She finished the dance, her face burning, and collected the coins in silence after the performance. They screamed for an encore, but she just walked away. Her mind was a mix of anger at herself and shame for what she would do for money.
Chen and the Musician, Rei, were already outside in the cool night air, a shared tobacco roll passing between them.
"You okay, Mei?" Chen asked, his voice low with concern. He passed the lit roll to her and she took a puff, the smoke doing little to calm the tremor in her hands. "Nothing I can't handle...besides, you wouldn't have let anything happen to me. Right?"
"Of course not," he said, but his eyes were serious. He looked back at the tavern, then at her. "But you know the chants will get worse. What will you do then?"
Mei-Mei's silence was her answer.
He sighed. "Is the money really worth it?"
"Yes," she replied, the word immediate and sharp, like a reflex. It had to be. He just looked at Rei and sighed ,taking the roll back from her, bidding her a goodnight.
On the way back home, something felt uneasy . Her ears were buzzing, it would happen every time she got really into dancing. But this time, the buzzing was louder. It spooked her. She thought it was a side effect of the tobacco tube. She quickened her pace when she remembered the day her mother came back with a beating. The memory still stung her. To painful to remember, to painful to forget.

When she got back, the door was slightly ajar, dimly lit by a single candle. A cold dread, colder than the air, gripped Mei-Mei's heart before she even stepped inside.

She looked in. The scene was a frozen picture of grief. Yen was there, her face a mask of sorrow. So was the big, buff man from the orphanage, his presence like a dark shadow. Two women from the brothel, one with straight black hair, the other blonde, stood by the bed, one weeping, the other looking away in shame.

They all turned to her as she entered.

"Mei-Mei." Yen's voice was soft but heavy. "I'm sorry."

Mei-Mei's eyes followed their gaze to the bed .

There lay her mother.

Miyoko's eyes were closed. Her face was a mess of bruises and dried blood. She wasn't moving.

Mei-Mei's whole world shattered. The floor seemed to fall away. Her knees buckled, hitting the wooden floor with a jarring thud. She couldn't breathe. Her mind was a roaring static of terrible thoughts, but one kept reoccurring. She's gone

It was only the sound of Yen calling her name, over and over, that she finally looked up, her vision blurred with tears she hadn't even felt falling.

"Your mother is not dead."

The words didn't make sense. They were just sounds. Then, they sank in. Not dead.. A choked, ragged gasp tore from her throat.

"You didn't let me finish, girl," Yen said gently. "She is, however, in a terrible condition. She appears to be in a coma."

The news was a fresh wave of pain, but the relief was so much stronger. Her mother was alive. She whispered a prayer of thanks, her body trembling. Then, the relief hardened into something cold and sharp. "What happened?" she demanded, her voice louder than she anticipated.

Yen began. "Your mother had encountered the man a while ago, though that time he was with another hostess." She indicated the younger woman with the straight black hair and tear-stained white kimono. Mei-Mei remembered how badly her mother had looked after that day. The same customer?

"The customer came back, requesting Miyoko. And since your mother has been getting fewer clients recently, she took it." Yen's voice grew grim. "It wasn't until wailing and crashing and screams could be heard coming from their room after a while." She then pointed to the other woman, the one with dark brown hair in a purple kimono. "Suzie was the one who heard the commotion and screamed for help."

Mei-Mei's gaze then shifted to the big man. She realised what he was there for.

Yen turned and place a hand on Miyoko's face. "Poor girl. When they entered the room, they saw him beating on her with pure rage and anger. At that point, she wasn't even moving...yet he wouldn't stop."

Mei-Mei seethed with a rage so pure she couldn't stop shaking. Her breaths became shallow. "Who was he?" she whispered.

"He was a noble," Suzie answered. "He frequents the brothel multiple times a week." Yen added that the same guy was also a regular at the tavern. "He would always make a show of his distaste for women, but he wasn't as brutal up until recently . It changed when your mother tried to de-escalate a situation with Sumi." The black haired girl, Sumi, looked down, averting eye contact and rubbing one of her arms. "Something in his eyes changed...like he snapped. He left muttering to himself with eyes that were too wide for anyone."

Mei-Mei asked what happened to him, and they all pointed at the big guy. She hadn't noticed at first, but on closer inspection, she saw the specs of red on his knuckles and his garment. She prayed that bastard was more than dead.

After gaining the courage, she walked to the bedside and looked down at her mother's broken form. She gently took her limp hand.

"Will she ever recover?" Mei-Mei asked, her voice small.

"Her body can heal," Yen said, her tone turning practical. "But it requires a skilled healer, and that requires money we don't have. A peasant is low on their list. A woman of her profession?" Yen shook her head. "They wouldn't even let her through the door."

The injustice of it was a final, crushing weight. They were trapped.

"What we need," Yen said, her voice dropping to a determined whisper, "is status. We have no patron, so we will make one." She turned her gaze to Mei-Mei. "You are going to participate in the Chimera Cross Trials for Synchrites."

Mei-Mei stared, bewildered. The whiplash was too much. "...I'm not a Synchrite?"

Yen's smile was thin, filled with a fierce certainty.

"Yes, "Yen said, her voice leaving no room for argument. "You are."

**********************************************************************

I Sat forward, the recorder forgotten. "And was she? Who was Madam Yen truly? Did she acquire a Flo beast?" The questions tumbled out. A long, deliberate silence stretched out. Then, her voice, flat and final. "...I think I will stop there for now."

It felt like a punch to the gut. "What? Why?"

"Do you wish to hear more?" she asked, her head tilting. "Or do you wish to survive"

She was right. I wanted to do nothing but listen. But wanting wouldn't keep me alive. I let out a frustrated breath. "...Please Train me."

"Very well," she said, and I could have sworn I heard the faintest hint of approval in her voice.