"Mama is out of the house for a bit because she had some affairs, she needed take care of at work." Ruby said rather sadly as she moped around the apartment as Aqua couldn't help but sigh at her reaction, which he could understand to an extent. As he did prefer having Ai around, and not having her here was rather off-putting to him.

"Ruby, Ai is simply going to be gone for at most a week, if not, roughly three days." Aqua said to Ruby rationally. "Besides, even if Ai is gone, we're still going to be able to video call her when it's night time, so we will see her." Aqua added in reassuringly.

"But mama won't be here!" Ruby nearly wailed out. "Besides, we couldn't keep Nugget either, so besides you, there's only Markus here!" She whined to him as Aqua sighed at that.

"It may be only me here as the adult, but I have excellent hearing Ruby." Markus said from his room, causing Ruby to pause and wince as Markus sounded strict with her. "And do not think I will hesitate to discipline you, considering Ai gave me permission to punish you two if either of you, do something that is not appropriate." He warned.

"Sorry!" Ruby called out, as Markus gave a noise of acceptance as Ruby decided to stop focusing on Ai not being here, so she can put her mind on something else. "Question Aqua, how do you feel about Markus dating mama?" She asked curiously as Aqua paused at that, trying to find the best way to answer that. "Because while I am all for mama dating someone she likes, it's a little bit weird to me, knowing that she's dating Markus now." She admitted as she waited for Aqua to say something.

After some pause, Aqua did find his words. "I am…a bit uncomfortable with Ai dating Markus." Aqua said slowly as if he was carefully trying to think out each word. "But, out of all the potential guys that Ai could have ended up dating…I think Markus is quite honestly one of the few people I can honestly admit to trusting to have Ai's well being at his core." Aqua then admitted reluctantly.

"So, Markus got your seal of approval huh?" Ruby mused, as she became thoughtful at hearing that. "Well Markus did protect and save mama at least two times, so at the very least, we know he's capable enough to protect her." She said before she gained a very ugly glare on her face that Aqua couldn't help but flinch at the sight of. "Better than that Rotten Monster who's supposed to be our father." She said darkly.

Ruby may be ditzy at times, but she also reincarnated after death like Aqua did too. So, she was smart enough to pick up on some clues and whispers among Markus, mama, and Nino, to realize that their biological father, is responsible for the attempts on mama's life. For that alone, she would never forgive or forget this insult.

"Ruby." Aqua's voice spoke up, and shattered the darkness that was forming in Ruby's mind, as he looked at her in concern. Then he did something unexpected and gently put his hands on her hands and held them warmly. "It's going to be okay, Markus will protect Ai, now that he knows about the dangers she is in. As long as Markus still draws breath, Ai will be protected." He said methodically and calmly.

Ruby let out a sigh that released all the tension building up in her chest and smiled warmly at Aqua. "Thanks, I needed to hear that." She said with gratitude as Aqua blushed a bit and scratched his chin sheepishly.

"Well, you look like you were getting upset and as your brother, it's natural for me to want to help you out." He mumbled out, but Ruby could understand it clearly, and it made her giggle. "Oi, don't do that, I was trying to be genuine you know?" He protested a bit.

"I know, and I'm grateful." Ruby said earnestly. "But you know, speaking about Markus, I also think he looks good with mama." Ruby revealed as Aqua focused on those words. "I don't know why or how but…I feel like while mama shines brightly like a star, there's this feeling I get that mama will simply float away and exit our orbit at times." She said as Aqua blinked in confusion at that.

"Well, I guess Ai is like a brilliant star that's a bit hard to see properly." Aqua started off as Ruby shook her head at that.

"No, I mean that as much as I like the idea of Idols…I sometimes can't help but feel that mama will leave our orbit. And that's where Markus is important, if mama is like a shining bright star. Then Markus is like a mountain that's firm and unyielding, built like a rock." Ruby said to Aqua as she smiled. "In a way, I think Markus keeps mama grounded in our orbit, and prevents her from floating off."

"So, you think Markus keeps Ai down and makes her feel more…normal?" Aqua guessed out.

"Close enough I guess." Ruby shrugged as she moved on to her next question. "But what do you think of Markus as our new dad though?" She whispered out to Aqua as he looked surprised again. "I don't know about you, but I do think mama is really happy with Markus, and Markus, in my personal opinion is simply happy to be with mama." She said to him.

And if Markus could make mama happy that was a plus in her books, besides, Markus is nicer than he lets on at times. There was a firmness to him, but there was also a warmth to him, that felt unlike how mama's love was soft and warm. Ruby genuinely couldn't help but wonder if the way that Markus treated them, was that of a fatherly love.

If it was, then it was truly a nice feeling to have, and if Markus and mama ended up together then she could feel that love every day. It was a feeling that did make her feel kind of giddy about. Markus as her father…she actually liked that idea.

All the meanwhile, Aqua looked deep in thought over something else.

"I am honored to meet you, Ai!" A brightly dressed man said enthusiastically as Ai simply smiled at the man who is beaming at her. "I did not expect that B-Komachi would send in their top Idol and Japan's greatest Idol to partake as speaker in our humble Princess League." He chimed happily at her, and Miyako simply stood by her side looking professional and serious.

"Well, you know how it is." Ai giggled lightly. "This industry requires some guest appearances here and there. That and I am kind of interested to meet T-Set and Haruka, they are both fascinating." Ai chirped excitedly.

The man simply laughed. "Well, I can see that you demonstrate good sportsmanship, and as such I hope you and the girls get along, because it would be some fun if some chaos spilled out." He said as Miyako then spoke up.

"As much fun as you are having, there are still some matters that we need to discuss." Miyako said to the man firmly. "As such I would like to talk to you in your office to settle matters over Ai appearing in the Princess League, even if she's not a contestant, there are certain matters that we, of Ichigo Enterprises, have to settle." She said firmly, as the man lost his cheery look and nodded and motioned for her to follow him. Miyako turned to Ai. "Stay here and try not to cause any trouble." She ordered Ai as she nodded back and Miyako continued on her way.

Ai, naturally, decided to walk around and examine the building, she might get lucky enough to spot Haruka or T-Set along the way and get a measure of the people who will, no doubt, reach for the peak that she obtained and decide to reach even higher. Then she walked down a hallway and spotted the producer Manda, who was talking to two girls, and examining them a bit closer, realized that they were T-Set.

One of the girls had long wavy hair and wore a sort of winter coat on her person. The other girl wore all red, and even had a hat on top of her short hair. Seeing the girls talking, Ai decided to look another way and soon found the girl she was curious about and was actually free. Haruka, who was wearing a white hoodie half-zipped over a red shirt, and a pair of laced brown leather boots and a short jean skirt with black tights underneath. She also wore her black hair in a ponytail which contrasted nicely with her fair skin.

All in all, she looked pretty and can see why she had potential as an idol, and next to her, was clearly her manager of sorts. A formal suit wearing man with glasses. She decided to approach them, especially as the girls were finishing talking to Manda and soon noticed look on the T-Set girls' faces.

"Hello there!" Ai greeted Haruka and her manager, causing them to pause as they were about to talk to Manda and turned to Ai in surprise. "So, you must be Haruka of Dyna Chair, and this man must be your manager, I am pleased to meet you two." Ai said cheerfully as Haruka and her manager blinked and put on smiles on their faces as Haruka spoke up.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, I am Haruka Sawamura of Dyna Chair, and who may you be?" She asked politely as the man next to her took a closer look at Ai and blinked in genuine surprise as his eyes widened in recognition, which amused Ai.

"Well, seeing as I already know who you are and you introduced yourself properly, it's fair that I do the same." Ai smiled as she took off her hat and sunglasses as Haruka gasped a bit, and T-Set next to her, gasped as well. "I am Ai, of B-Komachi, an Idol much like yourself Haruka." Ai said before she winked and gave her a playful Victory Hand sign. "Nice to meet you~!" She said playfully.

"B-Komachi's Ai." Haruka said in awe as she shook hands with her. "You've been the Top Idol of Japan for quite some time, even when you took some time off, you were able to reclaim the spotlight without any issue." She said earnestly in admiration, which to Ai was unique but also a fun feeling for her.

"Well as impressive as I am, I can't say that you aren't impressive in your own right too, Haruka." Ai chirped back at her as Haruka blinked. "You're an Idol that started out of nowhere and went solo, before climbing your way to the top and reached all the way to be part of the Princess league. That's no small matter to accomplish, I imagine that you have some good staff support like your manager here." Ai noted to the man as she threw a wink, making the man look away shyly. "But you also have some genuine passion and skills to work with." Ai praised Haruka, who was now looking as shy as her manager.

"Well, I do have a dream that I wanted to fulfill." Haruka said. "And that dream means a lot to me." Haruka said shyly as Ai nodded in understanding.

"I see, well I look forward to how you do in the Princess League then." Ai said cheerfully as Haruka nodded and turned to the Producer, Manda, who looked kind of excited to see her. "Ah Mister Manda, was walking by and then I spotted you, I was hoping to talk to you about something." She said as Manda nodded his head rapidly.

"Of course, Ai, let us talk." He said as he directed her to follow him and Ai complied to do so. And as she did so, she passed by T-Set, who were a bit put off they couldn't do anything. And as she walked past them, she paused and turned to them.

"T-Set." She called out to them as the duo turned to Ai. "It's a fact that you have to play dirty in our line of work, but here's some advice, making enemies unnecessarily in this industry with your fellows can be nothing short of disastrous as that can lead into nasty kind of scandals." She advised as she winked and walked off with a cheer in her step.

Haruka couldn't help but watch Ai walk away with some admiration in her face. "So that's Ai of B-Komachi." Haruka said softly as Ai seemingly gained attention just by walking away like it's nothing and all eyes were on her. To think this is Japan's Top Idol, and the top of the mountain that she would have to reach.

"Amazing is she not?" Hiroshi said to Haruka as he watched Ai with some form of admiration. "Been the Top Idol of Japan for so many years, that even simply walking, she just garners attention from people." He commented as Haruka took note of that and noted the way that the people around Ai and the Producer paid attention to Ai. She was just walking casually and the way that she walked garnered attention.

It was the kind of aura that someone who's been in the entertainment industry for quite some time and climbed their way to the top and was still active. It was the kind of aura that demanded respect from lesser people. In a strange way, it reminded Haruka about some of the aura that some of the Yakuza would carry when they either worked with or against her...Uncle Kazuma.

"Still, this is quite an opportunity for us." Hiroshi said to Haruka. "Remember what Mirei said about some changes being made to the Princess League at this point?" Hiroshi reminded her, as Haruka nodded.

(Flashback)

"One, two, one, two, one, two, one, two! Keep it up Haruka!" A Japanese man with a ponytail wearing a white shirt, black pants, and a black vest over himself, shouted as he kept clapping his hand in rhythm as Haruka danced and danced before his eyes. "Build up that stamina, if you want to be an Idol, one of the bests no less, than you have to build up your stamina, and don't lose track of the beat!" He shouted.

"Yes Ogita Sensei!" Haruka shouted as the named Ogita grunted with a nod as he kept her moving and moving, until he finally motioned for her to stop and she did so while breathing a bit heavily and sweating all over. "How was that?" She asked with a smile on her face, but her smile faded away as Ogita simply remained frowning at her. "Not so good then?" She stated rather than asked with a sigh.

"No, you're doing good, but if you want to win the Princess League, you have to do better." Ogita refuted as Haruka blinked at that. "However the issue is that you fail to pace yourself at times, and right now, I noticed that compared to last week, you're about several seconds lower compared to your peak performance." He noted before he looked concerned. "Haruka, have you been practicing nonstop?" He asked with some worry.

Haruka could only smiled a bit sheepishly. "Well President Mirei wants me to continuously improve myself. So she told me to practice whenever I can. That way my dancing ability will improve to reach the peak that I can do." She said as Ogita frowned at that. "Is that not a good thing?" She then asked a bit more quietly.

"How long do you practice each day aside from here?" He then questioned.

"Well I don't keep track of time when I do practice, but as long as I can when not eating or sleeping?" Haruka said to Ogita who could only groan at hearing that. "Ogita Sensei?" Haruka asked as she was surprised by that reaction.

"Don't do that Haruka!" Ogita snapped at her, causing her to blink in surprise."It's important to improve yourself, however if you don't take the time to rest your body and let the stress fade away. You're going to run your own body into ruins like that. Professional Dancers know to practice when they can. But they also know the importance of pacing themselves as well. Don't push yourself otherwise you could suffer stress fractures and that will cause you to lose valuable training time for the Princess league." Ogita berated and then clarified why to Haruka.

Haruka looked down and then back up, as she did understood what Ogita said. "But Mirei wanted me to." She tried to continue before Ogita cut her off.

"Forget what the President wants, if you continue to do this, you'll ruin your career and future before it will even take off. So listen to me and simply put, don't practice every waking moment that you got. You have to let your body rest otherwise you will suffer complications." Ogita said firmly to Haruka, who could only sigh and nodded to him. "Good, practice will be done for the day." He stated to her.

Haruka nodded as she packed up and soon enough, Ogita and Haruka walked down to the office where the others were, and soon they sat down for a meeting with the other staff members of Dyna Chair, which not only included Hiroshi, but also a woman by the name of Misa Yamaura, who was the vocal coach for Haruka. Then eventually a stern looking woman walked in carrying files in her arms and eyed them all with a steely gaze. This was Mirei Park, the President of Dyna Chair and Haruka's sponsor as an Idol.

"What is her progress?" Mirei questioned Ogita in a no nonsense tone."She needs to be prepared enough to win the Princess League without trouble." She said in a cold strict tone as Ogita sighed.

"She's making progress but it's unrealistic to demand so much changes out of her so quickly." Ogita started off. "Trying to shove all that training is not realistic." He said as Mirei cut him off.

"I don't care about that, make Haruka the best Idol that you can, and it seems that you aren't up to the task." Mirei said as she narrowed her eyes at him.

"Haruka can improve but you need to let her pace herself." Ogita said firmly. "As a Professional Dancer, Haruka cannot do nonstop training, if you want her to be an Idol for a long time." He said as Mirei scoffed at him.

"If by a long time, you mean a mediocre Idol, then I will push her as hard as I can, and if not, I will simply replace you with someone better. Someone who can understand the word of the contract." She threatened.

Ogita, however only looked at her in disbelief. "President, you're pushing Haruka to train to the point that her nonstop training is detrimental to her physical health. In this Industry, being able to take care of your body is a high priority, at this point you're running the risk of Haruka suffering a Stress Fracture or causing damage to her legs or even weaken her immune system. She needs to pace herself." Ogita stressed out to Mirei.

"What a joke, at this point, Haruka won't win the Princess League if she trained with such ridiculous restraints on her." Mirei scoffed coldly. "Back when I was in the Entertainment Industry, I worked myself to the bones, so someone like Haruka can do the same." She said in no uncertain terms.

"Yes, because we all know how that impacted your career." Ogita retorted as the temperature in the room dropped as he glared at hr. "You may be a pro when it comes to managing work as a President in this work. But you have long been out of date and far behind the times of what being an Idol requires. Not pacing yourself is going to ruin Haruka." He said, standing his ground as Mirei narrowed her eyes at him, giving a look that this was not going to over and done with.

Mirei decided that Ogita will pay later and focused on something important. "As you may or may not know, the Tokyo Dome Concert has been secured for B-Komachi, one of the best and most well known Idol Groups in all of Japan." She started off, confusing all of them. "However, recently they had to push back their concerts due to some issues, and that is something we cannot allow, so I push for them to be canceled or give concessions." She said before smirking. "Ichigo Productions decided to give some concessions for having delayed performances." She said.

"What kind of concessions?" Hiroshi asked as Mirei smirked at her employees with a sense of triumph and the words that left her mouth left all of them blinking in surprise.

"Ichigo Productions is sending their Star Idol, Ai to act as a host for the Princess League, there she will not only help attract more attention to Haruka. But she will also have nothing bad to say about Haruka. And instead say plenty of good things about her." Mirei explained to the workers as they all realized what this could mean for Haruka's future as an Idol outside of the Princess league.

By securing the support of Ai, Japan's most well known Idols, people were more than likely to pay attention to what Haruka has to offer as an Idol. Which means for them, more sponsors, more fans, more job opportunities, more showings, more gifts, and countless other useful networking tools. Someone with Ai's backing can go a long way in the Idol Industry, and even outside of that. Can make some very interesting useful friends in the Entertainment Industry overall. In short, Mirei was able to secure a very powerful win for Dyna Chair and for Haruka in general.

"That's pretty impressive President." Hiroshi said in awe. "Having the backing of someone like Ai will do wonders for our public relations in the short term. We should start preparing to receive calls from potential sponsors and the likes." He said as Mirei motioned for him to do so.

All the meanwhile, Haruka couldn't help but be a bit excited to meet or see Ai in person. Back in Okinawa in the Sunflower Orphanage, she would sometimes watch B-Komachi do their Idol performances and couldn't help but be enthralled by how much passion those Idols had.

(Flashback End.)

"Still to think that this is Ai and we gained her support." Hiroshi said to Haruka. "We must not let opportunities pass us by like this." He said as he motioned to Haruka to head for her changing room now that they have some extra time.

And all that Haruka can think at the moment was how pretty Ai's eyes looked, there was something dazzling about them that called to her.

Markus frowned as he tinkered around with one of his major weapons at the moment in his room. He kept it hidden and locked away in his closet as he didn't find any usage for it. But sitting on his workbench was a shotgun, and not a Riot Shotgun or a Hunting Shotgun that was common within the Mojave Wasteland. No, sitting on his table before him was a rare export model from deep west that Markus has ordered through the Gun Runners. A Winchester City Killer Shotgun, a Combat Shotgun from further west that had the advantage of both a magazine clip and s pump action system.

Markus had grown to rely on shotguns throughout his misadventures, they tend to hit hard and tend to knock down foes pretty fast, including some Deathclaws, Sentry Bots, and even those fucking Yao Gui Monsters in Zion. And it also helped that his own Shotgun was chambered for twelve gauge shells, which by chance also happened to be the shells that he had Pulse Rounds for, that he bought from the Gun Runners.

Knowing what he knew now, his Winchester City Killer was going to be necessary if he wanted to go fight with the Terminators if he wanted to survive and win. But there was several problems with trying to use his shotgun for his encounter with those machines. The first was that they were obviously going to put it together that he had specialized ammunition for them sooner or later. And that meant that they were going to develop countermeasures against it.

Another issue that he had to face was that he had a limited number of Pulse Shells to use against them, and he had no idea how many shots would it take to put one down forever. And again, he had a limited number of Pulse Shells to use, and he didn't know how to make even more of them. And that brought up another issue he would have to worry about, the weapon advantage that the enemy had on them.

Already he knew that they were capable enough to make or use laser weapon systems, as the damaged weapon system in question was sitting on his workbench as well, but without the power cell to minimize potential damage. He didn't know how these weapons scale with these people, for all he knew the laser weapon might be a lower tier weapon or a higher tier weapon in their organization. If it was a higher tier weapon, then that would be a good thing for him since it means they can only bear so many to use against him.

But if it was a lower tier weapon, then that means they could potentially bear more against him and that also meant that they have more dangerous weapons in stock to better use against him and his loved ones. Despite what some people in the wasteland might think, getting hit by a laser bolt was excruciatingly painful, it doesn't simply leave a nasty burn spot on the human body, even though it leave scorch marks on surfaces of walls and buildings. The problem was that the human body was composed of mostly of water, and laser was pure heated energy causing water to turn into vapor, meaning it builds up pressure and simply burst and explode. That is why you can see bodies being turned into ashes when hit by a powerful enough laser bolt.

It's why Markus always preferred to be armored up instead of being light on his feet all the time. It was simply not only safer for his body if he cannot avoid being shot in time, but armoring up, means there were layers between whatever is hitting him, and his flesh. Thinking about his armor preference made him annoyed that he couldn't bring any of his Power Armor suits, even if it would have been a bitch to maintain, store, and keep under the radar, there was no denying the fact that Power Armor had a much greater impact tolerance against weapons in general.

But he didn't wear Power Armor all that often, no matter how tempting it would be to be nice and well protected almost all the time, it was simply too much of a hassle to deal with. Markus shook off his annoyance about his lack of resources in this world, bellyaching wouldn't help him keep Ai safe. And the only thing he can do was make sure that the tools he did have was optimized and ready to be used for combat. Preparation was key here to fighting those Terminators.

Then his attention was diverted as his cell was ringing, and this wasn't the number that had any of his usual contacts. Meaning that it was Kashiwagi himself or someone close to him, meaning that information had been found out about Hikaru or someone related to Hikaru in some way shape or form. Quickly picking up his cell, Markus spoke into it. "Markus here, who is it?" He replied quickly.

"It's Kashiwagi Markus." The Patriarch spoke up as Markus paid close attention. "We have gathered information that one of the men that has connection to that one assailant who aided your actor in trying to kill those girls were spotted in Kineicho." Kashiwagi said as Markus narrowed his eyebrows at that, as that city was far away. "We don't know exactly what they're there for, but we do have confirmation that these people were spotted in that city for reasons of their own." Kashiwagi confirmed.

"Kineicho huh? Well I don't know much about that city, but you clearly are more in the know than I am, what's the city like?" Markus questioned as as he got up and checked the location of the city and its relation to his location and the likes.

"I do not know much about the city myself, however I do now that a long time ago, both the Tojo Clan and Omi Alliance both held turf there." Kashiwagi said as Markus paused at that in surprise. "But we no longer have any connection there, and were driven out and in the power vacuum that had opened up, a different Yakuza Family walked on in and took over. However we do not know anything about this Yakuza Family aside from its name. The Nagoya Family." Kashiwagi answered.

"Nagoya Family you say." Markus hummed out. "And you don't know anything about this Yakuza Family?" Markus questioned as he received an affirmation from Kashiwagi, leaving Markus thoughtful. "If I had an operation built on staying under the radar. A Yakuza Family where the members are heard of but rarely seen, would make for good proxies to be used. Especially if my goal is to take over the Criminal Underworld." Markus noted.

"You think that the Nagoya Family may be more than it seems?" Kashiwagi questioned, curious behind the thought process behind that would be.

"We already know that our crooks are trying to escalate tensions between the Tojo Clan and the Omi Alliance." Markus started off with. "If both sides are too exhausted in terms of manpower or resources, then any significantly strong Yakuza Family or an alliance of various Yakuza Families can take out both factions at once and make their own power play." Markus said to Kashiwagi. "You also said that the Omi Alliance and Tojo Clan were pushed out of Kineicho a while ago, and suddenly a new and mysterious Yakuza Family took over, and no members were ever seen or confirmed." Markus said. "I don't believe in coincidences like that."

"So what are your plans then Markus?" Kashiwagi asked curiously.

"It's simple, at some point, I need to make a visit to Kineicho." Markus said as he made his fingers into a gun like like signal before he aimed it at the map where the city of Kineicho was located. "And do some house cleaning." He said in a deadly calm voice.