Book 4 The Heaven's War, Chapter 4: Baijiu
The bitter liquid entered his mouth, burning his throat and making its way through his nose. It wasn't the first time he had drank rice wine but the Chinese as he remembered had a much harder version compared to the relatively smooth taste of sake. Then again, sake was not something that anyone could drink and not be effected by it's burning. But this bai-jiu as one of the maids had replied to his questioning, was was much stronger than the sake he was given once by his father as a congratulations for getting into Odaiba High; rather this had the familiar scent of paint thinner if Taichi had to explain it to anyone who asked. The music was loud, the voices of those who were attending tried to cut through the music, the only method it seemed was raising their own voice to become louder than the music itself and finally, the girls who were entertaining the guests were beautiful. Again, Taichi cursed his own hormones.
It was tradition he was told, that only men were allowed to such feast, the women on the other hand were to dine together in a separate dining hall, without the fanfare of what the men were getting. Both his sister and Mimi at first were reluctant but Miyako had told the two girls that it wasn't so bad and it was only for one night. However, Miyako had failed to mention that Taichi himself was to be entertained in such way, most likely having no idea in the first place. The girls that were provided were of course beautiful, Taichi figured they were probably gathered from all over Ming and sent to the capital to entertain the emperor and if the need ever raised such as instance, his guest. It was likely none of these girls were from any noble blooded family, merely playthings for the emperor to throw away when he was tired of them. Again, they were beautiful but they had no futures and beauty was the only thing that was saving them from being left to die on the streets. Many of them were dancing in the centre of the dinning hall, as two rows of table lined each side of the long hall and a table on a raised platform closed of the c-shape were the emperor solely sat. The more beautiful and younger ones were already taken by some of the officials that were attending the feast - they were mostly fat and old, officials that had seen many days in the court and when drunk found no need to hide their primal urgers.
"Young Lord Captain, are you not enjoying yourself?" Taichi came out of his trance, his mouth finally cooled off from the burning liquid. One of the girls, Taichi had found that she was by far the most beautiful and popular amongst the dancers. The girl's name was Fa Yinghua and throughout the night the emperor had been pushing her towards Taichi as he was the guest of honour. A face pearl in colour like a doll, eyes big as the moon, two dark hazelnut coloured iris' starred straight into his. Her hair was like many of the girls, two long pig tails from each side of her hair, some what reminding him of Lady Lily Crowle but these girls had much longer strands, Taichi though that they even reach the floor if they were not held back on top of their heads, making each strand in the shape of flower pedals.
"No, no, just tired from the long journey." He managed to say softly as he reach for his other cup containing water, Taichi doubted he could take another sip of rice wine.
"Shall I prepare your room and accompany you to bed?" She asked innocently, however Taichi was in the middle of gulping down his drink, her question causing him to spit out his drink and chock on what was left in his windpipe.
The girl hurriedly rushed across his table and using one of her hand as support and patting his back in an effort to help him. She looked concerned for him, she looked very much innocent even though she had just asked Taichi to take her to bed. Taichi took a closer look at her face, indeed she was beautiful but her beauty was more likely due to her young age compared to Mimi and Lady Crowle. Taichi guessed the girl was no older than fifteen and many of the other girls were probably of similar age. It was one of those thing that he was not prepared for, of course in his world laws were much tighter than they were in this era and furthermore, when the emperor himself was offering he could not simply refuse even though it was against his morals.
"Lord Captain, are you okay? Shall we retire to bed?" Again she asked this question so innocently.
"Errr, no thank you. I have a wife to go back too and..." He pause to find an excuse, he could not simply say she was not attractive, "I can't simply take one of the emperor's maids to..." again he was stumped.
"Do not bother the poor captain anymore Yinghua, it looks like he's been wiped by his wife." A booming voice called out, although there was amusement in his voice, the emperor was still commanding none the less. "And what a beauty she is. I envy you Lord Captain, your wife is young and beautiful, still ripe. My wife however, has grown old and fails to please me anymore. If you shall not accept my gift for the evening, then I myself shall have her."
"Of course your majesty." She simply said as she got up and smiled towards the emperor, still looking ever so innocent. Taichi did not know if she was or she was simply wearing a mask.
Speaking of the emperor, Taichi found him to be a curious man. He was the older brother of Prince Lee Jianliang, officially introduced as the Son of Heaven, Emperor Lee Rinchei. Taichi had found that the emperor was no older than himself and the prince and emperor's father was still very much alive. Taichi had tried to stay awake in his history classes during his first year in high school; from what he vaguely remembered, Japan itself had such a system where once an emperor grew too old, he would become the retired emperor. However he did not remember such system was in place in China once they had gotten to the topic - Ming was an incarnation of China with Japan's political system he concluded. And it was this system in which cause the need for Taichi to be in this country as the Ming itself was split into four capital from what he had learned. The northern capital Beijing, was the home to the emperor, the south was given to Prince Jianliang and Emperor Rinchei's sister, Princess Jaarin. The western captail of Xi'an was given to the prince's mother as a wedding gift from the retired emperor when he was still young and ruling. Finally, the eastern capital, Dongjing belonged to the prince himself and his little sister Princess Shaochung. However, the eastern capital had recently rebelled against the Kingdom of Ming when a new warlord by the name of Daimon Masaru had appeared from no where. Taichi did not know the details, however he was told that Daimon Masaru too had a Digivice, according to the prince's discription of the device and his Digimon.
"Now gentleman." A booming voice called. "I am sorry to say that you must put away your playthings for now, we have matters to attend to and I am sure they will be waiting for you in bed once we are done." The girls who were with some of the drunk officials quickly dressed themselves, some had faces flushed in red as they all rushed out the room. Some of the men look pleased and some looked as though they could kill the emperor even though they were too afraid to do such a thing.
"Now, down to business." The emperor clapped his hand as more servants enter the room bring with them a large cloth like map as they spread it onto the floor separating the two tables. "As you can see, the mainland is safely under our control" The Emperor pointed as the servants moved a large wooden flag representing the Ming. The flag was a simple design, golden yellow in the background and a decorated dragon in the middle. The emperor then moved his eyes towards Japan, "And here lies the western island province of Riban and on the eastern most coast lies the ruined capital of Dongjing." A new wooden flag was brought to represent the rebels, a simple red flag with a black image of what looked like Agumon's upper body.
"Those damned rebels have pushed our forces back to the western port of Jingdu." Again a yellow piece fell to the city that represent the emperor's forces. Taichi recognized the two cities without having too look twice, Jingdu and Dongjing; Kyoto and Tokyo. Some part of him wanted to side with whoever this Daimon Masaru was but he knew that he could not betray the country he had come to call home and in turn their new allies, the Kingdom of Ming.
"So Lord Captain, what do you think?" The Emperor asked as all eyes turned towards him.
"With all do respect Your Majesty, but as you have commissioned me to fight with my Mega Digimon, however at the moment my Digimon is down with illness. Our best solution is to have a diplomatic envoy with myself. It would be wise that we come to terms without any bloodshed. I beg you Your Majesty, let me please talk to this warlord, I may have a trump card yet."
"I do not see what good talking to these animals would do, however my Lord Captain, you do have a reputation and I believe you can solve this for us." The Emperor replied, Taichi nodded in response.
"Thank you Your Majesty, I will not let you down."
"Good, I shall have a convoy of ships ready to accompany you to Jingdu. For now, lets us retire to our rooms, it seems some of my court have lost their patience and want to indulge on their delights of the night." The Emperor concluded the meeting and left without any hesitation. Taichi tried not to focus on the Emperor and the cute maid, instead opting to thinking about returning to Japan. Maybe he would find a connection in his homeland, where it all started.
Taichi made his way to his room, after a bit of asking around for direction. He was deep in though about past memories of what happened when the Digidestined had first returned to the real world in search of the eighth child. As he entered his room, he had failed to notice the other person that was present. This did not bod well, as that person was not one to be ignored. Seeing as Taichi was too busy with his thoughts, a small giggle appeared in her mouth.
"So what do you think?" She said loud enough to wake him. She spun around in her new silk dress, as Taichi recovered, his jaws hung open. Before him stood Mimi, her hair wavy as the day he first met her in Saint Germain, but shorter to the point of shoulder length, reminding him more of her Odaiba counterpart. That was not what had his heart beating twice as fast. She was dressed like the dancers that had entertained them that night, her green silk gown hugged her body perfectly, yet unlike those dancers were their entire outfit was almost transparent, Mimi had a solid green silk cloth covering most of her body, her sleeves and skirt were translucent as if she was not wearing anything, it was almost tempting Taichi.
"Oh, it seems that I have my husband's approval." She giggled lightly, causing Taichi's heart to nearly fall.
"Mimi...I...your..." He could not finish he sentence as he could not find the right words and that before he realized, Mimi's mouth was already on top of his. Taichi didn't dare to think what would have happened if his hormones had gotten the better of him back during the fest, only to walk in later to find both girls at each other trouts. He push the though out of his mind as he let go all his raw urges that been building up ever since Mimi had first stowaway on board his ship. All the guilt of other women he wanted, of Lady Crowle, of the maid Yinghua, were all gone as he gently brought his wife to his bed.
He woke in the morning not remembering much of what happened, he blamed the effects of alcohol. However he found himself very much naked and by his side, a very naked Mimi still asleep hugging tight at his body. He escape her embrace without much trouble and quickly dressed himself, he did not want to wake up to an angry Mimi if she was mad and certainly from seeing his deep blush at the sight of her naked body.
Quickly leaving his room as to not to wake his sleeping wife, Taichi began his search for the kitchens of the palace. The Palace was a large place, from the deck of the Reliant he had spied the palace to be a city within a city. He had been to the Palais Royale when he was first invited to Central by the King himself to be given the assignment of governor to South Wales. The palace at Central was fairly big, however the imperial palace or as the Ming's court had told him, the Heaven's Palace was on a whole other scale. Where the Palais Royale could fit into a city block, the Heaven's Palace was the size of a small town, comparable to something like Mishima and probably held more servants than the entire town's population. The city was well defended and the palace more so than the city as it was surrounded by a large and deep moat to separate the poor from the rich inner workings of the palace. And if the poor or enemies were to swim through that, they would be faced with a steep wall that surrounded the palace, nearly impossible to scale by hand and much too high for anyone to use a rope to climb.
Having wonder the halls for the last ten minutes, Taichi was utterly lost. He had been to many temples in his younger days back in Japan and he had even been invited to the Imperial Palace when Mimi and Sora had both been invited to learn how to conduct a proper tea ceremony. Of course, the first choice of Mimi was for Taichi to attend her first real ceremony, Taichi had blush the entire time Mimi had been there, she wore a nice decorated pink kimono that day and even though at that age Taichi was more interested in Sora, Mimi was still able to work her magic on him. The Heaven's Palace reminded him of those days as the style was very much similar to those in Japan, as hallways always had one side open to the sky, pillars held up the roof so that on rainy days water did not become a problem for those who used it. Taichi always found the halls in Royal to be cold and dark, he much preferred open halls as it was what reminded him of home.
As if on cue, smoke and scent of food filled his nose and he knew his nose was his most reliable organ. Taichi quickened his pace and hurried to where he now knew where the kitchen was located. Once he found the room where the scent of food were coming from, he open the door and his eyes grew big at the sight of the food. The cooks paid no attention to him in the chaos of trying to ready the morning meals for the hundreds of patrons. Taichi found his way deeper into the kitchen where he found a large bowl holding dozens of what he knew as Chinese pork buns, the smell coming from the steaming buns tipped him off to what the inside contents were; and there was no mistake to it as these buns were a favourite snack of Hikari and himself whenever they made their way back from school and wanted to avoid their mother's cooking.
Spotting what looked like one of the chief cooks, he ask the man if he could take one or two and be on his way. The man merely grunted a yes and then pushed Taichi out of the kitchen once he got his hands on his targets. Taichi had managed to take three, one of them he wrapped in a white cloth he found in the kitchen in order to save the bun for Agumon, no doubt when he became better it would remind him of the real world which they both missed dearly.
Taichi slowly chewed on his new prize, with one bun in each hand, he walked the halls trying to retrace his steps. He had no idea where he was going nor any destination in mind, however sooner or later he knew he was going to be called to the Emperor's audience to make final preparations for the journey to the Ming's eastern state. Rounding another corner in his endless walk to nowhere, Taichi was surprise to bump into of all people, His Majesty Prince Ken. Taichi did know Ken all that well, in both this world and his, he never really got to know the former Digimon Emperor, probably for the deep and repressed anger he felt towards the boy when he imprisoned Agumon and force Digivolved him into Skullgreymon. The same could be said of the Prince, although Taichi knew they were not the same person, his face still reminded him of that day and therefore Taichi had made no further attempts at befriending the boy.
It was Prince Ken who first recovered and spoke to Taichi, "Ah, Captain Taichi just the person I was looking for." Taichi give the young man a questioning look, "Captain I am here to tell you that I will be returning to Royal with both the Lyon and Noble, their services have been called back by my brother. It seems the Republic of Italia has fallen to their southern neighbours and our borders will be soon attacked. Of course, I will send word for your return to Royal once your commission with Ming has ended."
Not knowing what to say, Taichi merely replied with a simple "Yes my Prince".
"And do not worry, my brother shall not hear of your secret from this mouth of mine or Miyako's. Prince Takeru too will return to the homeland as he is also needed. I do not know what your sister's plans are but we will be leaving at daybreak tomorrow once the ships have resupplied." After his speech, Ken saluted Taichi and Taichi returning the honour.
Soon Taichi was approached by a servant, telling him that his services was needed by the Emperor. Taichi was then lead to a large hall not unlike the one he was in last night and the Emperor himself sat in a similar fashion at a raised platform. The room was filled with a dozen or so of the Emperor's advisors but what surprised him was the attendance of his crew, that being Davis and Koushiro.
"So Lord Captain, have you decided on a course of action?" The King asked.
"Yes Your Majesty. I believe the wisest move at the moment would be to stall for time and hopefully find peace in negotiations." Taichi replied best he could in a harden voice, hopefully to prove to the emperor of his resolve. Taichi did not want to fight another battle if it meant both humans and Digimon alike could die.
"That is foolish! Those apes are nothing but savages, they will not listen to reason!" One of the Emperor's advisors managed to shout.
The Emperor merely chuckled at that, "Yes but these apes as you call them has managed to hold back the world's greatest army. I too believe the Lord Captain is correct in taking these actions. I will send at least twenty of my ships to your command Lord Captain, five Dragons, seven Phoenix, seven Tigers, and one Turtle as high command."
"Thank you Your Majesty. I will no fail." Taichi replied as he knelt to the floor on one knee and a hand over his heart.
"Make sure you do not Lord Captain, this Daimon Masaru is a dangerous man." Taichi nodded, anyone with the name meaning "big trouble" was no doubt going to be handful. If the rumours were correct, then someone with a Digivice was even more of a threat than any old warlord.