A black dot appeared over Tokyo, a figure shot out and flew directly toward Chiyoda and the Imperial Gardens. He found a nice place to touch down and dropped one of the Steeles onto the Stonework.
It sank, broke sprinkler heads and bits of stone flung into the air.
Tourism had taken a dive since the arrival of the Espers for the third time, their new location in the orbit above Shiyan had captivated most of the people of Earth. The interests and priorities of the people had changed.
Kuzunoha got down from his arms, she frowned.
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Mike had been left at Greensong, Vira was in the Demon Region at the Palace of the Demon King and Misozi wanted to be refitted with upgrades from the Dragon's share.
Mr. Munju was quite happy to see their return, his questions had been answered rather quickly by the Dragon King before he rushed away. Misozi explained her requests to the development teams, a retrofit into her hull for certain new functions, including a puppet for her to control personally as a pilot were being installed.
As the Proprietor of the Dragon's Share, he had other things to do but he had notified Xuan Kim Li of Misozi's arrival.
Mr. Munju got into his office, more than a dozen people in white suits were standing around a marine colored glow.
More than half of those in the room were unable to speak, their coms had been muted.
"I'll say this again, if you think I'm satisfied with this, you're mistaken." He threw them out of the office. "Get out and go back to work! I want drafts on my desk by tomorrow." Mr. Munju slammed the door behind him and sat back down in front of the crystal box. Inside, a Blue Grass was sapping the energy from the air, traces of electricity covered its surface.
It was a single specimen.
'If this had a better source of energy, it could power half a city' He picked the grass up with a thick rubber glove and plastic tongs. It had been discovered early on that Plastics were typically non-magically conductive materials. He felt safe handling it with the proper precautions, it reminded him of Ultinia but the grass was grown by him personally. The Kinky Farmer had given the first one to him as a gift.
The Electric grasses were harming the Garden after they had reproduced a few times.
More grew shortly after it had been removed, the grass was somewhat invasive in the original garden dimension but it produced a lot of electricity by absorbing the aura in the dimensional space. Kink wasn't sure if it would be of use to Mr. Munju but he knew it was special, rather than letting it take over the dimensional space, Errit had taken them into another space that collected elemental water. The result was somewhat explosive at first, the blackness was soon filled with the white light of lightning, a field of blue lightning grass had stretched out as far as the eye could see.
With the aide spaceships, Mr. Munju had even set up a zero gravity lab in orbit above Shiyan. The single specimen in his hands was enough to power the lab nearly forever if it had a source to feed its energy draw. That research had left him wanting and driving his employees to madness.
He was a creature of habit, sitting at his desk working away the daylight, Mr. Munju heard the knocking at the door.
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"VIRA!" Qu cried out when he felt the Empress arrive. He flashed to the front courtyard in Tower City. The Emperor was kind enough to leave one of the formation array steeles before he had leapt through the rift between realms.
Tower City had been moved to the Demon Region, Prince Tero was given notice by one of Qu's avatars. He moved throughout the City with the token, appearing in front of his mother.
"Empress Vira." He bowed.
"You're my son, don't be so formal." Vira gave him a hug, he had a strange look on his face. 'Doe she know?'
"Why have you returned?" Tero looked down toward his mother who was placing her head against his chest. Pushing her shoulders away, he repeated his words. "Empress Vira. You were suppose to be in the land of the Gods, why have you returned?"
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A bright flower sat in the window, Mr. Munju had it tested by Honey for intelligence. It was moving around and waving crazily on the sill. He wondered if, like Honey, he would be able to stimulate its evolution. 'What if it goes wrong??'
The plant was poisonous, most beautiful things were.
The risk was high enough to keep his worry pulled tightly. Feeding it essences each day was part of the routine but with the explosive growth from the blue lightning grass, he was able to refine a slurry to fertilize its soil further. The soil was from samples he had obtained, collected together and placed in one pot, the Kinky Farmer was very stingy with his dirt.
Still, any gardener who had seen the plant would be in praise. Its health and vibrance captured the attention, inspired or just entranced. The soil was emitting a visible blue aura, as a scientist he was very interested in how the process worked but as a capitalist, he wanted to know if it was something he could use or trade.
Munju gave it some more condensed elemental water, then, looked at the papers on his desk once more. There were requests for devices, thousands of them. The success of the airships and their SS cores had driven demand way up for Spirit infused items. Certainly there was no problem with demand but supply was a different matter. Spirits were not simply growing from trees and after producing nearly a thousand ships for various purposes, the company's supply of available spirits was near the point of exhaustion.
The price would go up, and people would treat them as another commodity that couldn't be bought with regular items or trade. It was working into his planning but the rise in demand had happened a little earlier than his calculations. 'Keep your eye on the prize!'
A figure flew past his window, Mr. Munju's office was hundreds of feet above the streets below, he walked looked out.
Perhaps a hundred meters away, a woman in gold and blue armor was standing with a spear in her hand.
She stretched her waist and raised the spear.
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The Sign said 'Closed to the Public.'
Frowns across Kuzunoha and Wu Hai's faces were replaced by smiles when they came to the same conclusion, that they had the palace to themselves. Entering the Imperial Palace, there were some security guards present, dispelling their illusions of isolation.
"Can I convince you to pretend you never saw us?" Kuzunoha asked politely. When she landed next to the two men, they knelt in reverence.
The request for them to get up fell on deaf ears, neither of them had the courage to look upon her. It wasn't until Wu Hai tapped his foot near their faces that they looked up to reply.
"Of course. Of course. If there is anything the Empress needs, please just take it." The one that was speaking put his nose against the ground once more, kneeling piously once again.
"If its like that, please have all your men withdraw and do not come to disturb us." Wu Hai's foot stopped moving, he pulled out two pills and passed them over to the men. "These are special. They will give you enlightenment, find a quiet place this week and consume it." Turning away, the Emperor grabbed Kuzunoha's hand and pulled her into the main plaza.
As she giggled down the hallways, she stripped herself bare. There was a bed in her storage for just the occasion. Throws and pillows scattered in the room and she fell backward, pressed down by Wu Hai's arriving lips.
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The Dragon King's eyes were filled with annoyance. He saw broken things scattered across his lawn, his backyard had probably been on fire for the better part of a few years.
Ashes were clinging to every surface.
"What the hell happened here?" He yelled throughout the castle. When someone finally came forward it was his third wife, Mursayade.
"Well Well Well. You're home." 'TSK.' She clicked her tongue slightly and turned away. Mursayade knocked over a statue on her way past him, it came crashing down beside Vector. It was one that had Vector had made with using his own two hands. As it shattered she turned to yell at him. "Where have you been?"
"I was on a mission, what do you think?" Handling her was not his forte, Mursayade had been one of the women he had married on a whim because of her aggressive nature in bed. His usual manner of subduing her had disappeared along with him during his absence, she was resisting.
'Hmmph.' Mursayade picked up another treasure that was laying nearby and raised it above her head to smash. "I am not yours to command." She tried to smash it on the floor.
It bounced.
"^@!#%!" Mursayade yelled out.
Vector started to laugh and picked it up. "If you want to destroy things because you're angry, you should be fighting with that sort of energy."
"Fighting?" She looked him up, then down. "That's a great idea!"
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Prince Tero was waiting for his Mother to answer questions.
"It's only been a few months for me, I had no idea the time difference would be so great. None of us did." Vira explained the past few months of their experience.
As the Heir to the Throne, he didn't want to believe it either but his communications with the people who understood such things had suspected as much. He wasn't surprised, merely annoyed. Vira had left him as a young adult, he felt abandoned in some regard but now, he held power. "I will ask you again, Mother. Why have you returned?"
"Did I not just answer you? We came back to say hello and see how everyone is doing. The next time we come, it may not be so quickly. In order to explain to you all why we have not returned in such a length of time, it was important for us to come back and explain. We planned to stay a week so that there was enough time to settle some affairs." Her conversation kept going for about an hour, Vira gave every reasonable excuse she could give to his questions but Prince Tero still felt slighted and reserved. "Where is Ying Ho?"
"Master Ho is still with the Truthers, they are not due to return for several months. Ying Qingchi is pregnant, she is inside if you'd like to see her." Though the Prince was angry with his mother, he dared not disrespect her.
She followed him into the Pagoda.
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Ying Ho and the entire company of truthers had been on a mission to find a specific medicine. Qingchi's pregnancy was a difficult one, she was having problems. The solution was a simple but dangerous one. They had to bring several species of plants back, plants they couldn't obtain in the Garden Dimensions or at any trading post throughout the Empire.
The Six herbs were of different elements, the first five herbs were easy enough to pick but the sixth was the Heart of a wandering Demon Tree. Without the Heart to process the medicines, they wouldn't succeed and Qingchi could easily lose her life.
The Demon Tree Treant had to be caught alive, without it, the medicine could not be processed. The typical process for killing a Treant was by fire, drought or brute force but they were forced into capturing it because of the alchemy involved. "It must be in Grid 5-2, the miasma is getting thicker." One of the Truthers contacted Ying Ho over a communication stone.
It had been two months into Qingchi's pregnancy when problems first occurred. The medicines and potions of the Empire could restore her health daily but by the end of the day she was nearing deaths door. The only medicine that might work long term required hunting and delicate herbs, because it was the Ying Family Matriarch at risk, all the Truthers in the Empire set out with Ying Ho in the search.
Qingchi could be sustained and kept alive, but if the baby came without the medicines already prepared, they could both die.