Cafe Kizuna pt 4.

That next morning, Ti woke up from his phone ringing. The caller was an unknown number.

“Hello Ti, it’s me?”

Ti rubbed his sleepy eyes, he had no idea whose voice this was.

“Hello me”

“Ehh. ehh… Excuse me, but who is this?”

Ti was a bit embarrassed by the mistake, he was still really sleepy after the long night at the alley.

“It’s your new manager, you need to get to work Ti-chan!”

Only now he realized who was talking to him.

“Ei, is that you? You are now the manager?”

“Long story… but let’s say I convinced the headquarters to become your temporary manager”

**ring - ring**

Ti heard his doorbell ringing.

“I am sorry, Ei - I need to answer the door”

“Ahh”

Ei said with a really excited voice.

“Your taxi is there already - jump in!”

Ti looked in the mirror, he was still wearing his pajamas. He couldn’t leave the door like this.

“... I was still in bed.. I need to get ready”

He panic a little and started hastily grabbing together some stuff.

“No time! The cafe opens in an hour”

“Please just enter in your pajamas - you wear a uniform anyway!”

The bell rang again, Ti hastily grabbed some stuff and gave in to Ei’s demand.

When the driver opened the black caps door, he saw Mona had stretched herself out on the backseat. Her eyes were closed - she was clearly sleeping.

“My lady, please wake up!”

The driver tried to wake her up, but to no avail.

“Let me try”

Ti said.

“Mona, your favorite anime is about to start! You will miss it”

She immediately jumped up.

“What -- anime!”

Mona looked confused, she clearly had forgotten where she was. Ti couldn’t do anything but laugh.

“Just kidding, you need to make some space for me”

Mona moved and went to sit upright again.

“You really owe me for everything I did for you the last few days Ti”

Mona mumbled.

Ti felt a bit guilty, Mona really helped him out a lot. He tried to think of something he could do for her. Luckily he had a good idea.

“When we get back to school, I’ll be your personal maid for a day”

While rubbing her eyes Mona said.

“Mmm, that’s an interesting offer”

“Make it a week and then I’ll agree”

“Ehh. ehh..”

Ti hestitated a bit, Mona was his friend, but being stuck with her for a week executing every command, that did sound really thought. But when he thought back about everything Mona did for him, he couldn’t do anything but accept.

“Deal”

Mona smirked.

“I am glad to help you fulfill all your strange desires - Ti-chan”

She winked at him. Ti immediately turned red, he didn’t mean it like that!

“Mona!”

The cafe

By the time the taxi had arrived at the cafe, Mona had fallen asleep again. Her head was leaning again Ti’s shoulder.

“Mona wake up! Wake up!”

She wouldn’t budge.

“Look Mona, MacDougles!”

“Chik..en nuggets???”

Mona looked around her.

“It’s still closed though”

Ti added.

Mona sighed.

“This is exactly why I never wake up before noon”

When the two of them entered the cafe’s door, an unfamiliar maid awaited them.

“Welcome home, ladies”

“Hello who are you, we also work here”

Ti said, a bit confused.

“Temporarily”

Mona added to Ti’s statement.

“Recalculate relationships 30%”

Ti and Mona looked up to the new maid.

“Wait..”

“Are you a maidtron?”

“Yes, mistress I was lent to you by Miss Ei. Please let me help you serve the guest today”

“How awesome, I get to work with a real robot?”

Mona’s sluggishness seemed to have disappeared instantly.

Ti and Mona walked up to the backroom. Ti opened the door and…

“Nia?”

She was wearing a really cute-looking cook's outfit.

“It’s not like I wanted to be here okay!”

“Me neither”

Mona quietly whispered.

“Nia, you look so cute in that!”

Ti loved her outfit a lot.

“You are embarrassing me!”

Nia shouted.

“I thought it looked cute on her”

Sakura said. Ti hadn’t noticed her being there until now.

“We tried this on Kentarou as well when he started working, but sadly it didn’t fit him”

“So glad to see you today Nia-chan”

Mona tried to hug Nia, but she pushed her away.

“Just point me to the kitchen okay!”

“I am here for work, not for all the cutesy stuff”

“I suggest you start working at MacDougles then”

Mona whispered.

“Those outfits look terrible”

Ti and Sakura went to search for an outfit for Mona to wear.

“Orange meh.. purple doesn’t fit her either…”

“Oh.. this light blue one!”

Sakura held the outfit before Mona.

“This seems to be your size!”

“Just hurry up… I’ll take anything”

Mona tabbed her wrist.

When the maids got back to the cafe’s main room, a tv screen in the corner suddenly turned on. Ei’s voice resounded through the room.

“Test 1. 2. 3… Can you hear me?”

The girls confirmed the question.

“I want to wish you good luck on your first day working at the restructured Cafe Kizuna. Sadly I can’t be there myself physically.”

“Ti, you’ll be today’s assistant manager. Please bother her with all your complaints”

Ti wanted to protest, he had only been here for 3 days, how could he become the new assistant manager? But before he could voice his complaints, Ei had already hung up.

Mona looked at him and grinned.

“I am at your service, Ti-sama”

Opening

Now they were all dressed up, Ti and the girls went to the entrance to wait for the first guest to arrive. Ti looked out of the window and could see a big crowd had formed before the cafe. He shook, hadn’t ever seen so many people line up here. This wasn’t going to be an easy day.

Sakura put a hand on his shoulder and looked him in the eyes.

“We can do this Ti-chan”

She then opened the door to the cafe.

“Welcome masters, please form a line for the cafe”

The guests were a lot more rowdy than usual.

The guest kept asking Ti and the other girls questions.

“Are you one of the girls that helped caught that mobster?”

“Was Doctor Ei Magoshi really involved with this?”

“Can I take a picture?”

“Are you a maidtron?”

Ti looked at his phone, and apparently, the media had caught up on their little stunt yesterday night. They were all over the news, with headlines talking about the brave act of some maid cafe maids exposing a high-level criminal.

“What do we do Sakura?”

Ti-chan asked.

“Don’t ask me, remember you are the assistant manager now!”

He thought for a second about what they would do here, after that the answer seemed clear to him.

“Cafe Kizuna is a place where people come to lift up their spirits. A safe space, far away from all the ills of society. We can’t let this incident affect our usual magic, right?”

The girls agreed.

“So it’s going to be business as usual, just be your cutest self okay?”

Before they knew it, the cafe had filled up completely, a few guests tried to ask some questions, but Ti quickly shut them down. A maid wouldn’t let themselves get interrogated like that. They can’t spill their master's secrets.

After serving a couple of guests, one of the employees was missing.

“Nia, where did Mona go?”

“I send her to send her to buy some supplies”

“I refuse to serve guest tea from that”

Nia pointed at the thermos standing on the counter.

Ti fully agreed they should only serve the guests the highest quality ingredients. Not some store-boughed, reheated waste they did before.

A little later, Mona came back carrying a case of chicken nuggets.

“Mona! I thought you were buying Nia some supplies!”

Mona rubbed her head.

“Eh… I am sorry I forgot”

“You want a nuggie?”

“Mona you can’t...”

But Mona hushed Ti by putting her finger before her mouth. She pointed at some bags standing next to her.

“I was just kidding Ti, look what I got”

She took a red teapot out of the bag.

“Nia said you’d like one”

Ti instantly felt reinvigorated, the pot came to use soon.

“Let me pour you a cup of tea, master”

He poured his guest a cup of freshly made, leave-based tea.

“Please enjoy your drink”

A little later, Mona showed Ti something she found in the storage.

“Look it’s a karaoke machine, don’t the maids usually do a little performance?”

That sounded so much fun to Ti.

Mona hooked up the machine and they took turns singing songs.

Ti started singing, withing Sakura joining in for the refrains.

“Fighting evil by moonlight…”

After that, Mona grabbed the mic and sang another classic.

“CHA-LA HEAD CHA-LA-LAAA!!!”

A little off-key, but the guests still seemed to love it.

Closing the little concert was the maidtron doing some beat-boxing.

“Blip-blop, blip-blup, bats”

An attempt to have Nia sing a song proved fruitless.

After their little performance, the guests gave them a thunderous round of applause.

“This was the best day of my life!”

Ti proclaimed to the rest of the girls that after all the guests had disappeared.

“It wasn’t too bad working with you guys”

Nia said while folding her arms into each other.

“I feel like a can fall asleep any second..”

Said an exhausted-looking Mona.

“And we made tons of profit”

The girls looked around to see where the voice came from. Ei had appeared on the monitor again.

“Good job everyone! You did great for your first day as assistant manager Ti!”

“But eh Mona, please take some singing lessons.”

Mona sighed and said with a soft voice.

“So you were spying on us. Please remove the recordings…”

Ei laughed.

“Never, I finally got a new ringtone”

She showed her phone and pressed a button to play the ringtone.

“CHA-LA..”

The screen went black. Mona was standing next to it with the plug in her hand.

“I think I’ll turn in my resignation…”