Let's make this place live!

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Sea of Wind is out in English now. Came out on the 11th if I'm not mistaken. That cut it at all?

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Yeah, manga adaptations are probably the most common start for an anime. Still, it isn't entirely unheard of. Haruhi is also a novel conversion for instance.

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So, Shouko, I've been reading Eugene Woodbury's translations. Apparently Shouko isn't the epicly awesome villain you thought he was.

The man crouched down, trying to crawl under the divan in the gorgeously-arrayed room. He had a blanket pulled over his head, yet the mound of cloth could be clearly seen for what it was. And as the mound itself was the size of the divan, how he was going to fit under the divan was anybody's guess. And even a child knew better than to leave his nose poking out from the folds. The round, lumpy mound trembled.

Koshou acted first. He approached the man and grabbed the blanket. A strangled scream reverberated from beneath the layers of cloth.

The scream came from a tremendously fat man. His age was difficult to determine. That's how tremendously obese the man was. An eternity of gluttony had left him hardly a man but a strange species of creature.

Koshou tossed the blanket to the side. Half-buried in the mass of flesh, the small, animal-like, beady eyes looked up at Koshou, suffused with fear.

"Shoukou, I presume," Koshou stated flatly.

"No, no, no!" the man shrieked.

"Who else in Takuhou could be mistaken for the likes of you?"

People poured into the room, surrounded him. Among them was Suzu, who reached into her tunic, to where the sword rested against her racing heart. She firmly grasped the hilt.

This is Shoukou.

Her hand trembled. She drew the sword from its sheath.

page 254

The man who killed Seishuu.

"Suzu."

Youshi spoke in a low voice. Suzu started, her eyes wide in surprise. When she looked back over her shoulder, Youshi shook her head, no. She lightly patted Suzu on the arm and then pressed through the ring or people, who all stood there as if frozen in place.

"So you're Shoukou."

"No, I'm not!"

"What did you do with Enho?"

"Enho?"

"If you can deliver Enho alive, we may spare your life for the time being."

The man little eyes nervously flitted back and fro.

"On the other hand, if you wish to die, I will accommodate your desires." She drew her sword. The man frantically backed away. He looked like a fat bear trying to scratch his back on the divan.

"Really? You're really going to help me?"

"You have my word."

Youko looked up at Koshou. With a bewildered expression, he looked back and forth between Youko and Shoukou. He closed his eyes and sighed. "Now you're making promises like that. He's all yours, then."

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Youko replied with a slight nod. She knelt down in front of Shoukou. "Out with it. Where's Enho?"

"H-he's n-not h-here."

"What?"

The man raised a quavering hand, his stubby forefinger tracing a crooked circle in the air. "Meikaku. I know nothing. The Marquis of Wa asked me to. So I sent him to Meikaku."

"Gahou? Why would Gahou want to kidnap Enho?"

"I was told to kill him. Because he was a survivor of the Evergreen Seminary. That's what he said. I ordered the raid, but didn't kill him. The fools brought him here. When I informed the Marquis, he said to deliver Enho to him."

"So he is still alive?"

"I didn't kill him. Truly."

Youko glanced behind her, at the flustered and perplexed faces looking down at them. "I understand the malice in your hearts, but please discipline yourselves for now. This man is tied to Gahou. If he is killed and Gahou escapes, all will be for naught."

His knowledge of the depraved lengths to which the Wa Province Lord had gone made Shoukou a vital link.

A man standing next to Koshou cast his eyes up toward the heavens and heaved a big sigh. Taking that as a signal, the room shook with jeers of derision. Some crying out in scorn, a few others quietly holding back tears of despair.

page 256

The room once again fell into silence and the human cordon around Shoukou dispersed. Dejected, shoulders drooping, they exited the room. Behind them, Koshou suddenly scraped the tip of his broadsword against the floor.

"The provincial guard is coming! This is no time to get complacent!"

At once, his crestfallen comrades were seized by the warrior spirit. After the requisite disrespectful glances at Shoukou, they snapped out of it, lifted their heads proudly, and marched out of the room.

Suzu continued to stare at Shoukou. He was nothing but a frightened, stupid-looking man. Her malice for him was deep, but that malice was hers alone. Not even Seishuu had shared it when he died. If Seishuu had spoken any words of revenge in his final moments, she would have killed him no matter what Youshi said.

"You killed a child in Takuhou."

Shoukou shuddered violently, like a wounded bird.

Suzu balled her hands into fists as she turned on her heels. "And I will never forget it."

Apparently he was more like... a fat ass corrupt politician who was just greedy rather than someone who wanted to stand up against god-like figures.

Oh well, now you know.

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I'm more or less led to believe that it was just a way to add a little action to the book that until that scene really hadn't had any. To say the least, it was kind of random and their reasons for getting all fussy were pretty stupid... not to mention something you would think to have been resolved long between this book and the last major Yoko story (Thousand Leagues/Ri of Wind).

What bugs me more than Yoko's unwillingness to defend herself is her unwillingness to explain her actions to them... granted, at least on the aspect of class it is obvious they wouldn't really give a damn, she could have made at least some effort to explain her plans in the foreign arena. Who knows, it might have even gotten them off her back.

But since they were the random bigots (who for some reason hadn't already been disposed of 0-o), I guess they had to die.

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What I meant by stupid wasn't their motivations themselves so much as it was the way their appearance came completely out of nowhere and their total lack of information about the diplomacy going on between monarchs just seems to betray the fact that these people were who they were... The Naisai in particular should have been more informed on it. I'd think, particularly if they were worried about their queen falling from the way, that they would be pleased with the prospect that Yoko is preparing for the worst case scenario. Instead though he just expresses a bunch of frustration over how much effort she is putting into diplomacy (in spite of the fact that when it comes to resources, nothing from Kei is really diverted).

Since this was the last major release in the original set of novels, I'm thinking this might have been where Fuyumi Ono started dropping the pen so to speak. Hence the massive hiatus and all...

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I'd say that thats probably just about everyone's favorite set. Doubly so of people who saw the anime before reading the novels (IE: everyone).

For me it's a tie between Thousand Leagues of Wind (IE that stuff you just mentioned) and Sea of Wind (Taiki's childhood story). Thousand Leagues took a bit of a hit when I read the novel (but it was still very good) and everything else got a rather large boost. I hated Enki's story before reading Vast Spread of Seas (yeah, I got the Tokyo Pop translation), but now I'm liking it somewhat more. Still my least favorite though.

Shore in Twilight managed to annoy me into submission mostly for it's lack of actual activity. They manage to accomplish one major plot point the entire time, and while it's a heavily important one, it's just not enough... and the fact that we still aren't even seeing the beginnings of a new novel cropping up is getting irksome.

Makes me hope they get the anime going again just so that I can see what kind of crazy ways they embellish on that plot...

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I find Taiki's story (the whole thing so far) to easily be the most disheartening. Hell, the crowning moment in his life right now is when he gets back to the Kingdoms, powerless, poisoned, possibly with his shirei killed off and if not, sealed until he may or may not get his powers back, and as far as we know there is a high likelihood of no conclusion ever being reached on that front. His childhood is easily the most traumatic of any of the main characters.

On the other hand, I'm going by the books. I guess it'd be easily thought to be light hearted if you didn't read Demon Child.