Battle & Romance Senshi of the 6th Dynasty
Author: loki
Rated: PG13
A mysterious guardian hangs up her boots as far as her responsibilities concerning the Fractious Realm and now, she has a new mission.
Cerciana, is taking a little R and R but unaware of the new adventure ahead of her.
Chapter 3
Hitting the Ground Running
I wanted to ground myself. I was tired of the official station I occupied for so long and why I chose to make the decision to live as a citizen of this royal city and had done so now for just on six thousand years; I just liked it.
Every ripple on the ocean
Every leaf on every tree
Every sand dune in the desert
Every power we never see
There is a deeper wave than this
Swelling in the world
Listen to me girls
Feel it rising in the cities
Feel it sweeping over many lands
Over borders far
Over new frontiers
Nothing will its power withstand
Love
Is the Seventh Wave
Sting: paraphrased
Crystal Tokyo
Old Quarter
I am an enigma, even to myself. My name, Cerciana, I the princess of the Incarnadine, please forgive me if I dispense with formalities in respect to what royal house I happen to belong.
I was glad my assigned tasks were completed, the Nexus in balance once again and a new page is turned, six millennia on and we're entering a new phase.
The indigenous peoples of this world, the stellar emigrants coming to the Earth now calling itself "New Terra" living in harmony as one united people together forging a new future for all, it was an exciting time.
My kind often transmogrify into another life form every few hundred years, give or take, not me, I have no need of another body, I am perfectly happy with this one. I am young, attractive, though I don't usually brag. Oh and I am immortal to boot.
---
I was moving in a casual manner along the darkened street playing my flute to pacify any sub-atomic entities or spirit beings haunting the Old Quarter; my crystal heels the only sound coming off the dusty causeways and stained walls as I continued on my way.
Even though the city was mostly new and forged from magical gemstone, the Old Quarter was a place that had a charm all its own and seemed more real to me than the power of the Ginzuishou or Kinzuishou. These streets felt like a second skin. The people that live here more grounded, vital and less pretentious, I liked that.
Many New Terrans had migrated to the other planets to work, live and play.
The current queen of Crystal Tokyo: Aikanori was a golden haired beauty, in many ways she reminds me of Queen Eliza, and Serenity Dawn also.
As I entered an open plaza, sunlight kissed my eyelids and I took a deep breath of warm sweet air. The streets were littered with leaves, children sitting on the granite benches, hands folded over their knees, daydreaming, some reading manga others studying, playing an assortment of holographic games or eating their lunches. The girls in frilly skirts or in shorts and cool tops, as the weather was hot these days in spring, as the planet's realignment had shifted the average temperatures gave the golden-skinned kids an islander look one may have seen back when the planet was spared the ravages of the ice in the equatorial zones.
Everyone was laughing, singing, playing, and some dancing and others talking to their pet birds, cats, some Mauan guardians escorting them home from classes or work, and others helping with a host of other tasks.
I envied their private havens. The boys all trying so very hard to look sophisticated in their cadet uniforms, or jeans and tee-shirts, when off duty, the girls giggling or feigning disinterest made me smile; some things never changed, and thank the kamis for that, too.
I smiled at a Mauan youth sipping a cool drink through a straw while perched upon his hover scooter, the new sweet nectar drink most popular this time of year. He waved back. I smiled as he continued on his way.
Spring was in full bloom, the Cherry Blossom Festival in full swing, and the Terran and Orpheusean fertility festivities well under way, there were couples necking and groping one another under huge sun umbrellas or shady trees, walking hand-in-hand in the parks, and teenagers making eyes at one another in the hope of a date. It was a typical Crystal Tokyo day.
---
Dust devils danced in the abandoned industrial estate that had been converted into an organic produce market, I drifted into a narrow lane and placed my palm upon a touchpad and the garish red wooden door opened to the smell of incense, plant vapor, and loud throwback dance music.
I moved with poise and I'd like to think, a lot of grace down the stairs to the long walkway that would take me to the club's interior.
"Another hard day at the office?" Diroki a handsome bartender laughed, seeing my weary expression as I climbed upon, rather than sat on a stool and ordered a drink. I was exhausted.
"Crystal Kingdom business is always taxing, I thought you knew that my friend."
"I do, and as your friend and fellow Incarnadine ex-pat, I am glad you can shed the formal duties for a time and let your hair down and…"
"Don't finish that sentence, you'll regret it. I was intoxicated yes, but I knew what I was doing, unlike your good self-sir, hedonism and its murky waters balances me out you know."
"I am sure you ladies found ways to amuse yourselves in the gaming hall too, as well as hanging up with the local men folk?"
"You know I did, where's Orica anyway?"
"How should I know? You know there's been another sighting of that Midnight ninja guy. Yes, pour his specialty. Nobody knows who he is, and it is believed he has magical powers, but that could just be rumors… another drink?"
"Please, and yes, I know of the stories, might be something to them but I have a mission."
Then a tall, soft-spoken customer, with deep and intense eyes, a man by the name of Raymore whom I'd heard of, but had never met until now, sat next to me in front of the bartender.
"I am Mauan," he said, pulling off the headscarf that revealed his dark furry ears as the patrons of the club seemed to melt away preferring the dance floor or gaming rooms, or a little fun in the basement.
"What do you want, stranger," the bar tender asked, a little harsh for his usual disposition but the man pulled out a crystal pod and dropped it into my hand.
"You need to see this, call it a short history, I'd start watching this on the way, and my hover car is outside."
"You've got a nerve, how do I know you're speaking the truth?"
"You don't, but if the new senshi of the Crystal Kingdom are to survive, I think it would be a dereliction of duty on your part to ignore this, would you not agree?" and with that he stood up, finished my drink, which I hadn't the chance to finish, and he bade me follow. I did.
TBC