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You know this city, not so far away? Down there is a street called No. 6. There, on that street, is a place where it’s fun to come. It’s right next to that restaurant called Hetalian Foods. It’s a bar, it’s called Shinya’s Bar. The owner’s name is Hiiragi Shinya. He is always standing by the counter. By the door, you will usually see a woman named Awashima Seri. She is the one to kick you out if you are causing trouble. Sometimes she won’t be there though. In those cases, you’ll see Heiwajima Shizuo there instead. He is crazy strong but hates violence. Somewhere in the bar, usually in the background, you’ll find a young man named Max Alors. He always has a broom in his hand. He always seems to be working on cleaning the place, and it is needed. If you go behind the counter, you’ll find a door, behind that, you’ll find a hallway. If you follow that, you will reach a kitchen with the chef, Nanase Haruka, in a bathtub on wheels. This is pushed around by his friend, Matsuoka Rin.
In this bar, many strange costumers come by. You might know a few of them, and usually, a lot of crazy stuff happens.
On this fine day, Shinya was very excited. He was all smiles as he had been waiting patiently all morning for one particular person to come by. Max and Awashima both sensed the good mood and were wondering why Shinya was like that, because it wasn’t normal for him to be so excited. He was usually just bored while waiting for customers to come by.
Only Haruka and Rin, down in the kitchen, had a faint clue. They had both been awoken early in the morning and been asked to prepare curry for some odd reason. They didn’t know that, but they knew that this was also what made their employer act the way he did.
The suspense was released when a man, who looked the same age as Shinya, entered the bar and sat down. Shinya smiled even more, causing an irritated frown to appear on the new guest’s face.
“You’re as irritating as ever,” Guren said.
“Would you like something, our specialty perhaps?” Shinya asked, ignoring the comment.
“Curry,” Guren said bluntly.
Shinya smiled and knocked on the door to the back before yelling at the top of his lungs. “One portion of that curry!”
No response was heard, but not long after Rin came up with some curry in a bowl and a spoon in it.
“You could go get it yourself,” he commented while placing the bowl in front of Guren.
“What? But it’s way more fun having you do the work, Rinrin!” Shinya declared.
“Don’t call me that,” Rin just said before slamming the door.
As soon as the door had slammed, two more people walked into the bar. One was small, nothing more than a child. Shinya would probably set him to be about 11 or 12 years old. He was wearing an eyepatch over his right eye as if it was hurt. The other was a fully grown man with black hair and a gentle smile on his face. Something about him made it seem like that the smile was just a façade and that there was something darker lurking under the surface. Both the man and the boy were dressed in clothes that looked to be from the Victorian Age in Britain.
“Welcome,” Shinya said. “Would you like something to drink? We have this special drink with cola, redbull and some other stuff, it’s really good.” He turned to Guren. “This guy here recommends it.”
“Don’t,” Guren said before taking a spoonful of the curry. As he tasted it, he looked up at Shinya with surprise on his face. “Who made this?” he asked.
“Our chef,” Shinya answered. “He’s really talented.”
Guren didn’t comment on that.
“Excuse me?” the boy asked politely. “But I would like some tea please.”
“What kind of tea would you like?” Shinya responded in an evenly polite tone.
“Your Japanese cherry blossom tea,” the young boy said, sounding way more mature than he actually was.
“How much do you pay that chef of yours?” Guren muttered while eating another spoonful of curry.
Shinya turned back to Guren. “That’s the thing, all he craves is some mackerel every now and then and the permission to stay in his bathtub all day long.”
The boy coughed to reclaim Shinya’s attention. “Excuse me sir, but are you going to prepare my tea?” he asked.
Shinya turned back to him. “Of course! Camelia tea was it?” he asked.
“Japanese cherry blossom tea,” the boy repeated the order with a hint of annoyance in his voice.
Shinya smiled and turned look on his shelves for tea while he started speaking to Guren again. “The issue comes with the other employee,” he said.
“Which one?” Guren asked. “You seem to have plenty.” He looked around in the room, at Max and Awashima who were both standing by the wall, enjoying the fact that Shinya was really occupied for once.
Shinya turned back around to face Guren. “None of those, I’m speaking of the one who came to serve the curry for you, Guren,” he smiled.
“Sebastian,” the boy said suddenly, half interrupting what Shinya was saying.
“Sir.” The man accompanying the boy spoke for the first time. “I must ask you to serve my Master his tea quickly. We are running a tight schedule you see.” This man was speaking even more politely than the boy, which made Shinya aware of the fact that this was a very fine customer he was dealing with.
“Japanese cherry blossom tea, right?” he asked, careful to get the order right and not piss off either the man or the child.
It didn’t take long for Shinya to determine that the tea was not on the shelves, and therefore he opened the door to the kitchen.
“Oi, Rinrin! Tell Haruka to prepare some of our Japanese cherry blossom tea!” he called.
No response was heard, but Shinya had expected as much. Rin was really bothered by the nickname Shinya insisted on calling him, even more than Haruka was by Shinya calling him by that.
“So… this Haruka is the chef?” Guren asked before eating another spoonful curry. The bowl was nearly half empty by now.
“Yeah, and the other employee is Rin,” Shinya said. “He should be back up here in a moment…”
True to Shinya’s words, Rin came up with a cop of the requested cherry blossom tea and served it for the young child.
“This tea has a rather weak flavor in general, so I apologize if you dislike it,” Rin said. “That guy doesn’t care though.” He nodded in Shinya’s direction.
“We’ll see,” the boy said before picking up the cup like a real Britain and taking a sip of the tea.
Rin nodded and left the room with a quick glare at Shinya before the door slammed.
“Don’t mind him,” Shinya smiled carefreely. “He is like that more often than you think,” he assured Guren.
“Why don’t that surprise me,” Guren muttered before taking another spoonful of his precious curry.
“Anyways, how is Yuu-chan doing?” Shinya asked.
This triggered a long one-sided conversation between Guren and Shinya, where Shinya was the one speaking the most.
“Excuse me,” the boy spoke while placing his cup of tea down. However, Shinya was too engaged in his conversation to hear him and kept on speaking to Guren about unimportant things. Guren was only listening with half an ear anyway.
Without any of the men noticing, the man, who accompanied the boy, had set over the desk and headed down towards the kitchen. Before they could even notice that he was gone, he was back up with the cherry blossom tea in hand.
“You know,” the boy said, finally managing to claim Shinya’s attention. “Despite the tea being weak, I actually found it very delighting, so I’ll just take what you have.”
“What?” Shinya asked, slightly unable to comprehend the situation before he saw the tea in the grown man’s hand.
“Not to worry,” the man said. “We are aware of how expensive it is.” He went and placed some money on the counter before he left, with the boy ahead of him.
Rin picked just that moment to appear in the doorway with an annoyed glare for his employer.
“They took the Japanese cherry blossom tea!” he yelled.
“Yeah,” Shinya answered. “But at least they paid us well,” he said, gesturing towards the money on the counter.
Rin looked at the money as well. He then walked up and took the money before he started heading back.
“Hey!” Shinya yelled. “Those are mine!”
“Do you think it’s enough payment for me just to see you serve Haru mackerel every other day? When are you ever going to pay me for pushing his stupid tub around?” Rin asked before he slammed the door, for who knows what time that day, and headed back to the kitchen.
“Sorry Guren, I’m going to charge you for the curry,” Shinya said, his mood had suddenly changed to a much more serious one.
“Remind me again who said I could get this for free if I just showed up,” Guren answered before he emptied the bowl of curry and left the bar without another word.