After watching TV with Tohru, it was time to prepare for opening.
With over forty minutes before business began, they had plenty of time to clean.
Restaurants required a long preparation period; to improve serving efficiency, many ingredients had to be processed in advance.
Essential items like garlic needed large-scale preparation, a task that could take several hours.
Fortunately, Yuto worked with speed, so the chores would not consume his evening.
Tohru wiped down every corner of the restaurant.
Outside, Yuto swept the dust from the stone tiles with a broom, ensuring a clean welcome for his customers.
The setting sun sank lower, its evening glow shedding the burning heat of noon.
The dimming golden light carried a faint coolness instead. From an unknown hiding spot, cicadas buzzed.
The season had entered midsummer, and its unique sights and sounds were beginning to surface.
Yuto's gaze fell on a small patch of weeds in the alley. Since the neighboring storefronts had closed down and foot traffic remained sparse, the weeds had grown unnoticed.
He guessed the crying cicada hid somewhere within that grass.
Scrape—scrape—
The bamboo broom brushed across the stone tiles.
Yuto had no intention of disturbing the insect's song, choosing to treat its cry as a summer alarm.
Looking toward the main street, he saw bright, colorful lights glowing in the distance. He stepped out to take a look.
Pedestrians filled the sidewalks, and the women standing near the entrances of various establishments smiled and greeted him.
Watching the stream of people under the neon glow, Yuto felt his thoughts settle into a strange quiet.
The scene held a certain warmth of everyday life—provided one did not examine it too closely.
He cleared his head and returned to the restaurant, switching on the small lamp above the door. For a nighttime eatery, the light served as a guide, signaling that someone was inside.
It might even attract a wandering passerby.
A short while later, Erina and Hisako arrived, much to his surprise.
Since they had stayed up all night the day prior, he assumed they would take the day to rest. He had not expected such persistence.
"Are you two feeling all right?" Yuto asked.
Erina lifted her chin, her expression carrying a stubborn pride. "It was only an all-nighter! Kamisaka-kun, don't look down on people so easily."
Faced with her declaration, Yuto offered a helpless smile.
He looked them over, their complexions seemed unaffected, suggesting they had slept well upon returning home.
He nodded, letting the argument drop.
With the staff assembled, business could begin. Erina and Hisako entered the kitchen, while Tohru stood ready in the front hall.
Yuto walked to the door and flipped the sign.
The night had begun!
Slide—
The door opened for the first time that evening, bringing in the first group of customers.
Yuto's expression shifted in surprise.
Yakumo Yukari stepped inside, accompanied by Yagokoro Eirin and Houraisan Kaguya.
Yuuka and the usual familiar faces were absent.
While the others missing did not shock him, Yuuka's absence left him puzzled. She had never missed a single day since her first visit!
"My, my. Is our little Boss wondering why Yuuka isn't here?" A flicker passed through Yukari's eyes, her smile teasing.
Having his thoughts guessed, Yuto smiled in awkward silence, basically admitting the truth.
Yukari laughed, the curve of her lips looking dangerously charming.
"I'm sorry. Yuuka had something to take care of today, so she can't come. Kamisaka-kun, you don't have to feel sad. You might be able to see her again tomorrow." The teasing note in her voice was unmistakable.
"If she has something to do, then there's nothing to be done."
Yuto recalled the awkwardness in the Sunflower Field earlier that day, a sense of relief rising in his chest.
Perhaps it was for the best.
If she had shown up, he would not know how to face her. He still believed he had done something inappropriate to Yuuka while drunk, and the embarrassment lingered.
Her absence spared him the tension.
Watching his expression, Yukari smiled and took a seat at the counter.
Yagokoro Eirin and Princess Kaguya sat beside her.
Back in Gensokyo, Yukari had mentioned Kaguya's identity to him.
She was a princess—a princess from the moon, to be exact.
As for how she ended up in Gensokyo, Yukari offered no explanation, and Yuto refrained from asking about such a complicated matter.
Once Kaguya sat down, her noble aura proved so overwhelming that Erina and Hisako felt intimidated.
Yuto noticed their expressions and found the situation amusing.
If those two knew what Princess Kaguya was really like, they would doubt life itself.
"Eirin and Kaguya, you're both here for the first time. Is there anything you'd like to eat?"
During the daytime gathering, Yuto had grown closer to them.
Eirin intended to build a good relationship with him, making familiar speech the best approach.
As for Kaguya, she cared little about titles, having spent the day discussing video games with intense excitement.
"Just make something you're good at, Kamisaka-kun. As long as it's on the lighter side, anything is fine." Eirin smiled.
Her aura rivaled Kaguya's.
If the princess was noble like the bright moon, Eirin was a white lotus blooming beneath the night sky—mysterious and elegant.
Yuto nodded, turning his attention to the moon princess.
Despite her noble aura, he could see the violent excitement fluctuating in her eyes. Remembering their previous conversation, he felt certain she had come for the games.
The so-called noble moon princess was, in truth, a veteran NEET!
"Kaguya, what would you like to eat?"
"No, I don't need anything to eat. I just want—"
Just as she prepared to speak her mind, Eirin threw a side-glance her way.
An unreadable smile graced Eirin's face, freezing the princess in place.
Kaguya's eyes tangled with struggle and torment, though the unwilling expression failed to hide her beauty.
"Princess, please don't forget what we agreed on," Eirin reminded her.
The words caused the princess's gaze to sink, her composed expression collapsing.
Yuto watched the scene with curiosity and amusement.
Whatever agreement they had struck, Kaguya's expression suggested it was nothing pleasant.
"Hmph!" Kaguya snorted, taking a deep breath. Frustration and resentment filled her eyes as she forced her face into a strained calm.
"Kamisaka-kun, please make Her Highness something light as well," Eirin requested.
"No. I want fried chicken! And cola!" Kaguya argued.
The order suited a NEET's tastes, but the contrast against her appearance felt dramatic.
A girl as noble as the moon dining on fried chicken and cola presented a bizarre image.
Eirin sighed.
She understood the risk of pushing too hard; pressuring the resentful princess further might trigger an explosion.
Knowing her child's temper, Eirin relented. "Very well."
Kaguya's expression improved a fraction, though anger still simmered beneath the surface.
'If Eirin wasn't holding all my games, novels, and manga hostage... I absolutely wouldn't behave so obediently!'
"Understood." Yuto found the sight funny—a helpless Eirin and a resentful princess resembling a mother disciplining her disobedient daughter.
Nearby, Yukari laughed openly, uncaring about their domestic dispute.
Mocking her former rival brought her genuine satisfaction.
"And you, Yukari?"
Yukari's eyes shifted.
Wearing a mischievous expression, she pulled a sunflower from one of her spatial gaps.
Yuto froze.
"Today, I want sunflower cake too."
Recovering from his surprise, Yuto took the blossom and nodded.
"This sunflower... Yukari, did you get it from Yuuka?"
All the sunflowers in Gensokyo bloomed in the Sunflower Field, watched over by the flower master herself.
This specimen had to originate from there.
"Of course. Yuuka and I have an excellent relationship. I only had to ask, and she gave it to me. Did you think I stole it, Kamisaka?" Yukari offered a look of displeasure, resembling a young girl masking her anger.
Her endless shifts in aura made her like the clouds and wind—impossible to grasp yet fascinating.
"All right," Yuto smiled with an apologetic tone. In truth, he did suspect the flower was stolen.
"Hmph. Today, I'm going to taste what this sunflower cake is like!"
Hearing the satisfaction in her tone, Yuto gave up trying to guess her methods.
He nodded to the trio and entered the kitchen. He intended to prepare the flower cake and Eirin's dish himself, leaving the fried chicken to Erina.
Adapted to the kitchen's pace after last night, Erina had no complaints.
Yuto tore the sunflower into thin golden strands, dropping them into a bowl of water.
The petals drifted with the ripples, moving like clouds across a blue sky.
As he washed the strands, he struggled to believe Yukari's story. Yuuka would never hand over a blossom so easily; something else had occurred.
Trusting his intuition, he kept the thought to himself to avoid angering the gap youkai.
While he prepared the cake, Yukari watched his back from the front hall, her heart swelling with secret satisfaction.
Despite taking a blast from Yuuka's magic cannon, Yuto was now making sunflower cake for her.
Normally, this dish remained Yuuka's exclusive treat. Getting to taste it brought a special kind of pleasure.
Where had the sunflower come from?
'Heh! Of course I secretly plucked it!'
Yukari remembered a term from a manga she had read recently.
NTR.
'Mm, this should count as NTR too, right? Your man is making me the exclusive dish he usually only makes for you... Hmph, hmph... Yuuka, Yuuka, I absolutely have to go back and provoke you with this later. Let's see what kind of expression you make then!'
Yukari reveled in her secret amusement, a strange grin stretching across her face.
Beside her, Eirin and Kaguya stared with mild disgust.
In the kitchen, a sudden chill ran down Yuto's spine.
'Why do I have such a bad feeling?'
Finding it odd but brief, he dismissed the sensation as his imagination. He pushed the thought aside and focused on the flower cake.
...
Gensokyo.
The Sunflower Field.
Sitting outside Mugenkan, Yuuka felt a sudden wave of displeasure.
Her brows furrowed, immediately assigning the blame to Yakumo Yukari.
Though she lacked evidence, Yuuka's intuition screamed that the gap youkai was targeting her.
She frowned, her heart irritated.
That magic cannon blast earlier had been far too light!
Glancing at the nearby door, a faint ripple passed through her eyes.
Her mind drifted back to the afternoon—to the drunken Yuto leaning against her in her arms.
Her heart grew unsettled once more.
'I'll go see him once I've calmed down,' she thought, closing her eyes.
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