Eternal City Crystal Tokyo
Chapter 68
She was a dyed blond, dressed in a casual tunic and trousers, and wearing slightly battered leather boots. She had a pistol holstered on one side and a battered courier bag hanging on her other hip, carrying who knows what. There was a odd feeling of dangerousness about her, though it was hard to define.
"Officer Siobhan Quinn?" the reporter asked a bit nervously.
"Just Quinn, please," she smiled slightly grimly. "And you're Konno, right?"
"Yuuki Konno, right, with Channel Nine news," the purple haired woman smiled, wearing a comfortable black dress and sandals.
"Ok, can I see your papers?" Quinn asked, receiving a slim data unit from Yuuki. She tabbed through it, though there was no way the other woman could be here in the Palace without having passed multiple security checks.
Yuuki Konno. Born 2000. Digitized 2016. Downloaded in 2935. Currently employed by Channel Nine. Earth Citizen, no criminal record, cleared for Palace duty.
"So you're a data entity downloaded into a android chassis, right?" Quinn asked as she passed the card back to her.
"Sort of," Yuuki put her card aside, "it's complicated."
"Considering I'm a Vampire Werewolf hybrid, I get complicated," Quinn answered dryly.
"You're the Were-pire?" Yuuki blinked. "I've heard of you. I don't suppose you'd consider a interview...?" she started.
"Oh hell no," Quinn answered promptly but still kind of good naturedly. Clearly it was a request she was used to.
"Can't blame a girl for asking," Yuuki shrugged cheerfully.
Quinn nodded slightly, then seemed to get more serious. "I'm your official escort for the festivities around the Queens' Birthdays," she informed her calmly, "as per agreements, you'll be granted limited behind the scenes access. However, the Guard reserves the right to limit access for security concerns."
"And my bosses will scream bloody murder when you do," Yuuki agreed cheerfully.
"As expected," Quinn agreed. "Ok, where do you want to start?" she asked politely.
"The actual party doesn't start for a few hours," Yuuki noted the schedule calmly, "could I get a tour first, then see what happens?"
"Yes ma'am," Quinn smiled as the two walked to the main lift.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
There were a LOT of guests running around the palace, as well as staff and members of the government. There were actually two parties being planned, the official public party for Serenity and Usagi, and the private friends only event tomorrow. It was nice getting two sets of presents, but over all Usagi would have liked to skip the whole thing.
Ran Mizuno looked amused as Usagi lounged in a rumpled shorts and shirt, the two of them in the living room of the suite Usagi shared with her lover Hotaru. "No matching Princess gowns?" she teased impishly.
Usagi rolled her eyes, "That's later tonight."
Ran looked at the other woman sympathetically, still dressed in a simple pilot jumpsuit from work. "You know, if you tell your mother you don't want to do this any more...," she started.
"Oh, it's not that bad," Usagi said, sitting up. "Besides, Mom doesn't get to have much fun on this job, and I KNOW she likes us doing the whole matching dresses thing."
"You're a good girl, Usagi," Ran noted, reaching out to ruffle her blonde hair.
"Stop that," Usagi laughed, ducking away.
"Hey," Hotaru smiled as she came in.
"Hotaru!" Usagi practically bounced off the couch to hug her, then they kissed gently.
"Should I just give you two some alone time?" Ran teased.
"We're fine," Hotaru reluctantly disengaged, "besides, I want to save our energy for tonight, when I give her her REAL birthday present."
Usagi blushed pink as Ran snickered softly.
"Have you decided what to wear tonight?" Ran asked Hotaru curiously.
"Well, Sailor uniform for the formal bits," Hotaru admitted, "then probably a black suit with purple lining."
"You ALWAYS wear those colors," Usagi pouted.
"You could always line the suit in pink," Ran teased, "let everyone know who's boss."
Hotaru rolled her eyes. "Gee thanks...," she sighed. She smiled wryly, "The guests are already arriving... don't you have things to do?"
"Yeah, yeah," Ran nodded. "I need to get changed too, I guess. Jumpsuit won't fly for formal wear..." she admitted as she headed out.
"You didn't have to run her off," Usagi scolded gently once Ran was gone.
Hotaru picked up Usagi, making her yelp in surprise. "We're going to be VERY busy later," she said as she strode to the bedroom, "so I'm taking my chance, thanks..."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Yuuki bowed again to the arch-magus, "Thank you again, Kinomoto-sama," she said.
Sakura looked incredibly sheepish, while her wife Tomoyo looked amused. "Your welcome," she said, deciding that arguing over the honorifics would just prolong the embarrassment.
"Having fun?" a visibly amused Quinn asked as they moved on. The ball room was somewhere in the middle of the palace tower, and was well occupied by the famous and important people of Crystal Tokyo.
Yuuki blushed. "I guess I shouldn't be using this as a chance to meet all the famous people I admire, but...," she shrugged.
"Well, you already talked to the Jurai Delegation and squealed over the baby," Quinn noted, "interviewed the Knight Sabers and the Goddesses and now Sakura and wife."
"Hmm," Yuuki nodded. They had also had short interviews with several Ministers. She had been a bit amused at Touga-sama's hitting on her too. She rather suspected it was a reflex of his...
"Hey, Quinn!" a tall, handsome young man called, striding over. He was dressed in court livery, and his slightly messy blue hair gave him a boyish look.
"Minister Kaoru, it's good to see you," Quinn said a bit stiffly.
"Miki, please," he smiled at her, "I still owe you from that time..."
"Miki, then," Quinn said with a stiff smile, "and I was just doing my job."
"Minister Kaoru, I didn't recognize you," Yuuki admitted, glad she hadn't managed to screw up embarrassingly.
Miki looked more amused by that than anything else. "I try to keep a lower profile than the other ministers," he explained cheerily. He looked teasingly at Quinn, "You should get her to tell you about our adventure up in Canada."
"Oh no.." Quinn quickly shook her head.
"Oh?" Yuuki looked curious.
"First time in my life I ever had to out run a enraged moose," Miki added, laughing. He waved as he walked off, "Have a good night."
Yuuki paused, then once he was gone looked over at Quinn. "Moose?" she simply asked.
"I DO NOT want to talk about it," Quinn growled.
"Pleeeeeese?" Yuuki batted her eyes.
"Who else did you want to talk to?" Quinn asked, ignoring that.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"Welcome, friends, comrades and guests," Queen Serenity beamed as she and her daughter emerged to cheers. She winked impishly, "Hope you brought LOTS of presents!"
There was a laugh from the crowd. Erica Tenoh stood over to one side, looking amused. She had Ran nearby her, as well as Sakura and Alicia, both young women looking terrified at being at such a exclusive event.
"Don't be so nervous, they put their pants on one leg at a time, just like us," Erica reassured her friends.
"They're wearing dresses," Sakura said.
"Point stands," Ran snickered.
Princess Usagi looked amused as she gave her own speech. "I would also like to announce..." she paused dramatically, "that this evening, Hotaru Tomoe formally proposed to me. And I have accepted."
There was a beat of deal silence.
"WHOOOAA?!" most of the crowd roared out.
In the middle of the stunned, babbling crowd Yuuki frantically digitized the clip then phoned her boss. "Priority news item, level one!" she barked, "We need to get this out now."
"But..." he started.
"If I'm wrong, fire me later. This needs to go out now," Yuuki demanded.
Something in her tone convinced him. A half second later he said, "Interrupting news feed, adding data..." there was a moment's gap as he saw the clip. "Holy shit!" he blurted.
"I think that was important enough to break into the news feed," Yuuki said smugly.
As she conversed Yuuki kept recording the wave of well-wishers converging on Usagi and Hotaru. There was much back slapping and congratulations, as well as Serenity hovering nearby looking happy. Interestingly the Ambassadors for Jurai and the Khanite did NOT look happy, and Yuuki made a mental note to follow up on that...
To be continued...
Notes: Yes, I missed the actual birthday of June 30th. Sorry. It's hard to match fanfic updates to actual dates, especially since I only thought of this chapter after it passed. Heh.
Siobhan Quinn is the main character of a dark fantasy/horror trilogy by Caitlin R Kiernan dealing with the adventures of a Werewolf/Vampire hybrid. It's a VERY dark sort of parody of Vampire/Paranormal romance books, and has canon yuri bits.
Yuuki Konno is a character from Sword Art Online, Mother's Rosary chapter. I have not yet decided if SAO actually happened in this series, but this is a character who's mostly BASED off the version from the show, and not exactly the same.
