Volume 7 - Clutching Coils, Chapter 46 - Feed the Liminals

The day started out pretty normal for Daiki. Well, there was the stormy weather, but that wasn't unheard of that time of year, and it wasn't bad enough to affect his drive to work. What was unheard of was a bus full of monster girls, er, liminals, showing up out of the blue. Daiki's small town was an hour from the shore and even further from anything else of note, so very few people wanted to move there, liminals included. In these parts, they were a rare sight indeed.

There wasn't any reason for them to come to town anyway, other than perhaps the restaurant where Daiki worked. So of course, that's where they ended up.

DING! The bell over the door chimed as new customers arrived.

"Welcome to the Forest King Buffet, where anyone can eat like royalty!" Daiki said automatically. Ugh, I feel like Pavlov's dog, barking when the bell rings, or was it drooling? He pulled himself out of his thoughts in time to see several women file in through the door. When the seventh and seemingly last one was inside, the door still didn't close, letting in the blowing wind, so he peered over the counter to see why.

Daiki's brown eyes went wide as he saw 40 feet of scaly purple tail trailing out into the parking lot and all the way to a charter bus parked there. He could see the silhouette of the bus's driver reclining in the driver's seat. Then Daiki turned and looked more closely at the women for the first time and his mouth fell open.

The long tail was connected to an insanely busty woman with long purple hair and a mature yet beautiful face. She had her arm around a short and cute woman with braided white hair and blue horns who even had wings and a tail too. Next to them was some sort of transparent pink slime girl. She was talking quietly to a magenta-haired centaur girl who had tired eyes. Ah, I know a little about centaurs, at least. No idea what these other girls are… Daiki thought, then moved on to look at the remaining three women.

Standing several feet from the centaur was a very short girl with magenta hair. She looked pretty normal until he saw her blink her six eyes. Then Daiki leaned over the counter to see her lower half and shuddered. I don't like spiders…

At the front of the party, a grinning woman with big, white, feathery wings was walking arm in arm with a black-haired woman. Daiki's gaze lingered on the second woman. She had alluring green eyes and a beautiful smile. Daiki spent a moment trying to figure out what kind of liminal she was before he realized she was actually human.

That woman approached the counter and said, "Hi there! Sorry for not calling ahead, but is there any chance you can seat a party of seven? Oh, and we have some special needs for seats…"

"Hey, Takio! We've got a party of seven, and we're gonna need a lot of space around their table!" Daiki called back toward the kitchen. It was only Daiki, Takio, and Suzu working today, which had seemed like overkill with how empty it had been all morning. Now, Daiki was worried it wouldn't be enough.

A bulky, round man with thinning hair pushed through the swinging doors from the kitchen. "Alright, no need to yell, man." He squinted to pick out Daiki and his plain brown hair against the colorful backdrop behind him.

Takio rubbed his eyes and looked again. His eyes were terrible, and he refused to wear glasses, so he didn't believe them when he saw the bizarre customers standing around Daiki. He mumbled, "I gotta get more sleep," then started pushing tables together in the middle of the dining area. There weren't any other customers, so he had no qualms about stealing as many tables as needed.

That done, Takio turned and waddled back into the kitchen, but not before calling back, "I'll send Suzu to check on the food levels in the buffet."

Daiki lead the seven women to the table, then smiled at the centaur and the giant snake woman. "Feel free to rearrange the table and chairs as much as you want, and I'd be happy to help with that if you need." He stepped back while everyone quickly worked out their seating arrangement. Looks like they're sitting in pairs…? he noted to himself.

When they were all settled in, he stepped forward next to an empty spot on the table. "In case any of you are new here, I'll explain how it works," Daiki said with a smile. He was very sure they'd never been here before, but he stuck to the standard spiel anyway. "Just grab a plate from the pile on the first counter, then load it up with whatever you want from the buffet. The counter on the left is all meat, and the one on the right is vegetarian. Feel free to go back up for another plate as often as you want. But before that…"

He turned to his left and smiled warmly at the feathered woman there, a harpy, he guessed. "Can I get you each something to drink?"

As the women lined up at the buffet, Daiki darted off to the kitchen to get the drinks, trying to keep the order straight in his head. Water for the harpy, cola for the human, orange juice for the spider, though she joked about getting coffee for some reason. Water for the centaur, plum wine for the slime, at noon, even. I wonder what that's about? Diet cola for the snake, and coffee for the… dragon, maybe? Whatever she is, she's cute. It felt wrong to refer to customers by race, but it was pretty convenient, and it was only in his head anyway.

As Daiki loaded a tray with the drinks, Takio slid up next to him and whispered, "Hey man, am I hallucinatin', or are those girls a bunch of monsters?"

Daiki leaned over and whispered back. "You're not hallucinating. I heard it's better to call 'em 'liminals' though. It's rude to say 'monster'."

Just then, they heard a sharp gasp on the other side of the kitchen door. Suzu had finally left the kitchen to check on the buffet, and she was understandably shocked. The young girl darted back into the kitchen, her brown ponytails trailing behind, then just stood there with a hand over her mouth and her eyes wide.

"Sorry, Suzu," Takio said. "I didn't know either or I woulda warned you."

Suzu slowly turned toward Takio and Daiki, the shocked look stuck on her face. "So those aren't costumes? They aren't on their way to an anime con, or a festival or something?"

Daiki shook his head. "Nope. Those are genuine liminals. Well, except for that human lady. From what little I know about that cultural exchange law, she's probably their, whatcha call it? Guardian?"

The girl finally closed her mouth. "Host. She's their host. Every extraspecies homestay needs to be accompanied by their host at all times, except while at home or with an approved exception, such as for employment," she recited. Her lips started to creep upwards into a smile. "Oh my god, a real host, and her homestays. Here of all places!"

Takio didn't like where this was going. "Hey, calm down, Suzu. Don't go harrassin' the ladies with questions. You let them enjoy their meal, alright?"

Suzu nodded, but she was still wiggling with excitement.

Daiki picked up the tray of drinks and walked past Suzu, pushing the swinging door with his butt. "Suzu, just check on the buffet after they've all sat down, okay?"

Wow, they aren't messing around, Daiki thought as he eyed the mountains of food piled on some of the plates. The harpy and snake practically cleaned out the entire meat counter on their own and the spider and dragon didn't skimp either. The devastation they caused was at least slightly offset by the fact that the slime's plate had only a couple pieces of fruit on it. The centaur assembled a massive salad, but she only picked at it slowly.

Daiki stood at the front counter and tried not to stare while the women ate and talked and laughed. They seemed to get along really well, for the most part. It looked like the harpy had sat at the end of the group so that her wing wouldn't hit anyone while she ate, but the dragon was an outlier for a different reason.

The other girls' conversations seemed stilted and awkward when the cute dragon girl was involved, and it was pretty easy to see that she didn't know the others very well. Well, except for the snake, who she was clinging on and blatantly flirting with.

Daiki may have lived in a rural area his whole life, but he wasn't ignorant. He knew about gay people, and even met some, so homosexual people were less unusual to him than liminals for sure. But for some reason he had never thought of the possibility of gay liminals. Now that's life on 'hard mode'… he thought randomly.

He turned away and looked out the window at the raging storm. As he zoned out and watched the wind-blown raindrops splashing against the window, Daiki couldn't help but overhear some of the women's conversation.

"Thank you so much for the invite, Iormu! Since it was my day off, I was planning to hit the beach, but you all know how that would've worked out," a sweet, chipper voice said.

"Oh, no problem. I'm happy to get to spend some more time with you. Though I guess it would have been better at the beach," she replied with a husky, suggestive tone.

"So, Lato, how is it working at the inn?" said a voice Daiki recognized as the human woman's.

The chipper voice replied, "It's great. Sari's a great boss, and I like my coworkers, though Lyca's a bit… off… sometimes. The location's amazing too!"

"What is it that makes Sari a good boss?" the human asked.

A new low, syrupy voice cut in. "Damn, Yuisu. You're dead set on running an inn, aren't you?"

"I wouldn't say 'dead set', Haru, but I do want to learn more, and see if it's worth going for. Starting a business isn't cheap, so I want to make sure it's what I want to do before I pull the trigger."

"Well if you do start an inn, I'll have to visit sometime! From what Iormu tells me, the mountains around your place are just beautiful, if a bit cold." After a pause, the lively voice resumed, "Oh, right, you asked about Sari! She gives us a lot of freedom to do our jobs our own way, but also tracks everything that needs done and keeps on us on task well."

"She's really patient, especially with the new liminals that aren't very experienced with humans yet. And Sari is always open to suggestions too, like with the inn's name. It's hard to imagine a better boss, really."

"Thanks, Lato! That all does sound amazing, and now I have a goal to aspire to."

Just then, the front door opened with a chime and a gust of wind. A scruffy-haired man with a big nose stepped in from the rain and started toward the counter.

"Welcome to the Forest King Buffet, where you—" Daiki started, but the man interrupted him.

"Ah, I'm not here for a meal, sorry. I'm just the bus driver for that group of women, and I was hoping ta' use yer restroom before resumin' my nap."

Daiki nodded. "Oh, of course." He pointed the man toward the restroom and went back to staring blankly out of the window.

He heard a voice he didn't recognize and turned to see the centaur was finally talking. "I'd rather not talk about it right now, Mara."

The spider responded, "Oh, okay, sorry. Maybe on the ride back?"

"Fine, whatever." The centaur put her hands on her forehead, propped her elbows on the table, and stared down at her mostly uneaten salad.

It didn't feel right to listen in on their personal drama, so Daiki went back behind the counter and busied himself with sorting the cash drawer.

Back in the kitchen, Suzu and Takio peeked out through the swinging door at the restaurant's only customers.

"Did you check on the buffet yet, Suzu?"

"No, they were still getting their food, remember?"

"Well now they ain't, so go check on it. I bet we gotta refill the hell out of it, and I need to know what to start cooking." He put a large hand on the scrawny girl's back and pushed her through the door.

She stumbled at first, then caught herself. Suzu darted toward the buffet counters with her arms held tight to her chest. She looked at the counters of food and thought, Wow, they really did clean us out on a lot of stuff. I better take notes, she thought, then pulled out her trusty notepad and reached up, trying to adjust her glasses out of habit. They weren't there, though, since she was wearing contacts. She'd overheard Daiki say he thought she looked good without glasses, so she went out and bought some contacts. But I didn't do it just for Daiki. it's not like I like him or anything…

Totally out of hard-boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, bacon, ham, and beef curry, she thought as she scribbled on her pad. Low on lettuce, carrots, radishes, teriyaki chicken, and salmon. She opened the lid of the soup of the day. And out of miso soup.

Suzu looked up from her writing and straight into a pair of wide golden eyes. "Ah!" she cried out and practically threw her pen and paper into the air in surprise.

The white haired harpy raised her hands, er, wings in front of her and apologized, "Oh, sorry. Didn't mean to startle you. I was just curious if you had brought out any more bacon yet. It's really good!" she said with a grin. Her smile was pretty, in a menacing sort of way.

Suzu bent down to pick up her pen and pad, getting a close look at the harpy's massive, sharp-looking talons. As she stood back up, she tried to calm herself and forced a smile. "We'll have more of everything out soon, but I'll make sure to get the bacon out first for you."

The harpy smiled and patted Suzu on the shoulder. Her feathers were remarkably soft and fluffy. "Thanks, Suzu. You're a doll!"

How'd she know my name?! Suzu freaked out for a second until she realized she was wearing a name tag. Ah. Duh…

The buffet was restocked and then nearly emptied again when the group went back up for a second helping. Not long after that, the rain finally stopped and the sun broke through the clouds. As if that was their cue, the group of women wrapped up their meal and got ready to leave.

Daiski was at the front counter when the human woman, 'Yuisu' he thought her name was, approached and handed him a large stack of bills. "Thanks so much for having us!" she said. Daiki counted the money and tried to hand some back, but she shook her head. "Keep it. The girls insisted on tipping you, the chef, and 'that cute skittish girl' for the great service." She showed the same alluring, pretty smile that he noticed earlier and Daiki found himself smiling back.

"Oh, thank you very much," Daiki replied with a bow. "Please come again," he called after the women as they filed out the door into the sunny, glistening afternoon.

He looked back at where they'd been sitting and his smile faded quickly. Dozens of dishes covered the tables and a proportional amount of crumbs littered the tablecloth. Eh, it's not like I had anything else to do, Daiki thought as he walked over to start cleaning up.

As he started to pile dishes into his arms, the front door chimed and a roar of voices flooded in.

"Whoa, did you see those girls? Screw the soccer tournament. I want on that bus!" a young man shouted.

"You're into monstergirls, dude?"

"I'm into anything with tits like that," a third voice said, which earned the laughter of a dozen young men.

Daiki turned and saw the high school soccer team that had just entered the restaurant. Here we go again…