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[choseanidiot]

It was incomprehensible the level of tension that had disappeared as what his body knew and his mind only temporarly did, finally meshed into the whole, uninterrupted knowledge of the fact, resonating through his self, that Shōryū was his chosen king. Enki shook his head, trying get rid of the frustration towards those that had kept this from him. Holding on to that wouldn't help.

He had it back, that was what was important. And now he didn't need to 'accidentally' (led by confusedly following the ouki) stumble upon Shōryū and get smacked in the face several times a day, unless he spent the whole day with the idiot. He knew perfectly well where Shōryū was, so he knew he wouldn't (currently) find him in the Black Dorm. But that wasn't why he was wandering into the dorm Shōryū slept in. No, Enki was looking for someone else, someone who he couldn't find by following some mystical aura. Which was why he was starting at the dorm Suzaku slept in.

If he was lucky, the teenager would be in here.

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[choseanidiot]

Shaking his head, Enki's face fell into a thoughtful expression once again. Here was a difference between Over There and the twelve kingdoms, and obviously between the twelve kingdoms and wherever Suzaku was from that Enki thought was good.

"A good king gives a rich, peaceful land, Suzaku... If Shōryū wasn't a good king, there'd be signs of that in the land itself. The ministers in place keep the system and changes we've set up going, so they're not interested in destroying that." Enki shrugged. He still didn't like kings or fuedal lords; usually, they all led to only one end, and that was death of their people and the ravaging of the land.

But Shōryū was keeping En peaceful, well and green, and would for a long time yet.
"An' if someone thought he wasn't doing a good job, that person can't be looking out at En. And then they'd have to take that issue up with me, I chose him after all," Enki said and scoffed, a bit of unconcious pride slipping in.

"An' if they killed the king... The land falls to ruin until I could find a new king. An' I doubt that someone who gets into their head to kill a king who hasn't strayed from the path would be a suitable king," Enki snorted.

Atsuyu... Atsuyu had said so many pretty things, but he had, after all, not gone to Mt. Hou. And if he'd put himself in power over Shōryū? Enki would surely have been struck down by shitsudou, and then Shōryū would have died and then no matter how pretty his words or what he did, En would have plunged into the abyss again.

[swordofzero]

Suzaku blinked, none of this made any sense, a good king brought peace, well he could agree with that but when the king died the land fell to ruin? Why would they have to look for another king. Surely someone would just take the thrown, why leave it to Enki to find someone.

"But, surely they just take the throne by force..." Why wait for a new king to be chosen, if they killed a king who was good but lazy then why would they care about the land. Maybe they thought they could do a better job, surely even if Enki thought Shōryū was a good king there were others that didn't agree.

[choseanidiot]

"Doesn't work that way." Enki shook his head and uncrossed his legs, swinging them a few times before stilling, his face almost edging into sternness that made him seem older.

"I may not like kings or fuedal lords, but Heaven has set up the laws, and those can't be broken. Heaven provides a kirin for each kingdom to confer the will of Heaven upon one person, who becomes the king. The kirin then advises said king, and we all have to hope," Enki paused to roll his eyes, having a bit of trouble to keep the scoff out of his voice.

He was trying to be serious here and just give the rules of his world straight...
"That the king is a good one and don't stray from the path. No king means the kingdom falls to ruin..."

Well, there had been Atsuyu and Gen, but, how long would Atsuyu have been able to keep Gen free of the horrors that had consumed the rest of En?

"If someone kills the king, no matter if the king was a good one or a bad one, they can't take the throne and expect the country to prosper. They won't even be able to get into the palace. Without the will of Heaven behind them, without the kirin's protection, it doesn't matter what they do, they're not, and will never be, the king." Enki shrugged. That was just how it was. A neat little package of rules that governed the well-being of his whole world.

[swordofzero]

That... made no sense but in a way it did. It made sense if he stopped trying to compare it to his own world. So in Enki's world there were gods who gave power to kings and the Kirin were sent to make sure the kings did the right thing. The king couldn't be assasinated because the country would go to ruin and the person who killed them could not become king because they were not chosen.

"But surely that means if the king is bad then the country is stuck, they had a bad king who they can't get rid of."

[choseanidiot]

Enki pulled up his legs again to the tabletop and crossed them, holding onto the ankles as he shook his head. It seemed Suzaku had forgot that little bit about the disease he'd mentioned.

"Nah. They ain't stuck," Enki's grin was wan and his eyes hooded. How many times since Shōryū had been given the throne of En had kirin in other kingdoms been struck down with shitsudou? Too many times. Always too many times.

"A king who's bad leads to the kirin getting sick. It's called shitsudou. Means 'losing of the way'. The point is that the king's supposed to realize that they're not following Heaven's wishes anymore." Enki shrugged and stared down at the floor.

"An' if they've gotten that far, it ain't often they actually care enough to stop. Then the kirin dies, and within the year, the king does too." Enki grunted and looked up at Suzaku again.

"Some point after that, the fruit that holds the new kirin of the kingdom will grow on Mt. Hou, an' the people'll have to wait for the kirin to grow up and then just hope the king won't fall as quickly as the former."

Because, really. All kings fell at one point, killed, or killing their country.

[swordofzero]

Suzaku watched Enki solumly as Enki began to explain, this was... terribly unfair. Something about it was wrong, so wrong, that someone else would be punished for the wrongdoings of a king and then the kingdom fell to ruin because there was no king. He tried to imagine that being the case back in his own world and shook his head, a Kirin would die quickly there he did not think most the nobles of Britannia would care enough about one person to change their ways.

But it was so unfair! That someone else would be punished, even though Enki had said the king would die shortly after the Kirin, he guessed that might be enough to prevent some abusing their power.

Still, "That's awful." Suzaku didn't meet Enki's eyes but his eyes were full of anger. Even though Enki was still alive and so that must mean Shōryū was doing a decent job of being king there was the risk that he could be found to be bad and Enki would die, and yet still Enki had said Shōryū ran away and didn't see to his duties and was lazy. Why would he risk that?

[choseanidiot]

"That's kinda the point," Enki's grin was only half-hearted, and then he shrugged.

"No point dwelling on it, ain't gonna change."

The only way it would change, was if Tentei somehow didn't like the world he'd made, and so destroyed it and tried again, and well, Enki kind of liked being alive, so...

"Besides, five hundred years is a long time... there's only one other kingdom that's had the same king longer, one hundred years longer, an' they'll soon be the kingdom with the longest-living king on record."

[swordofzero]

Suzaku shrugged, he guessed Enki was right it wasn't going to change but that didn't make it right or fair. At least Suzaku had the chance to at least try and change the world he lived in. Which was what he and Lelouch were trying to do. Suzaku tried not to think of what Enki would think of him if he told him what him and Lelouch had been in the proecess of doing back in their world.

Suzaku was silent for a long time as he took in what Enki had told him, five hundred years was a very long time and the fact that Shōryū was still ruling and Enki was still alive pointed to the fact that Shōryū was a half decent king.

"That's good, so if the king is really really good he will live forever and the country will prosper?"

[choseanidiot]

Enki nodded and idly picked up one of the books Suzaku had on the table, leafing through it while he spoke.

"Yeah. When the king accepts the kirin's pledge, the king's given immortality, so as long as he doesn't stray or gets his fool self killed, the king could live forever." Enki looked up suddenly and put the book down.

"Most don't make it past a hundred." He shrugged and tapped his fingers on the book he'd just put down. "There's always some sort of crisis around a few decades after the king ascends, and then around when the king would naturally have died."

There was no real explanation, and personally he didn't understand it. But then, as a kirin, he didn't have an 'end' to his lifespan, or even a natural lifespan at all. Maybe it was simply something he couldn't understand, the end-of-life crisis kings apparently had.

[swordofzero]

Suzaku nodded, he did understand the immortality after all CC couldn't die, none of the code givers could. He had no idea why there should be a crisis but he nodded anyways, "I guess the way people are means they can't be good forever and so even good people will mess up eventually," That wasn't a cheary thought, especially since it seemed Shōryū was the third longest reigning king.

[choseanidiot]

Enki shook his head slowly, eyes closed and the tapping fingers having stilled on the book.

"I think they can. But even the best king falls." Enki shivered and grimaced and wished he could take those words back. They sounded like an exclamation of doom.

His belief was unshaken, his nature contested that belief, but his hope, the very thing Shōryū had given him, was more fragile, and having uttered those words in such a way, it quavered beneath the weight.

It didn't matter. They weren't even home. Enki shrugged and straightened. Shōryū was the sort of stubborn, greedy idiot who'd fight to the very last person, the very last blade of grass, anyway.

It wouldn't come to that for a long time yet, he hoped.

[swordofzero]

Suzaku nodded, he hoped that it didn't happen for a long time. But he was a little worried, surely if Shōryū had been kidnapped and brought here someone meant their country ill, and would the fact that Shōryū was here not there mean that the gods of his world would decide he had abandoned his country.

"You feel all right at the moment though, right?"

[choseanidiot]

He... Gripping the edges of the table, hard, Enki suddenly had the urge to bolt, to find Shōryū and make sure he was okay. Of course, if anything, he'd be the one who'd notice something was wrong before Shōryū did.

"'Course I do! Absolutely peachy. Nothing wrong at all..." Enki's forced cheer trailed off as his teeth gritted. These people in charge... Did they not understand that this wasn't just his or Shōryū life they were (probably literally) playing with?

It was also the whole population of En.

Enki tried a smile, but knew it only came out as a strained twitch. He was fine. They'd been here a while now, and he was still fine.

[swordofzero]

Suzaku raised an eyebrow, he wasn't fine. He looked scared, Suzaku wondered if he was feeling sick. If he was sick then in kidnapping them and bringing them here the kidnappers had effectively killed Enki and Shōryū and doomed their country to ruin.

Suzaku went pale, "Enki... are you sure? You'd say if you wern't feeling well?" He frowned at the Kirin.

[choseanidiot]

Suzaku's concern made Enki able to (somewhat) supress his worry again. He needed to hide it good, anyway, otherwise Shōryū would notice and ask.

And his king didn't need to think about that, in the off-chance that he hadn't already factored that into their need for a speedy return home (not that 'speedy' felt very possible for the moment).

"I'm fine. Not feeling sick," Enki said, enforcing the words with a narrow-eyed stern frown. Because he did feel fine.

Of course, he'd never had even the faintest trace of shitsudou before, so he had no idea how that felt, so he wouldn't know when it started.

[swordofzero]

Suzaku nodded and didn't push the subject even though he was still worried. Enki looked worried but that might just be the idea that he could get sick and his country could be doomed.

Suzaku thought back to his own world, wondered for the thousandth time if Schneizel had won, it was likely since Lelouch was here and not there. All of Zero Requiem for nothing; he wondered if there was even a world left or if it had been totally destroyed by Damocles. Then again Gino came from the future (Suzaku still didn't understand how that worked) and everything was fine there so...

He shook his head and sighed not sure of what to say.