All the court was gathered in the throne room. The samurai in their immaculate clan uniforms, proudly carrying the daisho, the court women tittering, the courtiers observing from behind their fans. The air was expectant and nervous. It was rare that the emperor nowadays appeared before the whole court, and somehow everyone seemed to sense it was not for anything good this time.
The old man entered the room and shuffled to the throne. Before kneeling simultaneously with all the others, Mei had time to take a good look at him. He looked just like an old, wrinkled man. He was supposed to be a son of the Celestial Ones, equal to the greatest Fortunes. Still she couldn't shake the feeling that he was just a man - an old bored man who felt as trapped as canary birds in their gilded cages. Perhaps the emperor hoped he could already retire and move to the loneliness of a temple in the mountains, away from all this, free to meditate and wait for moving on.
- "Please arise," the emperor said in a quiet voice. Still, everyone could hear him as no-one absolutely made a sound. The emperor was a widower, and his two heirs were still infants, carried by a nursemaid who looked frightened to her core. "I have bad news from Renkuy."
Located next to the vast Waturi Forest to a delta where the river Tanokawa met the sea, Renkuy was the shipbuilding center of Kozakura and also had the biggest imperial naval base of the country.
- "Several tsunamis have wiped out villages in Renkuy's outskirts, and also destroyed a ship building company. Furthermore, there have been landslides as a result of numerous volcanic eruptions. Hundreds of people are dead and without home. We are already gathering a convoy to aid Renkuy," the emperor said gravely. It was a tragedy, yes, but Mei still wondered what this audience was about. The islands of Kozakura were volcanic, and this kind of thing happened now and then. It was a fact of life.
- "However, Kozakura has seen such catastrophes before, and prevailed," the emperor went on. "But there is more to this. Allow me to introduce Sanitobi - a master wu jen of Renkuy, and the founder of River Dragon Temple and the Renkuy school of water magic."
A man, tall for a Kozakuran, with thin, half-amused face, stepped next to the emperor.
- "Your majesty is too kind to a poor student of the element of the sea," he said smoothly. "But yes, that is who I am, and I have been not only observing the situation in Renkuy area, but also communicating with sea spirit folk, hai nu and ningyo. As some of you may know, my school aims to be aware of what is happening undersea, in order to predict underwater volcanic eruptions in time so that accidents like this wouldn't happen. We have been successful too. Until now. This caught us completely by surprise. It was greatly upsetting, of course, to fail in such a spectacular way. I confess my pride wouldn't allow me to believe it - and this time it proved to be a good thing, as I started to research what could possibly have caused such a miscalculation."
He licked his lips and was given a porcelain cup of water.
- "My communications with the people I mentioned confirmed what I suspected. There had been no foretelling volcanic activity. It all started abruptly, not naturally. Yet, something has caused this. There has been little time for research as of yet, but there is something I have found out. Something the sea spirit folk know from their oral history as well. I am afraid that this kind of thing can mean..."he fell silent for a moment, bracing himself for what he was about to say, "that Kusatte Iru is stirring."
There were frightened faces, and incomprehending ones.
- "The greatest danger in the mortal world," the emperor said, "is Kusatte Iru. Mountainous spawn of the First Oni, put asleep in the bottom of the seas by the wu jen of the first emperor. It is capable of crushing entire armies without slowing down, its hide virtually impenetrable." Strangely enough, his voice was almost indifferent. Perhaps he really doesn't care, Mei thought. The shogun is really the leader of Kozakura, anyway. The emperor just is the face of leadership.
The emperor nodded to a Phoenix courtier.
- "Your Excellence, master Sanitobi. Kusatte Iru was put to sleep then," she said. "Surely the process is recorded somewhere. Could that not be done again?"
- "Believe me, lady, we are working on as we speak," Sanitobi said. "The trouble is that the creature has been able to stir, and the wards that have kept it quiet are still in place. As you see, it is possible that the magic will work no more. Also, there is something even more frightening than Kusatte Iru. The one who spawned him. The First Oni."
Everyone was grave and silent now. The creatures were of magnitude that could well destroy the whole Kozakura. Mei was puzzled to notice that she didn't feel horror or sadness. She was tingling inside, her senses heightened like on her nightly strolls.
- "The Celestial Ones are trying our honor," the emperor said. "The very forces of Jigoku are on the move."
hai nu = an aquatic humanoid race
ningyo = an oriental mermaid
