The first thing I noticed when exiting the playroom was the music. It was playing the same song on repeat, and was different from the one we had first heard when we entered the club. I had counted the restarting of the song five times before Akahime and Lucina stepped out and into the hallway.

Yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah! Shoo-be-doo-be-da-ba-bap!

Great. It had to land on a scat song. Oh well, at least this one’s kind of catchy.

“Is Reya safe!?” A concerned Lucina grabbed my arm, and looked at me with tears threatening to spill out of her eyes.

The two women were exchanging furious looks as I gave them a rundown, and started to violently whisper to one another. I sighed and started to move towards the source of the conflict.

I walked back down the corridor with purpose and urgency in each step. Judgment, what is the casualty count right now, and is Reya among the bodies?

“It is currently at one hundred and six, Master. The casualties are continuing to rise as the Tengu members make their way up the building.”

I sighed, at which point Lucina and Akahime had caught up with me, and were starting to take out weapons of their own.

Lucina was wielding a mean looking rifle which she carried in both hands. The thing was black, and had a sleek looking finish to it. “Joshua, you’re insufferable.”

I raised my eyebrow, which apparently irked the woman even more. She grabbed my collar, and pulled me in to face her, all while sticking her thigh between my legs and against my package.

“Do you have any idea how much I was looking forward to tonight? You got to cum, while I only got off with light orgasms. Do you even know the worst part? My partner has an omniscient AI that could have warned us before we started foreplay about the impending threat of a gang attack.”

I averted my eyes. I couldn’t very well tell her that my ‘omniscient AI’ was blinded by its own desire to see me copulate with a woman besides Lucina. She sighed, and stole a kiss from my lips.

She gave me a weak smile that turned into a frown. “I’m not mad at you per se, it's just difficult to sort through these feelings right now. Stopping midway with no proper aftercare is a real bitch.”

I nodded, and she released me. We started walking again, and this time the girls were in front of me. I couldn’t help but trace the form of Lucina with my eyes, but then my gaze shot over to the woman next to her.

To Lucina’s right was Akahime, who had an even more dangerous looking weapon out. What had started off as an pale gold armlet had started to transform and expand, becoming quite the sizable looking minigun.

“You have that kind of technology?” I asked, and then immediately regretted the action. Akahime shot me a glare that bore all the weight of her bloodlust in it.

“Listen, Joshua. I’m pissed off enough as it is that they blue-balled me in the middle of my first time off in months. You just asking dumb questions compounds that frustration.”

I may hate taking orders, but I know enough about a woman’s tone to know when I should shut the fuck up. Her anger is definitely aimed at the Tengu members… I hope.

“How rare, Master. You aren’t throwing all your emotions behind this decision, and thinking rationally for once. I daresay you’re evolving as a person.”

I shook my head as we reached a stairwell, and motioned for both girls to stop moving. The sounds of clattering footsteps were coming from downstairs, so we hid behind the double doors at the entrance to the stairway.

“Ha! You should’ve seen the look on that pig-tailed bitch’s face!” The man’s voice could be heard even over the loud music that was still playing. “She honestly believed we’d let her go if she told us where the imperial princess was. Loyalty to one’s country? Hah! What a farce!”

“They killed Aki? Those assholes!” Akahime’s grip tightened on her minigun, and I had to physically hold my hand up in front of her to prevent her from going to confront the men.

“Really? I thought you’d try and get some action to be honest. From what the missus has been telling me about your home life, you’ve been pretty scarce in the sack lately.” I heard a shove, and a mild scuffle broke out.

Judgment, are they within hacking range? I’d rather not make too much noise. I think the music is a good cover, but you never know how close the next enemy could be.

“Fuck you Ando! I didn’t want you as a partner in the first place!” The first man shouted at the second speaker.

“Likewise, but know your place. You think the boss would team us up for no reason? We may not get along, but we cover each other’s weak points perfectly.” The second man said, a tinge of annoyance in his voice. “Not to mention, James, we couldn’t just let a gaijin go without a babysitter, now could we?”

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Another scuffle broke out as Judgment replied, “Within range Master. On your orders.” Now!

I burst out in front of the men, who turned to me. The first was tall and muscular, with an assault rifle strapped on his shoulder. He had a buzzcut and many pock marks on his face.

The second was a white man, with dirty blonde hair and grey eyes. He had a set of pistols holstered to his hips, and his hand was on a knife that was currently pointed at his partner’s throat.

“Who the fuck are you?” The man who I guessed was Ando asked, and I held up a finger to my demon mask.

“No one worth mentioning. Now, dance for me!” As soon as I gave the order, the two separated from each other like it had been willed by the physics of the world.

James threw his hands in the air and waved them around a few times. The next thing I knew, he was performing pelvic thrusts indiscriminately, and doing what looked to be a version of the sprinkler.

Well, I guess to each their own. I looked over to observe Ando, and barely managed to duck out of the way as a bullet went right past where my head had been earlier.

“Asshole!” I shouted from around the corner at Ando. Judgment, why the fuck didn’t my hack effect him!? I almost just fucking died!

“It seems as though the enemy is wary of your powers, Master. Apparently Teramoto managed to communicate some of his discoveries of your existence to the yakuza before you got to him.”

What does that mean exactly? I stuck my head around the corner again, but pulled back immediately at the sight of a firearm trained onto my head.

“It means that the man who goes by Ando isn’t wearing a Judgment panel. Therefore I cannot interfere with his nervous system.” I cursed, drawing looks from both Lucina and Akahime.

“What’s wrong?” Lucina asked, a weary expression on her face. I debated whether or not to tell them, but a strong punch to my right shoulder from Akahime told me that I had better speak the truth, and fast.

“Only one of them was wearing a Judgment panel. I hacked the one who’s dancing right now, but the other has an assault rifle aimed at the door now.”

“What brand?” Akahime asked quickly.

“Judgment said it was Yaiba.”

“Good. In that case, hack the gun, it’s connected to the Judgment server. As soon as you’ve jammed it, let me know. Minnie-kun and I will take care of it.”

“Minnie-kun?” I absentmindedly mumbled, sending a gaze over the gold-plated minigun. She started revving it up, and to my surprise, the gun was dead silent. “That’s a nice advantage.”

“Master, they have an encrypted firewall that goes into subspace. Since I cannot enter that without the subconscious of another human, I require your assistance.” Alright.

“Akahime, Lucina, please guard my body. I need to dive into subspace for a moment.” The two nodded, and I dived in, feeling the familiar tug in the back of my mind as I felt myself come into existence once again.

“Glad to see you here, Master.” Judgment’s form had changed once more. No longer was the figure hogtied, but now the AI had its hands bound in front out it, and wore a skintight latex suit. Now, it had a dark-purple harness over its torso, and a similarly styled harness on its head.

Speaking of which, I was silently amused as I watched the AI’s face morph into a combination of the best features between Lucina and Akahime, and long, electric blue hair tied into a ponytail.

“I’m not even going to act surprised anymore.” I said, with a sigh. “What do you need me to do here, anyway?” Judgment pointed behind me, and I turned to see a large, green pipe.

“Is that 8-bit? You’ve got to be f-”

“It is no joke, Master. That is the form that this particular software creator has chosen for their firewalls. Now, please, enter the pipe.”

I could have sworn that Judgment enjoyed seeing me suffer, but Judgment was just an AI, incapable of human thoughts or behaviors. With a heavy sigh, I jumped into the pipe, and the numbers ‘1-1’ flashed in front of me before I found myself on a brick road.

A stubby fungus walked towards me, and I immediately pulled out a pistol and shot it in it’s disgustingly malformed mushroom head. “Why do people keep making things like this in subspace? Anime styles don’t translate to real life.”

---

Akahime jumped in her skin a bit as Joshua stirred. It was hard to contain her emotions after learning about the death of Aki. The kind girl had been the one to invite her to this club back when it was nothing more than a bar in Chika.

With their combined efforts, the two women had managed to build the club into a reputable establishment with a bevy of important clientele. Breathing hard as Joshua sat up, she stared at him hard.

If this man had never come to Shin Tokyo, she’d still be safe in the palace right now. If he’d never brought along Lucina, she’d have never come to the club. If she’d never come to the club, Tengu wouldn’t have attacked it, and Aki wouldn’t be dead.

It was almost- “The gun is offline.” Joshua said. “Fire there when you’re ready.” He pointed to the wall, and Akahime had to forcibly listen to him. It wasn’t his fault, it was just a poorly timed coincidence. The bad guys had said that they were looking for Akahime, so it was her fault as well.

“Akahime?” Lucina said from the other door. “What are you waiting for? If you won’t take the shot then I will.”

That shook the imperial scion out of her thoughts. She took aim with Minnie-kun and blasted a hailstorm of bullets through the wall, breaking it open in the process and allowing her to see the destruction she had wrought.

The man called Ando was missing the top half of his skull, and a tongue flopped uselessly from side to side as if trying to convey some final message. With a squirt of blood from the top of his head, he fell to the ground, dead.

“Well, they probably heard us now. Let’s get moving.” Joshua said, and he got up to start walking, but Akahime wasn’t done yet. She turned her gun on James, and peppered him with a hailstorm of bullets. All the perforations in his head and body made him look like swiss cheese.

She took out the hose attached to mini-kun, and began to vacuum up the remains of the bullets she had fired, which were internally crafted into new bullets by Minnie-kun.

“Why can’t I have a gun that good?” Despite her conflicting feelings, the sound of Joshua’s sigh brought a smile back to the imperial princess’s face.