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Hime did not protest as DragonierMan snagged her off the couch, nor did Chew complain about not getting her way. They were both more or less content to see how the yoga was now going to play out. Yasu, however, was clearly aggravated, although her glare started at DragonierMan picking up Hime, not at being asked to perform. Still, it seemed to be a no-harm, no-foul, as the integrity and density of her wrapping was such that he would need to really feel her up to even know that she was a woman.

"Alright, if you insist," Hime sighed, loosening up her cloak just a bit to allow her arms and legs to move more freely. "One of the best things about yoga is that it's even more effective if you do it with a friend. The two of you keep tabs on each other's progress and win or fail together, giving both of you a stake in the exercise. Therefore, I would like the two of you to try partner yoga," she began, standing more upright than she usually did.

Chew slid back over to interject her commentary, as she often did. "Couples Yoga," she ventured.

"Not couples! This is General-Subordinate Yoga!" Yasu barked in response.

"... You two are free to treat it whichever way you wish," Hime sighed. "But if you're angry, that will be counter productive to the partnersh- er, General-Subordinate relationship, and both of your performances will suffer. Keep that in mind."

DragonierMan had barely seen the First General be anything but angry, apart from in her dreams. The best she managed were accessory emotions, such as angry-proud or angry-embarrassed. But she was almost always angry. Then again, their real objective here was to continue distracting, not to have a fruitful yoga session. "I'm not angry," Yasu lied, clearly angry.

"Good. Now, we will start with something simple. And Yasu, please remove your gauntlets and boots... this will be less effective without soft contact," she commented. Yasu obediently did so; without the accessories, she looked amusingly as though she was wearing a swimsuit. "Good. Each of you must first touch your palms to your partners. Then distance yourself, and brace one knee, as if you are pushing hard upon your partner, but remain calm and gentle," the sponsor elaborated, demonstrating by adopting a pose as though she was struggling against a moving wall or perhaps stopping a speeding train, with both palms out and her legs bent to brace herself. "Once you and your partner are ready, I want you each to lean on so that your foreheads are touching. Then slowly, I want you to raise your left leg behind you, as far as it will go... Try to become straight, like an arrow," she explained, continuing the demonstration of her practice. The cloak fell partially away from her leg now, revealing dark, black skin and a shapely, clearly female calf and foot. If she'd gone a little farther he might be able to see the thigh. Sadly, although she was quite limber, she was apparently no contortionist. The only garment he saw beneath the cloak was a plain, white ankle wrap.

Yasu was listening, but she'd only gotten as far as putting her palms out. Judging by the blank frown on her face, she had serious misgivings about leaning in on her partner, let alone touching foreheads.

No one was waiting on the field backstage, so they would just have to sit tight for the mo'. Two little lights came on near the backstage area, one inside and one outside of the recording studio, indicating that the time for a sponsor break was coming up soon. That would probably be a good time for them to regroup.
The girls moved to the edge of the curtains leading onto the stage and just stood there until the commercial break.

---

Meanwhile, DragonierMan placed his palms up against Yasu's hesitant ones and braced himself, but did not push. His hands dwarfed hers, but both were well-toned, for hands. He leaned in with his forehead and held it above their hands, looking down at their hands. "Ready when you are," he said, letting Yasu make the next move. If she swallowed her pride and did as instructed by Hime, Drago would follow. Both would be pushing back against each other, foreheads touching, and lifting a leg into the air.
Yasu seemed to smirk as DragonierMan planted his hands against hers; she seemed to be pushing, even though he was trying to keep things relatively passive. She tilted her head up, her hair falling away from her face as she did.. then thrust it forward, more headbutting DragonierMan than touching foreheads. As if she felt no pain, the First General lifted one of her much lauded legs to point outward.

"If you're aggressive, you're just going to hurt yourself, my General," Hime sighed, pulling the two apart. Yasu frowned and turned to put her back toward her ally. She was definitely still harboring some resentment towards her ally for the mishap with Fancy, which she probably didn't realize had already been resolved rather handily... or perhaps she was just uncomfortable on television? "Let's recuperate and you and I will resume after the break," the NS sponsor suggested. "I believe we have something to discuss, if you'll allow us a moment, Chew."

"I'm being left out? Like, bummer, guys," the hostess murmured. "Well, I've got some ideas for the next segment that I should talk over with the old bag. I'll bet I'll get the okay on... uh, let's guess 20% this time. I push the envelope, but that's why you guys love me."

Having overstayed her welcome, Chew exited the room. "Alright, thank you all for your good work so far," Hime addressed the girls, approaching them quickly. "Please, your report," she requested. Yasu came to stand close as well, looming behind Hime's shoulder. Her stern face showed that she wasn't expecting anything to be sugar coated, even if that meant hearing that the two had been forced to execute their target.
DragonierMan's head rolled back suddenly at the collision of Yasu's head, but then they were separated. There was some more talking and then a commercial break. It was at this point that Aya and Suzume came into the picture, to report on their mission.

Suzume started the debrief. "We easily infiltrated the studio with the coordinates you gave us and found Wake," she began. "Although it wasn't Wake," Aya stated. Suzume continued, "Yes, it was Fancy in disguise."

"Which we found odd," Aya interjected.

"Yeah," Suzume agreed. "I mean, why didn't he come himself? Come to think of it, we haven't seen the both of them in the same place at the same time." Suzume pounded one fist into her open palm as if coming to a startling realization that should be shared. "Perhaps they are the same person!"

"Unlikely," Aya said, then continued in her sister's place. "Anyways, she was apparently blackmailed by someone from the Teksqp NET Mafia. So we made a deal with Fancy, we get the blackmail over her head removed, and she works for us."

"Right! So she gave us her VIP key and we went there," Suzume picks up again. "It was this horrid bathhouse with a lot of loose and scary women in demon masks."

"The bathhouse was in good condition. But the clientele were... odd," Aya interrupted again with the best word to describe the experience at the bathhouse she could come up with on the fly. "So we walked up right to their faces and told them we were messengers from the Neo-Shogun. We even forged a convincing scoll-letter and everything. Aya knows how to write them." Aya turned a light shade of pink in the cheeks at the compliment. Then sobered suddenly when the others in the room that they were talking too might be glaring at her.

Aya stuttered a bit before regaining her composure. "W-Well we were just making this up as we went along. And what better way to convince the NET Mafia guy to see us and possibly drop the blackmailing than if we look like we have the backing of Neo-ShogunMan."

"Anyways," Suzume interjected, taking over the story again. "We were escorted into the guy's private bath or something and we gave over the forged letter."

Aya reached to her belt and produced a copy of the scroll, showed the seal of the Neo-ShogunMan, and handed it over to Hime for her to read. Suzume continued while they read it. "Basically it says that Fancy is under our protection now and that he should drop the blackmailing." She paused for a moment, then adopted a slightly more embarrassed tone. Slightly wincing as if she was explaining the bad part and was expecting to get hit for it. "An-And it says that it would be a sign of good faith over... a potential alliance." She put her hands up to cover her face from being struck by what she would say next. "An-And... p-perhaps... a favor later."

Aya continued as Yasu probably started beating Suzume senseless in rage. "And it worked. He said he would drop the blackmail of not only Fancy, but of Neo-ShogunMan himself. I don't know what blackmail he had over Neo-ShogunMan, but it doesn't matter now." She paused and reached to her belt again and brought out a data packet with the words "OniMail.DAT" stamped onto it. "What matters now is that he wants to meet with Neo-ShogunMan."

Aya handed it over to Hime. "Our mission is done. Fancy withdrew from her interview and she works for us now. And any current problems with the NET Mafia and this whole blackmail business are all wrapped up," Aya ended with a sigh. "Now maybe we can all get some rest."
Hime and Yasu were both clearly shocked to see just how much the girls had gotten themselves involved in (perhaps the fake Shogun was too, it was hard to tell due to the mask). "I can't say I approve of forging fake documents from the Shogun and making promises on his behalf," Yasu responded, crossing her arms with a serious frown. If the two young girls were two young men, they'd probably be getting it a lot worse.

"But we did instruct the girls to do what needed to be done. In my estimation, they took the logical course with this one," Hime pitched in. "Of course, that is merely speaking from my capacity as a sponsor."

"True. As far as I'm concerned, we'll have to keep a close eye on Fancy. I trust her little after this whole fiasco," Yasu continued, closing her eyes and lowering her head in a thoughtful expression. Apparently, the fact that Fancy was being blackmailed didn't let her off the hook. "But we can make some good out of her servitude. I will not, however, permit our Shogun to meet with someone as vile and disreputable as that bloated, conniving Mafia scumbag," she spat. "Under no circumstances shall we honor that meeting. The mere idea of owing a favor to at corpulent goblin makes my skin crawl."

"On the contrary, First General, I believe you'll find the Shogun receptive to the idea," Hime interjected. "What sounds worse: meeting with the mafia or being at war with them? And if they do have blackmail material on the Shogun, it is in our best interest not to ignore their requests."

"True... but I will not allow the Shogun to meet this man alone, in any case. When we meet, he will be walking into our trap, not the other way around," Yasu insisted, surprisingly keeping her cool even when contradicted.

"Very well, we can discuss that further later," Hime agreed. "For now, let us pay DragonierMan and the girls for their service. It's been no small effort today, from any of the three. Yasu, the Shogun, and I can handle the rest of Webb's show." Yasu rolled her one good eye, clearly questioning how DragonierMan had done anything to earn payment. "Because of you three, those who know of the secret are now under our own banner, we have gained the service of a new devotee, and our enemies have been brought to light without engaging in battle. I would say your performance is well worth the rewards we agreed upon. For exemplary performance, you girls also deserve credit for the faction store."

*DragonierMan received Elecreel x2 and 180 bugfrags, as well as 20 Faction Points*
"Aww yeah," Suzume exclaimed as she gathered the rewards into Aya's pack. "We got paid!" Aya also nodded her enthusiasm, glad to finally be done with this chore, and another step closer to a well deserved break with some credit to spend. "Let's go Suzume, we have a well deserved rest with our names on it."

"Glorious shower I am coming for you!~" Suzume cooed as she disappeared in a beam of light, followed swiftly by Aya.

[SUZUME AND AYA LOGGED OUT!]

DragonierMan rubbed his hair then turned to the Shogunates. "Well, I will be seeing you all soon again, I bet. Stay out of trouble," he ended before disappearing in a shaft of light.

[DRAGONIERMAN LOGGED OUT!]
((Awarded FXP for DragonierMan:

Yasu: 6 FXP
Hime: 15 FXP
Chew: 12 FXP
Webb: 2 FXP
Fancy: 2 FXP
Boss Oni: 1 FXP))