One of the harder parts of starting a business is setting up a physical place for it. As it is often said, everything in life is about location, location, location. When Aiko agreed to help boost adult entertainment on Heiya Island on Miss Fabina's request, she ran into a little trouble in setting up there. She agreed with Amaterasu about not undercutting Heiya Island's geisha girls. Aiko had too much respect for kabuki and noh theater to displace or distort it. Unfortunately, Heiya Island has a limited amount of usable space, a lot of it devoted to residential areas, farmlands, Samurai Prep, and Interpol's office. Even if there was enough room on Heiya Island for a nightclub, zoning restrictions would prohibit it from putting it too close to the school or family homes.
Setting up the nightclub on Ryouiki Island is not proving much easier. Mostly because the island is largely unsettled and the government wanted to preserve as much of its natural beauty as possible. The second school, unofficially named Ninja Prep, will be mostly set up in the logging camp with areas near the camp being made into residential zones. However, one area of Ryouiki has been a little bit settled and was far away enough from the school and residential area: the old iron mine in the mountain. Of course, the mine needed to be properly inspected and reinforced before she could even start setting up her nightclub there. It was slow going, what with winter being here, but Aiko was assured that it might be done by February. Until then, Aiko would have to live in the apartment on Heiya that she moved into.
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Aiko was glad that Ami was understanding about her attentions, but she made it clear that the nightclub wouldn't likely be on this island. At least she offered Aiko a place to stay until she could get things settled on the other island. And Aiko was glad they hadn't done a 'capsule hotel' like they did in Japan before the pandemic.
“Well, it’s not much, but at least it’s a place to sleep,” said Aiko, looking around her apartment. Considering the generous figure her conversion into an arctic fox Animalian gave her, she didn’t bring a lot of clothes with her. There wasn’t a lot from her old life that she was interested in bringing, so her luggage was rather small. Miss Fabina had promised to buy her a complete wardrobe, but Aiko didn’t like being anyone’s debt too long. She had enough clothes to get through the week and enough money to pay for food and rent until her club was up and running. Until then, Aiko had little in her apartment to speak of.
Aiko sighed and said, “Well, I may as well see what neighbors I have now.” Walking out of her apartment, Aiko walked around, wondering who’d she eventually stumbles across. She certainly wasn’t expecting to see a big green snake with two heads and four arms emerge from one of the apartments. “Excuse me, aren’t you Li-Wei?” asked Aiko.
The left head looked at her and asked, “You know about us?”
“Well, there aren’t many other two-headed snakes around, let alone ones with four arms,” said Aiko, “Not to mention you’re dating one of the most influential martial artists around.”
“Li’s the one dating Muxing,” said the right head, pointing at his brother, “I’m along for the ride.”
Aiko tilted her head and said, “I was under the impression that you were both dating her.”
“We are separate personalities, you know,” said the right head, Wei, “Just because we share a body doesn’t mean we only count as one person.”
“So you aren’t interested in Muxing?” asked Aiko.
“I didn’t say that,” said Wei, “But she’s more like Li’s mate than mine.”
“Ah, I see,” said Aiko with a nod, “So you think you both deserve separate mates.”
“It would only be fair,” said Li, “Though I’m not sure how Muxing would feel about that. In fact, I’m not entirely sure how Muxing feels about me.”
“Don’t be stupid,” said Wei, “She’s obviously into you, even if she’s too proud to admit it.”
“Muxing had a hard life. It’s hard for her to open up and expose her feelings,” said Li.
This was unexpectedly fascinating to watch, like a soap opera with slightly less drama. Though Aiko would rather see a ship be guided safely into port instead of a train wreck caused by bottled emotions. “If I were you two, I’d focus on showing Muxing how much she means to you first,” said Aiko, “And if she feels the same way, then you ask how open she is to the idea of sharing you with another snake.”
“Would she even agree to that?” asked Li.
“This is Animalia,” said Aiko, “Polyamory is a lot more accepted here than usual. Anyways, you two count as two legal individuals so she’d be doing polygamy if she kept you to herself. But don’t immediately tell her that. Ease her into the idea.”
“You think it might work?” asked Wei.
“It’s hard to say,” said Aiko, “No couple is exactly the same as another. And I hear the Muxing is a prickly enough person under normal circumstances without something as…unusual as this. But if you get her sisters’ support and help, I think that will improve your chances.”
The brothers looked thoughtful at that. Well, this was certainly encouraging for Aiko. Yes, she might not have her club yet, but she didn’t need to sit around doing nothing until then. She wasn’t as experienced a love coach as some people she knew (and even they might have trouble with a case like this). Still, these two obviously needed as much help as they can get.