[Episode]: Catching Up!!!

Laughter boomed throughout the brothel known as The Tilted Maiden. Men told tall tales about their victories and loot, while women giggled for coin, and as this all happened Shigaraki watched them. Above the main area of the brothel, leaning against the railing of the balcony, stood Shigaraki Nikushimi. The brothel was not a place that Shigaraki fancied, it was loud and more often than not, Shigaraki found himself disgusted with the men and women who frequented the The Tilted Maiden. At last, the brothel was the only thing that he had since the accident, and its owner was kind enough to offer Shigaraki a home and job while he recovered from being stranded at sea. The main reason why he stayed at the brothel was primarily due to the fact that, The Tilted Maiden gave him a steady income and until he could buy enough to purchase a ship and leave this hole in a wall, Shigaraki planned on staying. The owner was not so bad either, he was kind to Shigaraki and taught him a thing or two. The most important thing that Shigaraki learned from the owner was how good the escorts were at getting information. In fact, it came to be that the whores became one of Shigaraki’s primary methods to keep in touch with the happenings of the world.

Specifically, Shigaraki came to closely trust a man named simply as Demetri. Demetri was an escort who was inclined to males, and occasionally, aided those men who kept their little itch a secret. Yet, Demetri was also the owner’s greatest information gatherers, and within a couple of weeks of being at the brothel, Shigaraki realized that the information that Demetri attained was the most reliable. In fact, as Shigaraki watched the foolish men flounder around like primates, his eyes continued to roam around for Demetri. Shigaraki’s job was rather simple, he was to make sure that everyone remained safe. Specifically, he was to make sure that no harm came to the brothel’s employees and that the clients remained respectful and not too rowdy. Oddly enough, Shigaraki found that his presence was merely for show, a reminder that if you go out of line there would be some sort of price to pay. It was actually rare for him to get between a client and employee, to his surprise, most of the men here understood and acknowledged the rules.

Perhaps there was a mutual understanding, one in which the men knew that if they acted up and caused some trouble, then they were getting laid. Maybe that was the reason why the men behaved, and Shigaraki spent most of his nights standing up here with nothing to do, or simply counting beli. Eventually, Shigaraki’s gaze finally rested on the slender physique of Demetri, the escort was not the most masculine of men, and in truth, Demetri could past by as a girl if his Adam’s apple were not so prominent. The handsome escort had long red hair, and blue eyes that reminded Shigaraki of a siren. A joke was often made that Demetri could hypnotize you with a simple blink, and well, judging by the hulking brute that had pulled Demetri into his overly large arms, it seemed that the rumors were a little true. Demetri seemed to have felt Shigaraki’s gaze on him, and quickly casted those hypnotic eyes towards him before turning them back onto the brute of a client. Shigaraki averted his gaze onto another employee, a slender young women who had found herself in the company of a drunken fool.

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Usually, most men here were drunk or left this place drunk, and therefore, it was no surprise to find some sort of drunken idiot pushing himself onto a girl or two. The girls were commonly able to handle the situation and push the men off of them or divert their attention. But for some reason, this guy did not seem to keen on leaving this employee alone. Shigaraki forget her name, and as he watched the scene play out, he could not retrieve her name from her memory, there were simply too many escorts and not many of them had left a memorable impression on Shigaraki. A gut feeling would tell him that he should prepare to intervene, the escort had done what she was trained to do, and seeing that it wasn’t working at this moment in time, it was then time for Shigaraki to make his presences more clearly known.

The young bouncer would slither pass the women guiding their clients to a private room, and down the stairs to the main dining area of the brothel. Shigaraki would snake through the drunken crowd of giant men and stalking the girl and her aggressor from the walls. The man did not seem to be letting up, as he had gone out to grab the girl and pull her into his laps, however, the girl was not having it and slapped the man. Taking this as a sign to intervene, Shigaraki pushed through the crowd and made his way to the table of drunken men, the man raised his hand to slap the girl, but before a strike could be made Shigaraki grabbed his hand and smiled a creepily smile. He gave the filthy man a grin from ear to ear, one that would send bats fleeing in fear.

“Oh my, it seems that you have made a grave mistake.” Shigaraki had pushed the girl away, and got between the two, he was close to the man, far closer than he wanted to be as he could literally smell the man’s rotting teeth. The man snatched his arm out of Shigaraki’s grasp, and stood up so quickly that the chair fell backwards and wobbled for a moment or two, but braced himself by holding onto the table. It was clear that the man was drunk, and it was definitely clear that he wasn't in his right mind. Shigaraki casted a gaze out onto the table, there were two other men with him they to had stood up in protest to their comrade being grabbed. "Now, now, don't get too hasty here men, you know the rules, you try to hurt one of the girls and you don't get laid." Shigaraki pointed out, and gesture out to the door. "Although, it would seem that in your state I doubt that you could even get laid, so, why don't you come back tomorrow? Eh? When your head is clear and your libido isn't so clouded?"

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The room went quiet as the two men starred one another off, and the other two men grabbed their pistol in a threatening manner. Shigaraki would tilt his head in a playfully confused manner, as his gaze silently fell upon the gun. "Why don't you back away little man?" The man directly in front of Shigaraki spat once or twice as he spoke, some of his grubby saliva got onto Shigaraki's face. The young bouncer's noise shriveled in the defeat as he wiped his the spit off of his face. Little man? Just who in the hell does this guy think he is? 

"Come now, don't be too stupid. You are out numbered, and everyone here was having a good time until you ruined their fun." Shigaraki would gesture out to the other people within the brothel, some of which had taken out their guns and weapons in aid to the young bouncer. "Now you see, these people understand the rules and they are well paying customers! They like it here, they like what we can provide them, and more importantly they like their fun!" He paused for a moment and gently tapped his chin. "I wonder what would happen if you started a fight and continued to ruin their fun?" The grin on Shigaraki's lips tugged ever so wider, as the men looked around and realized that they were indeed outnumbered. "You better watch your back, scrawny boy, this ain't over, understood?" The man directly in front of Shigaraki sneered, and nodded to his friends that it was time to leave.

Shigaraki nodded in agreement. "Whatever you say, I recommend that the next time you come back here you change your attitude, I suppose I don't need to show you the door?" The man would spat on Shigaraki's shoes before brushing past him, and leaving the room with a grunt. Demetri had pushed his way through the crowd of men, and rested his chin on Shigaraki's shoulder. "You know, you should've problem be a bit more nicer." Shigaraki shrugged Demetri off of his shoulders, and did not take his eyes off the men until they left. "I want you to find any information on those men, I want to know who I just made an enemy of." With that Shigaraki would turn away from the scene and make his way back up the stairs, Demetri pouting a little would nod and go back to the hulking brute to which he was seducing.

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