The Modern Gods by C M Thorne

Author:C M Thorne [Thorne, C M]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-12-25T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11: CEREMONY OF SPRING

TOKYO WAS NOW a city of technology, but Asuka knew it as one of deep history. A forest of towering steel and glass skyscrapers broken by parks and ancient buildings. It was always abuzz with life, never sleeping and always moving, changing. Asuka Oshiro had called the city her home for nearly a hundred years. Japan had changed a lot in her long life and she had come to love Tokyo even more than her previous seats of power, Kyoto and Asuka, the city from which she had taken her current name.

Asuka was the head of the Oshiro family, which she had turned into a business giant throughout the eastern world. Oshiro Shipping and Oshiro-Nakamura Industries were her main money makers and sources of power, turning the entire modern world into her shrine. Many still offered worship to her and various members of her family in this country. And for that, she was grateful. The west had forgotten their gods, but the east had a long history, and an even longer memory.

Asuka sat at her desk on the top floor of a particularly high sky rise in the Marunouchi district. There were no offices per se on this floor, though a folding glass partition on tracks did allow for Asuka to close off her space. She pressed a button with her left hand that changed the glass from clear to opaque and she spun her chair away from her sleek, oversized desk, golden brown eyes scanning the city below. She could see the imperial palace from her vantage point, a place that she had once frequented, answering the prayers of the imperial family. She had even revealed herself, to some small extent, to certain rulers in the past. Those days were behind her now, however, and she realized that she had not been to the palace for nearly sixty years.

Her thick black hair was cut to chin length, a trendy, slightly asymmetrical and blunt cut. She was wearing a tight black pencil skirt, a matching fitted blazer and a silk blouse in a rich, golden honey color that she had been unable to resist, with its floppy tied bow at her throat. She had a weakness for shoes and was currently sporting classic black Louboutin pumps with the signature red bottoms. Her full lips bore a deep red lipstick and she wore no other makeup, her power alone keeping her face clear and full of rosy warmth. She caught her reflection in the window for a moment, finding herself pleased with how good she looked.

Today was the day of the first cherry blossoms. Asuka could feel it dance across her skin like a chill that raised the flesh on one’s arms. She could smell it in the air, sweet and faint, but unmistakable. She had a meeting, a ritual, planned at one of the city’s many parks later so she would watch the buds open to the warmth of the sun.

It would provide a nice distraction to the tedium of business issues and the weight of the apparent gathering storm.

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