Revenge of the Doge

"Well that makes perfect sense. Huh. I suppose all is forgiven... The Beach?!" Yuzuki's surprise was genuinely happy as she clapped her hands to her mouth and looked at Hideki. It was promptly stuffed under a small perfect frown and disinterested eyes. "I would enjoy going to such a place, but I would need a proper chaperon. Someone from my family or a peer."

"No. I can walk myself, in dog form or not it will be no hassle." Yuzuki glanced over Hideki, a bit tired but rather unwilling to say anything at all. It would be improper! And in dog form it was harder to be carried comfortably...

Well, at least she forgave him for the makeshift picnic's shoddiness... Wait, when did he start buying into all of her negativity? C'mon, Nishimura! You know better then to let some tsun get to you! "O-Oh?" He was honestly surprised to hear her so positive about something. "W-well.." C'mon, think fast. He could chaperone? NOOO, that was just ASKING for snark. "Hrm.. Maybe another noble, or a senior captain would be trusted?" He started trying to think of a suitable candidate. He needed to get to know his fellow captains better.

He gave a small look of concern before trying to hide it. "Well, not that you'd get tired, but if you didn't feel like walking, let me know. I don't think it'd be a problem to carry you when there's not a giant monster chasing us."

"It would depend on the noble or captain. It would not be my trust you must assuage, but my family's. They would not take kindly to your suite." Sniffing, she remembered his earlier words with a bit of trepidation. It wasn't like he wanted such things from her, he merely was doing as he normally did and showed her new or fun things that friends could do together. Still Yuzuki's mouth moved with insults or put downs before she got a hold of it.

Looking at him, she rolled her eyes. "Fine. As you wish. You shall carry me the whole way back, soggy hair and all. Do you know how much it soaks up water? It shall drip the whole way. I wish you good luck with such."

He rolled his eyes. Well, there we were, back to class shots again. He looked over at her, considering being dejected, or snarking back. But he found himself just... smiling. "All right. I'll find someone completely reliable for it. I promise." He took a step closer to her, wondering to himself is she actually wanted him to carry her. There was an eyeroll and her usual tsun tone, but she went on at length about it.. Hrm... He was likely going to get an earful, but he knew she was tired.

Without missing a step, he reached over and, his arm coming up under her legs first, scooped her off the ground. Though of course not before pulling her hair up with his free hand, draping it back and forth over his arm. "I don't mind getting wet if you'd prefer I carried the excess length of your hair. I know I shouldn't touch it, but I don't want to let it touch the ground." He said, finishing his scooping. He adjusted her weight for a moment to get a better hold on it. He was still spindly weak for a captain, but Yuzuki felt lighter then she had a few weeks ago.

"Thank you. I would suggest someone of impeccable background, though I do not know of anyone you could ask myself. Maybe someone like Captain Shirakawa, though I doubt you would be able to get him to come along just because." Yuzuki nodded, hoping to help him but knowing anyone she asked her family about would make her seem too eager. It could be troublesome if they thought she wanted to go badly.

As Hideki grabbed both her and her clothing, she muttered only one small complaint. "You could warn me next time so I am prepared. Also, it is fine. We are friends and friends do each others hair, I have read. Your concern for it touching the ground is unwarranted, but I shall file it away for future owing."

As he adjusted her, she grabbed onto him to make it easier on herself and Hideki. If she could support some of her weight, making it not dead weight... Honestly she was pleased with this being carried. All that running around tired her out, plus swimming. Glancing up at Hideki, she looked away after a minute. It was odd to see his head above hers, her eyes glancing aside after a moment. "Well? Are we going or do you plan on us starving or thirsting forever here?"

He gave a small "oh." And began walking, shifting the bundle of clothes he'd picked up a little so they wouldn't be bothering her. He nodded. "I'll talk to him. He seems nice enough from what little I've seen of him. I'll find some way to convince him." He would, too. His arms tightened a little bit, not wanting to drop her as they headed into the labyrinth. He went over the pathway in his head mentally, since he'd forgotten to leave more knives along the way. He wondered if future historians would wonder why there was a lone knife with a 1 on it stuck into the wall.

"My apologies. I'll give you a warning next time." He said, lifting her hair and throwing it around her shoulders, leaving enough slack so her head wouldn't feel any pull, but keeping it well off the ground and off of her. He caught her eyes when they glanced up at him, looking back up where he was going. He felt... calm... He reflected briefly on her calling him a friend again and if he should read into it again. Nah, Nishimura... Just give her time... Besides... He glanced down at her again and smiled. This certainly wasn't so bad as was, after all.

"He's very much into his duty, so good luck with that." Yuzuki mumbled, though she was able to steal cookies from the man she doubted Hideki could convince someone like Masaru into anything like a beach visit just to let Yuzuki do something fun. She felt his arms tighten as they entered the labyrinth again, glad he wasn't going to drop her. That would be rather annoying and plus? Embarrassing. She wasn't planning on throwing herself from his arms again either.

Sighing at the state of her hair, she grumbled. "That would be most appreciated... I'm going to spend hours getting my hair untangled from the remains of those braids later. It won't be fun... Especially since they'll dry and get all tangled more."

It was soft grumbling, less to him and more to herself. She was wondering why she had shifted into human form for things so quickly. She COULD have made him take her back another time! With her hair properly prepared for swimming. It was way too long to deal with without something like a few large braids. Hideki's smile though as he carried her made her startle, looking away. "Whats got you in such a happy mood?"

"I'll find some way. I promise." He said resolutely. He would, too. He didn't have a lot of professional favors to call in, but he could find some way to deal with the man. Now if only he had a good reason to talk to him or some sort of link... Hrm... Aoi maybe? Hm. Entirely possible. She was his lieutenant after all. Yes. He would talk to Aoi. Not like he knew anybody else who was close to Masaru. He glanced down, opening his mouth to say something. He didn't know a lot about hair, but maybe he could... He noticed how intent she was on her hair and decided to say nothing again.

Good, too. He might not have been able to keep from giving some small laugh or giggle at her suddenly looking away. "Oh, nothing in particular. Just... today, this adventure. It was fun. I'm just happy you came by today."

Yuzuki turned back just in time to see Hideki open his mouth, it wasn't like she could stare at much else here. The walls were the same as when they had come in! It was boring staring at unmoving walls and Hideki had the best reactions sometimes.

"Well I did enjoy it too so I guess your enthusiasm is warranted in some manner. Adventures are always fun! Even the last one was fun in some way. Our next one is the beach then? Do you have a secret hidden one planned?"

His smile only widened as she gave her hesitant praise. So she had enjoyed the day. He was glad. She was also more than a little cute trying to be formal when he was carrying her like this. Hrm... She had a point though. He should have some kind of adventure planned. "I think I have a few in mind. The beach itself might even be an adventure." He did have an interest in shipwrecks after all. "I'll be sure to pack a better lunch next time of course."

"Do not worry. I shall provide lunch, it would be only fitting for me to contribute something. As long as you bring adventure and sand castle construction items." Yuzuki's smug tone suggested she knew her lunch would be so much better than his, though in all honesty it wouldn't be her making it. It would be professionals. She trusted in Hideki's ability to get a chaperon, obviously and was at this point figuring out how to contribute to things.

"I have a bathing suit, I have beach towels and a large beach umbrella... Hm."

"Oh? You will?" He sounded a little excited. "I'm intrigued to see what an heiress to a noble family can cook!" She might have grounds to get upset at him if there were any trace of sarcasm, but there was none. Hideki naturally assumed after her disgust of his meal, and with traditions in her family placing so much on her, that she was probably skilled in cooking in some way or another. "I think I can handle adventure and sand castle materials." Oh yes. Yes he could.

He listened to her list, trying to think of anything else she should need. He had this sudden image invade his mind of Yuzuki in something akin to a diving suit laying on a thirty square foot beach towel with an umbrella that could double as a pavilion. Only experience hanging out with her kept the giggle from escaping him. "Umm.. OH! Sun screen! Lots and LOTS of sunscreen!" Her skin was so sensitive. He had no idea what the beach would do it...

"I shall have my servants make things. I am not versed in such arts, due to... not needing them." Yuzuki turned slightly red. He had assumed she would have such skills?! Why? Her time was better spent learning how manage the people running the kitchen! She'd have the whole household to deal with...

"Well then we are all settled. Lets not make the chaperon do anything. They can just come along and watch over things, even though its not needed at all. But I know them, they will insist. They almost insisted for me coming by, but the Library is a public open place and you are its Captain. There is no doubt on you in such a place."

Looking startled at that suggestion, she then nodded and clapped a fist to her palm. "Yes. the highest SPF I can find. We both have such fine skin, it would be a shame to get burnt as well. If you bring Masaru along he will need it too. Yes."

"O-oh! S-sorry!" He looked mortified. Why did he assume... Crap, of course it would be her servants. "Sorry, I just figured since you said you'd take care of it... I.. I dunno, I thought maybe there was like.." Noo, Hideki. Do not say anything silly about her traditions. "I-I dunno. I apologize."

Quick to forget his embarrassing digging himself into a hole, he seized on the chaperone subject. "Yeah. I'll let him know he doesn't have to do anything. I'll even get him some books to read. Hopefully he has fun though. I'd feel bad if he came along just to be bored silly on that beach." It was true, chaperoning the two of them playing in the sand could easily be boring. "If he wanted to bring a friend to talk to maybe? As long as it was someone who wouldn't rain on the fun-slash-adventure parade?"

"And yes. We'll all need some. It's uh.." Wait.. "Um.. I.. I have nice skin?" His tone was too surprised to really be teasing. "Uhh... Thank you.."

"It is okay, it is something one could assume. However the Heir and Future Head needs more skills than cooking. I do know some things like singing and a few instruments, so I suppose if you wanted more womanly things I could do those?" Muttering it a bit grumpily, she looked away to the walls and kept her gaze there, obvious a bit grumpy at his assumption even with the apology.

Still not looking at the Captain, she nodded. Masaru might be more amenable if they could do something like that. She thought for a brief moment, shrugging slightly. "He could, I don't know anyone he could though. He's kind of someone who is alone a lot. Whatever you can do to tempt him though, do so! I'll help in my own way, I don't think even Captain Shirakawa could be a stick in the mud during adventure. At worst he can help in my sand castle experimentation."

"Welcome. You spend all day inside, of course it would be nice. You don't seem like the type to go out doing things and get your skin ruined." If anything Yuzuki looked even MORE smug at Hideki's reaction. Of course he should be surprised one like her was complimenting it.

"W-womanly?" His mouth hung open, making stuttering noises. "I-I.. .I didn't mean like... I just.. I just thought maybe it was like a traditional thing. I-I mean.. I don't... I don't think women.." He blushed a little, pursing his lips. Crap.. How do you get yourself into these messes, Nishimura? "I-I mean... My dad did the cooking when I was growing up." Well that much was true. He finally growled in grim resignation, sinking a little. He really hadn't meant that though...

He didn't have long to feel bad before a fresh wave of embarrassment washed over him. "I... I go outside... I just... not.. not a lot.. um.. still though... Thank you.. I mean.. obviously my skin isn't as nice as yours." He said, just trying to repay the compliment.

"You thought traditionally the noble women know how to cook? You wouldn't be wrong, but most do run households as well. Its complicated, heavy statistics and people managing. Its like running a business, but its all family so everyone hates everyone sometimes with a heavy rage. No one hates or loves you like family." She didn't seem to take offense to Hideki's obvious assumptions, though she did roll her eyes. "You said as much before, or it was assumed since you told me about your life."

"Of course not, I take such good care of it. I like my tattoos to stand out as much as possible, they are too wonderful." Yuzuki nodded at Hideki's compliment, more smug smiles as she rubbed her arm. She turned her attention back to the walls, wondering when they'd exit this place. Her hungry had been growing more than a bit...

Huh. Being head of a household sounded... different then he'd expected... He'd kind of assumed nobility did a lot of sitting around drinking tea or something? Okay, for all he knew about history, he realized he didn't actually know a lot about culturally what nobles DID in their day to day lives. He supposed it made sense. If you were the head of the household, you were the boss of everyone who lived there. As far as their entire lifestyles sometimes, as with Yuzuki. He hadn't thought about it before, but now that he did it honestly made his head spin. "Well, I figured traditionally nobles knew how to cook period, women or men. Still, my mistake." He said with a glum little smile.

"Well, they certainly do stand out." He paused, making sure not to stutter. "Not to speak inappropriately, but they're really rather lovely." He finally spotted the dagger he'd stuck in the wall. "Aha. Here we are." He said, exiting the labyrinth and back into the alcove with the reading table. "Hrm. Never did figure out these books. Oh well. If there's ever a shortage of adventures, we can revisit this one, right?"

"Its truly okay. People think its so mysterious being noble, but really its just a lot of work. And the work doesn't go away when you come home either." Yuzuki shrugged in Hideki's arms, not sure she liked the rather put down look on Hideki's face in the least. She decided to make up for it by not commenting on how it was still rather inappropriate to comment like that anyways.

"Good, they are doing what I intend them to. Now onto important things like... Why can't we just take them with us?" Moving her body, she tried to get out of Hideki's arms so she could at least get another look at them. "Let me down, I wish to get finished dressing and examine them one last time."

"Huh.. Makes being a captain look almost easy." Not that he was doing a spectacular job as captain yet. He still was trying to get half the squad under his thumb. Like that bastard Craig... He noticed something off about her shrugging. Eh? What was the matter? She was shifting a lot. "O-Oh. Alright." He said with a smile, letting her down gently, feet first. He straightened himself up, cracking his back, before walking back over to the table.

"Well, I was thinking that I didn't want to relocate the lot of them all at once in case it might accidentally damage some clue to be found here... But I could always just scan all of the books into Librom to look over later. That could take a while though." He picked one up, leafing through it before looking over at her. "Did you have another idea?" he asked, wondering if she'd thought of something.

"I can't imagine doing both at all." Yuzuki shuddered, thinking that one noble was insane for his work. As she was set down, she quickly sorted out her hair and the rest of her clothes. Putting the other layers on, she finished as best she could with such. It was sigh worthy, but she'd be fine. She could always blame it on a sudden shifting to dog form.

Heading over to the table, she mused lightly as she picked up another book and looked through it like before. "Well if it would be much easier, we can come back another time. I do not mind such a visit again. Its a worthy mystery, even then I could bring a bathing suit to explore the water parts more and check up on the markings with more resources."

"Right? I'm still trying to get my bearings on just being a captain." He smiled. It was impressive. With everything he'd heard from Yuzuki and everything he discovered about being a captain. It was like working two demanding full time jobs at once. He glanced over once she'd finished getting dressed. She seemed disgruntled. Should he say she looks nice? No, fool, she'll think you're just saying it to be nice. But she DOES look nice. Quiet, Nishimura.

"Yeah, that would be a lot of fun. I could bring proper food and drink next time." He mentally went over the list of things he could cook. It was a short list... Maybe he could get someone to help him make a picnic lunch? "Hrm...I should talk to R&D... If we're lucky maybe they might have something like a scuba tank or something that would let us explore underwater. If we could get down into that spring, we could go spelunking... Although... Spelunking is kind of dangerous even when breathing isn't a problem." He glanced at her. He had no problem risking it... but bringing Yuzuki along? Then again, now that he'd said it he probably couldn't talk her out of it if he tried.

"Well you seem to do a good job Hideki. Your division hasn't burnt to the ground." Yuzuki nodded solemnly, quite assured that Hideki would be soothed by such knowledge. It could have all burnt while he was running it, that would be bad. So see it was fine!

As far as she was concerned.

"Well as long as you can cook. I would rather not die of weird things or diseases from bad food preparation." Yuzuki looked at Hideki with

"...Scuba tanks... would be ingenius. We really should bring some and explore. Going into that hole would be dangerous though, we should be utterly prepared. Since the flow is up, there must be a source. If its an underwater river it could have branches and getting caught and pulled along one would be...bad." Her mind working five steps ahead by now, she was plotting out how to get around such a problem. "I wonder if the R&D department has... instead of tanks themselves, but respirators. To convert the oxygen in the water to form we could breathe in. They we would only have to worry about the hundred of other dangers other than drowning!"

If it wasn't obvious she was already excited, wandering over to the slide to try and get outside now.

He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah... at least there's that..." He said, unconvinced that that was any sort of indication of his success. Still, she didn't... SOUND sarcastic... He should just go ahead and accept the praise.. or... grim acceptance. Whatever.

"Oh man!" He said suddenly, looking up. "Rebreathers! That'd be awesome! I thought that'd be cool, but I thought you might think it sounded stupid!" He exclaimed, too excited to filter himself. "Now we just need to figure out some way to make sure we don't get dashed on rocks if the current picks up." He said, no trace of sarcasm.

He watched her head to the slide and walked up, digging around on the ground and finding a rope tied to a point near the entrance. "Here. Uh... The rock can be sort of slippery. You should hold this to make sure you don't fall."

Hideki accepted her praise! Faint as it was, it as still praise. He really should be more happy about it, Yuzuki giving him a grumpy glance not much different from her usual glances. That neck rubbing...he did that a lot she noticed. Was she the cause? This would be something she'd have to test...

Still it was nice to have the exuberant Hideki back, and she looked smug while her arms crossed. "I would be insulted if I were in a lesser mood. However, I accept that you had the idea as well. Its a good one yes? The Research department should definitely have information or know if its possible to make some if they do not have them. Well, we can't solve it all at once. Lets think on things for the moment and feed ourselves."

Thinking for a moment, Yuzuki couldn't seem to come up with something yet. However she put it into the back of her head to stew for a while. It could pop up with a new focus later, right now she should focus on climbing. Grabbing the rope, she started climbing up carefully. "Thank you for your help Hideki."