Chapter 129: The Return of Meetings

Summary:You know things are dire when an introvert thinks meetings count as a break!

Warning! Chapters 126-129 were all post back-to-back, make sure to catch them all!

Lemon Warning! This chapter contains a Lemon! If that's not your thing, it is clearly marked with -Lemon Starts Here- and -Lemon Ends Here- so that you can skip it!

Chapter 129: The Return of Meetings

Izumi could not believe that she was happy they were in a meeting. Well…happy would be overstating it. Relieved would likely be a better word. It was still a distinctly unnatural thing to feel in regards to a meeting, particularly one she might need to actually do the talking to strangers thing during. Yet, for all that she still wasn't exactly excited about that sort of thing, the conference this meeting was a part of had been a good reason to stall out their various projects for a few days. While Izumi herself hadn't really needed it just yet, it was quickly becoming obvious that Momo's mind was starting to strain under the rapid back-to-back space missions to finish Orbit 1 and deploy as many of the new Shieldmaidens as possible. They'd both been pushing themselves, but Izumi's mind could handle that sort of strain longer than Momo's could. The benefits of being most-of-the-way to being a full-time Android at this point.

Concern for Momo was why she'd been the one to push for them to attend this little meeting of minds. Momo wasn't overly stressed by this sort of thing, actually tending to enjoy big-picture logistical puzzles…and it certainly didn't hurt one bit that her mother, Yaoyorozu Kiyomi, was sitting right next to them. 'Mama Yaoyorozu,' who looked very much like an older version of her daughter, was here representing Yaoyorozu Industries, the primary manufacturing branch of the Yaoyorozu Group. Technically, she was also representing the Group as a whole, but the primary purpose of this meeting was a 'state of the infrastructure' sort of conference. Essentially, with how hard the Empire had been hitting every industrial node it could reach, the powers that be had decided they all needed to officially get on the same page as to how to make best use of what they had left. As well as how to fix what they'd lost, where possible.

This was also a chance for Momo and her mother to spend a bit of time together, though. Something which had been all too rare since the Invasion started. Momo had been looking happier and more relaxed ever since her rather vivacious and high-energy mother had practically tackle-hugged her when they'd first arrived. Izumi made a note, having seen that, that she really needed to make some time to see her own mother as well. Soon. She hadn't realized until that moment how little she'd seen of her mother in the last few months.

Still, happy reunions aside, there was a point to the entire series of 'State of the Nation: Round Table Conferences' that were going on over the course of the week. An important point that would have justified their presence in its own right. Everyone had been doing their best for months to work together and pull in the same direction, for the most part. That didn't mean that there had been much in the way of a centralized or rationalized network, though. As an almost entirely Free Market Economy, modern Japan's manufacturing industry just had not been set up to work as one interlinked whole. Holdover framework and laws from the recovery period after the Quirk Wars had helped patch together something functional in the immediate aftermath of the Invasion. But the result certainly wasn't optimal.

"Ladies and Gentleman, I believe we've all settled in, as well as had a chance to talk shop a bit at the get together last night."

The woman that had gently rapped on the table to gather attention to herself as she stood and spoke was one of the few non-industry and non-government people around the table. Takahashi Yuka was a professionally hostess, one who specialized in controlling the flow of talks like these. Normally, that was within a more scientific setting, at meetings to discuss scientific developments and the like. Now, she was here to make sure the conversation stayed on course to the conference's purposes. To that end, the very next thing she did was yield the floor to someone else.

"Now, however, we need to get this conference properly started. While you should all know him at this point, allow me to introduce Sasaki Haruto, Deputy Minister of Commerce and Industry."

The man, who might only be a Deputy Minister but had been the main point of contact between the government and most of those here in this room for the last several months, rose to make his own short speech. His no-nonsense approach had been immeasurably useful in coordinating between the various titans of industry, scientific minds, and the government bureaucracy.

"I won't waste all our time on flowery words. We all know why we're here. While Japan has fared far better than most, we've still taken a serious hit to our industrial base, and are badly in need of optimization of what remains. As well, of course, as any initiatives that will allow us to rebuild or reclaim any of what we've lost. Of particular note today are the experimental ventures in underwater mining, vertical manufacturing plants, and the Aegis Inc/UA lead space based operations that are just getting under way."

There were nods and murmurs over all three of those. While many approaches were being attempted worldwide, the three Sasaki had called out were the primary focuses here in Japan. The off-shore, underwater mining was an attempt to replace lost trade from other nations that had previously provided a great deal of the raw metals that Japan used. Iron, in particular, was becoming a critical problem as Japan had never had significant domestic sources.

Vertical manufacturing plants, meanwhile, were an attempt at translating the vertical farm model to the manufacturing industry. Essentially, it was an attempt to use skyscrapers as low-footprint manufacturing facilities that could be kept within the RADS array shields of major cities. From what Izumi knew the attempt was going…poorly. Not only was such space already in high demand for both stuffing civilians into and for the vertical farms, but it just wasn't terribly efficient for anything but light industry. Having to haul tons of steel up a skyscraper to build something was a nightmare, particularly as it often meant reinforcing parts of the skyscraper to take loads in ways it hadn't really been designed for. Few people designed their freight elevators with tank turrets in mind.

The last, of course, was their own space-based efforts, which was the primary reason they were here. They could have sent a representative, but Izumi had pushed for them to attend the four-day conference as a sort of mini-vacation, having seen Momo heading for a bit of a mental collapse. It had meant shuffling the schedule for Orbit 1's continuing construction, but Izumi had sold everyone on the idea of rearranging the time to be used for flight training the crews intended for Inari 2 and Inari 3, the soon-to-be-completed copies of Inari 1 that were designed to shuttle people to and from the space stations.

"Before any of that, however, we need to get an overall rough accounting of were we stand. Takahashi-san will be calling on each of you in turn for that, though I ask you to keep it short and concise. Takahashi-san, if you would?"

The younger woman nodded, standing as the Deputy Minister sat. Directing her attention to a specific section of the table, she called up the first company representative.

"Hitachi Ltd, you're first up. A brief overview of the state of your capabilities, please."

An older man, representing one of the few pre-Quirk companies that had survived the Quirk Wars mostly intact, stood and began to speak. Izumi settled in for a long few hours of meeting. Boring, but needed before they got the interesting bits…

… …

"And that's about the size of it. Previous exploratory methods were all focused on more exotic materials than iron, while also attempting to mitigate environmental effects. Bringing in some specific Quirks has helped, and we're making progress, but we're far short of where we'd hoped as far as how much ore we can bring up how quickly."

Izumi hummed quietly to herself. Frankly, her and 2B's own projections had lined up fairly well with the results. She didn't blame the Underwater Mining teams for having been overly optimistic, but it was a case where she'd have been just as happy being wrong. Besides, even she and 2B had failed to anticipate that the enemy would try to open Rifts into the underwater spaces. Let alone that they would succeed. Losing an entire team to that nasty surprise had been a major setback, not to mention it had firmly proven that just building big water-tight domes underwater to handle the mining wasn't viable. The mining had to be done with the water still present to keep Rifts from being opened right into the working area. Which, to say the least, complicated things.

"Very well, thank you for the update Tanaka-san. Now, Ichiyasu-san if we could move on to your report on the vertical manufacturing attempts?"

A tall man who, despite the very Japanese last name, looked more like he was Samoan, stood with a frown on his face.

"I'm afraid what I have to report is mostly negative. We've had some results with light industry, mostly for civilian needs, but…

… …

"…and with that, we can say with fair confidence that Orbit 1 will be complete within the month. Orbits 2-5 will all go up much faster, but we can't realistically expect the Forge or Refinery stations to start coming online in less than three months. Inside six we anticipate having a true deep-space mining loop going, one that can feed the orbital Refineries and Forges a steady diet of most materials. But we shouldn't expect massive ramp up in production until roughly that time frame. Possibly a little faster, if the asteroid capture teams are successful at snagging a few Near Earth Objects."

Momo paused, waiting a beat for the hostess to acknowledge her, then sat down with a mostly satisfied sigh. Unlike the other two teams, what they had to report was actually ahead of anyone's projections but their own. Something that was causing quite a few people to send hopeful looks their direction. They might not have a solution yet, but if the world could just manage to pull through for another six to eight months, there would be a sharp ramp upward in off-world production that the Invaders couldn't touch.

Of course, given the state of the industry that they'd been hearing about for hours earlier, that might be a tall ask. Izumi frowned as she realized they might have to try and push for greater production of the Power Armor sooner than they'd hoped. Their primary focus until now for Aegis had been the Shieldmaiden Mechs. The handful of Power Armors they'd made were all hand built for the UA Guild, rather than mass produced.

Yet, they were a better answer for immediate security of some of the industrial nodes, as well as the cities, than the Mech Armors were. The Shieldmaidens were needed to push the enemy back, particularly on the African front which was an increasingly disastrous incursion. But they weren't suited for combat in cities or industrial parks. If they could get at least some production of the Power Armors going, it could maybe stem the losses a bit…and free up some more Heroes from protecting cities, too. Power Armor troops could theoretically help fill the gaps in the militia, after all.

Making a note to consider it, Izumi noted that the day seemed to be winding down. Most of those in attendance didn't have her endurance and they weren't going to get anything more done if they kept pushing. Well, that was fine. Part of the reason they'd needed to get away was to have some time to decompress, and she had plans for Momo.

Sexy plans.

… …

-Lemon Starts Here-

Momo moaned around the panties shoved in her mouth. Given how skimpy the thong she'd been wearing had been, they didn't do the best job of muffling her moans. But given their location, it would be enough. Wind and distance would do more to wipe away the sounds than any scrap of cloth would...probably.

For they were on top of a skyscraper.

Momo most certainly wasn't wearing any clothes.

Also, if anyone actually caught them there would be public indecency charges.

This one last stop of the day had, of course, been entirely Izumi's doing. Something she'd carefully scouted out the possibilities for before the conference. The two of them had been so busy recently that they hadn't had much time for the more adventurous sex that Momo so adored, and Izumi had been determined to make sure her lover blew off some steam on this trip in that very fun fashion as a result. It would, admittedly, have been better if Jirou had been able to come along. But it hadn't been justifiable as their other girlfriend had no part in their business activities.

Izumi had snuck Momo out onto the roof twenty minutes ago, sliced her clothes off of her while they made out…and then proceeded to use strong silk rope to tie her 'helpless' girlfriend to the metal superstructure under the giant 'Glory Os' cereal company billboard, which was currently half a dozen meters over their heads. Thankfully, regarding the possible indecency charges, Izumi had planned this out with precision. She'd set this spot up with a micro holoprojector that was concealing what was going on...from one side. Momo, of course, wasn't aware that the projector was there. Which meant that her exhibitionist girlfriend was enjoying the belief that anyone with a pair of decent binoculars might see what was going on.

Unless someone was in just the right place, with some sort of hearing enhancing Quirk or gear, they should be thoroughly undetectable. But it certainly didn't feel that way to the moaning Momo, who was bound facing outward, a meter and a half off the ground, looking out over the city with her tits out on full display.

Not to mention her girlfriend standing between her forcefully separated legs, eating her out as she hung there helpless. Her legs had been tied spread wide to two support beams, perfectly at Izumi's head height as she had mounted Momo to the superstructure. And Izumi had been taking full advantage of that helpless exposure of her girlfriend's intimate bits for the last several minutes. Working her over, but not yet letting her cum. Momo's moans turned to a whimper of dismay as Izumi pulled away…only to squeak a few moments later as an oddly curved toy replaced Izumi's tongue, parting Momo's lower lips. The reason for its odd shape only became apparent when it was fully inserted, the curved, near-C-shape both holding it in place against Momo's G-spot…and resting the outer portion of the toy against her clit.

Izumi grinned up at her, letting go of the toy and pulling something else out of her inventory. Momo's eyes widened at the roll of clear tape, and she shuddered moments later as Izumi tore a strip off and used it to more firmly secure the toy. Given her girlfriend was a cyberpath, it was little surprise to Momo that no remote control appeared before the toy began to lowly vibrate, forcing new noises of pleasure from her gagged lips as it assaulted her intimate parts.

So distracted was she by the toy, that Momo almost missed the next thing Izumi did. Almost. It was a bit hard to miss Izumi summoning a Pod, even if it was an extremely primitive one that didn't need much more in the way of commands than a drone. Its purpose became evident as Izumi slipped her own panties from under her skirt and sat on the Pod as it lifted her up to Momo's head-height. Blushing a bit as she pulled up her skirt to expose herself just for Momo, Izumi finally spoke after doing the entire setup in silence.

"Well, it looks like my little toy needs something better than panties to keep her mouth muffled, doesn't she? Only one warning, Peaches. If you cum before I do, I'm leaving you out here for a few hours, just as you are, with the toy set to full blast. Who knows who might find you if that happens? Better get to work!"

As the Pod slid close enough for Momo's head to vanish between Izumi's legs, the toy inside her began to pulse a far faster, far more powerful erotic thrum. Eyes widening at the strength of the stimulation, Momo dove to her task with a will. Even if the idea of being left there to cum her brains out for hours was its own sort of exhilaration, and she could probably escape if she had to, Momo wasn't about to leave her girlfriend's challenge unanswered…

-Lemon Ends Here-

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A/N: Yep, you're probably already expecting this bit. Once per release, I remind people that there is Early Access content available On My Page.  Note that NONE of my fanfiction works are paywalled permanently. If you don't feel like supporting me, that's just fine, it will end up here eventually :-). If you DO feel like supporting me, currently chapters 130-134 are available over on , adding another 15,000ish words to the fic! As well as similar amount of early access content for my other fics. All for just a single dollar a month! I'm not trying to be super greedy here, just trying to support the writing time I need to maintain several ongoing fics ;-).