To say that the food hall was an inhospitable place for one Yuka Sugimoto would have been a little like calling the ocean wet. Every young trainee in that room had either been on the receiving end of Yuka's little morning jaunt or was close friends or roomates with someone who had. If looks could kill that world would have had one less kaikyouku to worry about.

:I only hope they don't poison my food or spit in it,: Yuka thought resignedly as she straightened her back, squared her shoulders and went to fetch her food.

:A person would think I'd be used to it by now,: she thought glumly to herself.

But she caught the morose turn her thoughts had taken, noted that they were skirting dangerously close to self-pity, and wreched herself out of them.

:At least it wasn't entirely my own fault that no-one likes me this time,: she thought, trying for a rare bit of optimism.

Usually, when it came to her fellow students, the reason they disliked Yuka was entirely her own fault. She had a bad attitude, a sharp tounge and a whole lot of observations to make when people were being stupid, and she wasn't the least timid about using any of them. Kaname was often chiding her to learn to be more diplomatic and get along better with others but Yuka just didn't see how smiling and bowing her head and agreeing with people even when they were being idiots was any different from letting them tell her who she was supposed to be. With her refusal to compromise, Yuka was known around the halls of her school as being "a difficult case" if one was being polite, and "a heinous bitch" if one was not.

The amount of people who had their feet "accidentally" in her path when she turned to find a place to sit shouldn't have surprised her. And of course no-one wanted her to eat with them. Yuka thought about taking her three bowls of rice to a quiet spot in Kaname's courtyard but decided that it would be running away, and her contrary nature wouldn't allow that. They didn't want her there, and since it was partly their fault (or at least, partly the fault of their bad leader) that she was so disliked then they could just suffer her presence and get indigestion for all she cared. Yuka found a small tabe out of the way and sat with her back to the wall, digging in hungrily and ignoring the glares of the people surrounding her.

Eishou dropped into a bench across from her at the far end of a chow hall that was filled with soldiers glaring at her. Yuka had her back to a wall and three bowls of rice in front of her and so was very much inclined to ignore the hostility. She was used to it anyway and the days when being disliked would have made her cry into her rice were long since gone.

"I am absent for a single afternoon and you manage to overturn months of rigid discipline and training," he said, his voice laced with amusement rather than censure.

Yuka looked back at him, saying nothing until she could determine whether he was her enemy or her ally. She was trying not to show her usual "bitchy" face at him, since he seemed to be somewhat friendly.

"My deepest apologies for your treatment young lady," he said. "I gave no order for you to be detained."

"Are you being honest or playing the good cop?" Yuka demanded of him with forthright suspicion.

Eishou looked blank as to her meaning so Yuka rephrased the question, wanting to know whether he was trying to get on her good side.

"You know, I am actually rather impressed that you managed to keep out of their grasp for so long. Lieutenant Chand by the way is itching for a rematch, says you used some kind of spell on him to get him off guard."

:He's not actually far off,: Yuka thought with some private amusement.

"It's understandable that you would react the way you did, but I am afraid you have made an enemy of most of the fort."

"I'll be sure to check my shoes for tacs and lock up my gym clothes," Yuka said dryly.

Eishou gave her a long, measuring look, as if trying to look deep inside of her. Finally, after a long period of silence he said

"I had a cat like you once."

Yuka looked at him from the corner of her eye, her usual attitude in full force on her face.

"She was a stray," he went on. "Small, clearly the runt of the litter. She came into the loft of my family's barn one winter night. We had two mousers already and they were disinclined to share thier hunting grounds with a third."

"Let me guess, eventually the little kitten got taken in by one of the older ones and everyone got along just fine," Yuka said with caustic disbelief, thinking she saw the nice, pat Disney-ending to the story.

"Oh no, not at all," he said to her surprise. "Tama fought with Sella and Chin about as often as she hunted mice. There was no getting the little runt to integrate in with anyone. Even though we fed her cream in addition to her commission, we'd get scratched as often as we'd get even a tiny morsel of affection from her."

Yuka gave the man a look that said 'what's your point?'

"But Tama was a superb mouser, twice as good as the other two, who only eventually grew fat and lazy on the cream from our farm. She didn't fit in, but she didn't really want to. The point is, that Tama always caught mice."

Yuka smiled her sharp, fighting smile and replied

"Where do you want me to hunt?"

Eishou looked pleased and said nothing more.

Shouryuu, the king of En, was well-known among his ministers for his wanderlust. After five hundred years of accommodating his frequent absences he would have thought they'd all have been accustomed to it by now, or at least learned that trying to admonish him for his frequent absences would do nothing to change his behavior.

:A tidy little camp they have here,: he thought, approvingly of his surroundings. :Though its a bit too easy to sneak in and out of.:

Then again, he was a past master at getting into and out of places, especially places where he shouldn't be (as evidenced by the number of wives dissatisfied with their husbands he'd spent an evening's dalliance with). He was watching the gate right now, waiting for someone to come sneaking out of it, as he just knew was bound to happen.

:But what I really want to know is how that Sugimoto girl was able to pull the wool over my eyes, literally!: Shouryuu thought to himself.

He had moved to block her on the rooftop earlier that day and she'd done some kind of strange optical trick or something because it had looked like she'd just... disappeared into thin air and then reappeared beside him in time to pull his own coat tails right up over his head and push him on his ass. His pride was still smarting.

They'd met very briefly the year before when she'd come along with Youko to help her regain the Throne of Kei. Whatever difficulties the two girls had had previously (that as he recalled, involved an unhesitating kill-strike with Suiguutou to resolve) had been smoothed over by then and the kaikyaku girl had proven an able fighter and ally in the battle to retake the throne. The girl was all fire so far as Shouryuu could tell, though a trifle young for his tastes... he might like his women, but innocent maids were another matter entirely, he preferred to seduce the experienced and eager.

:She didn't seem to recognize me as Fuukan earlier today, which I suppose is good,: Shouryuu thought. :But the more pressing matter is how she came across the ability to shape reishin.:

He hadn't been King here in this world for five hundred years without coming across the extremely bizarre a time or two. He had had to deal with the Foresworn on more than one occasion, and they had a similar ability to affect reishin in this world. It was an ability they acquired by an arcane ritual involving merging their spiritual essence with the heart of a youma and it came with a fatal price. The malevolent presence that was the nature of a youma came to taint the spirit of the person it inhabited. He was aware of the practice, just as he was aware of the repercussions of such an act. The heart of the youma that merged with them eventually came to consume them the more of the powers of the reishin they used.

:I hope she hasn't been suckered into making a bad bargain with a Foresworn,: he thought worriedly. :For a girl with such a cynical streak, it sure seems like she can be easy to manipulate in the right circumstances. Kou and his kirin did it without any problems apparently, though I'm partly inclined to agree with Seikishi... who wouldn't believe a creature as beautiful as the former Kou kirin and want to follow her with all their heart? Especially when the words she speaks are just what the little girl wanted to hear. And the Foresworn are well-known for rounding up any kaikyaku they can find and using them as expendable merge-fodder.:

There had been far more than several occasions where Shoryuu had had to deal with the sad, pathetic remains of a Kaikyaku that had been found by Foresworn seekers, who made it a habit to actively look for and kaikyaku that might was up on En's shores, after they'd put through the merge-ritual. The dark taint of a youma made it possible for even an ordinary person to wield great power over elemental reishin (which was how there were youma that could fly or breathe fire of cause storms) however the taint consumed their souls utterly and their bodies changed from human to beast once a certain power-use threshold had been reached. Merge-creatures were extremely dangerous because they were both physically strong and magically powerful but possessed of human-like cunning and a focused desire to fulfill their mission. It was great power, but the host lost their humanity in the bargain.

:And I think the worst thing is that the poor bastards know exactly what is happening to them. The change is agonizing, from what I understand, and they can feel the creatures they've merged with consuming their spirit bit by bit. It's sad to see them at the end. I pray to Tentei's mercy that this girl hasn't been taken in by a Foresworn, I'd hate to have to put her down.:

"I already know what you're thinking," Enki, beside him, said. "A kirin is as sensitive to the presence of Youma as we are sensitive to blood, if she had the Taint within her, I'd know. I'd be able to smell it on her, and so would Taiki. However she got her abilities, its wasn't the usual way, because her soul is purely and entirely her own. In fact if anything, it seems like her spiritual presence is even greater than it was before."

"Ouki?" he questioned.

"She's a kaikyaku," Enji said flatly. "Blood and bone. There are too many Laws of Heaven that would be violated with her selection, no it's not the aura of a ruler."

"I guess we'll find out soon enough, here she comes," Shouryuu replied. "Didn't I tell you she'd be sneaking out of there as soon as she had a chance?"

"And I didn't disagree with you," Enki replied, nettled. "For now we should just hang back and see what she does for a bit before you stroll up and announce yourself."

A small shadow, familiar in its outline as belonging to a young woman, crept out of the gate. It was difficult to spot her, but only difficult, her ability to use reishin to hide herself was clearly at the level of a raw beginner. He followed at a safe distance, curious as to what she was up to.

The girl stopped in a wide, round meadow peppered with weathered stones jutting up here and there. At the up-slope edge was a copse of bamboo that led to a deeper forest. A small stream trickled nearby. The girl stretched her muscles, warming them up, then closed her eyes, clearly focusing inward then she blurred to one side, seeming to disappear completely then she blurred in somewhere else at a complete standstill, as if she hadn't moved, her hair only slightly ruffled with the wind of her sudden movement.

It would have looked very elegant if she hadn't suddenly lost her balance, as if slammed into by an unexpected wind, and fell over onto her butt. She climbed to her feet, rubbing her offended posterior, and closed her eyes, crouched as if preparing to run and blurred out again. Again she lost her balance, this time coming directly out of the blur, as though the state she'd entered just spat her out of it, like a youma with a bad taste in its mouth. She went flying and landed in a roll to disperse the weight of her impact. Twice more she tried it, and twice more she failed to achieve a good control over it. Both of those times she wound up rolling arse over end in the grass.

Shouryuu shook his head at her clearly clumsy movements. It was like watching a puppy learning to walk, she was all paws and ears and baby fat.

"It looks like someone's just started learning," he remarked. "Look at her, she's spending more time on the ground than on her feet."

She tried to push off into that blurring step she did and this time she tripped over a rock, fell over onto her side than rolled only to land half in and half out of the nearby stream adding sopping wetness to her slightly clumsy maneuvers.

"We all started somewhere," Enki reprimanded him slightly, then he joined his ruler in a mutual wince of pity as the girl took another header into the grass.

He'd visited her once when she'd been under the "protection" (say in fact, control) of the former King of Kou and had seen the way she'd been trained by hinma to kill youma, and could say that her fiery tenacity was probably her biggest carrying point. She certainly needed it right then, because her next two tries to blur into that wind-step spat her out and halfway across the field.

"She should be wearing padding, don't you think?" Shouryuu noted absently. "Or else by the end of this, she's going to be one large bruise."

As Shouryuu and Enki continued to watch, she once again closed her eyes, clearly trying to focus inward but took longer about it this time, gaining control of her mounting frustration at her continued failures. She breathed in and out, then again blurred into the wind. This time, she managed to stick her landing, sort of... she hopped slightly and windmilled her arms as if she were fighting against a shove then sunk her weight and managed to hold her position. But a win was a win and she smiled victoriously and stopped her activities to sit down on a rock and drink from a bamboo flask.

Shouryuu strolled easily out into the field and down the hill. As soon as his feet left the stone path and settled into the grass of the field the girls head whipped around with unerring accuracy to look over at him, though he was still far enough away that she would not have been able to hear him coming.

"Hey there, Missy," Shouryuu said with his best disarming smile and a genial wave in her direction.

Yuka frowned and narrowed her eyes at him, waiting.

"I'm hurt you don't recognize me, with the two of us being battle comrades and all," he continued.

She continued to eye him with dubious disfavor, her expression clearly stating 'I think I'd remember fighting with someone like you, and you don't look like the sort of person I would ally myself with, in fact, you sort of look unreliable from where I'm standing.'

:That attitude of hers hasn't changed, ornery as a mule.:

"Surely you haven't forgotten me, after all we've done together..." he left the double entendre hang in his words as he waggled his eyebrows and leered lecherously at her.

Maiden's like her were so easy to fluster, and so cute when they got all shy and blushing! Shouryuu leaned forward, anticipating her embarrassed reaction, expecting her to stammer and blush and go all cute little schoolgirl...

She pulled out a bow and nocked an arrow to the string, sizing him up for a potential target.

"I don't know you, and I don't tolerate strangers tarnishing my reputation," she replied. "I won't kill you of course, but that doesn't mean you will leave unscathed either. I suggest you close that mouth of yours, wanderer."

"Yikes!" he said, raising his hands quickly in surrender, then added in a mutter "Not the reaction I was expecting."

"Oh, come off it, idiot," Enki said, strolling down into the field beside his liege. "What did you think she was going to do? I know many of the women you hang around with most of the time don't care about their reputations anymore but you'd think that a little common sense would have snuck into your thick skull before you opened your mouth."

The kirin turned to Yuka.

"Hey, you remember me right?"

Yuka smiled brightly and welcomingly, putting away the bow and arrow.

"Enki! It's great to see you again!" she said brightly.

"Then this idiot here is my king, Shouryuu," Enki said. "I think you two met briefly before."

Yuka expression faltered a moment as she said

"Ye-es, he was there that night. The night that Kourin died," then more quickly she added. "And I think I remember he might have been with us in the battle for Goldenwave Palace, against Jyoei's forces. I don't think we were ever formally introduced, but I knew of him through Youko."

She turned to face him more fully and directed her next question to him

"Why are you here? Don't you know this is supposed to be a secret rebel training base for Tai's remaining imperial forces?"

"Well you know what they say about secrets," Shouryuu said. "Three can keep a secret only if two of them are dead. And as for why I'm here well, I always like to keep an eye on things that affect En. Enki and I have been watching the situation in Tai for a while now."

"Kaname, er, I suppose you would call him Taiki, told me that you visited once, is that why you're here?"

"I always make it a point to keep an eye on matters in other kingdoms when they affect En. Right now, my kingdom is taking in a lot of refugees from Tai. I have a vested interest in seeing the rightful king put back on the throne and Tai restored to grace under Tentei. Which brings me to you, I suppose... I have a few questions, little missy."

"You can ask," Yuka said. Her tone implied 'it's up to me whether I answer, so I'd keep things pleasant if I were you.' She kept the bow near to hand and didn't invite him to approach her. En-ou chuckled a little.

:Wary as a barncat with a litter of kittens, this one.:

"Well thanks then," he settled himself in the grass with his back resting comfortably against a rock, taking care to make his body language open and easy around her. He even pulled out a jug of sake and poured himself a small saucer. Yuka relaxed a bit.

"First off, how'd you two wind up here?"

Yuka told him the sequence of events as they had happened after she'd been transported back to her world and sought out rumors of another who'd been spirited away as she had, and how she'd slowly added up the oddly shaped pieces about her unusual friend over the course of their budding friendship and came to the conclusion that he was Taiki. Then about how she hauled him out of bed and shoved him into the shoku so that he could find his king. They'd traveled a bit then met up with Eishou and then been taken to the island for safekeeping.

"I'm here to help my friend avoid shitsudou. I won't watch him end up like poor Kourin, not while I can prevent it!" Yuka swore vehemently.

En-ou studied her for a long moment, appraising her. She gave every appearance of being in earnest, but part of him still thought she was a young woman who could not resist the call of adventure. Or maybe that was himself he was thinking of (minus the young woman bit).

"Fair enough," he said, siping on his sake. "More importantly I've noticed you've acquired some new skills since the last time you got here. Those are some abilities that could be dangerous to you as well as everyone around you. I need to know where you got them."

Yuka hesitated a bit, looking uncertain and then with a shrug honestly answered

"I'm not quite sure exactly. At first, I thought I might have been dreaming, or having some kind of waking hallucination..."

She related a tale about an a cave under a yabouku filled with raw magic but seemed either unable or reluctant to describe what had happened to her within it, glossing over the details and simply saying "and when I emerged I could feel the certain types of reishin that resonated with my spirit and now I can do this... well, as you see I still need more practice. I'm still working out what I can do."

"So then... no Foresworn?" Enki asked, just to make sure.

"What's a Foresworn?" Yuka asked. "I've never heard of them."

"They usually wear skins, or leather armor, but when they're recruiting they look normal enough," Shouryuu said shortly. He had a long series of scores to settle with the group.

"Basically," Enki said. "They're a cult that has a problem with the rest of the world living under the rule of Tentei in Heaven and they want to overturn the system. They have a nasty habit of collecting Kaikyaku and offering them bargains, kinda like the last Kou-ou did to you. They offer a person power and magic and the ability to understand the words around them but in the end the bargain turns on the one who makes it."

"Ah, a devils bargain," Yuka said, nodding in understanding. "No, no-one offered me any such thing, this just sort of... happened. But I do have my suspicions about it too, nothing bad, but I think an outside power has decided I'd be useful. Some kind of powerful spirit being. She showed up in my meditation and offered me advice. It's because of her or it that I was able to clear up my fuuchi."

Shouryuu digested her words for a long moment, turning them over and over in his mind. Meanwhile Enki said

"I don't think you're in any real danger, at least not of turning into a merge-beast or half-youma, but all the same, you should be careful, power like this doesn't come without a price."

"If it's to help Kaname I'm willing to pay it, whatever it is," Yuka said staunchly.

"You should really be more careful with what you say," Enki cautioned solemnly. "This world is crawling with Gods, Immortals and Divine Spirits, and one can never be certain of Who or What might be listening and how They plan to make use of your words."

"So, Wind, Metal and Wood answer to you," Shouryuu said, changing the subject a little. "Why not Water or Fire or Earth?"

"I have no affinity for Water at all," Yuka replied after a short pause to think about it. "Earth's lesser Disciplines of Wood and Metal answer to me, but I think they're attracted to the warrior aspect of my character, so I doubt the greater aspect of that element will ever resonate. It requires too much patience and steadiness to suit me I think, and as for Fire... well, it's there, but it's a proud element and will not bow its head to anyone less than its equal. I would have to become a far, far greater person than I am now to handle Fire's reishin."

"And that blurring thing you did earlier?" he questioned.

Yuka explained about internal abilities and external abilities and the difference in power they required. She was apparently still working out what she was capable of.

"But there's one thing that strikes me as being kind of odd about all of this," Yuka said at the end of it.

"Only one?" Shouryuu said, bushy eyebrows raised.

"I'm not even from this world, how is it I can do the things with the reishin at all? Shouldn't there be some sort of, I dunno, fundamental incompatibility in my physical makeup that this world would reject or something?"

"Well, you're close," En-ou said with a nod. "And generally speaking you're right, this world has a subtle rejection to those who are alien to it woven into its fabric somehow. I believe it's part of the way that Tentei keeps influence from unknown outsiders to the bare minimum. Every person born this world does so directly through the grace of Tentei, so part of their very essence is formed to only react to the essence of this world in certain ways. A normal person of this world cannot be converted into a merge-creature, also cannot interact with reishin, we're fundamentally incapable of it, it is part of our very being. A kaikyaku, on the other hand is, I think, something of a blank slate, a way of getting around Tentei's Will."

"If that's true, then why couldn't I work my voodoo magic the last time I was here, it would have saved a lot of trouble, or at least kept me out of it... possibly."

"I note you said possibly," Shouryuu said dryly. "As to the first, there has to be a catalyst. The foresworn perform a ritual where they infuse the heart of a youma, I don't actually know how, into a kaikyaku's body and that kaikyaku gains the ability to channel the reishin that react to that particular youma. As for you, well, it seems Someone or Something has taken an interest in you and it doesn't seem to be harmful. Enki has said he hasn't sensed any Taint on you, so for now we'll call it a benefit."

"Has there ever been anyone else like me?" Yuka asked curiously.

"Not..." Shouryuu said slowly. "Not that I know of. There are beings in this world that blur the lines between Mortal and Divine-"

"And you're one of them, I understand," Yuka pointed out.

"I'm only one step down from the Big Chief himself as long as I continue to rule in accordance with Heaven's Law," Shouryuu replied. "My sagehood grants me quasi-immortality as long as I play by the rules, and there's not much that can kill me. However I can't manipulate, or even sense, the reishin like you describe. I've never met a being who can."

"We should consult with Genkun about it," Enki said. "She might know something. I know that the Nyosen on Mt. Hou have certain powers in order to protect the baby kirins but I've never seen them displayed."

"Hm, there's a thought," Shouryuu said. "You think that the Dowager Empress of the West might be involved in this?"

"Seioubo?" Enki said in surprise. "Well, I guess it's a possibility. She is the one who chooses the Nyosen and allows them to ascend Mt Hou to become sages, and Nyosen do have certain powers. Yuka, did you pray to Seioubo?"

"I don't even know who or what a seioubo is," Yuka said flatly. "Though my mind is throwing up a reference to peaches..."

"She a Grand Sage and lives on Mt. Ka in the Five Mountains," Enki said. "Though her status as a possible goddess always seems to be in question. She is the one who chooses the Nyosen and brings them to Mt. Hou."

"I think there's a legend on our world about the Seioubo," Yuka said, face brightening as the thought that was obviously bothering her came to the fore. "She's a Chinese goddess originally, and if I recall correctly she lived on a mountain in the west of china with a peach tree in her pavilion that grew peaches of immortality. Supposedly rulers sought her out to attain immortality but failed to do so."

"Or maybe she kicked them off her mountain for trying to play with her peaches," Shouryuu said with a lascivious waggle of his brows.

Yuka looked pointedly down at her bow.

"Regardless,"Enki said with a quelling look at his king for flirting. "It's an avenue to look into. What are your plans?"

"I'm going to help Kaname," Yuka said.

Shouryuu's eyes narrowed a little bit and he pressed

"How do you plan to do so?"

"We'll see," she evaded. "There should be a way that my new abilities might be useful. Kaname's king has to be here somewhere after all, and I think I can help."

"Don't do anything foolish," Enki warned her. "I know you like to leap into things, but try to look before you leap this time."

"I'll try," she promised.

:I don't trust that answer one bit,: Shouryuu thought to himself. :She doesn't seem the sort to let things lie quiet when she can go stirring them up to derive a possible advantage from them.:

He didn't like leaving things the way they were, it seemed like a recipe for something drastic to happen to the girl. He wouldn't call her shortsighted or stupid, but she possessed all the one-sighted focus of a hunting falcon, as though all that existed in the world was its prey, and she would focus on that to the exclusion of everything else around her, including her own life and safety. It was something Youko had worried about with the girl and he could see that the lady-empress was not far off on that.

:Coupled with that is the fact that the last time she was in this world she went through dangerous and serious ordeals that could have ended a lot worse for her and didn't, I think that the fact that she feels she's learned her lesson is just going to make her over confident rather than more cautious. The younglings like this one are always so viscerally certain of their own immortality after all.:

There were times when he really felt old.

"For now, I'd recommend you keep practicing with your abilities," Shouryuu advised. "If there's a Power that's taken enough interest in you to grant you the power to do something, then rather than look a gift horse in the mouth you should turn all that energy you have towards honing your edge so that when the time comes to move, you'll be ready."

"I don't need you to tell me that," Yuka said with dignity, then hesitated a moment and with a slightly more subdued tone, as though realizing she'd been rude and offering a silent apology she added

"But thank you for your advice. I'll work hard. Hey, if you see Youko tell her I said not to worry about me. I'll help kaname."

"Will do, just don't do anything drastic," Shouryuu cautioned her again.

He was less than reassured to see that there was a shuttered, secretive look to her face and he left the feild with the feeling that the girl was already up to something.

:I hope that that something she's up to doesn't land her up to her eyebrows in trouble before I can get things moving,: he thought with an internal headshake.

He was half tempted to ask Enki to stay there and keep things from getting out of hand but that island was no safe place for his kirin to be. he'd have to hope that thing remained calm for the time being, though he knew from personal experience that such a thing was very unlikely.

"I'm going to head to Mt Hou and consult with Genkun," Enki said, changing forms.

"And I'll head to Kei to tell Youko what I've found out, maybe we'll be able to come up with something that'll keep this mess from getting any worse."

Enki inclined his white head in reply and trotted off into the sky while Shouryuu went to find his suuguu Tama and head back across the Void Sea.

Let's hear it for a king of En cameo! He's always sticking his nose into places they rightly shouldn't be, and I think he rather blends in well here. Please leave a note to tell me what you think!