Chapter One: I won't sit for this

"Manager. Can I..." "Yes. You can go home now," I said in an annoyed tone. God, did she really have to ask every fifteen minutes? I let out a deep sigh. Now, where are the two late-night employees? Don't tell me they skipped out on work again. I rubbed my tired eyes and walked into the break room. Inside, Seiji was sitting at the table making a phone call.

He hung up the phone, then looked at me with sullen, tired eyes. "Hey boss, I need to..." "I get it, kid. Don't worry about the night shift." "But..." "It's fine that your child comes first. I can handle a little extra work." He gave a small, tired smile, then stood up. "Thanks, boss." "Don't worry about. Now go run along before that wife of yours gets mad."

He bowed to me, then left the break room. Seiji was a good kid and probably my best worker. I most likely will regret giving myself a ton more work and one less worker, but I feel for him. He's barely out of high school and already has a kid that he needs to take care of. A good kid like him shouldn't waste his time in some crummy fast-food place like this. I looked into the mirror that was hanging on the wall.

"Hello, pot, I would like you to meet kettle," I said as I sighed again. I looked more closely in the mirror and saw a man with unkempt hair, an untrimmed beard, and strands of grey beginning to shine through the black. I'm nearing thirty, and I'm still stuck in a dead-end job like this. No wife, no child, no family. Why am I still doing this? Oh, right, I need money to live, and quite frankly, if I don't keep myself occupied with work, then... well...

The break room door slammed open. "Manager, there is a late dinner rush, and there are only two of us out there!" "Yeah, yeah. I'm coming." When I left the break room, I saw a long line of customers that looked very impatient. Great, it's going to be a long night. I walked back to the kitchen and saw the one cook panicking and running around like crazy. "Hey, kid. Go stock the supplies. I'll take care of cooking." He looked at me and nodded, then ran to the back.

I grabbed some frozen patties and tossed them on the grill, then grabbed a bag of fries and chicken nuggets. I opened them, then threw them into the fryer baskets and started the timers. I've done this for so many years that it's all just a blur of muscle memory that drones on. Time flies by both at work and in life. One day, it's your first day, then the next thing you know, it's been years. Time is a precious commodity, and you don't realize how important it is until you've already wasted it and can't get it back.

"Manager, it's..." "I know, both of you can go home, and thank for your hard work." They started heading for the break room, but one of them stopped and looked at me. "Are you going to be okay?" she asked. "I'm fine, kid. I can handle the few drunks that stumble in here at this hour. You should hurry along before the last train leaves." She bowed to me, then left for the break room.

I looked past the counter to the empty tables, full trash cans, and the streetlights shining through the large windows. Well, I got a few hours left to kill, so I might as well start cleaning up. I started scraping the flat top. Cleaning has always been oddly soothing after a long day of work. I hope that no customers come in...

Right as I thought it, I heard the front doors slam open, and a loud crash. What the hell, is it another drunk, pissed off salaryman? I walked to the front counter, but stopped dead in my tracks. At the front, there was what looked like a white knight and a shrine maiden with a fox mask? What the hell? Is there some convention going on around here?

The knight charged at the shrine maiden and lunged a sword at her. She dodged it then slapped it away with her polearm. Wait, is this some stupid social media thing? Why can't kids these days be normal and stop causing trouble for us underpaid workers? The knight then grabbed a table and tossed it across the room.

Alright, that's it. I slid across the counter and stomped my way towards them. "I don't know what the hell you two are thinking, but take your butts outside! I don't get paid enough to deal with your BS!" I yelled at them. The shrine maiden stopped and looked at me, but the knight took a few steps back and began to charge at her again.

The hell with it, it's time to teach this punk a lesson. I grabbed one of the chairs and, with all my might, I tossed it at him. The chair went flying and slammed into him, sending him flying through the window. Uhhh... whoops, I may have thrown it a little too hard. Great, I can already hear the news talking badly about me.

I walked over to the shattered window and saw the knight lying outside unresponsive. The shrine maiden walked over to me and also looked at the knight. "You have my thanks," She said in a soft tone. Then she walked out the window to the knight and stomped on him. The knight's armor vanished all of a sudden in a blinding light, and what was left looked like a shut-in neet lying in its place.

What the hell is going on? Who are these people? The shrine maiden turned around and then started approaching me. I froze. I didn't know what to do. I mean, she's a short, skinny kid, but after seeing that, I have no clue if I could take her in a fight. She stopped right in front of me, and I looked down at her weird fox mask. "It's best you forget about what happened here." "Well, I..."

"I'm sorry about this." Before I could react, she swung her polearm at me, and with a loud smack, everything faded to black.