Zenless Zone Zero: The Front Line
Chapter 2: The Business
It had been a long time since Shion had ever been able to sleep in on a consistent basis. Of course, if he didn't set his alarm, his body would naturally wake him up by 8am. So it caught him by surprise when he was woken up by the light ringing of the bell at the front door of the shop.
The store always opens promptly at 9am.
"You're up late, Shion. Vinny's gonna say something." Manami said when he noticed that Shion was waking up. Shion lifted his head up with a grunt and rubbed the sleepiness out of his eyes.
"You could've woke me up, y'know." He pointed out in a grumbling voice.
"Yeah but you're not scheduled to work today so I figured-"
"It's fine. I need something to do today anyways." Shion said as he got out of bed and pushed himself to his feet.
"You're not gonna rest?" Manami asked, surprised to see Shion pushing himself so soon after his encounter with Ethereals last night.
"I've already gotten plenty." Shion said in reply. He promptly threw on a shirt before urgently making his way downstairs to greet Vinny.
Vincent Laxey, or 'Mr. Vinny' as everyone knew him, was the proud owner of the Phoenix Flower shop on the corner of First and Third Street. What Mr. Vinny lacked in variety he made up for in excellent horticulture; it surprised Shion the first time he saw his handcrafted artsy garden.
As Shion made his way down the stairs that led into the front lobby of the shop he was surprised to see that there was already a customer inside. He paused awkwardly for a moment. Thankfully, Mr. Vinny was there to keep things professional.
"Look who finally decided to return to the land of the living. Ueno, get yourself something to eat, alright? We got some stuff to talk about." He directed Shion. Even after all this time, he still habitually referred to Shion by his last name.
"Got it. Sorry." Shion nodded and offered a quick apology to the present a customer, a young man with blue hair, for appearing suddenly and less than decently.
"Oh haha it's okay. I've done it too at my own store." He said with a chuckle.
"Yeah. This fine gentleman here's name is Wise; he says he runs his own video rental store. I'll take that over the theater any day." Mr. Vinny said with a laugh.
"Oh yeah? That's cool. Are you planning on getting some flowers to decorate the store?" Shion asked curiously.
"That's the plan anyway. My sister wants something at least to decorate the counter with. Word on the street is that this is the place to go to for well-cared-for individual flowers." Wise explained, folding one arm in front of the other and pressing his thumb and pointer finger against his chin.
"That's right! Here at Phoenix Flowers, we offer custom decorated flowers!" Mr. Vinny declared proudly.
"Custom decorated flowers? What does that mean?" Wise asked curiously.
"We use carefully extracted etheric material to modify the growth and the petals. It's harmless to the flower and to you, of course, but it'll make your plants pop in a way that wouldn't be possible otherwise. And they last longer too!" Mr. Vinny explained.
"I can bring one out if you'd like to see." Shion offered, falling into step with Mr. Vinny's sales pitch.
After showing off their product to their customer, Wise decided that he would most likely come back with his sister to decide on a design for a custom flower for their shop counter. Wise also left a free trial voucher card for his video store before leaving.
"Thanks for jumping in there, Ueno. I had a good feeling about this guy." Mr. Vinny thanked him with an approving nod.
"Think he'll become a regular?" Shion asked curiously as he made his way to the back area where the kitchen was. Mr. Vinny followed right behind him so they could talk privately.
"Small business owners have a way of supporting each other. You always want to jump at the opportunity to build a connection."
"Hm, fair enough...are we out of eggs?" Shion asked in disappointment after looking in the fridge.
"Yes, we have errands to run today, grocery shopping being the highest priority on the list. Make yourself some oatmeal." Mr. Vinny recommended.
"Yes sir." Shion casually responded with a yawn. He made his way to the pantry and started working on fixing himself a simple breakfast. As he did, he could feel Mr. Vinny's eyes watching him...waiting to say something.
"Ueno, were you out...working last night?" Mr. Vinny asked hesitantly, the corners of his eyes wrinkling as he asked this question with a hint of discomfort.
"That is an odd way to ask that question." Shion thought aloud, keeping his back to Mr. Vinny for now. His bowl of oatmeal was ready to be warmed up now.
"And that isn't an answer." Mr. Vinny pointed out.
"I thought you said the less you know about what I do the better." Shion pointed out.
"Yes I did, as long as it doesn't affect our safety or the business...but Public Security has been cracking down hard against InterKnot lately." Mr. Vinny brought up.
"It's just election stuff. It's nothing to worry about." Shion disregarded it as he carefully took his oatmeal out of the microwave and set it down on the counter to cool down.
"They're going door to door now offering community service. You ever heard of something like that before?" Mr. Vinny asked. Shion chuckled to himself.
"Heh, yeah, but it wasn't PubSec - a nice man in a suit gave me a free Bible though." He joked.
"Shion, I'm being serious. The extra income is a huge help to the store, but I know that you don't need to be out there as often as you are."
"I like having the extra money." Shion shrugged, turning around to face him now.
"You and I both know this isn't about the money." Mr. Vinny said seriously. Shion took in a deep breath and took a moment to respond.
"I was gathering etheric materials in the Hollow last night for a client and got ambushed by a pack of Ethereals on my way back. More often than not that's all I'm doing; retrieving things or guiding people through fissures. It can't be traced back to me." Shion explained.
"And how long do you plan on relying on this as a source of income?" Mr. Vinny questioned him.
"Long as I can do it, what need is there to worry about anything else? You run the store, I help with the store. Everything else I do is just extraneous..." Shion was going to leave it at that, but the look on Mr. Vinny's face was starting to eat away at his resolve.
He knew Shion too well.
"Ugh...alright. My work as a proxy keeps my skills fresh. It's like exercise to me." Shion finally said.
"If that's what you're so worried about, why don't you apply to the Public Security training academy? I'm sure they'd be more than happy to have someone with your training." Mr. Vinny suggested.
"I'm done taking orders from people with agendas and political motivations..." Shion let out a forceful sigh and redirected the conversation, "Using InterKnot gives me what I need to stretch my legs and the freedom to choose.
"That's more important to me now than anything else." He stated seriously.
"Hm..." Mr. Vinny scoffed a little. "Everyone has their own agendas and motivations, Ueno, including you. Forget the law; we can push that to the side because I know you know how to cover your tracks. You learned from the best after all," He commented with a dry chuckle.
"I just don't want to see you spinning your wheels for the next 10-20 years until your body gets too worn down and then you have nothing else to fall back on. That's all. And with the work you're doing, you're rolling the dice on whether or not you'll make it that far." Mr. Vinny concluded.
"And what would you rather I be doing?" Shion asked curiously.
"It's up to you what you want to do now, but let me ask you one thing: outside of work and living here, who do you talk to?"
"Who do I talk to...? What do you mean by that?" Shion shook his head in confusion.
"I mean do you have any friends? A girlfriend? A group? Anyone?" He specified his question.
"...what does that matter?" Shion asked.
"Nothing," Mr. Vinny shrugged and made his way back to the front of the shop. "If it doesn't matter to you." He added before leaving Shion alone.
Shion let out a slightly exasperated sigh. He didn't like dealing with Mr. Vinny when he was irritated, especially when he felt like he had a point to prove. Nevertheless, once Shion was done with breakfast, he put on some proper clothes and spent the day helping to run the store.
After all, he didn't have any plans until tonight...