Volume 1/The Glass Prayer

***The Glass Prayer*** is the fourth and final chapter of Volume 1 of the *Koukyuu no Karasu* series.

## Synopsis

Koushun visits Jusetsu about a ghost that has been sighted under the willow trees near Enou Palace. The ghost appears when the willow flowers bloom and disappears when the willow fluff fly away. According to those who have seen it, it was a ghost with silver hair and red garments. Since silver hair is a distinguishing characteristic of the Ran clan, Jusetsu decides to go see the ghost for herself. On their way there, Koushun asks Jusetsu if it was true that flowers didn't grow at Yamei Palace, which Jusetsu confirms as true, since Wulian Niangniang hates all flowers except the peonies she makes. Koushun then asks if Yamei Palace is still a temple dedicated to Wulian Niangniang, which Jusetsu refuses to answer. Upon their arrival near the willow trees, they see the ghost of a silver-haired woman, dressed in luxurious red garments which turned out to be dyed red by blood. There is also a wide gash across her neck that is still bleeding. The silver hair confirms that she was a member of the Ran clan, and the garments indicate that she was a princess. Koushun recognized the agate she was wearing on her sash as something he saw at the treasure room in Gyokou Hall, meaning that they would be able to find the name of the ghost in the offerings book. Jusetsu asks to go and investigate the treasure room on her own. Koushun thinks over it for a while before allowing her to do so. Jusetsu then learns that Koushun has been seeing the ghost of someone close to him at night, causing him to not sleep well, but he doesn't want her to do anything about it.

Early next morning, Ei Sei comes to take Jusetsu to Gyokou Hall. On the way there, Jusetsu learned that Koushun has been haunted by the ghosts of his mother and Tei Ran for a month now. Near the emperor's main residence, Jusetsu senses something but decides to deal with it later. At the treasure room, Jusetsu meets the Ui, the eunuch in charge of the treasure room. Ui claims to have no name or birth year, and that he was also the Ui during the Ran dynasty as well. Jusetsu is shown the agate, which belonged to Princess Meiju, the second daughter of the last Ran emperor. Princess Meiju was a great beauty who had killed herself by slitting her own throat when the Forbidden Army broke into the inner palace. Ui shows Jusetsu a folding screen with portraits of five Ran clan members who were considered to be the most beautiful in the clan, Meiju included. Meiju's portrait depicts with an elaborate glass comb in her hair. According to Ui, the comb is now lost. To Jusetsu's surprise, Hyougetsu is also depicted on the folding screen. Before Jusetsu leaves, Ui tells her that he is happy to fulfill any request from the Raven Consort, as he is a servant of Wulian Niangniang.

After finishing his duties in the morning, Koushun visits Gyoei again. He wants to know more about White Smoke, the previous dynasty's Winter Minister who wrote the *Tsuushinshi* (通神志)*,* the only book that has a description of the Raven Consort. Gyoei asks why he is so fixated on the Raven Consort, and Koushun says it's because he feels sorry for Jusetsu, who is clearly being forced to stay solitary. Gyoei inadvertently reveals that he knows Jusetsu's name and is forced to admit that he learned it from Reijou, who told him when she was handing over her role to Jusetsu. Gyoei explains that "White Smoke" is a name given to all Winter Ministers because they wear the feathers of the pintail duck in their hats. The "White Smoke" who wrote the *Tsuushinshi* was the first Winter Minister of the Ran dynasty. As the Winter Minister, in secret, Gyoei tells Koushun that the history book of Shou, the *Soutsuten* (雙通典)*,* actually has another version that contains the true history, including the true origins of the Raven Consort. The official version was ordered to be written in order to cover up the truth, and the true version is at Yamei Palace. Gyoei muses on the coincidence of the meeting between Koushun being from the Ka clan and Jusetsu having winter in her name, and refuses to say anything more.

Koushun runs to Yamei Palace, demanding that Jusetsu show her the *Soutsuten.* Jusetsu is enraged when Koushun tells her that he felt pity for her because of her situation. She angrily takes out the real *Soutsuten* and accidentally damages it. As she is fixing the *Soutsuten,* she tells Koushun the story she learned from Reijou, about how Wulian Niangniang chose a man and a woman to become the Summer King and Winter King respectively in order to rule over Shou. The land was at peace for five hundred years until one Summer King named Shou killed his Winter King, Sui. This caused a long period of warfare and Wulian Niangniang did not listen to the people's cries, until one day when a young man named Ran Yuu marched into the capital with an army and easily took the throne. The reason he was able to do so easily was because he had Koushou, a young girl who was the first Winter King chosen by Wulian Niangniang in hundreds of years. Ran Yuu knew that the country would fall into ruin once again without the Winter King, so he confined Koushou in the inner palace, separated her from her priests, and gave her the new title of Raven Consort,, making her just one of his many consorts. He rewrote history to remove any mentions of two kings and created a new backstory for the Raven Consort as a mere descendant of the priestess who served Wulian Niangniang. Koushou agreed to all of this because she loved Ran Yuu.

After she finishes her story, Koushun asks her if she is truly fine with her fate, and if she can quit. Jusetsu shouts that if she could have quit, she would have done so a long time ago, but because Wulian Niangniang chooses the Raven Consort and shares the same body and soul as her, she will lose her life immediately if she left the palace because the goddess will see it as an act of betrayal. Jusetsu believes she was chosen as the Raven Consort on that night after her mother was arrested by the soldiers. Since Jusetsu had slept in the streets on a dark and moonless night, Wulian Niangniang, moving about in the world as a night-wandering god, chose her on a whim. Because she is the Raven Consort, she must distance herself from people and not desire anything in order to keep the secret and not gather people under her command. In a fit of rage, Jusetsu smashes a teacup. Jiujiu comes in to clean it up, but it is soon revealed that Hyougetsu has taken control of her body.

Hyougetsu uses Jiujiu as a hostage, holding one of the broken teacup shards to her neck in order to force Jusetsu to listen to his request. He digs the shard into Jiujiu's neck when he steps forward, drawing blood. This causes something to take over Jusetsu, and she uses her powers to force Hyougetsu out of Jiujiu's body. She is about to forcibly send Hyougetsu to paradise when Koushun calls out her name and stops her, allowing her to regain control of herself. She asks Hyougetsu to tell her his request and guesses that he wants her to save Meiju's ghost, because she was his lover. Hyougetsu reveals their story, talking about how when he found Meiju's ghost after his execution, she would not respond to his voice no matter what, and his many years of fruitless searching for a way to save her, including his possession of Gekkaou in order to find his old master by drawing attention to himself. He never attempted to ask Reijou for help because she exorcized his entire family forcefully. During his most recent visit to the inner palace, he learned that the new Raven Consort was Jusetsu, a member of the Ran clan, and he decided to seize the opportunity to negotiate with her. He chose to possess people before meeting her in order to protect himself.

Jusetsu leaves the palace for the willow tree with the others following her. On the way there, she learns from Hyougetsu that the glass comb Meiju was depicted wearing on the folding screen was a proposal gift from him. It had gone missing after the attack on the inner palace, but Jusetsu suspects that it hadn't been looted. They arrive at the willow tree, which was where Meiju and Hyougetsu met whenever Hyougetsu visited the inner palace. Seeing how her ghost isn't wearing the comb, that means she died without wearing the comb in her hair. Jusetsu theorizes that she didn't wear it because she didn't want it to be looted from her body, so she buried under the willow tree before killing herself in the place that held good memories for her. After she died, her ghost was so preoccupied by not having the comb that she couldn't move on or hear anyone, even Hyougetsu. Jusetsu digs under the tree and finds the comb. She uses her powers to show the comb to Meiju, who regained her awareness. When she sees Hyougetsu, she is transformed back to her original beauty. With the ghostly version of the comb now in her hair, the two lovers set off for paradise. After they disappear, Koushun states that they will bury the comb in the Ran clan's tomb in the Forbidden Garden and leaves the comb in Jusetsu's care.

Later that night, Jusetsu goes to Gyokou Hall to get rid of the cause of Koushun's lack of sleep. She meets Koushun in his bedchambers and smells the same strange scent from this morning, now stronger. She uses her powers to get rid of the curse beast waiting beyond his door. She explains to Koushun that the curse beast was mostly likely left behind by the empress dowager to be set on Koushun after her execution a month ago, and that the ghosts of his mother and Tei Ran are standing in front of his door in order to protect him. The ghosts of Consort Sha and Tei Ran, now back to how they looked before their deaths, smile at Koushun one last time before disappearing. Koushun asks Jusetsu how can he repay her, but Jusetsu refuses any reward. She says she doesn't need his help because she believes her fate is her punishment for letting her mother die. Koushun responds that he has received a far worse punishment for not preventing his mother's and Tei Ran's deaths, but that it wouldn't be so bad if he was going to be punished with her.

Some time later, Jusetsu, accompanied by Jiujiu, visits Enou Palace to drink tea with Kajou, dressed in the clothes Kajou gave her and wearing the ivory comb from Koushun. Kajou tells her that Koushun had asked her to pass on that he would not be able to visit her for a while, as he is busy with reviewing the administrative and civil codes. Kajou remarks that Jusetsu reminds her of her youngest sister and asks to call her "Ah-mei," a term of affection for a younger girl.

When Jusetsu and Jiujiu return to Yamei Palace, they find Koushun and Ei Sei waiting for them. Koushun tells Jusetsu that he was reviewing the codes in order to get rid of any unnecessary laws, including the decree to arrest and execute any members of the Ran clan. He then takes out two glass fish figurines made by the court workshop and gives the pale red one to Jusetsu as a symbol of the pledge he wants to make with her. The first promise is the one from before, where he promises not to kill her no matter what. The second is that they will never fight each other. Jusetsu agrees to it, even though that means she will be trapped in the inner palace for the rest of her life. Koushun bows to her to show his respect to her and the past Raven Consorts. Jusetsu is taken aback but feels relieved that he is reaching out to her in her suffering. He then tells her his last promise: to become her good friend. Jusetsu asks what do friends do, and he replies that they probably have tea together. He asks Ei Sei to make some tea. While the tea is being made, Jusetsu looks down at her glass fish and thinks that it's fitting of a prayer called a pledge.

## Characters in Order of Appearance

* Ryuu Jusetsu
* Jiujiu
* Xingxing
* Ka Koushun
* Ei Sei
* Flame Emperor (mentioned)
* Reijou (mentioned)
* Ran Meiju
* Ui
* Wulian Niangniang (mentioned)
* Setsu Gyoei
* Shou (mentioned)
* Sui (mentioned)
* Ran Yuu (mentioned)
* Koushou (mentioned)
* Gekkaou (mentioned)
* Hyougetsu's master (mentioned)
* Jusetsu's mother (mentioned)
* Sha (ghost)
* Tei Ran (ghost)
* Empress Dowager (mentioned)
* Kajou