Volume 16 - The Mountain, Chapter 121 - On the Town, part 2
While the Wild Life nightclub may have been founded with liminals in mind, it also drew in a fair number of human customers. Some of that was due to the excitement of partying with formally-mythical creatures, but it was mostly just because the Wild Life was the most happening nightclub in town.
Thankfully, the young and hip crowd tended to be more welcoming to liminals than the average mountain-town resident, and they rarely caused trouble. But it did mean that the Wild Life could get crowded, sometimes unexpectedly.
On the night that Yuisu brought Aluru and the other girls, an event at the college campus must have ended around 10pm. Shortly after that, a ton of low-twenty-somethings flooded in and the dance floor got positively packed.
"Want to meet up with Aluru at the bar?" Haru asked over the loud music and voices. She was tired of other dancers bumping into her wings or stepping on her talons.
"Sure!" Yuisu said. Between the dancing and alcohol, she was feeling floaty and agreeable. She swerved her way off the dance floor and beelined for the end of the bar where a very colorful flower acted as a beacon.
Aluru didn't need a stool and 'sat' on her stalk of vines instead, leaving an open stool to her right. Yuisu hopped up on it and patted her thigh, inviting Haru to sit. One nice thing about having a harpy girlfriend was how little she weighed.
As Haru swung her legs over Yuisu's lap and sat sideways, Mimi said, "Ah, the lovebirds have arrived. Flirty as always, I see."
Yuisu put on an exaggeratedly serious expression. "This isn't flirty at all. We're merely making due with the limited seating arrangements in your crowded establishment."
Aluru grinned and said, "If that's true, why is your left hand fondling Haru's ass?"
Yuisu feigned offense, "How dare! I'd never do something like that, and I resent the insinuation." As she spoke, she moved her right hand to Haru's chest and made exaggerated groping gestures.
That earned a hearty laugh from Aluru, Mimi, and even Rohe. After the giggling calmed, Mimi said, "I've gotta get to work, but you two should meet Rohe here. She's the one that recommended that geothermal scientist." Then she rolled down to the other end of the bar to serve other customers.
Yuisu offered her hand, which had recently been pretend-groping Haru's boob, and said, "It's great to finally meet you, Rohe. I'm Yuisu, and this is my girlfriend-slash-homestay Haru."
Rohe reached across Aluru's lap to shake the hand, then she shook Haru's wing as well. "Pleased to meet you two. I've heard a bit about you and the inn you run. I'll have to visit sometime."
Yuisu beamed. "Please do! We'd love to have you." Then she added, "I take it you're an Exchange Program graduate. What are you doing now, Rohe?"
"Oh, I'm a teacher. I teach math at the middle school here in Okayado."
"Wow, that's awesome! Our former homestay Iormu is a teacher at the elementary and high schools. Though the middle school is across town from them, so you probably haven't met her," Yuisu said.
"With that name, I'm guessing she's the giant snake-woman. I've seen her around, but never spoken to her. I'll try to say hi next time I see her."
"That reminds me," Yuisu started, "I was supposed to tell you something when I met you: Kaito says he's sorry, and he said that you would know what he's sorry about. It sounded very heartfelt."
Rohe blinked in surprise and leaned against the bar for support. "Huh. Thanks, I guess. For letting me know."
Rohe's reaction piqued Haru's investigative nature. "Hmm, you seem pretty heavily affected for such a simple apology, Rohe."
Aluru leaned Rohe's way and said, "Yeah, now you've got me curious. What happened between you and that Kaito guy?"
Rohe averted her eyes and busied herself with her jacket. "It's a long story."
"And the night is young," Yuisu said with a smirk. It seems she'd caught the curiosity bug as well.
Rohe shook her head. "It really is a long story. Just the first part took a couple hours when I told Mimi a while back."
"Told me what?" Mimi asked as she rolled up, wiping her hands on the towel that always hung from her skirt pocket.
Rohe sensed that the conversation was approaching the point of no return, but she answered, "About me and Kaito. They want to know why he apologized through Yuisu."
"Oh?" Mimi put her elbows down on the bar and propped up her face with both hands, stretching her grin extra wide. "That's a new development."
Yuisu nodded. "Yeah, he told me to tell Rohe he was sorry, and that she would know why. But she won't explain what he meant."
Aluru grabbed Rohe's hand and pulled it to her chest, nestling it between her green-tinted breasts. She wasn't trying to be flirtatious, but it was her natural state. "Ooh, after hearing how good your stories are, you've gotta tell us this one. Please?" she begged.
Rohe blushed a deep red from the intimate contact and from general embarrassment. She met eyes with the four women surrounding her. They looked like attentive children in class, waiting for her to explain something interesting. Then she sighed and said, "Fine. But this is a really personal story and it might be hard for me to tell it."
Haru and Yuisu scooted their stool closer so they could hear better, making their little group into a square shape, then Yuisu said, "Alright. we're ready."
Rohe started, "I'll have to go way back to give you context, to when I was fifteen. Kaito and I were together for a couple months, back before humanity as a whole knew about liminals. We met in secret at a secluded mountain spring, and we fell for each other, or at least for the other's body."
She blushed as she continued, "We spent a lot of time together at that spring, and we had sex a lot, but—"
"She isn't kidding," Mimi interrupted, "They were screwing like rabbits up in those mountains." She was grinning like an idiot, excited to hear the continuation of Rohe's enticing story that had ended on a cliffhanger last time.
"Ahem," Rohe cleared her throat to reclaim everyone's attention. She really did have the poise of a teacher. "As I was saying, we had sex, but we thought that humans and oni couldn't breed, so we never used protection."
A collective 'Ahh' came from her little audience. They knew exactly where the story was headed next.
"I got pregnant, and my mom noticed my missed period. She confronted me about it, thinking that I'd been visiting another oni settlement. She was more worried about me hiding my boyfriend from her than the fact that I was pregnant. But I couldn't lie to her, and I knew I was in over my head."
"I told her about Kaito, about everything. And I told her that I truly believed that he would never tell anyone about us." Rohe paused and took a big drink of her beer before continuing, "She wanted to believe that, but she had to keep her family safe and hidden from humanity, no matter what. She told me the baby would be a full-blooded oni, and I could raise it if I wanted, but I had to stop seeing Kaito."
"My mother had gotten pregnant with me pretty young, but she'd had my dad to help. I was only 15, but I was smart enough to know I didn't want to raise a kid without a father. And I knew that trying to run off with Kaito would lead us to even bigger trouble."
"It was the hardest decision I've ever made, but I took an herbal abortion medicine, and I told Kaito I couldn't see him anymore." Rohe swallowed hard, as if trying to swallow her sadness.
She'd passed over it quickly, but the bombshell of her abortion stood out sharply to the other women. They could all imagine how terrible that must have been, but there wasn't anything fitting to say about it so they stayed silent.
After a long pause, Rohe regained her composure. She smiled slightly and added, "But before we parted ways, I promised Kaito that if the human world ever opened up to my kind, I would find him again. He kissed me one last time, then hiked away."
"Aww, that's so romantic," Yuisu said quietly, highlighting one of the few glimmers of hope buried in the intense story.
Rohe continued, "It turns out I didn't have to wait long; the Interspecies Exchange Act was signed just a couple years later. I was the very first oni to join the Exchange Program, since most of us were very distrusting of humanity. My homestay went great and I graduated on time, then I immediately enrolled in college, because I wanted to keep learning about anything and everything."
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"I was one of the first liminals in the whole country to enroll in college, so a lot of eyes were on me. It was hard, and some people treated me terribly, but I have thick skin. And it helped that I was both smarter and stronger than most of them."
Aluru nodded energetically. Rohe's firm musculature was a major reason she had caught Aluru's eye.
Rohe sipped at her beer for a moment, gathering her thoughts, then said, "And that was when I sought out Kaito. He'd started university the year before, in another city, but I got in contact with him."
"We met in person and got caught up, but things were always a little awkward between us. We kept remembering those times at the mountain spring, and we knew that with the new Exchange Program rules, we couldn't repeat them. So we just kept in touch, all through college."
"I still remember how happy I was when Kaito graduated and got a great career in geothermal energy. We met up for some beers to celebrate, and we got dangerously close to repeating our old mistake. He was the one that kept a cool head and stopped us in time." A warm and mischievous smile had formed on her face as she remembered that night.
"And then what happened?" Mimi asked, since Rohe seemed to have gotten lost in thought.
"We went our separate ways, but we kept in touch by phone. A year later, when I graduated with my math and education degrees, I called him and invited him to celebrate with me."
"Ooh, did you hook up that time?" Aluru asked. For a die-hard lesbian, she still found stories about straight sex rather exciting.
Rohe shook her head slowly. "No. He turned down the invitation, and told me to stop calling."
"What?!" Haru blurted. She'd gone from zero to angry in a heartbeat. She really hated betrayals.
Rohe continued, "He had a new human girlfriend, and she didn't like liminals. He thought she'd freak out if she found out he was in touch with a liminal girl, especially one he had slept with. So I stopped calling."
The four listening women slumped in unison. Mimi said, "I'm sorry, Rohe. I feel for you on that one."
The other women nodded. Between their species and sexual orientation, they had all felt the pain of being cut out of people's lives.
"Wait a minute," Yuisu said. "If he's apologizing now, maybe he broke up with that woman! You should call him."
"I don't know… You can't just fix things that easily," Rohe replied, her shoulders sagging.
"Well, you definitely can't if you don't try," Mimi said helpfully.
Yuisu nodded vehemently. "Agreed. You should at least try to get back in touch with him. He sounded like a great friend, and I think he still is a good man." She and Haru were leaning in close and staring at Rohe expectantly.
With pressure mounting all around her, both figurative and literal, Rohe finally caved. "Fine, I'll call him, if only to tell him I've accepted his apology. I never really blamed him in the first place."
With that, she stood from her stool and said, "I'm going to step outside where it's quiet. Be right back."
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While Rohe was out, Aluru and Mimi got to know each other, and Yuisu filled Mimi in on the new homestays and guests at the Inn. Mimi was a little jealous of how the influx of visitors had made the place much more exciting than when she'd been cooped up there.
But their conversation stopped the instant Rohe reappeared. They were all more interested in the result of her phone call.
Rohe's eyes were a little wet and red, but she was smiling. "You were right. He broke up with her. Apparently they'd even been married." The other girls were surprised at that, so Rohe elaborated, "She pressured him into getting married quick, and she got more and more controlling after that. She was truly awful to him."
She paused for a breath, then said, "He said that her anti-liminal racism was a red flag that he wished he had noticed sooner. He also told me, 'I should have valued your friendship over hers.'"
"Not bad, not bad," Haru said, nodding slightly.
"He also said he'd like to see me again. I wasn't sure whether he meant 'see me in person' or 'date me', so I asked, 'See me again… as a friend?'"
"He shyly said, 'Uh, yeah, that's what I meant.' But he's honest to a fault and he added, 'At least to start.'"
"Oooh, nice!" Yuisu said. "And nowadays you can get an interspecies relationship approved pretty easy, at least since you're graduated from the program."
"And straight…" Haru grumbled under her breath, too low for anyone other than Yuisu to hear. She wasn't fond of the technicalities that kept their relationship from being legal.
Rohe said, "I told him I wanted to see him again, too. I wanted to keep talking, but it's late and you girls were waiting for me in here, so I'm going to call him back tomorrow." She was blushing brightly and smiling even brighter.
"That's great, Rohe!" Mimi cheered, loud enough to draw the attention of some other patrons. Despite her rough edges, she really cared for her friends and was always happy when things worked out for them.
Yuisu said, "Well, if he comes to visit, he can stay at the Inn free of charge. It's only fair after he helped me with the hot spring thing."
Mimi said, "Oh yeah, Chione mentioned that. Something about building a new pool?"
"More than that, actually," Yuisu answered. "We had a small quake that caused the hot spring to double its flow. We're installing a second pool for day-tourists to make use of that. We're also adding changing rooms for them and expanding the parking lot. The work's coming along well, thanks to Aluru and Haru's help."
"And some of Mara's. She was great with the brick path," Haru added. Then she said, "Where is that little bugger, anyway?"
She scanned the room with her keen eyes and spotted a small pink-haired person standing on a table, apparently ranting about something. Actia and Chione were trying to calm her down and get her off the table and not having much luck.
"Ah. There she is, causing trouble for our night-owls," she said flatly, unimpressed but not surprised.
Yuisu followed her gaze, then said, "I feel bad for Chione and Actia. Let's go take over Mara-duty so they can get some time together." Then she turned back to the others and said, "In case we don't make it back this way tonight: it was great to see you again, Mimi, and it was wonderful to meet you, Rohe."
"You too!" Mimi and Rohe said in unison.
"Jinx!" Mimi said, grinning.
Rohe just shook her head. "That's another thing the kids in my classes keep saying that drives me crazy…"
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When Yuisu and Haru dropped by the table and stealthily offered to watch Mara, Chione happily took them up on it. She stood up, smoothed her clothes, then stretched a hand in Actia's direction. "C'mon, Actia. Let's get out there and dance!"
Actia looked at the crowded dance floor and hesitated. Then she looked at Chione's low-cut blue blouse and short silver skirt and powered through her social anxiety. "Sure!" she said as she fluttered after Chione onto the dance floor.
As they danced, Chione used her wings to keep a little circle of safety around Actia, whose thin wings were far less sturdy. She wanted to make sure the smaller mothgirl was safe from any bigger bumbling dancers.
A different situation entirely arose instead. A fight broke out on the dance floor and all the dancing quickly came to a halt as people cleared away from the two rowdy combatants. Even from a distance, it was clear that the two large liminal men were arguing over a woman that they'd both had their eye on.
Chione scanned the area for the on-duty liminal bouncer, but didn't see him anywhere. Crap, I guess I'll handle this myself, she thought, then she turned to Actia, who looked totally lost because she was too short to see anything. Chione explained, "There's a scuffle over there. Two liminals. I'm going to put a stop to it. Stay here, babe."
Chione pushed her way through the crowd and waded right into the fight. On closer inspection, she saw that the liminals were a massive gatorman and a smaller satyr, both very muscular.
She put a hand on the men's shoulders and forced them apart. Then, loud enough to be heard over the music, she calmly said, "I was off-duty, but I'm a bouncer here. I have to ask you both to calm down."
The gatorman, who was a foot taller than Chione, grumbled, "Shove off, little girl." Then he tried to push her away with both scale-covered and claw-tipped hands.
Chione didn't even budge, thanks to her stone-like mass and her stable stance. She had learned from the other bouncers how to handle herself, and she'd found ways to blend their teachings with her own strengths.
She clamped her hand on the man's shoulder and asked again in a sweet voice, "Will you please calm down?" Even a tipsy listener could tell that her words were laced with a heavy dose of 'not-screwing-around'.
The gator meekly nodded, as did the other man. It had finally clicked for them that this woman must have been remarkable indeed to be a bouncer in a club for superhuman beings.
While maintaining her vice grip on their shoulders, she lead them off the dance floor, looking for someone else to deal with them. Thankfully she quickly spotted Kyle running from the front of the club, where he must have been working the front door.
The massive orc bowed and apologized, "Sorry you had to deal with this on your day off, Chione."
"Nah, it's fine. Happy to help," she said cheerfully, then she passed the troublemakers off to Kyle's capable hands. As the troublemakers massaged their sore shoulders, Chione leaned in and whispered to Kyle, "They didn't get very violent, so no need to kick them out or ban them. A talking to should be enough."
Then she pivoted and returned to the dance floor, which had already kicked back into gear. As she left, Kyle thought, Man, Chione was made for this line of work. Just a couple months in and she already handles this stuff better than I do.
Chione circled the outside of the dance floor until she spotted her adorable little girlfriend, milling around the outer edge of the crowd. She picked Actia up into a hug, kissed her briefly on the lips, then set her back down and said, "So where were we?"
The small mothgirl started to fidget, eying Chione's sexy outfit. Actia absentmindedly ran her fingertips on her lips and said, "W-well, we were dancing, but more k-kissing would be nice."
Chione smiled broadly. "That can be arranged. Let's find somewhere a bit more private." With that, they slipped off the dance floor to a dark corner where they could make out. Chione wouldn't break the club's rules about indecency and keeping hands on the outside of clothes, but Actia's house wasn't far away if they wanted to go further.
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Yuisu's group eventually ran out of energy and left the club, minus Chione. As per usual, she wanted to spend the rest of the evening with Actia, so they had walked to her apartment together.
As the cab started moving, Aluru grumbled, "I spent the whole night talking to straight women, so I never got to hit it off with any lovely lesbian liminal ladies." Then she smiled and added, "Seriously though, I had a lot of fun. I can see why Chione likes Mimi so much, and Rohe was fun."
She turned to Yuisu and said, "So, wonderful host of mine, when can we hit the town again?"
"Ah, right, I need to go with you…" Yuisu pondered her schedule for a bit, trying to remember through the fog of alcohol, then she said, "I guess I can do one night this weekend. And the Wild Life should be more to your tastes then. More liminals and fewer human college students."
Aluru pulled Yuisu into a hug that was mostly just Yuisu's face smushed between boobs. "Thanks so much!"
Yuisu's face went hilariously red, but Haru was too tipsy to feel jealous. Mara probably would have made a quip about it, except she'd passed out, curled in a pink ball.
Not long after, the taxi came to a stop at the inn and the girls stumbled into the house, still a bit tipsy with their legs tired from dancing. When they entered the front door, Rem was waiting on the desk. She'd been passing the time filling out a crossword puzzle with a pencil half her height.
"Hi, everyone." She was cheerful as always, despite the late hour. "Did you have fun?"
Aluru nodded enthusiastically, and the others mumbled their own affirmatives. In a way, the weak replies were excellent indicators of just how fun it had been.
Then Rem waved for Yuisu to come closer. Yuisu stepped up to the desk, but Rem beckoned her closer still, until she was bent down with her head at Rem's level.
Rem whispered into her ear, "Hakuto came by looking for you, about an hour after you left. Judging by the face she made when I told her you were out, it seemed important." Rem was very perceptive and she knew about Haru and Hakuto's tense relationship, which was why she kept the message from Haru's ears.
"Hmm, alright. I'll try to find her in the morning. Thanks, Rem," Yuisu said. She thought, Hakuto didn't seem to be in any hurry to join the Exchange Program, so what could she want?