Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own 12 Kingdoms; all characters belong to Fuyumi Ono and the respective right holders. Original characters of this story belong to me.

"A forest behind me and an ocean in front..."

"Where the hell am I and how did I get here?"

Still dazed from his rough arrival, the young man is sitting upon a couple of rocks covered in barnacles.

After he had woken up half an hour ago he sluggishly had sluggishly dragged his body towards the rocks in the hope that from their top he could see anything familiar looking from their top or at least any sign of civilization. The only things that were man man-made he had noticed until now were what must have been things from his room that got swept away with him.

As far as his eyes can see there's only the big, dark sea he must fell haven fallen into before he lost consciousness on the one side, a forest of what looked like pine trees, and the stretch of beach he was on in between the two.

"Let's think about this logically."

"First off, I can say that I'm at no place I'm familiar with," he tells to himself.

"That can only mean two things. Option One, I hit my head while fiddling with the Test-o-meter and am now having one of the most vivid dreams I ever had, or Option Two, something strange has happened during the experiment sending me somewhere else. But it's not like I'm a fantasy character or anything, so I'll just wait for this to end."

"Hmm..."

"If this is a dream, maybe I can try to control it and do cool stuff like fly," are his thoughts as he slowly tries to stand up, almost slipping.

As he spreads out his arms, he repeats the word "Fly" several times inside his head and shouting it out load one time before taking a big leap from the top of the heap of rocks he stood on. A moment later the only the sound coming from him is a quiet whimpering.

Having made a brilliant belly flop onto the sandy beach from a height of about two and a half meters he once again losest consciousness.

As the mantle of night slides over the sky he slowly opens his eyes, cursing himself for doing something so stupid.

"Definitely not a dream..."

Slowly standing up, he notices that his head feels much less clouded now than it did before his little stunt.

"There's nothing better than a good fall to get down to earth again, huh?"

Brushing off the sand on his front he looks around once again, now with a clear mind. The forest and the ocean seem to continue endlessly in both directions. As his eyes wander, he notices that in the sky he could can see an unbelievable amount of stars. Even at the time when he went into the mountains as a child he didn't hadn't seen this many. Their reflection even showed shows in the jet black ocean and made makes it seem like the land he was on only was but an ephemeral plane between two galaxies.

"There can't be any kind of big city anywhere near here, or else I couldn't see so many stars," this thought is what causes a cold shiver to run down his spine.

After standing there, gazing at the sky for about an hour, paralyzed by the thoughts rushing through his head, his stomach informs him of the passage of time.

"Urgh."

Listening to the acoustic command of his body, he starts looking around the beach for anything edible.

Some of his stuff was washed ashore here, so maybe something he could eat did, too? If it was something like cup noodles or snacks, they could still be sealed, not completely soaked in saltwater and thus be edible.

"I really must have pissed off the god of probability or something."

Having found nothing but some clothing, a pair of sports shoes, three completely destroyed books, to his surprise even a metal box that was once a laser worth several thousand dollars, and lastly the Horn, laying on the shore as if the sand was only there to accentuate its presence. Everything was completely soaked; so the laser would most probably only be able to work as a paperweight from now on, the all the pages of the books were smeared with their own ink and the clothes plus shoes would have to be thoroughly washed soon or they'd start to reek. In comparison to all those things, the Horn was is still as unscratched and didn't doesn't seem to have taken any kind of damage from the seawater.

After quickly deciding to leave the dead weight behind, the young man faces away from the sea and sets foot into the dark pine woods, hoping to find something edible there.

Getting the trees a storm fell had felled out of the nearby woods always was always a time consuming and exhausting task, but this time it was especially bad since the storm that has had caused them to fall was had been a Shoku and fallen trees were one of the lesser problems. Rikkyo, being the eldest son of the local lumberjacking, had to lead and instruct his three younger brothers Kyoren, Shunran, and Sekkei in determining which of the fallen trees needed to be pulled out first and in getting them out of the thick underwood.

Their parents had to stay back home and deal with all the requests for material to fix what was broken during the storm.

Several shutters and a door were had been blown away, a reversed flowing river had damaged the water wheel of the mill, and that was just what people came for before Rikkyo and his siblings had left to get the wood.

As afternoon approached, the brothers returned from the woods just in time to see a man on a black and white horse take off of the main place of their village.

"That must be a Kitsuryou," said Sekkei, his mouth gaping wide and his eyes shining.

"That's right, it's your first time seeing one, right?" Kyoren asked Kyoren his little brother. "You were sick the last time one showed up here, so maybe there was something good for you in this shokuShoku, you got to see a Kitsuryou."

"It's thanks to the new unit of Kijuu-riders under the control of the General of the Left that we can see them sometimes now, ; when I was as young as you are now, we couldn't hope to see a Kijuu unless we went to a big city, but nowadays they fly around the country and report to the queenQueen," Shunran added Shunran with a haughty smile as if it had been his idea.

Placing his big hand on top of the head of his smaller brother, Rikkyo reminded Shunran of the fact that he had still worne diapers when the "White Hooves", as they are were being called, were had been founded.

After the man had become a black point at the horizon and Shunran had finished yelling at his big brother not to embarrass him in front of his little brother, they proceeded to bring back the wood they gathered to their house.

"Why was that man on the Kijuu here?" Sekkei asked Sekkei his parents storming in through the back entrance as soon as the brothers arrived at their home.

"Welcome back, boys," their mother greeted as she laid down the brush she was holding to to hug the young boy who came running at her.

"He wanted to know, what the Shoku destroyed, so he could tell it to the queenQueen. If he does that the queen Queen will surely do something to help us," the middle aged woman answered the middle aged woman the question of her youngest son.

"Where should we put the wood and where is father, mother?" Rikkyo asked Rikkyo his mother while leaning with his arm against the top of the door frame. His big body was a valuable asset for is profession but let him down when it came to luck with women.

"He went to check on some of the houses in the village. They might have gotten damaged, so it's better safe than sorry was what he said. I think he'll come back," replied the lean woman replied while playing with Sekkei. Her work consisted of managing the money of the family and doing artistic carvings on some of the furniture they produced, so she wasn't as strong as either her husband or her sons bout a lot more skillful with numbers and her fingers.

As night fell the whole family was reassembled at the dining table and enjoyed their meal, happy that the Shoku hadn't caused too much damage and would even turn into a bit of money for them.

Laughing about the small mishaps they or others had experienced over the course of the day, planning for tomorrow and looking forward to the work of the next weeks, they didn't know, that this would be the last such dinner they would be able to eat together.

Darkness.

The only thing illuminating his path is the sparse light of the stars.

As his eyes get used to the jet black forest he can discern more and more details.

Some tree branches were broken not long ago, so there must have been a storm here.

His hunger grows stronger by the minute but strangely it doesn't feel like his power or stamina areis dropping. He rather feels better with every growl sounding from his stomach.

He can smell the fresh fragrance of the pine trees and something from far away. It catches his interest.

"This smell..."

"That's the smell of fire," thinking this he speeds up, faster and faster to get to the origin of the smell.

But even after running for two hours he still hasn't reached his destination. Exhausted and hungry he sits down at the foot of a large tree. The vegetation has changed quite a bit. The pine forest he originally entered has turned into a forest of big leaf trees. The rocky, pine needle covered ground is now a smooth bed of old leaves and moss.

At the tree's foot he rolls himself up in his lab coat and uses the pieces of clothing he could had gathered at the beach as blanket.

Thankfully, the summer nights are blessing the land he drifted to with their warmth, so he doesn't need to worry about freezing. The Horn in his coat pocket clenched clenched tightly in his hand and still sticky from the dried salt water, the young man's consciousness slips away one more time, but this time into a peaceful, deep slumber.

The next morning, Rikkyo and his family woke up with the first rays of the sun to prepare for the hard work of the day. Today he would be going into the forest on his own to retrieve some more wood. Everyone else would be needed back home to cut the lumber from yesterday or to make new shutters from it.

When the small villiage started to become a little bit more lively, Rikkyo had already left for the northern woods equipped with an ax, a saw and a packed lunch.

In the late afternoon, a black horse with white stripes and a burning red mane elegantly landed on the terrace made of white marble. As soon as its hooves touched the ground its rider dismounted and a couple of servants rushed out to take care of the strained Kijuu.

The rider clad in armor proceeded towards the big main gate leading to this terrace with fast step holding a tome tightly in his hand. Rushing through the corridors, avoiding the attendants, officials, and servants, he made his way towards the royal study.

Although formally his duty was to report to the General of the Left, if there were any issues of pressing nature or such that needed special attention, he was to inform Kei-ou directly.

This shortcut for information to reach her was just what Youko had in mind when she had created the White Hooves. She wanted to never let something like the affair with Gaho and Shoko to happen again.

To make that happen she needed to know, what was going on in her country, so she devised a plan for a unit with the purpose of information gathering and put her trusted subject Kantai in charge of it. Of course she also liked the chance to get away from her repetitive work that it would bring from time to time bring. Discussing things like the budget of the royal palace, deciding on the dresses for her formal appearances and the like didn't count towards as the things she aspired to do as a ruler.

Since her inthronisation enthronement, a lot had already changed for her people.

Her first decree had ridden her populace of shackles binding their hearts, the good relationship she mentioned with the Kingdom of En had made the trade flourish, and her sole existence paired with forcing out the remaining Youma in the land had turned Kei into a fairly safe country.

Her reign had already lasted 15 years, all of her old "friends" from school must have found jobs by now and maybe some of them were already parents. After her tenth year as Kei's kingqueen, Youko gradually felt less attached to Hourai since she somewhere somehow knew that her old home was gradually becomigname a foreign world without a place for her in it. Her parents must have beenbe in their late fifties by now and she feared they could have already died.

As the time between her arrival in the twelve kingdoms and the present grew wider and wider she would eventually lose all each and every sense of familiarity with her old world and it would going to be for her, like it must have been be for En-ou. He was a Taika just like her, so he must have had some lingering attachment to Hourai like her, but imagining, how the world he had lived in 600 years ago had changed into the modern Japan she felt that Hourai was a chapter of her life that would soon be closed off for good.

Brooding over the documents containing the construction of a new dam in the Baku province she sat in her study. Clothed as casual as possible and as formal as her attendants deemed necessary, she just thought about whether she should lower the manpower put into hunting down Youma a bit to use it for the construction as someone knocked on her door.

Quickly changing her relaxed sitting position into a formal one and straightening out her clothing , - she had learned this skill to avoid her servants always reprimanding her -, and she answered:

"Enter."

On her command a man opened the door and lowered his head as he entered the room. He was a soldier of her information unit. Seeing him cheered her up immediately as she knew that it had to be something that would free her from her desk work for a short time.

"Speak up, what news do you bring?" she asked.

"A Shoku has occurred in the provinces Sen and Bu. I have reports form several locations depicting how severe the storm has hit them. So far it would seem that it was only a very small one but nonetheless a Shoku so we deemed it important." and And after a short time he asked his queen Queen who hadn't reacted to his report yet:

"What are your orders, Kei-Ou?"

After thinking about the current state of affairs Youko deemed that a Shoku certainly had priority when compared to the building of a dam.

"You did well to inform me. I want you to inform the General of the Left to ready a handful of mounted soldiers. I will personally venture to the scene and investigate the circumstances of the Shoku and let the soldiers file detailed reports of the damages to send appropriate relief. Now go forth."

With a look of confusion on his face the soldier proceeded to execute the orders of his queen Queen wondering, why she, a ruler chosen by Tentei, herself would leave the palace to investigate the aftermath of a storm out in the countryside, but put it off as one of the many inexplicable things the queen known as Sekishi would do from time to time.

"It's a storm that shakes the foundation of the world, of course it has priority," she thought to herself, justifying it for her to leave the palace and get some change from all the monotone paperwork she had to deal with all day. She came to understand why Shoryu did would behave like he did and would also try to sneak out of the palace from time to time, although it seemed like she still needed a lot of exercise to do it as smoothly as the king of En. Most of the time either one of her maidservants would spot her or her better half Keiki would find her. Either way she would get scolded for trying to leave the palace all alone and be put behind her desk again to finish the never ending stream of documents that needed her signature.

Much to her luck, her Kirin wasn't in the Kinpa palace and the servants wouldn't dare to stop her if she could give them an appropriate reason, so she wrote a short letter to Keiki describing the situation, telling him not to worry, and making him stay in the palace for the meantime and not come chasing after her. After she had finished writing, she laid down the brush and made her way to the dressing room which contained her casual and more practical clothing that wouldn't restrict her like the formal attire she often had to wear in the palace often.

Having arrived in her room, instantly three servants came rushing to her asking what she desired. Youko first ordered one of the maidservants to bring her the Daishito, the head of the Ministry of Earth and commanded the other two to bring her a fine set of clothing fit for leaving the palace and pack a more practical outfit that could be worn under armament.

The first of the three went on to go get the Daishito to come to her Her majesty Majesty while the other two looked at their queen with a questioning faces.

"Will you be leaving the Kinpa palace, your Your majestyMajesty? Does the Taiho know about this?"

"Don't make him worried, I am just going to investigate a Shoku that occurred, so I want you to hurry with the preparation. The faster you are the faster I will be able to return to the palace."

"But isn't that the task of your subordinates, your Your Highness?" asked the one of the maidservants trying to guess her queen's true intention.

"A Shoku is a big occurrence where two worlds overlap and Rankas can get lost in the process, so we need to know exactly how it affected the regions it hidhit," replied their queen while radiating confidence.

Unable to stop their ruler who could come forth with a plausible reason to leave the palace, the two maidservants gave up on convincing her to stay and instead put their efforts into preparing her as good as they could so at least her appearance would be regal while she was away from the palace.

After her servants had dressed her, the maidservant that had left to get the Daishito returned into the dressing room to report that she had brought him and that he was waiting in front of the door.

"Come in," Youko said Youko to the man behind her door while waving her hand at the three women, signaling them that they could leave.

"You know that you shouldn't call me to your dressing room, Youko," the gray mouse replied the gray mouse as it entered through the door, covering its eyes as a precaution. He was one of the few who dared to call Kei-ou by her given name form from Hourai and one of her oldest and best friends in the whole twelve kingdoms.

"Just don't make it such a big deal then."

"That's not the point, but what did you call me here for, shouldn't you be working now?"

"I'm doing exactly that right now. I'm preparing to go out to investigate about a Shoku that occurred in Sen and Bu, so I wanted you to inform Kokan to take care of things in my absence. And tell that to Suzu and Shokei, too, when they come back."

"Hey, hey, wait Youko, you can't just vanish and go on and adventure like this..." was what he started to say but had to complete his sentence differently because he knew that her look meant that there would be no changing her mind.

"but But you'll do it regardless, so it's nice that you at least let us know,." the gray mouse finished, the gray mouse clothed in a formal attire tailored to fit his needs as a Hanjuu.

"I will tell them under one condition, Youko, you have to come back in the next four days and you have to promise not to get into any fights." He knew better than to spoil one of the rare chances for Youko to get out off the palace and let some steam off. At least he could keep her out of danger if he knew where she went and made her promise not to fight.

"You're the best, Rakushun," the young looking girl said the young looking girl to her furry friend as she shortly hugged him and ran off.

His whiskers still vibrating a little, Rakushin quietly replied towards the direction in which she went:

"You really need to act more with more modesty."

A strange sequence of pictures and feelings, emotions and sounds is what makes up his dream.

The skin of an orange being peeled away, allowing a black substance to come forth from within. The black substance forming into many different shapes and collapsing at the end to create a single black drop that causes ripples in the uncolored background turning it into a vast blue sky that emits an overwhelming feeling of freedom followed by a hollow growl which slowly fades away.

Moments later he wakes up from the sound of rustling leaves near him.

AN: Puh, so this is chapter two to get onwards with the whole exposition of where we are and what happened since the canon storyline. I hope the jumps aren't too difficult for readers. I tried to extrapolate how Youko would do things and think it should be plausible.

If you notice anything that's off about them or doesn't make much sense please tell me, so I can look if I made a mistake or if it's wanted intended :)

After my last chapter I already got helpful feedback and I hope that you will continue to review my work and help my me at writing a better story.