Mai will show up in the next chapter, I promise. I'm sorry if some things are left unexplained here. I had to edit out a lot of parts that were spoilers for future events.
When I think of the Palace, I think of something like China's Forbidden City. The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace and is located in the middle of Beijing. There's a lot of ceremony and very limited access to the Emperor (or in this case, the Crystal Princess).
Twisted HiME – Bodyguardby Mara S. S.
Harada Chie resisted the childish urge to stick out her tongue at the woman who'd just left. Chie hated it when Marguerite Tomoe, her former boss, visited the Palace. Chie never really liked the woman in the first place. She closed the door and sat down behind her desk, swiveling her chair.
Her boss had been promoted the previous year and Chie was the one who'd filled the vacant position. Tomoe was promoted into some division of the military and Chie was now the head of the Palace Guard. That meant Chie was in charge of security at the Palace compound and more importantly, of the safety of the Crystal Princess.
The Palace and the various buildings surrounding it were built to house the Crystal Princess. The central building of the Palace was all hers with only select guards and attendants allowed inside. A lot of people who worked at the Palace had never even seen the Princess. She was like a precious puppet kept under lock and key.
As far as Chie could tell, the Princess had never left the Palace. The Obsidian Lord and a few other officials often visited but the Obsidian Lord rarely slept in the Palace despite the fact that he and the Princess were technically husband and wife.
Chie got the impression that they didn't get along very well. She'd witnessed the aftermath of one fight. The fight took place a few days after the previous year's earthquake but the destruction the fight had caused rivaled that caused by the earthquake. Chie shuddered at the memory. It had taken Aoi and her crew weeks to clean up the mess once the storm subsided.
That event had started a lot of the gossip a small community like the Palace's was prone to. All the guards, servants and attendants of the Princess lived on the Palace grounds itself. They had no choice but to socialize with each other because travel in and out of the Palace was severely restricted.
It was rare for those who worked at the Palace to leave. Tomoe was one of the few exceptions. Life at the Palace wasn't unpleasant. You have everything you need, salary's way above the normal and you could have pretty much anything delivered. Food was brought to the kitchen daily after passing through a very strict inspection. The children of those who worked at the Palace had their own teachers. It was like a small, self-contained country.
Life wasn't unpleasant if you could ignore the tight security and the restricted communication. If you could ignore the fact that you could check in but could never check out. Some people couldn't take the restrictions and had killed themselves. Chie winced. Messy.
That was why the upcoming trip to Fuuka had everyone buzzing. Even before news of the pilgrimage was made public, rumors had swept the Palace halls like wildfire last year. The prospect of a trip to the outside world was exciting, especially for those like Chie who'd worked at the Palace since it was built, five years ago.
Everyone, down to the lowest servant, seemed to harbor some delusion that they'd be joining the pilgrimage. Chie was one of the few who'd been in on the secret before it was announced. As the head of the Palace Guard, she knew only the Princess's bodyguards and a few of her attendants would be going but she had orders to neither confirm nor deny any of the trip's details.
Chie had just become the head bodyguard when she'd been secretly informed of the upcoming pilgrimage. She received the impression the trip was part of some larger plan that Tomoe was part of but try as she might, she couldn't figure out what it was. It was fun in a way, dancing two dances at the same time. On one hand, to find out what Tomoe knew of the Obsidian Lord's plans, and on the other hand, not to let any of the other Palace residents find out who would really be joining the pilgrimage.
The second one was easier, despite the fact she was usually the one ferreting out the juicy gossip, the one digging for the truth, the one pestering other people for interviews. Confronted with speculation (and sucking up) everywhere she turned, she kept a blank face and rebuffed all who approached her with a 'no comment'.
That made for a lot of pouting and cajoling. Some formed their own plots but Chie didn't have time for such petty attempts to get out of the Palace. The upcoming trip had absolutely buried her in paperwork, above and beyond the paperwork she normally had in her capacity as head of the Palace Guard.
Chie sighed, removed her glasses and rubbed her forehead in an attempt to ward off an impending headache. She hated Tomoe's impromptu visits, but she hated the bureaucracy even more. At the moment, she had a stack of reports to look over.
She never knew being a leader would involve sitting at her desk so much, reading reports and signing every single scrap of paper. She'd liked it better before when all she had to do was guard the Princess. All she had to do was stay silent, unmoving, and perpetually alert as she watched the Princess.
Not that there was really anything to guard her from. The Palace at Neo-Tokyo was one of the most tightly guarded places on earth. There had been a few attempts to break in, but the terrorists were always caught and were even executed in most cases. Walls, checkpoints, patrols, sensors… Her predecessor had been very thorough. Chie's job now was just to make sure everything was kept in working order.
That meant regular inspections and, she groaned, paperwork. This was not the course she'd imagined her life would take. She'd had vague plans of becoming an investigative reporter but those plans had evaporated five years ago when…
Best not to go there, thoughts given voice can very easily lead to betrayal. It had taken her years to perfect herself, to learn how to discipline even her thinking.
It was late in the afternoon already so Chie decided to call it a day and leave the mess on her desk for her secretary to straighten out. She poked her head out of the door. She looked left and right to make sure Tomoe hadn't lingered unnecessarily. Chie really didn't want to face that woman again.
Chie slipped out and locked the door to her office. She walked through the buildings, looking approvingly at the guards stationed at regular intervals along the walls. She quickly arrived at her destination, bypassing the dining rooms and going straight to the kitchen. She chuckled as warmth and pleasant aromas greeted her. Sometimes, it really paid to know the cook, that was how she and Aoi always got the best of the food.
Everyone was bustling about in the tightly controlled chaos. Chie spied the head cook and walked over to her.
"Rena-sama?" Chie called out.
Rena Sayers was the best chef in the world as far as Chie and Aoi were concerned. Japanese or western, you name it and she could make it. Wonderfully. At the moment, she was arranging bento boxes at a nearby counter. On either side of her were her two daughters, Arika and Nina.
Arika was scooping rice from a pot and arranging the rice in the dishes Nina dried and laid out on the table. They were about the same age and would have been in middle school if they'd lived in the outside world. The pair contrasted with each other quite nicely. Arika was like a brown haired version of her mother and was the more cheerful one of the two. She was lively and made friends with everyone she saw.
Nina was shyer and quieter. She was an avid reader who often borrowed books from Aoi. Aoi had ended up taking the girl under her wing and becoming the girl's friend and confidant. Aoi later informed Chie that the chef had adopted Nina.
That was a bit obvious since Nina didn't exactly resemble either Rena or Arika. It seemed Rena had found Nina wandering alone in an evacuation center. A few questions revealed that Nina's father had perished when the Obsidian Lord destroyed her hometown. The girl couldn't remember any of it and seemed content enough with her position as Rena's daughter and occasional helper.
Rena's face brightened when she saw Chie. She bestowed a smile on the bodyguard and quickly asked her daughters, "Nina-chan, get Chie some tea. Arika-chan, hold this will you?"
Nina put down the plates she'd been drying and fetched the tea. Arika stirred the bowl her mother handed to her, bright and bubbly as always. Rena picked up a tray and began selecting what would become Chie's and Aoi's dinner.
Chie perched on an empty stool beside the counter as the chef moved about her domain. The strong willed cook wasn't someone you crossed with impunity, not if you wanted to be served anything edible. Most of the Palace residents preferred not to cook for themselves so they were at the mercy of whatever Rena chose to feed them.
Chie listened with half an ear to Arika, definitely the more talkative of the two girls. "… but the kitten hissed at me and wouldn't let me go nearer until I asked Mama for some milk to give it…" Arika said, excitedly telling Chie about how she got to know one of the kittens.
The Palace was home to several cat families. The children regarded the cats as their pets and the cats suffered themselves to be petted as long as their humans provided them with food. In this respect, Arika had an advantage over the other children, her mother being the number one cook.
Nina brought and poured the tea, handing the cup to Chie.
"Thank you." said Chie, smiling at the timid girl. Nina went back to the stack of dishes she'd been drying as Arika continued the story she'd been relating.
Rena returned, placing a heavily laden tray down in front of Chie. "That's nice dear. Now can you bring that to the ovens please?" she interrupted her daughter, gesturing to the bowl Arika had been stirring.
Arika obediently headed towards the ovens against the far wall of the large kitchen. Chie's mouth watered as she smelled the food beneath the covered dishes. She reached out to take a peek but Rena slapped her hand away.
"Wait for later, dear." Rena said, her hands now busy with some other task. "Oh and there's cake for Aoi, make sure she has some, she doesn't eat enough. Really Chie, you should take better care of her." Rena admonished.
"She eats more than enough, its not my fault her metabolism keeps up easily." Chie protested as she picked up the tray.
The chef just laughed and gave her an indulgent look.
Chie left the kitchen and walked to the building her quarters was in. Night had fallen outside. The sentries would be changing about now as the day shift gave way to the night. There were other people heading to the residential buildings and Chie had to walk carefully to avoid upsetting the food tray.
When she arrived at the apartment she and Aoi shared, she unlocked the door and turned the knob with one hand, carefully carrying the tray with the other. She hadn't realized how hungry she was when she'd been talking to Tomoe in her office earlier.
When Chie entered the apartment, she was surprised to find the light open and Nina sitting at the dining table. Chie raised an eyebrow and put the tray down on the table. The girl was quick. Even if Chie was slower than usual because of the food tray, Nina must have been pretty fast to arrive ahead of her.
Nina stood up and handed a book out to Chie. "Chie-sama, could you return this to Aoi-sama please? I enjoyed reading it." Nina said, in the hesitant voice of hers. It sometimes saddened Chie, to see the painfully shy girl. It made Chie wonder what the girl was like before, when her father was still alive.
"Sure." Chie accepted the proffered book and put it down on the table without looking at its cover.
"Thank you." Nina said, respectfully bowing then leaving the room.
Chie unpacked the tray and arranged it on the table, bringing out chopsticks and heating the tea. After looking at the table critically, she placed a vase with one of her signature blue roses at the center of the table.
Chie sat down on their sofa and stretched her arms above her head until she felt the satisfactory crack that meant her tired bones were back in their places. She opened the book Nina had returned. It seemed interesting.
Telephones, cell phones, TVs and computers weren't allowed in the Palace, so its residents had found other activities to occupy their free time. Chie preferred gardening but Aoi had developed a passion for books and regularly purchased new ones. The book must have been one of the new ones because Chie hadn't seen it around before.
Chie leaned back on the sofa, pushed her glasses up and began to read the book while waiting for Aoi to come home.
TBC
Disclaimer: Mai HiME belongs to Sunrise.