[2.4] The Dream Cafe Date

"This ish sho good...."

Keina voiced her pleasure as she worked through her blueberry cake. They have left the existential dream talk behind to focus on their food. 

It was a trendy cafe date, after all.

Teru's cake also tasted really good. Rich, yet not overpowering his mouth with excessive fat and sugar.

There was just one thing off about the taste.

"Why does my red velvet taste like strawberries?"

Keina looked up from her half-eaten slice. "Is that not what it tastes like?"

He shook his head, "Nope, red velvet is chocolatey, not fruity."

She tilted her head, "Wait, chocolate? Why is it red then?"

"It's like some reaction in the baking process. Or food dye. Or beets."

"Oh, not cochineal?"

"Cochineal? What's cochineal?"

"A bug." She grinned.

Teru coughed, "That's even farther from strawberries!"

"That's what they use for natural red dyes. They crush it up and-"

"You're going to summon a swarm of live ones if we keep talking about it at this ra—"

He couldn't complete his sentence before Awamiya approached them with a suspiciously red grinder.

"Would you like some extra red to go with your cak-"

"No!" He quickly declined, knowing full well what she was offering.

Keina raised her hand, "I'll have some, Tomoe!"

"Sure thing!" Awamiya's professional mode temporarily wavered as she twisted the grinder, sprinkling a generous amount of sharp red powder over the half-consumed mountain that was Keina's cake.

Teru could only look at her as if an entire country had their pitchforks out for the culinary crime before him.

"Ground cochineal is most definitely not meant for desserts." He emphasized to her as Awamiya returned to the counter.

"It could be good, you never know," she pouted non-seriously. "I'm going to trust Tomoe."

She probably wasn't wrong. 

Not because ground bugs on desserts sounded good, but neither of them had had it before. If the strawberry-flavored red velvet cake was any indication, it could very well taste like whatever they wanted it to.

"Alright, you convinced me. I'll try some."

"That's the spirit!" Keina beamed as she dusted some excess powder onto his cake.

...

Thankfully, it didn't taste like bugs.

"Augh! Hot!"

But it did taste like chilli powder.

"I'll get some milk!" Keina waved for Awamiya, her face equally feeling the heat.

"Make sure it's actually milk!"

---

"As an apology, before you pay at the counter," Awamiya said with a hint of remorse, "Please accept this order of karaage from the head baker, on the house."

She handed the two—both still slightly red and each with a glass of milk—a suspicious plate of fried boneless chicken, still sizzling with a rustic presentation that looked like it belonged to a bar.

Why does this look like it's meant to go with alcohol?

Awamiya whipped out a pitcher out of thin air, "Would you like a lemon so-"

"No, thank you!" He quickly shot her down again, as she excused herself once more with the empty plates they had finished.

"Ugh, even the multiverse Awamiya is reading my thoughts," He turned to a smiling Keina.

"Isn't Awamiya your age? Is it all right for her to be handling alcohol?"

He would have 15 yen with the number of times this kept coming up.

Keina seemed unbothered. "She'd be close enough in real life now after two years. Her family also runs a really good BBQ restaurant in Shin Okubo."

"In Tokyo, huh?"

Was that why she accidentally gave them chilli powder?

She blinked. "Oh, are you also not in the Tokyo area, Teru?"

"I'm... about two hours away by bullet train."

He quickly changed the subject.

"So, what do we do about this?" He pointed at the plate. "This is Yumeppo's mess from earlier, isn't it? The Cake batter karaage. With bones?"

"Cake-flavored fried chicken sounds like it could be interesting. Savory and sweet!" 

Curiosity struck Keina a second time as she set her milk down and stabbed a piece with her knife, revealing the unexpected interior.

"It's a cake!" She exclaimed as vanilla sponge layers revealed themselves from her knife.

Teru rubbed his eyes as he stared at the plate. "What, how?!"

It was like one of those hyper-realistic cakes that were expertly crafted to look like the real thing.

But the oil was still sizzling, and there was steam rising from the 'chicken'.

"Wait," He stopped her knife from lifting into her mouth. "That still has chicken in it."

Keina paused, "Maybe the chicken's gone now? Since it's now a cake."

"The chicken couldn't have just disappeared." He pointed out. "Yumeppo made a huge scene of screwing up the kitchen. The Dream couldn't have just forgotten it was chicken."

"It's not like it had to stay as chicken the entire time, from Yumeppo making it, to Tomoe bringing it to our table." She countered. 

"It's like what happened to the skyscraper door the other day."

He knew what she meant. There were a few terms that Yumeppo floated their way to explain this to them.

Dream object constancy, dream narrative discontinuity, among others.

The environment being able to change at will, people changing their appearances, or even disappearing or reappearing in ways that wouldn't be possible in real life, when it stops being consciously observed. 

Like the monsters in horror games that only move when no one is looking at them.

Their cognitions were filling in the gaps, trying to make the dream around them as coherent as possible. But anything they stopped focusing on stops being actively perceived, becoming more likely to change in ways that don't have to agree with a universal reality. 

And if they weren't lucid, they wouldn't realize that none of it is normal.

But for chicken?

What was this, a Schrodinger's chicken, where it simultaneously exists and doesn't exist until they observe what's inside themselves?

"I got an idea!" Keina suddenly exclaimed, snapping Teru out of his minor migraine as she held up the chicken-cake to his mouth.

"Say 'ahh!'"

He turned red, "Wha—"

"Couple activity and taste test. Two birds with one stone!" She gave a teasing smirk.

She should've left that last part out.

"A-Ahh..." Teru capitulated as Keina placed the piece in her mouth, the most terrified he's ever been to chew something.

"...How does it taste?"

"...Tastes like chocolate." The fear of eating the unknown quickly dissipated. "No chicken taste at all. It's actually really good."

It was like eating a cake pop, the oily outside being more like a caramelized glaze.

"You actually need to try this."

Teru took one chicken with a fork and presented it to Keina. Now she was the red one.

"My turn. Say 'Ahh'." He gave a knowing smile back.

"A-Ahh..." Keina shyly repeated after him in a similar fashion, chewing on the chicken with less hesitation.

"This one tastes like persimmons!"

"Oh, what? They're all different flavors?" Teru popped another one in his mouth without hesitation.

He probably should have hesitated; his face twisted from his taste buds being hit with a bizarre mix of sweet and savory as Keina hastily handed him a glass of milk.

He found the chicken.

---

"Your total comes to 3200 yen."

Teru produced the money from his wallet—apparently just there, as the situation demanded it—as Awamiya rang them up at the counter.

"Oh, good, you're paying-ppo." 

Yumeppo emerged from the kitchen once more, his little chef outfit more notably stained. "Hope you enjoyed-ppo."

Teru shot the plush tapir a look, "I was up until that Russian roulette chicken cake pop."

"How about 20% gratuity-ppo?"

"Don't even."

"Stingy-ppo." Yumeppo said while brushing it off, "I'll let you see him off outside, Keina-ppo."

"Thanks, Yumeppo," Keina put on a big grin and threw her arms around Awamiya.

"See you soon, Tomoe!"

"See you too, Keina. And you as well, Kasuga." She waved both of them goodbye as they exited Cafe Sil. 

The lineup from before had disappeared, and the traffic was all gone. The cherry blossoms from before looked less vibrant. Not a soul in sight.

Perhaps it was reacting to the GABA chocolate he had eaten, but Teru could tell.

He was going to wake up soon.

"I enjoyed today!" Keina beamed. "We didn't get to go to the cruise again, but this was great!"

Teru smiled softly. "Yeah, thanks for today too."

Maybe it wasn't perfect enough to wake her up right here and now.

But it was still a good Dream Date.

"Seeing Tomoe again, especially." Keina looked back at the cafe to see her. But now there was nobody inside either.

Teru didn't see what look Keina put on her face before he put his hand on her shoulder.

"Maybe when you wake up, you'll get to see her again. And you can tell her all about today."

"The cakes she served you, the absurdly spicy powder, the hyperrealistic karaage cake. The... impromptu Russian Roulette."

"And then we can take that picture again. But for real."

Keina gave a big, heartwarming smile.

"Yeah!"

---

"8:00 AM." Teru groggily confirmed as he woke up in his bedroom, back in reality.

The flavor of the cakes from his dream still lingered in his mouth as he took out a random book and jotted down his latest Dream Date.

It was time to be productive and play some catching up again. But...

"...I wonder if they're still selling that sakura cheesecake."

Maybe he'll stop by that convenience store again later tonight and drop the 900 yen on it.