The bushes parted and two other of the Imperial Hand came into view, Hiko and Seami. Wearing matching blue suits of exquisite tailoring, both samurai stood more than two meters tall with a calm grace only obtainable with years of rigorous martial arts training. Their ward, Minister Man-jiro Nakahama, director of power and light for the royal city of Tokyo itself, was protected by a serious contingent of guards, human and machine. But no metahumans or altered lifeforms were involved, as the Nipponese considered any variance from the human standard utterly repulsive and abhorrent. And there was no richer or more powerful nation than Japan in the Awakened world of the twenty-first century.