The Twelve Kingdoms Forum

(Based on Eugene's translation of Tsuki no kage)

Hyouki tells Youko that Jouyuu can't operate if she closes her eyes; yet later in En she thinks having her eyes ruined by youma won't be a fatal disadvantage, until she remembers the poison. Eh?

In Chapter 23 (Escape From Takki) she sees a flash of gold hair in the crowd as she runs from a bafuku (human faced tiger youma). Do we have any basis for knowing if that was Kouri observing, or Enki on recon?

More randomly, how many shirei might kirin tend to have? I thought I saw the word "countless", probably meaning dozens, and Kourin seems to have a small army; OTOH we never see that many of Keiki's. And then another question might be how many of them are of power, vs. tiny non-talkers like the rabbit Keiki catches for Taiki, and how many talkers they might have -- I've had a fanfic idea where Keiki has many smallish talking shirei, which Youko starts using as royal spies and messengers; doesn't work so well if only big ones talk and he has four.

Does anyone remember a passage where Youko had wanted to wear pants or shorts for gym, but her father wouldn't let her? I recall it fairly well, but it's not in the beginning of the novel, nor the anime.

Oh, I can answer one of my own questions -- chapter 25 has Youko buying men's clothes to avoid trouble, and remembering buying jeans in elementary school, so she could run, to her father's outrage. She laughs to think what he'd think of her now.

About the number of shirei, when the kirin takes a new shirei the youma will make a judgment about whether it is worth the trouble, I guess how many other shireis will have to share the dead body of this kirin comes into the calculations as well. Also the shireis can gather other youmas of the same kind, that is why there seems to be a leader sometimes in Kourin's army of youmas. Btw, Renrin has a little dog as spy, it looks quite harmless.

I think the one Youko saw was Kourin.