The Adventures of Team 9 Catering
by Cyberchao X
Disclaimer: These characters are not now, nor have they ever been my property.
Chapter ➀
"Hey there sweetie," came the cool voice of Yamame Kurodani. "How's business treating you?"
"It's good for the most part," replied Wriggle Nightbug, "but we haven't gotten many customers yet."
"Hey! I thought I made a 'no girlfriends at work' policy!" interrupted the night sparrow youkai, Mystia Lorelei.
"If you keep jumping to conclusions like that, Mystia-chan, you just might lose out on business," replied the spider youkai.
"You have a job for us?"
"Yeah. Nothing too big; it probably won't even require all five of you. Of course, I want my Wriggle-chan to be there…"
"Yeah, yeah, I get it," Mystia said. "I know I'd want to be at any event we were catering where Lyrica-chan was. So what's the occasion? Because just because our first big gig required us to double as wait-staff doesn't mean that we're always going to do that."
"Yeah, it would be kind of weird having all of these extra people around. Most of my friends know Wriggle-chan already, so that wouldn't be anything out of the ordinary, but—"
"Yama-chan, tell us what we're catering already!" Wriggle interrupted.
"Ah, right, the party. Parsee-san's got a birthday coming up soon, and Yuugi-san thought it would be nice if we threw her a party."
"Somehow she'll still find a way to be jealous of something, even when everything in the world is being done for her. I take it it's not just the two of you throwing her this party, then?"
"Well, we're the ones hosting it, of course, but there will be other guests—even a few surface-dwellers, like that curse goddess. We also invited the shinigami, but her boss said that she'd taken too much time off already and wouldn't be able to make it."
"Yeah, not exactly a surprise there. So this was all Yuugi-san's idea?"
"Yes, why?"
Wriggle sighed. "Those two should just go out already. It's obvious that they have feelings for one another."
"Yuugi-san and Parsee-san? Nah, it would never work. Yuugi-san is a good friend, but she'd make a horrible girlfriend; too irresponsible and enjoys her freedom too much. You could say that about just about any oni, actually."
"Yeah, I guess you're right. And by 'freedom' you mean…"
Yamame nodded. "Oh yeah. Most of the male guests at this party have slept with Yuugi-san at least once, and there aren't even any awkward feelings because everyone knows that she's never going to have a meaningful relationship. Probably about half the female ones, too."
"You sure have some strange friends, Yama-chan."
"The Underground is a strange place. A lot of them think I'm weird for dating a girl so much younger than me, but I don't care what they think." She kissed Wriggle, and the two of them started making out before Mystia quickly made a point of loudly clearing her throat. "Sorry about that. So, can you guys do it?"
"Yeah, we'll do it; just get us a list of how many people will be there," Mystia said. She sighed. "We really need to find some clients who don't have personal ties to us, though," she told Wriggle, "I'm afraid Cirno-chan will get jealous if we keep getting our jobs based on our girlfriends' locations."
"I agree. Lately she's been extra-irritable regarding her loveless situation." They both sighed. Regardless of how it came to them, it was another day's work.
CCX: Well, so much for waiting until The Scarlet Devil was actually finished to start on this. I had some spare time, and since I'd just put out two chapters yesterday and a Phantasm this morning I figured it would be best to ease back on that story for a little bit. I'm not sure if I'll devote a second chapter to the party itself or if I'll just move on to the next story, but I think we're off to a good start. (And yes, those "other residents of the Underground" that will be attending Parsee's birthday party are just filler characters, most if not all of which will remain nameless even if I do write another chapter on this.) Of course, I can think of at least one event where their presence will eventually be needed…