Chapter 3

There was a great beauty about blue skies. Poets write about blue skies, writers pen about blue skies and artists paint blue skies. Amaya was one of the few kirins that loved her beast form over her human form. It was her beast form that allowed her to soar freely into the sky and her human form that tied her down.

Amaya could almost hear her shirei scolding her for leaving Mount Hou. An unchosen kirin should not leave the palace, yada yada. She had heard that enough from the nyosen. However the nyosen could not stop her. She was strong enough and with twelve shirei, she would be safe enough. Amaya had set off to bind one strong shirei, but in her bid to get a strong shirei, she had captured several before settling on the one strong shirei, Jyakyo, a shouhi. Not that the others were any weaker. In fact they were all considerably strong.

Lightly, she landed onto the small snow covered garden, her hooves making small prints onto the untouched snow. Most of architecture in the garden still lay largely in ruins save for a small seat that seemed amateurishly built. She stopped just before the wooden floors of the inner palace. Yoko had been rather displeased when she saw Amaya's hoof imprints on the wood and had given her such a lecture that Amaya was not going to risk her wrath again. Switching back to her human form, she summoned Karoukyu, a Yahyoki demon that could lengthen and shorten itself. It curled itself around her bare body and fashioning itself to look like a white fur coat that covered her sufficiently. It was not very good at fighting, but considering Amaya's preference for her beast form, it was very convenient to have around.

Bustling into the inner palace of Kei, Amaya was keen onto talking to Yoko about the Reigon Gate. Yoko can never have enough of fresh gossip as Amaya thought as she swung around the last corner to Yoko's study room, slamming face first into Keiki. There was grave disapproval on Keiki's face as he realized who the little intruder was.

"Shunrin," he began. Amaya already knew what he was going to scold her for. He was only a Kirin and no matter how much he disapproved for Amaya, there was nothing he could do for as long his master was happy to let her fly in and out of the palace. However that didn't stop him from showing his disapproval at her lack of manners and gravity to her situation.

"Isn't the Reigon Gate open now?" his eyebrows knitted into a knot above his violet eyes. The Reigon gate was the gate where people who attempt to climb the mountain to see the kirin. But the truth was that very few people actually attempted it at this gate. The trip up was already perilous enough without the cold winter to add its burden.

"I saw them already." She sniffed, turning her small nose at the beginnings of his lecture.

"It has already been eight years since you arrived back in 12 kingdoms. Most Kirins would have chosen by now."

"Well I'm not like most Kirins in the first place." She shook her red mane at Keiki, fighting the urge to stick her tongue out at him. "Besides, didn't you take seven years to find your queen as well?" She smirked as she skipped past him. She could almost hear Keiki's jaws grinding in frustration.

"Shun Taiho, I would not advise you entering-" Koshou's words fell unheeded as she flung the doors open.

"Yoko~" She said in a sing song manner. She stopped short, taking in the destruction around her. Yoko sat in the shadow of the study room motionlessly. Her head rested against her propped up arms, heedless of the mess that lay around her. The books were strewn all over the floor as though they had been thrown in anger. They probably were. Amaya had seen Yoko angry before. She was like a seething pot of fury, holding her anger in check until she could take no more.

"What is it, Shunrin," Yoko asked coldly. "Shouldn't you be at Mount Hou instead of traipsing all over my kingdom?" Yoko rarely called her that except when she was angry.

"The people of Shun have already suffered for many long years. How long do you want them to suffer before you look for a king? The kings before you had been too short lived to have had any effect. Have you even gone to Shun to look at it? Have you seen it?"

It was the most that Amaya had ever heard Yoko speak. Yoko was so quiet that Amaya did most of the chattering which made her please. But what Yoko had said was the simple truth that everyone had been trying to tell her. Amaya had not even gone to Shun to take a look at it before. She was not interested in finding a king either. If a king could be kings of two countries, then she would have gladly bowed to Yoko. Yoko was like the big sister she never had but always wanted.

"I-" Anything Amaya said now would only be excuses. It was true. She failed as a kirin.

She turned and even before she was out of the corridor, Amaya had switched back to her beast form and fled into the blue sky. Feeling guilty, Amaya turned around and flew towards Shun. If she had at least taken a look at her kingdom, she would be at least back herself up when others blamed that she did not care about Shun at all.

The lands beneath her were brown. Not the rich, earthy brown but a light sandy brown much like the desert. It was bare – almost. She had heard the story many times from the nyosens. There had been several kings before her. Each as incompetent as the latter. Before the lands could recover and grow, the kingdom had fallen yet again. Her heart hurt from the realization that the longer she waited, the less people there would be left. The sky was so thick with youma that even her twelve shirei were having difficulty.

It was night by the time Amaya reached back Mount Hou. She could hear the nyosens scold her for being the naughtiest kirin they ever had in the history. A tear slid down her face. She hadn't grasped what grave consequences her actions had been until today. It was not like she was purposely not choosing a king. There was really no one that caught her eye. They said that the kirin would know when he was the right now. So all she had to do was look at each person that came and follow her instincts. She had done exactly as she was told, was she wrong if no one caught her eye? The more she thought of it, the more she wished to go home.

Home was where she had been born right? Or was it the libraries of Yoko where she had spent much time in? The quiet voice in the back of her head asked, but oblivious to it there was only a single fully formed thought in her head.

The wind picked up.

I want to go home.

Then everything went black.

Amaya awoke to being surrounded by a warm feeling. She was on a bench still dressed in her Mount Hou's clothes. She could see through the window, the trees that framed the night sky was not like the ones she had grown used to in Mount Hou or even in the 12 kingdoms. The stars were kind of different as well. She shifted her head only to see that the warm feeling was caused by the rather large blanket that covered her. It smelt slightly of unwashed body and sweat. Where on earth was she?

Her eyes roamed to get a better idea of her surroundings. The room was a sparse room with only a bench, a table and a several chairs. A man dressed in blue sat at the table, manning it, Amaya guessed. There were posters pasted all over the wall behind the man. Nothing seemed familiar to Amaya. The benches were made of an odd material though it looked like wood and the air smelt faintly of tobacco mixed with other stuff that made it smell foul.

"Girlie, you're awake?" Her shifting must have given her away for the question was a rhetoric question that did not actually demand an answer. "Any idea where your parents are?"

Amaya did not even have the faintest idea where she was except that she was definitely in Hourai. Apparently wishing hard enough to return had helped her to return.

"Where am I?" she asked.

"Yoyogi Park Police Station." The policeman behind the desk shifted his hat absentmindedly. "Someone found you wandering around and brought you here. By the time you reached here, you had fallen asleep. What is your name?"

Finding her parents would undoubtedly be a good idea. It would be difficult to live by herself in Hourai until she found a way to return. If being able to go to and fro was something part of Kirin's nature then Amaya was certain that with some testing she would be able to do so, but for some reason unknown to her, Amaya was convinced that she should stay here. There was a certain rightness in her decision to stay so she searched her mind for her full Japanese name. She had not used her full Japanese name for the longest time that when she finally remembered her family name, it felt odd as it rolled off her tongue.

"Tsu- Tsukino Amaya."

That caused a flurry in the station. Apparently she had been reported missing eight years ago. There was a big investigation for she was one of the six children that had gone missing during the same time frame. The other five were found mutilated, but she was never found. Her parents held on hope that she would one day be found alive despite the police advising them not to hope too much. Now she had finally reappeared and looking hale and well.

She saw person after person and all with the same few questions. Where had she been? At first Amaya had answered them as accurately as possible, but she realized that all her answers were quickly dismissed as a coping mechanism for during her missing years that she was supposedly to have been abused. Hourai people were hard to understand, Amaya thought. They wanted answers yet when they heard the answers, they rejected them. It was only much later that when the two adults came towards her that she registered them subconsciously as her parents.

She allowed herself to be persuaded into large bear hug. Amaya admitted that she did for several moments missed her parents. Unlike the stories of the Taiki kirins she had heard from Yoko, her parents had been relatively understanding. They accepted that she was allergic to any form of meat and Yoko suggested that it might have the reason that Amaya was in a lot better shape as compared to the other Taiki kirins.

Her mother took her by the hand, leading her out from the large white building. It was called a hospital for sick people. There were such buildings in Kei as well. Yoko wanted equal medical facilities for her people so she had them built in many places. Amaya turned watching the white building fade into the distance. There were a bewildering number of differences of the 12 kingdoms and Hourai. It seemed like the only common things was the sky and the sea. She missed the sky terribly.

A boy of fourteen years old stood waiting by the door. Amaya could sense his uncertainty as she clambered out of the car. Stopping in askance, she was picked up by the tall well built man.

"Look Takashi! Amaya has returned!" he laughed, uncaring that he was disturbing his neighbors. Her mother did not seem to care either, her laughter ringing loudly into the silent air. They seemed genuinely happy. The lady was even shedding tears of joy but the boy stood there sullenly.

"Amaya! Call oni-chan!" she wiped her tears off as she reached for Takashi.

He shuffled forward, propelled by the lady's hand. Together, they stood in the awkward group hug for what have felt like an eternity. Takashi stared at Amaya with unreadable look, perhaps a mix of wariness and hostility, Amaya could not pick it out clearly. However one thing was certain, neither of them wanted to be in this.

The father ruffled Amaya's hair. He had a small smile on his face but that was all Amaya needed. He was happy to have her back. Never mind the strange circumstances that had occurred, never mind the long gap, never mind that she might no longer be the child he once remembered. He was just happy that she was now here.

Amaya slid off the bed, her feet lightly landing on cool wooden floor. It had been most inconvenient that her parents had decided to keep an extra close eye on her since she returned. The dim light from the lamppost outside filtered in through the drawn curtains. She sat there motionlessly, her ears straining for the slightest sound from the bunk above.

"Jyakyo," she murmured softly to the shadows.

"They are all asleep," came the reply from the shadows. She stood up, her fingers pausing on the window. Amaya turned back, glancing back at the bunk where her brother slept. There was a peculiar feeling that she got from Takashi. She had wondered if it had anything to do with her lost memories before the time she arrived in 12 Kingdoms but it seems that Takashi was not going to tell her anything.

"Inform me if they wake before I return."

"As you wish."

She saddled the window, casting a final look at the shadows of the room, she leapt. She would have fallen had she been a normal human, but she was not. Her black hair rapidly melting into a fiery mane, her bare feet into shiny red hoofs, she was a kirin. Her hoofs barely cleared the roof of her neighbours, her mane unraveling in the crisp night air. She breathed deeply. The air above was much better than the polluted air below. She had no idea how they could stand it. Could they not hear earth crying from their impulses? She felt sorry for them; the earth, the trees, the plants and the poor oblivious people. But for the moment, she would enjoy her short moment in the sky. She suppressed a sigh as she climbed further into the sky.

Flying high above what a normal eye would be able to see, she soared for the first time in many months. How she missed this sensation. Beneath, the small twinkling lights seemed the like the multitude of stars above her. Their lights pulsed with life. The country that never sleeps, Yoko had often fondly remembered Hourai this way. The city was beautiful in its own way. She paused in mid-air, watching them. There was a low buzz from the city. A low buzz.

"Shunrin!"

Her nyokai called. Amaya dodged, narrowly missing the metal bird. She had been so engrossed in staring at the city that she had not noticed the oncoming object. This must be the airplane that Yoko had described before. So it appears that in Hourai, she is not the only one that can fly in air. With that irony in her mind, she returned just in time for daybreak.

Author's Note:

I had to write the irony of her colliding into a plane. I'm sure the newspapers must read something along the "Mysterious near collision with flying object above Tokyo. Pilot says it was a flying unicorn."

Then it occurred to me. If she's white with red mane, wouldn't she be pretty visible in the night sky? Then people would be talking about that mysterious white horse in the sky. Haha!

Also you might realize that some species of youma I've mentioned do not actually exist. I mean, surely there has to be TONS of other kinds of youma.