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Aim

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.

Azureink

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.

Aim

((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))