Sister to Miko
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Chapter Four: Hail Suzaku no Miko
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*Kiku*
"Heika-sama," I turned to him respectfully, "will you permit me to question and test them? And promise me that no matter what I do, you cannot punish me? I swear that I will not do harm to anything," I said truthfully.
He looked suspiciously at me, then gave a sigh of resignation. "Hai, do whatever it takes without harming them."
"Please step forward, Misses," I told the young ladies. "What are your names?"
The girl in colourful clothing said her name was Arvn, and the one in brown with two hair buns said she was Miaka.
"Both of you claim to be from a different world, am I right?" They nodded.
"And both of you have learnt the language of this world?" Arvn nodded, but Miaka looked as if she was about to say something. "Wait, don't say anything," I stopped her. "One last question: do you know how to write in your native language?" They both nodded.
"Heika-sama, may I ask for some items?" The emperor nodded his approval, probably curious as to what I was going to do. I whispered the needed items to a soldier and he hastily went to get them.
Finally, the two desks were set up and the screen set between them. On the desks were writing paper, a brush and an inkpot.
"In your native language, write about your world, and how you came here," I instructed both of them. After about an hour, they were both done. I picked up Arvn's first and asked her to translate it into Chinese.
"My world has green meadows everywhere, and phoenixes and unicorns and dragons, and everything is very colourful. The houses there are the same as the ones here. One day, I was riding on a pink unicorn when it suddenly spoke. It asked if I wanted to go to another world to play. I said yes, and it brought me here. I landed in the streets and a kind old couple adopted me. They thought I was the Suzaku no Miko and sent me here."
"Thank you. Now Miaka."
Miaka stood up nervously. I spotted the young man give her an encouraging smile as she began, "I come from the future, I think, because there I'm from the country China in my world too. The writing we do in the future China is the same as your writing in Kounan, only it has been simplified over the years. The future China is very modern, and there are a lot of new appliances and inventions that have made life very easy. There are lights that will turn on at the press of a button during the day *or* the night, and machines that will move without an animal pulling it. Girls are allowed to go to school and most of the children in the future China go to school. There are many libraries where we can read books to learn more. My friend and I were sucked into a book called the Shi Jin Ten Chi Sho in the middle of reading it and we met Tamahome," she turned to smile at the young man so I assumed he was Tamahome. "Soon my friend and I both went back, and a few days we spent in Kounan were only an hour in the future. Then I came back to Kounan alone. Now I'm here."
I thought for a while. Arvn's story sounded like a fairy tale I could've written when I was eight. Now you know my secret? Yes, I can write. Since I was seven, I disguised as a boy to study. My mother only had three daughters, and believed in girls going to school. So she risked her head to get us educated...
"Kiku?" The emperor interrupted my thoughts in his gentle voice.
"Gomen, Heika-sama, let me think for a moment."
Miaka's world sounded more realistic, although I wasn't sure about the lights that went on at the press of a button or the animal-less machines. Too farfetched... Then I began thinking of the second test. How could I test them so I would know if they were lying?
Five minutes later, I had the answer.
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"Okay, now the second test. Pass me your scripts." They both did so.
"I will test Arvn first. Miaka, please go into a room. Can a guard follow her to make sure she cannot hear anything? Oh, and Tamahome must go in too, or he might send her a message or something. Safety precaution," I explained to the emperor, Miaka and Tamahome. Damn, I still couldn't control my blushes when in the presence of the incredibly good-looking Suzaku seishi.
Once they were in the room, I marked out one of the first sentences of her script and made Arvn read it aloud. I took note of the sounds and wrote the Chinese version of it (connoting the sounds) down on another piece of writing paper. Then I marked out another sentence and asked her to read it. I did this until I had noted down ten sentences.
I was scared at first, to blatantly show that I was literate, but I told myself that the emperor would keep his promise and not arrest me. The old advisor was smiling approvingly.
"Please read this sentence out," I told her. She stared at it intensely, trying to remember which one it was she had said, and soon I spotted tears brimming in her eyes. I knew she had been lying. She turned to the emperor and kow-towed; asking for mercy and banging her forehead on the marble until it bled.
"Wipe off the blood and take her away," I told a guard. When the emperor turned a questioning gaze to me, I told him, "I have to make sure the other one is real too."
I repeated the exercise with Miaka and realised that the words she had written were really simplified versions of our Chinese words. Some of the pronunciations were also different, but she managed to read out all eleven sentences exactly as she had the first time round.
"So you really are from another world. And you are willing to be Suzaku no Miko?" The emperor asked kindly. He had a glazed look in his eyes, but I was too exhausted from the three and a half hours of terrible mental strain to really wonder why.
"Heika-sama, may I please sit down -" I suddenly felt strangely dizzy and almost collapsed onto the floor. Fortunately, Tamahome and Miaka caught hold of me.
"Kiku, are you alright?" The emperor asked.
"Let me sit down," I said, and the Head Patrol Guard helped me to a chair at the side of the court.
"I will be Suzaku no Miko," Miaka said with a tone of determination in her voice. I could tell she was just being brave in the heat of the moment, because her inexperience gave her away. But as long as she was willing to learn, she probably would do fine.
"This is Suzaku no Miko! The saviour of our country! Let us all pay our respects!" the emperor announced grandly. All the guards present fell to their knees, and I quickly scrambled off my chair to do the same.
"Hail Suzaku no Miko! Hail Suzaku no Miko! Hail Suzaku no Miko!"