Asuka and Kyle were walking along a path down an alley. The two of them left around the same time as everyone else, but they all took a different path from the others.
On the path they took, cafes and flower carts were widely spread out as far as the eye can see. Eye-catching signs and attractive pictures filled the upper half of the street. Vendors and employees were outside trying to draw people into their shops, but there was a noticeable lack of customers in the area that was making it difficult to do business.
"Guess we chose the most boring path…"
"Well it's not so bad to have a calm day every once in a while…"
"True…"
"Psst…"
The two of them turned to find a young girl with short blond hair motioning them over. They looked at each other before getting closer to the smiling blond.
On closer inspection, the blond was wearing what appeared to be maid outfit. The outfit was similar to Kuroneko, but there were significant differences between the two.
Unlike Kuroneko's "short-skirt" outfit, this one had a longer skirt that covered the legs, and was considered more "normal". There were frills attached to the ends of the skirt and at the ends of the apron. The shoulder piece was puffed up slightly, and the headpiece was a bit larger, giving the impression of a "cute and innocent" look instead of a "sexy" look. As an added bonus, there appeared to also be cat ears on her head, but this was actually an attachment to the headpiece.
"You both look like you're pretty bored…"
Kyle gave a small grin. "Heh, are we really that obvious?"
"Well considering that there's lots of time before the main event, there's not much else for people to come around here for." She held her hand out as if to emphasize the lack of customers. "As you can see, this street is one of the emptiest ones around, so doing business is difficult around here."
"Then isn't it easier to just close up or move out?"
"Sadly, this café of ours is the only way of profiting at the moment. We've tried to keep money tight, and as a result we've ended up in this spot."
The two of them took another look at the building and location in front of them.
The building resembled a classic two-story café with an outside balcony for people to enjoy. The overall look seemed to give a familial atmosphere that people would easily be welcome to. On the top of building, was a bright, pink and yellow neon sign that said "Ka-Neko" and had a picture of a family of cats on it. Although attention didn't seem like a problem, they decided not to ask just in case.
"So…I have a favor to ask…" The girl clapped her hands together while bowing. "Do you mind helping us draw in some customers?"
""Huh?""
"So…why do we need to be dressed up like this?"
After agreeing to help, Kyle and Asuka were suddenly shoved into separate rooms and handed costumes to wear. Kyle was given a butler-style uniform, complete with black dress shoes, a suit, a red handkerchief, and a monocle. Asuka was given a maid uniform that resembled the girl's (who was apparently named Nene) but she was asked to replace the bows in her hair with the Cat-eared headband instead.
"I'm sorry about this…" Nene said as she bowed to apologize. "But a 'servant-style' look is one of the most common things in a popular café, and we were hoping it would help draw in customers.
Kyle sighed as he held his hand to his forehead. "I just hope that you'll keep your end of the deal…"
"Of course. One free parfait special as payment for helping us out!"
He glanced at Asuka, whose eyes were sparkling at the idea of tasting the "parfait special" that was on the menu here. She must have noticed his stare because she suddenly turned her head with her arms crossed.
"I-I'm not really that excited about the parfait…" she claimed while blushing.
"Sure you aren't…"
"But are you sure this would really work? I don't think this kind of outfit would attract many customers…"
"Well obviously the costume is only part of it. That's why you need to be careful about how you act around the customers as well…"
"Hm?"
Just before the matter could be explained further, a bell rang as a couple of girls appeared at the doorway. Kyle suddenly made his way swiftly in front of them and bowed gracefully while keeping a bright smile on his face.
"Welcome back 'ojou-sama'," he said with a calm demeanor. "Shall I show you to your seats?"
The girls giggled as they were led to an empty table and sat down. The unusually-behaving boy acted with efficiency and grace, leaving the "ojou-sama" in the maid outfit staring with her eyes half-open.
"Doesn't he seem a bit too comfortable with this setting?"
A couple of guys suddenly appeared at the entrance and started to stare at Asuka, who decided to try her best for that special parfait order that was waiting for her.
"W…Welcome back…master…" she hesitantly replied as she gave a small curtsy. "A…Are you here to take a break?"
The guys stood blushing before nodding in a shy manner.
For the next hour, the two of them would guide customers, take orders, serve, and see them off with a smile. While the two were acting as the face for the café, Nene was preparing the orders back in the kitchen, checking in every once in a while to see how they were doing.
Eventually, more and more customers started to arrive, filling up the small building and causing a small line to form outside. Customers who were either tired of waiting or had just finished, would also visit the nearby shops, filling the area and making it livelier than before.
Most of the men that appeared were either on dates or watching Asuka, who was struggling slightly to do her best, making her actions seem adorable like a small bird trying to fly. Likewise Kyle was taking orders, but in a more professional-like way, which caught the attention of the women who were also either on dates, or watching the young man serve them.
Eventually, the two of them went to the backroom to take a break.
"Good job you two," Nene said happily as she handed each of them a cup of juice. "Just keep this up, and it looks like all the shops around will be better off!"
"So you actually wanted us to help out the whole area?" Kyle asked after taking a gulp.
"Truthfully, yes." Nene suddenly became a bit down. "You see, everyone in this area is like a large family. Every year we would always try to work together to make sure the festival is a big success. Things just got a little more difficult this year, so it seems like everyone's been pretty down about it. You two just happened to be in the area when I decided to go with this plan. Sorry about that…"
"It's fine," Asuka said as she finished her drink. "I've never really worked like this before, so it was a good experience. What about you?"
"Hm?" Kyle looked up as if he just noticed her. "Oh, I've done stuff like this before, so it's not really a problem..." he turned back to his cup, which was left half-full, while making a serious face. "You go ahead; I need to…do something…"
Asuka stood up while stretching her arms. "Fine, come back soon though…" she left to continue helping Nene, leaving Kyle alone with his own thoughts.
"Family…"
His face went slightly grim before an image flashed in his mind.
A young boy stood in the middle of an empty room, sadly glaring at everything before finally leaving.
He grinned before covering his eyes with his hands.
"How stupid, thinking about the past…"
Asuka had finally gotten used to acting like a "maid" using what she learned from watching Nene and Kyle to find a way to make things work.
"Come again." She bowed to the couple that just finished, seeing them off with a smile. She turned her head to the next customers in line.
"Welcome…" She suddenly frowned after seeing who was next in line.
There were three unusual looking guys, standing at the doorway.
The one of the far left was wearing a long white coat with the kanji "Shisen" printed on the back, and loose black pants with a white bandage wrapped around his waist. His hair looked like it was dyed red and was styled in a Mohawk. He also wore black loafers and a pair of sunglasses that overall gave him a typical "motorcycle gang look" ("Kinda reminds me of Mugen" she thought to herself) and was sneering with a very arrogant yet easygoing look.
The one in the middle was much larger in size, and was more round around the face and the stomach area. However, this one also wore a dark blue business suit that seemed to have been tailor-made for him specifically. His face seemed to resemble a large toad, he was bald, and he carried a briefcase with his rather large hands.
The last one on the far right seemed to be one of the most normal of the three, wearing a white T-shirt with a small pattern near the corner, and red cargo pants with black sneakers. He also had a pair of headphones that he was already wearing over his ears, and he appeared to be chewing some gum while avoiding her gaze.
Asuka was very reluctant to let these three in, not only because of their appearances and attitudes, but because something about them didn't feel right. But before she could do anything, they suddenly barged inside and started looking around.
"Man, look at this piece of crap!" the gangster-like one whistled. "Can you believe that a crappy little piece of shit like this was actually taking up space?"
"Indeed" the large one agreed in a surprisingly professional matter. "But then not everyone is as fortunate and as wealthy as us younger brother…"
"…" The third one didn't say anything, but just lazily blew a bubble that quickly popped.
"Excuse me…" Asuka spoke with a hint of anger in her voice. The three of them turned to the young maid, whose fist was shaking slightly.
"Ah, sorry bout that! Didn't know that there was a cute bitch working here!" The gangster one had started ruffling her hair while laughing.
"Please excuse us, would you mind getting the manager out here please?"
"Asuka, is something…" Nene was about halfway in the room when she saw the trio and froze. "W-W-What is going on here?"
"Do you know these people?"
"No! Who are you?"
"We're part of the 'Saru-jin' community, a group that offers loans to various businesses throughout [Little Garden]. We are also the community that owns this particular street that every shop here is using, so I guess you can call us 'landlords'…"
Asuka grumbled to herself. As outrageous as this claim may sound, there's a good chance that this may be true. After all anything, even land, could be used as a "chip/prize" in a [Gift Game], so it wouldn't be impossible for this "Saru-jin" group to have obtained the rights through a victory. However…
"Then why don't you show us proof?"
She recalled that when their community earned new rights, there was a document delivered from [Thousand Eyes] that authenticated the entire thing.
The largest one had calmly opened his briefcase and took out a document with the following written on it…
Land Deed
-The Floor Master confirms that this document in a Deed for ****** in Outer Gate ******
-With this Deed, the Community has the right to use this land however they see fit, as long as it does not defame, terrorize, or excessively disturb the Floor Master and his/her community in any way.
- The owner of this deed is allowed a fair amount of compensation deemed fit, from those that have used this land.
- The owner has the right to receive aid from the Floor Master should any problems arise that they believe they cannot handle themselves.
- With this Deed, this land is recognized to belong to the "Saru-jin" community.
"As you can see, everything is in fair order here." The large one said as he rolled the document up and placed it in the chest pocket of his suit. "Now as for compensation…" he looked around while stroking his chin. "I believe that it would be fair to say that you should give us 80% of what you earned here…"
"What?!" Asuka was outraged. "How is that fair? They worked hard to earn what they did in this café, and you're telling us that they need to give up most of it to you?"
The gangster one snickered. "Hey ya dumb broad! In case you haven't noticed, we just gave you a document saying that we get the right to have fair compensation from the people who use this land! Not like they've got the right to complain for what it says here!"
"But…"
"But nothin! They never checked in with us, so technically, they're illegally using our land without our permission! We have the damn rights to complain to the head honcho up there!" he pointed upwards as he spoke. "But seeing as we're feelin mighty generous today, we're just gonna leave you off with an 80% profit! Capiche?!"
"But, we didn't know that this place had…"
"Huh? You sayin that it's our fault that you didn't check in?"
"No, but…"
"STOP IT!"
As Asuka shouted, her [Gift] activated, forcing the Mohawk-wearing man to hold still like a statue. Everyone turned this heads towards her with a surprised and even frightened look. However, the young girl didn't seem to care as she kept glaring at the trio.
"That's enough! She already said she didn't know about checking in, so there's no need to keep this up!"
Silence fell in the café, nobody dared to make a move until…
"You're right," the large one agreed. "No need to continue this any further…"
Asuka sighed and started to relax her shoulders until suddenly, there was a loud crash nearby.
The large one had launched a heavy punch in the building, leaving a rather large hole in the wall nearby and all their customers running off screaming.
"It's best that we destroy this place as soon as possible. As a lesson for anyone else who goes against us…"
"Stop it!"
Nene tried to stop him from destroying the building, but the other two suddenly grabbed her arms and pinned her against the wall behind her, keeping her pinned despite the struggle she had put up.
Asuka tried to help.
"STOP IT!"
"YOUR WORDS ARE USELESS!"
After the large man shouted in response, the atmosphere changed so the air felt heavier, yet empty.
"DESIST YOUR ACTIONS!"
Nothing happened.
"LISTEN TO ME!"
Still nothing
"STOP IT! STOP IT! STOP IT!"
No matter how many times she would shout, nothing seemed to be happening. Her [Gift] seemed to be broken, leaving her to think hard about what she could do as the man continued to destroy the place with a wicked smile on his face.
Even if she could use Deen, the golem was just too large to fit through the building, and may end up causing more harm than good. She couldn't fight him directly since the difference in brute strength seemed to be too great, and there's no telling if the other two would do anything to help him if she tried anything else. She started to grit her teeth as the situation seemed to be more and more hopeless.
"I'm sorry…"
Just then, there was a small *thock* coming from the man's head, which made everyone turn around.
Kyle was yawning and scratching his head while standing at the doorway. He looked up with a half-tired look on his face that conflicted with the butler suit that he still wore. However, his hand was stretched out, which meant that he threw something earlier.
"Did I miss something?"
""""…""""
Everyone just stared.
"WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN DOING! DIDN'T YOU THINK YOU COULD'VE DONE COME BY A BIT EARLIER?!"
Asuka yelled as she rushed over to berate the latecomer, who held his hands up as if to try and push her away.
"Sorry, I fell asleep so I didn't really see the whole thing start…"
"Asleep?! For how long?"
"Um…." The boy started to think. "I guess a bit after they came in?"
"YOU IDIOT!"
"Yeah yeah, you can take the whole dessert for yourself later on, let's just get this over with…" He walked over to the large man with a kind of "I-don't-really-wanna" look on his face, ignoring the glares and stares around him as he made his way through the room.
"So…what seems to be the problem here?"
The large man's wicked smile disappeared as he wore his respectful façade again.
"I'm sorry about this, but we are simply taking down this establishment for illegally taking up space here without our permission."
"The proof?"
"Why this deed of course…" he held up the document for Kyle to see. "Of course, under the circumstances we…"
"No, I mean proof that everyone else had 'legally' asked…"
"Excuse me?"
"Well if they had really taken up space illegally, then other people must have taken up space legally. So all I'm asking is where the documents of deals with the other shopkeepers are?"
"Er…well…"
"Of course, if you can't prove it, then you would be stripped of your rights to own this street."
"If you would just…"
"I mean, if you can't take care of your own street, then why should you be in charge of it?"
"SILENCE! THIS DEED OBVIOUSLY STATES THAT…"
However, the deed in the giant's hands had suddenly disappeared, and was somehow in Kyle's, who started to look at the whole thing.
"Of course it doesn't matter in the end. After all, this thing is a fake…"
"WHAT ARE YOU SAYING? OF COURSE THAT IS…"
Kyle tore up the piece of parchment, leaving everyone shocked.
"What the hell was that for?" Asuka yelled out. "Won't you get in trouble for tearing up an important piece of paper like that?"
"Would something like this be destroyed so easily?"
"Huh?"
"Would the Floor Masters really hand out something so vulnerable? No, they probably use some kind of enchanted paper or something that makes it really difficult to get rid of stuff like this. Of course, it also could be that they never intended on having you own this street in the first place, but then…"
"SHUT YOUR DAMN MOUTH!"
The giant's palm swung down at the spot where Kyle stood, making the area rumble like an earthquake. When everything settled, Kyle was seen standing next to him with his arms crossed. The giant swung his arm to his the butler boy, who flipped in the air to casually avoid the attack.
"WE ARE ONE THE WEALTHIEST COMMUNITIES IN THE WHOLE LAND! EVEN IF WE DIDN'T OWN THIS STUPID PIECE OF CRAP-IN-A-HOLE, WE WOULD HAVE EVENTUALLY TAKEN CONTROL IN THE END ANYWAYS!"
The giant continued to swing around recklessly, trying to swat the young man who simply avoided the attacks as if they were in slow motion.
"MONEY IS POWER! MONEY IS EVERYTHING! MONEY…"
Kyle dashed on the giant's arm and landed a kick on his face, knocking him down on his back. There was a loud *THUD* as the whole place vibrated from the shock. The giant struggled to pick himself up.
"DAMN YOU! WITH MY [Words of Power], YOU WILL…"
"Cut the talk…"
Kyle landed a straight kick right between the giant's legs, turning his face blue before passing out.
""Bro!""
Mohawk and headphones were about to run over when suddenly…
"Freeze!"
The two of them suddenly stopped in place, unmoving like statues with the exception of their eyes, which shifted over to find Asuka with a raging look on her face.
"You all have caused quite a bit of trouble for these people…" She started to crack her knuckles as she slowly made her way. "It's only fair that we repay the favor…"
"I'm sorry about this…"
Nene continued to bow to the two of them with a look of embarrassment on her face.
The café was repaired suddenly, thanks to Kyle who did "something" to suddenly help, and the trio was tied up, beaten, and left for the authorities to come by and arrest them. However, Nene seemed to feel bad about dragging in a couple of people who didn't have anything to do with what happened.
"It's fine," Asuka said with a smile. "It was probably a good thing that we came along when we did, otherwise you might have gotten into quite a bit of trouble…"
"That's true, but I still feel bad…" The blond-haired maid started to rub the back of her head. "But how did you know that it was a fake?"
"Lucky guess?" Kyle shrugged. "I mean some things just didn't make sense, so I just took a small gamble…"
"And if it was actually real?"
"Well it was half-true about losing your privilege. I've seen business before, so it's not like what I said was impossible…"
"That's just reckless…"
"Well you were lying to us, even if it was a small one with good intentions…"
"Fair enough I supposed. As an apology, I'll get you that special that we agreed to, and some for any friends you have as well…"
Asuka's eyes began to sparkle with delight.
"Really?!"
"Oh, that reminds me, I think it's time to go…"
Kyle picked up his "partner" and started to run off.
"We'll come back after the main event, so get those specials ready…"
"The parfait…"
Nene gently waved goodbye to the two of them and turned around to head back inside. Another line was starting to gather, and she needed to make sure that they would have several desserts ready and waiting.
"Ah…" she stopped as she suddenly remembered something. "They forgot to return those uniforms…"
Author's Note: So...I feel like I might have rushed things a bit and slacked off a little in the story.
Truth be told, I had no idea how you guys would take this Asuka and Kyle things since they only had one moment in the story, so I decided to go with "focus on the story" kind of thing, and maybe hint a few things on Kyle's past.
Sorry if this seem shoddy or whatever compared to the other chapters and/or dates, but I decided to go more random here. Not much thinking about how the story would go, and not much planning on how to end. I wanted to just get this out of the way and start on the main event soon, so yeah, I guess that's it...
If you guys wanted something more romantic, or something more focused on the pairing, let me know, and I'll try to think up a better scenario and maybe change this in the future, or maybe I'll just add it as an "extra" chapter. Who knows. Otherwise, this is what you guys are gonna have to get for now.
So the last words I want to part with you guys here...
1. I'm trying to get into my first fanfic again (since I never got to finishing yet), so the next update for this one may not happen until a lot later than usual. I'll be working on this from time to time, but at the moment, I want to focus on something else for now...
2. We've got 2 new and amazing Mondaiji stories from Starlight AT. Read them if you can, cause I think they are great!
3. Thanks for reading and sticking around.
Hope you guys enjoyed this, and PLEASE review and/or Criticize if you want to, because that will always be a great help.
(P.S. Story was using the fable of "The Cat and the Monkey" as a basis, but there might be something else hidden. Can you guys guess what it is?)