Saturday morning has struck, and by routine Hiroshi and Nata were enjoying their meal. He hasn't spoken about yesterday events, but they were still haunting his curious mind.

  "Feeling alright?" Nata asked, noticing he was blankly staring into nothingness as he was stuck thinking through the events.

  The question brought him back to focusing on her, as he gave a gentle smile.

  "yeah, it's nothing." he noted, as enjoying the breakfast. "If you don't mind, but today will be busy. I am visiting someone, and afterwards having a meeting with Edith and other co-workers."

  Before he could finish speaking, he could tell she was way too excited for her own good. "you can join on the visit, but the meeting is private."

  Her wagging tail dropped hearing that he wont let her be in the meeting, but knew not to nag about it. "So, who is this someone?" her excitement returned to the mystery that was left open.

  He tried to think how, if he did explain, the moth woman he met yesterday, before deciding to let her brew in the mystery. "I think you will like them, but you should be careful with them. They are still recovering."

  "Understood!" she said cheerfully, feeling slightly dishonest of a answer with her track record with Hiroshi's recovery.

  With morning jog refreshing Hiroshi's mind, and Nata getting spend her energy on looking at new sights. After a while, they arrived at the hospital.

  Slight difficulties were had when trying to ask for where the moth woman was kept, since there wasn't much of name record currently, and Nata didn't exactly cheer up the staff in the hospital either.

  But after couple minutes of convincing and negotiating, they were given directions to her room.

  Butterflies fluttering in his stomach, he knew he shouldn't delay it, so with hand on Nata's shoulder, who was starting to jog on the spot to spend her excited energy to meet the person, he opened the door.

  The moth woman squeaked in response, as they saw her sitting on the hospital bed with nurse by her side, removing some hospital equipment that were for some tests to check her vitals

  "Sorry to intrude." Hiroshi responded, as nurse greeted the two, while the moth kept silent. and to moth's surprise, she saw Nata happily coming in with a warm "hello!" and a shining smile.

  As both went to sit by the bed, moth kept looking into Hiroshi's eyes, before looking away for a second, clearly awkward in her own situation and unsure how to take meeting the face that she yet couldn't deduce to be of someone worth of trust.

  "How is she doing, nurse?"

  "Surprisingly well. While she hasn't spoken, her lungs and throat are healthy enough to do so. There was just minor injuries and malnutrition, which should recover with couple days of good care."

  "That's good to hear."

  "however, seems there was some mistreatment around and until now, that hasn't let her wings sprout, so there will be some developmental problems, but about month of healthy eating and exercise should have them full grown, no problem at all."

  With the explanation being good enough for now. "We will see to it when we have the time. Thanks for the care." and with grateful bow from the nurse, she was off.

  "So, what is your name?" Nata said excitedly, and aloof to the whole situation between Hiroshi and her. As he was about to pat her head to calm her down, they got surprised as moth mustered strength to speak.

  In the most sultry, melting voice, she said "Olivia... Petit." clearly not fully comfortable in speaking, as she hid her face in her neck tuft.

  Hiroshi and Nata couldn't help but get little flustered from her voice, compared to her shy nature, it seemed way off from what they presumed.

  "Nice to meet you, Olivia, I am Nata." she said with excitement back in her, as she happily took grip of Olivia's hand. "I am sweet Hiro's foster." she continued.

  "Sweet?" Hiroshi questioned Nata. "Yeah, and plenty more other things." she said in teasing, sticking her tongue out playfully.

  Their playful act quickly stopped as they noticed Olivia was showing fear and worry, slowly nudging away from the two.

  "What's wrong?" Nata asked, trying to keep close to Olivia, but Hiroshi seemed to guess what was up, as he put his hand on Nata's head, he spoke up with stern voice. "Calm down." he commanded of Nata, as she just gave confused "why?" before backing away from Olivia into her chair.

  "Just, let me make a call first. Just sit down and talk, ok?" as with it, Hiroshi went out of the room, leaving the two white-haired monster girls in the room.

  "Edith? Hiroshi talking. Could you check foster database for Olivia Petit."

  "I see, I will have Kat to look into it, but I presume you are talking with the yesterday's moth currently."

  "Was, I left the room and Nata is with her for now. When she brought up fostering, Olivia seemed to get distressed."

  "That's concerning for sure. We should inform of it to the home-state immediately if and when we find it."

  "What will we do with her then? Foster care seems pretty bad for her from the experience."

  "We will discuss after the meeting. But for now, take care of her until she makes it to us. It will be difficult, but you got already a little helper with you."

  "Right. see you in a hour, then."

  Meanwhile with the girls, Olivia calmed down with him out of the room as Nata was mildly wondering what was going on. "What is it with him today... do you know?" she asked calmly to Olivia, which mildly surprised her, but she shook her head.

  With her being left in her own thoughts, Nata seemed only to get more confused on what was going on, especially with her starting to act weird when she mentioned fosters. "So... what got you so worried about fosters?" she asked, knowing she could lose nothing if she asked.

  Question lingered in the air, as with heavy heart and considering her words carefully, Olivia spoke up. "Nichevo." muttered under her breath.

  Hearing her say it, Nata knew immediately what she wanted to say. "It's fine if you don't answer." she said, as she slowly got as gloomy as Olivia was, sharing in despair, which eased Olivia, knowing there was someone who shared her knowledge.

  But one thing Olivia didn't expect, as Nata looked back up her, with tearful smile. "But Hiro is still the best, you know... just give him a chance." as she tried to comfort Olivia, but it started to look like Nata needed it more than Olivia.

  Olivia was left watching her bewildered, unsure if to take her words seriously, but she couldn't deny that Nata was truly speaking from her heart, so as she helped wipe tears off her, before giving hug to each other as a thanks.

  With mood calming down, Nata returning to cheerful self and with Olivia feeling more safe, Hiroshi returned to the room, himself having calmed down as well.

  An awkward pause was given as the two girls were staring at him expectantly, as he was left to question what happened, as Olivia was calmer now. But he was happy to see current problem seemed to got resolved for now.

  "We have about half an hour to spend before having to head to the meeting, any thoughts?" he asked, clearly not much enjoying having to take care of two girls at the time, but tried his best to act cool headed.

  And as if both communicated through telepathy, they shouted out "Food." in perfect harmony.

  Taking a stroll closer to station, they stopped at a familiar cafe on the way, taking seats by a booth and checking out the menu.

  As Hiroshi was considering for possible Karelian pie with coffee, Nata was more than happily requesting meat pasty with some apple juice, but Olivia was having trouble with her menu, looking at it with intense glare.

  Hiroshi and Nata looked at her in mild confusion, before Hiroshi realized. "Can you read it?" he asked, which only gave her a flustered disappointed look, before handing it to him.

  He took it with sigh, but knew not to trouble her more as she was already by the menu. Checking the offerings, he started to feel anxious, as he knew he had to ask. "What do you eat, exactly?"

  "Sugar."

  ...

  "Is that all?" Hiroshi asked, raising his eyebrow in confusion.

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  She shook her head, which didn't helping him at all, and Nata could catch on to the situation, as she decided to help.

  "Meat?" Olivia shook her head

  "Fruit?" Nod

  "Wheat?" nod

  "Then we should get some cake for her." she said cheerfully, decoding her like a book, leaving him pleasantly surprised for a moment, before putting the menu down and giving her pats on the head as a reward, which she happily leaned on with tail wagging hard.

  Olivia just watched, and she couldn't help but blush, hiding it in her fluffy mane.

  With waiter coming by, Hiroshi placed the orders.

  The air between them calmed down, and the mood was nice, things were going on just fine, and hiroshi felt... content.

  "Hey, isn't this where we first met?" Nata asked as she was looking out of the window, verbally kicking him in the nuts, his reaction taking both girls by surprise.

  Giving a second to recollect himself, with a light depressed look out of the window, it is as she said. "Man, I doubt I can ever live that incident down." muttering to himself, leaving Olivia worried on what they were talking about.

  "I will never forget it, after all." Nata said teasingly, which felt like added salt to his wounded soul. "Of course... you can't." he continued.

  Olivia was unsure how to take the two, but her own burning curiosity got better of her. "What happened?"

  While Hiroshi tried to leave it behind him, Nata happily explained.

  "About half a month ago, I got nearly hit by a truck. But to my fortune, Hiro was out with Edith on a date, and as they saw the coming incident, and out of nowhere, he lunged out and saved my life." she said with full admiration and excitement in her tone.

  "And with it, I lost a chance for good relationship with her." he muttered

  "But you got me at least!"

  "You are under-aged!"

  "I can save myself a year."

  "You are my foster."

  "Good excuse to connect."

  "You... you..." as Hiroshi was left speechless, he wasn't fully there, it didn't feel like it to him, but she didn't much mind as she kept her tongue out to tease him further. So giving up on the fight, he crossed his arms and continued to view outside, as Nata just happily stared at him, leaving Olivia looking at both in bewilderment.

  She didn't want to say anything, but she couldn't deny that the two were interesting, and their chemistry was something she hasn't seen before. All she has seen from men in recent times, has mostly been horrendous towards monsters.

  But here she was looking at Nata happily teasing and playing with him, when he isn't in mindset for it at all and wanting just to relax.

  Olivia couldn't help but give a light squeaky giggle at the two, before they got served their meals. All were getting what they ordered, as Olivia was given white chocolate cake with strawberries on top as decoration.

  Atmosphere returned to calm air, all enjoying their meals until it was once again time to depart.

  Arriving at the station, Hiroshi gave 20 euros for Nata and let her free to explore the city, as with Olivia, they entered the station and quickly spotted Sophia sitting at the reception, easily appearing half-sleep by how she was slumped.

  "Are you feeling alright?" Hiroshi decided to ask, which quickly kicked her awake, looking around in confusion.

  Noticing the two, she slowly got up with a sleepy smile. "Yeah, but you know, night shift schedule doesn't do well with Edith's meeting times." she said with a half-assed laugh.

  As Sophia lead them deeper, she showed Olivia to wait alongside with other monsters at one of the gathering spots, while Hiroshi and Sophia continued their way to nearby meeting room.

  The room was surprisingly big with good dozen or two people gathering around, even it seemed some police officers were mixed in the crowd with whiteboard at the end of the room, where he could note was an table with Edith and Kat were sitting, with sleeping Matthew just in case. Sophia soon joining them, sitting down behind the table.

  As everyone was seated and after couple minutes of waiting just to make sure there weren't anyone late-comers, meeting started.

  Edith stood up, checking everyone was around, as she started. "Some of you are first time at this meeting, some of you have been here already. So, we will go through the basics."

  With projector on, she put on a slide, showing images of all kind of criminal activity, from small robberies, to large scale operations.

  "We are here to discuss and report on current findings on the Russian mafia, who's name has been tracked to be Chuvaki, but they go by the name of 'Tail-catchers' in our books. Thanks to recent efforts, we have been able to force them out of the daily streets with lead of Kat's dayshift patrolling, however, that means our nightshift has gotten out of hand."

  Edith sat down, as Sophia stood up, with new panel put on, with pictures of multiple crime-scenes, one of them he could recognize was the alleyway he was at.

  "There has been massive increase on active trafficking, kidnapping, drug dealing and other crimes during sundown, many of which are done under the cover of businesses and casual actions. We recently tracked down and busted one of these nightclubs, and got information that operation is even larger than we previously thought. They aren't just smuggling out of Elmspring, but are many transferrings from other city-states to Elmspring in guise of migration, travel or business transactions, and moving from here to across the border to Russia. Here is an example of case sample, that was discovered recently."

  Another panel was turned, showing censored picture of Olivia, with scene of the crime more clear, and a mugshot that was mildly familiar to him.

  "A white ermine moth demibeast was discovered last night to our surprise. It took some time to discover her name, but once we did, we found that she has been brought here from Portugal's Cálajara. And she was found with a man that worked for one of these nightclubs. So we took note of the record book they were keeping, and found out that it most likely held given names to these individuals. We were able to decode couple more names after this revelation, as it seems they tried to remove any way for us to track these monsters down by their true identities, as there were multiple already within our systems."

  Sophia sat down, as Kat stood up. "Now, we may not be at our best of luck to deal with these scum, but that doesn't mean any of us should give up. And to make sure everyone understands, there will be no speaking of this outside of the station, and if you have suspicions on possible trafficking, you should stay quiet and inform us as quickly as you can. Their greatest weapon is secrecy, so we should utilize it as well to our advantage."

  As with it, she proceeded to explain and show many of the signs and marks how to spot and guess suspicious locations, peoples and activity.

  After half an hour of exhausting explanation, the meeting was called off, with new people in there being anxious and worried, while veterans comforting them and keeping positive, while Hiroshi was left to jot down everything to his mind.

  "I must say, I am surprised you were so quick to join, Hiroshi." Edith spoke up, as she invited him to sit closer.

  "You must understand, the undertaking in this isn't light. Many new to this meeting has been in forces for good year now at least, and you have been only with us for a week." she stated, giving clear comparison between him and many of the people that were with them.

  "Well, that's the thing. I didn't want to speak of it until we had a good moment, but I had discovered Nata was trafficked as well." he explained, getting surprise from Edith, but Sophia and Kat seemed more used to it.

  "That would explain a lot." Spoke up Kat. "We had suspicions on kidnapping, but she is Russian by origin, so why would she be taken out of the country?"

  Sophia quickly spoke up after her. "But with Olivia, we know that they have business outside of immediate Russian borders. It wouldn't be surprising if there were intentions to take her away from Russia to hide the tracks, and sell her off in somewhere like Americas." she put out a theory.

  "That seems most likely... but if they are trading with larger scale," Edith continued on their thoughts. "that means we might start to consider that they haven't stopped daily business just yet..." she finalized, giving everyone uneasy feelings. Nothing was confirmed, but it seemed most likely.

  "Anyways, we should move away from this for now. Sophia, go get Olivia. And no need to stay Hiroshi, you are free to go." Edith said, which Hiroshi gently rejected. "Actually, I would like to stay if you don't mind."

  None of them seemed to, aside from Kat who gave daggers with her stare, but nothing more.

  With Sophia being off for a moment, before coming with Olivia following, who was very much confused on what was going on.

  Edith happily spoke up, as she relaxed her body. "Hello Olivia. No need to worry, we will just have a calm discussion." she tried to play calm, but Kat's stern look didn't much help the mood.

  To ease her mind, Olivia's eyes went to Hiroshi, before quickly looking away. Taking some time to process what was going on, she calmly joined with Sophia to sit down.

  "I am Edith, and the spokesperson for monster tamers here in Elmspring. Here we have Kat" as Kat raised her wing to greet. "My brother Matthew." as she showed towards the still slumbering man "and you have already met Sophia and Hiroshi yesterday. How are you feeling?"

  With expectant look at Olivia, she slightly fidgeted on her seat, before speaking up "Okay." which got the trio first time hearing her flustered for a second as well.

  Kat gave a light cough, before speaking up. "We know you had problems during your stay in Cálajara, most notably that they failed with your foster-transfer many years ago, by giving you to someone they shouldn't have trusted." she declared.

  Her expressionless talking not easing Olivia as she got reminded of the fact.

  "Now, in the records, you are an full adult, but with processes by medical team notes you are still not able to live by yourself, most notably being your wing condition and some educational difficulties, so we have been considering to put you back into foster-care again."

  Saying it, she was almost ready to go in full panic, before Sophia quickly tried to calm her, and continued the talk. "Now we are making sure whoever you get is someone we have full trust in, who has plenty of foster-care under their belt, so the case with you previously wont happen again."

  Room fell silent, as Olivia was processing through the promise, before she nodded, but still showed some fear.

  Edith nudged Matthew, who in a daze woke up and quickly took sip at his coffee, spurting him alive from his slumber. "Right, Olivia." As going through a case next to him, before taking out multiple files and putting them on the table. "These are the current fosters that are able to take you in."

  As she slowly went through the files, there being a good dozen to choose from.

  Taking good couple minutes just looking at single one, she went through each one.

  The tension in the air was palpable, as everyone was waiting for whatever she was going to choose, but as she got to the last one, she seemed somewhat displeased.

  "it's fine. We didn't expect to find you family right off the bat, but feel free to tell what might interest you, so we can pick someone more fitting." Edith explained, hoping to get answer from her.

  With awkward silence falling back on them, she slowly looked at Hiroshi, before with mild blush looking away and hiding her face in her mane. "Hiro" she muttered, muffled through her tuft.

  With everyone, except Matthew who had already fallen back asleep, were staring at her with mixed emotions.

  Edith was curious, Sophia was confused, Kat was worryingly and Hiroshi was fearfully, as they were left to stare at her, wanting to make sure they heard her right.

  The pressure was getting into her, so with her full lung, she stood up and slamming her hands on the table. "I want to stay with Hiro!"

  Leaving the room very much more silent with tension high enough to cut with a knife, she slowly sat down with an mild apology for shouting.

  Hiroshi was left speechless and unsure how to take it, but his fear wasn't only on her, as soon he had three women staring at him, and one who very much is brink on snapping his neck right on the spot.

  "Well, if you say so. He will fit you well." Edith said with a smile, leading other two women and Hiroshi shouting in surprise for her accepting it instantly.