Hiro Kuat

"Well, here it is," Sara wrinkles her nose in disgust as she gestures at the large, almost palatial building in front of us, "This is that Cripple's Restaurant that your Madam was going to meet you at."

"She's not 'our' Madam." Mari answers distractedly as she takes in the sight of the building towering over a row of neatly parked luxury cars, "Still a weird place to hold a confidential meeting though."

"And why do you call it a Cripple's Restaurant?" Nomi quips looking about curiously, "The name is on the sign board right there. Grand."

"Grand is a Cripple's Restaurant." Sara's frown deepens, "You'll understand once you get inside."

"What's so special about it?" I ask eyeing the pair of human women walking through the restaurant's entrance. The clientele of the place seems to either be local big shots or wealthy expats. A few odd glances are thrown at the old beater Sara had drove us here in, but no one really gives us any bother.

"I, well, don't really want to talk about it." Sara huffs and turns away, "I'll wait out here with the car. You know where to find me once you're done."

"We understand." Mari nods, her face carefully neutral, "Come along Hiro, Nomi."

The two of us fall in behind Mari as she leads us towards the restaurant's entrance. The heavily tinted glass door prevents us from looking inside but the moment Mari steps on to the welcome mat, the door is smoothly opened, revealing an elderly beast man with graying hair and the demeanor of a butler. The beast man's dog ears twitch as he looks at us expectantly.

"Here to see Madam." Mari says and the butler bows deeply, welcoming us inside.

We are taken down a long, dead silent corridor with closed doors flanking us on each side. The occasional serving staff passes us as we walk past, delivering deep bows before moving on with their duties, not saying a word and the thick carpet muffling their footsteps. But I notice something unusual. Everyone that works here is male.The elderly butler eventually leads us to a room right at the end of the corridor and he raps the door before opening it a crack.

"Madam, your guests are here." the butler whispers deferentially, his body blocking us from looking into the room.

"Send them in." Madam's elegant voice orders. The butler opens the door and stands to the side, allowing us to enter the room. The moment the last of us steps inside, the door is closed again with a discreet click. Madam's bodyguards grunt a surly welcome at us and we walk towards the round table in the center the room where plates of food have been laid out already. And sitting at the table is Madam herself, her presence dominating the entire room.

"I've taken the liberty of ordering." Madam says from her place at the table, "None of you mind right?"

"No ..." Mari mutters, completely speechless at the sight in front of her. Nomi's mouth opens and closes like a fish out of water, her mind thrown completely off balance. I've no idea how I look at the moment, but my reaction can't be very far off from what my friends are feeling right now.

Madam quirks an eyebrow at us as she leans back in her chair, flanked by a pair of well groomed beast men. One of the pair is busy ladling food into a porcelain plate while the other lifts a glass of wine to Madam's mouth. She obligingly opens her mouth and begins sipping from the proffered glass. A quick, almost indiscernible nod from Madam later and the glass is taken away to be replaced with a fork gently inserting food into her mouth. As Madam chews, a trickle of juice from the meat trickles down from the side of her lips and one of the beast men hurriedly dabs the liquid away with a napkin. Madam swallows the morsel and opens her mouth again, not bothering to move any part of her body.

"Cripple Restaurant. Yeah I get it now." I murmur as a spoonful of soup is gently fed to Madam. No wonder Sara did not want to come in with us. If you were a beast person, this whole set up had to be deeply humiliating.

"Have a seat." Madam says and we comply, too stunned to do anything else, "This place's quite something isn't it? I wanted to bring the concept to the Citadel, but I don't think the Cathedral is ready for something like this yet."

"Operating in broad daylight like this?" Mari quirks an eyebrow, "You would be shut down. Or maybe shot. Depending whether its the Roses or the militia handling your case."

"Loveless operates at night and its fine." Madam guffaws nastily, "But the moment you start talking about doing something like this when everyone can see, then the Cathedral has a problem with it. I can't say that I understand the reasoning."

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"One outlet for degenerates in the Citadel is enough." Mari hums, "And out of sight is out of mind, right?"

"Too true." Madam agrees and goes back to being fed by the two beast men. There's a discreet knock on the door and the butler enters the room again, this time with a line of beast men trailing behind him.

"Please select your companions, honored guests." the butler murmurs as the beast men line up in front of us.

"I'm fine." Mari dismisses as she glares daggers at Madam.

"I, uh, don't swing that way, but thanks anyway." I reply the butler uneasily. This is not what I expected coming into the meeting. From the corner of my eye I see Nomi swallowing hard and wiping off some sweat gathering on her brow.

"I'm good. Yeah, I'm good." Nomi responds throatily directly at Madam after tearing her eyes away from the beast men parade in front of us.

"No need to be shy." Madam answers, "Its been a really tough few days. You should blow off some steam while you can."

"What are you playing at?" Mari demands, her fist tightening dangerously. I quickly lean over and whisper a warning before things get out of hand.

"We're not in the Citadel." I urge Mari, "We're in Madam's territory now. And that means -"

"Playing by her rules." Mari whispers back unhappily, "I know. I know. But I still don't like this."

"I'll take those two." Nomi quickly pipes up, pointing at a pair of beast men from the row that had been presented to us. Huh, that was a fast turn around. The pair of beast men Nomi selected leave the row and settle by both her sides. Nothing for it then I suppose. We'll just have to go all in on this.

"Uh, that one I suppose?" I point at a beast man with a kindly face. My chosen companion suppresses a smile and joins me, patting me reassuringly on the back. I suppose now both of us are comrades in awkwardness and suffering.

"Whatever. Anyone will do." Mari shrugs and turns back to look at Madam with an annoyed look.

"Wonderful." Madam exclaims as waiters bring the next set of dishes as well as plates of food for us late arrivals, "Then let's eat."

As we settle into the bizarre dining experience to come, my eyes are glued to Madam, whose face positively beams with triumph.

.....

"The food's good at least." Mari begrudgingly admits as the plates are cleared.

"I could get used to outstation assignments at this rate." Nomi comments as her companions painstakingly feed her some chocolate cake.

I want to respond, but my assigned companion had noticed a piece of food lodged between my teeth and is now in the process of prying it out with a toothpick. With no other course of action open to me, I lean back and stare blankly at the ceiling.

"Leave us." Madam orders flatly and all our companions and her bodyguards rapidly file out of the room without any further ado. As I continue trying to dislodge that errant piece of food from between my teeth, Mari takes up the conversation.

"Are you finally ready to have a serious discussion?" Mari snaps, her temper struggling against its reins.

"Yes." Madam sighs contentedly, "I wanted to sample the service at Grand since I'm here. But we can discuss real matters now."

"But why have the meeting here in the first place?" I ask, somewhat confused.

"Because Grand is discreet." Madam explains, "The people who come here have money, power or both. And they don't want their, let's say, proclivities to be made public. This place is the closest thing to a black box in Rais Land."

"You do realize that the Coalition is probably watching us right?" Mari rolls her eyes at Madam's explanation.

"Of course I'm aware." Madam smiles, "The Coalition most likely knows all four of us are in Grand right now. But that's not the point I'm trying to make."

"You're saying the Coalition doesn't know what goes on inside here?" Nomi queries, blinking her eyes at the sudden shift in mood.

"Plenty of people come to Grand just to 'talk'." Madam smirks, "But I think we're probably the only party today that's actually doing that."

"You mean ..." Nomi's voice trails off meaningfully.

"I mean there are VIP rooms upstairs." Madam quips, "Take that as you will."

"OK." I agree rather indifferently, not willing to further explore this weird world Madam has been hinting at, "You're the expert."

"That I am." Madam winks back at me, "Though I might have left you out in my planning. I could make it up to you though ..."

"Its fine!" Nomi raises her voice, "We should be talking business now anyway, right?"

"Yes. Yes we should." Mari takes control of the conversation again, "Have you reviewed the escape plan, Madam?"

"You want me to sacrifice my bodyguards." Madam answers flatly, disapproval clear from her voice.

"There's no other way." Mari replies, "The Coalition air patrols are too tight. We would be spotted the moment we begin our escape."

"You three are Valkyries." Madam harrumphs, "Couldn't you just punch a way out if we get intercepted?"

"We would be dog piled the moment a fight began." I explain, "There's no guarantee any of us could survive such an encounter."

"So you want me to use my staff as a distraction," Madam bites her lip with her eyebrows knit together, "leaving them to be captured."

"Its the best solution we could think of." Mari affirms, "Unless you have a better idea?"

"Look, you'll be with us all the way, Madam." Nomi chimes in, "Once the Coalition intercepts the decoys, we will make a break for the Rose camp out in the concrete desert. No way the Coalition is going to stir up the hornet's nest by poking about there. We'll be safe and in the clear."

"If that's the only way." Madam folds her arms defensively, as if she's shuddering against the cold.

"It is." Mari confirms.

I keep my face neutral for the sake of the mission, but scowl at Mari in my mind. Mari's not exactly telling the truth here. This plan she mooted is not the only way out for us, but by far the safest. It just requires Madam to leave her bodyguards out to dry, providing us with the opening we need. Madam might not know all the details, but the fact remains that she'll be the one bearing the bill for this escape. No wonder she had been messing with us earlier. Madam had to be truly pissed off.

"Alright." Madam sighs, shutting her eyes in resignation. Mari had earlier told me that Madam would agree to the plan, no matter what, since she needed our help to escape more than we needed her. And it seems our Red Rose squad leader has been proven right.

"Good." Mari raps the table, "Now let's go over the details."