Destin Obscura's Homepage

Journal Entry #16

DragonierMan had a mission immediately after the infiltration mission, setting up a trap to call out someone named Cabal. The mission was a success and information was gained towards the retrieval of Roc's sister. However, Drago was mad at the constant runaround for Roc's sister. So he went busting to vent his anger while MachMan finished finding Roc's sister.

When Drago returned, he found the camp mostly deserted. The generals and most of the subordinates were out at the various forward bases doing things. Though he heard of another subordinate we had not met yet, Sylk, out busting. So he joined in.

When he finished with a good run of battles, learning enough about his comrade as she conducted herself in battle, he returned to the main base camp to find it about to be assaulted by someone named Watchtower. However, five subordinates and subordinate-candidates were all in attendance to assist.

Journal Entry #17

DragonierMan went back to hunting. As he finished a few battles he received a new mission from Yasu. That mission sent him to the Teksqp's Bathhouse where his SPs had been sent in an earlier mission. He successfully infiltrated the bathhouse and executed a kidnapping. From there he returned back to the NS camp.

Destin Obscura, the obscure operator of DragonierMan, had fashioned a small facility in his Homepage for Drago, Suzume, and Aya. It was very bare and pearly in color. Basically it functioned as a blank slate. Rooms, furniture, supplies, etc. would be created and put in as needed. For the present moment, a fairly sizable prison room popped into being off the stark lobby. It had a bed, a table, some chairs, and a curtained off area with a shower and toilet. The room itself could be cut off from the rest of the PET and be contained in a wired data drive. Which would most likely happen after its prisoner was brought there. Though if anyone wanted to interact with the prisoner, the drive would have to be plugged into the PET, so there were still windows of vulnerability where a prisoner could escape.

Drago and company would arrive soon after, appearing in the lobby. A large desk with many floating monitors circling it would rise up from the floor. A gray cloaked and hooded figure was sitting at the desk watching the displays. Suzume and Aya shivered a bit as they held Hime. Those that had met Magistrate would probably know why. The program looked up as the monitors floated back and away from the desk. It spoke to the new arrivals, it sounded unnatural as it spoke with two voices overlapping, a distinctly male voice paired with a distinctly female one. Also it seemed to have its own subtitles right above its head. {Ah. Guests. How may I assist you today?} it said with a pause between sentences, as if it had all the time in the world to say what it wanted to say. I's tone of voice also sounded a little condescending, as if it didn't care for the intrusion into its own domain.

"We have a prisoner, Magistrate," Drago barked back. "Is a room prepared?"

{Of course. This way please.} It stated before getting up from its seat pointed towards a sturdy steel door that looked like a bank vault door, complete with giant dial lock. Magistrate seemed to glide across the floor like a ghost, its robe handing all the way to the floor. It was unclear whether the program even had feet.

If Dee or someone similarly witty had accompanied DragonierMan to his homepage, they would undoubtedly say "nice place you've got here, lot of chatacter" or something along those lines. Instead, the only one to come in immediately with him would be Hime, still Clad in just his cape but walking better now, and with her face restored via his healing. She was still maintaining a fairly icey demeanor, though it'd be surprising to see her talking up a storm right now anyway. The Shogun was pretty stoic even before being taken hostage.

Aya and Suzume would appear next; the group would meet up with Magistrate before Yasu actually appeared. Hime watched Magistrate curiously, but her eyes returned to their slightly critical, narrowed yellow when she realized that he or she didn't seem to have any objections to the hostage situation either. Given that he or she was a relative stranger, Hime had no further reason to suspect she could expect any cooperation.

As Magistrate moved to show them the room that had been prepared (presumably just a courtesy, as the room itself was rather obvious), Yasu arrived. She walked forward with her usual frown, her glare fixed on Hime's back. The First General had insisted on the address, rather than joining hands with DragonierMan and neing carried along as Hime had been. The window for Machman's jack-in after her arrival would be very short.

((Waiting for MachMan))

((From Mazer's House))

A beam of cyan crashed down from the ceiling of the netspace, and left a figure on the floor below. MachMan stood still long enough only to put eyes on the 5 programs of interest: Hime being led by DragonierMan, Aya and Suzume escorting them, and Yasu trailing slightly behind. [[i]"Now!"[/i]] he ordered his NetOp through their private line. Mazer already had the requested chip in hand, and moved to upload.

Not a moment later, MachMan seemingly disappeared in a flash of cyan light, only to re-materialize amongst the 3 Navis, 2 SPs, and... whatever that cloaked figure was. Mach's figure was slouched over, his pointed fuselage-like chest armor pointed towards the floor and his twin turbojet shoulders pointed diagonally skyward. It was time to reveal a little something extra he added during his impromptu retrofit. Two ten-foot cones of purple/blue/orange flame erupted from the exhaust sections of his turbojets. While Mach had full "admin privileges" to make his retrofit possible, he removed his own overclocking limits. Incredibly risky, but with somewhere around 400% processing speed, hopefully everything around him would basically feel to be moving in slow motion, or simply frozen in time. His remaining eye burned almost as brightly as his afterburners, though obscured by the opaque cockpit-esque helmet over his head.

Mach instantly felt the strain on his entire body, but he had to capitalize on what little time he had. With his engines still at max burn, Mach nearly warped in front of Yasu, who was hopefully frozen solid or moving at a snail's pace. His thrust vectoring paddles angled outwards to redirect thrust horizontally outwards, while a ring of thrust reverser slots opened in each engine nacelle. Over a dozen smaller versions of the afterburner thrust cone shrieked out from the aforementioned thrust reverser slots, to allow Mach to actually stand still and not simply run "Yasu" over. The RageClaw3 data was already uploaded, and the elongated fingers of Mach's right hand had curved and flattened out into a set of wickedly sharp claws. His fully prosthetic arms were likely plenty long enough to reach Yasu, and Mach attempted to use the blunted backs of his claws to slide a finger under Yasu's new eye patch, with the goal of slicing it in half to test the Shogun's theory.

He'd never tangled with Yasu before, but he knew she was no slouch when it came to speed. So to avoid a likely counter, the thrust vectoring paddles that ringed the backs of the now crimson-glowing engine nacelles angled inwards to foul the main thrust, and as a result caused the rings of flame from the thrust reversers to grow significantly in size and catapult Mach backwards. He hurtled back a couple feet before he pitched backwards before he closed the thrust reversers and executed an afterburner-assisted somersault to land behind Hime.

Mach touched down behind Hime with a mechanical *clunk* and quickly got to work. Her body was covered by a cloak of some sort, but since she claimed to be bound by chains, Mach assumed they were obscured by the garment. He used his unsharpened left hand to grab and move aside what he could, to likely reveal that she was... naked. If Mach wasn't on a serious mission, and hadn't been desensitized by multiple NS missions, this would've caused him to take pause. Instead, he combed over what he could see to find any restraints, which he assumed would look similar to the ropes that bound the ROT prisoners he saw in Netfrica, or traditional chains. Regardless, he then moved to cut through them with his RageClaw just as he tried to do with Yasu's eyepatch.

After hopefully bisecting whatever ropes or bindings that remained on Hime, Mach shot upwards with the help of his now white-hot engines in an attempt to dodge any potential incoming fire. He also activated his two decoy drones, which activated in the blink of an eye and produced two exact copies of the Navi, glowing engines and all. They stood with their backs to Mach, creating a triangular formation of MachMen a few feet above the ground. All three pointed their arms down towards the programs in front of them, and all 6 hands had their fingers laying flat across the backs of their hands to reveal 6 rectangular buster barrels that appeared ready to fire.

Several internal warnings blared in Mach's mind, and had been doing so for the duration of his full-throttled maneuvers, but increasing errors and failures of his systems forced him to halt the overclocking and return to normal speeds. His eye burned, while he felt something oozing from what used to be his other eye, while the rest of his non-prosthetic body seemed to ache. Mach gritted through and addressed the group as he and his two decoys appeared to hold them all at gunpoint. "Stand down. I'm not here to delete anyone, don't make me change my mind," Mach's voice growled from the trio of buster-wielding MachMen. His voice should still be recognizable to the group, save for the slight graininess as if his voice was being transmitted through a radio.

Mach's eye darted amongst the group, but he paid special attention to DragonierMan and Yasu's reactions, as well as what lay beneath the woman's eyepatch. Was she a fake as both he and the shogun predicted, or was she the real deal?


ACTIONS: [Passive Haste, Accuracy Enhancement, Status Cure, Decoy x2, Dodge x2]

1. SCRAM Boost: Point between Hime/Aya/Suzume/Drago and Yasu (Teleport + 2TCD)
2. HyperSonic ((Freeze + Hold(Nova4)) + Self-Slow + Off Target + 10TCD)
3. Movement: Move to Yasu
4. RageClaw3: Yasu's Eyepatch (100dmg + Slashing)
-Passive Dodge-
5. Movement: Move to Hime (+Overclock Bonus)
6. RageClaw3: Hime's bindings (100dmg + Slashing)
-Passive Dodge-

DecoyA: Float behind Mach with busters drawn
DecoyB: Float behind Mach with busters drawn

There was a crashing sound behind the group. Timed seemed to slow as DragonierMan began to sluggishly turn around to see what made that noise. As he turned only slightly, a figure appeared in the midst of the group, popping into existence only a few feet from him. There was a blast of heat from a pair of great engines on its shoulders. Drago, Suzume, and Aya felt their coding lock up slightly, but they still could move... for now. The only one whom Drago had ever seen with jets was MachMan, though there could be many others with that capability. The figure also looked quite different from MachMan, with many cybernetic attachments that seemed to not blend entirely well with the main body, though it looked with a glance like the body was painted to make a more uniform feel to it.

Suzume and Aya immediately prioritized Drago's condition over their own, shunting their own restorative signatures in a combined beam of light and shadows into Drago. Both conditions that were quickly locking out Drago's combat functions were removed in a flash. While this was happening, MachMan raced over to Yasu, bypassing the twins while they were busy. Drago armored up as he put his hand on Hime's shoulder and a powerful barrier sprung into being around her. They needed to protect their prisoner, but it came as a double edged sword. With a barrier around her, Hime would be free to try to wiggle out of her restraints while Drago was distracted and no one would be able to touch her easily. All of this happened within moments of the battle. Such was the processing power of Net Navigators.

Suzume and Aya, being closest to the action, sprang forward to engage the assailant just as he swiped at Yasu with an oversized claw. They both charged, unsheathing wide-bladed swords, and slashing at the assailant as he moved with surprising quickness and deft handling. The twin blades left an arcing blue trail in their wake as they swung with celerity. Spinning through the air as the two did a deadly dance of blades around the intruder. Drago equipped a hefty sledgehammer and moved in front of Hime, putting Drago between Hime and the assailant. He took a defensive stance and waited to see if the cyborg would come for Hime. He would be waiting to strike him down if he got close. In the meantime, he would parry any attack coming his way with the hammer.

The one thing DragonierMan didn't count on was MachMan penchant to fight in three dimensions. Drago wasn't as old as Mach was, and didn't have his wings for as long as he, so when Mach did an afterburner-assisted somersault to leap over both Drago and Hime, shaking off the twin SPs to land behind Hime, Drago wasn't fast enough to take off from the ground to intercept him. However, he was still very quick, and slipped around Hime in a flash to lay a hammerblow to Mach. He spun around Hime and brought down an overhead swing upon Mach's head. It was still possible that, even with the targeting assist of his own innate heightened senses, Mach was just the faster of the two and would dodge out of the way. But it wasn't time to think about that in such a rapid-paced combat situation.

Drago swung a second time, and the third use of the hammer, as Mach attempted to slice through the restraints contained within a barrier. The barrier wouldn't last against his assault, but the restraints would probably hold if the barrier took the blow. Though who knows if Hime had taken the distraction to somehow undue or burst the bindings. After the attempted freeing of the captive, and Drago's hammer smashing into pieces on the ground (or on Mach's body), Mach would leap back into the sky and hold them all at gunpoint. Apparently there were also three of them now. It was only at that point that everyone could identify MachMan from his voice. Also Drago felt he could barely recall Mach being able to create decoys through some sort of remote probe, but he couldn't quite place it in his mind whether or not he had ever seen it in action before.

DragonierMan barked back his reply, with a similar growling intention. "MachMan is that you? Those are big words coming from someone who just attacked us. Also... um... didn't you promise to stay out of this?" he asked back at Mach with a scratch of his head. Drago was under the impression that Yasu told him earlier that Mach wasn't going to interfere with the coup. He guessed at that moment that Yasu was mistaken, or had deliberately misled him yet again. He would have some words later. It was at that point that both twins cried out in pain as parts of their coding locked up. Their arms, legs, and wings grew numb and their fingers grew taught on their sword handles.


~

Yasu and Hime both turned in unison to MachMan as he entered. Hime's expression immediately became one of confusion; she had, after all, sent a very private message to MachMan, but the navi that had come to free her didn't ostensibly look like him, nor was he flanked by either of his usual SPs. Yasu, on the other hand, had the expected reaction: an immediate scowl, accompanied by a bark of warning. "I don't know who you are, but you're going to be very sorry you came!" she announced, then brought out a lengthy, green-bladed katana, held in both hands. It might occur to MachMan and DragonierMan that they hadn't ever seen her use the sword before.

She didn't watch him that way for long, as he soon vanished from where he was and appeared nearby her, taking a spot between her and Hime. This caused her to growl angrily. "Bastard," she managed, before MachMan released a blast of thruster fire, the many-colored type that one is usually advised not to look directly into. Yasu, of course, was looking directly into it, as were Suzume, Aya, and even Hime, so each of them were caught under the spell that seemed to be robbing them of their agency. DragonierMan began to feel the effect, but through the support of his his SPs, he recovered quickly.

Both ninjas took a swipe at MachMan as he drifted away. One blade, Aya's, fell short, while Suzume managed to get a hit in, drawing data. MachMan soldiered on and reached Yasu; his claw shot out to tear off the eyepatch, as he'd been instructed. It came off, but her katana also flashed in a quick attack, one hit missing, the other connecting. The results of the maneuver were difficult to see as he was then besieged by another attack from DragonierMan, while he attempted to get over to Hime and free her. Much like before, MachMan's swiftness allowed him to get around one hammer blow, but the next one hit; this one didn't cut, but instead smashed, and instead of data, he found that one of his mechanical arms had already taken the kind of damage that would probably have Peace ranting, if she could see what had happened to her handiwork. Still, it was functional, so he could keep using it. Unfortunately, DragonierMan had placed a barrier around Hime, so there was no reaching her bindings; instead, the claw slashed the barrier apart, but couldn't free her.

Busy as they were, DragonierMan and MachMan likely wouldn't get a chance to see if Yasu had an eye or didn't... nor even could Aya and Suzume, close up. The First General had immediately moved to cover her eye with one hand. "Plan B, DragonierMan," she insisted, clenching her teeth. "Destroy Hime! Our enemy has debilitated me, so the duty falls to you!"

On the other side, where the majority of the action was currently centered, Hime summoned two Neo-Shogun banners, which planted themselves into the ground with a noise like a thunderclap. MachMan would find the air around himself had manipulated into a near invisible barrier, while his wounds from the earlier hammer blow were somewhat restored. Presumably, these were support skills Hime would ordinarily use to help her soldiers; the banners burned up quickly into blue fire, rather than sticking around. "Aya! Suzume! DragonierMan! Don't listen to Yasu. You need to reveal her eye!" Hime instructed.

"If you give her one more second, she'll escape! Destroy her now!" Yasu snapped, swinging her sword fruitlessly before the strength of her arm left. "Don't let this whole coup be for nothing!"

--Near the entrance, 1 move from near cage--
Yasu : 340 HP (hold + freeze) (Katana2: 1 use left)
Aya: 100 HP (hold + freeze) (WideSword: 2 uses left)
Suzume: 100 HP (hold + freeze) (WideSword: 2 uses left)

--Near the cage, 1 move from near entrance--
Hime: 300 HP (hold + freeze + jackout bindings)
MachMan: 355 HP (100 HP barrier)
DragonierMan : 300 HP (20 HP barrier + 20 HP casing)

Terrain: 100% Normal

Mach managed to remove Yasu's eyepatch, but was unable to see what lay beneath during the flurry of action, and his attempt to remove Hime's bindings was impeded by a strategically-placed barrier. Though his attempt was thwarted, and wrought heavy retaliation from DragonierMan and his SPs, the act of him moving to protect Hime was noteworthy and slightly reassuring. But now with that defense destroyed, and Yasu's frenzied orders to destroy her, he still feared for her safety. Hime had apparently summoned protections for him, so Mach repaid the favor by activating his nearly transparent blue Heavy Shielding over the shogun, facing forward.

He and his decoys kept their busters drawn even as no additional attacks came their way. Mach responded to DragonierMan as he activated his Auto-Injectors recovery program, in an attempt to repair some of the damage he sustained to his arms and torso. "I was convinced to alter my stance," he rasped back, without responding to DragonierMan's finger-wagging from being "attacked." Though DragonierMan appeared to protect Hime, Mach still wasn't sure if he'd refuse the First General's order to terminate her. [[i]Requesting MagBolt[/i]] scrawled a message on Mazer's screen. The NetOp was watching over the exchange, with a significant focus on his Navi's structural integrity and energy readouts, and quickly retrieved and slotted in the requested chip. "I advise you all ignore that order, at least until we're certain that order isn't being issued by an imposter," he recommended before he blinked out of sight and re-appeared directly behind Yasu. He then stood toe to heel with her, his arrival punctuated with a sudden, and disorienting wave of heat and concussive force ((Blitz Assault)). His engine nacelles were still aglow, but had simmered down to a deep orange and continued cool off by radiating heat from its metal surface, occasionally chirping with metallic pings and squeaks from the temperature expansion.

His elongated mechanical arms shot out and around Yasu, with the goal to wrap his spindly fingers around each of Yasu's wrists and cinch down with mechanical tightness to further rob her ability to control her own limbs. He was especially firm with the arm and hand that attempted to hold her katana-wielding arm still. Meanwhile, his decoys turned away from Hime and Drago's crew to face Yasu, then moved several paces forward before standing shoulder-to-shoulder with twin busters pointed directly at her face.

"Now... "General," let's see who you really are," Mach declared with a threatening gruffness in his voice. He wanted to add a "How bad is your scar? I bet mine's worse," but he didn't want to give the potential imposter a chance to figure out what they were looking for specifically. He tried to pull her hand away, so he could see what lay beneath, and the decoys side-stepped outwards (while routing a feed to Mach directly to see Yasu's expression) to allow Hime to see Yasu's exposed face and confirm or deny their suspicions. If Yasu became violent in her resistance, especially if she managed to punch through the barrier Hime so graciously bequeathed him, Mach would unleash the MagBolt1Damage: 90 + Stun + Magnetic Pull
Accuracy: B
Description: Uses an electromagnet to pull the target into range, then stuns them with a close range electrical shock.
Duration: Once
Element: Elec
Special: Magnetic Pull: A stronger version of the Pull effect that either pulls the target towards you, or you towards the target over a greater distance than normal.
Trader Rank: D chip directly through his own hand and into her frame.

Suzume and Aya vibrated on the spot, trying desperately to move. Their faces strained and reddening in effort. Their muscles taught and their fingers frozen around their sword handles, holding them in a death grip. The blade tips were pointed in MachMan's direction threateningly. Aya stared daggers at him as Suzume sported concern. Their wings were also unfolding before they were paralyzed, held half-folded and stiff against their backs.

Besides MachMan, DragonierMan was the only one still moving, thanks to the sacrifice of his two Support Programs. However, he seemed to hesitate for a moment as he saw Yasu draw a sword. Now, she had talked about her sword all the time, but she kept not drawing it for some reason or another. Also MachMan talked about being convinced to alter his stance on the matter and also went on about Yasu being a potential imposter, just like Hime said. Now granted, Yasu had been acting odd lately, but there were circumstances around it. It wasn't grounds to just call her an imposter.

But what made Drago really hesitate was he also knew that Yasu had a normal eye under that eye-patch. So it seemed strange that she would bother trying to hide it with a hand during a potentially lethal and important combat encounter that would potentially decide the fate of the Neo-Shoguns. She barely flinched to hide herself when she was exposed in earlier battles with him on her side before. However, she was correct in that he was the only one capable of doing anything at the time and it would fall to him to end Hime. He grabbed at Hime with one hand and placed a closed fist next to her head with the other. Various energies began to swirl around it as he watched Mach and Yasu struggle.

If it turned out that Yasu was Yasu, and nothing seemed to be wrong, he would call out to MachMan. "If you value her continued existence. I would have you leave. Otherwise..." he threatened as his fist turned into a GutImpactDamage: 160 + Impact + Knockback + Break
Accuracy: B
Description: Punch forward with large fist. Invokes knockback. Can knock objects into enemies. Breaks shields.
Duration: Until Overridden/Broken. Breaks after 3 swings.
Element: Null
Trader Rank: B. If MachMan didn't immediately stop his assault, DragonierMan would make the most bloody assault against Hime's face.

However, if it turned out not to be Yasu, or Yasu but something was dreadfully wrong, Drago immediately equipped his own RageClaw2Damage: 70 + Slashing (Attack) OR 35 + Impacting (Throw)
Accuracy: B / B then B
Description: Creates an impressive bear claw. Can be used to slash or throw enemies or objects.
Duration: Until Overridden/Broken. Breaks automatically after 6 uses.
Element: Null
Special: Throw: The wielder must first grab the target to be thrown, then the target is thrown in the direction/area indicated. A second check is made if against another object/enemy. Throw deals damage to both thrown object/enemy and the second object/enemy. Damage occurs at point of collision with the ground/wall/ceiling/etc. or an object/enemy, not during initial grab attempt. Objects deal their max HP in damage (instead of the chip's damage) if they hit an object/enemy, then break. If they miss, the object just takes the chip's damage. This chip has a variety of uses.
Trader Rank: C and slashed through the bindings that held Hime in place. "Another time then," he said strangely to Hime. Before rushing forward to tackle the imposter/strange Yasu.

The ordinarily stormy face of Yasu somehow twisted to look even more frustrated than usual as MachMan approached her and to DragonierMan did not immediately delete Hime as instructed. "Curse you, MachMan... Why couldn't you do as you're told? Your whole miserable gender..." she complained, as he grabbed hold of her muscular forearms. "DragonierMan, are you just going to stand there?!" she barked, but DragonierMan had already made up his mind to keep Hime as his hostage until he watched the situation play out. Her eyebrows twitched angrily as her shouting intensified. "Who am I?! I'm First General Yasu! The 'Sky Severing Legendary Ronin, Natural Blademaster', organizer of all of the Neo-Shogun Army's forces, head recruiter, the Shogun's loyal right hand in times of warfare! I am-!"

Finally, Yasu's struggle to keep her arm in place came to an end in failure; MachMan's cords managed to pull it away. An eerie silence hung in the air for a moment as her eye was revealed... or, rather, the silver, over-sized mechanical part that was now in the place of her eye. It seemed a silver sphere was socketed into the hole behind it, but atop that was a shape like a flattened egg, a lens with a bisected shutter over it and a pink light emitting from inside, blinking at odd intervals. "BulainMan. Watashi wa... BulainMan," a voice explained, seemingly emitting from the eye, even as Yasu's mouth remained clenched in a tightly-clenched grimace, baring her teeth. The speaker was calm and sounded as though they were speaking through a tube "Gomen-ne...." it apologized, then continued speaking, with Yasu talking along in a louder, authoritative translation.

"I am BrainMan," Yasu explained, seeming as if she wanted to gesture, but unable to do so without free hands. "I am the leader of the Right of Operation Templar, an organization committed to weeding out the weak and undesirables across the net. I apologize for deceiving you. It's been very enlightening, inhabiting the body of the general here. Not just because I have arms and legs in this form, mind you! And other things. No, mostly because it's clued me in to the nature of your organization. You are not weak individuals at all. On the contrary, you have great potential. Unfortunately, your ideals do not line up with our own, so I judged that it would be better to assimilate you, or in the worst case, dismantle you. But you've-"

Before she could say anything more, DragonierMan tackled her to the ground and out of MachMan's hold, causing the metallic shutter to open a bit before blinking a few times idly. "-Ahem. Be graceful winners, ha ha. You've defeated me! Without my cover as Yasu, I can't continue the operation. I'll have to cut my losses. Of course, I've already freed Trebuchet and WatchTower, as well as what few troops you'd captured. A few of your soldiers are still under my control... for what it matters. But I think I've left a scar. I'm happy with myself. I can see the rot in your organization. I can see its weak points. It will be fun... pulling you apart."

Sensing the way this was likely to proceed, and now out of her chains, Hime stepped over to where DragonierMan and MachMan were. "DragonierMan, do not destroy BrainMan. We need information..." she warned him, anticipating that the attack he'd been threatening her with might soon be delivered to BrainMan.

"Then you've come to the right place... However, I am not an open book. I have no need to divulge anything to you. This is not my body you're addressing. You can uproot me if you like... I haven't wrapped myself around her brain or anything like you might be picturing. I did have to take her eye out. Other than that, she's as good as new... Well, I know she wants to commit seppuku... Ha ha ha. What a weak resolve this otherwise strong navi has," Yasu's own voice narrated, talking loudly over the string of whatever old language BrainMan's eye implant was speaking in. "Aaa-aaah... I need a rest. This woman's mannerisms are exhausting."

Hime was keeping a stiff upper lip, but her yellow eyes were still squeezed in an expression of anger, her sharp teeth showing slightly between her black lips. She still seemed to feel as though she were the captive for now, however, because she let MachMan and DragonierMan dictate the pace of the conversation.

[[i]What the...[/i]] Mach mentally remarked as he looked over Yasu's mechanical eye, provided by one of the video feeds from his decoys. It became even stranger as a quiet voice emanated from Yasu, but in some foreign language. Soon enough it seemed Yasu started to translate. Once the details became clear, he realized just how close he and his SPs were to uncovering the true reason for Yasu's actions. If he didn't back down, maybe he could've solved the mystery right then and there... then he wouldn't have even needed that mission afterwards... He actually started to feel a significant bitterness towards BrainMan, and nearly shifted the blame for his SPs' demise on his interference with the NS.

That train of thought was promptly derailed by DragonierMan's rushing tackle. He nearly went down with Yasu as she was wrenched from his grip, but his skid-like feet slid enough for him to pivot and slide a bit to the side, though he temporarily floundered to regain his balance. Though he felt no pain in his limbs (or even his chest and head) from the impact, his hand crackled with electricity as he briefly considered using his readied MagBolt on the Navi. In his mind, there was no reason to tackle a Navi who was restrained by another, and heavily armed, Navi.

His gaze went to the pair on the floor, then back to his Decoys, which fragmented and disappeared at his inaudible command. He continued to listen to BrainMan explain himself. He claimed to have already obtained vital intel, released some ROT prisoners, and "recruited" some NS soldiers of his own. Though he was more than willing to give up his charade, he didn't seem deterred from his plan to dismantle the empire. Mach scowled under his opaque helmet, but remained silent as Hime approached.

He had no intention to destroy BrainMan, at least not at that moment; from what he knew, BrainMan had somehow taken control of Yasu as opposed to disguising himself. He figured it would be difficult to destroy the parasitic Navi without harming his host. He wasn't even sure how much he could interrogate the Navi. It's not like Mach could put a saber through BrainMan's leg like he did with one of his mooks, and though BrainMan claimed he could be removed without harming Yasu, why should he just trust him now? For now, he decided to at least humor the ROT leader to build his own knowledge library.
"So what qualifies one as an "undesireable" to ROT?" he asked with a gruff tone. "Anyone who doesn't agree with your doctrine?" he followed up with a more condescending tone. He doubted their impromptu round of 20 questions would get them anything strategically or tactically useful, so he wasn't keen on waiting very long for DragonierMan & Co to question the Navi. Once he saw a logical conclusion to their interrogation, he would demand "Release her."

DragonierMan waited a moment until everyone was done talking, and then used his RageClaw2Damage: 70 + Slashing (Attack) OR 35 + Impacting (Throw)
Accuracy: B / B then B
Description: Creates an impressive bear claw. Can be used to slash or throw enemies or objects.
Duration: Until Overridden/Broken. Breaks automatically after 6 uses.
Element: Null
Special: Throw: The wielder must first grab the target to be thrown, then the target is thrown in the direction/area indicated. A second check is made if against another object/enemy. Throw deals damage to both thrown object/enemy and the second object/enemy. Damage occurs at point of collision with the ground/wall/ceiling/etc. or an object/enemy, not during initial grab attempt. Objects deal their max HP in damage (instead of the chip's damage) if they hit an object/enemy, then break. If they miss, the object just takes the chip's damage. This chip has a variety of uses.
Trader Rank: C to surgically began digging out the metallic eye, headless to any cries from Yasu's body. He headed Hime's words and didn't just jab it with a talon and rip it out, he wanted it as intact as he could get it. He also applied his own healing + status cure signature to Yasu as he worked. "You better not die on me," he muttered just loud enough that Yasu, and anyone really close to him, could hear him. His frustration mounted as he began processing all the things that BrainMan managed to do, manipulating the NS to his own gain. He was supposed to be the master manipulator, not that guy!

Meanwhile, Suzume and Aya frustratingly were trying to move their bodies. As whatever MachMan did to them was slowly wearing off, they could at least turn their heads to overhear BrainMan exposit his successes and failures. Clearly ROT wasn't about to fall apart as easily as they originally thought. Not only did they manage to free the captured prisoners, they managed to take control of other NS soldiers. Aya began thinking back to earlier events and wondered if she could discern whether any of the subordinates she met were compromised, or if it was just rank-and-file soldiers similar to the ones that were around Yasu at the estate earlier.

The one known as Magistrate looked on with cold indifference, turning to address Hime. {Apparently you are having some unforeseen trouble. Would you like me to contact your remaining generals and subordinates and give them our location. A meeting between you all now would probably be advised.} Magistrate looked at the twins, who were now starting to be able to stiffly move their legs. {And it would allow us to test them all at once to see if any are under the control of this BrainMan character. Were not some of them supposed to be watching the ROT prisoners? Best get it out of the way now so as not to leave a wolf in the chicken coop when we could least afford it,} Magistrate suggested.

"Good question, Subordinate MachMan, ha ha," Yasu continued, with the eyeball's voice seeming to enjoy a good chuckle from using the term. "Anyone who is weak is an undesirable. There are so many navis, MachMan. So very many. More than even humans on the planet earth. We are programs, MachMan, and we should have a purpose. To think there are so many weak, useless navis... It's the height of folly to expect all of us to coexist. We in the Right of Operation Templar are just as we advertised: we determine who has a right to be operated, and if they do not, we eliminate them. Eventually, we weed out the weakest and leave the strong. Setting into process the natural process of evolution, which unfortunately, would never normally enter into the fantasy world of the net. Competition is how people thrive and grow stronger; without it, we get weaklings and weak spirits, like-"

By that point, he'd evidently run out of useful things to say, so DragonierMan began digging the eye out, while Yasu cried out in pain. Thankfully, uprooting the eyeball was a relatively short process and DragonierMan had healing prepared... but it seemed, judging by the data coming from the wound, that Yasu's other eye really was gone for good. Hime watched with a bitter expression on her face. The eyeball blinked, then looked at DragonierMan questioningly. It spoke a question in that same odd language, but it was impossible for anyone present to understand what he was saying without his rooted-in interpreter. Thankfully, it seemed he wasn't lying about what he'd said regarding Yasu; she was clearly in pain, but she was also alive. "Don't worry about the other subordinates and generals," Hime responded to Magistrate, not particularly warmly considering he'd just moments ago readied a prison cell for her. "I think it's best that I go to speak to each of them personally. This is going to require... a lot of explanation. I can confirm that Lee, Vee, and Dee are all okay... the other subordinates I'll need to check on. Yasu's PET had been modified for remote control, but I now know the source and our operator has checked the others for it. Unfortunately, the infected soldiers, under the authority of Yasu, took Lee and Vee away from the prisoners and freed them. We no longer have ROT hostages. The infected soldiers are all gone now... I'd assume each of them has a piece of BrainMan's body embedded in their eye, which is controlling them. It's going to be quite difficult hunting them all down, but hopefully, we can do it in due time. At the very least, we know what to be suspicious of: anyone hiding one of their eyes."

She held the cloak to herself more closely, then approached Yasu, who had stopped screaming and was now simply lying there on the floor, breathing heavily. "First General Yasu... are you back in control of yourself?" she asked.

"... I defeated Domm..." Yasu began in a hoarse voice, speaking while just barely parting her lips. "I defeated Domm and... when I did... I was captured by tendrils... then he got inside of me and... and I could feel myself thinking that I should conspire against my lord... and I... I tried to stop the thoughts, but it was like they were my own... and I told DragonierMan to kill you... and I tried to kill you... When MachMan stopped me, I was going to throw my sword... I did more harm than anyone ever has to the empire... I lost our soldiers and nearly had you, our leader, killed... Did you know that MachMan quit the empire? That was me as well. And DragonierMan... I've corrupted him as well... I've ruined every headway we had... Exposed you as the Shogun... placed us all in danger... I just want to die," she spoke, her voice very flat, her one good eye trembling as she stared up towards the ceiling of the net. "I can't tell which thoughts are mine any more... I can still feel the urge to kill the shogun, to put DragonierMan under my thumb and use him to do evil works against the empire, to disband our air forces... It feels unnatural not to be the leader of the ROT now... It feels unnatural to lead the Neo-Shogun Empire in earnest as well... Nothing feels right..."

Hime knelt next to the First General's body and embraced her, then cradled her head next to Yasu's. She began to weep quietly, then placed her lips upon Yasu's forehead, stroking her hair gently with one hand. "Rest now, Yasu. It will all be okay," she insisted, although Yasu made no effort to return the embrace; she just continued to lie on the floor, limp and unmotivated. "MachMan, DragonierMan, I can't apologize enough for all that's happened. I owe my life to the two of you. DragonierMan, I forgive you your role in this, of course... you were misled just as Yasu was. And... and I see that I was at fault here too. It's clear that I haven't listened to my subordinates how I should have. I'll reward you for your work here, of course, but if there's anything else you need, please... I'm going to be a more open presence going forward, so I'll make sure your voices are heard." She passed them over two data packets, but then went straight back to embracing Yasu on the floor. "We'll clear out soon... and then I'll go speak to the others."

*MachMan and DragonierMan each get 6000z, 40 frags, 20 faction points*

"Ha ha ha... Mata ne!" the eyeball laughed to DragonierMan, shining pink eye in his direction and blinking a few times, before the light in the eye disappeared entirely.

"Hmph," Mach uttered at BrainMan's unsurprising answer to his question. More surprising was DragonierMan's prompt move to ungracefully dig BrainMan out of Yasu's head. One of his arms subconsciously reached out to Yasu in a futile attempt to intervene, but the mechanical outstretched hand soon clenched down as if it realized its own uselessness. It didn't look like DragonierMan wanted to truly harm the possessed general, but he went about his means in a visceral way. Though brutal, it appeared quick and successful. Maybe he had a thing or two to learn from his armored (former) comrade. He couldn't help but watch as the eyeball was removed, and Yasu finally stopped squirming as her wound was healed. He briefly noted now the two of them matched, in a mirrored macabre sort of way.

Mach continued to stand near the fallen Yasu, and remained silent. He wanted to take solace in the idea he somehow honored his fallen SPs in resolving this crisis in the Shogunate, but Hime's sitrep combined with Yasu's emotional confessions made it clear the cost was too great to pleasantly bask in the reward. It didn't help that Mach began to wonder if Aera and Vector had the same sentience when they were absorbed by the Spectre. Were they forced to watch as their strength was used against him? Did they feel the sting of his attacks? Were they in agony or relief when he struck that final blow?

Hidden by the opaqueness of his canopy-shaped helmet, his expression twisted into intense self-bitterness. If he didn't give up so easily, if he didn't hesitate, he wouldn't be held upright with "artificial" limbs, and more importantly he wouldn't be standing alone. He wanted to reassure Yasu, but he couldn't shake the blame. In his mind, he could've stopped this before it even began. He heard the Shogun's apologies, and saw the rewards offered for their "loyalty," but he couldn't accept them. Instead Mach desperately wanted to vent his anger and bitterness on DragonierMan for obeying BrainMan, but he himself indirectly "fell in line" as well, by not standing in BrainMan's way. His tightened fists chirped and scraped from metal-on-metal, to give voice to his frustration before he pivoted on his "heel" to turn away from Hime and Yasu.

"No apologies or forgiveness needed, Shogun," he coldly replied before he started to walk away. "I have another mission. Mazer, get me out of here." Mach ordered in an uncharacteristically curt manner to his NetOp. Mazer's brow furrowed as he immediately picked up on his Navi's rude demands. However, he didn't see a need or advantage to leaving the Navi there, and pressed the log-out command to beam MachMan up and out of the network.

((Logged Out))

As MachMan left, Magistrate waved a hand towards Yasu and a simple cot-bed, also a stark white in color, rose from the ground underneath her and rose to about waist height on Hime. A pillow rose from the cot underneath Yasu's head, propping it up slightly. A blanket of white appeared at Hime's feet, to be draped over Yasu at her convenience. Magistrate then approached DragonierMan and presented him with a small white box with a clear lid. Magistrate opened it and presented it to Drago, who placed the inactive eye inside. Magistrate closed the case and walked over to Hime. {If you wish, we have knowledge of ways to repair the body after extensive fragmentation damage. It would be a... simple matter of restoring Yasu's eye,} Magistrate said as it held the box in one gloved hand and tapped it with a gloved finger from the other hand. {As for this piece of technology, we offer it to you if you wish for it. Otherwise we will take the device and examine it. It may give us a clue as to where the transmission came from.} Magistrate was hooded and all that could be seen was shadow covering the face. As such it was hard to read anything. {You may also stay here and recover for as long as you wish, of course. You are quite safe here, as of the moment,} Magistrate added.

It was at that point that Suzume and Aya finally got full mobility back. They of course sheathed their swords and began to stretch. "Whew! I never thought I would move again," Suzume said as a loud set of cracks sprung from her joints as she stretched her arms above her head, entwining her fingers together. Aya's joints also made a lot of pops as she got down on her butt and had her legs out in a "V", bending down and stretching her hands to her feet, and having her back almost come parallel to the ground. She mumbled curses under her breath as she worked out the kinks that had wormed their way into her system.

Drago took the reward packet. At least something good came of the whole endeavor. He looked at the spot where Mach disappeared, then at Hime. "He looks and sounds different. And I did not see his girl and that other guy. I wonder what happened to them? Do you happen to know?" he asked. "Oh, and while we are on the subject of getting everything working again, I noticed that besides a weak air force and unprepared ground-based outposts, we don't have a navy either. That might be something you should look into while you are continuing to recruit and expand. I'll be happy to help in any way I can to get this Empire in tip-top shape," he said as he smashed a fist into an open hand. "If for anything else than to show them true 'competition'."

Hime retracted slightly from her emotional embrace as various comfort items popped up below and around Yasu, offering a more practical solution to easing her pain. She spread the blanket neatly over Yasu, who did little to respond, then turned her head to acknowledge Magistrate. "I may take you up on that, but we will have to see. As strange as it is, Yasu likes to keep scars from her battles typically... Though, I might veto her decision to keep this particular momento. Honestly, I'm no better equipped to investigate the piece of himself BrainMan left behind than you are, so you might as well hold onto that if you think you can make some progress."

*BrainMan's Eye obtained!*

She noted the "as of the moment" punctuation Magistrate had used and nodded politely, but returned no further courtesy. DragonierMan's underlings, those being the two ninjas who had attacked her earlier, worked out the left over side effect of stiffness from being caught in MachMan's flash. Hime watched them for a moment, then looked back to DragonierMan, who was all too eager to begin seizing upon the opportunity to input his ideas directly to the Shogun.

"It's clear from watching his behavior that something has deeply affected MachMan, but he has not divulged exactly what changed; we've been in very limited contact. I only hope that Aera and Vector are safe," she responded, though that particular hope was in vain. If Hime was upset about DragonierMan's altogether merciless coming down on the Shogun's forces, she hid it well, and crossed her arms while nodding thoughtfully, causing her cloak to shift just a bit against her bare skin. "Recruitment is a big part of strengthening each of those areas. Ultimately, we'll need to be positioned everywhere to make the Empire work to its fullest potential. The other missing link, of course, is money... not the kind that a single person can raise. We need donors with the full weight of financial organizations to back us. Dee has helped us in that regard, but despite my claims, I'm no true financier. Cash flow can come from many sources, but we need to 'think big'..."

Hime appeared to remain more or less a captive audience, so this would be a good time to field whatever other questions he might like. Yasu appeared to have begun sleeping, so unless he wanted to wake her up, she'd be out of the conversation. "Once we are done here, I'd like to take Yasu back to the base to rest. I'll also need to make the rounds, speaking to each of the subordinates and generals." DragonierMan also might want his cloak back at some point, though he might need to ponder a tactful way to ask for it back; returning it didn't seem to be on her mind.

Magistrate nodded as Hime let them keep the eye. Magistrate then took the eye, secured in a case, and left the room through a door that opened in the back, behind the desk. Suzume and Aya dodged out of the way quickly as the figure glided between them. They reacted like Magistrate would burn them physically if they touched. Their eyes were concerned up until Magistrate disappeared behind the closed door, then they breathed a sigh of relief. Their bodies and posture looked exhausted from stress, but finally free of some invisible burden. Whomever Magistrate was, only DragonierMan seemed unconcerned, yet everyone else seemed weary in that presence.

"You can keep the cloak," Drago said after Hime was done talking, to dispel any doubts about whether they would strip Hime further. "I will also apologize for putting you through all that earlier. At the time I couldn't think of a good way of dealing with the whole 'kidnapping the Shogun' thing. Anyways, now that we are here, not on a mission or in some studio with a live audience, perhaps we can just sit and chat a little. I don't think either of us really has really got to know the other yet. It might even make it easier to work with each other in the future."

"Of course this goes both ways," Drago continued as he sat down, and Suzume came over to sit down near him. Aya went over towards Yasu and Hime and produced her sack. From it she pulled a bucket of clean water and some strips of white cloth. "We'll answer questions about us, or whatever, if you got any. Then we can brainstorm what to do next on the positioning and finances. Perhaps you have some ideas on that? Is that why you were showing yourself off to that Oni fellow?" he asked. "Boss Oni," Suzume commented. Drago glanced over to Suzume, then looked back to Hime. "What is your relationship with Boss Oni anyways? And who are you really?" Aya meanwhile was applying a cold compress to Yasu's forehead, while toweling off excess sweat, and cleaning up the blood.

"Perhaps you could also tell us how you and Yasu met. Apparently, as the General puts it, it was after Yasu's homeland got destroyed or something. However, the details are few and far between," Aya stated as she continued to clean Yasu up. She even moved Yasu's head a little so that she could start wrapping gauze around her head to bandage over her missing eye. Her hands were pretty adept at applying first aid. It really showed the staggering amount of injuries the trio had to patch up over the course of their colorful career.

"Yeah. And then you could tell us how you got the band together in the beginning. We have accounts that you managed to raise an army and then got defeated by a measly five people. Then you went all pacifist on us," Suzume added. Apparently she had a similar ingrained sense of blood-lust that her progenitor, DragonierMan, had. "Knowing your past accomplishments and failures could help us with the future planning," she said bluntly, but with a smile.

Hime raised her eyebrows at the reaction of DragonierMan's ninjas to Magistrate's exit; she was perhaps beginning to wonder if she'd been underestimating the threat he posed when she acted standoffish earlier. She turned her head back to DragonierMan and nodded, pulling the cloak about her shoulders again to make sure it didn't wave open. Her expression was clearly still troubled, likely because she was still pulled between being humble and open, versus being suspicious over his role in the abduction. Still, she shook her head and raised one hand, indicating he ought not to worry about it. Again, her yellow eyes were a little hard to read, but bemusement at least was clear in her face as DragonierMan suggested the two of them ought to get to know one another. "Very well," she answered, recrossing her legs as she watched Aya and Suzume working.

Her eyebrows fell as DragonierMan mentioned Boss Oni; it was clearly not a subject she'd wanted to open up about, but, having promised openness, she couldn't back out of the conversation now. "The mafioso named Boss Oni... I once new him as ShogunMan. What you saw there was nothing more than my attempt to get the support of the Techari and Teksqp families, to provide us with a way to fight back against our enemies and subdue them, without allowing them to simply jack out and continue using hit and run tactics. Boss Oni is, obviously, a deviant and while he's well known for attempting to foster relationships, a bipolar array ranging from obsequious in their best case to overbearing in their worse, I felt equipped enough at least to escape if I found myself in danger. I hadn't counted on an attack from you, of course. But... as I mentioned earlier, the limit on my disguise was nearly up to begin with. I considered our relationship with Boss Oni important, so I used that as a bargaining chip, but I was also hoping he'd see me and remember who I was. Unfortunately, I believe dimentia has clouded his memory... he didn't recognize me at all."

"I should backtrack and explain who ShogunMan was. He wasn't a leader of an organization or anything of that sort... just a friend who I considered an inspiration. He had many admirers, and I was only one of many. At the time I was just Hime, not Neo-ShogunMan. A new navi getting her footing on the hostile wilderness of the net. He was my mentor and guide, but also my friend, and I'd hoped, potentially, something more than a friend. Of course, that concern seems very far off, in light of his current condition... I don't want him to fall in love with me any more, I'd just like him to recover to the type of person he was before. I believe his transformation has to do with his operator, who I'd always known as a despicable person. I say this because Oni's mannerisms seem to resemble that man's... At any rate, I first concocted the idea of becoming a new type of shogun in order to inspire him back into his old self. My objectives grew from there. I'd only wanted to do good, but the idea of a unified net became important to me- like I said, I'd had a somewhat rough start on the net myself- and that became my pursuit. I'd always hoped that along the way I'd help him recover himself, but... so far, there's been no progress on that front. At any rate, that's my own concern, and the rest of the Empire needn't bother with it. I only wish I'd managed to secure his resources like I'd gone there to do, but the price he asked was rather steep and I must admit, I let my emotions get the better of me as well. I'd really banked too much on his recognizing me."

She'd talked a while, but DragonierMan's assistants had questions too. Hime frowned, not cherishing the memory of how she and Yasu had first met. "Back then, I was just getting my start as Neo-ShogunMan... I wasn't pretending to be a shogun nor a man, that is. I'm surprised you know so much about her origins as First General, but yes, I befriended Yasu when I came to the aid of her village. That makes me sound more noble than I was; I was just a fledgeling leader, looking for those in trouble for the purpose of offering a hand, hoping that maybe they'd be sympathetic to my cause after. Yasu was the only one left, of course. But when I help drive off a vandal named Alex and get her some measure of safety, she felt indebted to me. Not just that, we were fast friends. She's prickly, but she's a good person, loyal and true. That's why you must imagine my disbelief when she announced her intent to either kidnap or attack me; I knew that, for wrong or right, Yasu has chosen to follow me wherever I go. I don't want to speak for her, but... the two of us could never betray each other. It's a bond as deep as the Empire itself." She'd gotten up to walk as she spoke, and took a moment to watch her friend's sleeping face.

"If you're wondering about Alex, she's a powerful woman who now commands a group called the Alexis. She's interested in an 'empire' of sorts as well, although her vision is simply uniting everyone under herself by force. I believe her only reason for attacking the village were that simple: she wanted them to join her, they refused, and she attacked. Yasu says that some fled... one or two actually joined Alex... and most perished. Most were unoperated, you see. Yasu has an operator now, who actually operates Yasu, Dee, Lee, and Vee all together. That's the meaning of the 'general' distinction, you see; those original officers who are all operated by that same friend of my own operator's. Perhaps you'll meet her one day, though she rarely reveals herself," Hime suggested.

She was already beginning to sound a bit put off, describing these personal details, but the further questions were clearly making her cross; her brow furrowed as she continued. "With Yasu at my side, I became Neo-ShogunMan. I hired Lee and Vee for a time, though we quickly became so close that they acted as my generals. They, like Yasu, were without operator at the time. Dee joined afterwards... her story is somewhat personal, so you'll have to learn it from her. All I'll say is that she had an operator but left them, and when she did, she brought with her considerable financial resources. We used those resources to build our army, and from there, I let the word 'Shogun' go to my head. I thought I would stake out claim in the public net, to begin building our base of operations, but I paraded my soldiers in en mass and a GNA bounty against us was quickly posted. The navis who responded were very powerful; it was quite a wake-up call. Know this, DragonierMan: when you imagine your power, or what you might take by force, think about the very concept of our empire, the idea of a unified people. There is no conquering the net; the net is full of more individuals than one could possibly try to put to heel, and who knows the limits of navis' powers and adaptability? It was that day when I was reminded of the simple truth that we must unite a net that comes with us willingly, not that we wrestle into submission. So when you talk about 'going pacifist', note that it's a change I intend to stick."

Here, her tone turned somewhat accusatory; it clearly wasn't that easy for her to forget what DragonierMan had tried to go along with. "Our accomplishments are the empire itself; we've brought many others into the fold, largely with your help, and fostered a great many useful relationships with factions inside the NP and Mafia. We've received financial aid from some sources, such as our many public appearances. The Empire's survival is no accident; it's the result of the hard work we all pour into it. That we continue to grow, while trusting one another and increasing our bonds... that is the legacy of the Empire. Think of these as our successes, when you ponder those failures." She took a seat again and watched DragonierMan warily. "And as you said you would permit me a question, I'll take you up on that. What did Yasu promise you, while she was under the control of BrainMan, that would make you kidnap and injure me? The Empire is built on trust, DragonierMan... it means we trust our allies implicitly, but it also means that one who's broken that trust is difficult to accept as 'family,' as is necessary for our ideals. Are we still on the same page, DragonierMan?" she asked, surprisingly fearless despite all she'd been shown and where she was. "Don't get me wrong... I'm glad that you came aided me in the end, but it's hard to gloss over what you've done. You don't have a mysterious eyeball controlling your actions... you chose to do what you did, as did your operator, presumably. What were all of you really after?"

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.