Youtoukorou

Youtoukorou's business card

**Youtoukorou** (夭桃狐狼) is a bar that fronts for a Shinjuku-based freelance agency of the same name.

## Building

Youtoukorou occupies one or two upper-storeys of a high-rise building. The club itself spans either two floors or one floor and a mezzanine, while agency business is confined to a half basement. It opens in the afternoon and runs late enough that some employees work a midnight shift.

The physical bar is located on the club's lower floor, a large central section of which is partitioned with half walls so as to section off some of the seating. More chairs and tables line the outer sides of the half walls and the full walls, both of which are paneled. Additional seating is available on what is either an upper floor or mezzanine; the center of the mezzanine is open space for the sake of accommodating a large, opulent chandelier.

As a club, Youtoukorou caters to wealthy, albeit not necessarily refined clientele by offering VIP seating and exorbitantly expensive cocktails; it appeals to the moneyed; however, the provocative dress code of its waitresses may potentially deter some upper class clients. As a freelance agency, Youtoukorou caters to clients whose needs may require illegal solutions, though Youtoukorou readily accepts above-board requests as well. The agency's ties to the underworld perhaps explain why Lisa is willing to hire employees with shady pasts.

## Personnel

### Members and Associates

Some members of Youtoukorou appear to either exclusively work for the bar or for the agency, while others work in both capacities.

People listed below as affiliates rather than members are either people who do not work with but are associated with the faction (Corpse God), people who technically work as freelancers but now work primarily for Youtoukorou (Takumi, the snipers), and people seen working on Lisa's behalf but whose formal roles have not been confirmed (Kazami).

### Dress Code

Anyone working a shift at the bar must adhere to uniform. Male bartenders wear must wear red bow ties and black aprons over long-sleeved white dress shirts and black trousers; female bartenders wear red bow ties, short-sleeved white shirts, black skirts, stockings, and black vests.

Waitresses, aka 'bunnies,' wear skimpy dark red outfits that border on two-piece lingerie. Components include: a bunny-eared headband; a faux jacket with sleeves rolled to the elbows to expose white cuffs; shirtless white collars hooked to the upper suit piece; and dark-and-bright red stockings hooked to the suit-and-tie-patterened bottom piece, which is adorned with a bow tie.

Male bouncers wear three-piece suits and ties. The two known female bouncers respectively wear different variations: the tall one wears a dark red suit and a white shirt amd rolls the sleeves to below her elbows, the shorter one wears a long-sleeved blazer and skirt over a white shirt, a necktie, and knee/thigh-high stockings.

Some leeway appears to be given with regard to hairstyle, piercings, and accessories. The tall bouncer wears ear piercings and a dark blue mask patterned to resemble a large-toothed maw, and dyes her hair light blue. There are no apparent guidelines for styling one's hair or for tie colors and patterns.

## Chronology

### The Polka Hit

When an unknown client contracts Youtoukorou to murder Polka Shinoyama, a runaway teen heir to the Shinoyama Group fortune, Misaki Sakimiya volunteers for the job. She slits Polka's throat in the Shinjuku alleyway; shortly thereafter, Corpse God reincarnates in Polka's corpse and later accidentally kills Misaki when she corners him in the Abandoned Building. Lisa, Koruto, Izuna, multiple armed men, and Urai head to the scene and confront Corpse God when Takumi Kuruya raises the alarm. Corpse God resurrects Misaki as a zombie, which dissipates some of the tension, and Lisa—realizing his enormous asset potential— offers to let him live in the Abandoned Building and assigns Misaki and Takumi to act as his liaisons. That night, she tells the client that she is voiding the deal and that Polka is now under her protection.

Two days later, Inspector Tsubaki Iwanome arrives at the bar and accepts a ¥60,000 glass of high-grade alcohol from Lisa on the house. He feigns inebriation over the next half hour so as to pry for information about Lisa's involvement with troublemakers and 'blab' police secrets, much to Urai's worry, though Lisa does not rise to the bait. Corpse God and Misaki, upon entering the bar, *do* take Iwanome's bait via accepting his invitation to chat about trends. Once Kōzaburō Arase joins Iwanome, Iwanome shifts gears to speak with the teenagers in a LEO capacity.

Lemmings switches off the club's electricity before entering the club, landing in the midst of the patrons and the policemen brought along by Arase. The ensuing scuffle between Arase, the policemen, and Lemmings topples tables and chairs and damages a wall before Lemmings snatches Misaki and leaps with her to the chandelier. Corpse God remotely fights Lemmings via necromantic attacks concealed by the darkness while waitresses evacuate patrons, and, eventually, Corpse God wins via manifesting a huge bestial skeleton. This causes further extensive damage to the bar. Once Lemmings is gone and the electricity is restored, Lisa, the employees, Iwanome, and Arase survey the damages. Iwanome agrees with Arase: *next time*, they come armed.

Repairing all damage to the bar takes several days to complete.

Around two weeks after the Lemmings incident, Iwanome—with Arase—visits Lisa when the bar opens in the afternoon. He talks in the abstract and the strange, first insinuating that she has spent the past five years wiping all traces of a certain patron, then that Lisa orchestrated his meeting Polka, and makes references to a divination. When Lisa asks him to clarify, he says that patron is Miyabi Hosorogi—a man thought dead. Despite how important Hosorogi is to Iwanome, Iwanome's chief complaint & reason for coming is that he does not approve of Lisa involving a child—Polka—in his (Iwanome's) and Lisa's Hosorogi dispute. Lisa says that she is renting a space to Polka only to use him as an 'in' with the Shinoyama Group. Iwanome points out that Misaki is also in danger—the sort of danger that sent Hosorogi into hiding—but he soon grows fed up with Lisa "playing dumb" and leaves, more wired than ever to continue Hosorogi's anti-police corruption activities.

## References

1. ↑ *Dead Mount Death Play* (Manga): Volume 2, Chapter 9.