Lunar Eclipse: Prolog

Commissioner Kamishirasawa, Keine Kamishirasawa, sipped at her tea. The room she was in, was darkened, as she preferred, when alone.  It was an open secret that the Kamishirasawa line had youkai traits, but even given the new unity in the wake of the Lunar Empire's declarations, it was not politic to remind people of her nature.

However, her office was closed, most of the floor empty.  Only a few brave or foolish souls working overtime were left. Like her, they stared at multiple screens, physical security keys lying on their desk looking like ancient tablets of authority. Sometimes even a few sheets of physical paper were scattered on the surface.

Here was where history was decided, where truth and story and secret swap their clothes.  Whole cities were hidden and created every week, the layers of conspiracy and misrecording carefully nurtured into a thicket of deception.

After all the New Earth Government was, by Law, a democracy.

The 'Rule of Law' and the 'Will of the People' were their highest principles, and therefore in the War, their greatest weaknesses.  For what were society, wealth, justice, and peace, but each a madness of the crowd? And the Moon ruled Madness.  The traitors had weakened the Moon's power significantly, but they were no more trustworthy then their former masters, and while the Moon might not care what their wayward daughters had done on Earth, the Kamishirasawa remembered the disasters they had arranged.

Right now, Kamishirasawa was skimming Greater California's Minerstry of Transportation's last few Monthly Reports. It had the proper conclusions, and showed the requisite priority shifts, but the security level 2H version of the report did indeed seem to be missing a number of expenditures that should have  been there at that clearance level and topic. With them missing the expenditures at the 3C level were obvious.

The team had recommended that this should be quietly mentioned to Dyson Lmt. They had quietly bribed the Minister after all and would rebuke her also quietly.  If done right her superiors should never have to acknowledge the mistake.  This would in turn strengthen the Dyson groups anti-war sentiments, and therefore strengthen the resolve of their opponents.

Kamishirasawa ultimately decided that she approved, though they were pushing against safe limits of infighting in the California Ministry and might have to cull the ranks a bit soon.

Looking at the view-screen that showed the gibbous moon, she sighed, she had to stop giving herself busy work, just because she didn't want to think about it, didn't the signs weren't there. Even the time of the month was right.  Unregistered migratory souls were on the rise, and geothaumic energy production was almost 10% higher than expected.  Cases of Lunacy, the oldest and most obvious of the Moon's subtle warfare were on the rise. Even the Hakurei Group were moving, and they always delayed as long as they could. The last time they went to war, Makai returned to being named Mars because no citizens of the Makai Theocracy remained alive. It was time to plan for the next Monthly Audit, and this was going to be a big one.

Still, why was Tsukiyomi being so obvious? It had to mean there was something they thought they could gain now, before NGE responded. All that power, all these jabs and feints and preparations, pulled resources from the Colonies. Which was where the War had been fought so far.

Familiar of Zero: Rei no Shikigami: Spirit's Computer: Part ?3?

Chen tossed and turned. "That mouse in the rafter deserves to die, but" she grumbled and then quoted her master "'Civilized Youkai don't eat vermin.'  I don't want to eat them. I just want to play a little."

Pushing Louise's limp form over towards the wall, she slipped out of bed and pulled her off her night gown. She pulled her day-clothes on, except for her shoes. Ran's nails clattered on the floor if didn't wear something, but Chen preferred to go barefoot inside. After all she had retractable claws! She could even retract her finger nails, which didn't really make anatomical sense. Ran had explained how it worked and made her do the math by hand. That was kind of fun..but then she had made her drill until she could do a few million problems a second. That was less fun, especially the danmaku when she messed up.

She pushed with a little anti-fire mixed with anti-earth and walked into the shadow under the window, walking out in a different shadow in the hallway. Sniffing at the air, she smelled something interesting, under the human sweat and vaguely ozone like smell of her young master's magic. Walking down the hallway, in what to a human would be almost complete darkness, she carefully stalked the odor. It was coming from a room that stank of human copulation.

Chen vaguely remembered going into heat and getting mounted from her days of being a normal cat, but was happy to let it remain a memory.  Ran had said she might change her mind some day, but it was okay if she never did.

Teleporting though the door was a bit tiring, but she needed the practice.

The interesting smell infused the room. At first she thought it was coming from the pair upon the bed, but it also seemed to be sprayed into the wood of the nearby desk, and the pile of clothes by bed. The girl clothes had one set of smells and the boy's another.

The collars and shoulders seemed to have the sent the strongest.  Chen thought it almost smelled like the Red-White when she brought out her orbs.  Chen walked back to the desk, pulling her self up onto the writing surface so she could reach the cabinet nest to mirror. Opening the cabinet door pushed her back, and her left foot slipped off the lacquered wood. Chen swore, "by the Dragon's tits." She pushed desperately with her other leg, leaving deep scratches in the wood.

"Mon Mon?" one of the figures in the bed asked groggily. Chen froze hanging from the cabinet door. "Its too dark in here for a human to see" she thought, and sure enough she could see the boy shift and wrap his arm around his partner.

Chen whispered, "Phew," and pulled her self back onto the desk, this time being careful to be to the side of the cabinet as she opened it. "Jackpot!" she thought smiling.  Two racks held miscellaneous alchemy supplies, smelled more like Patchouli's though with out the metals and salts, or perhaps like Marisa with out the mushrooms and chicken broth.  But it was the third rack that held her interest:  four different bottles, the stopper loose on the leftmost.

Chen stuffed the bottles in her pockets, and then pushed her self off the desk, falling into the shadow. The darkness wrapped around her twisting and then dropping her roughly in Louise's bed, Chen shivered and unthinkingly transformed into her cat form before falling fast asleep.