Don’t Ask Any Questions & Don’t Try to Understand

[Koekami Bao-yu]

Leaves dusted with the colors of autumn danced a waltz in the wind as they breezed past her nose in the twilight. She was a cloaked figure, perched up high in one of Crystal Tokyo’s beautiful trees like a bird of prey. Sharp eyes focused on the comings and goings of all the guards and their every movement. In her hands, she held a mini electronic computing unit that was detecting her current location and matching up her destination route.

Her bright eyes flickered down to the finished information that the unit had gathered, a brief smile played with smug satisfaction. Credit for all of this detailed blue printing had to be given to those who were fans and admirers of the royal family. Not to mention other black market individuals that had been easy enough to bribe in the long run. With enough time and patience, she had everything she needed in order to get to the single destination she wanted most: The Royal Library. The reasons were her own to keep close to her chest as to what she needed or why she was heading there in the first place.

Setting her timer, this movement had to be perfect. Her breathing was in sync as her black cloaked disguise masked any of her alter egos beneath a sea of dark fabric. It was time to strike, her feet gave way from the thick, sturdy branches and the nimble feminine figure dropped quickly to the ground with a gentle roll before springing back up to her feet. A guard that was turned away at the time didn’t even hear her sneak up behind him with a strike to the back of his neck. Within seconds he was down, and the figure gracefully caught him and swept him into a sitting position behind some shrubbery before continuing onward. Time was of the essence and this was the five minutes of perfect synchronization of very little human interference she’d encounter.

The plan wasn’t to walk into the front door. Instead, she was to scale the castle itself along the eastern bank where she could get direct access into the guarded library without having to dance around all of the security systems. Granted, she was going to have to deal with the initial window entry, but there were already plans in the works as her tiny piece of technology was already doing the coding math on what needed to be accomplished. With a grappling hook mechanism in hand, the figure popped it to one of the balcony fences on the second floor and scaled up to greet a guardsman that was strategically placed there and anticipated their reaction. The unfortunate soul was greeted with a foot to the face and stumbled back only to be ambushed down to the ground and his vocal chord disabled with a quick strike to the throat.

After this quick tackle, she remained silent and ducked down for several seconds to hear any possible movement in the event she was detected. Luckily for her, everything panned out as planned, and soon she was able to scale herself to the third floor via the same method without restriction. It was here that she crept down to the ground again and pulled out her computer trinket to see the countdown reach its mark of 00:00:00.

“Bingo!” her voice quietly whispered gleefully as she pulled out a small circular magnet-like object and stuck it to the window. The meter on the item read a zero signal from the outer security scanners. It was now that she pulled two little rods from the item that flicked out little laser beams against the glass. With a circular twist, the trinket cut through the thick protective glass and her fingers quickly flicked the cut away piece sideways in order to catch it between thumb and fore finger. Carefully she discarded the piece into the room before reaching to the appropriate latches and garnering access into the room in full.

The moonlight illuminated parts of the enormous monopoly of sacred texts databanks. It wasn’t just books that thrived in the library, but tomes of data were harbored here in digital format. This was her goal, and a specific form of rumored information was her target prize. But first, she had to pass the second test. Again she accessed her personalized mini computer for the next step of her conquest. The last piece of the strategic puzzle came in a small can about the size of a hair spray bottle. Setting it down on the floor, she hit a trigger button and soon the base of the room was covered in a pale mist that revealed multiple threads of motion sensor lasers in a hap-hazard pattern that would prove endless for anyone of normal thievery circumstances.

However, she was not normal. This was meticulously planned for quite some time, and was the first of many steps toward future goals. Indeed, this was a calculated and precise requirement from a specific computer that was paved in mist. All she had to do was get there. With this, she pulled the cloak off to reveal a black body suit. Small lumps of fabric seemed to be bunched up underneath the skin tight affair around the hips and bust line. Clearly she was hiding more costumes but currently had every loose piece of hair and fabric sealed away for this gymnast type feat.

Deep, methodical breaths kept her nerves at bay and her heartbeat became the beat of a militant drum as she scanned down the lasers and memorized her performance. With a somersault into the mess of beams, the figure flipped, twisted, tumbled, slid, and performed limbo-like back bends before landing her two feet upon her prime destination. With a smirk on her face and her computer unit installing itself into the driver of her objective, the girl’s fingers went to work as she let smarts boot the database while her technological gadget went to work on the hacking.

[King Helios]

It was terribly late, but the irony of he who held providence over the realm of dreams suffering a bout of insomnia was something that was not terribly uncommon in the Crystal Palace in these past few weeks.

"I will be but a moment," Helios murmured to the attendant guards as he approached the entrance of the library through the Main Hall. Perhaps he was fretting to be up at this hour and doing something that could quite easily wait until morning, but it wasn't something he could help.

"Yes, your Majesty,"the senior of the guards replied respectfully, his eyes lit with a curiosity he was clearly keeping at bay. The ways of the King were something not to be questioned in most circumstances, and certainly not openly. The man did earn an indulgent smile for that faint hint of expression, Helios certainly understood the mixed concern and desire to inquire when he was full aware of the peculiarity of his actions.

Delicate fingers almost idly disarmed the security of the Royal Library at the entry, and in that same moment within the library itself all but the highest of the supposedly unassailable protocols shut down save those that protected from outside intrusion and what was considered its most important contents. Ornate doors swung open in near silence at his feather-light touch, and as he entered he took no care to engage the lights. The moonlight that washed in a gentle glow over the repository was more than enough for he knew exactly where he was headed and for what.

There was a tome within that held information that had fallen into disuse many a year ago by both the advanced technologies the Palace housed as well as a regrettable lack of relevance, but there was a chance that what it held on record would soon find new importance. Even when his daughter had come into her powers, Helios had not sought it out if but for the fact that much of what it held was known within the Royal Family already. However, with the awakenings in the past few weeks of girls that held the power of the original senshi, it was now needed.

Those that did not know the past would only repeat it, and such a thought was abhorrent to the King.

Perhaps it had been sheer chance that Helios felt it necessary to come and review those documents pertaining to the fallen senshi, or the subtle influence of fate that at a certain hour on a certain day he came. And yet did he realize that fickle chance was not to sway in the favor of the Royal Family this night.

[Koekami Bao-yu]

A few minutes into her database intrusion and the bird of prey heard sounds from afar that tipped her in this direction. Something didn’t fit according to guard protocol, but luckily she had a plan in the event this arose. It would just mean there could be a hitch in the plan based on bad luck of coincidence alone.

But there are no coincidences in life.

In mid retrieval she had to abort the process, grabbing only a handful of data files before yanking the technological toy out and pocketing it. She then backed off into the darkness and scaled the bookshelves like a ninja in hopes that whoever was coming would leave just as quickly and she’d resume her process. Although she was hoping on slim chances, she really didn’t want to come all this way just to give up and turn back. Especially if found, the odds of returning without heightened security measures to follow after her encroachment would be a fool’s dream at best.

As the lights came on, she peeked carefully from afar and recognized the silver white hair of the King himself: Helios. Though she wouldn’t dare take the Queen head-on, it was well known that the king was docile when it came to displaying any sort of counterstriking methods. Still, perhaps it was because he held a power that was superior to the Queen’s. It wasn’t a risk worth taking, but she prepped her mind and body to strike if the end result was required.

Instead she simply watched and waited to see what the next course of action would ultimately be.

[King Helios]

Those ever soft steps took him to a shelf not far from where the intruder perched in secret. He knelt, fingers playing on the bindings of very old texts until he selected one in particular. White leather and gold gilding made it stand out, edged pages glinting in the still dimmed light as he slid it from its home and into his lap.

"There we are," he murmured softly to himself, the tone almost carrying a musical quality. There was the dusty sound of aged pages turning as he opened it with care, lips turning up into a slight smile. Pages held calligraphic writing, and beautiful commissioned illustrations by a hand long since lost to this life. "Yes, this shall do for the girls..."

The page he'd turned to held a lovingly drawn image, the preceding King and Queen. Ah, but now was not the time to wax nostalgic. To spend much longer would inconvenience his guards, and those pleasant young men needn't go out of their way to check on him in this situation. He held off, just another moment and perhaps testing the boundaries of what they might accept before checking in with them, not yet closing the tome as he moved to rise.

[Midori Sakura]

Sakura was hauled off by the royal guard to the palace. Her father was a member of the royal escort to the Queen, but Sakura herself tended to avoid this place. The high and mighty were always here and she didn't fit in.

Nonetheless she was here now.

Up to this point, she was ignoring the officer who going on about the youth of today,and that she would finally get to feel what happens when you break rules. There was something about community service, and license revoked.

Wait, License revoked? That had to be stopped.

The car pulled up and a very vocal and upset Sakura was pulled out of the car.

"WHAT! YOU CAN'T TAKE MY PERMIT!!!" Sakura was yelling as they pulled her through the main hall towards the security department of the palace. The side door was currently being worked on so the main hall was the only route, regrettably for the officers.

"Girl! Be quiet or we will do more than that!" He threatened.

"YOU CAN'T BEGIN TO REALIZE WHO I AM OR YOU WOULD LET ME GO!" Sakura knew he was serious about losing her license and she would fight that tooth and nail. The officers however didn't seem to threatened by the girl.

"Girl, I don't care who you're mommy and daddy are. With the way you are acting, nothing short of a royal intervention will stop you from doing CS and good luck keeping that license." He explained, manhandling Sakura through the hall.

[Koekami Bao-yu]

Looking at the king with her brightened eyes, the man seemed way too frail to be a leader of such responsibility. There’s no way she’d have to exert herself more than the bare minimum to take him down. After all, the guards were out of earshot and as long as the strike was quick and quiet, she could nab whatever she wanted and get the hell out before they’d realize he’d be in there at an unnaturally long period of time.

This movement had to be perfect. Everything was riding on it. The hunter waited until she had a clear shot of his back before dismounting down to the floor with ninja-like ease. Her knees buckled down to soften the land so that it would make little to no noise as she made a stealthy move around the bookcase and snuck up with feline precision behind her prey. It was almost too easy; like a cheetah pouncing a little lamb. The intent was not to kill, and luckily she had practiced her strikes enough that this blow would not murder the king outright. After all, taking down the royal family now before she had a chance to learn everything she wanted out of them would be power suicide to her goals.

Within seconds the strikes were quick and painless. Two hands hit each side of Helios’ temples. Immediately after, her left hand snaked around his mouth to cover any sound while she used her body and right arm to cradle his fall. Even for her age and small stature, the king was surprisingly light. Almost like a feather. She thought “How odd” to herself before gently swinging him over into a plush sitting chair and positioned him with his book that made it seem like he simply fell asleep while reading. With this situation taken care of, she went back to her computer to continue where she left off. By now it was easier to code into the computer and soon she was waiting for the database to finish while she kept a sturdy eye at the door to make sure the guards weren’t being overly good at their jobs.

Naturally her predictions of guard assertions were correct and now she had the chance to access what she wanted without recourse. During this time she thought back on the fact that Helios had picked up a particular book that would “help the girls.” Wondering what it could be, she slipped it out from his pretend grasp and took a quick skim of its contents. Indeed, it would help out! With this, she replaced it with a children’s book of sorts and a little drawing of a chibi ghost with a mocking face and dialogue text that stated, “The Necromancer let you sleep easy this time around.” Satisfied with her performance, she finally heard a small sound that acknowledged finishing of the download she was originally after.

Happily she disengaged from her target, and with the security system completely down due to Helios’ hand, she made her escape through the window and out the same way she came in. As she slid down the rope of her grapple gun to the ground, she thought she heard commotion a great distance away. Any of the guards she was anticipating weren’t even at their post at this point. With a smirk and gratitude to her luck, she blew a kiss to the castle with a wink before dashing off into the night.

[King Helios]

It had been in an instant, and King Helios hadn't been aware of the danger upon him before it struck. Never one with a great constitution, and that no amount of will could resist the quick strike from the shadows. The soft sound that escaped him was muffled against a clothed hand, the King crumpling like a marionette with cut strings into her arms.

The two guards at the doors to the library looked visibly astonished at this lack of ettiquette and protocol as a young woman was dragged through the Main Hall like a furious cat hissing foolish words. The senior of the two secured the door to the Royal Library for their beloved King's safety, just in case the foolish spitfire punk tried something. His partner held back, prepared to herd Helios out of the way of potential danger if he came running to check on the commotion.

Thankfully, it seemed, their King hadn't heard them as the senior guardsman rushed to assist his comrade, hissing under his breath in an overzealous effort to regain some control, "Silence, the both of you! You're in the Palace, have you no dignity?"

[Midori Sakura]

Sakura again tried to pull free of the guard holding her as she glared at the new guard.

"Look, I don't know who you are, but I didn't do anything wrong. Just let me go and I'll be on my way." Sakura said, quietly but far from calm. She knew it would have little affect, but was worth a shot. The guard holder her snickered.

"Speeding. Reckless Driving. Reckless Driving on Palace Grounds. Illegal use of a motor vehicle for racing. Gross Negligence for Civilian safety. Not to mention disturbing the peace, yeah, you haven't done anything at all." He said, reciting her offenses.

"No one got hurt! I know what I was doing. Besides, you only caught me because I was away from my bike. Seems like you guys need lessons from someone like me." Sakura attacked verbally, grinning. She was screwed, so might as well go out with a blast. Clearly the guard didn't care for her jab.

"We'll see how you feel after a night or two in the cells." The officer said, dragging Sakura past the library door and down a hallway into the palace towards the security department. Once there, he put her in a small cell designed for holding people until a hearing by royalty, or until they were picked up by someone making the bail.

"We will contact your parents, but you are here until a hearing or until your parents make bail." He said, locking the door and stepping out to fill out paperwork, leaving Sakura alone in her cell.

"Damn. Now what?" Sakura mumbled, pulling out her keys and thinking of her bike. Most likely it was in compound now. She could only hope they didn't damage it. Her main concern was how to get out of this. Her father being a guard meant they would probably go harder on her since she should "be more like her father". Rolling her eyes, Sakura laid back and pulled out the other item she kept on her at all times. A small pen with a unique symbol on it. Sakura grinning, considering her other options.