It was the opening night of Ayamaro's new night club House of the Dragonflies, located at the intersection of Cherry Street and Pine Avenue in Iyashi no Sato.

Once the happy (and incidentally all male) guests filled the place, the club owner made his grand entrance. Biwa music started on cue as Ayamaro stepped out of his iron-ox carriage and entered the club, waddling down the red carpet leading to the stage. The merchant, dressed in all his fabulous flamboyance, had a gorgeous drag queen on each arm.

The drag queen on his left had perfectly coiffed black hair. He wore a cream velvet overcoat over a pink high-collared silk blouse. His black lipstick contrasted starkly with his pale skin.

The drag queen on the merchant's right was a blonde in a long, elegant red gown.

Seated at one of the tables next to the red carpet were four samurai. The two older ones were tall and dark. The two younger ones were pale-skinned. Of these two young men, one was a cheerful redhead. The other was a blond who did not seem to be having a good time.

--

As Ayamaro's drag queen bodyguards sashayed down the carpet with their employer, Hyogo heard the handsome dark-haired man at a nearby table speak to the fellow sitting on his right, a big man with silver hair.

"See that stunning blonde? What a perfect illusion of graceful femininity!"

"Bleah!" The pale, bespectacled onnagata said jealously under his breath. Kyuuzou always got all the attention from the men. It was just not fair.

--

Sitting with his friends at the table next to the red carpet, Shichiroji stared listlessly into his drink. His three companions were congratulating themselves on getting a table with an excellent view of the stage, but Shichiroji was preparing to be bored out of his mind for the rest of the evening.

Earlier, the bouncer Tessai nearly barred Shichiroji from entering the club because the young man was too 'sloppily dressed' and did not meet the dress code standards. But Gorobei, ever the handsome charmer, succeeded in amusing Tessai with a lizard-eating trick. So the blond buck-toothed man relented and let Shichiroji off with a warning. Still, it was already a bad start to what would prove to be an annoying evening.

Ayamaro had given his long, boring welcome speech. Then he took a seat at the reserved table next to the center stage. The drag queens sat down, flanking him. Shichiroji wondered if Ayamaro's two drag queen companions were going to perform, but they did not. Instead, another onnagata – a redhead dressed in a pink kimono and wearing a nose band, had gotten on stage and was now lip-synching the song 'Unlimited'.

"I can lip synch better than that!" Shichiroji decided.

His friends didn't seem too interested in Nose-Band Lady's performance either. They were currently quite involved in their own inane conversation.

"The illusion is most convincing!" Shimada Kanbei was still staring in the direction of Ayamaro's table, or more specifically, at the foxy 'lady' in red.

"Are you sure that is really a guy?" Gorobei asked Kanbei.

"What would I give to find out!" His friend replied with a grin.

Just then, the drag queen in the crimson gown turned his head slightly and gave Shimada Kanbei an icy glare from across the room. If looks could kill, the dark samurai would have been a dead man.

"Stop it, Kanbei." Shichiroji hissed. "He heard you. You're going to get us thrown out of the club!"

Still, his friend remained undeterred. The dark man gave Kyuuzou his most charming smile. The red-clad drag queen immediately turned his eyes back to the stage, where the second performer of the evening, an ugly blond female impersonator with black lipstick and a mono-eye, was about to start his stand up comedy routine.

Kanbei continued to smile dreamily at Kyuuzou's profile.

"Close your mouth, Kanbei," Heihachi giggled as he tugged at Shimada's sleeve. "You're drooling."

Shichiroji rolled his eyes. "If a guy likes a man who looks like that red queen, he might as well be straight." The blond samurai muttered sourly. "I did not come to a gay club to look at a 'woman'."

He missed the House of the Fireflies, where men were men and women were women.