10
S imone stood at the base of the Blue Dragon’s headquarters the next morning and looked up. The building was in the main financial district in central Tokyo, surrounded by similar towers, and across the road from the moat that surrounded the Imperial Palace and its extensive gardens. The original building had been an elegant five-storey structure with graceful Corinthian columns along its facade, and the Dragon had kept the older building and built a magnificent glass-and-steel skyscraper above it, with the historic structure contained under an enclosed glass atrium.
She held her phone up to take a photo of the interesting architecture to send to Graham, then lowered it again. He’d been a comforting presence at the back of her mind, someone to share little fun parts of the day with—and now there was a huge gap where his support had been. She wiped the annoying tears away—it was time to stop crying and get on with her life—and pushed down the feeling of desperate loneliness.
She entered the towering glass lobby of the newer building and approached the front desk. The uniformed security guard asked her name and then waved her straight through to the lifts. There was a smiling tame demon in the form of a woman in a pink uniform and matching pillbox cap at the lifts. She bowed to Simone and pressed the lift button with her white-gloved hand. The lift doors were matte black and embossed in silver with images of the Dragon himself in True Form. The demon held the door for Simone when it opened, then went into the lift, pressed the button for the top floor, smiled and bowed to Simone again, and exited without saying a word to her.
Simone brushed the tears away again and thought about the ramifications of moving to Tokyo as the lift went up. This would be her first time living away from home, and she didn’t know much about things like housework and cooking—she’d always had demon servants to manage that for her. Her gap year had been fun, but it had mostly been spent eating fast food and staying in cheap backpacker hostels. She squared her shoulders as the lift doors opened. Time to grow up and manage these things by herself. Her family would still be there for support when she needed it. Even if they were on the Celestial most of the time and she couldn’t see them.
The double-height atrium she stepped into took up half the top floor of the building, with big windows overlooking the tops of the other skyscrapers in the district. A generous area spread before Simone, with a reception desk, another smiling, uniformed greeting-demon and glass stairs up to a mezzanine level that probably held Qing Long’s office. Potted palms and comfortable tables and chairs were spread around the area, making it look like an upmarket hotel lobby. She approached the desk and the greeter stood and bowed formally to Simone with her hands clasped in front of her, then guided Simone up the stairs. Simone followed her to the mezzanine, which had an entire wall of smoky glass, etched with brilliantly coloured duplicates of the famous paintings from one of the waiting rooms in the Shogun’s palace in Kyoto—elegant pine trees, highlighted with gold. The doors slid open, admitting Simone to his office, which took up the other half of the top floor of the building. The room had massive windows on three sides, with sliding glass doors to a wrap-around balcony and a view that overlooked the Imperial Palace across the road.
The Blue Dragon was sitting behind his desk in human form, flipping through documents and spreadsheets on five of his technologically advanced—and exclusive—floating screens. He swiped one hand down to collapse them into the desk, rose and came around to her. He embraced Simone, kissed the top of her head, and said, ‘You look terrible. This whole thing is awful, and I’m here for you.’
She wiped one hand over her gritty eyes. ‘Thanks, Uncle Qing.’
He dodged back to his desk and collected a set of keys from it. ‘Come with me, it’s all set up.’ He straightened and froze. ‘No.’ He sagged, and switched to ultra-formal Japanese, sounding defeated. ‘The Emperor of the East reminds the Princess of the Northern Heavens that she has an appointment with the Celestial two days hence and is required to attend to receive direction on the destruction of a number of demons that have infiltrated the highest levels of the human administration.’ He straightened again. ‘Sorry.’
‘No problem, I’m really used to it,’ she said. ‘Forget that it happened.’
‘I am speaking to the Celestial as soon as I can obtain an appointment with him, this has to stop,’ he said. ‘Come on, I’ll show you your new apartment. I hope you like it.’
He changed to his biggest dragon form—nearly filling the huge office with his bulk—walked out through the windows onto the perimeter balcony and took off. His blue-and-silver scales glowed in the pale winter light, and his massive head was the size of a small car. Simone didn’t change, simply walked through the glass behind him and followed.
‘I can’t make myself invis—’ She began, and he interrupted her.
‘I have you. I can see what that demon essence is doing to you. The Celestial needs to pull his finger out of his ancient pompous ass and help you fix this.’ He writhed with indignation, making his scales clatter. ‘He’s having all of us harass you instead—your father and stepmother have been ranting about it, and I agree with them. Not good enough.’
They arrived at the Ueno Lake where she’d met him earlier that week. He landed on the garden across the road from the residential tower, changed back to his tall, elegant human form, and escorted her across the street. He used a key fob to open the doors, then passed the keys to her as they entered the lobby, which occupied a generous corridor along one side of the ground level. A Zen fountain of sand and stones lined the area, with tables and chairs on a raised platform. He led her past the wall of mailboxes to the lifts.
‘A lot of the residents are away for the break, but a few kids should be on the viewing terrace,’ he said, pressing the down button. ‘Let me show you where the facilities are before we go up. Your apartment will be on the twenty-seventh floor.’
The lift arrived and he showed her how to use the fob to access the interior floors. They went down to the basement, and the Dragon led her along a plain, white-painted concrete corridor to the parking area. Car parks lined the wall, each capable of holding two cars—one above the other—with a motorised lift. Every space had an identical turquoise electric runabout in the upper lift, and some of them had an expensive sports car on the lower level.
‘The little blue car comes with the unit.’ He gestured. ‘Twenty-seven A, that’s yours. Do you already own a car?’
‘No need,’ she said.
‘That’s fine, if you want to go for a drive in the countryside, take the blue one, that’s what it’s here for. It has an app with all my charging stations in it on the console, and if you run out of battery and have to leave it somewhere, please contact the service centre and have it towed before it rusts away. It might even get stolen , that’s been happening more often lately.’
‘Thanks, Uncle Qing, that sounds like fun,’ Simone said. Graham would have loved the idea, he had his own car back in Canada and they had made plans to go on a road trip there, camping together. She wiped her eyes again.
He guided her through another door. ‘Bike storage. Just look for the stand with your unit number on it. You don’t need to lock your bike in, everybody in the building is a Celestial.’
This area was nearly empty as well, with only a small number of light-weight carbon fibre racing bikes stored on the racks.
‘All right,’ he said. ‘That’s the boring stuff. Let’s go see your new flat.’
They went up to the twenty-seventh floor and the Dragon used the key to open unit A. The unit was about a hundred square metres—smaller than most condos in the West, but large by Asian standards. It had a kitchen and living/dining area leading to the balcony, and two small bedrooms to one side. The floors were all timber laminate, the walls were painted a mid-beige, and the kitchen had dark brown stone benchtops and similarly coloured timber laminate cupboards.
‘Two LDK,’ the Dragon said.
‘What does that mean?’ Simone asked, checking the gas stove in the kitchen for a wok burner and nodding with satisfaction when she found one.
‘Two bedrooms, living dining kitchen,’ he said, opening one of the kitchen cupboards and running his finger along the interior to ensure it was clean. ‘Standard Japanese measure of apartment type.’
‘Oh, okay, thanks,’ she said. ‘I’ve never had my own place before, this is all new.’
He smiled gently at her. ‘Ask anyone in the building for help, they’re all in much the same situation as you—first time away from home, studying across the road, and confused as hell.’
She didn’t mention that so far, the building had seemed empty, and the lonely feeling intensified. She smiled back. ‘Thanks.’
‘This apartment’s never been redecorated, unfortunately it’s still in original condition—’ the Dragon began, embarrassed.
‘No, no, Uncle Qing, this is fine,’ Simone said. She went past the kitchen to the small modular bathroom, the walls, floor and fittings were all made of cream-coloured fibreglass in a single installed unit. The toilet was in its own powder room, then there was a central bathroom basin, and a sliding door to an area for washing with a shower head and the ubiquitous Japanese deep bath with a complex electronic control system and a bamboo cover to keep the water hot. She eyed the bath—it threatened snow outside—and thought about buying some bath salts and oils. The only bathroom that had a bath back at the Peak was her father and Emma’s ensuite, and she’d felt strange using their bathroom.
‘Okay?’ the Dragon asked. ‘I can give you a few names for furniture suppliers that are owned by my conglomerate.’ He wagged his finger at her and spoke sternly. ‘No Ikea or Donki.’
Simone scoffed. ‘Don Quijote is awesome. I bought some fantastic luggage there, and terrific flashing LED bunny ears.’
He sighed and rolled his eyes, then guided her out again. ‘Let me show you the rest of the facilities. Parkview room on the twenty-third—there’s a meeting room there as well, with a kitchenette—and the Skyview lounge on the top floor where most of the residents meet.’ He took her back to the lift. ‘The building is mostly occupied by young dragons studying across the road or working in the city, but we have a few other reptiles in the building as well, like yourself.’
‘No swimming pool?’ she asked.
He waved one hand. ‘We’re dragons . There’s the big pond across the road, and the ocean is about five minutes flight away. We don’t need one. I can put one in for you ...’
‘No, of course not, I can swim in the ocean as well,’ she said. ‘Is there a place where I can practise the Arts? I try to spend at least an hour a day practising sword sets, occasionally a big demon will lose a bet or something and come after me, and I need to keep my skills sharp.’
‘There’s a gym on the first floor, or you can work out here, I’m sure the other students would love to watch,’ he said, and the lift dinged. ‘Here we are, Parkview lounge.’
She wasn’t so sure about having an audience, but the lounge was deserted. It had some chairs facing the window overlooking the park and lake, and enough space in the middle to do a high-level set, so it would do. Simone’s loneliness intensified at the emptiness, and she reminded herself that she could go back to the Peak to see her family any time—when they weren’t in the Heavens. She wiped her hand over her eyes again.
‘They’ll all be on the top floor. Come with me,’ the Dragon said, and led her out again.
The Skyview lounge was a comfortably furnished meeting-and-study area that took up most of the top floor and had a large outdoor terrace overlooking the park. The room was full of the buzz of quiet conversation as more than twenty Shen of various reptilian types—mostly dragons, but some turtles and snakes as well—were reading, drinking tea or coffee and chatting in small groups or playing board games. Most of them were younger than Simone—undergrads—but a few were her age, mid-twenties, and some were older, up to their thirties. Simone heard the soft words ‘Saviour’ and ‘Michael’ a few times and winced.
A girl squealed at the far end of the room and ran to Simone to give her a huge hug. It was Simone’s friend Jackie, whose dragon mother, the Jade Girl, had worked for Simone’s father as the House of the North’s public relations manager for years. She was five years younger than Simone, and her hair was in a blue-green pixie cut that was a mix of colours from her dragon parents, the Jade Girl and the Blue Dragon. The Dragon smiled with pride at her.
‘You didn’t tell me you were coming!’ she said to Simone.
‘I didn’t know you lived here, I thought you were still with your mother,’ Simone said.
‘I hang out with Dad when Mama’s with her major husband,’ Jackie said.
‘Excuse me,’ the Dragon said, interrupting with false indignance, ‘but I am your mother’s major husband, as I am the more senior Celestial.’
Jackie ignored him and winked at Simone. ‘... And Papa Ma’s house in the Northern Celestial Palace is too far for me to come down and study, so I stay here.’
‘We take turns looking after our daughter,’ the Dragon said with pride. He put his hand on Simone’s back, in a silent show of support that she appreciated. ‘Simone will be doing her PhD across the road, and she’s taking one of the flats here. Look after her, okay?’
‘Sure,’ Jackie said. ‘Come and meet everybody. We were planning a pub crawl later, would you like to join us?’
‘Uh, yeah, that sounds great,’ Simone said.
‘You can bring your boyfriend if you like?’
Simone had the lie ready for her. ‘He’s gone home to Canada for the Christmas break.’
‘Good, we have you all to ourselves,’ Jackie said with feeling. She waved to half-a-dozen dragons lounging in a corner playing a board game, and a few of them waved back. A female dragon, Hickory, jumped to her feet and rushed to embrace Simone.
‘I haven’t seen you since Celestial High!’ She pulled back and smiled. ‘Welcome to the insanity. Where’s your boyfriend? Isn’t he in Hong Kong?’
‘He’s in Canada,’ Jackie said.
‘Not ready for you to meet his family?’ Hickory asked.
Jackie waved it away. ‘We can talk about all of that later. She’s moving into the building while she studies here!’
‘I want you all to look after Simone,’ the Dragon said firmly. ‘Help her set up her apartment.’
‘We will,’ Jackie said.
Simone hadn’t expected to have so many potential friends here and felt relieved. ‘Uh, thanks. I have to buy furniture ...’
‘Can we help?’ Hickory asked, full of enthusiasm. ‘I’m studying interior design. Let me help!’
‘I’ll cover the cost, and expect a good job,’ the Dragon said.
‘Done, Daddy,’ Jackie said, and gave her father a quick hug before turning back to Simone. ‘Come and meet everyone, and we’ll go have a look at your place and make plans for it. We can help you move your stuff in, and if you don’t have a bed yet, someone can arrange a futon for you until it’s set up.’ She gave the Dragon a gentle shove. ‘You can go back to your high-powered executive nonsense, Daddy, we got this.’ She grabbed Simone by the hand and pulled her towards the group.
‘Thanks, Uncle Qing!’ Simone called back as Jackie dragged her away.
His face lit up into a genuine smile, and he disappeared.
‘What are you studying?’ Simone asked Jackie as they approached the group, and others who were on the floor gathered to join them.
‘I’m second year, economics and finance.’ Jackie’s voice went wistful. ‘I’m really enjoying it.’ She stopped in front of the group.
‘You all know Simone, right?’ Hickory asked.
There were some stunned expressions and a general feeling of discomfort from the group, so Simone rushed to reassure them. ‘I moved to Todai to do some postgrad study, and this is my first time living out of home. I’m so confused.’
The emotional aura eased—they could definitely relate, and their expressions changed from suspicion to sympathy.
‘Which apartment is it?’ Hickory asked Simone.
‘Uh ...’ Simone checked the key fob. ‘Twenty-seven A?’
‘That’s a two LDK.’ Hickory rubbed her hands together. ‘Shops are still open, let’s go have a look at furniture and fittings, and then get some ramen and hit 5-Chome.’
‘What’s in 5-Chome?’ Simone asked as everyone in the group grinned and put the game away.
‘Bar Neko!’ Jackie said
‘Bar Cat?’ Simone asked.
‘The cats are adorable,’ Jackie said, wrapped her arm around Simone’s waist and guided her back to the lift lobby.
*
‘D ark is modern,’ Hickory said as the six of them entered the little noodle shop in Ueno. They’d had a delightful couple of hours arguing about the sort of furniture Simone should select for her little apartment. ‘In here.’
They took a booth to the side. It was still a little early for dinner, but they needed to eat something before hitting the bars. Hickory and Jackie had brought along a male dragon, Ash, who insisted with an obvious lie that he wasn’t Hickory’s boyfriend, and the other two guests, Rowan and Hazel, were a lovely couple of young male dragons who kept smiling sheepishly at each other.
They ordered at the counter and sat in the booth.
‘I want lighter colours, though,’ Simone said. ‘I mean, yeah, the dark is trendy, but I want my place to be bright and welcoming, not dark and ...’
‘Cosy,’ Hickory said. She raised both hands. ‘Your choice. So.’ She ticked the items off on her fingers. ‘Dining table and chairs, a nice light-coloured bed, desk and shelves for studying in the second bedroom, I’ll do that up as a cosy office—’
‘You sure you don’t want a gaming chair?’ Ash asked. ‘I love mine.’
‘A normal office chair is fine,’ Simone said.
Ash shrugged. ‘Come down to my apartment and I’ll give you a sit in mine anyway, so you know what you’re missing.’
Hickory smiled. ‘Ash’s apartment has a futon, a couch, a massive television with six gaming consoles, a big gaming computer with three screens—and that’s all.’
‘It’s clean and it’s the way I want to live,’ Ash said with a huff.
‘No argument here,’ Simone said. ‘I like the sofa bed we chose for the office. I can have my little brother to stay with me.’
‘Little brother?’ Hickory asked, obviously confused.
‘Prince Franklin,’ Jackie said.
The noodles arrived in twenty-centimetre-wide bowls with chopsticks and small ladles for drinking the miso-flavoured broth. The ramen were nested at the bottom of the broth, with a few pieces of pork, pickles, vegetable and egg decoratively arrayed over the top, and a sheet of seaweed to one side. Simone tasted some of the broth and smiled. ‘This is really good.’
‘One of the best,’ Jackie said. She winked at Simone. ‘I feel like crepes at Akiba after this.’
Rowan waved at Jackie’s noodles. ‘Eat them first and see if you have room. Our booking at the cat bar is at six thirty, remember.’
‘Okay, after,’ Jackie said, and slurped the noodles again.
The world surrounding them went still and they all glanced around. Simone sagged with dismay; Emma had just materialised on the other side of the restaurant. Simone’s stepmother was wearing a pair of faded denim jeans and a white shirt under a V-neck jumper and was in her middle-aged human form. The chefs behind the open bar eyed her suspiciously—they had obviously had some bad experiences with scruffy, foreign middle-aged tourists.
She approached the table where Simone was sitting with her friends and her face went from smiling to stiff. ‘The Empress of the Northern Heavens hereby orders the Princess Simone to present herself to the Jade Emperor for direction in the removal of an extremely dangerous demon that is menacing the entire world. The consequences of her disobedience could lead to disaster.’ She sagged and wiped her eyes. ‘I am so damn sorry.’
Simone rose, edged out of the booth and gave her a quick hug. The dragons sat frozen with confusion, looking from Emma to Simone.
One night out with friends, and the Jade Emperor had to ruin it. And by proxy, as well; Emma obviously had no say in the matter. ‘It’s okay, Emma, I know it’s not you doing this to me,’ Simone said. A quiver in her voice betrayed that this constant harassment by the Jade Emperor, on top of everything else, was starting to get to her. ‘That one sounded really major, can we at least find out what’s going on and why he needs me so urgently?’
Emma’s face went from sympathetic to rigid again. ‘Any information provided could exponentially increase the catastrophic consequences of your wilful disobedience.’
‘Okay then, no, I refuse,’ Simone said, then turned and sat next to Jackie again.
‘I’m one hundred per cent with you,’ Emma said. ‘I’m on my way to yell at the Jade Emperor, and I stopped here to give you a quick heads-up.’ She changed to telepathy so that the other people wouldn’t hear. Michael is in the Tiger’s mental health facility in the Western Heavens, and Clarissa’s mother has taken the baby—her name is Larissa—to Canada. I thought you should know, so that if you see Michael, you can send him straight back up there. This whole thing has broken him. She waved at the stunned dragons. ‘Hi. I just dropped by to ask Simone if she needs anything.’
Simone studied her noodle bowl. ‘Can you tell the Jade Emperor that it doesn’t matter how often he orders me, the answer will always be “No”?’
‘I’ve had a standing request to speak to him for two weeks, that he’s obviously been ignoring, and I finally have an appointment to see him in half an hour. This is an obvious attempt at one last order before I tell him to cut it out.’
Simone sagged over the noodles, then picked up the small wooden ladle that passed for a spoon. ‘Thanks, Emma.’
The dragons across from Simone suddenly and obviously realised who Emma was. They charged out of the booth, looking horrified. Ash was sitting on the inside from Simone and Jackie and couldn’t rush out, and he looked like his ass was covered in ants, wanting to rush out as well. Hickory fell to one knee, grabbed the boy next to her by the elbow, and pulled him down as well.
‘Ten thousand years,’ they said in not-quite-unison.
‘Rise, kids, no need, at ease,’ Emma said, and nodded to them, making them relax. ‘I’ll leave you to it and appreciate you sharing your time with my stepdaughter.’ She touched Simone’s arm. ‘Hopefully, that was the last time, and I am so glad to see you smiling.’
Simone waved Emma away. ‘Shoo. Go and talk to him. I really appreciate it.’
‘I dunno, those ramen look really good, and I’m hungry ,’ Emma said. ‘I’m heading to the Celestial now to suit up and give him a piece of my mind. It will stop.’ She looked around at Simone’s friends. ‘Simone is well within her rights to say no to the Jade Emperor. He’s asking more of her than he has a right to. She’s not giving consent, and you all know how that works.’
‘Saying no to the Jade Emperor,’ Rowan said weakly.
‘The JE—’ Emma began, and Hickory cut her off.
‘The who? Oh!’ she said and bobbed her head. ‘Sorry!’
‘Is being a stiff-arsed old fart about this and won’t leave her—or us—alone and I will tell him to cut it out, and find another way,’ Emma said. ‘What he’s doing is wrong and I will fix this.’ She smiled. ‘I’m glad Simone has friends here, and I hope you all look after each other.’ She nodded to Simone. ‘I’ll leave you to it, have fun.’ She disappeared.
Simone’s friends stared at her. They edged back into the booth.
‘Did that just happen?’ Hickory asked weakly.
Ash held his head in his hands and moaned. ‘That was the Dark Empress of the Northern Heavens. That was the Dark Lady. If my parents find out that I sat here like an idiot for five minutes and didn’t kneel before her, they will kill me.’
‘To be fair, she always looks like a scruffy Aussie tourist, so it’s understandable,’ Simone said, and they all gasped.
‘That was the Dark Empress of the Northern Heavens !’ Hazel said, protesting. ‘She’s ...’ His voice trailed off. ‘There’s a statue in Dragonhome of her, and the Dragon King put it there himself!’
‘There’s one of me there too,’ Simone said. ‘Doesn’t mean anything.’
Jackie’s eyes went wide. ‘The Dark Empress just relayed an order from the freaking Jade Emperor and you’re telling him ...’ Her voice became weak. ‘ No ?’
‘No,’ Simone said with relish. ‘I’m telling him to go all the way to Hell, just like my dad did.’
This somehow broke the ice—the story of her father telling the Jade Emperor to go to Hell when he was refused permission to marry Simone’s mother was legendary—and everyone laughed.
‘Sometimes I forget who you are,’ Hickory said, raising her chopsticks and spoon.
‘Good,’ Simone said, and returned to her noodles.