Outside Nagano JR station (local time 11:04 AM)…
It took much to shock someone like Moroboshi Negako.
"Your son?"
This had done it.
"Hai," Senzō said, trying his best not to break down and cry as he recalled what had happened to his poor child years ago. "The Alliance persuaded me to allow my child to undergo genetic testing in the United States to give him some advantages should he ever encounter anyone that might threaten him; when he was born, he was blessed with great intelligence but had a frail physical constitution." A sigh. "When I next saw him not several months ago…" He shuddered. "It was the most awful thing…"
Negako gazed at him, and then she nodded in understanding as they — accompanied by Tōgetsu Aya and Senzō's own chief assistant Kenmochi — waited by a van they had brought from the local private heliport, now parked in a reserved station at the west entrance to the train station, just beside one of the doors leading into the Midori Department Store that was attached to the building. "We will ensure he is captured and treated well," the Emperor's personal assistant then stated. "But if the upcoming battle does get fully out of control, Senzō, I cannot give guarantees."
A nod. "I understand, Negako-sama."
"Negako-sama?"
Negako and Aya did not react to that voice that just came out of nowhere. Senzō and Kenmochi had barely been able to restrain themselves from leaping away from their companions in fright. "What is the status of intercepting Sogen's people, Jinseiko?"
"They will be intercepted as soon as they clear the exit gates, then guided into a washroom before they are disabled and we can remove them to a controlled location for interrogation," the voice of Fusegu Jinseiko, the chief warrior of Negako's own personal group of ninjutsu scouts, echoed back.
"Ensure you are not seen."
"Hai."
Senzō then tensed slightly as something seemed to brush past him. A quick glance around revealed nothing that could indicate the presence of whoever it was that had just spoken to his old war comrade. "How on Earth…?"
"An invisibility trick my people were able to learn thanks to research done by one of Happy's latest students," Negako replied as her eyes narrowed on seeing several people appear in the distance through the glass doors leading into the station. "His son was the one who had dealt with the matter with the Urusians."
Senzō stared at her. "You're still friends with that letch?!"
Negako glared at him, which nearly made his knees buckle and his bladder go. If seeing the now-free Saikō Jinseijutsu smile was one thing, seeing her ANGRY was quite another. "He has been a friend of mind for far longer than you have, Senzô. And his problems with needing female ki were made life-threatening thanks to those who opposed my desires to be free." She turned back as a group of four teenage girls and one teenage boy became visible to her companions, they heading towards them. "His problem has been dealt with for the most part; he currently resides with me near the Palace."
Senzō shakily nodded his head…
"NEGAKO!"
…and then looked up as a gushing middle school girl did a nearly impossible leap into the grandmaster's arms. Negako barely reacted as Mikoto slammed into her, though she was willing to return the gushing girl's embrace. "Hello, Mikoto. You look quite attractive in your clothes. I see Mai has persuaded you to improve your wardrobe."
Mikoto didn't respond as she rubbed her face in the other woman's cleavage; while Moroboshi Negako was certain no Tokiha Mai in the breast department, she was quite well endowed in her own way. Watching her bond-mate act like that made Mai blush while both Akira and Takumi were trying not to fall over laughing. They then tensed on feeling a wave of outrage escape the young woman beside them, and then they turned to see Anna Garten glaring at Kaiete Senzō with a look that, if it could kill, would see the former Imperial Army officer off to join all of Japan's other war dead at Yasukuni in the blink of an eye. Even Mikoto was quick to sense the German's growing rage, she pulling herself away from Negako to then place herself in front of Anna. That was enough to startle the psychokinetic and make her stare in confusion at the HiME. "Mikoto…?"
Mikoto blinked, and then she turned to gaze intently at Senzō before she sighed, crossing her arms. "Alright, Oyaji, what did you do to make Anna mad?"
Everyone stared at her, and then Aya began to giggle. A second later, everyone save Negako (who still looked amused) and Anna (who was gaping in disbelief at Mikoto) were trying not to collapse on the sidewalk, busting their guts laughing…
Later, on Nagano Prefecture Route 76, heading towards Togakushi-jinja…
"This Wisdom Alliance sounds a lot like the Searrs Foundation," Akira noted.
A nod. "Hai, Okuzaki-san, they are quite similar, though the Foundation is the older group by many centuries," Senzō stated as Aya expertly navigated the tight curves and turns through the hills south of Mount Atago as they headed towards Togakushi village and the famous shrine located to the north of the village itself. "The Alliance really began to grow as a separate group as a result of the Napoleonic Wars, mostly drawing its initial leadership from those who had lived through the French Revolution and come to understand that the lessons of the Enlightenment were the wave of the future for all of humanity. They took as their inspiration — and were initially led, by the way — by the people who had founded the Perfectibilists in Bavaria in 1776."
"'Perfectibilists?!'" Mai asked.
"The original Illuminati, Tokiha-san," Senzō stated. "They were, during the time they were allowed to operate openly — up to 1784 when the ruler of Bavaria outlawed all such 'secret' organisations — dedicated in doing everything they could to persuade the government of their land to better improve things for all. Of course, with the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars following right almost after the Illuminati were driven underground, they went quiet until 1815, then re-established themselves in Switzerland, calling themselves the Wisdom Alliance. And thus, they live to this day."
"So all these things about a 'New World Order' being started by a new version of this Illuminati…" Takumi then asked as he stared at the older man.
A nod. "Are more close to the truth than you believe, young man," Senzō affirmed as he gazed out the window at the passing scenery. "The Alliance, for example, not only started the Second World War, but managed to help influence its conclusion."
Everyone gaped at him. "How?" Anna stated.
"At the beginning, when they watched Hitler's people pull Germany out of the Depression and start to put the unemployed back to work, they believed he was the type of leader that could unify the world and march it towards a prosperous future," Senzō mused. "So they immediately used their political influence to weaken the stance of the surrounding powers so that Hitler could proceed ahead and drive his people as far as they could go." A sigh. "Only when the true horrors of what the Nazis were willing to unleash on all of Europe became publicly known after the Night of Broken Glass in 1938 did they question that decision. And they realised the full scale of their mistake when news of the Wannsee Conference came to them in 1942. That is when they used their leverage on the Allies — especially the United States — to unleash total war on your homeland, Garten-san," he stated as he gazed knowingly at a white-faced Anna.
Mikoto blinked in confusion. "Wannsee Conference?"
Anna sighed. "The meeting held on the twentieth of January in 1942 in a suburb of Berlin, Mikoto, where the Nazi leadership decided on the policies and procedures that would forever stain the honour of my homeland for ten times the projected length of their so-called 'thousand year Reich.'" She closed her eyes. "Die Endlösung der Judenfrage," she said in German, and then translated. "'The Final Solution to the Jewish Question.' The decision that signed the death-warrants of over six million."
"The Holocaust," Takumi added.
Silence.
"Who in the name of the gods gives these people the RIGHT to do that?!" Mai demanded.
"Mai-san, who gives the Foundation the right to do what they plan to do?" Akira asked, an ironic smile then crossing her face. "They see themselves as above the law. They see themselves as serving a 'greater good' that will — in their eyes — give humanity a better future for all to enjoy." A shrug. "No different than Alyssa-chan's so-called 'father' and all his friends believe." She then gazed on Senzō. "Kaiete-sama, does this Alliance possess a paramilitary force like the Foundation?"
"No," Senzō affirmed. "They are more like the various Yakuza clans here in Japan than those paid thugs Searrs employs. But that, they wish to change, Okuzaki-san."
"Hence, their interest in Mai. And me."
Eyes locked on Anna. "Exactly, Garten-san."
The others could only shake their heads. "That's probably another reason the Foundation is after people like us, then," Mai noted. "If Anna-chan and Mai-chan and all the other psychokinetics like that boy they found in Canada fall under the Alliance's control, that could give them a very ugly advantage over the Foundation. If the Foundation was able to seize control of any of us…"
"Or even worse, coerce the Obsidian Lord to support them," Takumi added.
Mai nodded. "It would be a total war between two very powerful groups that don't answer whatsoever to the general public, even by proxy through national governments or the United Nations. And with all the Avalonians living here now…"
"That will be another thing that frightens the Alliance about your kind, Tokiha-san."
Eyes locked on Senzō. "How so?" Mikoto asked.
"Minagi-san, those ships and stations in orbit you people have," the information broker then stated as he nodded up towards space. "How did you build them?"
A shrug. "Easy. We got materials from the asteroid belt or some of the other solar systems the Earth Defence Force are planning to settle. Practically next to nothing comes from Earth itself since we could get it elsewhere."
"And to the Alliance, that will be cause for enormous fear," Senzō warned. "Most of their influence comes through economic channels. They could, with but a word to the right place, stop all trade to any particular nation to make those nation's leaders see 'reason' and walk whatever 'line' the Alliance wishes them to walk." His eyes narrowed. "But you people — and this 'Earth Defence Force' you all ultimately strive to make — are totally BEYOND any sort of Terran economic influence. I assume those tanks and other military vehicles used in Canada by their reserve forces the day the Urusians came all hail from the same source as your space stations and ships?"
"Of course," Anna stated.
Senzō then smiled. "You thus are able to totally avoid their grasp. I suspect that if they tried the type of ploy I just mentioned, you have means to assist any targeted nation to ensure their economies won't collapse in the long term."
"If required," the German affirmed, nodding.
"That, Garten-san, will frighten them most gravely," the retired Imperial army officer then stated. "What they can't control, they will fear. What they fear, they will seek to destroy or neutralise. And YOUR people hold the upper ground in this case. That, they will not tolerate." He sighed before gazing at Negako, who was seated in the shotgun seat beside Aya. "Negako-sama, if you succeed in making Ryū-sama see the benefits of what the Avalonians have brought us all, you will do a great thing for Earth as a whole. But I strongly doubt Ryū-sama will be easy to persuade."
"He can be persuaded with time," Negako stated. "For that, merely blunting his desires to gain access to people such as Anna and Mai will suffice for the time being." She then gazed at him, a knowing look flashing in her eyes. "Right now, the greater concern is the Foundation. John Searrs is about to discover the whole extent of what Avalon has brought unto Earth. For that, we will need to blind him when it comes to what he sees as his most handy weapons in fighting such a force."
"Us, you mean," Mai stated as she gazed at the grandmaster.
"Hai."
Silence fell as the three HiMEs considered that, and then Akira looked once more at Negako. "How will Miyu-san's father be eliminated, Negako-sama?"
Negako smiled. "Mireille and Kirika."
Akira's breath caught in her throat. "Bouquet and Yūmura?!"
Her speaking the names of the current duo that formed one of the top assassin teams in the world made Senzō and Kenmochi gape in disbelief at the ninja; they had BOTH heard of the deadly duo now based in Paris. "And why not?" Negako asked. "After all, les Soldats and the Searrs Foundation are peer organisations that have opposed each other for over a millennia, ever since the Foundation's predecessor organisation tried to steal the knowledge used to create Noir from the founders of les Soldats." She then sat back in her chair. "Miyu has no real feelings for Joseph Greer; all she truly desires now is to see Alyssa Searrs live a happy life while she herself evolves into a human being and begins a relationship in earnest with Higurashi Akane."
"That might trigger the Foundation to move against Fūka, Negako-san," Takumi warned.
Negako shrugged. "Let them come. They sail to their destruction."
"Good riddance, then," Anna snarled…
Togakushi Shrine, near the torii of the upper shrine (local time: 12:34 PM)…
"Madarao-sama!"
Hearing that shouted cry, Idei Madarao perked, and then he turned to watch as a young under-priest came up the stairs from the central shrine, panting all the way. Now perched on his head and shoulders were dozens of birds, all of whom were chirping happily, which was making Kujū Mai laugh with delight while both Sugimoto Yumiko and Ikenami Rie were gaping in awe at how much control the old priest was showing in ensuring he did not radiate any sort of negative ki that would frighten the poor animals away. "What is it, young one? Did you have to shout so much?" Madarao said before he moved to gently coo at one squawking bird to calm him down.
A deep bow. "Forgive me, Madarao-sama, but we just spotted a small group of people arrive at the lower shrine a few minutes ago; they are currently ascending the stairs to this location right now. Among them was the German girl Mai-sama told us about. She's accompanied by the elderly samurai Mai-sama and her father encountered, along with his chief assistant. And Negako-sama and her chief assistant are with them as well. Just as Mai-sama herself told us not an hour ago! But…"
"But what?" Kujū Shūichi asked.
"There are four others, Shūichi-sama. And three of them…!" A gulp. "Mai-sama, three of them are three of the Princesses of the HiME Star of Fūka!"
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
And then…
"Fūka, you say…"
Shūichi looked over. "'Princesses of the Princess Star?'"
A nod. "Hai. We are honoured enough that the Earth Angel herself intervened to see to it that Kaiete would not pursue Mai-ojōsama anymore. But to have three of the Daughters of Fūka themselves accompanying her and Ojō-sama's intended…"
"What of this Fūka place?"
"Otō-chan, the HiMEs — the word 'hime' is actually short for the English phrase 'Highly Advanced Materialising Equipment' — are people who can summon great powers from another dimension that touches ours on and around Fūka Island. And right now, all thirteen of them are in danger of seeing their most beloved ones fall thanks to some whacky 'carnival' that would come straight out of Battle Royale!"
Shūichi turned to gape at his daughter. "Thirteen?!" Madarao gasped before shaking his head, causing all the birds to flutter around him. "Impossible! There are to be only twelve Princesses of Fūka! Who dares blasphemy the great Festival of Fūka?!"
"Actually, Madarao, it is an organisation similar to the one who now preys on your charge and all those others like her," a strange voice then declared.
Everyone turned…
"ANNA!"
…and then gaped as Mai literally flew over to warmly embrace a very pretty blonde, brown-eyed German girl her age, and then with another boost of her powers, she soared up into the air over everyone else as she and Anna began to passionately kiss. Seeing that, Madarao blinked, and then he began to sob. "Oh, happy day! Mai-ojōsama is united at last with the one she loves! HAPPY DAY! OJŌ-SAMA IS HAPPY!"
"Madarao."
He jolted, and then looked up into Moroboshi Negako's face. "H-h-Hai?"
The grandmaster smirked. "Mai and Anna do not need to have you shout that all over the mountains," she stated before gazing in amusement at Rie and Yumiko.
As Kujū Mai's best friends began to laugh…
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(Posted Sun, 23 Jan 2011 03:24)
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