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Tricerajonin stared. Blinked. Sighed. Rubbed his forehead. "So. To reiterate. The six of you went to Shinobigakure to try and find a way to turn Akira, Sora, and anyone else who wanted to be one into dinosaurs."
"That's right," Kenji said, looking embarrassed.
"And while there, all of you turned into dinosaurs, with no clear means to turn back."
"Pretty much, yeah," Sora said placidly.
"Not only that, Akira is even more of a dinosaur than the rest of you."
"Akira dinosaur!" Akira cheered.
"And Tetsu is now totally incapable of communication, and yet is somehow supposed to get in touch with someone who can hopefully get in touch with someone who can fix this."
"That's the gist of it," Jiro agreed.
Tricerajonin nodded slowly. "Right. Okay. There's just one thing I don't understand."
"Just one? Really?" Ankylojonin asked in disbelief.
"Yeah. Who's that guy?" Tricerajonin asked, pointing at Kato.
"Oh, he's one of the Shinobigakure villagers, he followed us home," Sora said.
"Hi, I'm Kato," Kato said. "I'm currently unemployed, and was hoping I could join your clan?"
Tricerajonin stared at him blankly. "You… Want to join our clan."
"Yep."
"Do you… Do you have any qualifications?"
"I'm a ninja and I like dinosaurs. Isn't that enough?"
Everyone stared at him.
"He's not exactly wrong," Ankylojonin admitted.
Tricerajonin facepawed. "Just. Just go talk to Bix, okay? It's her job to deal with stuff like this when we really don't want to."
"Okay," Kato said, heading into the temple.
"Do you ever wonder if one day Bix will eventually snap from all the work we dump on her and try and kill us all?" Pterajonin queried conversationally.
"She never would, it would take too much paperwork to find replacements for us," Ankylojonin said confidently.
"Who's a good girl? Who's a good girl?! Who's the prettiest bravest strongest perfectest baby Tyrannosaurus in the whole valley?" Tyrajonin gushed, nuzzling and licking Akira enthusiastically.
"I am! I am, mommy!" Akira cheered.
"Yes you are!" Tyrajonin roared, bending down and managing, with some effort, to pick her transformed daughter up in her tiny arms and hug her to her chest. "Yes you are! Yes you are!"
"Tyrajonin, can you please stop cuddling Akira and making baby talk at her, this is a serious matter," an irritated Raptorjonin snapped.
"You're hugging Mozu," Tricerajonin pointed out.
"That is completely irrelevant."
"This is one of the happiest days of my life," Mozu whispered from Raptorjonin's arms, eyes watering with joy.
"This may be the only time I can have a baby like this, don't take it away from me!" Tyrajonin yelled fiercely.
"You've done this twice already! Once with Kiba, and again with Akira when she was actually a baby!" Raptorjonin pointed out.
"Yes, but neither of them were dinosaurs when they were babies, it's totally different!" Tyrajonin retorted, hugging Akira tighter, causing her to giggle happily.
"So, is she actually a baby now? If so, that makes her behavior earlier a little weird," Kenji said uncomfortably.
"You mean when she rubbed her face in Mozu and Fuuka's breasts?" Jiro asked.
"Yes. That."
"I liked it," Mozu said softly, blushing.
"Shinobiryu live for a lot longer than humans do, so their infancy and childhood is also much longer," Sora said. "It's possible that she's a baby Tyrannosaurus now because that's what Tyrannosaurus Shinobiryu are at her age, but she still possesses her adult mind, it's just being filtered through her childish body."
"Which is why she's still incredibly horny, while also being ridiculously cute," Kenji summed up.
"Basically, yes."
"An excellent hypothesis, Sora," Pterajonin said proudly. "Exactly what I would expect from you."
"Thanks, mom," he replied.
Everyone froze.
"Sora… Did… Did you just call me…" Pterajonin stammered.
Sora paused to consider this. "…Huh. So I did. Even though the curse didn't affect me as bad as it did Akira, I would say I'm still 'juvenile' as far as pterodactyls are concerned so would naturally have imprinted on the most prominent female authority figure in my life as my maternal role model. Add that into the fact that I never had a mother growing up so you're the closest thing I've ever had and the fact that I'm going to marry your daughter so you're essentially my mother already… Well, I may not have meant to say it, but I suppose that doesn't make it any less true…Mom."
Pterajonin burst into tears and embraced him.
The remaining Shinobiryu and Diningers eyed each other awkwardly.
"So…" Tricerajonin said hesitantly. "Should we…?"
"I mean… We can if you want to…" Kenji said doubtfully.
Very slowly, Tricerajonin and outstretched one of his front legs. Just as slowly, Kenji wrapped his arms around it.
There was a pause.
"This is weird," they both said, immediately letting go, blushing.
Ankylojonin glanced at Jiro. "Well… Do you want to…?"
"Sorry, sensei, I don't think we have that kind of relationship," Jiro told him, much to his disappointment.
Tetsu, who wouldn't have minded a hug, tried to indicate as such only to flail his flippers around helplessly, much to his irritation.
"Anyway," Tricerajonin said loudly, deciding to pretend that incredibly awkward moment hadn't happened. "I think we need to get to work on contacting Plesiojonin to turn everyone back to normal."
"Do we have to?" Tyrajonin pleaded, holding Akira tightly to her chest, pouting and giving him giant puppy dog eyes. "Can't we leave them like this for a little longer? It'll be so cute! And precious! Just think of all the fun adventures we can have like this!"
"Fun adventures!" Akira cheered.
"Tyrajonin, we don't have time for such indulgences," Raptorjonin pointed out. "The next competition with the Youkaliens will be in a few days, and I don't see how our disciples can possibly win like this! We need to turn them back to normal immediately!"
"You're still hugging Mozu," Ankylojonin pointed out.
"I can stop whenever I choose to," Raptorjonin insisted.
"Then do it now," Tricerajonin suggested.
"I will," Raptorjonin declared.
Raptorjonin did not let go of Mozu.
"When I want to."
"Can I finally call you mommy now?" Mozu asked hopefully, flustering her.
"Tetsu, how do we get in touch with Plesiojonin on short notice?" Ankylojonin asked. "I mean, I guess we could just try calling her, but somehow I don't think that's what we need to do here, seeing as how she's somewhere in the middle of the Pacific right now and we can't just go see her easily."
Tetsu shook his head, then started gesticulating wildly with his flippers.
Everyone stared. "I'm sorry, could you do that again? I didn't quite catch that," Pterajonin commented.
Tetsu faceflippered.
Internally, Tyrajonin cheered and squeezed her daughter more tightly. Yes! This meant she could keep Akira as a perfectly adorable baby dinosaur for a little longer!
Everyone stared at her.
Oh no, she'd said that out loud, hadn't she?
"Tyrajonin, I understand how very badly you must have wanted this, but it's in everyone's best interest that our pupils are changed back immediately," Pterajonin said gently.
"You're sitting on Sora," Tricerajonin pointed out.
"That's completely irrelevant."
"It's actually pretty comfortable down here," Sora said.
"Tetsu, could you try that again please?" Jiro pleaded.
Tetsu flailed his flippers about, somewhat slower.
"Yeah, I didn't get that," Jiro apologized.
"Maybe you could try writing it down?" Kenji suggested.
Tetsu wordlessly held up a flipper. Not like he could hold it up any differently, granted.
"Oh, right, no fingers."
"Maybe you could try holding a stick in your mouth?" Pterajonin offered.
Sighing in frustration, Tetsu glanced around, then managed to pick up a stick off the ground in his mouth. Puckering his lips around it, he lowered his head to the ground and tried writing with it, only for the stick to keep slipping around in his mouth. He tried holding it in place with his teeth, and then his tongue, but any attempt at drawing or writing anything meaningful descended into incomprehensible squiggles, and then he accidentally bit down too hard on the stick trying to hold it in place, snapping it even two. Exasperated, he spat out the piece of stick and looked down at the horrible mess of squiggles he'd made morosely.
"It wouldn't have worked anyway, Tetsu's penmanship is atrocious," Ankylojonin tried to console everyone, only making Tetsu angrier.
"This is getting us nowhere. Maybe we should try something else? Like charades? 20 questions, maybe?" Kenji suggested.
"We're resorting to party games now?" Raptorjonin complained.
"Akira want party!" Akira declared loudly. "With cake! And pretty girls! And pretty girls jumping out of cake!"
"Then a party we shall have!" Tyrajonin declared, stars in her eyes. "With the biggest cake and most beautiful girls in the Valley!"
Raptorjonin faceclawed.
"… I kind of want to argue, but I'm in the mood for cake," Kenji admitted.
There were murmurs of agreement from the others, save Tetsu, who was banging his head against the ground.
"Okay, seriously, does anyone have an idea on what we're supposed to do here?" Tricerajonin asked with a hint of desperation.
"I do!"
Everyone stared at Jinx, who'd stuck her head out from underneath Pterajonin. "When did you get there?" The pterodactyl asked in surprise.
"Just now," the batlike Gangler said, pulled herself out from between the Shinobiryu's legs. "And don't worry, I totally wasn't deriving sexual pleasure from putting my face underneath your butt!"
Pterajonin stared at her, horrified. "I literally was not even thinking about that until you brought it up just now."
"How the… Where did she…" Tricerajonin spluttered.
"Don't question it," Kenji said wearily.
Sora nodded. "Down that path madness lies."
"Jinx!" Akira cried happily, mighty legs kicking as she tried to run towards her future concubine, apparently forgetting she was still being held up by her mother. "Akira likes Jinx!"
"And Jinx likes Akira!" Jinx shouted back happily.
"Mommy, can Akira rub face in Jinx's boobies?" Akira asked her mother hopefully.
Tyrajonin tried to stay strong in the face of her perfect daughter's pleading expression, every instinct in her body refusing to let go of her. "Maybe later."
"Jinx, can you help us figure out what Tetsu is trying to say?" Jiro asked hopefully.
"Sure thing!" The Gangler said, walking over to Tetsu, sitting down in front of him, and staring him in the eyes. "Lay it on me, big guy!"
Tetsu regarded her cautiously, then started wiggling his flippers about. Jinx watched him carefully, nodding every now and then. "Uh-huh… I see… Fascinating… You don't say…"
"Well? What did he say?" Ankylojonin pressed after a few minutes of this.
"I have no idea!" Jinx said cheerfully, causing everyone to groan. "Fortunately, I read the next chapter, so I know that you need to perform a special meditation ritual to contact Plesiojonin through the astral plane, which will in turn let you speak to Yggdragon. Tetsu can do it, but you'll need some stuff from his room. Jiro will be able to grab the right stuff, thanks to her own spiritual training. And the fact that she's in Tetsu's room aaaaaaaaaaallllllll the time so she already knows where everything is."
Everyone glanced at Jiro, who turned red. "Exactly how much time have you been spending in private with Tetsu lately?" Ankylojonin teased.
"I don't want to talk about it," she mumbled.
"Tetsu, is that right?" Sora asked the plesiosaur. "What Jinx said, I mean, not about how you've been spending a lot of time with Jiro in private. In your room."
"Yeah, because absolutely none of us are surprised about that," Kenji agreed, causing the plesiosaur to flush.
"Jiro and Tetsu cute couple!" Akira cheered.
Still blushing, Tetsu nodded.
"I guess we're going to Tetsu's room, then," Kenji commented. "You know, I've always wondered what it looked like-"
"No, I'm going to get what we need, and nobody else," Jiro snapped.
"Oh, right, I guess you need to be dating him to get those kinds of privileges," Kenji realized.
"That's right," Jiro agreed, her eyes bulging a moment later as she realized what she just said. "NO WAIT I DIDN'T MEAN IT LIKE THAT!"
Almost everyone laughed at her.
"Akira's room open to everyone, especially pretty girls, but not when sock is on door!" Akira said innocently.
"There's always a sock on your door," Sora complained, causing her to grin at him cheekily.
"Jinx, thank you very much for your help," Raptorjonin said gratefully. "I don't know what we would've done without you."
"Neither did the author, which is why I'm here," Jinx said merrily, much to Raptorjonin's confusion. "But don't worry, this is the last time you'll see me this episode… Unless the author writes himself into a corner again. Or wants me for a quick joke. Anyway, it's back to the Silver Isles I go! I was about to win a game of strip poker through blatant cheating!"
She blew on a kazoo, and suddenly a cross eyed purple hippopotamus with a unicorn horn and tiny wings galloped out of the jungle and skidded to a halt next to her. She jumped onto the hippo's back and, seated backwards, smacked it on the rear with a flyswatter, yelling, "Onward, Aoshima!"
The hippo opened his mouth, making a dolphin sound, then launched itself into the air with a tremendous fart, leaving a rainbow behind it.
Everyone stared after her for a long moment in silence.
"What just happened?" Tricerajonin asked finally.
"You know, I'm honestly happier not knowing," Pterajonin confessed.
"A good idea, mom," Sora agreed, causing her to squeal in delight.
"Yeah, it's great, isn't it?" Tyrajonin said blissfully.
Blushing, Pterajonin nodded. "It really is."
Raptorjonin rolled her eyes. "Honestly, both of you."
"You still haven't let go of Mozu," Ankylojonin pointed out.
"YOU'LL HAVE TO PRY HER FROM MY COLD DEAD CLAWS!"
"Hey, I just thought of something," Kenji realized. "Given that Jinx clearly doesn't obey the laws of physics, couldn't we have just hitched a ride with her back to the Silver Isles and talked to Plesiojonin directly?"
There was a pause as everyone considered this.
"God Generals dammit," Tricerajonin swore.
"Don't use that language around my baby!" Tyrajonin shouted.
Akira giggled. "Dammit! Dammit!"
"Dammit, it's too late."
Fuuka and Luna stared in horror at the grotesquerie before them.
"We're too late," Luna said softly.
Fuuka grimaced, struggling not to throw up. "I always knew there's a chance we would be, but… I didn't think it would be like this."
The two kunoichi were in the plains outside of Shinobigakure, their tracking skills having led them to where all the missing ninjas had been taken.
It was a bloodbath. Almost a dozen villagers – men, women, children, and the elderly – were strewn about in varying states of mutilation and dismemberment, each of them looking as if they had been killed in the most horrifically agonizing way possible. Each of them lay in the center of a complex magic circle made of blood. Ominously, all of the plants in a broad radius were dead, and a number of small animal corpses were strewn about as well.
Fuuka smelled death. Whatever had happened here, life itself seemed to reject it.
Not for the first time, she wondered if maybe turning Akira away when she offered to help had been a bad idea. Maybe with her nose, they'd have been able to find this quicker… And maybe better understand just what had happened.
"What IS all this?" Luna whispered, aghast.
Swallowing back bile, Fuuka took another look at the gruesome tableau. It wasn't easy, especially since even glancing at the circles of blood made her vision swim and her head start to pound. "I think… I think someone abducted the villagers and was trying to sacrifice them to summon something or bring someone back from the dead," she said faintly. "I've seen ritual circles like this before."
Luna gasped, pale. "Then… There might be a whole army of monsters on the loose?!"
Fuuka shook her head. "No, there's too many more or less intact bodies. If the ritual had been successful, the bodies would've been used up completely in exchange for calling forth whatever the spell was targeting. I think whoever is behind this was trying to refine their technique. The first attempt failed, so they kept kidnapping and sacrificing people to try and get something that worked. But, since all the circles have bodies in them, they must have failed-"
"Fuuka, one of the circles is empty."
Fuuka's blood went cold. "Show me."
Luna obeyed her senior ninja, indicating a circle near the center of the carnage. Sure enough, it was totally empty.
Fuuka swallowed again. "We need to take a closer look."
Being a ninja wasn't as glamorous as the media made it look. Fuuka had known this for years, and gotten her hands dirty in all sorts of jobs since she had officially started practicing again. Even so, picking her way through a field of corpses was one of the most revolting experiences in her life, and she dearly hoped she'd never have to do it again.
Soon enough, they found themselves standing over the lone empty circle. Luna took a picture so they could have a specialist examine it later. "I don't suppose there's a chance the circle is empty because whoever is behind this realized we were on to them and ran off before they could sacrifice anyone else?"
Fuuka shook her head. "No, the bloodstain in the middle is too big. And given the lack of body, either they took it with them – which wouldn't make much sense – or…"
"They were successful," Luna completed.
Fuuka nodded.
"Any way we can figure out what they were trying to bring back?" Luna asked.
Fuuka frowned, slowly turning in a circle. "Not from a cursory examination. But… Something about this place is bugging me…"
"Fuuka? You're going to want to see this," Luna said, voice strained.
Alarmed, Fuuka turned to see that Luna was holding up her phone, having zoomed in on the center of the picture of the circle.
In the bloodstain was the imprint of the familiar horned demon face sigil of the Kibaoni Army Corps.
Fuuka's heart skipped a beat, suddenly figuring out why this place seemed familiar. "This is where we killed Juza Yumihari back in 2015."
Luna gasped. "But that means-"
"We need to call everyone," Fuuka said decisively. "This could be serious."
Luna cringed. "Even your brother?"
Fuuka groaned. "Even my brother."
That was not going to be a fun phone call.
Justine wasn't having a fun phone call either.
"I don't believe you."
Contrary to popular opinion, most rebellions were not, in fact, started by goodhearted members of the lower class getting fed up with oppression by the rich and powerful and nobly banding together against a common cause. How could they? After all, most the time the lower class were too busy fighting each other for scraps and struggling to survive under harsh conditions to have the time or energy to strike back against their true enemy.
"It's true, sir, she told me herself."
"Then either she was lying or you misunderstood."
Most rebellions were, in fact, instigated by members of the upper/middle-class or the military who desired a change in leadership, sometimes because on moral grounds, but far too often because of greed and ambition, and were perfectly happy to exploit the lower class in overthrowing the reigning dictatorship and then supplanting them with themselves, after which they would naturally renege on all their empty promises and ignore or kill the little people who helped them get in power with no real change to the status quo.
"I'm fairly certain she wasn't lying, sir."
"Then you must have misunderstood! Nobody with that much power would ever willingly give it away to a nobody like you, even for a little while! I certainly wouldn't!"
Case in point, Donyoku Nanishibo, one of the leaders of the resistance in Taito. He presented himself as a man of the people, a heroic figure who had been the first to strike out against their Youkalien oppressors, inspiring the rest of humanity in the ward to rally against their conquerors.
In reality, he was an upper manager for a "black" company who horribly exploited and abused his employees and whose grand gesture of defiance had been telling his master "No," when asked to get him a drink, so his master had shrugged it off and gotten it himself. He had then bragged and ranted about it at a bar with a bunch of other off-duty slaves, leading to the first real anti-Youkalien protests. Things had spiraled out of control from there, and now he was somehow a "father of the revolution" who honestly didn't seem like a much better leader than the Youkaliens, though nobody dared to say it out loud.
"And even if she were telling the truth, why would she pick you of all people to receive this great honor rather than someone more deserving?" Nanishibo demanded, naturally referring to himself. "You're just a gaijin!"
"She says she trusts me," Justine muttered uncomfortably, knowing he wasn't going to like this answer.
"Trust you?!" Nanishibo snapped, proving Justine correct in her assumptions. "Have you been in prior contact with her before? You traitor! I knew you were never really one of us!"
"This is the first time I've talked to her or any Youkalien since they left the ward!" Justine protested, privately admitting he may be correct about one thing. She'd never really been sure she was one of them. Not because she was a gaijin, of course, but because…
Well. She wasn't sure she really counted as a rebel. She'd never done anything particularly seditious. She hadn't participated in any of the protests, rallies, or parades, never went to any meetings, never even read any flyers. When she noticed people waving signs in the streets, she kept her head down and took a detour. While she wasn't exactly happy about being enslaved, she was too afraid of doing anything that might cause the Youkaliens to drop the hammer on her to do anything about it, and yeah, that might've been cowardly, and she doubted Yuko would have been happy with it, but…
Dammit, she wasn't even supposed to still be here. She woke up one morning and discovered that the Youkaliens had conquered part of the city while she was oversleeping, and then she woke up another morning several weeks later and discovered the Youkaliens had abruptly withdrawn overnight and she was apparently considered a member of the rebellion now.
"Look, I don't entirely understand it either, but this might be a big opportunity," Justine pleaded, desperately hoping she could find something to convince Nanishibo she wasn't a traitor so they wouldn't lynch her when she was returned to her apartment. "While there are apparently a lot of restrictions on what I can do as temporary Hegemon, there's a lot of things I can do which may prove beneficial to us!"
"Can you call off the invasion?" Nanishibo asked immediately.
"Yes!… Although the Hegemon can put it back on as soon as the festival's over," Justine admitted.
Nanishibo scoffed. "Of course she can. Order her execution, then!"
"I, um, can't do that either," Justine mumbled, heart sinking. "They don't have a death sentence except for the most extreme of crimes and I can't charge her of anything without probable cause. They don't actually have prisons either."
"Sure they don't," Nanishibo sneered skeptically. "And I bet you're going to tell me you can't free us all either!"
"Well, that's apparently not something even the Hegemon can do at the moment, though she's working on it,"Justine was quick to add. "And besides, during the duration of the festival, none of us are slaves, so-"
"You can force Youkaliens to come here and serve us! We can lock them up and hold them hostage after the festival is over to get more concessions!" Nanishibo realized instantly.
Justine froze. The idea had never occurred to her. But now that it was in her head, maybe she could…
A horrible thought passed through her mind. A lot of the rebels had little love for the Youkaliens, and people like Nanishibo would be more than happy to fire up that distaste into something truly ugly. Kyukogo said that the bond between master and slave made it so that neither could actually harm each other, but…
If there was one thing humans were good at, it was finding new ways to be horrible to each other or other people. Justine wasn't a fan of the Youkaliens, even if she was grudgingly beginning to understand why they were trying to conquer her planet, but… Was this something she could actually be party to?
What would Yuko do?
"I am… Not sure that's possible," she said hesitantly. "But maybe I could lift the blockade so that all of you who don't actually live in Taito can go home to see your families-"
"And break us up? Weaken our ranks?! Never!" Nanishibo bellowed. "We are stronger together! Our solidarity, our unity is our strength, and by taking that from us you're practically welcoming the Youkaliens to take back everything we've fought so hard for!"
Justine carefully did not point out that they hadn't actually fought for anything, the Youkaliens had gotten frustrated and left when their slaves refused to listen to them or accept their bribes of admittedly delicious smelling cake, and Nanishibo had spent the whole thing leading from afar in his luxurious penthouse suite, where rumor had it he still had access to plenty of real food instead of needing to rely on the incredibly advanced and difficult to operate food synthesizers.
"If you can't give me anything useful, you might as well stay there and be Kyukogo's bitch like I suspect you already are, because if you expect us to welcome you back with open arms you've got another thing-"
"I can sabotage the next event in the competition."
There was a pause. "What?"
"It should be within my authority to determine this week's event and who takes part in it," Justine said, mind racing, mouth moving a mile a minute. "If I rig it so that it's something the Diningers will be able to accomplish easily and the Youkaliens can't, especially if I make absolutely sure to choose the wrong Youkalien warrior for the job…"
Nanishibo snorted. "Then those so-called heroes will win. So what?"
"It'll put them ahead in points."
"So?"
Justine clenched her teeth. "So, it might give them the small edge they need to win when the competition is over and their final scores are tallied. Every little bit helps, right?"
The other end of the line was silent for a long while. Just as Justine was starting to worry he hung up on her, Nanishibo finally snarled, "Fine. We'll try it your way. If you fuck this up, don't bother coming back."
There was a click, then a dial tone.
"Asshole," she snarled, putting away her phone.
Briefly, she wondered if the Youkaliens had been listening in. A part of her wasn't sure she cared. Nanishibo reminded her way too much of her boss back home. At least Nanishibo hadn't made a pass on her… Yet.
"Sorry to keep you waiting," Kyukogo said apologetically as she swept into the rather luxurious waiting room where she'd left Justine, now wearing something a little more fancy, a yutaka depicting a fantastic city which could only be the capital on the Youkalien home world, her nine tails woven together in a massive braid bound in immense jeweled rings, wearing an elaborate crown and headdress which her incredibly long hair was woven into incredibly complex loops and weaves to resemble a nine pointed star, her jewelry and makeup ostentatious without looking gaudy. "There are were a last few minute changes in personnel. Are you ready to meet your advisors and family for the duration of your tenure as Hegemon?"
"S-sure thing!" Justine said with forced enthusiasm, hoping she hadn't somehow given away that she'd been doing espionage behind her host's back.
Kyukogo smiled radiantly. "Wonderful! They're all waiting outside, but I'll let them in one at a time so as not to overwhelm you. Is that all right with you?"
"You're the Hegemon," Justine pointed out.
"And in a few days, so will you!" Kyukogo chuckled. "All right, Jani, you can come in!"
A very short figure who barely came up to Justine's knee marched into the room, and she had to struggle not to squeal in delight and hug her. She was so cute! She could have been mistaken for a child, except she had a generous chest and frightening curves, wearing a black shirt under a military jacket with epaulets and a few medals pinned to her breast exposing her stomach and a short combat skirt which revealed her very shapely calves, terminating in thick black combat boots. She had purple skin, three fingers per hand, a forked tail, yellow eyes with red irises, cute fangs, and messy black hair held out of her face by headband with a pair of small horns poking out of the top. She was also quite buff. She promptly stood to attention and saluted Justine. "Jani Nelgrim, at your service."
"Jani has been an aide-de-camp to General Onimusha for centuries, so will serve as your military advisor and commander of the armed forces," Kyukogo said proudly. "She even has her own suit of power armor!"
Justine leaned closer to Kyukogo. "Is it cute?" She whispered.
Kyukogo nodded happily. "Very much so!"
"I've defeated thousands on countless moons," Jani grunted wearily.
"And looked adorable doing it!" Kyukogo exclaimed.
Jani sighed.
"Can I hug you?" Justine asked hopefully.
Jani gave her a tired, long-suffering look. "If you must."
Justine immediately picked her up and started happily cuddling her. Jani grumbled, but couldn't hold back a faint smile.
"Next is your acting Chief Magistrate, Shimizu," Kyukogo said, and Justine frowned in confusion as what appeared to be one of the numerous imps who seemed to handle all the bureaucratic tasks around the palace entered the room.
"Isn't that a Youkalien?" Justine asked, puzzled.
Shimizu moved his paper mask aside to reveal a surprisingly human face, albeit with gold skin, glasses, and four nostrils. "No, I just believe in dressing for the job I want," he explained calmly. "I'm the apprentice of Chief Magistrate Shinza, and when I die I fully intend to come back as a Youkalien so he can formally adopt me and I can take over when he eventually retires."
"Assuming we can persuade him to retire," Kyukogo murmured.
"It'll be a pleasure working with you, I guess?" Justine said uncertainly.
"Likewise," Shimizu said, letting his mask fall back into place.
"Next, your wife-" Kyukogo started.
"Wait, can we circle back to that for a minute?" Justine spoke up anxiously. "Why exactly do I have to have a wife?"
"The Bride of the Hegemon is more than just a wedded consort, she holds an important role in our government and society," Kyukogo explained. "It has been like this for thousands of years."
"That's only because you created the office after you married Lady Nyajou," Shimizu pointed out.
"That is completely irrelevant," Kyukogo said quickly. "Since you will be filling my throne, someone else must fill my wife's."
"Oh," Justine said in understanding. "Do I, um… Do we… Do we have to do…um…wifely things?"
"Not if you don't want to," Kyukogo said, much to her relief. "Consent is tantamount in our society, even and especially among master and slave."
Justine stared at her. "… You're enslaving people against their will and subliminally incentivizing them to obey whatever orders are given to them. You really don't see how that renders any form of consent dubious?"
Kyukogo and, to her frustration, both Jani and Shimizu gave her blank looks. "I don't follow."
Justine groaned. "Oh, forget it. So, who is she?"
"Oceara, it's your turn," Kyukogo called.
"Yes, Divinity."
Justine's eyes boggled as the next alien entered the room. She was a sea creature-like arachnid humanoid woman with ocean blue skin with water texture, aquamarine fins growing from her forearm and shins, and light blue nails. She had serpentine eyes with light blue irises and a long aquamarine fin growing from the top of her head. She had six arms and a long, fluked tail. She was very tall, very muscular, very beautiful, and very naked.
Justine made an anguished squealing noise, blood leaking from her nose as she reflexively started hugging Jani so tightly the smaller alien was having trouble breathing.
"Hello, little human," Oceara said in a thick, very sexy Russian accent because of course she did. "Oceara is pleased to meet you! Little human want to fuck Oceara?"
"Bwah?!" Justine screamed, hugging Jani so hard her eyes bulged out of her sockets. "Why… I mean…guh! Nani the fuck?! W-we aren't actually married, we don't… We don't need to…"
"Oceara want to fuck little human," Oceara said. "Oceara think little human is very cute."
"Oceara is my wife's bodyguard and boon companion," Kyukogo explained as Justine started hyperventilating.
"Oceara guard Lady Nyajou's body very seriously," Oceara said with a grin that indicated she meant it exactly the way she was implying it. "Oceara can guard little human's body too?"
Justine made a strangled screaming noise. Or maybe that was Jani, it was hard to tell.
"And finally, your children," Kyukogo began.
"My children?!" Justine cried. "You mean your kids have an important position in your government too?!"
"No, we just think it's cute to have stand ins for them as well," Kyukogo explained. "Allow me to introduce you to Nyad, Tsuruki, and Penga…"
Justine sighed in relief. Three cute kids would be a welcome respite from the increasingly sexy women in this room.
"My children's nurses."
Wait, what?!
Justine's eye widened in horror as three aliens that were very much not children walked into the room, all of them extremely beautiful. One was a fairly short but incredibly curvy and voluptuous woman who looked mostly human save for her cute fangs, gold eyes with slit pupils, red facial markings, the green upside down star on her forehead, the red cat ears poking out of her thigh-length red hair, and the forked tail growing from her rear, wearing an extremely revealing yukata depicting adorable kittens frolicking about a plush playpen and playing with cat toys. The second was a very tall, very slender, impossibly graceful anthropomorphic crane with beautiful white wings sticking out the end of the long sleeves of her yukata, which depicted very beautiful and very naked crane women resting in a hot spring surrounded by snow, her very long and very sharp beak offset by her very kind brown eyes. The last was about average in height but probably had the most knockout figure of the three of them, a humanoid penguin whose yukata, depicting lovely Penguin women like herself marching on an icy beach, clung to her shapely body like a second skin, a mischievous look in her black eyes, two crests of gold feathers running over her head.
The three of them bowed, and Justine was horrified to get a very good look at their cleavage. "We are happy to meet you, mother!" They sang in unison.
Justine's jaw dropped, as did Jani, who fell to the ground, gasping for breath. "NANI?!"