With more than half of Japan under the Royalists' grip, Konohana is more than pleased that she is now holding a meeting with all of her friends who have supported her in Kyoto prefecture. The meeting is long and tiring, a few snippets of their dialogue from a few lucky journalists eyeing on them like spies from a distance have managed to convert these audio files into a 20-minute mixtape. Here's how it turned out:
Konohana: "Thank you for coming, all of you. Here is what used to be a symbol of the all-powerful Toyotomi Hideyoshi before this place was burnt down from a war centuries ago. Now, in its place is a city filled with few million people enjoying the modern-day cycle of life unaware of what's happening outside of this municipality. Now, what we are going to do is we are setting up the core values of every living citizen in this forthcoming new generation of the human race unlike any other nation has ever done. We are going to start the 'Carbon Fire' project, a multi-billion yen project that should help protect this nation from under direct attack, whilst also helping new-coming tourists by deploying 'companion robots.'
Yukimura: "Lucia, what will these new robots is going to do once the Empress authorizes the deployment?"
Miyabi: "Like, can they do things humans normally can't do in the confines of normality, or should their emotions be regulated to serve their high-quality purpose?"
Konohana shows all of them as she walks through the newly installed cryo chambers of the facility that won't be finished until 2024. If she were on her own planet the whole time building this colossal skyscraper, given that time of day actually goes by at five times the normal rate than Earth, it wouldn't be even finished due to extremely high costs, taxes, and mixed opinions concerning the project until around 2257.
Konohana: "These new robots are larger than life beings that would be outfitted with these microchips she shows them the green bio chips that holds the basic necessities and functions for the robot about one-tenth the size of a penny so that the robot at least knows what to do if commanded by ordinary citizens. It also has an on/off button and is solar-powered, so these chips have limitless battery life."
Tanji: "So what those bio chips have to do with the human population, Lucia?"
Konohana: "We won't place them on humans, because these will only fit on robots, and these behind me do the thing. Though these robots aren't tested right now, not without the Empress' authorization, we do however have constantly performed tests on machinery for faster efficiency, less accidental slipping, and better accuracy of their tasks. The A.I. system of these chips is a true marvel, if it were placed on ourselves; we would have easily kicked the shins out of innocents or otherwise alter our genes unpredictably, so for safety reasons, they only fit on machinery and robots."
Yukimura: "What else does this huge project have to do with the nation's infrastructure, besides robotics?"
Konohana: "Some old idea from science fiction that's been centered on for years will soon turn reality if we are going to survive a nuclear winter or an extraterrestrial invasion. While no such things have happened yet, we will place down a huge shield dome that should be able to stop even an ICBM from reaching our soil, or near it, as well as energy blasts. Vehicles of any size and people can enter and exit with no side effects, but projectiles too small to hit it will get deflected."
Tsukiyama: "How powerful that dome can withstand?"
Konohana: "Given the size of our nation surrounded by water, it should be powerful enough to withstand at least one nuke, a huge laser beam, or multiple explosive attacks simultaneously hitting the dome. However, anything that occurs inside the dome bypasses this, and even then, monsters can still somehow go right through it if they want to and destroy it from the inside. We won't have the dome built until after the building is finished, and I would be even happier if they can get it done faster."
Yukimura: "We will have to see, our people are just as concerned as you are, if not, more so."
Konohana: "You're right about that, unless we secured like three-quarters of the nation, someone else is going to have the seat soon enough, perhaps by next blooming season, and that's why I made such a big invitation for all of us to get as much of our citizens' support as quickly as we can."
Yasue: "What of Kyushu, I can take care of the needy, but unbeknownst to us the whole time, a shadow organization might have sent in someone to assassinate the Empress."
Konohana: "There's no need to convey me such news about organized crime, Yasue. It might be best to leave that to her administration."
Yasue: "I hate to say this in the middle of a stressful situation, but someone operating under the radar wants to seize the throne for nefarious purposes, or to cause a scare knowing we are still part of the matrix system. This crap-sack reality system is far more powerful to the point we cannot underestimate its complexity, it comes from out of nowhere from ancient times to enslave us. They know way more than we do, and even if we wipe them out, some other organization might take their place. Trying to intervene in their affairs somehow and they'll wreck your life!"
Konohana: "YASUE! Please... calm... down! she sighs Just... leave your concerns to Genji and no one else."
Yasue: "..."
Kugimiya: "Is there a way we can do to improve the project, miss?"
Konohana: "Absolutely, while there might be more features that could be used to inform the citizenry within earshot of the facility's radio frequencies, at the moment the Genji administration haven't yet confirmed anything extra coming into place until after this election. Perhaps the next administration change would very likely going to scrap it and render us vulnerable to nuclear war and such. We can only hope that once I take the seat, I can rest assured this project will do wonderfully, saving us lots of yen and not have to worry about military expenditure, ever."
Following the meeting, Konohana sets her up a slow march across the world's longest suspension bridge to Kagawa to continue rallying as many voters as she can before her rivals. In wasting no time for another speech, she and her large army of civilian protestors went right up to Himi's estate and demand that she take her leave.
Hironaka continues her conquest to overtake Kochi, removing the presence of nekos completely. This however caused a lot of ire from the kingdom of Nyutopia, an island kingdom southwest of Shikoku to retaliate by converting some of the population into their own using their 'True Soul' gifts. Not even an Olympian athlete can overcome a neko because of their small bells that can't be taken off that grants them nigh invulnerability, only gravity magic can stop them.
In Kyushu, Tengan captured Nagasaki, sending Nissho packing whereas Yasue overtakes Fukuoka, Miyazaki and Oita. Genji's sister is in deep trouble, as she is back to where she started due to Mayako's continued land-grabbing spree. Tengan then take on Mayako's strategy to retake whatever Yasue just did, forming a republic in her name. Yasue retreats to Yamaguchi, having nowhere else to go but to defend the strait that links Honshu and Kyushu. Tokyo is having a festival in progress, in which Honda uses it as an opportunity to crowdfund her campaign with as many people as possible, and then moving on to overtake Chiba and Gunma, because she is now the only Capitalist leader left in the nation, and the type of leader not wanting to back down anytime soon.
Ai of Aomori reluctantly didn't go to Konohana's invitation and has since avoided politics for so long has now started taking prefectures for herself, starting with Akita. She even hired Neru on a mission to takeout Teika in the dead of night.
Terada tries her best to feel better with help from the three Tibetan monks, she is now under supervision as she is given daily meditation lessons, aromatherapy, diet cleansing, along with dealing with depression.
The Empress is still angry with the continuing bipartisan alliance movement, so she has ordered state police to patrol the streets of every major city in the country. She repeatedly said that she wants to keep the election 'fair and just' but they won't give in to her words. Nonetheless, Niigata, Gunma and Saitama are won back by the Liberals, however the latter two will have new leaders taking their oaths: Azuma and Mokuami.
The following status updates as of 15:30 on Sept 28:
Mayako is now in the lead with 7 prefectures, with Tengan in second place with 6, and Konohana along with Miyabi tying for third place with 5.
There is now only one Capitalist leader left, which is Honda. She is stubborn and is willing to put more effort to a now solo campaign to turn the nation into a moneymaking powerhouse, at the expense of the citizenry's free will.
Mitakihara City for the first time in six years has been fortified.
Only Homura and Arinori are the last two Liberals standing, whereas Jana, Kumi, Mayako, Tengan, and Teika are the only five remaining Conservatives left. However, after some hard-fought protests within a very short time frame, Fujimoto is placed back in office, along with two new Liberals: Mokuami of Saitama and Azuma of Gunma, both are loyal friends of her. This brings the number of Liberals back to five. Mokuami is the only leader as of now with red/purple heterochromia.
The entire island of Kyushu is now under Conservatives control, with Tengan automatically forming the Tenganese Republic.
Terada is too ill to continue her office duties; she has to let her sister Hagiwara to assume control of Hokkaido until she feels better.
Yoshinaga is the only Royalist annexed with Konohana, and has decided to resign, resuming normal life tending to Nara Temple.
The race is getting even fiercer, with only 21 contestants left.
