The Twelve Kingdoms: The Vast Spread of the Seas

Sea God in the East, Vast Sea in the West, 東の海神 西の滄海, Higashi no Watatsumi, Nishi no Sōkai is the third novel in The Twelve Kingdoms fantasy series written by Fuyumi Ono. It was released in March 2009 in English by Tokyopop as The Twelve Kingdoms: The Vast Spread of the Seas.

The book focuses on Enki and Shoryu, the kirin and king of En respectively, in the early years of Shoryu's reign when Shoryu is forced to quell a rebellion in En. The novel reveals their origins as taika, people originating in the Twelve Kingdoms, but swept away by shoku and born in Hourai, and how they met.

The story has been released in English as anime by Media Blasters as the epilogue portion of The Twelve Kingdoms.

Plot Introduction
When only an eggfruit, the kirin of the Kingdom of En, Rokuta, was transported to Japan for his own protection. But he was abandoned soon after birth by his surrogate parents, left to fend for himself in the mountains. It just so happened that at the same time, a young boy in the En Kingdom named Koya was also abandoned by his own parents, after which he was raised by demon beasts. Their similar circumstances aren't the only thing to bind these two boys, though. Twenty years after their abandonment, their destinies intersect, with potentially disastrous consequences for the En Kingdom.