April the 8th, naval time 10:25PM, Otohime's perspective.

      There was only one last appointment to end her day. Otohime had just talked to one of her many army scouts returning from the north. It was very troubling to her that the reports of the tree burning man attacking villages in the north were true. The estimated loss of life was horrendous. Not even the males had been spared.

      The tree burning men had not shown up for generations. She wasn't even sure she could lead her army against them and win. The last great war had been nearly lost before the attack had been halted on the other side, sparring them from obliteration. That war had ended the lives of thousands. Her army was not even half the size her ancestors could bring to bear in their defense. She had troubling times ahead.

      The description of the tree burning man also was common knowledge, considering they had not been seen by anyone living today. Ferocious killing creatures without an agenda. They looked similar to them slightly, but they often dyed their skin blue and carried around giant sticks. The horns on their head reached for the heavens, most unnecessarily since they already stood more than a third taller than the average Ryujin.

      Her train of thought was broken. "Your last appointment for the day is ready your Lordship." The guard bowed.

      Four guards and an imperial officer entered her chamber, accompanied by two figures. It was a common sight she hated seeing. Two of the guards were restraining a larger crying woman. The smaller girl half her size was stoically silent between her two large guards. She was the offender of their laws, and the mother was also therefore guilty.

      "The accused is guilty of the loss of Otohime's property. The mother of the accused is hereby found guilty of the improper care and supervision of the Lord's property. Both crimes are under the jurisdiction of The Lord for punishment." The Imperial Officer stated.

      "You will kneel before your Lord." She pushed the two girls into the arms of the guards as she spoke.

      The guards forced the two women to kneel as The Lord spoke. They were not very gentle.

      Otohime hated carrying out punishments like these. Still if men were allowed to die, then their kingdom would crumble. Above all else, her station existed to protect all the men of her Kingdom. She was the bureaucrat, land and male protectorate, and Judge on all matters of state. Which meant she was also the executioner to their laws, the very laws which protected the Ryujin way of life.

      "Please my Lord, it was an accident. She would never harm her brother!" The two guards shoved the mothers face into the rocky ground after she spoke.

      "Who gave you permission to speak to the Lord?" The guard yelled into the mother's ear.

      "It is okay, allow the young one to tell her story first. What's your name?" Otohime asked.

      "Hina." The young girl said.

      "What a beautiful name Hina. So what happened to your brother?"

      The small girl started to cry, she had been holding herself together, but the Lord's words had been too soft, too friendly. "Hina is a really good swimmer, and brother needed a bath. I planned to wash him inside his Palace, but he asked me to show him how good a swimmer I was outside. So I snuck him from mom's room and brought him outside. Everything had been going okay until brother asked to see me swim."

      Otohime could see where this was going, and could tell her mother had drilled her to be silent. Her pressure on this girl was revealing the truth.

      "I gave into brother's demand and started swimming away from him, that was when I saw the Tengu in the sky. I really tried to get back to him, but I didn't make it!" The little girl broke into a crying wail inside the Lord's chambers.

      "Silent!" One of the guards yelled at the young girl.

      "A believable story little Hina, but I'm afraid your at fault, a fact which saddens me to no end."

      "Please mercy!" Begged Hina's mother.

      "Silent!" Yelled the guard as she slapped Hina's mother.

      "Mother!"

      Such a sad story this was, her husband nearby looked none the better as well. But setting an example was also necessary for Otohime, so her husband would forgive her for what she most do.

      "I judge you both for your crimes. Hina! For your crime of improper care and protection of your brother, I sentence you to exile to the north. You will travel until you hit land, and never return."

      "That's beyond cruel my Lord! The lands to the north belong to the tree burning man, even if she survived the swim, she would be eaten for sure!"

      Ignoring the pleading mother, the Lord continued. "You, who have failed to oversee your son correctly. Have proven yourself to be a danger to all men. You shall be striped of your title, and your husband shall be confiscated, as you're an unfit mother."

      This time, Hina spoke out of term. "You can't do that, it will destroy our village!"

      "Silent girl!"

      Otohime hated doing this, but being harsh might be the only thing that kept that small girl alive. "You no longer have a place among the Ryujin! You have no home within these waters! Make a new home."

      Otohime knew it wasn't uncommon for the banished to form villages in the trees dangerously close to the land. They had no men for children, and generally they were a safety net in times of invasion's past. It was a known secret, told in children's story tales. She hoped that Hina had heard such stories, otherwise going to the land was nothing more than like a wani swimming into a Ryujin's net.

      Hina's mother no longer spoke up, but only sobbed all over the hard stone floor. She continued to do so while her small daughter was branded with a Tattoo on her face. The symbol itself stood for untrustworthy, and was placed on anyone who was banished, or committed an unforgiveable crime.

      Otohime was sick of this day, she had enough. "I'm retiring for the night. Guards, escort our guests out."

      April the 9th, naval time 11:02PM, Ito's  perspective.

      The Yamato would join up with the explorative fleet in another two hours. Further communication with the explorative fleet had been quiet, as no reports of being chased by the giants had been noticed. It seemed they were not being pursued. Ito was in no rush for a confrontation with eleven of those giants.

      Stepping off the bridge, Ito stepped onto the elevator. He nodded a moment to think. Stepping out unto the desk, he still felt it strange to not smell the pacific. Still he walked along the side of the Yamato until he reached the stern. This took him about twelve minutes. The water trailing behind the ship was ripping turrets of water, the like of which, Ito had only seen on speedboats. It was a bit inspiring, but had nothing to do with his current thoughts. Looking out into the strange land, he saw a correlation of change.

      Men were scrambling aboard the Yamato, only saluting him as he walked by. New gardens and rice patties were taking shape inside make shift tubs. They were going to survive, that was the conclusion he came to as he walked the distance of the eight hundred and sixty feet to the bow of the ship.

      Ito was comforted by the knowledge his fleet was doing everything they could to survive as well. The three men in front of him were bickering that the water had been getting increasingly shallow as they headed south. One argued they were approaching land, while the other argued they were heading for a mountain, the third just seemed to want to point out a mountain was land. Ito just chuckled as he made his way back to the bridge.

      The elevator came to a stop. Steeping out, Ito let a person who was in a rush unto the elevator. Walking to the bridge, he noticed everyone else was in a similar panic.

      "What's all this ruckus about?" Ito asked Aruga, Captain of the Yamato.

      "Vice Admiral Ito, it appears we have sighted another giant ahead."

      April the 9th, naval time 11:28PM, Hina's  perspective.

      Hina had been making her way north ever since she had been thrown out of the Palace. Her mother had been silent and gone her separate way. In truth, Hina was not her biological daughter. She was the Village's mother, or had been, now she was a nobody in a doomed village. Of course the village would no doubt try to attain the rights to trade for the rights for a male mating ritual. The cost for such a thing, was expensive. Chances are, her sisters would never have a dowry to have kids. They would blame her. Hina was really understanding the implications of what she had done.

      Her body was still yet to be full grown, and she would appear to a normal human to be in her mid teens, but in truth she had lived for over thirty two years already. Still she would have another eight years before she stopped growing, and then another one hundred and sixty years roughly before she would die of old age. So for all intensive purposes she was still a child.

      She stood at a height of a hundred feet, most of which was underneath the water, thankfully she could still stand, for now. She had already started learning the trade of fishing from her biological mother, so she would not starve fortunately. The Ryujin society had no concept of a money system. People as a whole owned rights to land and tree's, and things they produced. The occasional wife might hold the rights over a man, and also use that power to garner services as well. For the most part though, the Ryujin were a bartering society. So having a trade in something was hugely valuable for someone in the position Hina was in now.

      Still Hina had nowhere to sleep, she had been walking north since she had been booted from the palace. Even in the dark she continued. If she was lucky, some village might let her sleep for a night. Doing so would be costly however, and most would reject her based on the tattoo on her forehead.

      So while she had been on the lookout for wani, what she saw off in the distance shocked her.

      "What the hell are those!"

      April the 9th, naval time 10:40PM, Otohime's perspective.

      It was noon time already, half her day was already gone. The morning had been filled with meetings with her varying army officials. The decision to publicly announce war with the tree burning men was the subject. Many of her officers who reported, felt that advanced warning might prepare some villages, before an attack. On the other hand, the other argument floating around was that of worrying the people, and creating panic. No warning was potentially as dangerous as a mass panic by the Ryujin. So again Otohime sent out more scouts to the north. Then there was the matter of the other dark creatures her daughter spoke of. She had no idea what to make of that, all she could do was await her daughter's report.

      With the noon sun, came here noon appointments. The first few had been settling bartering disputes. It was rather troublesome lately, since most of her military power had been stretched thin guarding the borders. Before they had served at their own villages as advocates on her behalf. Now Otohime was overwhelmed by every villages problems.

      One village had traded fourteen wani to another village in exchange for an hour mating session. That was enough food to feed an entire village for a day. After the trade, when the village came to collect it's mating session, they felt they had been scammed. The village's wife's husband slept through the entire session, despite attempts at waking him. The village then refused to return the wani, since they had already eaten them.

      As a result of being overwhelmed, Otohime was ready to just start turning away everyone for the rest of the day. Then came a curious statement from one of her attendants about her next appointment.

      April the 9th, naval time 10:30PM, Maki's perspective.

      Sitting in the equivalent of a waiting room, inside the large palace, Maki couldn't help but feel nervous. Here she was at the dragon palace where the lord lived. Trying to explain Shouta's situation to the court officials had proved difficult. Shouta still seemed upset, and didn't even try to explain himself. He just waited inside her palms pacing. No doubt wandering how to explain himself to the large powerful woman he was about to meet.

      Still it wasn't like they would get an appointment soon anyways. There was a long line of fellow Ryujin's already waiting in the room. The stares Shouta had received, were nothing compared to the ones of jealously on the female faces in the room. Maki all of a sudden felt like a wani in a room full of Tengu, or perhaps that's the way Shouta should have felt. But Shouta hardly would notice, since he was caught up with his pacing.

      He was the only man in the room, and extra guards had been placed around Maki, adding to the stuffiness of the stone and mortar room. All of this only made her warrant more attention from the onlookers.

      April the 9th, naval time 10:20PM, Kenta's perspective.

      "What language was that!" Kenta asked his other startled sailors.

      The man across from Kenta looked confused.

      "Someone get a linguist. This guy could be important!"

      A few of Kenta's fellow comrades bolted out of the small compartment. Leaving Kenta nearly alone with the man. Kenta eyed the man. A fellow sailor armed with a type 99 light machine gun had his back.

      Kenta spoke the four English words he knew just in case. "Are You American Sailor?"

      Kenta awaited his response.

To be continued.