Destin Obscura's Homepage

DragonierMan, Suzume, and Aya sat and listened as Hime told them a ton of information. It came as a shock that Boss Oni originally was called ShogunMan, where Hime took the moniker from. Apparently Boss Oni was a 'good guy' in the past, and she had apparently served under him to some extent. Even falling in love with him. But at some point his coding degraded and he 'lost' himself. In the Real World it was called 'dementia' and usually affected older people, robbing them of their memories and sense of self. It seemed to them that Hime, due to her attempts at reminding Boss Oni of his more noble past self, branded herself ShogunMan for that purpose. Word association.

Aya finished up with bandaging Yasu's head and backed up a few feet to give Hime and Yasu some space. Drago pondered to himself how he was going to talk to Boss Oni when they meet later on at their scheduled meeting. He would probably wait until he brought up either Hime or the Shogun, and then weave some story about how he got her back from their kidnappers, and then ask to get the armor she left back. He could probably let slip that it was a plot by their, potentially, mutual enemy the ROT (Right of Operation Templars) organization. That could, again potentially, push Boss Oni to make a deal with the NS (Neo-Shogunate) in revenge for the slight against himself. Securing the Mafia's help.

With the first question answered satisfactorily, they moved onto the second. This one concerned the relationship between Hime and Yasu. Hime talked about Yasu's village of unoperated navis and how Alexis attacked it probably because they didn't join her. From what little Drago knew of Alexis, even after battling her once, it seemed to fit her M.O. (modus operandi). As Hime got up to move around, Aya backed up a little more to give her space. "That sounds about right from what we've seen. We, and by that I mean primarily DragonierMan, even helped Yasu fight Alex on one occasion on Mt. Alexander of Nefrica in the past. She was pretty strong, but was ultimately put to flight by their combined might," Aya added.

"How do four Navis have one Operator?" Suzume chimed in with a question. "I thought that there was some system in place to prevent that?" Everyone turned to her, and she waved her hands in front of her in backtracking. "N-not that I-I am complaining, really! I like all of them. It... It just seems odd you know?" she added. Seemingly satisfied with the question asked, everyone turned back to Hime.

Hime continued with the story of the founding of the NS, the subsequent fall, and the efforts to rebuild. As Hime talked, Drago made a mental note to go talk to Dee/Myst for more details about her past. He smirked as he also thought of other things they could do together. It was auspicious that he was wearing baggy pants under his armor. As Hime got to the whole defeat part, and the lesson she learned, Suzume became sheepish. Clearly force wasn't the first and only way to do things. The trio of navis each briefly thought of times in which they were brought to the brink of defeat by other members of the NET. It was definitely a lesson they had learned time and time again. Though each burned with more passion to get even stronger so they could defeat them in the future.

With all the questions answered satisfactorily, then it was time for Hime to ask the questions. Her first question was what the reward was for her capture. "The reward, besides the common baubles needed to improve my own strength, was a position as the Right Hand of the new Shogun. And perhaps even as far becoming the new Shogun," he replied. "Basically I was going to eventually take over the Shogunate... Or so I thought. Clearly what was going to happen was ROT was going to try taking over." He chuckled. "They definitely pulled one over on me." He then raised his hands in front of himself and cracked his knuckles. "I can't wait to repay them for that."

Aya then chided Hime as she talked about trust. "I think it should be clear to you by now that implicit trust is what got you into this mess in the first place," she said. "At least you can find comfort in that suspicion got you out of that mess. Otherwise we wouldn't be having this conversation." Aya's tone of voice seemed to be of scolding a friend for something that seemed obvious to her. Clearly they didn't see the world as so black and white, but as gray as their eyes.

Suzume got up and tried to put a comforting hand on Hime's shoulder. "Look. You can at least know that our goals are in a similar vein to your own." She gestured to all of them with the other arm. "We were given the command to protect the denizens of the NET by making some sort of higher order to the whole thing. The idea is to create an overall bastion against the darkness, specifically in a way that protects the unoperated from any future troubles. The fact that the generals all come from unoperated backgrounds, the destruction of villages, the exploitation... All of that threat is to be stopped eventually." She stepped back before continuing. "And that is why we were planning on taking over your organization from the start. We joined to rise through the ranks and take the NS for our own eventually. As you said, it would be easier to unite everyone under us if we earned it from them."

Drago remained seated as Aya and Suzume watched Hime's reaction to the news. They basically just admitted that they had planned a takeover from the start, and they were talking about it so openly and without subtlety. That would probably be enough to shake anyone's beliefs. "For the moment it seems like our plans will have to wait on that regard. But know that I don't intend to force the issue any further, for now. As this situation demonstrated, I am not ready to assume command yet. You will continue to be our leader until the rest of the organization wants me to lead, yourself included. Until then I will continue to forge alliances for the Shogunate until we have the utopia we deserve." He placed his hands on his knees and bowed his head forward. "If there is anything else you wish of me, you may continue to ask. We will continue to answer truthfully as before. And when you and Yasu are well enough to travel, and you wish it, you may leave. We are still allies in the Shogunate, despite this setback."
Hime crossed her arms, glancing over to Yasu again as the support programs tended to her and DraognierMan described his encounter with Alex in the past. "She told me very little about that meeting. I'm glad the two of you were safe, but she and her Alexis are dangerous opponents. It would be wise not to underestimate her, even though you had the upper hand in that meeting," she warned DragonierMan. "Yasu must have trusted you to let you in on her past, and even more to count on you in that fight. She's relied on you a great deal." There seemed to be more Hime wanted to say, and again, that dark, tired expression when she held her tongue from saying it.

She gave a small smile at the surprise of Suzume, then shook her head. "It's certainly not normal. You hear of multiple operators using a single navi, but seldom the other way around. Part of that is in the difficulty of operating four at a time... It's no easy feat, requiring a great deal of effort and concentration. There typically isn't a lot of benefit to it either: it's costly, you divide your resources four ways, and so on. The only reason she does it is necessity, going back to the earlier concept of 'family', the idea was to bind together the four as closely as possible. Though, whether it's been worth it or not is up for debate... Dee and Yasu aren't exactly the closest of friends, as you may have noticed. At any rate, she's busy now removing traces of BrainMan's hacking from Yasu's PET now, as much as she can. Yasu's contact has been false for a long time now, replaced with dummy footage, so that none of the other generals knew what had happened. We believe the hacking might have been more extensive than that, even still..."

Hime came to the end of her portion of the talk, asked her question, then waited with bated breath as DragonierMan explained why he'd gone along with the brainwashed Yasu's plot. Her eyes widened as she realized the extent of what he'd been promised. "That's..." she started, nearly interrupting, but quieted down so heand Aya could finish. "Look at it from another perspective... If DragonierMan and myself had not trusted Yasu as far as we did, then we could never have known she was being controlled by an outside force. Though, I suppose the inverse is also true... if DragonierMan did not trust Yasu from all of your time together, thinking she'd place that much faith in him, BrainMan could not have manipulated all of you. It's a double-edged sword. But I'd like for all of us to continue to consider mutual trust to be the foundation of our organization. And to that end, I'll strive to be more open to your feedback, Aya."

At first, Hime was smiling and nodding calmly with Suzume, as she agreed with the words and the symbolic meaning of where each of the generals had come from. The smile left her face, however, when she heard that DragonierMan had always intended to take over the empire. "There's no easy response to that," she murmured, with a tense expression. "I suppose if we're being honest, it upsets me that you do not have more faith in me as the leader of this organization. At the same time, you have a valid point that it shouldn't matter who the symbolic leader is, as long as we are headed for the same goals. Again, being frank, I have a hard time reconciling the fact that you wished to create a peaceful world with the fact that you abducted me beaten and at swordpoint. We have to think about how we do things, not just the end goal. We're all forced to make tough decisions and live with the consequences of those decisions... I hope that next time you'll speak to me to voice those concerns." It didn't sound like she had any intentions of relinquishing her position as shogun, regardless.

"I suppose I can't stop you from trying to win the hearts of the other generals... and myself..." she murmured, raising an eyebrow as she realized how strange that sounded, "nor do I really have any reason to. And yes. You are still valuable allies." Having said that, she got up to her feet, then returned his bow. "We all have a lot to think about and much to do. I'll deliver Yasu back to the camp so that you aren't burdened with her treatment. You can hold on to BrainMan's eye... perhaps you'll manage to learn something from it. We'll continue to root out any remaining traces of his hacking, though it appears that what's left is, at least, dormant. I will also explain the situation to the other generals. And... I suppose I haven't said it... but I understand that my life was in your hands several times throughout this ordeal. It's humbling, but I do thank you for staying your hand."

It didn't really sound like they were going to be best buds from now on, but at least Hime had agreed that DragonierMan would continue to be an ally for the Shogun and didn't seem to think his goal of becoming the leader disqualified him from continuing. "Until we meet again," the shogun finished, placing a hand on Yasu's wrist before the two of them beamed out together.
It was true that DragonierMan was manipulated and fell into the trap of trust, to some extent. Also the trap of gaining peace through force. Though that was just something he was programmed to do as the 'sword' of his Lord. Suzume and Aya mentally noted what Hime said about the multiple Navis, one Operator thing. Especially the part about blocking an Operator with dummy footage. It sounded like something they might be able to use as a weapon in the future. If they could figure out how that worked. The bed slid back into the floor and the blanket disappeared. Then DragonierMan and Suzume stood up. It was time to fight until called again.
((DragonierMan gets the following FXP:
BrainMan: 3 FXP
Yasu: -2 FXP
Hime/Neo-ShogunMan: 3 FXP


MachMan gets the following FXP:
Yasu: 4 FXP
Hime/Neo-ShogunMan: 7 FXP))