《Nana the Dragonfly - An Eighth Empire Story》27 - Choukishi revisited
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Kneeling on the floor of her private quarters, Nana quietly observed the walls.
As ordered, she had let somebody take care of her wounds and taken a long but and had slept briefly. For most of the day however, she quietly stared at the paintings on the wall, hoping the life story of a legendary warrior drawn there would offer her some insights.
For the tenth time that evening, her eyes traced each of the panels, lingering halfway on a panel where the warrior fought a hundred enemies by herself to reach her lover.
Suddenly, it clicked.
That legendary warrior never gave up, not until she finally reached her lover. And giving up was exactly what she did.
Well resolved, she stood up, tied her short bob back and headed to the vanity to fix her face paint. She very deliberately chose a pattern this time. On her lips she put the colors of her position in society, the vermilion and amber of the dragonfly. Next, she imitated the paint of the woman on her wall. A midnight blue bar around her eyes, only leaving to room to add the one part of her family’s colors she regularly used; A dazzling golden glow around her eyes.
When she was done, she took a moment to regular her breathing as she waited for the paint to dry, then stood up to choose her clothes, deciding on the damaged dress she had yet to return to the girl in Choukishi.
After dressing, she collected her weapons and lit fresh incense over the bowl of rice that stood as an offering to her ancestors. She begged them to look over her, then headed to collect her mount.
When she left her room and entered the hallway, she found Rei waiting for her. Or at least, the girl would have been if she hadn’t fallen asleep against the wall. She had clearly been waiting for Nana until her exhaustion caught up with her, leaving Nana now to wonder if she should take the girl along.
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She decided against it and on quiet feet headed up towards the stables.
A little later, she was speeding across the evening sky, back to Choukishi.
It was close to dawn when she arrived in Choukishi, where she found the foreign ship as she had hoped. Even from the sky she could tell it was heavily damaged, though more interesting was the fact that instead of the mighty Haga-powered engines, two emergency masts had been jury-rigged onto the vessel. The furled sails gently blew in the winds, fighting with the flags to see which could make the most noise.
Assuming the sailors would still be asleep, Nana swept down and inspected the heavy damage to the metal hull, finding that they would only need a little help to be lost the ocean depths forever.
She clawed her fingers through one of the gaps and tugged on it. It didn’t budge.
Pressing her knees into the flanks of her hornet, she returned to the city and audaciously landed in the middle of one of the streets.
A group of sukeeru leading a dung beetle, on their way to collect the night soil, hurriedly took a different street to avoid the Giya and her terrifying mount.
Nana pretended not to notice them, tied her hornet to a nearby streetlight and headed into the a dark alley to find the Dung Beetle’s lair.
She knocked a few times, waiting patiently.
A few moments later, she knocked again, becoming less patient
After a third bout of knocks and no response, she quite simply kicked down the door.
“Daigaimon!” she called, “I need your skinny ass out here, right now.”
A secret panel somewhere in the wall opened and the man known as the Dung Beetle stared blankly at her.
“Tassi,” he yawned, “It’s too early for this kind of noise.”
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Nana didn’t wait for the man to recognize her. She strode across the room, grabbed him by the neck and pulled him out of his hidden bed.
“I don’t have time to waste, Daigaimon, listen…” It had taken Nana only five minutes and a few threats to get what she wanted and, armed with her new weapon, she left the hideout and returned to the road only to stop dead in her tracks when she saw a familiar face.
With folded arms and tapping foot, Rei was waiting for her. She raised a brow when she saw the large package under Nana’s arm.
“Thought you’d be here,” she said calmly, “The Gunari wants you…”
“He’ll have to wait.”
“He wants you to join him, Nana. He’s marching on Kuwagata.”
The news surprised Nana, who frowned, though in the end she returned her thoughts to the matter at hand.
“I’m not his bodyguard,” she said simply, “He doesn’t need me in battle.”
“Nana, I said you were sleeping. You have until noon to join him.”
“Plenty of time then. Step aside.”
“...What are you doing here anyway.”
Nana nodded in the direction of the bay, “Finishing the job.”
Rei cast a dubious look at the masts that rose over the city.
“Nana…”
“Saying my name over and over, won’t stop me, Lady…”
“Don’t,” Rei sighed, then resorted to tapping her fingers against her arm in silence, before sighing again and turning her full attention to the ship.
“What are we doing?”
“Fireworks,” Nana smiled, holding the package up, “Choukishi’s going to wake up early today.”
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Puck Mallory has devoted his life to the thrill of gambling. When a round of poker with members of a planet-dominating crime syndicate goes wrong, he finds himself forced into a new kind of game - LimeLight. Puck thought he was going to be forced to fight to the death for the viewers' sick amusement. He was wrong. Something far more sinister was lurking beneath the competition's surface. Genetic alterations and cybernetic augmentations are commonplace in the galaxy, but rumor has it LimeLight takes them to a whole new level - using failed competitors as their test subjects. Will Puck bite the dust on live broadcast for the entertainment of millions and end up a lab experiment, or score the jackpot of his life?
8 190The Queensguard: An Isekai Love Story
Hundreds of years ago, the Empire of Asgardia ruled all of the Frostlands with an iron fist. The dark elves subjugated the high elves and the dwarves, enslaving them and abusing them to bring further prosperity to the Empire of Asgardia and the dark elf race. One day a high elf warrior led a rebellion to liberate her people from their dark elven oppressors. She was aided by a small group of elite warriors with unyielding loyalty. That warrior would be crowned as the First Queen of the newly established Kingdom of Alfheim, and her loyal band of warriors would come to be known as the Queensguard. Today, the Kingdom of Alfheim is now the most powerful nation in the world, and the tradition of the Queensguard has continued on. Warriors from all over the land aspire to join the ranks, but only a select few will have the honor to be chosen. Tetsuya Miyazaki is an eighteen year old high school boy from another world. A social outcast searching for a purpose to fight for. Chelsea the Fierce is a half-orc orphan, cast aside by the world and saved only by the kindness of a stranger. This is the story of the monster and the hero. An unlikely pair of underdogs and their extraordinary journey into the world of the Queensguard.
8 209The Girl Named Rino
Oh. Hello. I didn't see you come in. No, don't worry. I don't need to hear your name. I already know what it is. I also knew that you'd come up at around this time. But, at the same time, I also didn't know. It's very hard to put into words - but that's what happens when you become the Chaos God. Your psyche gets messed up, big time. That's even more so for me, who was already warped enough to confuse reality with imagination - and, even make the rest of the universe believe that it was so. But, enough about me. Let's talk about you. You seem to come from a very far away land. It's faint, but your presence is there - in a relatively primitive planet. No wonder, no one wanted to stay in, or conquer your region of the universe - there's nothing worth controlling there. Your existence, much like your entire solar system, also seems to be pretty insignificant. Tell me, is your race capable of destroying your own world? Oh, you're already well along the way? Global Warming? Pollution? Overpopulation? Nuclear weapons? Wow... it's been many millenia since I'd last heard of such ancient concepts from someone who is actually living through it. Still, good job getting that far. That means that your world is now, at least, worth considering as a possible place to install a World System. If I find the time, I'll try surveying it. You can just thank me, later. Oh wait! What kind of person am I, not even offering my guest any hospitality. I'm ashamed. Please, take a seat. What would you like? I have everything the multiverse has to offer, whatever it is you want - I can get. Ah! After we talk, would you mind, if I asked you to do me a tiny favor? There's this girl, I want to keep tabs on. She's in one of the Worlds that I preside over, it's called Aiarthe. But, for some reason, I can't see her - not directly, at least. All I need you to do, is check up on her from time to time. Whether you do it as a pure spectator or through someone else's eyes, is entirely up to you. Really!? You would!? Wow! Thanks! You really did me, a huge solid there! For agreeing so quickly, how about I get started on surveying that planet of yours, right now!? You can help yourself, to anything in the fridge! Well, see ya!
8 231Riser Phenex
When you open your eyes you realise that you are in the body of a douche bag.... How will you change your destiny as a stepping stone of the Protagonist?
8 112float with me | IT
Lara Lewis moves to Derry at the wrong time. Not only does she catch the attention of the infamous Patrick Hockstetter, children are disappearing and a dark entity that takes the form of your deepest fear is terrorising the town. Can Lara and the Losers Club take down Pennywise before it's too late, Or will they float too?
8 64Mr. Perfectly Fine ⚊ Enhypen Sunghoon Text AU [ #5 ]
"Hello, who is this?""I want a girlfriend that is perfectly fine and gorgeous as me""....""Well, as far as I can remember this is not a love hotline"".....""And as far as I also can remember, this is a hotline for Baskin Robbins, an ice cream shop, not for fucking boys who can't keep their hormones to themselves"☏ ⚊ ☏In which a famous idol grew jealous of his friends' love lives and tried to see his own luck by calling the first number their maknae had given to him.The girl who answered just came from a terrible break up and scared him at her never ending bitterness to the world and beyond.And this is the story for Ms. Miserable who may learn to say goodbye at Mr. Change of Heart with the arrival of Mr. Perfectly Fine in her life.
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