Haruhiro shrugged. “Weren’t you never going to forgive that?”
“You moron.” Ranta said quietly. “I’m a guy who chooses the right time and place. They call me Master Choice. I’m gonna be the Decision King!”
“Yeah, you go ahead and do that...”
“I’ll become a king of discernment! Not detergent, discernment! The Decision King! That’s what I’ll be!”
“Curly,” Gangster stopped and turned around again. “Shut up.”
“Eeek!” Ranta quickly did a jumping kowtow. “I-I’m sowwy...!”
“Rather than the King of Decision,” Haruhiro said, looking down at Ranta, “why not become the King of Kowtows, instead?”
“That’s it!” Ranta raised his head and snapped his fingers. “Wait, no, that is not it! Being the King of Kowtows would be way too lame! No matter how high my kowtow skill is!”
“Curly.” Gangster sounded ready to kill him. “This is the third time.”
“Eeeeek!” Ranta did another kowtow, rubbing his forehead on the cobblestones. “I-I’m sorry! Won’t happen again! Forgive me, pleeeeeease...!”
This guy’s already the King of Kowtows, thought Haruhiro, but he decided not to say so. If he said anything, they’d probably just start arguing again, and that would be a pain. After that, they continued on in silence until Hiyomu stopped in front of a two-story stone building.
The building was flying a flag with a red crescent moon on a white field. There was a sign out front, as well. On the sign, it said, “Altern Fronter Arm Voluter Solder Cops Red Mon,” which seemed weird. On closer inspection, many of the letters had lost their color or peeled off.
“Ta-dah!” said Hiyomu, pointing at the sign. “We’ve finally arrived, yes we have. Here. It. Is! The office of the famous Volunteer Soldier Corps of the Alterna Frontier Army, Red Moon!”
Haruhiro whispered, “Red Moon,” and looked to the sign again. It made sense now. If you read it with the missing bits, it did say “Alterna Frontier Army Volunteer Soldier Corps Red Moon.”
“Come in, come in!” Hiyomu gestured them into a large room that was like a beer hall, with tables and chairs scattered around and, at the back, a counter. Behind the counter was a man with his arms crossed. Haruhiro, the others, and Hiyomu were the only other people there.
“Well, that’s it for me!” Hiyomu said with a bow to the man behind the counter. “I know I do this every time, but give them the rundown, ’kay, Bri-chan?”
The man she called Bri-chan gave a light “Righty-o” in response, and waved good-bye to her with his arms still crossed. For some reason, he shook his hips as well as waving his hand.
“I’m leaving noooow! Bye-byeeee!” Hiyomu said as she left. Once she closed the door behind her, a strange tension spread through the room. Likely because Bri-chan was closely examining Haruhiro and the others. That must have been it. After all, Bri-chan looked pretty suspicious. Way too suspicious.
Bri-chan bent over, resting both elbows on the counter, and rested his chin on top of his clasped hands. It was a cleft chin. But, well, that detail didn’t matter so much, because it was his hair color that set off warning flags. It was green. On top of that, he must have had lipstick or something on, because his lips were black. He had pale blue eyes surrounded by long, thick lashes, and though their color was beautiful, that only made him more terrifying. It seemed like he’d used rouge on his cheeks, too. He had thick makeup overall, even though, no matter how you looked at him, Bri-chan was a guy.
“Hm...” He nodded to himself a number of times, then stood up. “Very nice. Come here, my little kittens. Welcome. I’m Britney. I’m the chief and host here at the office of Red Moon, the Volunteer Soldier Corps of the Alterna Frontier Army. You can call me Chief, but Bri-chan is fine, too. Though, if you do call me that, make sure you say it with lots of love, okay?”
“Chief,” Gangster walked straight up to the counter, cocking his head to one side. “Answer my questions. I know that this town is called Alterna. But what is this Frontier Army and Volunteer Soldier Corps stuff about? Why am I here? Do you know?”
“You’ve got spunk,” Bri-chan said with a chuckle. “I’ve got a thing for boys like you. What’s your name?”
“It’s Renji. And I hate fags like you.”
“Oh, do you now...”
For a moment, Haruhiro wasn’t sure what Bri-chan had done. His movements had been not only fast, but smooth, and all too natural.
“Renji, let me give you a tip.” Bri-chan pressed a knife against Renji’s throat, his eyes narrowing threateningly. “Nobody who calls me a fag lives for long. You look like a clever boy; I think you catch my meaning. Or do you want to try it again?”
“Well,” Renji said.
Haruhiro gulped.
Renji seized the knife’s blade with his bare hand. Though he had the blade fixed in place with his palm and fingers, there was blood dripping from the base of his thumb.
“I never wanted a long life, and I don’t care to give in to threats,” he said. “If you think you can take me, do it, Chief Fag.”
“In due time,” Bri-chan replied, licking his lips and stroking Renji’s cheek. “I’ll take you hard. As many times as I like. And when I’m done, you’ll never be able to forget me.”
“...Hey,” Ranta whispered to Haruhiro. “When he says he’ll take him, I’m pretty sure he means it a different way.”
“What way?” Braids asked Ranta with a blank look.
“Huh? Uh, well, like putting something in a place where things are supposed to come out of... Basically, uh, how do I say this? Hey, Haruhiro?”
“Don’t look to me to get you out of this. You dug this hole, get out of it by yourself.”
“You’re cold, man... You’ve got a kindness deficiency... You’re at the absolute zero of human kindness...”
“Well, anyway!” Kikkawa the playboy got between Renji and Bri-chan. “It’s our first meeting! There are bound to be misunderstandings! Let’s settle this peacefully! Let’s try to get along and be cheery? Okay? Okay? In deference to my good looks!“
“Your good looks?” Renji glared at Kikkawa and snorted derisively as he let go of the knife.
Bri-chan pulled back his knife, wiping the blood from it with a rag. “Looks like we have a few reckless ones here. Eight men, four women. There aren’t quite enough women, but I prefer it that way, and men are more likely to be useful in battle anyway, so it’s no problem.”
Manato cocked an eyebrow. “In battle?”
“Right,” Bri-chan said with a smile. It was pretty creepy, frankly. “Useful in battle.”
“This is a Volunteer Soldier office,” Manato said, looking down. “So, does that mean we’re becoming volunteer soldiers or something?