Taming the Sushi Girl — Act Cute for Me (2)
Han Min-guk had no intention of swallowing Japan whole.
A look around the islands told him the land wasn't particularly fertile, and while port cities were plentiful, none of them looked like they could serve as a real trade hub. The accessibility couldn't compare to Busan.
Still, getting mixed up with Japan hadn't been a total loss.
"Yuka, you look way too happy whenever you eat sushi."
"That's... sushi is oishii, after all."
What he'd gained was talent.
Shogun Takahashi Yuka was a female he absolutely had to have working under him. The gift of commanding a dozen-odd warships as if they were a single body was something you had to be born with. Judging by everything Yuka had shown him so far... she was, without a doubt, a Great Admiral.
The problem was that women as exceptional as Yuka usually came with equally massive pride. Even a woman who held the lofty rank of Shogun wasn't about to go crawling between some other man's legs.
"Yuka, think you could pour me a drink?"
But with her weakness in his hands, the story was different. Yuka was terrified of looking like an incompetent ruler and losing the people's support — and just then, Hannam seemed to be holding the solution.
"Hai! I'll pour Hannamu-sama a cup of sake."
Yuka hadn't exactly fallen for Hannam just because he kept stroking her waist and her ass... but the guy was a ruler she could learn a great deal from. If she set her pride aside for a little while and picked up his secrets of statecraft—
I can make Nihon great too!
Glug, glug, glug—
The Shogun knelt demurely and filled Hannam's cup. When he pulled her into his arms she didn't dare push him away, and when he drunkenly ruffled her hair she let out a shy little "hehe" and smiled. Having her pride broken still hurt... but right now, staying in Hannam's good graces came first.
"Etto... Hannamu-sama? When are you going to teach Yuka how to grow the population?"
Yuka dropped her usual tough way of speaking and asked in a deliberately sweet, gentle voice. She still didn't want to look like too easy a woman, though, so when he reached for her breasts she twisted her body away.
Hmm. Not a complete sushi girl just yet.
Hannam wasn't treating Yuka the way he handled Hyo-jung or Ye-ji, either. Of course, with the upper hand firmly his, wrapping the sushi girl up and peeling open her kimono would have been nothing... but if he wanted to keep using Yuka going forward, slowly breaking her in was better than crushing her with brute force.
Even a samurai Shogun could become an obedient sushi girl. It would have been unthinkable when he'd first met her, but after watching her shyly confess that "Yuka daisuki sushi too"... it wasn't impossible.
First, he needed to win the female's genuine affection. Even just a little. If she truly liked him, she'd do whatever he told her without a word of complaint.
"Yuka-chan. You want to win back the people's hearts, don't you?"
"Eeh?Watashi's inner thoughts... how did you know, Hannamu-sama?"
"Sushi girls have honest faces, that's how. You're sitting there with your lips all puffed out — of course something's bothering you."
Yuka twisted her legs together, embarrassed that he'd seen right through her. A woman in a kimono acting all bashful and coquettish. She might have been written as a samurai Shogun, but at her core Yuka was a sushi girl through and through. This was the perfect moment for Han Min-guk to play the Sweet Hannam.
"I like you a lot, Yuka. I want to help you win back the support you lost because of me. How about it?"
"Honto desu ka, Hannamu-sama?? Actually... lately I've been scared a ninja might sneak into my room every night—"
So the poor sushi girl hadn't been sleeping. Jesus Christ.... The moisture gathering at the corners of her eyes suggested she was worrying a bit too much about assassinations and coups.
"Hannamu-sama, lately it feels like the people don't recognize Yuka as Shogun anymore... I'm scared."
Had sharing drinks brought them a little closer? Suddenly anxious, Yuka put on a display of clingy affection that was completely unlike her. The Shogun had changed. She'd abandoned her old hard-ass attitude of trying to handle everything alone and was now slyly asking for help.
Maybe it was seeing how fast Pago Pago had developed? Unconsciously, Yuka had come to acknowledge that Hannam was a capable ruler. And a cute sushi girl acting all clingy was always a pleasant sight.
"Alright, I'll help you, Yuka. But—"
Han Min-guk, who hated coming out behind on any deal, attached a condition. Yuka tensed up for a moment — but the demand turned out to be surprisingly trivial.
"Act cute. As cute as you can possibly manage."
Honestly, it was absurd. This was how Hannam conducted diplomacy? Just act a little cute and he'd form a political alliance? Of course, it was a deal where a small investment yielded huge returns, so it was worth considering. But Yuka, who had spent so long protecting her image as a "samurai Shogun," still found acting cute awkward. She may have crawled under Hannam for a while, but the Shogun was still a woman of enormous ambition.
"Hannamu-sama...."
So she decided to throw away that scrap of leftover pride. Yuka, who desperately wanted to keep the title of "Shogun," tried acting cute for the first time in her life.
"I'm gomen for talking so rough on the Geobukseon... Yuka will be really good from now on, so... won't Hannamu-sama help Yuka win the people back? Nne?"
The instant she finished her little performance, Yuka's face went scarlet. The pink kimono only made her look even more like a sushi girl, and then she tucked her hair behind her ear.
Damn, I'm getting the urge to lock this down with a political marriage.
In a thoroughly good mood, Han Min-guk grinned and nodded. She still looked awkward — not a genuine sushi girl yet — but watching the once-cocky Yuka smile like a little girl was a massive achievement all by itself.
This was how you broke in a sushi girl.
Hannamguk gifts pearls to the city of Tokyo!
After the Pago Pago vacation ended, Yuka returned to Tokyo with Hannam. Once again they'd brought pearls, along with all kinds of food and luxury goods from the Pago Pago seas as gifts — but Hannam made a point of praising Yuka in front of every female in Tokyo.
"You should all be grateful to the Shogun."
The logic was that thanks to the Shogun's diligent piracy, they'd been able to buy Pago Pago for dirt cheap.
"I can't even imagine a life without Yuka anymore. Japan's Shogun is a loyal vassal Hannamguk absolutely cannot do without."
When Hannam hyped her up that much, even the other pussies started looking at Yuka differently. They'd thought she was just an incompetent Shogun being dragged around on a leash... but it turned out she'd been the talent who'd led the conquest of Pago Pago.
"Hannamu-sama banzai!"
"Shogun banzai!"
The people cheering the names of a foreign king and Japan's Shogun in the same breath — a moment that by all rights should have been goddamn depressing, except her heart was pounding like mad. Swept up in the feverish atmosphere, Yuka felt a swell of pride for the first time in a long while.
That was when Hannam grabbed a hard handful of Yuka's ass. Then, using the chaos as cover, he slipped a hand onto the Shogun's pussy as well.
"Haaah...! Yamete kudasai, Hannamu-sama."
Yuka said the words, but she didn't actually push him away. His thick fingers pinched the plump mound of the Shogun's pussy, and all Yuka could do was arch her back like a shrimp as the orgasm hit her. She deliberately clasped her hands behind her back. That way Hannamu-sama could touch her as much as he pleased.
"Yuka, when a vassal receives a favor from her lord, what's she supposed to say?"
"Hiiiit...! For helping Yuka when she was in danger... honto ni arigato, Hannamu-sama ♥"
"A little taste of it and you've gone full female on me, haven't you, our dear Shogun."
Yuka, who'd stayed quiet even while her pussy was being rubbed, briefly scrunched up her face. Had he just called her a "female"? The Shogun, who still carried a katana in her heart, found that kind of contempt hard to swallow — but Hannam suddenly pressed in, and Yuka chickened out completely.
"I'm touching the spot that gets a girl all worked up. Doesn't feel good?"
"Heeh?! Iie.... It's just so kimochi that Yuka made a weird face, that's all, Hannamu-sama."
Yuka could no longer talk back to Hannam. Back in her samurai Shogun days, making a living had been hard, but she'd carved out her existence through bone-grinding effort and struggle... These days she just acted cute for a man stronger than herself and took his help, and Yuka could no longer think of herself as a "strong woman."
Thanks to Hannam she'd won back the people's support, but she'd completely surrendered the initiative. A Shogun who'd lost her confidence once was easy to break in.
"Preparations for departure are all done, Hannamu-sama."
"Yeah? Then come into the audience chamber for a bit. I want to give hardworking Yuka a reward."
"Nn... wakatta. Yuka gets the most excited when she gets a reward."
Before setting sail for another round of piracy, Yuka received a reward for "preparing so well for combat." She had no idea what that was supposed to mean, but a vassal state's Shogun couldn't exactly refuse a gift from the Emperor. And since it was supposedly made from silk that had come from China, it had to be something grand.
"Ah! Masaka..."
"That kimono of yours looks a little worn. I had a new one prepared."
Except the hem was so lewdly short that... if she ran in that thing, her panties would show from behind.
"Honto ni arigato, Hannamu-sama."
Only then did Yuka realize what the gift actually meant. Just imagining it was mortifying, but a "favor" shown by her lord was not something she could refuse.
Japan is a vassal of Hannamu-koku, after all.
Rustle. Yuka forced the rationalization through. The sushi girl untied the sash at her waist and spread the kimono she was wearing open to either side. Following Hannam's standing order that the female Shogun go around with no panties and no bra, she revealed her pale, naked body.
"Thank you for giving lowly Yuka... clothes to wear. Hannamu-sama."
To put on new clothes, she had to take off the ones she was wearing. So even though it was humiliating, she stripped completely...
"Yuka. Your attitude of gratitude has been pretty lacking lately. Do you have any idea how much I've done for you?"
Hannam wanted a more intense "thank you" from the Shogun.