Tabuki groaned as she hauled herself to her feet. Not loudly, but enough that Emerald began to stir, and within moments she had roused herself as well.

"Early..." she mumbled, not bothering to attempt to conceal a yawn. "Got orders...?"

"Yes. We should make our way back to the palace... but I had also wished to converse further with miss Yuugi upon certain topics, and am uncertain..." Tabuki began, before noting the blankening stare Emerald was giving and shifting her speech accordingly. "I wanted to talk more with her about a few things. I don't know that I'm up to walking back to the palace, only to turn around and walk back here, though. If I have to, of course, but..."

"'S fine." Emerald replied, waving the concern off. "You're still in recovery, gonna be a few days before you're back in top shape. Tell me what you want done, and I'll set the troops to it. I'll also keep an eye on these girls for you. Make sure they don't get nibbly on anyone while you're having downtime." She finished, nudging one of the zombies slightly.

Tabuki nodded and closed her eyes for a moment, thinking deeply before she opened them and began to relay specific instructions. Emerald's brow furrowed a little, and she mumbled softly to herself, but nodded in affirmation after a minute.

"Got it, no sweat. Now... just you make sure she always knows exactly where you are, until the girls get here, okay?" the fairy instructed hesitantly. "Especially if she starts moving boxes... or you're sitting in a chair she likes... or you're on the floor for any reason. It's a little difficult for big people to keep track of us sometimes, and... well, accidents happen..." She mumbled awkwardly. "No permanent harm done, of course... but you're not actually a fairy either, so..."

"I'll be careful." Tabuki promised.

"That's all I want."

With that, Emerald turned and took hold of the undead fairies by their collars, and dragged them along with her as she left to pass orders along to the troops. Tabuki was left with the arduous task of waiting for Yuugi to drag herself out of an alcohol coma.

Several hours and a quick nap of her own later, she was rewarded with the Oni's slow stirring. Then, just as she looked to settle down and drift back off into complete sleep, the chair she was occupying fell backwards, tumbling Yuugi out to sprawl messily across the floor. After a moment, she sat up, rubbing her eyes.

"Morning... still here?" She asked in a daze of sorts. "Gimme a minute and I'll wash up and cook you break..." She paused and shook her head. "Wait. I got a little drunker than normal last night, so I can't actually remember. Did we...?"

Yuugi made vague, slightly obscene hand motions, and Tabuki coughed softly to herself.

"No. Not a bit."

"Oh. Didn't think so, but had t' check." She replied, yawning widely. "I'll make breakfast anyway. And I should probably check to see if any of those idiots have killed each other."

She stood and staggered over to a pump set in the wall, stripping down and tossing her clothes aside as she went, then pumped out a bucketful of cold water and dumped it unceremoniously over her head. She hissed, eyes widening at the sharp, cold shock, and Tabuki noted the floor beneath the Oni to be uneven, spillage washing down towards the wall where it fell through metal grates. Yuugi shivered and cursed softly to herself, shaking the water off before pumping out a second bucketful and retrieving a cloth to scrub at herself properly.

Tabuki had long since turned her eyes aside and pretended to be fascinated by the pattern of dings and chips knocked free from a nearby stone wall, but couldn't help but overhear a deep sniff and 'should probably wash this...' before Yuugi started to make a small racket opening drawers and cupboards to dress herself. Once it settled down, she turned her gaze back, to find Yuugi fully clothed and grinning down at her.

"Something wrong?" She teased. "Am I not nice to look at... or is it that I'm too nice to look at? Are you blushing?"

"I'm married." Tabuki answered simply, and while Yuugi's eyebrows rose, she seemed to accept the rebuttal well enough.

"Anyone I know?" She asked, instead of pressing her amusement.

"... I guess that depends on how well you got to know her while she was here." Tabuki hedged.

Yuugi blinked, but it only took a moment before things seemed to click.

"Huh. That's a bit more... permanent of an arrangement than fairies usually go in for." She pointed out.

"It was an interesting situation." Tabuki replied, still evasive about the matter.

"I'll have to get the details sometime. Need a lift?"

"It would be appreciated." Tabuki admitted, and Yuugi carefully lifted her off the cushion and onto her shoulder, then hefted the bucket.

"Let's see who's still alive, then!" She cheerily declared.

---

The empty patch of rock and dirt had taken a little bit of a beating, but not so much as the Oni fighting in it had. All were filthy, covered with a mixture of cave-dust, sweat, and blood that had mixed and congealed into a nasty sort of muck smeared all over their clothes, skin, horns and hair. Aside from that, their situation differed to small degrees. One was still standing, panting heavily and clearly doing her best not to fall over. Two were prone on the ground, one unconscious, and the other simply rasping for breath, trying to rise. The last was buried, upside down, to her hips in the earth, and hadn't quite yet found the proper mixture of motivation and strength to rip herself loose.

Yuugi immediately kicked the lone standing Oni in the back, sending her face first into the dirt in front of her.

"Breakfast time, scum!" She barked, tossing two unbutchered cave-squid she'd taken from the kitchens down on the ground, then dropping the bucket next to them. "This morning's cuisine is raw meat and dirty bathwater. Fight over who gets what bits, then take a nap. I'll come kick you worthless maggots awake when it's time to start trying to beat each other to death again. Have fun until then!"

The half buried Oni started thrashing about wildly in an attempt to find leverage, as the others crawled their way over to start ripping at the food like wild animals, and Yuugi nodded to herself, pleased with how things were progressing, before she made her way back inside.

"... I'm not entirely comfortable with this sort of thing." Tabuki admitted, after a long minute of contemplation as Yuugi bustled about the bar, putting things in order and opening a window for the fairies Tabuki had called for to make their way inside. "Is this... a common sort of training, for Oni?"

"No, not really." Yuugi admitted freely as she switched the sign on the door to 'Open'. "It's closest to some of the standard policies for breaking captured human warriors and tormenting the souls of the legitimately damned, back when we still did either of those around here, but I didn't want to go quite as far as personally brutalizing them right off the bat, or things like giving them three cups of water and one of... Eh, you're probably happier not knowing. I mean, I like these girls, and all, and I'm sure they appreciate the lenience. They're Oni, though, they can take it."

"I suppose you would know better than I would..." Tabuki decided after a moment of uneasy thought. "But in any case... you mentioned something about uniforms the other day?"

"Huh. Oh yeah.. just a second. Hey! You." Yuugi called, pointing at a fairy. "Wiggling too much. You're trying too hard to be eye candy. Relax a little, you don't need to put that much effort into it. You're here for ambiance and to serve drinks, not flaunt yourself like a streetwalker. Sorry, what?"

"Uniforms." Tabuki repeated.

"Huh... Oh, yeah, right. Anyway, it shouldn't be hard to find something suitable, the toy shop should have a couple things that'll work. It's important that they shouldn't be too concealing... but not too revealing, either. Enough to catch the eye, and start someone wondering about what they don't see. Like, the skirt hem should be above the knee, but still totally cover the thighs, you know?" Yuugi said, perfectly seriously.

".... I'm not sure I'm entirely comfortable with the way this is going." Tabuki pointed out. "Your waitresses aren't..."

"No, no, no, no, you have the wrong idea. This isn't a brothel. A fair bit of having them is for decoration and aesthetics, though. People like being waited on by pretty girls." Yuugi admitted. "There's a strict 'no-touching' policy for when I have waitresses, though: looking only, no matter how drunk you are, or I'll throw you out through the wall. Nobody'll be getting grabby or anything. Anyway, I'll pay an extra silver for them being properly uniformed, and that should be enough to start them learning properly how to do the job. As their skill increases, I'll bump up their wages a little too."

Tabuki nodded slowly.

"Let's... just change the subject, for now. You mentioned something about brawling, too?"

"Right, right. I can show some of your fairies how to brawl right, instead of swinging their fists around wildly and hoping they end up somewhere important. Not going to be easy on my part, of course, because if I try to demonstrate they'll just get mashed, so it'll cost you a bit. It'll take a couple days of work, and it won't be free, time is money and all. They'll come out of it hitting a little harder and able to take more hits themselves, though. Might be able to do something with your girl, too. Anyway, it'll take... hm, I'd usually say more, but let's make it five silvers each, and I'll only take groups of at least four at a time."

"Acceptable." Tabuki decided, then glanced back in the direction of the Oni outside.

"Don't worry about them." Yuugi insisted, divining the thought before it could be spoken. "I've known them for a long time, they'll probably all survive what I'm going to do to them."

"Not the most reassuring thing you could have said..." Tabuki mumbled. "But whatever. maybe you could tell me something about them?"

"Heh, no problem. I first met-"

Emerald burst through the door, followed by three zombies, interrupting their chat.

"Taaaaaabbbbbyy..." She called, clearly fretting about something, and ignoring how she'd disturbed the early-afternoon drinking crowd that had already begun to make their way in. "We've got trouble! Cirno noticed us! She just captured the area sitting between us, and she's demanding a meeting with you. Right now! I've also spoken with the other group, that set of tunnels we just poked into has us right next to one of Sunny Milk's territories, and she'll know we're making troop movements in a few hours at most!"

"Hm..." Yuugi said idly. "Well, it looks like you have more important things to deal with right now than listening to stories. Maybe another time?"

---

Leader: [Cirno] is demanding a diplomatic meeting.

Updated report of area TIII-3:

[Leader] Cirno. HP: ???, Damage estimation: ??"
Winter Knight [elite] x1. HP: 50, Damage estimation: 11-12
-Equip: [Ice Plate] +20 hp [70]
-Equip: [Ice Shield] +10 hp [80]
-Equip: [Frost Brand] +3 damage [14-15]
Witch [elite] x1. HP: 25, Damage estimation: 15-22
-Equip: [Icicle Staff] +5 damage [20-27]

[ ] Immediately go to meet with Cirno.
[ ] Details first. Need details before diplomacy. Cirno, Sunny, everything about them that Emerald knows and thinks might be important.
[ ] Try to delay the meeting. Send a note of apology, to let her know you're busy. [Cha/Luck]