Why were the devils here in the district, here in front of the store? Was I too careless in my preparations? Have they come to try and take me by force? Would they try to hypnotize the residents to kill me so that they could resurrect me?!
...
I have no idea, but they were not going to get their way without a fight. That much I decided as I prepared the trigger in my head, then turned the knob sharply and...
"Emiya-kun, we have come to visit you!" Meguri chimed as she jumped forward and hugged me by the arm while smiling. Wait what~?
As always, I almost got my thoughts shuffled whenever this girl comes around, she always seems to make the situation a little less tensed and a lot more awkward.
Certainly not helped with her chest firmly pressed against my arm right now.
"Meguri-chan, you should not trouble Emiya-kun like that." Reya frowned as she stepped forward to try and pry Meguri off me. She paused to smile at me. "Hello, Emiya-kun, I hope we are not interrupting anything important."
"Err, no you are not." I managed to get my head back and replied while gently trying to remove my arm from Meguri's hold. "Why are you guys here?" I directed my question at Sona, with a little tone to suggest that I was currently wary of them.
"We were trying to contact you, but we could not get a hold of you. So we had to ask around to find your working place." Sona replied back while bowing her head lightly. "Apologies for the sudden visit."
"Really, you are a hard person to find." Meguri pouted as she was finally pried off me. "We had to ask a lot of people just to get to this area."
"Well, I figured that it was not important, and certain individuals do not need to know of such things." I replied back with a slight tone to indicate my slight displeasure. "Some things should be considered a little private."
"So Shirou?" My heart nearly went to my throat as I turned my head to find the elderly couple behind me. "Who are your friends?"
I guess there was no chance for me to salvage this. I motioned with my hand towards my work associates. "These are the student council members from my high school. Evidently they have a message to pass to me, and since I am working, they had to find me here."
"Apologies for taking up his time, this will be a short message." Sona bowed her head in apology.
"Oh no problem my dear. In fact, why don't you all come in?" Kawako beamed as she opened the door wider for the group to enter. "We still have drinks and snacks out so you can take some."
"Ah but we should not be imposing on you..."
"Don't you worry, my dear" Kawako waved away Sona's attempt to dissuade her. "Any acquaintance of Shirou is welcome, and I would like to know about the Academy from the council's point of view."
"Well in that case, we thank you for welcoming us." With that, the lot entered one by one after greeting the elderly couple, followed shortly by Kawako and leaving me with Kano outside the shop.
"Shirou." Kano wrapped an arm around me and lightly shuffled my hair. "You are one lucky lad, you know that?"
Sigh~ he was so not letting me go after finding new ammunition to tease me with.
...
"So this is where you worked." Sona looked around with a cursory glance. "I have to say, I did not expect this. I was expecting more of an engineer's workshop or something of the sort."
"I did start out at an automotive shop, but it was cutting a lot into my time, so I took up the job offer here. It pays well, the owners are nice, and it is pretty close to my area." I said as I placed the refreshments on the table and settled myself in the chair.
"Still, a pub huh?" Tsubasa alternated her eyes between me and the bar top. "Do you by chance make the cocktails for the customers in a suit?"
"Non-alcoholic versions, I am technically unable to touch alcohol, despite knowing some recipes." I replied with the information more for Sona's benefit. "And frankly speaking, I don't often come out that much to make the drinks, I just cook in the kitchen in the back."
"Hmm, well I suppose it would be okay." Sona paused as she looked at the drink in her hand. "This is really good."
"Glad you liked it." Kawako beamed as she placed some treats on the table. "This is one of our top drinks, and Shirou helped to perfect it."
"It is an exaggeration, I merely changed a couple of items just to appeal to the masses." I scratched my head in embarrassment.
"Once again, the Brownie strikes and remains modest." Saji commented as he took a bite of the treats. "Oh man this is good."
"You can thank Shirou for that as well, it is one of his creations." Kano replied as he looked on. "He is basically the reason our profits went up 70% in the last few months, he has a good head for ideas and a hell of a hand when it comes to cooking."
"Indeed, he is a natural." Kawako nodded in agreement. "Why, just the other day he made a superb chicken roast with mushrooms and mashed potatoes with the most delightful mustard onion sauce. And to finish it all off he created a vanilla souffle with a chocolate truffle filling."
"Damn, now I really want to eat some of his food." Saji groaned at the thought of all the food described to him. "Emiya, you have got to make those at the school!"
"Saji, we do not make other students cook for us." Sona flashed her glasses as she replied. "It is not supposed to be a free treat."
"If that is the case, then that means I should not have to cook for both you and Rias anymore." I said as I took a sip.
Three. Two. One...
"NNNOOO!" The other girls got up and panicked at the thought of me not coming to cook for them anymore.
"Kaichou, you need to make an exception for Emiya-kun! This is a matter of life and death!" Tsubaki actually went against her typical support of the president and argued her case.
"Indeed, Gremory is one thing, but we must have Emiya's cooking!" Momo replied earnestly.
"Emiya-kun's tea snacks help our productivity a lot, so don't let it go!" Meguri added her bit with desperation in her eyes.
"Please, we need our afternoon tea to get us through the workload!" Tsubasa pleaded with Reya nodding quickly.
"Please Kaichou, let him cook for us!" Ruruko put her hands together and begged with the puppy dog eyes that was often used against me.
"..." The person in the face of such arguments could only hang her head and sigh heavily while massaging her head with a little more force than normal. Maybe I better get her something to ease her headache.
"Whoa, you got them wrapped around your finger." Kano blinked as he looked at the chaos unfolding. My only response was to raise my drink in such a way that only he can see the smirk on my face.
"Well, perhaps I should bring more of Shirou's treats for you to sample." Kawako chuckled as she got up from her seat. "A part of me wants to see the reaction when you sample his latest creations." With that, she left with her amused husband to get the other treats from the kitchen, leaving us alone.
Now for the talk.
"So, I assume there is a reason you are here?" I asked the question while keeping a close eye on the couple.
"Just thought you would like an update on the other matters of the school." Sona phrased it lightly as she finally stopped her headache and lightly tapped the table. "How much are you kept up-to-date regarding them?"
"Other than certain individuals trying to make heads and tails of my involvement in that game? Let's see, there is the part about the most popular girl moving into the house of the most unlikely individual of the student body, there is also the case where certain people had to be properly checked for requests, and the fact that a group has yet to take up my offer to do some training."
I paused watching some of the members squirm at that reminder before adding one more bit. "Ah yes, there have been more rats and roaches appearing in the area recently."
"So true, especially of the rats and roaches coming around. We would need the exterminator to deal with them." Sona's glasses flashed briefly in the lighting. "Preferably within these couple of days. You think he will be available?"
"Well, luckily it is the weekend so the exterminator should not have to worry about the students being around when he rustles them out." I replied as I used my finger to lightly tap my glass. "At the very least, it should be an easy job."
"You might want to hold back on your predictions." She paused to give a quick glance to the side. "It seems we have a few that are a lot bigger than normal, possibly the type that would need a team. So he would need to be careful."
"I'm sure it is not something he can't handle." I replied while sipping my drink.
...
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