Kusari Parliamentary Elections - Summer 824A.S.

[Yak]

Suzuko Fujimura was sat on the plascrete wall bordering a bed of yellow tulips, outside the voting station in central Arakawa District. Staring at the pile of party-propaganda leaflets in her lap, she decided that reading at least a bit of them is probably a good idea before casting her ballot.

The first leaflet in her little pile was for the Kusari Sunrise Party,

"Hmm, 'an increase in military and police spending', suppose that can't hurt... 'Re-instatement of capital punishment', huh? Errrrrrm, NOPE!"

The sound of crumpling paper was swiftly followed by the crime of littering a public space.

Suzuko picked up the next leaflet,

"The Democratic Party of Kusari? 'Wresting control away from the Government which has monopolized power over this sector', ok, sounds cool so far, 'both women and men participate as equals', huh, makes a change. 'Offering a helping hand to the needy', aww, I kind of like these guys, 'use the fruits of economic growth for the happiness of the people', yeah... Errrm, yup, MAYBE!"

The DPK leaflet was gently placed on the wall to Suzuko's left, and recieved a little pat as she moved onto the next leaflet in her pile... The People's Party of Kusari,

"Oh, 'All social classes have the best medical attention', yeah, that's nice, but they do sound... and look... a bit communist, hmm, bit dodgy. 'Corporate interests do not supplant... corporate bureaucrat who is only interested in lining his or her own pockets... economic reform to a state-planned economy', hmm, gonna have to be the 'probably not' pile for you guys..."

Suzuko popped the People's Party leaflet on the wall to her right. Next up, the Kyushu Union Party,

"Oh, system nationalists I guess? 'Imperial traditions... new liberal movements... fuse both into a hybridical form of the government', oh, sounds pretty reasonable I guess. 'Every system would receive their own dose of autonomy', huh, there it is. Hmmm, well they sound pretty reasonable, buuuuut... Kyushu Party? Nope."

The Kyushu Union Party leaflet joined the People's Party on the wall to Suzuko's right. All that was left was the Honshū Unity Party,

"Another bunch of system nationalists, huh? 'Perfect gender equality', oh, good start though. 'Find a solution for the ongoing internal fightings', yeah, pretty good idea! 'Mass import of goods from Gallia'? Huh, suppose they have SOME cool stuff, dunno about that. 'Build up Kusari's military ...able to defend our home from possible new threats of all kinds', can't argue with that! Oh, don't see anything about Honshu or autonomy in here. What's up with that? Well, suppose they could be a MAYBE!"

The Honshū Unity Party leaflet was slapped down on top of the DPK leaflet to Suzuko's left...

"Sooooo, better make my mind up..."

Suzuko picked up the DPK and Honshu Unity leaflets, and with her eyes closed manically shuffled them. Taking one in each hand, she screwed up the one in her right hand, sending it to join the Sunrise party leaflet in the flower bed behind her... When she opened her eyes, the Democratic Party of Kusari leaflet was staring back at her.

"Huh, okay then, whatever..."

Suzuko skipped across the road to the voting station, and cheerily thrust her ID card towards the official at the door,

"Kon'nichiwa, I'm here to do my vote!"

The official scanned Suzuko's ID, and directed her to a voting booth along the wall at the far end of the large room inside. Hastily scampering over to the booth, in anticipation of the more frivolous things she could get back to after voting, Suzuko popped into the booth and quickly cast her ballot for:

The Democratic Party of Kusari