“No, that’s an awful deal.” My response caused Emperor Goto to sigh again, and he picked up a new set of papers to go through.

“Eh, it was worth a shot. If one of them does fancy you though, just know that I am the type of person who gives my daughters anything they ask for.”

A chill went up my spine at the look he gave me, but I nodded. “No offense, but if I was that easy to get to, I wouldn’t be sitting on the upper echelon of the Metron Kingdom’s hierarchy.”

Emperor Goto grinned and nodded in approval. “That attitude is why you’ll probably be popular in this country. Not to mention, popular with the aristocracy.”

While the emperor was laughing at my discomfort, I waited in silence for another few minutes as he shuffled through his documents. Finally, he set down the stack and pushed a button on his desk. The desk made a loud clunking noise, and the entire thing started to rotate around Goto’s chair.

With a start, I realized that it was on a large, mechanical ring that encircled his throne, and when the desk was neatly hidden behind him, a staircase came into view.

With a hiss and another clunk, the apparatus locked into place, and the stairs came to a full stop in front of Gotoshi’s throne.

“Be careful, Master. The emperor is a very calculating man. There is no doubt that he already has several plans in place in order to get you to bend around his will.”

Would you be able to hack him if I needed to make a quick escape?

“That seems… impossible. His Judgment Panel isn’t connected to the network. Judging by his IDs login history, he only logs into the system when a mass patch is released. Otherwise, he is completely devoid of any social functions that the system gives him access to.”

In other words, he’s a cautious asshole. Damn it, I hate it when I’m not the only one of those. I wish I had the foresight to hack him when he sent me a friend request in the Metron Kingdom.

Emperor Goto reached my side as I finished up my conversation with Judgment, and looked at me expectantly. “Shall we go? I haven’t eaten anything in six hours, and my favorite meal is on the menu for lunch today.”

Nodding wordlessly, I followed the massive man as he led the way. For the first time, I truly studied his face. His hair was shaved down in a buzz cut, but he had a lush salt-and-pepper goatee to make up for the lack of hair on top. His face was the same ovular shape as his daughter’s, and his eyes were a stark forest green. A steel stud was pierced through his right ear, and a thick, pale scar ran from the top of his right eyebrow, down and across his nose to end on his left cheek.

“Here we are.” Gotoshi stopped at a large class door, and a guard standing to the right of it placed his hand on a scanner, opening the entrance.

As soon as we stepped inside, a flurry of scents assaulted my nose. None of which were bad, but the complexity to each scent was very overwhelming.

“Please, make yourself at home.” Gotoshi said, pointing to a table in the center of the massive room. Despite its exterior, the interior of the mess hall looked like that of an ordinary school cafeteria.

I even turned off my AR function to make sure it wasn’t all an elaborate hoax, and that I wasn’t currently in some mad butcher’s slaughterhouse, but the room looked the same in both visions.

I sat down at the round table, and my constant glances across the room gave Gotoshi a smile. “Ah, I’m sure you’re wondering about this room, but rest assured. It does serve proper food. I just chose to have the room remodeled this way after I took the throne from the previous king. It reminds me of my school days. Admittedly, it was a much simpler time in my life, and having the room look this way calms my nerves.”

I nodded, but said nothing as he explained himself. He also took a seat at the table, and I was about to question whether we were truly going to eat when Lucina, Reya, and Akahime all came into the room.

In contrast to Reya’s look of pure happiness, Lucina had a slight scowl on her face, while Akahime’s smirk told me what had probably happened while they had been alone.

The three sat down, Reya and Lucina on either side of me, while Akahime sat next to her father. I leaned closer to Lucina after Goto got up to fetch us menus, but found it curious that Akahime’s eyes were still locked onto me.

“What happened?” I sent through a voice message. Lucina let out a sigh, something I had never, if rarely, seen the accomplished princess do.

“She happened. She was relentless in her pursuit of information on you. Do you remember meeting her at all?” She sent a message back to me.

I looked across the table at Akahime, who sent me a dazzling smile. I narrowed my eyes and turned back to look at Lucina.

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“No… not that I can remember, anyway. Does she always look at men as if she’s evaluating the marbling on a steak?”

Lucina let out a puff of air trying to suppress her laugh. “You should remember her, she was at Gazix’s execution that day. She’s the reason Emperor Goto decided to speak to you in the first place.”

A chill went down my spine as I realized that Gotoshi’s words to me earlier hadn’t been a forewarning of what could happen, but what was already in effect. Shit.

Emperor Goto brought us menus, and after choosing from a litany of Japanese dishes, my choice being tuna sashimi, we began the true discussion.

“So, out with it, boy. What do you wish to know?” Goto had changed out of his business suit, and was now wearing a kimono similar to akahime’s but instead of red with a white cherry blossom pattern, the base color was black, with embroidered golden dragons on it.

“I wish to discuss the object of our current predicament, and which Yakuza group he belongs to. May I send you a message?” If he takes the bait, I want you to-

“No, my daughter will take it. Acchan.” Akahime grimaced and punched her father in the arm. Hard.

“I told you to stop calling me that, dad.” She was met with the emperor’s pouting face, and sighed. “Fine, at least not in front of the guests.”

Judgement, be ready to plant a virus inside her. I want to be able to hack her device on command.

“As you wish, Master.”

A smile returned to Gotoshi’s face as a friend request from Akahime popped up in my AR vision. “Bleeding Princess Akahime?” I couldn't stop the words from coming out of my mouth, and Goto sighed.

Akahime, on the other hand, looked at me with curiosity and a blush on her face. “Who are you, and why do you have access to a higher level of security clearance than I do?”

Wouldn’t you like to know.

“Being quite childish, aren’t you, Master?” Judgment scolded me, and I mentally chided myself as well.

I know. I’m not used to processing my own anxiety just yet. I’ll just refrain from voicing any thoughts for now.

“You’ll find out soon enough, if the feeling I have is anything to go by.” I accepted her request and sent her the files. She looked over them in silence, while our food arrived.

I had just started mixing wasabi into my soy sauce when Akahime leaned forward in her chair. “Alright, the processing is all set. This ‘Teramoto’ is a member of Dry Wind, a subdivision of the Tengu group of Yakuza. They have several hideouts down in Chika. As it turns out-"

“This is delicious. Do you want a piece?” Reya was holding a fried squid tentacle towards me with a set of chopsticks, and caused every member at the table to look at her.

“Kuuki Yomanai.” Akahime muttered under her breath, and receiving the implied message, Reya shied away, the foodie chewing on her squid all the while.

“Do they have any connections to other gangs that we should be wary of?” Trying to steer the conversation back towards something productive, I took another bite out of the sashimi.

“No, they’re actually relatively disliked by all other gangs, but the Tengu have so much influence that no one can do anything about it. In fact, it’s actually for the greater good of Shin Tokyo if you end up getting rid of them. The Imperials shall offer you their full support.”

I closed my eyes in thought, and when I had decided that asking the question on my mind wouldn’t get me crucified, I asked, “What kind of support?”

“Of course, you will receive imperial backing and be exempt from any laws, so long as you don’t egregiously break them, or harm the Emperor’s family in doing so.”

“That… that seems pretty one-sided. What does your family get out of it?” Akahime smiled at me, only this time it was less pleasure, more business.

“Of course, I will be with you at all times. I need to inform my father of when shit hits the fan, or potentially hits the fan. From the palace, he can order an evacuation of the sector.”

“Won’t that just alert the yakuza to the fact that we’re going to them?” Reya asked, surprising me in a different way this time. If only she was always this capable.

Emperor Goto was the one to speak this time. “Surprisingly, when you try to kill a mouse, what does it do? Run back to it’s hole for safety. Leading you right back to the source of the problem.”

“You want us to weed them out?” I asked incredulously. The emperor shrugged and pointed under me, and for the first time, I realized we were eating lunch on a glass floor above the city of Chika, what must have been miles above it.

“I want that city to become safe. I want Tengu gone. I can tolerate some crime, as it does stimulate the economy, but Tengu has a monopoly right now, and monopolies are dangerous for business. They stagnate the growth of cities.”

Waiting until my eyes were back on his face, Gotoshi continued, “Chika is stagnant right now, and because we can’t figure out how to remove this problem from the city, its citizens continue to lose trust in me, and by extension, the government. I will spare no expense in order to regain my lost honor. Can I count on your help?”

I turned to Lucina, but found her gaze on me, waiting for my response. Annoyed, I sent her a quick message. “God damn it woman, you’re supposed to be my superior.”

The Metronian princess smirked and pinched my thigh. The pain was excruciating, but I controlled my facial expressions perfectly. When she let go, I sent her a simple, “Ow.”

Her smirk grew into a full on smile and she turned to the Emperor. “You can count on the assistance of the Metron Kingdom. We shall begin the initial planning stages tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” Akahime asked curiously. “It’s only noon right now. We have plenty of time to let you rest for a few hours and then head to the war room in order to plan. Is that not acceptable to you?”

Akahime stared at Lucina, she just turned her gaze to me, and sent me a message. I sent her one back, and her face scrunched up before turning back to Akahime. “Well, the thing is, we have plans tonight.”

I sighed. “I guess I should contact… what was his name?”

“Akito, right?” Reya answered.

“Yeah him. We’re going to need a ride from this place. Oh, and Lucina, what was the name of the club again?”