A hefty sigh echoed around the shop. "Looks like I'll need to get a new one then..." a man standing behind a small cafe's counter said.

"Hm? What's up Sojiro," a girl with orange hair asked at the front entrance.

"Oh, Futaba. I didn't see you come in." Sojiro rubbed the back of his head gruffly. "The toaster is broken." He pointed down to it, and said, "I'll need to get another one here soon." He looked up at the clock on the wall. It was only 3:00 pm. "I guess I'm going to have to take toasted sandwiches off the menu for today." He grunted. "If only the kid were still here, I could have him watch the shop until I got back."

Futaba began giggling. "You're grumbling like an old man, Sojiro." She looked up at him after laughing some more. "If it's that important to you, I can watch the shop," she offered.

"No." There was no hesitation.

"Whaaaaaat?" She pouted in his direction.

"Futaba, you can't seriously be asking me to put you in charge of the shop. It took you almost three months before you stopped wearing that freaky mask."

"But that was just my first stage! I've reached my final evolution now!"

Sojiro took a second to decipher the words before saying, "it's still a no."

"Oh come on Sojiro. This can be like, my final test to see whether I'm ready for school. I'll need to talk to the NPC's to level up!"

Sojiro took a moment to consider this. She did need to get out some more, and this could be a good test for her. 'Damn her Isshiki DNA,' he thought. "Fine, I'll let you watch the store."

"Woohoo! I won't let you down Sojiro!"

He chuckled. "Alright then, I'll be back." With that, he took off his apron and left Leblanc, leaving Futaba to quickly hopped behind the counter and toss on a different apron.

"Alright, Futaba! Time to be the best NPC salesperson you can be!" She cheered herself on in the empty store. "You can do this. All you do is sit here, and wait." She looked at the door. "Sit and wait." She looked at the Sayuri painting. "Wait." She looked at the clock.

It hadn't even been a minute.

"Ugh, this is so BORING!" She slumped over the counter, her face half hanging over the other edge. "How does Sojiro do it? It doesn't seem physically possible!" She turned her head to the door. "Must be because he's a grump."

She continued to lay there, looking out the door, watching the people walk by. There were a few people she recognized. The doctor. The clerk at the store. The guy running the local theater. The one old guy that always seems to be out front of the bathhouse.

'Bored again.' She turned her head towards the TV now. It was the news. Bleh. She'd change the channel, but there wasn't a remote anywhere near or around her. 'Guess it's time to do the grunt's job.' She got up, and walked over to the television, and began looking on the side of it. She had to squint in order to see the little white words. She would have shined her phone's flashlight on it to get a better view, but she killed it earlier today grinding in a Gacha game.

If only Sojiro let her have the money to do the summons, she wouldn't have to be so bored right now.

She found the channel button and began surfing through them, trying to find something interesting to watch. After a couple of minutes of surfing, she ran across the new Featherman series, Neo Featherman V: Second Wind. Unfortunately, it was just a rerun.

It had just gotten to the part where Feather Argus begins teaching the second Feather V's when the bell over the entrance chimed.

"Good afternoon." A man with silver hair walked into the front door and looked around.

Futaba, who had been leaning on the counter watching the show, immediately sprang up and looked towards the door. "W-welcome."

The man seemed confused for a moment before walking up to the counter, in front of where she was standing and looked up at the menu. He was tall. Like, really tall. Especially because Futaba was short. He wore a black suit, but the undershirt was untucked, and he seemed to be pretty fit as well. His gray eyes scanned the menu with a sense of confidence and then brought his head back down to the girl in front of him. With a soft smile, he said, "I'd like a cup of black coffee, and a toasted ham and lettuce sandwich please."

"O-oh, um..." Futaba looked to the side. "S-sorry, our toaster broke earlier today."

"Oh." He brought his hand to his chin for a second, before putting it down again. "Make it non-toasted then."

She nodded. "Coming right up!" She ran to the coffee machine to start that first. 'Okay, how did Sojiro tell me to do it? Something about… um… grinding the beans I think.' After thinking it through, Futaba had managed to put everything in the machine to let it finish the job, so she switched over to the cutting board in the back to put the sandwich together. Soon after she finished that, there was a ding from the coffee maker, and then pure black liquid poured out of it. Futaba smiled. 'That was easier than I thought.'

She picked up the plate and cup and brought it over to the man, who was looking over some documents in a booth. "Ah, thank you." He took a sip of the coffee, and a satisfied expression came to his face.

'YES!' Futaba mentally cheered as she went back behind the counter. Who knew someone enjoying your coffee could make you feel so good?

As she arrived behind the counter, she began staring at the man. He had gone back to looking over his documents and looked to be in deep concentration. There were dark bags under his eyes as if he had yet to take a break. 'I should talk to him, right? That's what Sojiro does, right?' She nodded to herself but then hesitated. 'No, wait. Sojiro just gives them coffee and doesn't say anything.' She was beginning to work herself up into a frenzy. 'Is that right? Gah, I don't know!'

"Are you alright?" Futaba nearly jumped. The man had asked a question all of a sudden. He was looking at her with concern.

"Oh! Uh, yeah I'm okay. I was j-just thinking that maybe you needed a break." He looked at her in surprise. "You looked tired, is all."

He chuckled. "Yes, I suppose I should take a small break." He moved his papers to the side and brought his sandwich in front of him. He took a bite and said, "this is wonderful."

"Th-thank you! I've been practicing." Ever since Ren left, Sojiro had been working her even harder. He always said it was to shape Futaba into a working adult, but she knew it was because he had gotten used to having company.

"You seem nervous."

"Y-yeah, this is the first time I have to watch the shop on my own. Sojiro went out for a new toaster, so it's just me." She was fidgeting a little bit while talking.

"Sojiro?"

"O-oh, I thought I didn't recognize you. You're a noob" She took a less reserved pose, and began explaining. "Sojiro is who actually owns Leblanc. He takes care of me and acts tough, but he's a big softy deep down. Oh, and he tells everyone to call him Boss."

The man nodded. "Parenting types are like that." He then thought for a second. "But about your nerves..." The man put a hand to his chin and hummed in thought. "Don't think like you're talking to real people."

"Huh?"

"That's the advice I'd give you. Let's say… imagine it's like a game, and you're just answering prompts for NPC's." He gave her another smooth smile. "It's much easier to think that way instead of thinking about the actual people you're serving."

The was a small moment of silence. Futaba was just looking at the adult with wide eyes, before looking away. "D-did you max out your charm stat or something? Somehow I just believe whatever you say."

He released a hearty laugh. "I'd say I have high understanding."

"A friend of mine would probably call you debonair," she said wistfully.

The man raised a brow. "You're friend sounds interesting."

There was a sudden glint in Futaba's eyes. "Ooooh, do you want me to tell you about him?"

"Sure." A bemused smile came to his face as he watched the girl in front of him seem to gain more energy by the second, and speak at light speed about her friend. All her nerves seemed to melt away in less than a second.

She was still talking about her friend when the bell from the door chimed. And man's voice called, "I'm back." He looked between the two of them for a second, before continuing. "I got the toaster, so you can stop stealing my job now, Futaba."

"But Sojiro! I was just getting good at it," she whined.

He just ignored her and turned to the silver-haired man. "I hope she hasn't been bugging you too much."

He raised a hand. "Not at all." It was then that Sojiro complained.

"Futaba, did you change the channel?" He rubbed the back of his head, annoyed.

"News is boring anyway, you should thank me for doing this place a favor."

He sighed and switched the channel back to the news. "Our next story is about the upcoming movie, 'Sapphire,' starring Rise Kujikawa. More on that, after this commercial break."

The man looked at the clock after it went to commercial and inwardly cringed. 'She's going to kill me,' he thought. He looked at his phone and found that it was dead.

Great.

"I actually have to be going now," he said quickly. He looked down at his empty plate and cup, and his unread documents. Case files he had decided to read over, about one, Ren Amamiya. The SIU was still in shambles after last year, but as the new director, he wouldn't let it fall back into the darkness it was in in the past.

"Oh..." Futaba sounded disappointed.

He gave her his trademark smile. "Don't worry, I'll be back."

She perked up immediately. "Ooohh, you'll be a regular? Then, what's your name?"

After picking up his documents, he flashed her a coy grin. "You'll find out." With that, he left the shop, and then practically sprinted to the station.

"Do customers usually do that, Sojiro?"

"No… No, they do not."

"And we're back," they heard from the TV. They both turned their attention to it. "As many of you may already know, 'Sapphire,' is a movie based loosely off of one of Rise Kujikawa's albums as an idol, also called sapphire. It's about a teenage Kujikawa falling in love in a small town. A true story."

"Bleh." Futaba turned towards the door to walk out after taking off her apron. "I told you the news was boring."

"What, you don't want to hear about Risette's new work? What happened to Super Risette fan: Futaba?" Sojiro had a sly smile on.

"That's more Ryuji's speed. And besides, who cares now that her idol career is over?"

The news program didn't care about the family's conversation as it continued on. "So much effort was put into this movie to make it as accurate as possible, that they even got Kujikawa's actual boyfriend to play his part."

"Wait!" That got Futaba's attention. "Risette has a boyfriend!?" She ignored Sojiro's laugh as she ran up to the TV. The reporter was still talking about the movie, but that was tuned out in favor of studying the picture of Risette's boyfriend that was on screen. Silver hair. Gray eyes. Black suit. Reasonably fit.

Wait…

He was-

"After this commercial break, we will be having a special interview with Ms. Kujikawa, and her boyfriend, Yu Narukami!"

"So, what'll the two of you be having today?" Futaba asked.

"Um..." The girl pondered under her large hat and sunglasses. "I think I'll have the house special, along with a caffe mocha." She smiled at her compatriot. "What about you?"

He smiled, his gray eyes peering over to the side, where he saw the same orange haired girl he saw last time. "I'll have a cup of black coffee, and a toasted ham and lettuce sandwich please."

"You got it!" She then made a showing of passing the order onto Sojiro so he could get to work, before walking over to another customer. She had a feeling the silver-haired man was watching her. 'Okay, Futaba. Remember. It's just an NPC. Act, normal.' Why she had to go through this ritual now but not when she first talked to the man, she didn't know. He had said people just find him easy to talk to when she asked.

"What do you think you'll be having today," she asked, perfectly calm.

"I'll have..." They thought for a second before answering, "toast and curry, along with black coffee."

She wrote it down and then nodded. "Gotcha!" She then left to give the order to Sojiro. 'Holy wow! It worked! I wasn't nervous at all!' She checked her heartbeat. 'Okay, a little nervous, but nowhere near as bad as before!' She inwardly cheered.

"So..." the girl from before began. "How'd you find this place?"

"I was walking through the area, looked into the shop, and saw her." The silver-haired man pointed at Futaba, still distracted by trying to contain her joy. "She seemed like she needed some help."

The girl sighed dreamily. "And that's what I love about you..."

"HOLY CRAP, IS THAT YU NARUKAMI," the guy Futaba attended to seconds prior exclaimed.

"Though maybe you should actually wear your disguise, or else I'll take it back."

Welp, I'm officially back.

After not writing anything for... like, eight months.

Yeah, this is definitely not my best work, but I feel like it's necessary to get this out there so I can get back into the swing of writing.

Anyway, this was very loosely based off of the Youtube video, "Futaba Gets a Toaster," by Jamezietocool.

And by that, I mean the basic premise was based on it, and everything just sort of evolved from there.

I really recommend the Persona Memeverse Series, it's fantastic.