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For the entirety of his week in Shutenbori, Gaho Murata took time to familiarise himself with his surroundings, blending in as best he could as just another civilian. He would try out the local restaurants and found a few favourites to enjoy, but he had no patience for the arcades and after two rounds of Virtua Fighter, he gave a hard pass before getting annoyed at Super Hang-On.

What he did enjoy however was the golf centre, an indoor spot where the goal was to strike the ball as close to the hole, but only one shot was allowed per hole which would change placement every turn. Sometimes obstacles were put in his way, pictures of cars or clouds to block the shot and give a challenge. He tried two games, doing better than the last, and getting rewarded with an eight-pack of bottled fruit waters.

He also met with Dagon Marsh every day, and always bought takoyaki from him even when he wasn't that hungry. Out on the street every day, he always kept Murata informed of anything odd, despite never knowing Murata's true intentions of being here. In order to keep himself busy, the sergeant went to the bookstore at the corner next to his apartment.

Browsing through the various sections, he frowned at the crime thrillers and cringed at the sci-fi, glancing over the shelves of pre-owned paperbacks with bent spines. A war drama caught his eye briefly, but the dark mood of dying soldiers put him off. A romance story set in a lighthouse intrigued him, but then Sauressy's face filled his mind and he put it back. Then he found a beautiful red book, showing only a staff and a map on the cover.

"Heeeey...Journey to the West," Murata smiled picking it up, "I haven't read this in years, loved this story in high school...hah, reading about Sun Wukong made me want to try gymnastics further in college......I hope that kid's doing alright."

His face furrowed with a heavy sigh as he put it back. Beside the red book however was an even more lavish volume, a collection of European fairy tales gilded with fool's gold. The cover showed a dark looming castle, upon which a dreadful queen sat with hunched claws and a fearsome robe that stretched beyond the light of the moon. In her tower, a fair maiden cried dressed in silk, and at the very foreground was a lone knight in shining armour.

Murata held the book with loving claws, the sword of the knight catching the fluorescent light of the store. He remembered Gein's words briefly, buying the book along with Journey to the West, and by the time he was ready for the Karbone club's opening, he had read through half the European stories from the gruesome to the fantastical.

The mahjong club did not look especially impressive from the outside, apart from the shocking silhouette of a golden-haired cougar with deep staring eyes showing tiles in her pupils. But beyond that it looked as rundown and dinghy as most of southern Shutenbori as he stepped to the front where a giant goliath beetle stared him down from three feet above him.

"Can I help you?"

"I'd like to play the tiles."

Murata showed his membership card as the beetle took it, sniffing across its laminated front by rubbing one of his horns against it.

"Alright, you're in," he handed it back.

Stepping inside and up the stairwell, Gaho found a large room that was far more decorated than the exterior. Lush velour carpets with sparkling yellow walls, partitions separated tables full of players that softly babbled to each other amongst the clacking of tiles.

"Welcome sir," a pale cricket bowed from the desk, "what level do you play?"

"Hmmm, it's been a while," Murata rubbed his tusks, "let me start with beginner to take things easy."

"Very good sir."

The clerk pointed him towards the easy-level group, two sharks and an octopus sitting near the door. He sat down and nodded quietly to them as he took up a set of little white tiles, a mixture of dots, circles, Chinese characters and bamboo stalks arranged in various ways. Sometimes there was a red dragon warrior, or a green dragon monk, or a personification of the four winds.

Murata played as serious as he could, but was passive with his money by keeping his bets small and gently trickling it down more for the entertainment than the actual reward, which he noticed the rest of his table doing the same.

"Two bamboo," the hammerhead opposite threw his tile.

"Pon," Murata snatched the tile, "damn I'm always north wind."

"Hahah, it fits you though right?" the octopus nudged him and took a tile. "Not seen you round here before."

"I've been away a while on business, up in Tokyo."

"Whassit like? Never been there mahself."

"Noisy, loud, awful."

"Wow they fire you from the tourist board?" said the tiger shark. "OH, I'm calling!"

"Aww shit!" the squid threw four of his hands. "Alright alright uhh, south it's your turn."

"Yeah yeah I getcha."

They kept on playing, gathering up the tiles and trying to make combinations as the tiger shark soon won this round. Murata was steadily losing, but not as bad as the octopus who was becoming more and more sour at his bad luck. Gaho decided to take a step back and lose harder than him, picking awful choices for tiles and giving the squid a chance to race ahead.

"HAH, alright second place!"

"Wow your luck's changing," the turtle chuckled, "all I got was a pair of winds."

"I was about to ask if we could swap seats but I guess west wind's not that unlucky."

"Well damn if I knew that I would have traded you."

"Alright next game." The tiles were dealt by the tiger shark. "You doing anything tonight?"

"Nah," the hammerhead shook his head, "I'm going to bed after this, felt real sleepy all a sudden."

"You not coming to the Grand?"

"Naaah last time I went I drank too much champagne, the boss isn't mobilising so-"

"If they need extra hands I'm up for it," Murata raised his, "I need to reacquaint myself with the old place."

"You wanna cover for me?"

"Sure, if I have to."

"Nice," the shark bowed to him, "I appreciate that, north wind-OH OH, RIICHI!"

"Aw PISS in my ass!" the octopus threw his hands again. "Uuuugh...so north wind, what you do again?"

"Maintenance," Murata picked up a tile, "mostly handling sewage, but I do other things too."

"Oh nice, I work in electrics! I don't remember seeing you at the Grand."

"I've had years of valuable service, west wind," he glowered to the octopus, "just because I'm not serving the champagne doesn't mean I haven't earned it."

"That ain't true," the tiger shark shook his head, "if you work in sewage, then you seen a lotta golden showers."

"HAH, HHHHahahahaha!" the hammerhead clapped. "Ohhhhh that was nasty dude!"

"Sorry sorry, we do appreciate the work for real."

"It's fine," Gaho grinned taking a tile, "that's a good joke, I'll tell that to my buddies downstairs."

"You still remember where to go?"

"Doesn't everyone? That's how my job works."

"PFFT, HAH!"

They continued playing for the next two hours, the hammerhead stopping a half-hour later and taking his winnings as a wolf came in to replace him. Once the rounds were over, a large-bodied creature stepped into the mahjong parlour, wearing a black hood as Murata shifted himself out of view.

"Thank you all for coming."

The hood lifted to reveal a silver rhinoceros beetle, with two piercing blue eyes and long pincers reaching from her head, from which flowered several bristling thorns of silicone as she clasped her giant armoured hands beneath her sleeves.

"With the Rasudas now imprisoned, we have lost our eyes in Kaijurocho. However Kaneyama's plan worked out perfectly. I know you are low-level workers, but it is important we are all on the same page."

"Yes Queen," said everyone bowing.

"Let us return to the Grand."

Motioning to the clerk behind the counter, the one known as Queen stepped towards a corner of the mahjong parlour where a trapdoor had been hidden behind a flowering bushy plant. A stairway was soon uncovered, as they followed the silver beetle into the depths, with Murata taking up the rear beside the octopus he had played with.

Into the darkness they went, through an underground maintenance tunnel as their footsteps echoed deep. A short walk under the streets of Shutenbori led them to another stairway that came up inside the back of a large laundry room, where very prestigious tablesheets could be found bundled up in baskets, all of them marked with the emblem of the Grand.

The Queen opened a keypad in the back of the laundry room and tapped in a password, sliding open a hidden door where inside was an entire deep closet full of suits and jackets. All of them bore the Daiei Alliance symbol, as they walked in and took a suit each to their measurements. Murata was surprised by how many different measures of suits had been tailor-made to fit, even for his stature.

"All of you must report to the centre stage in one hour," said the beetle. "You will stay at your regular posts until then."

"Yes Queen."

They all saluted and went to their various posts, Murata following the octopus as the best estimate for what post he should have. Through the maintenance halls he nodded to others passing by as he stood up straight with a proper air to look as if he had always been there. The squid electrician soon stopped at an old room in the back of the corridors, where various tools and closets had been piled up willy-nilly.

"No offence but," the octopus opened a cupboard, "I wish they kinda gave our jobs separate rooms."

"Yeah," Murata nodded, "I'd like to access my tools without getting yours mixed up."

"Oh yeah that shit happens all the time, remember when Nagasuma got my VoltaBee-2 mixed up with his PiperFive?"

"Hhhahahahah, ohhh we never heard the end of it in my section. Maybe after this Tokyo plan pans out we might get an extension."

"Iiii wouldn't say that," the squid put on a worker's outfit over his Daiei jacket, "knowing Lady Iris she's probably gonna make a new HQ up at Kaijurocho."

"Ahhh," Murata took an outfit for himself, "you think she'll let this place go to hell?"

"Nah not that bad, just probably not gonna upgrade so we'll use what we have."

They zipped up their clothes and went to work, Gaho shuffling downwards to the basement whilst the cephalopod headed to the roof. Into the depths of the Grand, the undercover detective went to find the other workers and mingle with them. None of them questioned him being there, as he kept his head down and did menial chores such as sweeping up debris and fixing up leaks.

Whilst Murata was not experienced in plumbing, he knew how to blend in from the many ops he had done over the years. With a janitor's suit, a hard hat, or a hi-vis vest ironically, nobody noticed the workers coming and going through the passages. He kept in the shadows and fiddled with random things, so he was always at the corner of everyone's eye.

"Hey, you."

Gaho looked up towards a shaggy mammoth in the same clothes as him, lumbering through the corridors of steel grey.

"I don't recognise you."

"I've been out in Tokyo sir," Murata bowed, "got called back when the Rasudas got arrested."

"Oh yeah? Whut's yer name?"

"Toto," he bowed again, "need me for something sir?"

"Heh, alrigh' Toto, lessee if you haven't forgotten thuh way we do things down in Shutenbori. Go downstairs an' grab me mah toolbox in the usual place."

"Yes sir."

Heading back down to the plumbing rooms, Gaho searched around the various cabinets before he found a kit with the same earthy scent as the mammoth, with tufts of brown hair stuck between the wedges. He returned with it as the senior walked him upstairs, entering the central floor of the Grand.

A lavish auditorium with gorgeous velour carpets spread before him, marvellous upholstered seats in their own cubicles that could seat a whole village inside the place. Two staircases corkscrewed in a beautiful mahogany, upwards to three floors where everyone had a full view of the entertainment.

The centre stage was a semi-circle where lights would shine across the bow, the Grand's emblem painting the back of a pastiche where a raised platform had a band tuning up in the empty hall. Two trumpeting sharks, a trombonist rhino, a spider on the piano and a cockroach on the bass were trying to learn their script as a grey crocodile conducted.

"No no NO! NO, Kakeru, it's C-Major, not F-Sharp for fuck's sake!"

"Hey you're the one who changed the song last-minute!" said the roach. "You know I get confused between them!"

"What Lady Iris wants, Lady Iris GETS! How'm I supposed to work tomorrow's show when I have a dipshit who can't listen?!"

"To be fair," the rhino put up his hand, "they got the same tritone boss."

"No they DON'T!" snapped the gator pointing. "The tritone's not even in the same key, we're not doing this again!"

"Boss look," the roach plucked his bass in two different ways, "C's got an F-note right? And F-sharp's got an E-sharp, which is enharmonic to F so yeah, Cerosuki's right they got the same-"

"JUST, FOLLOW, THE FUCKING SCRIPT!" the croc hurled his baton at the bug. "It's one FUCKING NOTE, just play the FUCKING SONG!"

"They got one note," said the spider leaning back, "but they got two different pitches unless we playing twelve-tone-"

"SHUT UP!"

The gator marched over and slapped the spider off his seat.

"I DIDN'T SPEND NINE YEARS AT OSAKA COLLEGE OF MUSIC, TO GET CORRECTED BY SOME FUCKING HOBO!"

"F-fuck, dammit boss chill!"

"LOOK, THIS is how you play, Kakeru follow my lead!"

He slammed himself down on the seat and started playing the piano, a wonderful brief symphony filling the hall as he demonstrated the pitch differences, however slight they were as the roach followed through in C-Major. Not that Murata understood any of this, keeping his head down as he walked across the central room where waiters helped cleaners fit up the tables to wipe them down.

"Bo-san!" The mammoth waved over to a stick insect in a thin white suit. "Which bathroom's fucking up?"

"Section B," the twig pointed east, "and do try to use the back corridors, the last time you fixed them you left stains on the carpet."

"Well if you'd let me buy a power washer I coulda cleaned that for ya too, but sure go off."

"I expect you to do your job, with RESPECT to our front establishment."

"How 'bout I put a foot up yer back-establishment?" the pachyderm swished his trunk. "Everyone round here sucks yer dick except me, that's why you got it out for me."

"At least mine GETS sucked." The stick insect smiled. "Now put your arse where it belongs and stop wasting my time."

With a snort the janitor headed off to the bathrooms with Murata following after, a gorgeous circular room of bright white linoleum tiles with sinks on one wall and toilets on the other. A central pavilion separated them where urinals stood ready, the one toilet sealed off with tape as the woolly mammoth shoved himself in the cubicle with his large furry hind poking out.

"Alrigh' Toto-kun, gimme a C-four-seven-eight."

"Not a C-Major?" Murata chuckled.

"...whut?"

"Just...I was making a joke from the musicians, sir."

"I don't pay you to make fuckin' jokes, now get me a fuckin C-four-seven-eight!"

"Yes, sorry sir."

Murata looked over the various tools in the box, thanking Zura-san silently for all his gearhead talk helping him remember the different types of wrenches as he picked the right one. The worker kept asking for different wrenches, Gaho keeping up as the sounds of twisting pipes and cracking ratchets filled the empty bathroom. Forty minutes would pass until he was done, the sweating mammoth groaning as he pulled himself out the cubicle and grabbed his tools.

"Alrigh', that's good work."

"What was the problem?" the turtle asked.

"One of the pipes near-busted, they just got old, prob'ly backpitched up to shit."

"Was it one of the pipes from upstairs?"

"Why would it be from upstairs?" the pachyderm raised his brow.

"Well, gravity drainage is a thing right?" Murata shrugged. "What if the pipes aren't elevated properly, did something shift in a higher section?"

"That...hmmm," the mammoth rubbed his trunk, "I hadn't considered that, but fuck going upstairs, I already worked enough today."

"I'll do it then," the turtle saluted, "I just started back on the clock, so I need to refamiliarise myself with things."

"Yeaaaah, plus we might get a bonus fer lookin' ahead. Alrigh', but you ain' taking mah tools, go get thuh spares from our floor."

"Yes sir, thank you."

Taking off through a back corridor that avoided the stage, Murata found a spare toolbox and made his way up to the third floor through the gorgeous staircase. He had no clue where Gerumba was, but he was certain Iris would keep her and her son close in private quarters as he checked along the halls tapping pipes with a spanner. The upper rooms of the Grand were incredible, dazzling gold and red patterns on the walls with blue carpets that gave an incredibly royal theme that almost blinded him.

"Hey buddy!"

Murata turned to see a rooster in a velvet green suit picking his beak.

"You lost or sumthin'?"

"No I'm with maintenance," the turtle tipped his hat, "the bathroom in section B's bust, we think the drainage is having problems higher up because of the backpitch."

"The whut now?"

"You know, the backpitch." Gaho frowned. "If the pipes aren't elevated properly, the stuff doesn't flow right and backs up, do you want Kaneyama to rip your head off when the pipe bursts in her room?"

"Whuh-...n-naw!"

"Neither do I, just let me know where her room is so I can get out your way, I just came back from Tokyo so everything's still muddy."

"Heh, muddy that's funny, alrigh' come with me."

Following the rooster down the decorated halls where other cleaners were steaming the walls to look pristine as they could, Murata kept his head down and stepped past the guards before he heard a familiar cackle that scraped through his brain.

"There it is," the rooster pointed, "not like you can't hear her from down the street."

"I'll take it from here," Murata nodded, "don't want to get you in trouble for disturbing her."

"Yeah I wasn't gonna join ya, 'preciate it bud."

The cockerel left as Gaho looked around for possible places to hide from Kaneyama.

"Good thing I paid attention to Royama's sewer talk," he muttered to himself, "alright let's see...ah, here."

Slipping inside an electrical closet to make sure he could fit, the sergeant crept up towards Kaneyama's room to listen in, hearing both her and another older voice he did not recognise.

"So anyways I started stabbing, and the FIRST thing he did was cover up his own dick, even though I'm shanking him right in the gut!"

"Does this story have a point?" said the stranger.

"I'm getting to it so, after I got all his guts out, I found he swallowed the fucking phone I was looking for! Can you believe that shit?!"

"Hmph...was it still working?"

"Yep," said Gyao Shin with a snort, "I managed to get all their contacts, so the next day I called them, and just fucking killed every one of them!"

"An entire family in one day? That's impressive even by your usual, Kaneyama."

"Thaaaank you Iris-san."

Murata clenched his fists with a tightening breath hearing the name of the leader.

"It's what the fucker deserved for leading me on," continued Gyao Shin, "you can't do the crime, don't waste my time!"

"What a shame," said Iris snarling, "you really should consider changing your vetting process."

"It's worked pretty fucking good so far, that's how I got the Rasudas!"

"Yeees that is true, plus killing the family means there is no retribution, very wise of you."

"It's what I do," Gyao Shin cackled, "wish I had a video of it-"

"No." Iris lowered her voice. "Not after last time, the amount of money I had to pay off to erase evidence-"

"I got it back didn't I?! Fuck Iris-san I GOT it okay, no more snuff-vids, I learned my lesson!"

"I would hope so. How is Gerumba?"

"Oh she's fiiine," Kaneyama creaked in a chair, "getting nice and comfy back where she belongs."

"And Murata is right on her heels, I assume."

"Course he is, little fucking turty-wurty can't wait to shove his beak in her gash, she really played him good-GRRK!"

A choking sound came from inside as Murata heard a body being lifted up high.

"I only tolerate you, Kaneyama, for your exceptional savagery."

"Gh-GHRRKH!"

"But my patience with your filthy rhetoric has its limits. I am still your matriarch, and as such, you will NOT sully the air around me by learning to hold your damn beak."

A body fell on the floor as Murata heard footsteps coming to the door. Rushing off to the electircal closet, he ducked inside and waited for the two to pass.

"Come on," Iris ordered, "I need you to muster the troops to prepare for Murata's arrival."

"Yeah yeah I got it," Kaneyama dragged her feet, "you could at least lighten up a little-"

"I pay others to do that for me. You are the smile I cannot bear to grin."

"HAH, heyyyy that's pretty poetic, you ever considered writing in a zine?"

"Gods no, touching a periodical? I'd rather cut off my hands."

Once they had passed down the hall far enough, Murata slipped out of the closet and went towards Kaneyama's room. The door was locked, but he had his trusty lockpick as he twisted the wire into the keyhole and clicked through the tumblers, opening it easily to sneak inside.

Kaneyama's room was predictably chaotic, a whirlwind of destruction as chairs had been thrown with walls covered in posters showing bikes and nasty movies. The drawers were covered in claw marks with deep grooves from where a foot had kicked into it, the bed a gorgeous four-poster design with a constant tangle of sheets and giant rips through the curtains.

Searching the drawers first, Murata ruffled through Kaneyama's belongings of mostly clothes but nothing especially interesting. A small bedside table next to the bed caught his interest when he tried to look under the mattress, peeking round the back of the little table to find a hidden drawer.

Inside he found two things, one of them an old photograph of a creature much like Kaneyama, standing next to a tall one-eyed kaiju in a suit with tentacles draped behind him, and a sharp draconic head shaped like a diamond drill. But the other object was even more startling.

"Is...is that..."

A set of teeth moulds sat next to the photograph, hard and white to form a perfect cast of some creature's wicked jaws. Murata's eyes widened when he saw the series of numbers on the inside of the mould.

"This...this is from my precinct. This...oh gods. That's it."

He pulled out his phone and took a picture of the moulds, next to the photograph that he kept in frame before texting Sauressy.

Murata - Sauressy, I'm in Kaneyama's place, I found it.

Murata - Remember the problem we had with Tsuchimura's bite marks?

Murata - [Sending 1023141.png, 1023142.png](/?page=Sending_1023141.png%2C_1023142.png)

Sauress-san - What the fuck, are those teeth moulds?!

Murata - One of our own. In Kaneyama's room.

Sauress-san - Oh...shit.

Sauress-san - SHIT! She faked the bite with one of OUR moulds?!

Murata - There is no way she could have gotten this without help.

Sauress-san - Fuck. Murata...you think there's a traitor?

Murata - There has to be. She's not with the Host, this proves it.

Sauress-san - Right, wouldn't need a mould if you had the real one.

Sauress-san - WAIT THIS MEANS SOMEONE HELPED HER ESCAPE!

Murata - Exactly. Do not tell anyone about this, not even the chief.

Murata - We don't know who's helping her from inside our precinct.

Sauress-san - This is really bad. How do we report this?!

Murata - When we get back, we'll work something out, I have to go.

Sauress-san - For gods' sake be careful. Please, come back safe.

Murata - I will. Stay sharp.

Murata quickly stepped out of Kaneyama's room and looked down the hall to race back to the first floor. At first he felt lucky finding no guards in his path, the halls strangely silent for a little too long for his liking as he stepped out towards the staircase. The grand hall was dark, and the band was now gone with no music playing.

He hurried down the stairs, but when he reached the bottom, he heard the piano start to play causing him to tense his fists and pull down his hat. As he walked past the front of the stage, a spotlight suddenly blinded him as a voice echoed from the dark.

"Welcome to the Cabaret Grand...Sergeant Murata."

He turned towards the row of seats as the rest of the lights came on. Sitting on the front-most seats facing towards the stage, were many familiar faces Murata had seen over the course of the month, such as the silver rhinoceros beetle known as Queen in her black cloak, and Gyao Shin Kaneyama with her blood-red wings and shovel-shaped head in a punk biker's outfit.

But there was one more seat that had been specially brought out with its velvet upholstery, a gorgeous throne with crowning tips of shining pure gold. Murata recognised this creature from the photograph, except this one was female with four eyes from her diamond-drill head, wrapped in a stunning scarlet uniform that resembled a navy officer.

Like an 18th-century watercolour, she came to life with glorious silver epaulettes draping her shoulders, sharp blue highlights and long golden ropes lining her breast. Her legs crossed with smooth crimson slacks that shone like the ruby sands, the blackest shoes tapping the floor that swallowed the light in its dark polish.

"Lady Iris, I presume," Murata put a hand to his gun.

"How are you enjoying our facilities?" She clasped her long gloved hands. "I am impressed you managed to obtain such a valued membership without need of violence."

"I'm here for Jin Gerumba. By the powers vested in me of the Tokyo Police, I've come to take her back to Kaijurocho, and bring to light evidence of your kidnapping."

"Told you he's fucking boring," scoffed Kaneyama leaning over, "can't make any jokes with this fat prick."

"YOU shut your damn mouth, you're an escaped convict and I'll deal with you later."

"Why not now?!"

She flapped up on top of the cubicle with feet on the chair.

"You scared you gonna embarrass yourself in front of yer girlfriend?!"

"I am here strictly to rescue Jin Gerumba," Murata unbuttoned his worker's outfit, "if any of you stand in my way, I will use force."

"Oh good, for once in your fucking life your cock gets big enough to-"

"Kaneyama sit, down."

Gyao Shin turned towards Iris who pierced into her soul, her eyes glimmering with dark hatred that made her flinch.

"In my club...you sit properly."

Without a word Kaneyama slipped back down in her seat with proper posture, her feet under the table as Queen kept seated next to her. Saying nothing but staring with her sharp blue eyes, she watched Murata take off his disguise and start peeling off the Daiei Alliance jacket to be in only his polo shirt and slacks.

"I take it my freely-provided clothes were not to your liking?" asked Iris.

"WHERE is Jin Gerumba?!" Murata clenched his fist.

"She's right over there."

Another spotlight flickered towards a lonesome seat amongst the ocean of cubicles. There he saw a familiar bronze-scaled lady, a triceratops with two nasal horns and a long silk dress.

"GERUMBA-SAN!"

"M-murata!" she pulled back against her seat. "I...I-i'm sorry!"

"Is your son alright?!" He looked back to Iris. "Where is Gerumba's son?!"

"Why do you ask?" the Daiei leader switched her legs. "Are you taking custody as well as rescuing your damsel?"

The turtle pulled out his gun and aimed it straight for her head. Kaneyama lurched forth with Queen opening her hood to reach for her weapon in turn, as Murata heard the sound of rushing feet and the cocking of pistols. He did not take his eyes off the matriarch, both hands clasped around his gun as he tightened his grip.

"Where is her son? I will not ask again, if you so much as harmed one scale on that boy's head I will NOT hesitate to use deadly force!"

"Are you not an officer of the law?" she smiled coldly. "I thought you would care about due process-"

"If a child's life is in danger, I'm willing to take the punishment."

"HAH, are you fer real?!" Gyao Shin cackled clapping her wings. "Holy shit, fuck me Gerumba how good are you at sucking his DICK to make him say that shit huh?!"

"I will give you the count of three to bring out her son," Murata ordered pointing his gun, "you will give me assurance he is safe and unharmed, then I will take him and Gerumba back to Kaijurocho."

"Are you fuckin' serious?!" the red killer flapped onto the table. "You got ME, you got Iris-san, and a dozen goons behind ya, what the FUCK you think you gonna do to stop us putting six-hundred holes in your fat cunt-HRRRKH!"

Kaneyama felt her feet leave the table, a violent grip on her throat hoisting her up high as she kicked and sputtered. A long red tentacle came from Iris' back, strangling her subordinate who flapped and clawed at the tendril.

"I told you before," rasped Iris, "in my club, you sit, down, PROPERLY!"

With a snap of her tendril she hurled Kaneyama into the table beak-first, splitting the wood in half with a savage burst of splinters over the seats. The one known as Queen stepped back without a word, brushing her cloak of the shards to watch her leader pull up Gyao Shin and reveal her bloodied face, before the tentacle threw her across the room to crash into the lights of the stage.

Murata did not turn, keeping his gun on Iris' head when he heard the crackling snap of bulbs and a deafening burst of Kaneyama's shrieks from the electrocuting force of the wires she tangled up in. She fell on the top of the piano with a loud burst of dissonant keys.

"My apologies."

The matriarch slipped her tentacle back beneath her uniform.

"I am sure you find Kaneyama as insufferable as I do. As for the son of Gerumba well..."

She looked towards Jin sitting shame-faced on her own.

"Would you like to tell him, or should I?"

"Tell me what?" Gaho looked towards her. "Gerumba, what happened? Where's your son?"

"Let me ask you something," the leader rubbed her hands, "to follow-up on Kaneyama's question, how did you expect to leave with Gerumba and her child?"

"By any means necessary," said the sergeant, "I've notified the Shutenbori police here already, and they'll be here to back me up in a few minutes."

"Then I ask another question. If it comes to a sacrifice, and you had to leave either Gerumba or her son behind, which would you-"

BANG!

A gunshot pierced the air with a zipping bullet past her head. Gaho tightened his beak watching the blunt hole next to the matriarch's head.

"I am not here to play moral choices," said Murata, "I am here to rescue a family you have forced into slavery!"

"That's a real harsh word Murata-san."

A male voice called out from one of the other seats.

"I'd rather call it 'indentured servitude'."

At first Murata was glad to see Arsinio Zittelli, standing up from the cubicles to walk forth with his two horns glinting out the top of his skull. But the rhino then pulled out his gun, and pointed it towards Murata.

"Thanks for telling me when you'd break in, makes my job easier."

"What...what the hell are you doing?" gasped the turtle.

"Doing my actual job, as Iris-sama's eyes and ears inside the police."

"Don't tell him you imbecile," scoffed the leader in her seat.

"Why, you're killing him after this right? Besides, who's my boss gonna believe, me or this jackoff?"

"So you bought the whole police force?" Gaho snarled.

"Of course not," Iris shook her head, "that would be unnecessary, they still serve their job in cleaning out undesirables I would rather not have in my domain."

"Like racially harassing monsters who live in this city?"

"No, I mean other gangs. I care not who comes to this city, so long as they do not try to upstage my business."

"I'm just one of a few eyes of her legion," Arsinio tapped his head, "make sure things go the right way, that reports about the Daiei go missing, and other gangs get top priority."

"You are scum." The sergeant turned his gun on the rhino. "You're no better than the bigots in your damn force!"

"Wow, fuck you buddy, I may be a criminal but I ain't a vasher."

"I treat them both equally as a stain on society...but since you've outed yourself, I don't have to worry about you getting caught in the crossfire."

"You can try," said Iris raising her hand, "but you will have to prove yourself first...against my legion."

She snapped her fingers as the sound of feet came closer. A dozen bodies circled Murata, all wearing suits with the emblem of Daiei. Each one of them were identical with one single eye and gleaming silver heads, somewhat like the Queen still standing to the side.

"Don't die on me, Murata," Iris leaned back in her seat, "I want to savour that pleasure for the end."

The guards suddenly attacked, armed with knuckles, bats and a few tasers primed for short-range. The first one to strike Murata was suddenly countered by a hard kick from the turtle, a baseball bat swinging for his head that he ducked before sweeping his leg to knock the thug down, and stomp into the one-eyed face.

The second and third came at once with iron knuckles as he blocked one punch for his head, but not the other crunching his stomach. He grabbed the arm of the second thug and slammed his gun into his head to blind him, driving his elbow in the third attacker to stagger her, grab her in a headlock, and crush her jaw with his knee.

The fourth of the Legion almost stabbed Murata with a taser, a short piercing electric gun with crackling bolts on its tip that Gaho dodged swiftly past before shooting the fifth offender, blasting two damping shots in the chest to send him crumpling to the ground. A sixth thug managed to jab him with a sharp bolt from a taser, crackling sparks through his body as he roared with anguish and a stuttering clench in all his muscles.

With spasms of white lightning through his veins, three more delinquents overpowered him, one cracking his face with a steel pipe to knock him down on his back, before another came ready with a bat to crush his head. Beaten twice across the face, his beak turned bloody before Gaho fired off a bullet, striking the thug's shoulder to send her reeling as she dropped her bat to his side. He grabbed it to whack punk number seven in the shins as he fell hard clutching his leg, dropping the taser he had in turn.

The one with the steel pipe came in close with a golf swing, rolling Gaho hard with a swollen black eye as he struggled to push himself up. When the thug came running for another swing, Murata threw the bat to make him dodge, then grabbed the fallen taser nearby to stab in the leg and send agonising volts rippling through the gangster who poleaxed to the side.

The last three thugs of the Legion came all at once, Murata spinning on the back of his shell as he snatched up the fallen pipe and walloped two of them in the legs, before righting himself up in a handstand to flip back on his feet.

"That all you got?!" Murata snapped with gun trained on the last Legion member. "Either back off now, or I'll make you pay with the rest of your friends!"

The one-eyed thug in the jacket chose to fight, armed with a pair of brass knuckles as she closed the gap with a swinging haymaker that Murata swerved before uppercutting fast, cracking the jaw with his gun before swinging the pipe into her chest to send her rolling across the floor.

One of the punks from before managed to pull himself up from the floor, and come lunging with a bat as Murata turned and fired his gun straight in the arm to punch it dead, the blunt bullet bouncing onto the carpet floor as the thug fell in turn.

Two more of the Legion jumped from behind and grabbed his arms, trying to pull him back and keep him restrained for a third legionnaire armed with knuckles to start hammering into his belly. Hard driving fists crunched into his stomach forming bruises beneath his shirt, pummelling him hard as Murata croaked and gasped with the thugs wrenching his pipe and pistol away to toss aside amidst the raining blows.

After seven hits, Gaho managed to stop the fists by throwing his legs up in a hard flying dropkick. Throwing himself and the attacker back, Murata crushed the two holding his arms under his weight, and slammed one in the eye with his elbow then rolled on top of the other to beat their face unconscious.

The one he dropkicked tried to pull up with a heaving chest, rushing with a giant double lariat of his fists that Gaho blocked with the back of his fist, before driving his other fist into the thug's jaw.

"Impressive."

The Queen stepped up with long-pincered head and deep blue eyes staring him down.

"I was told you would be trouble." She walked through the bodies of her minions. "I had hoped my Legion would wear you down, but not enough apparently."

"All you are is just another criminal," Gaho put up his fists, "I've taken your lackeys, now either stand down or fight me."

"No one profanes Lady Iris' domain, not while I still STAND!"

Lunging forth with arms spread wide, the Queen attacked with a savage combo of fists that surprised the battered Murata as he blocked the first two hits, before getting hammered by the third, fourth and fifth. His face and belly were turning purple from the blows as he grabbed the sixth punch and whammed the side of her head.

Grappling her arm he tried to kick the back of her leg, but the Queen kicked backwards with a piercing stab into Gaho's leg that made him roar with sudden pain. Staggering back to clutch his leg, he saw the femme fatale sweep off her cloak to reveal her large pear-shaped body in a suit of gleaming silicon, shining from the lights above as Iris sat still watching from her throne.

Zittelli cracked his knuckles as if waiting for his turn, whilst Gerumba clutched her table whimpering in hope for Murata's victory. Striding forth, the Queen revealed her strong glistening legs with sharp bladed boots as Murata looked for his gun on the floor. The assassin rushed forth with a thrusting kick, her daggered toes sweeping past Gaho's face as she switched to the other foot and made a savage spinkick across Murata's beak.

Staggering back with bloodied scars on his cheek, he dodged a piercing foot aimed for his heart, before a giant swing of her fists from above crunched down on his head. The large Queen grabbed his arms and slammed him down to stomp on his head with the flatter part of her foot.

"GAAAAARGH!"

"Problem?" the Queen chuckled. "When you address Lady Iris, you BOW BEFORE HER!"

Crunching him beak-first in the carpet with blood spurting from his nostrils, the Queen stomped on his back with the wicked blade of her heel cracking through his shell. Slipping between the scutes and hitting the flesh within, she felt him scream when she stomped him again and twisted the dagger-heel further in before Gaho rolled hard and she pulled back with crimson spittle down her foot.

Grabbing a steel pipe from one of the Legion, he armied himself against the Queen who rushed forth with a feinting punch, making him block high before she slammed her knee in his chest then spun her body in a brutal fist to the back of the turtle's head. Murata barely blocked in time with his pipe, her knuckles scraping the steel with sparks as she grabbed his other arm and tried to wrench the pipe off him.

The sergeant held on tight and stabbed her bluntly in the head, stunning her quick to grab her thigh and swing her across the floor towards the stage. Kaneyama was still unconscious, laying flat on the piano as the Queen staggered up beside with fingers tapping the keys. Gaho tried to kick her head, but she grabbed his foot and threw him against the back of the stage, slamming a foot hard into his stomach and causing him to shudder hearing the crack of his shell.

Blood dripped out of his shirt as he coughed almost retching, grabbing the piano to pull himself up and barely dodging a vile axe kick that came towards his skull. The heel of her blade-foot crunched into the grand piano, causing Kaneyama's unconscious body to roll off its side and down the steps of the stage. During this, Murata grabbed Queen's head and slammed her face into the keys, causing a burst of E-flat from the chords.

In revenge, the Queen kicked out the seat of the piano towards him, tripping the sergeant sideways and on top of the stool as she loomed above him. The large Queen reared back with both fists, but Gaho rolled off in time before she slammed through the stool so hard that its feet cracked apart, leaving the seat on the floor. Gaho kicked it towards her like a sliding board, causing the Queen to trip over the fabric and stumble towards his foot that came straight for her chin.

"Why don't you sit DOWN?!"

Throwing her back against the piano, a blast of arpeggios came from the keys as she groped them in broken scales. With a desperate roar, she grabbed the top lid of the piano itself and with a brutal strength, ripped it from the seams to swing it hard and crunch Murata's body. She raised it high with a swelling of her muscles and screamed ready to crush him, before he kicked out her knees and grabbed the broken seat to throw at her head and knock her off-balance.

Launching up on his feet, he grabbed her head and slammed it onto the keys after she dropped the piano lid. Punching the back of her head three times, he watched her slump in a crumpling mess, before he turned and saw his pistol on the ground. Grabbing it in a run, he quickly pointed at Iris still sitting with rapt attention.

He walked towards her with increasing speed, daring her to make the first move with heaving breaths and blood-thickening bruises from his shirt. But then a shocking blue glow filled the room and ripped through the back of his shell, a force that threw him by several feet as he screamed with howling anguish.

"HEY MURATA!" Zittelli chuckled behind Iris. "Word of advice for ya! Never turn your back on a lady, 'specially not here in Shutenbori!"

Crumpling onto the carpet, Gaho turned and saw Queen lifting herself up with a stuttering pace, her head turning black despite the flickering azure that danced between her eyes. The horn on her face had split open to reveal a cruel beam of cyan, charging up with a song of hate that trembled through his ears before it screeched through the air and ripped through the tables.

Gerumba shouted with fright as she ducked, the microwave beam melting a cubicle two rows down with crackling pop of the leather and a sickening melt of the fluffy down within. Murata felt something terrible on his back, something he had never felt in his life until now. A cold wind ripping across thebare flesh beneath his shell, a dark deep burning line that ripped off some of the plates that laid scattered on the floor.

Surprisingly, the Queen did not follow up this attack, instead powering herself down and sitting on the stage to catch her breath from the forceful blast. Murata wondered why, until he heard the shifting of someone's seat.

"Shall we?"

The matriarch stepped towards him with shimmering crimson suit.

"I think it would be rather unfair to let you leave this mortal coil, without witnessing a mere taste of my true strength."

"You're not going to win," gasped Murata bloodied and dripping from his back, "if I...if I have to take all of you down...then I will."

"Hm...Kaneyama was right about one thing."

She took her stance with immaculate sleeves shining in the light.

"You are so dreadfully dull."

From the armrests of her throne she pulled out two bladed tonfas, a pair of steel short swords resembling police batons with a small side-handle on each. Murata fired the moment she rushed him, Iris dodging the bullet in a hard swerve with a vicious slash across Gaho's face. Spinning her body fast, she stabbed him two inches deep in the gut with her other blade to frighten him with the fear of mortal wounding.

The sergeant detective clenched against her blade and swung his pistol to whip her head, but she strafed out of reach and whacked the side of his gun with her tonfa in a spark of steel as he tried to shoot her chest. The Daiei leader dodged the second bullet, and rushed in low for a brutal elbow strike directly into the short stab wound to make him cough with a hoarse shriek. In a desperate move he headbutted her, slamming his beak in her silver skull that surprised Iris enough to rear back and give him distance.

Murata shot twice for her legs as she leapt into the sky, a shimmering membrane between her tendrils giving a brief moment of flight before she twirled with a violent kick to the face, knocking him down when she landed back on her feet. He was struggling with every breath, the blood draining off his back, his gun quivering as he tried to take aim before something snapped his wrist.

"HA-AAAAARGH!"

"Only a fool relies on a gun."

A tentacle reached out from behind her back, twisting Murata's hand with such force that it broke his wrist in a sharp crack, causing him to drop his gun with a shuddering wince.

"I offer you one chance to surrender, before I cripple you worse."

"I...will NOT LET YOU DO THIS!"

With a desperate charge he slammed into the matriarch, Iris grabbing his shoulder with one hand and a tentacle joining that wrapped tightly round his limb. Slowly it began to creak, twisting harder as he groaned with a hard swing of his other hand that she grabbed just as easily, before a vicious second crack came from her tentacle's grasp as he screamed even harder.

Iris held him aloft by all four of her tentacles now gripping his body. One of his hands was snapped through, the other turning weak, but he tried to keep fighting with a hard double kick to her stomach that she took and stepped back to watch him roll out of her path. With one good arm he lunged for the baseball bat still amongst the floor, and took the fight to Iris.

Exhausted and dripping red in a thick trail behind him, Gaho lunged with a desperate swing that Iris swerved past and deflected with teasing scrapes of the tonfa. Toying with his fatigue, she blocked with the flat of her blades and almost smiled at his ragged breaths and furious swipes, Murata thrusting for her head to try and bludgeon the fiend. But always she deflected, blocking, parrying with the tonfas as sword and bat would clash endlessly throughout the hall.

Once she had tired of his efforts, she trapped the bat in both tonfas and twisted it from his grip, Murata lunging for her throat with his hand in a desperate stranglehold that she countered with a deep elbow slam to the gut. The wind knocked out of his sails, Murata couldn't stop her from suddenly ducking to slash his knees, cutting them just enough to send him crumpling to the floor with a rasping scream.

Forced to kneel with immense agony, he stared upon the lady as she twirled her tonfas. Her tentacles grabbed his arms and spread them wide, blood dripping from her blades in the light of the Grand. She grasped them tight, and stretched her arms open before the blades came down swiftly for his throat.

"NOOOOO!"

Gerumba thought her scream had stopped Iris from killing the officer where he stood. But Iris had never planned to kill him this day, simply smiling to herself as she turned her head towards Jin standing up from her seat. She motioned Arsinio to walk over and grab her, the rhinoceros with dual horns taking the triceratops by the arm and dragging her towards Murata.

"Tell him," said Iris with blades still on his throat. "Tell him now...or I paint your face with his blood."

"I...I...I-i can't-"

"You are under my command, Gerumba."

She pressed the blades tighter against Murata's neck, suffocating him slowly, the blood starting to trickle down his chest with a stuttering gasp. His left arm was throbbing with its broken wrist dangling limp, the right arm trembling in Iris' tentacles slowly twisting round his sleeve as his blood became thinner down his shirt.

"I-...I-I LIED!" Jin almost clutched her chest. "I...I lied...about my son."

"Wh-what?" shivered Murata.

"I don't...I don't have a son. It was all a trick...to lead you here."

"...no."

"Now you know," said Iris nodding, "you are all alone, Murata, here in my kingdom."

"Wh-why?" he gasped clenching his tusks. "Why me?"

"Do you not remember me? Hmm. Of course not, I will speak with you later, but for now I have work to do."

The matriarch released him as he fell to the ground, bloodied and bowed with broken arm as she walked past without even looking.

"Your work is done, Gerumba. You may return to your quarters. Zittelli, put our friend somewhere to rest."

The rhino saluted grabbing Murata roughly, dragging the turtle with his good arm round Zittelli's shoulder and off to a private room. The one known as Queen lifted herself off the stage and kicked Kaneyama awake, half-carrying her whilst Iris departed from the theatre.

In his last moments of consciousness, Murata threw himself forwards and crushed his phone in his pocket, barely heard over the brief struggle Arsinio had with him before he dragged the prisoner onwards. His legs were bleeding, his hand broken, his eye swollen shut with a dented beak and blackening bruises covered his head and stomach. Watching with despair, Jin Gerumba sat on the floor clutching herself, as she weeped at the sight of Murata's broken shell.