Hearing the Kami

- "Will we be the ones who see Kozakura destroyed?" Atsuko wondered. "I suppose it makes sense that it could... once the Heavenly Sister and Brother stirred the swirling ethereal with the diamond spear, drawing the island with its point, and the great earth dragon liked what he saw, falling asleep, his spine forming Shinkoku."

When the volcanoes were active, it was said that the earth dragon had nightmares or stirred in his sleep.

- "I suppose," Atsuko said in an oddly listless voice contrasting her usual cheerfulness, "that just as well they could decide that they tire of Kozakura, or the earth dragon could wake up and fly away... we have no say. It is always for everyone to accept their role and fulfill it to their best... and yet I thought that Kozakura is eternal. That there couldn't be something so magnificent, and it not to be eternal."

- "Well, it is always possible that this is not doing of the kami," Mei said. "There is much we don't know. If someone wanted this to pass, it would suit them very well that everyone believes it to be the Heavenly Ones punishing Kozakura."

Atsuko nodded, thinking about it.

- "True," she conceded. "But who would want the whole world destroyed? Or... at least the world we know?"

- "Someone who gets to build it anew," Mei replied gravely. "I bet that if it is indeed true..."

- "... it almost has to be shukenjas and wu jen," Atsuko finished, getting the familiar spark into her eyes again. "No other people have the power to manipulate something like this or commune with the kami."

- "Speaking of which," Mei said, "Atsuko-san, I wish to go meditating now. Are you alright? I need to feel the kami. My soul is calling out for them."

Atsuko smiled and patted her friend's hand.

- "I am all right. It makes me feel better to think that this may not be the end. That if Kozakura is destroyed, if I die myself, it was not the will of the Heavenly Ones. You know... the tea leaves. It is coming true. But it didn't say why, or what will happen. I wonder where the gaijin is."

- "Go help build the convoy to Renkuy, Atsuko," Mei said. "You will feel better with something to do."

She took off, heading the rock garden behind the small shrines and the carp ponds.

Atsuko watched her graceful gait, her crossing a wooden bridge, disappearing behind the shrine.

So I do, Mei-san. Dear child of romantic love, always attuned to the kami but yet not home among them, the same way she felt about humans, really. Bamboo spirit folk like Mei were not that rare in Kozakura, but usually they lived among their own kin, in their settlements near the groves their life force was tied to. Even the ones who had strong ties to the society of humans had equally strong ties to nature and the society of other offspring of humans and nature spirits. As far as Atsuko knew, Mei was one of the kind. Her bamboo grove had been somewhere in Shou Lung, and burned and hacked down. She was a born and bred city dweller, yet the call of nature and spirit world in her inheritance made her very... aware. Atsuko loved her dearly, but there was something aloof in her. She wondered if Mei held secrets from her. She hoped not, as she hoped she had proven her trustworthiness as a friend. But she couldn't shake the feeling there was much she didn't know about her best friend.

Mei stared at a calming harmonious point in an arrangement of moss-covered rocks. She could hear a little stream flowing, its kami laughing carefree silvery laugh, oblivious to the world around it being shaken from its very foundations. The kami of the rocks, so peaceful, so calm... seen thousands of years, changing little, nothing shaking their solid countenance. The simple kami of the carps, thinking nothing but scanning the surface of the pond for food. The kami of the moss, always looking for a place of unchanging calm, a foundation to lay itself in peace on. All these kami alive around her... she was always so aware of them. She had always lived in Dojyu, only visiting wild nature or countryside rarely with her father, but she could hear the kami, feel them. She knew little about her mother. She was very beautiful of course, all nature spirits were when they took a human form. She was serene and wise, her father had said, calm the way humans were too fickle and restless to be. She supposed all this awareness, disturbing and wonderful simultaneously, was her doing.

But also, each nature spirit had an evil aspect to them, if cruelty and destruction could be called evil. It was singing in Mei's blood when she killed. It was as natural as hearing the kami. How she loved it! She felt the beast stirring in her blood, for she didn't want to die. She would fight the forces moving on destruction. But the beast must not be allowed to run rampant. Calm, controlled, like a hunting tigress. She breathed calmly, concentrated. She emptied her mind until there was nothing but the harmony, the kami of every being around her, and the knowledge of all of them being so very alive.