The Grand Assembly Room of the National Diet building, where all important matters of parliament are discussed and voted on.
It is an exquisite room that appears to be made from traditional materials, mostly timber and marble, while at the same time hiding many high-tech features designed to allow the ministers up to date access to all the data they may ever need.
Ministers are welcome to put forward propositions and discuss political matters in this room as long as they follow the Laws of Parliament.
Manabu Yukimura stood at the podium, he cleared his throat and began.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I welcome you to the first session of the new parliament.
It is an honor to stand here before you and I hope for many days ahead where we work together to govern Kusari with temperance and justice.
It is in this spirit that I bring forth our first bill proposition.
The Kusari Reformation Party would like to propose that we remove our current embargo against our southern trade partner the House of Liberty.
This Embargo does not do us any favours and only works to hurt our Republic’s economy by restricting goods moving over our southern borders.
We should continue diplomatic paths with Liberty to further gain assurances of recognition of our sovereign borders.
As such, while we feel that the matter is not resolved between the Republics of Liberty and Kusari, a return to normalised trade is a better condition to negotiate with than to attempt further contact under the conditions of restricted trade and economic loss.
So I now put forth this official bill proposition.
Proposition 47824 - Termination of Economic Embargo Against the Republic of Liberty.
I now ask for the other Ministers to second this proposition.
Thank you.
Arata Nakaigawa, of the Democratic Party of Kusari, motions a request to speak to the Assembly Chairman.
Standing at the podium, he addresses the Assembly.
"Esteemed Ladies and Gentlemen, members of this noble institution, on behalf of the Democratic Party of Kusari, I bid you welcome to the new session of this Parliament.
Our colleague of the Kusari Reformation Party presented us this proposition regarding an important topic in our current workings of the Republic, and one that deserves just deliberation and determined response, one way or the other.
Therefore I, Arata Nakaigawa, second the [Proposition 47824 - Termination of Economic Embargo Against the Republic of Liberty.] presented by the Kusari Reformation Party, for further deliberation."
Finishing his statement, Nakaigawa returns to his seat, while other members of the DPK discuss amongst themselves.
As the DPK representative walks back to his seat, murmurs start to rise in the parliament building, especially from the leftmost side where the members of the Kusari Sunrise Party seat.
Some of the higher ranked ministers in the Sunrise discuss zealously among themselves, while the ones surrounding around them show their dissatisfaction by patting their hands on the tables before them repeatedly. The murmurs and this little protest fill the hall for about half a minute, as the ones who find this proposition untimely join in the fray.
The Assembly Chairman kindly asks them to be silent, and that it's noted. The protests then silent down, and the ministers wait and look around for the one who'd be willing to second it for the third time, as it would allow for a voting.
Meanwhile, in the Streets of New Tokyo.
Superior and Most Beloved and Honorable and Best minister AmeAme of the Superior AmeParty walked slowly and methodically through the throngs of people miring the streets, most of whom didn't notice the small girl and went about their business. Ame stared at the map given to her by the Ministry, and continued to wander inanely following it's path.
As it turns out, the map was a generic pirate treasure map from a child's boardgame. Considering Ame's idea of politics, the Diet wisely decided to give Ame the wrong address and send her as far away as humanly possible.
As she waddled along on very tiny legs, her small size obscuring her from the view of her surroundings, she considered likely her voting parameters on the upcoming issue of AMEliorating the Liberty Embargo. As it turns out, Ame's economic position is one of closed economic autarky, since she considered Liberty (and other houses) to be "trash can space" and that "TRADE IS Boring!!!" More importantly, she perceives the embargo as a 'Pinata Party', giving her full right and authority to blow away every Libertonian merchantman she sees.
But this matter faded into irrelevance as Ame's tummy began to rumble. Normally she would have simply sucker-punched a random passer by and torn them to shreds like a piranah, but there were far too many of them for her relatively simple AmeBrain to pick out a single one. More importantly, none of them seemed appetizing. They were all full of synthetic paste-like substance, which Ame did not find appealing.
Seeking more interesting fare, she followed the scent of what seemed to be a fresh bento box into a nearby alley. Waddling past the forest of tall, normally proportioned, unsuspecting humans, she made it into the empty alley and noticed an unattended lunchbox. It was fresh! And it had beef skewers!
Unfortunately, however, Ame was not alone in her desire for the lunchbox. A local Alley Cat had already staked it's claim, and was nibbling on the beef.
Ame saw the cat as small and weak. Unworthy of such a delicious meal. A challenger to her newfound Amethority. As a political leader, all cats would be made subservient to her.
"Nya?" The cat meowed, obviously taunting Ame's sensibilities.
"NYAH!" Ame responded in her typical boisterous and harsh tone of voice.
The Cat tilted it's head slightly, confused at the presence of this odd, large-headed creature which was looming over it. But the challenge had been set, and the cat began to pace around it's food, arching it's back and hissing loudly.
Ame hissed back, in a similar manner to a venomous snake, attempting to intimidate the cat with her superior head size. However, the cat was wise to her posturing. This greatly infuriated Ame, who saw the small feline as both an obstacle to food and a challenger to her obvious authority.
Quickly, the two began to engage each other, proving to be quite evenly matched! The battle raged back and forth to a draw, until the worker whom originally owned the Bento box returned and, paying no attention to the quarrel, took his food inside with him.
"THIS IS your fault!" She announced, pointing accusingly at the cat, who quickly brushed the issue aside with a coy "Nya"
It was at that moment that Ame recognized the Cat's potential superior tact as a minister for her political party...
Hakiro Kaito sat in his chair in indifferent expression. Such a dishonorable offer did not even deserve his little attention. While his colleagues obviously maintained a very disgruntled face expression, his was harsh and disapproving. Giving war materials to those who insulted the warriors of Kusari so much... he had to hold himself from spitting on the shiny floor.
The previously forwarded proposition, Proposition 47824 - Termination of Economic Embargo Against the Republic of Liberty has failed to gain enough support and is hereby rejected from the assembly.
Hakiro was very pleased seeing the result. He stepped up the podium, and addressed the audience.
"Esteemed members of our great assembly." He paused and let his words sink in the large hall. "For a long time the previous government have oppressed many, and caused a grave fracture in our society and many a deep wound."
He let the murmuring of the crowd to quiet a bit "I am talking of course about those we have put to exile during these many painful years, and forced them to leave the nation, often making them our enemies, for the sole reason they had a different political view."
He waited until a few angry members of the assembly would stop shouting at him and continued "I then, hereby, present you with the bill of..."
The screen pads lit up and show the clear bill:
"Amnesty to any and all exiled personas that were forced to unite under the flag Blood Dragons."
Yoshi Ishigaki, Minister for Negai Prefecture and leader of the People's Party of Kusari was a middle-aged man, his short hair was going gray at the edges while wrinkles started to appear around his eyes in the form of 'Crow's Feet'. He absently plucked a small bit of lint off of the sleeve of his gray business suit as he listened to the most recent proposal.
He kept himself as calm as possible when he announced a bill for amnesty for the Blood Dragons...The antithesis of his party. He stood calmly and when he spoke he kept his voice even despite his mixed annoyance and anger at the issue.
"The People's Party of Kusari objects, the organization known to the public as the 'Blood Dragons' have been convicted of a multitude of crimes against the people and state in both it's current incarnation and previous one, to allow men who would stoop to such dishonorable tactics to walk free is an insult to every man, woman and child who has suffered a loss to their terrorism and piracy." He stated before sitting down once again. Now content to listen.
Taiyouji Sou was listening intently as the representative of the People's Party spoke up, still considering Hakiro-san's proposition in his mind.
Among the Sunrise's representatives murmurs started once again. They discussed amongst themselves about a possible reply. There were very conflicting opinions; representatives on Sou's each side gave him very opposite point of views to which he nodded and kept his thoughtful stare. As a spokesperson of the Sunrise, it was now expected of him to sound their concerns about this proposition.
He nodded to his fellow ministers and stood up, holding a paper he had quickly sketched up the main points of his speech will be about.
He bowed to the Chairman first, and then to the Assembly. "Konbanwa, honorable representatives. As a representative of the Sunrise, I'd like to sound our opinion about this proposition.
Hakiro-san's proposition was rather vague," he found him among the seats and nodded towards his direction respectfully, "Hakiro-san, you've proposed to pass a bill, that'll allow people who are currently working for or with the Blood Dragons -which is an unlawful organization, and always have been for centuries- to return and continue their lives in Kusari as if nothing had happened.
I do not have to remind you that the Blood Dragons are a force our security forces have to deal with everyday, which they have to shed blood to keep their influence and harm at bay. Proposing a general amnesty is a bit uncalled for, don't you think? That could only happen if they all first surrendered themselves unconditionally to our forces.
However, if you are meaning some parties who were exiled unjustly, according to yourself, who were forced to seek refuge within the Blood Dragons because of a necessity as they were out of any other options, we are willing to discuss about them. Please state us clearly who those people are, and in what way they were oppressed and unjustly treated.
In cases like these, I am sure we could investigate then hold a fair court for the parties that have been wronged, to undo the harm and compensate for their losses, while keeping in mind their possible unlawful actions they've committed while serving with the Dragons."
He bowed to the assembly once again, and summed it up, "The Sunrise Party will hold back their votes until the matter will be expressed in more detail."
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