Clearly, Ayame had not given up on the whole 'foot fetish makes your love life better' idea she had put into her head. Over the course of the past few days, she had been chasing Gin around whenever she could, demanding him to smell her feet, to which he would just run away and bury his nose in more Shonen Jump. They're hopeless, those two. Actually, so am I. I'm still being blackmailed by that she-devil Kagura. Though our conversation that one afternoon seemed to imply we'd started getting along, she went right back to her fiendish ways the following morning. In order for her to keep my secret, I had to fetch her a number of seaweed snacks and ramen, do her seemingly endless supply of dirty laundry, walk Sadaharu, do her hair in the morning (which wouldn't be too bad if she wasn't constantly moaning about the 'piss poor' job I was doing), and so on and so forth. My current task, much to my chagrin, required Kagura to kick me in the balls to get me awake at midnight in order to satisfy her late-night munchies. I returned with a large box of food (mostly seaweed snacks, but also noodles and rice) and brought them to her. I sat across from her as she ate, listening in agony to her loud chewing sounds. Satisfied (for now) with the task I completed, she leaned backwards on her arms and let out a rather crude belch.

"Wow, burping in mixed company," I remarked, "Very lady-like."

"Wow, licking a girl's feet in her sleep," she replied, "Very gentleman-like."

Damn. I guess she had a point.

"Touche," I remarked, "But to be completely honest, you didn't seem upset at all by that."

"What gave you that idea?" she asked.

"I half-expected you to kick my ass halfway across the world for that," I said, "But you didn't seem too angry."

"Well, I am blackmailing you into silence, uh-huh," said Kagura, "Besides, since I got most of it on film, I managed to get a bunch of new subscribers on YouTube."

"You POSTED it on the INTERNET?" I asked in shock, "WHY?"

"Check it out," she replied, pulling out her laptop.

She opened the laptop and sure enough, on the screen was a YouTube video of me doing...well, the late night foot worship thing. It was kinda weird seeing myself in that video, but if it were any other guy, I would most likely be turned on by the footage. I'll give Kagura this much, she's a quick thinker for someone so...well,her. She pretty much correctly guessed I would sneak in for some action and focused the hidden camera on her own feet. Or at least the lower half of her body. Speaking of which, I began to wonder why there was nothing above her waist shown in the video. Or that there was no audio. But apparently, the viewers didn't care all that much. Nearly 200 likes on the video and a bunch of comments with things like "Awesome footage!" and "I wanna see more!"

"Seriously, though," I said, "What did you post it for? And why'd you mute it?"

"Not your business, baka!" exclaimed Kagura.

"It is too my business if I'm..." I paused to think for a moment. Something dawned on me from that night. The video clearly showed me worshiping her feet, but also, looking back on it, she also had a bag of chips on her and she was...

A wide grin spread across my face as I mentally kicked myself in the balls for not realizing it sooner. Why she only filmed her bottom half (no pun intended) and took out the audio.

"What?" asked Kagura, "Do I still have crumbs on my face?"

"Not now," I chucked, "But you certainly did that night. Along with your own drool."

"Huh?"

"I'm not an idiot, Kagura, I know you snore AND drool in your sleep," I replied, "You didn't want the proof on the video, did you?"

It didn't take long for her face to get a shade as red as her clothing. Clearly she didn't like having anyone know about this. Or being confronted about it. I may have had an advantage over her.

"Well, all I can say is, if you didn't want to learn that kind of thing about yourself, you really shouldn't have been filming yourself while you slept," I told her.

"I always knew, baka!" she shouted, "I didn't need a tape to tell me that!"

"How did you...even know?" I asked.

"People told me, uh-huh," she replied, "My brother always blasted his music to try and keep me awake, though it didn't really work a lot. My dad could sleep through it, but stopped sharing a bed with me after I grew out of being a kid. He said I always drooled on his chest every night. And in public...well, one old guy woke me up after I fell asleep on a park bench, said I was disturbing the birds, and another old lady nearly kicked me awake on the train."

"I thought you didn't give a shit about what other people think," I said.

"I could care less what they think of my hobbies, attire, eating habits, whatever," she said pouting, "But...you will NOT tell anyone this, but I'm embarrassed by my sleeping habits. Ever since coming to this planet, I've only slept in the same area as someone once, and Gin's even more disgusting. Other than Sadaharu, I sleep alone."

She really sounded like she was sucking up her pride to admit that much. I actually felt like we were beginning to bond for a minute. In fact, I almost felt bad for her. Almost. This was my chance to get the upper hand in this blackmailing game.

"Well," I said, smirking, "Your secret is safe with me...for a price."

"You're kidding," she said, "You're trying to blackmail me?"

"I could always get proof about your sleeping habits and get myself out of this situation," I said.

Of course, I was certain that would get my ass kicked. But it seemed as though Kagura was embarrassed enough to not take that chance. Pouting and groaning, she finally admitted defeat.

"What do you want in return for your silence?" she asked.

"First," I said, "Take a bath. You don't smell bad, but I want to try something a little different. Don't worry, I'll wait."

She seemed to have a clue as to what I wanted, and got into the bathroom. I sat in the corner of the room, waiting for her to finish bathing, and then I could actually get at the top of this little game. It seems as though something is finally going my way.