Part 2: Afternoon Trouble

The morning happened to go by with a steady flow of customers but a not so steady flow of sales either. Once the afternoon came around, the traffic was rather slow and could do with a pick up. I might need to consider social media marketing…Futaba should be able to help me with that. The moment I thought about that, the bothersome woman in a suit came in. She was a real looker when you saw her: emerald green hair, brownish-red eyes, tiny diamond earrings. Had a lovely manicure too. Not to mention, she was as down to business as you could get: black turtleneck, black blazer and trousers, black heels and black socks. What brought it all down was her horrid personality - she knew how to push buttons that you never noticed you had and if there weren't any, excuse my phrasing, she'd make some to push. She'd been frequenting the store on behalf of the OCSS and having to speak with her was a pain and a half - once, Futaba was also present and she'd made an example of Futaba leaving her petrified for a few days to even leave her room. She left no openings but I could tell that having someone like her attack my rights as a guardian on the accusation of child abuse was a scheme concocted by that rotten vixen, Remi Isshiki.

"..."

"That scowl of yours is unsolicited, Sakura-san. You have yet to ascertain my reason for coming this afternoon."

"Niijima-san, what would you like?" I folded my arms as I stared at her stony face.

"Relax. I'm not here to pressure you today."

"That's cheap coming from you."

"As a matter of fact, I won't be pressuring you any longer for the OCSS."

"Is that so?"

"I've happened to be re-assigned to a different case. Someone else is going to handle it." That OCSS has nothing but headless chickens for leaders inconceivably not noticing a SINGLE thing wrong with Futaba when she was with her family. It's failed her far too many times.

"Didn't ask."

"*sigh* I'd like the house brew."

"..." Wordlessly giving her my acknowledgement, I began to brew today's blend over by the counter. Her aura was pretty unwelcoming in a place like this - I didn't want her scaring my customers away but where she sat couldn't be helped. Once finished, I provided the prosecutor with a brew. Before I could tend to some cleaning, she had her review to give me.

"I will give you credit that you know your craft. Everything about this brew from its preparation to serving it is phenomenal."

"Of course I know my craft. I make damn good coffee each day."

"Indeed. Despite our transgressions, this place is always a nice place to be." Something seemed different today with the prosecutor. She'd looked extremely stressed and showed clear signs of not sleeping recently.

"...What are you actually here for?"

"I can't enter here without a reason other than being a patron?"

"Not once have you, Niijima-san. Bad guys get away today or something?"

"..." What is she really here for? Niijima tried to throw a curveball my way with her next question.

"How is the child? Futaba, was it?"

"You have the nerve to breathe her name after all of your crony tactics?!"

"...I can't argue against that." She'd said this in a slightly downbeat tone - seemed her higher ups dumped a whole load on her or something. Serves your ambitious self right. She genuinely seemed to want to know but I didn't trust her motives. She'd continued in a matter of fact tone:

"Even if I was to try and use anything you said, it would be inadmissible for the OCSS to use as I'm no longer a part of the case. If I was the type of person to throw everything I've worked towards away just to bring you down, I'd not have made it to where I was." Seeing as she was somewhat willing to talk in a peaceful manner, I chose to give her a chance.

"Futaba's doing OK. She's getting along well with the other child I've got." Niijima happened to already know a bit about Ren - thankfully, she wouldn't continue along those lines.

"...That's relieving news. May I offer some advice?"

"What could you possibly know about looking after a teenage girl?"

"I…did that with my sister when our parents passed." Now I was thrown for a loop at this turn of conversation. She'd not only worked furiously to attain her position but also raised her younger sister too? Her resilience is worth nothing but respect and admiration.

"Sorry. That was harsh."

"It's fine, Sakura-san. You knew nothing of it."

"You've been quite overworked recently. A keen eye can see those bags under your eyes." Sae took out a hand mirror and looked at her eyelids. She'd seemed oblivious to it and applied some foundation to cover it up. Woman, if you keep working and burn out, it helps no one.

"I'll give you some advice. Take a rest if you can - don't give me any of that justice never rests crap either."

"The criminals in this world don't."

"And what's the impact on the entire police force if you were to take a day off?"

"...I suppose your advice is worth its salt. Now here's mine: demonstrate that you are a capable carer in an irrefutable way - have the evidence to back up your claims if it does come to court."

"I figured you'd say something along the lines of 'Give up and surrender your guardianship rights to Isshiki-san' or 'You'll lose in the courts'."

"Seeing as I'm not on this case anymore, providing you with my unqualified honest opinion is the very least I can do to aid you. If court isn't something you want, I would advise that you discuss with the Isshiki family the steps for moving forward with Futaba's care."

"No offence but when did you begin to care so much about this?"

"..." She couldn't answer that question - seeing how, for the first time, she was so stumped, I chuckled a little saying:

"You don't have to provide that answer. Being a carer comes with its difficulties, alright."

"It does." We'd opened up a new line of conversation talking about the ins and outs of raising our respective teenage girls without sharing too much private information - this was probably one time I was extremely grateful that there weren't customers around. In no way were we going to be friends but I could at least empathize with the prosecutor a little now that I saw her as a human and not an expensive femme fatale. An hour or so had passed and more customers came in - we'd cut our conversation at that point.

"I may frequent this place more often, Sakura-san."

"...You won't find better coffee and curry elsewhere."

"Good day." She then got up and left Leblanc in a seemingly better mood. Not that her face can tell me anything. I turned my attention to the customers who'd come in and made sure to take my time with their orders - each of them took seats all around the place and it just so happened that at that point of time, the payphone rang. After sorting the orders I had ready, I picked up the phone and on the other side was Futaba.

"Sojiro, you there?"

"Futaba, how many times have I told you not to call the payphone? If you need something, dial my cell."

"You can never know who's tapped into your smartphone."

"Stop with the conspiracies too!"

"You won't let me install my protection software on your phone. You blindly believe that your phone data doesn't get passed around to the scammers?"

"I'm putting down this phone if you've called to waste time."

"Nonononono! Please don't!"

"*sigh* What's with the phone call though?"

"Can I help out today?"

"What?"

"Sojiro, I want to help out - not interacting with customers though."

"You don't get to decide what you're doing today."

"...Never mind." Was she pouting or something? Not my problem right now though.

"If you want to discuss this more, come into Leblanc."

"Can't."

"Or won't? You don't get over your anxieties if you don't even try to show up with customers around."

"...Too scared. Those people could be scary - I'm not brave enough to try it."

"Okay. Call my CELL if it's something urgent."

"Bye!"

A few moments later, Futaba rang me again - this time on my cell. I swiftly texted her to give me half an hour as I continued to tend to the customers I had in store. Once those customers had paid and left, I rang Futaba back locking up the store and placing a sign to say that I'd be back in 10 minutes.

"Futaba, there'd better be a good reason to explain why I've closed my store temporarily."

"I want to work with you tonight."

"...Doing what?"

"Clean up duty."

"What do you get out of it?"

"I'll be able to get used to seeing random mobs coming in."

"Can you keep your explanations free of game jargon? I have it hard enough as it is keeping up with you sometimes."

"I want to try and work on getting over my fears but going straight into the deep end is too scary."

"Don't force yourself to do this. If you're worried about the OCSS, that's my problem to deal with."

"...Is Ren going to help out tonight?"

"What's the problem kid got to do with you wanting to work? He didn't force you to suggest this, did he?" I found myself getting a little angrier when Daigaku's kid came up in Futaba's mouth.

"Sojiro, calm down! I'm asking of my own will!"

"Sorry. I guess I shouldn't think so badly of the kid."

"He's a good egg."

"Yeah. He's gonna help out tonight."

"Alright! I'm looking forward to it."

"Just because the kid's gonna be there?"

"He's got ridiculously good luck!"

"Is that so? Well, make sure you don't end up tiring yourself out or you won't be any good tonight."

"Bye!" Hanging up my cell, I decided to open back up the store and allow the few customers I had to come back and enjoy their coffee. It was at this point however that the store began to fill up more than usual - there were several customers of different demographics. Some customers took their seats at the counter whilst other customers would sit in their groups in the booth areas. Looks like today could be profitable if all of these patrons actually get stuff.

Sadly, this wish would not be met as half of the customers in groups were only there to converse - only one or two of the groups actually ordered something to eat or drink. As I began to take the orders of those bothering to dine, I got to know them a little: one such group took the seats nearest the restroom: they were from out-of-town and happened to be visiting Japan for a month or so. One of them apparently found an old review of this store online and encouraged all of his friends to eat here.

"Is the curry as good as the review says?" Taking on a smile or two, I convinced the patron to buy a curry with these words:

"Why not give it a try?" I'd then got prepared with cooking the curry dish for the paying patron. I wanted to demonstrate to those customers that coming here was the correct choice. Firstly, I made sure to cut up the pork cutlets into small pieces and seasoned them with some salt, pepper and chicken seasoning. Placing them into a cooking bag and sealing the bag, I then boiled the bag until the pieces were cooked thoroughly. At the same time, I washed and chopped up carrots and onions, mixed it into the large stew pot I had and boiled them a little. Once the two were done, I mixed them together and added the coconut milk to finish the curry recipe. There was no need for me to add anything else so the curry stewed on the stove for a while. Whilst waiting for that, I poured the rice grains through a strainer to remove as much starch as I could, placing the uncooked rice into a similarly large pot and adding boiled water to it. I added a little salt to the rice to ensure it wasn't completely bland when finished boiling. Having the rice boil at a cooking temperature for around 15 minutes, I then brought down the stove to a heating temperature - the number of portions of curry and rice in each pot was 40. Seeing as all I needed to do with the food was maintain a piping temperature without burning it, there was no worry - it would last the whole day and reserves could be kept at home or in the fridge to feed the two children in my life. That aroma was enough to encourage the rest of the group to try some as they shouted out to me to make the order for four curries.

"OOH! This is the shit right here!"

"No way can curry taste so good!"

"This curry's phenomenal! What's in it?"

"That is a trade secret I'm afraid."

"I gotta get seconds of this!" They brushed off the curry portions really quickly and asked for a second portion each - I offered for them to try the coffee but they opted to have cola instead. I'll hope that you share your experience here when you return to your loved ones. Whilst there were the few oddballs I had to throw out, I'd continued to serve the customers who could behave themselves. However, there was a customer who called me over to check something:

"You're the boss here, right?"

"Yes."

"Good, good. This leaflet, on your social media page, is it good to use?"

I took a look at his phone and I saw an unfamiliar advert - it was for my restaurant and the account used my logo too. It read "Want high-end coffee and gourmet curry for low-end prices?" and placed photos of my curry and coffee with a price and quality comparison to large chains that offered similar services also offering a 10% discount to anyone showing the leaflet in-store. To be honest, the level of effort put into this piece of marketing for Leblanc was on par with professional services. Thankfully, the flyer met the laws required for ethical marketing but being blindsided by this was in no means pleasant. As soon as the rush died down, I rang Futaba feeling rather agitated.

"Futaba, you advertised Leblanc on social media?! What possessed you to do such a thing? You know that's not how I run my business!"

"I…I cooked up the flyer to try and bring more customers in."

"And you gave discounts to people who use the flyer without MY permission. I leave you to those computers and stay away from your business so why are you meddling in mine?!"

"I just wanted to help how I could."

"Futaba, that's not how things work in this world. You can't just do something like this whatever your intentions were - I could have gotten into a SERIOUS amount of trouble with that flyer."

"I...I'm sorry. It's just…washing alone is quite a small thing of what you do. I thought I could be more useful to you at Leblanc." The fact that I'd told her she wouldn't get to choose what she was doing must have stuck with her - me allocating her to washing led her to believe that was all she could do for me. Looks like I'll need to tread carefully.

"...I get the gesture. It did what it needed to do but the next time you want to help out like this, MAYBE run it by me first."

"Okay."

"How exactly did you get those photos?"

"I took them before I ate on whatever day."

"But you've gone and edited them so well - this is on par with a pro graphics team."

"Mwehehehe, don't underestimate my skills on technology."

"...Seeing as you're willing to do this, I might take advantage of the free labour."

"Free?! Beaten by my own scheme…"

"Hmph. Make sure you get ready to come in soon." I hung up the phone and re-opened the store once more to my customers with the knowledge in hand I now had.