime-kun!' the Doctor said.
Yuusuke blinked, but he liked the Doctor and he had every right to call them 'kun', as he was 900 years old, even if he looked not much older than them.
'Ryuu no kumo o etaru ga gotoshi, you are like a dragon among the clouds, Doctor,' Yuusuke said.
The Doctor smiled.
The waitress returned carrying a black lacquer tray with four porcelain cups of tea and a porcelain plate with dorayaki. She put it on the table and went away.
The Doctor tasted the tea, took a dorayaki and ate it.
'Delicious!' he said.
'Glad you like it,' Yuusuke said.
'There's a place called Meigetsuya, Full Moon, in the town of Fukui, they have such good dorayaki there!' the Doctor said.
'Doctor, are you sure that Time Lords aren't a kind of dragon?' Yuusuke asked.
'I don't know,' the Doctor laughed.
'You're powerful, wise and generous like a dragon,' Yuusuke said.
'Well...' the Doctor said.
They finished eating and left the teahouse. Then they went to several other teahouses and then walked around the town. They came to a river bank with willows and saw a short fat man in a yellow Chinese robe who was hitting a small red fox. He was surrounded by many tall strong guards in chainmail with maces, spears, axes and swords. Yuusuke felt power from the fox. He gripped his flute like a staff, and Miyuki and Hajime bared their swords.
'Wait,' the Doctor said. 'Close your ears!'
Yuusuke, Miyuki and Hajime closed their ears. The Doctor took from his pocket a silvery wand with a blue crystal on the end and pointed it to the guards. The guards clutched their ears. Yuusuke, Miyuki, Hajime and the Doctor advanced to the short man. The fox scurried away.
'You can't!' the short man said. 'I'm the deputy magistrate of Yangzhou!'
'I don't think so,' Yuusuke said, reached into his kimono and took out a pentagonal medallion on a steel chain, with a large round dark gem with a pentagram carved on it and a Tai'chi symbol below the gem.
'An Amenosa!' the short man said.
'Yes,' Yuusuke said.
The short man fainted.
'An Amenosa, it's a secret agent who looks if the officials overstep their boundaries and punishes them if they do,' the Doctor said. 'It's a Korean title.'
'Right,' Yuusuke said. 'And Miyuki-kun and Hajime-kun are my assistants.'
'What rank are you?' the Doctor asked.
'Third,' Yuusuke said.
'A Counsellor,' the Doctor said. 'Brilliant!'
'Yes,' Yuusuke said. 'But please don't call me sama.'
'Wasn't going to,' the Doctor said. 'You're Yuusuke-kun to me.'
At this point the fox came out of the bushes, its outlines blurred, and in its place appeared a tall slender girl with large dark eyes and long shining dark hair, in a wide green robe and red loose trousers.
'Thank you, Amenosa-sama,' she said. 'I'm O-Haru, and you?'
'I'm Kudou Yuusuke, and these are Saitou Miyuki-kun, Kyuuhou Hajime-kun and the Doctor,' Yuusuke said.
'That man was so cruel to me,' O-Haru said.
'Don't worry, Haru-hime, he'll be punished,' Yuusuke said. 'No one has right to do that.'
'Certainly not,' the Doctor said.
'You were so brave, and the Doctor was so brilliant!' O-Haru said.
'Thank you,' the Doctor said.
'Hajime-san isn't human, and neither is the Doctor,' O-Haru said.
'Hajime-kun is a nine headed bird, and the Doctor is a Time Lord,' Yuusuke said. 'It's some kind of dragon, I think.'
'Oh,' O-Haru said. 'Well, good afternoon, Yuusuke-san, Miyuki-gozen, Hajime-san, Doctor.'
Her outlines blurred, and the fox appeared in her place. She scurried away.
'Well, that was interesting,' the Doctor said.
'Yes,' Yuusuke said.
They went to the town yamen and Yuusuke told that the deputy magistrate was deposed for his crimes. Then they left the town.
'Would you like to see my ship?' the Doctor asked.
'Of course,' Yuusuke said.
They walked to the bamboo wood.
'So you are an Amenosa,' the Doctor said. 'It explains everything.'
'Yes,' Yuusuke said.
'And you are really of high rank,' the Doctor said.
'Yes,' Yuusuke said.
'I help when I can while I'm traveling too,' the Doctor said.
'It makes sense,' Yuusuke said.
'And I like traveling, seeing new places, meeting new people,' the Doctor said.
'So do I,' Yuusuke said.
They came to a blue shed standing among tall green bamboos.
'Here is my ship,' the Doctor said.
'But it's just a shed!' Hajime said.
'Look inside,' the Doctor said with a smile.
Yuusuke, Miyuki and Hajime came inside and stared. Inside was a great room, bronze and orange, with sinuous pillars and a dais with many levers and handles and a great glass pillar.
'This is my Tardis,' the Doctor said.
'Amazing!' Miyuki said.
'It's bigger on the inside!' Hajime said.
The Doctor smiled.
'Fancy a ride?' he asked. 'I can take you anywhere you want and return you the moment we left.'
'All right,' Yuusuke said.
'Where?' the Doctor asked going to the levers.
'Take us where you want, Doctor,' Yuusuke said.
'All right!' the Doctor said, pulling some levers and handles. 'Allons-y!'