Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2008 6:47 pm
Wouldn't Hourin have died with or without being killed by Gekkei? I'm pretty sure that the Kirin dies when the king dies unless the King offers his resignation to the heavens and all that business.
Thats only ever mentioned to be true in the case of a resignation ceremony performed before the Dowager of the West (or whatever they call her in other translations... I forget)
In Shore of Twilight, the Dowager of the West is shown to have the ability to heal kirin and exorcise impurities from them, so I'm inclined to believe thats the only case in which a kirin suffering from shitsudo would get better with the cost of a ruler's life.