Description: Honoka and Rolento convene after the successful acquisition of the building, the Diet and the Emperor. She is presented with the harsh realities of being an Empress... but the final steps required have been taken, and soon Japan's former government will be a shattered shadow, with nothing left to speak of...!
The Osaka International Convention Center was a right mess. Barricades surround the buildings, the perimeter enforced with five HMMWV weapons platforms, armed with flamethrowers. The walls of flame were renewed periodically -- just as a demonstration that there was plenty of propellant available. The train station underneath the Convention Center was open to through traffic -- but no stops were allowed at the moment. Only one passage provided entrance to the building, enforced by Japanese and Ainu armed guards in US Marine Corps gear -- and that passage saw heavy traffic as people were being carried out on litters to the hospital directly adjacent. The building seems relatively stable, though a keen eye would notice shaped charges placed at key structural locations; the stability could be threatened at any moment.
The roof of the building is similarly secure; additional military contacts had allowed shoulder-mounted surface-to-air rockets to be added to the arsenal at Honoka's command. Half a dozen guards await, with many more just inside on the twelfth floor just on the off chance someone were to try to mount a rescue.
The real fu nis happening on the main hall, occupying several of the massive building's central levels. The hostages -- the House of Republicans and the House of Councillors -- have been allowed to retake their seats, but with a few armed guards providing insurance that nobody talks, and nobody says anything.
In her vengeful state, Honoka was -tempted- to ensure they never walked out of this building, but she'd made a promise. One she's already regretting. She'd let her true emotions show, for just those few minutes in the recent fight... but now that she's had time to collect herself, she's back to a quiet, impassive mask, idly flipping through a romance novel in one of the sidebar rooms adjacent to the main hall. Two of the circus crew versed in first-aid attend to her needs, just finishing up change of bandages around her midsection. Katanas hurt -- who knew?
Sudo glances over at Honoka, with no small amount of concern. Hostages are outside flipping out, and she's in a side chamber reading a book? "<Honoka, I really think you need to go out and talk with-->"
"<Sudo, go make me a goddamn sandwich. Fucking starving here.>"
"<Bitch.>"
Honoka sticks out the tip of her tongue as her companion heads out to the main hall again. Bandaging complete, she pulls on a loose blouse, buttoning it up ... just in time for Sudo to come barging back into the room. "<Where's my sandwich?>" she snaps in Ainu... before seeing the look on Sudo's face. Honoka trades her novel for her yo-yo off the side table and re-enters the main room, more than a little irritable. What -now?-
And where has a certain someone been during this entire fiasco? Rolento offered his aide a few days prior, but when skirted females assaulted her hostage situation, he was nowhere to be found. There's nothing on the news or other reports about the U.S.P.L. commando, in either direction.
Yet it seems that he's making an unannounced visit, after a meaningful detour throughout the building's exterior, clinging and leaping about with the supernatural silence of the Crimson Shadow of the Mekong Delta. Once finished, another slithers past the defenses alongside, meant to keep out the overt -- but not so much the best special operative training in modern combat.
In short order, Rolento remains within an airshaft, glancing over to El Gado, the somber assassin gripping his knife in a reverse grip. After giving him a few hand signals, the bereted leader lifts the grill, dropping down in a crouch in the halls.
Honoka and Sudo will likely hear rather quickly that someone's present in the heart of the building. Any who dared to tell him to halt, or raised a weapon, is probably going to have it end badly. Force utilized is not lethal, but sufficient to put one down with ruthless force for likely long enough they will be of no further use in this defense.
Apparently, whatever Rolento was up to is about to be revealed. But he has no idea where Honoka herself is, or the state of affairs. The Emperor and his affiliates could be dead or escaped; her releases to the press mean nothing without confirmation...!
"<Dammit, dammit, =dammit=...>" curses Honoka under her breath. She keeps one hand pinned to her side -- as much as the recent battle had put her through, the slowly-healing katana wound in her side, being a specific localized pain, still hurts the worst. Bruises, well... she's had plenty of those before. "<You said there was an =intrusion?= Which way?>"
Sudo shakes his head. "<They couldn't say. Transmission cut off.>"
"<Really could use that goddamn sandwich...>" grumbles Honoka. "<Look, you take Reika and Kimura and go to the main hall. If I don't hear from you I'm sending backup.>" She flicks Sudo a dismissive gesture and storms up to the 10th floor.
Earlier, as an intimidation tactic, Honoka had detonated bombs on this floor. A rather large hole yawns its way to the main hall below, making for a conveniently dangerous precipice with which to teeter the Emperor's chair over... if she were trying to intimidate him. She's not at the moment, because she'd actually needed a few minutes to recuperate. Minutes that were unfortunately cut short by the disturbance. She steps over inert bodies on the way to the designated room, reaching down to feel their pulse, to judge whether they were incapacitated in the initial pursuit of the emperor, or more recently than that. Can't a girl even take a moment for a relaxing novel?
Honoka retrieves her yo-yo as she steps into the makeshift holding room. She tries to look like she wasn't panting, but considering everything that's happened in the past hour or so...
El Gado is tasked with a somewhat simple measure; to confirm whether the target is alive, and where they might be located. After all, a personal meeting with Honoka herself might not be an absolute, outside the fact she might not wish to be particularly accommodating with Rolento's requests. Slithering like a serpent in the air ducts, once the middle eastern assassin finds a lone target, he descends like a drop of ink, maneuvering to grasp him by the chin and press the knife violently to his throat, enough to draw blood. He is not as gentle as Rolento. "Emperor. Where." growls a cold voice, graveled with some hidden rage.
Of course, Honoka gets to the target first. Rolento has finally drawn things out enough that the next person with a radio is allowed to transmit the details to the performer; that a Mr. Schugerg is here to see her. He's a number of floors below at the moment. He's proven to A) dislike arriving in predictable manners at specific times and B) the tendency to violently assault people who threaten him even momentarily, so all of the pieces likely go together quickly...
The "family member" of Honoka's who's been accosted by El Gado doesn't put up too much of a fight about it -- he knows the condition he's in, and the guy will find out anyway. Honoka won't be terribly upset... right? So he points the way. But it seems it's unnecessary... as Honoka's =way= far ahead.
Honoka glares around the darkened room, seeing only her prize -- lightly dosed, with four guards still close by and at full alert. Just like she'd ordered. So if there is a secret assassin, she reasons, she got here first. Fair. "Alpha OK. All stand down," she announces to the radio, in plain Japanese, keeping her eye on the prize. "And if you would, please note that I have an insurance policy in case this goes sour." Honoka is counting on the radio speakers being loud enough for Rolento to hear.
She turns away for a moment, but has second thoughts, and checks the device fastened to his back for a moment. Nodding faintly, she claps one of her 'family members' on the shoulder, and leaps feet-first into the abyss.
of course she'd had a plan before doing so -- and that was to skate along the edge of the wall, Strider-style, slowing her fall to the main hall and taking liberal advantage of the rough wallcoverings. There is a reason for everything, you see.
Leaping away from the wall once she's only ten feet from the ground, she lands in a three-point crouch, not far from the diet members. She rises, looking around for her... associate, asking a guard if need be.
"If she believes such pedestrian explosives would threaten me... I've been self-destructing in Metro City since before she wore a training bra." Rolento mutters to himself, striding forward with the same overt confidence of someone doing nothing to try and blend in. A few more people mention the direction required. Gado's man is unconscious from a knife hilt to the temple, and he's taking the overhead route to where the Emperor is stationed.
"It seems you have suffered a nearly pyrrhic victory." calls out Rolento's voice when Honoka gets into sight. Her own appearance confirms such at a glance. Nobody can endure that amount of kicking from the likes of Sakura and put on a perfect poker face afterwards -- at least, not opposing the supernatural perception of the likes of Rolento Schugerg.
"I presume such did not end in failure? Do you have the Emperor? I need to borrow him." Rolento glances around the room Honoka has deigned to meet him in. "It will be within this facility. Whether he survives or not is your decision." Rather presumptuous for the man who has hidden in the shadows the entire time!
In retrospect, positioning the Diet at the bottom near the stage was a poor tactical decision, but it only really comes into play when there's a crazed paramilitary threatening her -after- she'd pulled off this entire hostage situation. Luckily, her hostages don't seem to mind Honoka's appearance more than... well, any of the rest of her apparently terrible hospitality. They have Pepperich Farm Goldfish from the cafe, what's their problem? "Pyrrhic victory my ass, I got exactly what I wanted done," she boasts, marching up to meet Rolento. "This wasn't even from tonight," she explains -- and it's true! But her slower movement speed is definitely attributable to the aftereffects of high exposure to Sakura's chi.
"-Borrow- him?" she bristles -- but then he clarifies, and Honoka chokes back the words she -was- going to say. She had been calming down so wonderfully, too...
"Okay. I'll take you to him, if you can at least agree to quit with the surprises already? It's getting -really- hard to do business like this."
"Business? Our business is concluded, Honoka. You offered to let me observe when we initially met. I did such. And I also placed my assets at an area of critical importance. The moment Interpol and the world governments are aware of my involvement here, things will immediately become escalated far beyond what you might care for. Heidern, Chun-Li, Charlie... names I am sure you know. Even I cannot defeat them single-handedly, and they are liable to come as a team. Your unknown status and surprising victory has earned us a truly great potential here..."
"It is time to show you how to take this to a greater stage. You had best retain your stomach for change when the stakes become true."
With that said, he is content to follow Honoka at her leisure, El Gado skulking around out of sight as one of his own aces in the hole. He'd request a small room with the Emperor, and would allow Honoka to remain...
If she can stomach what comes next.
The bad news is... Rolento was absolutely right. In her rush to prove herself to the mercenary, she left her terms in specifically -vague- language. And the bastard jumped onto a helicopter before she could really find herself in such a place to -get- specific with anything. In a less exhausted mood, she would have a better poker face -- but as Rolento can no doubt surmise, the mask is just not there right now: each passing word has its own telltale reaction upon Honoka's face. You try commanding hundreds of people with your mind and see how worn out -you- are.
Heidern, Chun-Li, Charlie... yes. She should know those names. She'd seen them in her study of the world's best fighters, and she's got a fairly good memory for such things... and that only makes her more upset. She'd known that it would certainly be -possible- to arouse interest from them, but she figured she'd have another hour. Maybe two. And that's when her chartered traincars would be arriving...
Irritably, she shakes her head. "Okay, okay. I'll grant you that. I... " She gestures wildly at the air, before remembering she has a yo-yo. And then she flicks that around to keep from looking too much the part of a lunatic.
Ahh, there. "Yes, yes, potential. I don't want to waste any time. Media haven't even figured this out yet, we need to... wait."
She stops, glancing around for a moment. Paranoid? ... No, she definitely felt something. Someone.
Honoka turns back to Rolento, turning her lip up for a moment. "I-- " She considers her words for a moment, and with a measured pause, she states, "I trust your judgment in this matter."
Honoka had just realized she -had- to, in other words.
She opens the door to the chamber she'd just left. The emperor... is starting to rouse. Sudo is standing off to the side -- he gives Rolento a bro nod, bro.
Honoka flicks her yo-yo, a disquieting unease creeping across her. Going to be very glad she's got it, she feels.
"You may trust my judgement... but you might not understand what that judgement is for." Rolento allows, with a cold and truly heartless tone. Indeed. this man is supposed to be a monster. He can weigh the lives of the innocent against the lives of the dangerous. Although not a sadist, nor one who would injure someone unaffiliated without cause, if a thousand must die so a man who might kill ten thousand would be destroyed, he would not hesitate even a second.
El Gado descends from the ceiling, landing in a crouch. Shifting, he seems to have a satchel with him. Rather less famous, the only thing Honoka is likely to tell is that he's a more deadly weapon than Sudo, and might be a double handful if she faced him alone.
"Then let us deal with this unpleasantness." A knife flashes, cutting any bonds of the Emperor free, before he is grasped and dragged by the back of his scruff with a lack of dignity he's likely not much experienced. A nearby bathroom suits his purposes. New rope is procured, binding the regal figure's hands behind his back, before he's drawn up to hang from the stall.
El Gado has placed the satchel upon the sink. He begins to draw out... instruments, one by one. Honoka might be chilled to realize what they are. Items of torture. Simple, brutally effective ones. "Surprisingly, Japan is not a major nuclear power. Even publicly, they have no facilities to launch such weapons. Perhaps being the victims of the tools of Armageddon caused their complacence. ...But they do have at least one nuclear submarine I have confirmed, with twelve ICBM multi-warhead devices. Clandestinely outfitted, this particular ghost is intended for a first strike countermeasure if Japanese deemed the likes of North Korea an imminent threat."
Rolento's free hand moves to grasp the Emperor's chin. "Acquisition of the codes to utilize this submarine shall be extracted. My army is poised to overrun and take the facility with the vehicle in question once it is ready. ...And then, with a nuclear deterrent, our desire to see Japan become a free city shall be realized in earnest...!!"
Honoka grits her teeth. She could normally play this straight, but... hurt. Exhausted. Not in the mood for games. And Rolento clearly has experience with this. She understands that he has the higher hand right now -- and that is, in fact, =why= she contacted him first. Because this would likely be a =much= more difficult meeting without that contact, is why. She =did= know that other people would come, and given Rolento's history, with Metro City in particular, she had figured the 'random' violence would get his attention.
Still. While she appreciates his knowledge and keen intellect... she's not particularly crazy about his interrogation methods. But really, interrogation isn't that hard for her -- never has been. For most people.
It's not much of a surprise that Japan isn't a nuclear power, no. But the knowledge bomb Rolento just dropped =is= a surprise, and Honoka's too shellshocked to keep from opening her mouth agape at that revelation. And she now knows he will stop at nothing to get those codes.
Nothing. And that terrifies her, because it could jeopardize everything -- not the least of which, make the young woman extremely uncomfortable.
But at the same token, she doesn't feel like jumping in and stopping it either. It's to her and Rolento's mutual benefit, after all.
-- Please, Your Majesty... I... I know you don't trust me. But this is what we've got right now. --
Honoka clutches a hand around that yo-yo of hers, squeezing so tight her knuckles turn white. She pleads with the emperor psychically, hoping to god she can talk the wizened monarch into helping... everyone.
-- This situation is not going to get any better. The world is in crisis, and we can pull through this. You're much too strong for intimidation to work... but I promise you, he won't stop hurting you. It's not shameful to tell something he'd find out anyway. --
Biting her lip, Honoka finds herself leaning against Sudo. The Emperor's will is strong -- too strong for her to just force him to spit up the codes. But she hopes her words count for something.
None can say the Emperor of Japan is an easy will to break. But none can say that Rolento is anything but ruthless. It takes a few hours; although the quality of that time, so to speak, is quite gruesome. Whether Honoka has the iron stomach to remain for it all is truly the question, but a number of very inventive devices are applied in very inventive ways. Threats to his family are made, his country, his life. Injections are applied routinely, which seem to only slosh and dishevel his mind any further. Even a mountain must move before a glacier, and every time the resistance remains, Rolento proves that another heavy stride forward is possible.
Of course, the Emperor was happy to die at first. But it became apparent that was not going to happen. And that horrific realization, along with the psychological warfare both mental, psychic, chemical and physical, reduces him to a shell of what he was. Whether he is fully privy to the breadth of what mumbles from his lips is a matter of personal discovery at a later date.
Only that the bloodied form dangling from the stall door is not one that Honoka is going to be able to show in public now, unless it is as a flayed show of her force.
"The Emperor is one of two people who knows the information." Rolento offers, then. "The other is the military head. I already acquired that information, but verification was needed. Indeed, both the Emperor and the military head gave the same code. ...Our ambitions are no longer just a dream. Do with him what you will. I am now going to take the submarine, state our sovereign soil... and then prove our nuclear capacity. The world may be ending. But it may not. Such an opportunity cannot be allowed to pass without being grasped...!!"
Indeed, Honoka did =not= have the stomach. She'd already had more than enough of that vile taste in her mouth, and really... there isn't much she could have said to the Emperor that would've helped at all. She tried, dammit, she tried.
Some words were shared with Sudo. Doubt. Insecurity. Is this -really- what she wanted after all, is this -really- the horrific set of deeds she'd been plotting out for years? Of course it is...
Honoka had left the room. Several times, in fact, she couldn't keep herself composed any longer. Sudo was her rock throughout it all, now that Rolento's true objective was made gruesomely clear.
After a couple hours, Honoka had become desensitized to the sounds. She even stood before the Diet, forcing herself to keep that hard mask on, just to look at the resignation in the faces of hundreds of people. To see them wince and groan as the sounds from the bathroom five floors up resounded down the halls, echoed through the hole in the floor... and filtered their way faintly down to the people below. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. And Honoka stood... and watched.
And quietly planted the seeds of her plan. Mental manipulation against exhausted, tortured souls is much, much easier -- especially when dealing with people whose will was significantly weaker than the monarch of the most honor-driven society on the planet. Twisting the will of a captive audience was not new to her. How else would a circus as embarassing as hers make money otherwise? No, Rolento was the bad cop, as it were, and Honoka... could play the good cop this time. Her reassurances of the merit of her course of action were made clear.
The Diet would only need to follow one rule, she reassured them, and the madman upstairs would not be visiting these pains upon them. Just one... weird rule: Do exactly as Honoka asks.
She had walked back upstairs afterwards, aghast that the Emperor's iron will had continued onward. She'd rounded the corner -- and at once, actually seemed -surprised- to hear Rolento address her. How long had that been, anyway?
"I'm... glad to hear it," she speaks softly, catching a brief glimpse of the Emperor. Nope, no shots of him tonight. The fires have been burning downstairs for many hours now, and several police actions had been quashed. "The... Diet is mine as well. Thanks to you." A tight smile is offered, and a bow of her head.
She's embarassed, she realizes, that the Japanese affectations are still present. She doesn't need them any more, does she?
She starts to step back, to allow Rolento to step out. An afterthought occurs to her, though, and she speaks up: "I... did have pieces of information to share about that. The world ending, I mean." She passes another glance at the emperor, then backs into the hallway, keeping her quiet voice.
Sudo shuts the doors so that those downstairs can't hear.
"The individuals at work are... difficult to refer to. But Sakura and I faced one. Obsidian skinned, wore white... could turn his flesh to stone. There are undoubtedly more like him. They are the source of this, and ..." She hesitates for a moment, looking into the yo-yo in her hand. Expressionless from her fatigue, she simply states, "And we may have targets for our newfound military might." Reaching over to accept a paper from Sudo, she extends it to Rolento. A map of the world, and the spots of known paranormal activity marked with big red X marks. "We are here," she states, stabbing the map with her fingernail -- a fingernail that can barely scratch the star of Osaka without also scratching the big X to the east of it.
"The Diet has no use." Rolento states, matter of factly. "Beyond formally disbanding Japan as a nation. The Emperor... is no longer in any state to be valuable to our agenda." An almost imperceptible gesture follows with his hand. A moment later there's a flash of steel and a gush of crimson from the former leader's neck, El Gado slowly wiping his blade clean as the last gurgles of life drain away.
"Prepare them to dissolve all legal and political merit of this landmass. After, this building shall become their tomb. They will not be complacent forever. They are a disease, a symptom of the pollution that must be destroyed for true independence. And an example that such is to be excised, like a tumor."
This is all stated by Rolento as nothing more than fact; there's no hint of it being a test. After all, what logical counter could Honoka make? You cannot take over a country and leave the royal family. Back to the French Revolution, they cut the head off every single noble they found, innocent or not. Guilty by association. Losers fail.
Take no prisoners.
"Monsters behind the end of the world? Localized cataclysms? So what?" Rolento states, turning to stare down Honoka with utter resolve. "There are enough heroes in this world. If this attempted armageddon allows our mutual goals, then leave it to them. That will mean even less reciprocation until matters are too far progressed. If your information is accurate... ...then give it to those who would oppose us. Not to me."
While Honoka had gathered the pieces together, it was Rolento executed the plan. In one sense, she's upset. She built the house of cards, and he's just knocked it over. But in another sense, she knew the house of cards -had- to fall, indeed, she built it -to- fall -- the fact that she hadn't knocked it over yet just proved she'd needed someone like Rolento after all. A catalyst, to actually ignite the mixture she'd been carefully simmering over eight long years.
The interrogation had taken so long, and in a sense, this was a good thing -- it allowed Honoka to come to grips with this. She'd considered exactly what to do with the Diet -- and Rolento, again, makes the decision for her. But she knows he's right about the Diet no longer being needed, and nods slowly in agreement. As for the Emperor...
Even if you know something's going to happen, it can still come as a shock. Tears spring from her eyes, her hand springs to her mouth at the sickening, gurgling sound. She leans against the doorframe, her stomach spasming as it had many times before today... but mercifully, she's gotten better at controlling the reflex.
And then he states that the Diet needs to die. She raises her finger to that, even starts to protest -- but then her chin dips down, and she raises her hand. Needs another moment to compose herself.
And when she stands up straight and stiffly, she's under control again. "You're... you're right. But it's going to take time. We still need them to get rid of the Prime Minister first. The judicial branch..." She handwaves through that. "The judges can't do squat if we burn that piece of paper, but the executive branch still has resources. If we want this quick, we need to be at least a little bit more subtle." Honoka hazards another glance past Rolento's shoulder, and wishes she hadn't.
While she may have deferred to his judgment, she does dig in her heels for a moment -- let the heroes take on armageddon? No, then there won't be a world to live in. But then she understands what he's actually getting at, and exhales, standing down. "Right. I... did have a plan for that. Came up with it a little while ago. We..." She shakes her head. "Royal we," she amends with a faint smirk. "We will support the fighters insofar as letting -them- fight all the battles and we wave the flags. Even the most brainless among them can see the wisdom of taking on the greater menace, and if they remember that we had their backs..." She shrugs, but her smirk grows.
"But that's for us to work out, mmm?" The circus star -- ex-circus star -- had been taking a back seat to Rolento's machinations up to this point, but she seems to be learning from the example set. "I'll need time to close out the Diet. I trust you won't need to borrow any of -them- for the next forty-eight hours?"
Rolento is looking closely at Honoka as she reacts to what's taken place, and his words. When it comes to the precise extremes required to actually take down a government, he's certainly got more practical and technical experience in the matter. Honoka might have simmered for eight years, but he has for longer than she has been alive. This opportunity is a long time coming... and she proved as much a catalyst to Rolento as he has to her. He needed someone with the capability to take the initiative without being broken down beforehand. To put the pieces on the board properly.
And only then can his masterful hand enter play unimpeded.
When at length it seems Honoka is on board, Rolento shifts his glance. Sudo might realize that El Gado, like some strange shadow, had shifted behind. His knife remains out, but he's no longer poised to strike. Does that mean, if he believed the girl did not have the heart, he would have killed them both here and now?
Could she blame him, if that was the case? This is not some child's game, as he said. Countries are at stake. All the more, if soon they will have nuclear potential.
"I will handle the executive branch. You handle the Diet. The building has already been rigged to detonate. The monument's rubble will serve well. Two days, then. In forty-eight hours, I will showcase our new abilities, and both the Executives and the Diet shall be dead, with Japan sworn as a dissolved union. New Eden. That shall suffice as the name for a place for true independence. A place for fighters, warriors, mercenaries, men of armies and war. A place that understands what peace truly means... and the cost. Objections...?!"
Honoka lowers her hands to her sides, no longer needing to force herself to be calm. Her grip on the yo-yo relaxes, but not to such a degree that she feels her typical compulsion to walk it. Peripherally noting the change in El Gado's stance compounds the calming effect as well. She's still not terribly happy that he's keeping his knife out... but maybe that's just his compulsive need -- no judgement will be granted here.
She does seem pleased that Rolento implicitly endorses her plan for token support. Honoka was afraid that might have been overstepping the lines of his patience. Her smirk fades into a confident smile, her mood improving by the moment, accepting the idea that Rolento will deal with the executive branch. That was a problem, and while he had said he had little concern for the operation of the country... well. This just makes things easier for her.
Though she had been calming, Honoka's jaw tenses at the mention of the proposed name. New Eden, she muses, sounds awfully close to a Judeo-Christian ideal. If there is one thing Honoka fought for, it was for the equality of all cultures and religion -- explicitly -preventing- the favoring of one over another.
Eyes narrow slightly as she mentally reaches for Sudo, testing the waters of his emotions. He seems similarly perturbed by the idea of New Eden, but he understands this is Honoka's negotiation and not his own. And he gives the young woman his non-vocalized support.
Which is all she needs to object -- though she's more than familiar with the way things work. "This all sounds perfectly acceptable, for now. But I would like some more time to consider the... name. I feel I may not have been fully forthcoming about my intentions for this... coup. But it was fueled in part due to... religion. Specifically, the fact that =mine= was utterly =destroyed= by the lethargy and ambivalence of ... these people."
Honoka takes a moment to let that sink in before continuing. "Forgive me for any hostility I might show about the name 'New Eden' -- it's a lovely name -- it has a nice ring to it, even -- but it expresses favoritism towards Christianity. Names are powerful tools for control, as you no doubt understand. But as names, they are also concepts, and concepts are indestructable."
She takes a deep breath. "That is my only objection."
"I propose the name... Ezo. It was the short-lived name of the island of Hokkaido after conflicts in the Meiji Revolution. The state only existed a few months before the Imperial forces invaded and took over. Naming the land Ezo is... poetic justice, and the best honor I can give to the original intent of the Republic of Ezo."
She brushes her hair out of her eyes, adding, "As much as I'd like the name Aynu Mosir, it would pose... problematic."
El Gado is nothing like Rolento. Whatever monster he holds inside remains at the surface, those of a haunted man who likely fits better into this breaking world than either of them -- still speckled crimson across the face from the finishing stroke of one of the most proud and powerful men of the world.
"...Oh? I had not intended such religious connotations. I can understand the connection, however. I have no attachments to such petty semantics. If you hold one of greater symbolism, then so be it. There is no God, and I find the lives I've ended due to such fanatical delusions well past exasperating...!"
He then turns away, beckoning for El Gado to follow. "Conceal the death for now. Forty-eight hours. And then... we shall change the world. It is too late now to stop it. Even if you spare these people here, the submarine is mine. I can easily use one of the ICBMs to cripple Japan and destroy this city, and move somewhere else. Do not get cold feet. ...For now, you are a soldier."
He then leaps straight up, bursting through a vent with a surprising lack of noise. El Gado slowly walks past Sudo, eyes seeming to dare him to do anything that might allow him to snap up the loose arm holding his blade. Before he follows in a leap of his own, leaving Honoka finally to her own thoughts and digestion of the matter...
And the real, irrevocable corpse dangling in the men's room stall that proves that the course she's taken can never be recanted.
Log created on 19:45:56 09/18/2014 by Rolento, and last modified on 23:35:55 09/20/2014.