"What is it?" Kumi leans in.

Rose turns the page towards her, and reveals a caricature of Kumi. Her flowing courtesan's robes have been exaggerated into a floppy trailing bathrobe, and her face has been made up with what looks like five pounds of makeup. Her snout is long, and her mouth is full of teeth. Her bun hairstyle has been exaggerated too, looking like a knitter's pincushion. 

Kumi blinks, then laughs. "Yeah, that is what I look like!" She claps a few times for Quar's talent and smiles at him. "You have a skill."

"Thank you," Quar says smugly. "It's good to meet a lady with a sense of humor about her appearance. Want to make a try at the knife throwing?"

Kumi shakes her head. "No, I think I've got to get on to business. Maybe another day."

"You're sure?"

"I'm sure." She gestures to Rose and Ember. "Let's keep moving, girls."

"Aw. Alright." Rose follows along.

Ember follows without a word, still playing with the pewter ring on her finger.

Finally, after passing what seems like at least a dozen more hawkers and places of business, they arrive at the property. 

It looks awful from the outside. It pretends to be a tavern, but the outside's paint is peeling and it smells distinctly of qat leaves and smoke. The tiles on the roof are all higgledy-piggledy and more than a few have fallen into the alleyway. There's a bored-looking guard posted outside the door.

"Halt," calls the guard. "This property belongs to Lady Dyrianna. Do you have a pass to enter?"

Kumi nods. "Yes, I'm in talks to rent it from her and renovate it. My name is Kumi Shiromusume, I sent a messenger?"

"Ah. Yes. Well, the property is a shambles but you've a right to tour it. Go on in. Your companions will have to stay outside."

"I'm not going into that abandoned building alone, do you think I'm an idiot? Anything could have taken up residence."

"Mrrrm. Alright, you may bring your companions. But only tour the property, you understand?"

"I understand." 

Kumi steps past the guard and in through the door.

The former brothel's front room looks like the most run-down tavern Kumi's ever seen. It's heavily water-damaged; there's a bucket beneath a hole in the roof and the floorboards are rotten and swollen. The wallpaper is smoke-stained and the chairs and tables have visible mold. The whole place looks like it should be condemned and torn down, not repaired.

Ember comes in through the door and looks around. 

She snorts. "Could be worse."

"How?"

"It could have been fire damage. The water damage is relatively localized. You weren't going to use the old furniture anyway. You'll have to repair the hole in the roof and rip up the soggy floorboards, and replace the wallpaper and the ceiling tiles, but the bones are mostly solid."

"I dread to think what the rooms for the girls were like if this is the common room."

"Let's go look together."

Rose is still looking, in something resembling abject horror.

Kumi passes around the moldy furniture and the water-damaged floor, and goes on into the back of the establishment. 

There are rooms, back here, each with a single mattress on the floor stained with distressingly nameable fluids. There's a lot of qat residue. Some blood. Some mold. Some other kinds of stains. She startles as a rat runs across her vision. 

"Great," she sighs. "It's rat-infested."

"At least they're not giant rats. That would have been an adventurer problem."