High up in the sky was the summer golden sun, glorifying the land with its presence, with the clouds adorning the sky like a painting on a canvas. Endowed with the lights of nature’s giant blazing fireball was the city of Salomé, formerly known as Paris before the Great Reparation, a home to individuals of various statures. Capital to the great state of France with skyscrapers of various heights and buildings of various widths, the city is home to various denizens ranging from tycoons and up-to-date individuals to plenty middle class and low class citizens.

Before the Great Reparation which had forever changed the world, this very city was renowned as the city of love while being home to a well-known steel infrastructure, famous for artistic touch and beauty. Currently, it’s home to a lot of ancient relics all stacked up in the museum with the former steel giant left in shambles with only ruins remaining to testify its greatest.

The most popular of the museums was the Sanctuaire National de l’ancienne génération[1] also known as Sanctuaire national d’antan[2] which happens to also be one of the biggest museums around. Home to most of the relics of the previous generation including the lauded Mona Lisa and a few other products and artworks of that century with speculated prices ranging from about 10 million to even 3 billion Alliance Dollars (ALD) . As such, the Sanctuaire National d’antan is revered as one of the most glorious and famous museum

Strolling through this very museum while admiring the artworks and relics was a family of four; a couple, a son and a daughter.

A middle aged man, dressed in a navy blue summer suit with a white coloured trousers and an exquisite beige coloured belt, walked hand in hand with a little boy of no more than the age of nine and by his left was a black-haired lady with rosy red lips and an aquiline nose. Coupled with her floral patterned pleated maxi gown and the aura she gave off, the lady was an utter depiction of the fusion of maturity and determination with beauty and youth despite being in her early 30s. Propped up in her arms was a young girl of no more than 4 years of age who had a some semblances in her facial features with her.

As a general museum, the Sanctuaire National d’antan consisted of both a history exhibition station, an art exhibit and a lot more exhibits; all mainly focused on products and creations of the Old era.

“Dad, dad.”

“What’s it son?”

“Look over there, look.” The little boy pointed at a skeletal frame of an animal that was previously existing in the Old era.

“Oh, let me have a look then. Hmm, if I’m correct, that should be what they call a Rhinoceros, a Rhino for short.”

Right beside this family was another family with an almost identical lineup, except with the few differences in dressing and their children being fraternal twins of nine years.

Overhearing the conversation, the little boy went over and looked at the skeletal mass.

“Uwaaaa. It looks cool. Dad, can I get one?”

“Don’t be silly Ichiro, didn’t you hear him. They are extinct.” A man beside the little boy who also happened to be dressed in the exact same colour summer suit but looked a little older reprimanded his child though he did so with a soft voice.

“But I really want one…”

“Haha, your little boy reminds me a lot of the younger you. As they say like father like son, don’t you think Jiro san?” The man who spoke initially with his kid laughed.

“Old Shin, you really know how to stick your head in the wrong place don’t you” Jiro replied.

“Hmph, though you say I’m old, I look far younger than you, don’t I?” Kenshin struck back.

“Hahaha, it’s really you fat ass. Looks you still got that wild mouth of yours.” Jiro smiled as if he hadn’t heard a word from Kenshin and extended a hand to him.

Grabbing his hand and shaking it, Kenshin replied “And you still have that iconic annoying smile of yours.”

*sigh* “Even till now, I still don’t get your relationship, am I right, Izumi san?” The lady beside Jiro, whose looks were as stunning as the early morning rays in Spring, asked before staring at the lady beside Kenshin halfway through her sentence.

“Indeed you are, Miko san. But despite them being children, we still love them.” Izumi who was a beauty in her own way neither lacking in looks nor aura as compared to Kimiko, replied her.

If Kimiko in her fit and flare brightly coloured maxi, was said to be a jovial heaven blessed beauty with a sultry figure not one less than that of Aphrodite[3], then Izumi would be the innocent but matured beauty, in all sense, who brings shame to the goddess of beauty.

“So can we get going?” asked Kimiko.

“We are pretty much done browsing the exhibits, this is the last one. We were just waiting for you guys.” Izumi replied.

“Alright. We have a lot of catching up to do. Kurosaki san, I’ll be heading this way with Izumi. Hope you don’t mind?.”

“No problem. You guys go with the kids; I have something I’d like to say to Jiro san.” Kenshin said while eyeing Jiro.

“Okay.”

“Mom, let’s go to the aquarium.”

“Silly Ichiro, there’s no aquarium in a museum. Daddy said so before.”

Once the ladies and the children were gone, Jiro stared at Kenshin for awhile. Knowing that Kenshin would never outrightly ask for him to stay behind without a reason, he was quite surprised and wondered what it could be.

Eventually, he’s patience wore out as he questioned “What’s wrong?”

*sighs* “News came out…my elder brother joined the other side and leaked some of our details. Now the Ajita group has been facing pressure in the stock market.” Kenshin replied with a slightly disheartened expression on his face.

“I never expected him to stab the family in the back over me.”

The Ajita Group is a high class conglomerate ranked 146th in Amazon’s[4] Top 200 in the entire world. Considering the fact that at least 70% of the list is occupied by companies in the Energy, Space transport and research, and Technology (particularly weaponry and robotics), it is quite an achievement for the Ajita Group to be ranked in the list. Focused on automobiles and hovercrafts with quite a firm foundation in the household electronics sector in the East, the Ajita Group has an annual revenue of 300 billion alliance dollars and a total net-worth approaching 700 billion alliance dollars. This very tech giant is precisely owned by this family, to be specific, the Kurosakis.

The Kurosaki clan, a family with it’s influence stretched in various technological industries and even in politics and the military with the Ajita Group being one of their companies. The Kurosaki clan is revered as one of the major families in control of the Independent State of Japan (ISJ)[5].

*sighs* “It wasn’t your fault. Your grandfather chose you and not him. The Shin I knew would never get so down over this. You aren’t alone. You have me, Maeda and the others.” Jiro comforted him. After all the Fujiharas who tagged along on this vacation ,though weren’t as powerful as the Kurosakis, weren’t so lacking when compared to them.

“You’re right. Ha, thanks for that Jiro. You’re so good at comforting someone. You really are an old folk aren’t you?”

“Looks like you’re back, fat ass.”

“I really wonder where you get that nickname from…”

Heading out of the museum, Jiro and Kenshin encountered Kimiko, Izumi and the children facing them. Behind them were two exquisite sedans cars marked with a 3d sculpture of cube with 4 eastern styled dragons carved on it and a 5th larger dragon coiled around the cube. (AN : Just like the Rolls Royce Spirit of Ecstasy, that’s in 3d form, but it’s a cube with 4 dragon drawings and one sculpted dragon coiled around it)

The Kuzen X3224 was the latest version of the Kuzen series yet to be officially released and priced at 1.5 million ALD. Produced by the automobile company, Ryugo[6], which happens to be the automobile company under Ajita Group, the vehicle is actually an all purpose multi-terrain vehicle, capable of flight at a height of 30 metres from sea level, sailing and even land movement, with a manual and AI mode all with a nice moderate official look.

“You guys sure took your time.”

“Haha. Can’t you let us men enjoy our youth before we become old?” Jiro replied to his wife.

“Hmph, let’s hurry up. You know we have somewhere else to be right?”

“Fine, fine. Alright, till we see next, Shin san.” Once again, Jiro extended his arm towards Kenshin.

“Same here old Jiro.” Kenshin shook hands with him, after which he pulled him to a hug.

“And thank you, I really appreciate it.”

“I told you not to worry didn’t I.” Jiro chuckled.

“Hooo, what’s this? Did you guys do some spicy, kinky stuffs in the museum? In the museum?!” Seeing the men hug, Kimiko opened her mouth in shock while covering it with her left hand.

“You really should keep your wife in check.” Kenshin’s lips twitched.

Chuckling awkwardly, Jiro said “Alright, that’s enough Miko.”

Getting into their ride, Jiro said to Kenshin “You have to be careful. If he’s really back, I doubt this is all he’s planned.”

“I know.”

After they drove off, Izumi stared at Kenshin but before she could ask, Sato beat her to it “Dad, is everything ok?”

Smiling, he replied “Yeah, you don’t need to worry about it. Nothing can trouble daddy, am I right?”

“Hmm, Dad is the best.” Nodded little Sato with Hayami following suite.

“Alright let’s be off.”

Getting into the vehicle with Kenshin behind the wheels, the family headed over to their hotel in Salomé which was a 10 minute drive from the Museum.

Due to the fact that this was meant to be a family vacation, the family didn’t bring their driver nor bodyguards, same with the Fujiharas.

Despite the invention of hover cars and flying cars, most of them aren’t allowed to hover above a height of 3m metres in some cities, with even Capitals banning hover cars in their airspace for the general populace. This is simply to be able to restrict air traffic for important personnels(particularly the police and paramedics) and to maintain the aesthetic beauty of their city.

*Wee-woo, wee-woo* (AN : my impression of siren sounds…)

“Sir, there seems to be an issue at the 17th avenue closeby.” reported the vehicles Artificial Intelligence,Spectra. (AN : The avenue is actually called 17th.)

“Oh? I see. Draw up the safest route I could use to avoid it.” Kenshin replied.

“Already done. By taking your right and heading towards the Armelle Boulevard, you should be separated from by at least 1km.”

The Armelle boulevard was an economic street in Salomé, home to a lot of fashion and textile stores and companies.

“Alright.”

2 minutes later

*Boom, Boom*

*Wee-woo, wee-woo*

“Honey, what’s going on? I thought we avoided the commotion earlier?” Izumi asked worriedly.

“Neither do I. Spectra, update me.”

“Sir, it seems that the cops are chasing after a bunch of armed robbers. Apparently in order to escape, the criminals are destroying vehicles and causing explosions to hold the cops back. It seems the criminals violated the Flight rules and are heading this way.”

“Armed robbers in Salomé?! Izumi shouted in surprise.

One has to know that Salomé is actually the Capital of the French Republic. After the Old era, technology had experienced a massive change. This include security and weapons technology. As a result, most of the defensive measure are automatic with strict regulatory measures being implemented in public transports and environments. Simply put, it is almost impossible, approximately 99.9% impossible, to smuggle weapons into a Capital.

“Don’t worry, I’ll get us out of here. Spectra, get me a new route to avoid this area.”

“Apologies Sir, but it seems a signal disruptor has just been activated. I can’t get the latest info on their whereabouts. I can only make use of the previous data.”

“Shit!” Kenshin cursed.

“Signal disruptor?! It has to be the latest military grade to be able to affect Spectra right?” Izumi questioned worriedly, though her question felt rhetorical with a tone of disbelief.

*Wee-woo, wee-woo*

“Honey, they are close.”

*Waaa, waaa* (AN : my impression of a child’s cries)

As if sensing the dread-filled atmosphere, little Hayami began crying.

“Dad, is everything gonna be ok?” Sato asked with a nervous expression.

“Everything will be fine, daddy’s gonna handle it.” Izumi tried her best to comfort the children.

“Alert, alert. High energy sequence detected. Alert, aler-“

“Everybody get down!” Kenshin yelled.

*Phew, phew, phew* ( AN : my impression of laser shots being fired)

*boom, boom*

AN : Please alert me for any grammatical errors. Thank you. Please support me, thank you very much.

As you might have noticed, Alliance dollars is one of the general currencies being used and yes, it’s just one of them.

1 ALD = 15 USD