Dark Side of Wonderland

Ten no Shin'en

Halo Six: Ten no Shin'en:

December 16, 2015.

Sawako sat back at her desk. Flattery. She had the method but not the target. She glanced around the office. There were so many targets to choose from. They all sucked up to the boss. Maybe she could go after Greg. Sawako shook her head.

There had to be a bigger target. This had to be someone that the people really take notice. Sawako sat back in her chair and frowned.

"Something wrong?" someone asked next to her. Sawako whipped her head around. A man in his forties was sitting next to her.

"Oh, it's you," she said in a dull tone.

"You looked like you were staring off into space," her coworker said. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah," Sawako said, nodding. "Yeah." She looked over at his computer screen.

"Hm? I never took you for a Hanejima Yuuhei fan," the office lady said as she was looking at the website on the screen. Her coworker jumped.

"Ah! No, no, no, no!" he blurted out. The man cleared his throat.

"It's for my daughter," he said. "She's been begging for tickets to his latest movie. It's some sort of a survival apocalypse film coming out before Christmas."

"Heh," Sawako said. She opened up Google and typed in Hanejima Yuuhei. She shouldn't be doing this but it was the only way that she was going to get back on track with her day job. Pretty soon, she had the actor's agency, Jack O'Lantern. Sawako soon had her sights set on Yuuhei's agent.

Max Sandshelt.

Sawako sneered at his picture. Just looking at him annoyed her. Looked like he was going to be her next "art project".

The Ten no Shin'en have been getting bolder. Their numbers kept growing. Mostly women. Housewives frustrated with their lives at home. Mistresses tired of being the side chick. High school girls tired of being harassed. Women fed up with being Japan's ideal woman. Chisa was the one driving the Ten no Shin'en, but there was another woman who would really make it take off and become a thorn in Tandeki's side.

Enter Hyata Sachie.

Age thirty. Sachie just came out of a nasty divorce. Her family saw her as a disappointment. She joined the Ten no Shin'en back when it was called Asahara. Even then, Sachie wasn't happy.

But now things are different. The Ten no Shin'en was growing at a rapid rate. Thanks to Morikawa Kita, there was now a chance to get bigger.

A seat on the city council opened up due to the politician caught up in a nasty little scandal with a teenage prostitute. He was forced to resign as a result. Chisa, Sachie, Hina, and a couple of other women were watching the resignation speech on TV.

"This Morikawa woman is really cleaning house," a woman named Umeka said.

"She's still in jail, isn't she?" Chisa asked.

"Yep," a woman named Mami said. Meanwhile, Sachie had her eyes locked on the TV. The gears started to turn in her head.

"Seriously?" Chisa asked.

"Yeah," Mami said.

"Damn," the cult leader said.

"You should run," Sachie said. The ladies all turned to her.

"What?" Chisa asked.

"You should run for office," the older woman said. No one spoke for a second. Chisa giggled.

"Nah," she said, waving her off. Sachie kept her eyes on her.

"I'm serious," she said. Chisa stared back at her.