The Twelve Kingdoms Forum

In such a flawlessly built world, this is one of the rare things that has never made sense. I've been re-reading some of the novels and re-watching the anime lately, so this is pretty fresh in my mind right now. In the anime Enki and Keiki both make it apparently clear to Taiki that there is no way to actually physically see the "revelation" or "ouki" on the King. Taiki initially believed that he would see some sort of aura actually on the King, based on Keiki's initial description of it to him. However, that was clearly not the case. After the whole bit about Taiki thinking he had chosen a false king, Enki and Keiki both explained to him that it is impossible, and re-explained the revelation to him. The anime describes that there really isn't in a sense a revelation that you can actually see, but somehow you just know. And, since you pick the King it has to be the king, otherwise heaven wouldn't let you.

If that truly is the case, how did Keiki actually find Yoko? Was it by luck? By chance when he just happened to be waltzing through Yoko's school building randomly(which remember is in a completely different world that he has to create a Shoku to get to)? In the case of Rokuta and Shoryu, Rokuta basically did find him by accident, but it made more sense. He actually ran away back to Hourai because he didn't want to pick a King, and while wandering around there he basically stumbled upon Shoryu. That is definitely believable. However, it just seems odd that Keiki could just waltz into a school and find some ordinary random good girl that is supposed to be the King. I do remember from one of the novels, I can't remember which one exactly, but there was a line about how the Kirin CAN sense the direction of the presence of the King. However, that completely conflicts with what the anime explains about not being able to actually see the kings aura. The anime definitely made that point pretty clear. Maybe it's just one of those things where the anime made a stupid mistake? But from the anime standpoint it basically seems like it'd be impossible for Keiki to find Yoko.

I suppose Enki told Keiki that he found Taiki around in the same area, so maybe the city she lives in is a common place for taika to appear in...

I think we're dealing with a translation/cultural problem, rather than a plotting problem. IMHO, the Kirin doesn't see the aura around the king, rather he/she just knows that the person is the king. It's internal rather than external. Remember that Taiki felt something when he first saw Gyousou. He just thought it was fear.

Also, Kirin seem to be led to the future king by luck/the Tao/the will of Tentei. Enki essentially just stumbled across Shoukei. He wasn't even looking. I realise that this is a cop-out, but it's a culturally appropriate cop-out.

^ I don't know. I really think it's just one of the key things of the world that needs to be explored and explained a little better. I've just been noticing some inconsistencies lately, with the anime really since I've nearly finished it. In the anime when king Hou is killed, Hourin yells out "The Ouki is gone!", indicating she could sense he was dead immediately. Which would indicate that the Kirin can indeed sense the King's aura or presence. Which would conflict with what Keiki and Enki told Taiki. Maybe it's just one of those things where it's just because Taiki is a Taika so his instincts aren't very good and it was just too hard to really explain, or maybe the Ouki can only be sensed after the King is crowned. There are just little things here and there that don't really add up.

For example, there is a part in the first novel where Rakushun tells Yoko that she is hard not to notice - almost like she has a strong presence. Even though he's obviously not a Kirin, maybe the king's presence can be felt. I'm just not sure if I buy the luck argument since they have the whole gathering of the population on mount hohzan. Especially because it takes some Kirin like 15 or 20 years to find a new ruler. It just seems odd that it can take some Kirin a long time to find a new ruler, but Keiki was able to find Yoko(who is in a completely different dimension) in a matter of a few years. Just little inconsistencies like that make me scratch my head sometimes.

Good point about Hourin - I'd forgotten that.

But the time taken to find something is always unpredictable. It's the same for your mobile, lost arrows and car keys. It's presumably the same for kings. It does seem odd that Keiki would have traveled to Hourai without having checked Kei throughly first, but there is so much we don't know about how the Kirin finds the king, that it is easy to handwave.

Oh and one more thing. Our primary source about what it feels like to sense the Ouki is from Keiki explaining it to Taiki.

And Keiki has been a miserable failure every other time he's tried to explain something.

After rereading Taiki's arc recently, the book itself drops little hints here and there that Taiki CAN actually sense the king's presence, even before selecting him. Of course, the book is written in such a way to make us just think that Taiki fears Gyoso, but there are hints EVERYWHERE during the time that Gyoso first ascends the mountain that let you know that Taiki really does know that he's the king, it's just that Taiki doesn't really understand it because his powers were still dormant and he didn't understand much of being a Kirin. The main thing I noticed is that when the hopefuls initially started ascending the mountain on the day of safe passage, Taiki felt something ominous coming from that direction, like he had a bad premonition. Of course, that thing was Gyoso.