Eternal City Crystal Tokyo
Chapter 67
"Welcome back to Tonight in Crystal Tokyo!" the canned voice declared.
The camera swept across a set that looked like a newsroom but was mostly fake. The news reader was a attractive redhead, wearing the current fashion of a snugly fitting tuxedo. Several popular idols and famous women had worn them over the past few weeks, and fashion houses had leaped on the trend. Not that they made the suits themselves, of course, but they provided the templates for home manufacturing units.
Behind her, images flashed of several photoshoots that Jun Fudoh had recently done. She was very well known in Crystal Tokyo, and a new photo book was already in the works. Sadly Jun couldn't carry a tune, or someone would probably be trying to get her to put out a single.
"Popular idol Jun Fudoh, also known as the DevilLady, has publically announced her engagement to business woman Nadesico Kinomoto. No date for a wedding has been released, but it is expected to be the social event of the season."
The newsreader smiled as she continued, "Moving on to news from the interstellar desk, the League of Non-Aligned Worlds has again formally protested Crystal Tokyo sending military escort ships along with our merchant convoys. They have declared this a act of unjustified aggression and a illegal intrusion upon their soverign space and demand that they stop immediately."
A image appeared behind her of a green haired, serious looking man in a simple, military styled uniform. "Minister of defense Kyouichi Saionji had this to say," she smiled.
"No way in hell," Saionji said bluntly. "Until they get the piracy that runs rampant in the League under control, we will not stop protecting our ships."
The newsreader smiled politely as she noted, "The League, of course, denies all of these baseless accusations."
It took a LOT of effort to keep a straight face while delivering that bald faced lie, but she had a lot of practice. Off Earth politics seemed to involve that a lot, too.
Behind her pictures of two politicians, both looking very unhappy, appeared on the screen next. They were both part of the massive congress that oversaw Earth itself, under the benevolent rule of Neo-Queen Serenity.
"The Earth-First scandal continues to play out in Congress this week. Last weeks bombshells that two well connected politicians were covertly supporting Earth-First activities continued to rock the chamber. In exchange for a clemency deal, Toya Tsuda has agreed to name his confederates in the government. Several major power players appear ready to fall, and the shock waves may be felt for years," she reported calmly.
Several screens of police making arrests followed, sullen looking men and women being taken into custody after surprise raids.
"Information from several arrested politicians have lead to raids on multiple Earth-First safe houses in the former United States and in Europe. They have had less success in capturing Crystal Tokyo cells, and Chief Leona Ozaka made a statement."
A woman in Crystal Tokyo's police uniform stood behimd a podium, looking very annoyed being there. Her brown hair had some grey in it, but otherwise she was quite fit. "If you idioys would actually do your research," Leona growled, "Earth-First has always has a smaller presence here. There are MUCH less wackos here thinking the Queen should go."
The newsreader looked amused at Leona's waving and shouting at her fellows in the news media. Then again, she wasn't there being yelled at.
A new set of images appeared, turning slightly on the screen behind her. One was a black haired, pretty young woman, her hair up in buns and dressed in a cliché Chinese-style dress. Beside her was a shimmering, unearthly hologram, with red hair and matching dress, her skin a icy white.
"In celeberty news, the Sharon Apple, Minmei Lynn tour is continuing to sell out as they headline shows across the rim worlds. The virtual idol and bioroid modeled after the fictional character are remarkably popular, even as ethicists argue about the propriety of creating a living being based on a fictional archtype."
Another image appeared of a popular teen idol, soaking wet and trying to climb out of a bubbling fountain. "Popular idol and bubblegum pop sensation, Gogia-9, had a accident today while filming her newest film, 'Blood Soaked and Honor Bound.' A zero gee acrobatic scene went wrong, and safety gear slowed her fall and redirected her to the nearest body of water. Only minor injuries were reported, though damage to her dignity was another matter..."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"WHAT dignity?" Touga asked flippantly as he turned off the screen, "She only became popular from doing sex vids."
"And you know this how?" Anthy teased as she brought everyone refreshments. It was her turn, next being Touga himself.
Touga paused, "No comment."
Utena bit back a laugh as she accepted a sparkling cider from her lover. "Nice," she grinned.
"Thank you," Anthy responded demurely.
"Why do reporters have to make it sound like we are at fault?" Touga asked with a sigh as he sat back and sipped his own drink.
"Damn if I know," Utena sighed. She brightened as she added, "At least we seem to have broken the back of Earth-First."
"Well," Lady Venus made a so-so gesture as they sat in a lounge in the Palace.
"What does that mean?" Saionji asked, still smarting over how dumb he had looked on TV. Of course, everyone looked terrible on TV news. It was a rule or something.
"I think we can say with some certainty that we've gutted the larger organization," Venus admitted as the beautiful blond continued, "but the small, splinter cells will still be active, at least until we track the money and other connections back to them."
"Assuming you can," Anthy noted, settling down by Utena on the couch. They snuggled together in that unconscious way long time couples had with each other.
"Makoto is going to do some net diving," Venus referred to her cyborg lover with a faint smile, "so I'm pretty confident we'll get some of them. But yes, if our opponents were even moderately clever, they will have blurred the money trail and disappeared."
"But you are happy about the sting operation you pulled?" Saionji asked.
"Again, sort of," Venus said thoughtfully. "You see, we only really got our two targets and some bottom feeders. I'm reasonably certain there are others, but at this point they've no doubt gone into full hiding, as far as their actual beliefs."
"Pretending to be good little citizens until the heat dies down?" Touga nodded glumly. "It's days like this that make me want to run for office."
"You'd do well," Utena noted with a smile, "and unlike us with government jobs, you can actually enter the race."
"Hmm," Touga mused. Yes, there were rules limiting those who could run for office, including those with jobs appointed by the Queen. Not that they couldn't just resign and run, of course, but traditionally that was frowned upon.
"And there's two seats open you can try for," Anthy added. 'Possibly more if everyone connected to the scandals resigned,' she thought.
"Don't pressure the poor man," Nanami noted, smiling at her elder brother. The blonde businesswoman had mostly lost the extra weight from pregnancy, and was back in training to get back to her usual size.
"How's Kozue?" Touga asked about her daughter.
"Sleeping through the night, thankfully," Nanami smiled as she sat down. "Is Miki still delayed?" she asked about her husband with a sigh.
"He's still helping Serenity run some meetings," Touga reported. He sipped his soda, "They are trying to marshal support from various insterstellar powers to try to embargo Mesa."
"Not having much luck, either," Venus sighed in disgust. "Too many local powers either profit from companies on Mesa or receive bribes and kickbacks."
"I STILL say we should just carpet bomb the place," Saionji noted.
"You always say that," Anthy teased.
"And I'm always right," Saionji grinned as he took a drink.
"Any advice for the new mom?" Nanami addressed the room.
Venus looked amused. "Well, having been on the sidelines to three kids being raised," she said, referring to Usagi the younger, Ran and Erica, "I can make a few suggestions."
"I'm listening," Nanami smiled.
"I think both Ran and Usagi had issues with their parents being absent a lot," Venus said bluntly, "so while I wouldn't advocate quitting your job, you're going to need to have a good work home balance."
"Ugh," Nanami sighed, "I guess I can scale back work a bit..."
"Or make Miki do it," Utena noted. "He looks good in a skirt, according to Arisugawa."
Touga stopped with his drink half way to his mouth. "What...?" he started, then quickly shook his head. "I don't want to know," he decided.
"No, you really don't," Anthy agreed.
To be continued...?
Notes: Yeah, short rambly chapter. Sorry. Trying to get back into writing a bit, in between various crises and such. I may actually give the newsreader a name once I figure out if I want her to be a existing anime character or not.
