White Moon Cafe

Sumida City, Tokyo

After a couple of days since we put into practice the concept that Cesar invented, we were already seeing his improvements in the cafeteria. Now at a glance, you could see that there were more customers at all hours. Most of them were young people from the surrounding area or couples, it seems to be quite a hit with the girls. Although in the last few days a group of guys has come without fail for one reason. But no matter who comes, everyone is impressed by the high level of the costumes or the makeup of the waitresses, little do they know that in reality they are real and they are not costumes. To increase the fantasy atmosphere in the place I have obtained, or rather removed from my house and brought them, several different plants and placed them around. Also, how he helped me build several wooden ornaments so that he could see a more artisanal touch, at the moment it is not much, but when I have more money I will get more things. Maybe I can even take what Cesar brought from his trip and hang them on the wall. 

Coming back to myself after having my head in the clouds, I quickly took a look around to see that everything was going well. Tamamo was being the most popular, she was quite loved by the people, mainly because of her cheerful way of being. Although she started working here mainly because she wanted to wear that maid outfit that she thought looked pretty, now she has no problem taking orders and bringing them to their respective tables, In addition, she seems to know how to read the environment quite well and behaves according to the situation. If she sees a couple, she usually keeps a certain distance so as not to bother them, but if a group of girls arrives and is quite happy, she even ends up joining their conversations, but without disturbing them.  The twins for their part have also been able to adapt quite well, although the theme of the coffee shop is a fantasy world, we say that she will not hide anything and will present herself as she is. They are wearing a maid uniform too, but a much simpler design as I didn't have much material to make them with. Everywhere you can see that they are androids but thanks to their way of behaving people think that it is really thanks to makeup. But the truth is that they are real androids and that their technology is not very far in the future either, if only the Empire had decided to commercialize the technology and not use it only for military purposes, I imagine that they will be like most of technology, which is first used for military purposes and then later released to the public, as happened with drones or GPS. Although I doubt very much that the androids of the future can do what those two can do.  Charlotte is usually in charge of attending the cash register, while her sister is behind helping in the kitchen, but I love it when something happens because Charlotte is going to help a table and leave the clients she was serving without saying anything, they are surprised by how rude she is, only for his sister to come out of the back, who is completely identical, and continue where the other left off as if she knew everything. Saeko who has been working here since the beginning is the most surprised by the change. I hired her at the beginning because she met her when she went to the hospital to visit Maria, she worked in another restaurant also famous for her coffee. She had experience and we are friends, so when I proposed the idea to her, it was she herself who said that she could teach me how to take charge of a cafeteria. Basically, she is the cornerstone of this place staying afloat, so it was pretty hard for her to give me the money report where almost everything was in the red. She blamed herself for the failure and thought that she had let me down, but I know that was not her intention, since from the beginning she has given her best. When I came up with the idea of making the place themed, she was quite hesitant about my idea and told me her concerns, since the idea was pretty bad along with spending a lot of money on having people wear dresses and makeup. But although she was right, my ace up my sleeve was precisely that part, that everything came out almost for free, along with all the meek extras that we now have. But the best part is that although we have a good number of clients right now, it is not yet at its full potential. I still need to get more money to be able to invest even more in the place and finalize the final details, together with the return of the school season, where surely all the students will tell their acquaintances about this place. If I play my cards right I could turn this place into a place where students go to hang out or their meeting point in their free time, and when that happens I will start to see continuous growth. 

As for the problems to face, I have several, almost all of them related to the girls. Momo is in the back helping in the kitchen and although she is wearing the same set of clothes from when we were in New York, she can't get out of there, because unlike the others there is simply no convincing way to fool people about her transparent situation. Usually, she is helping Saeko or me when we make more cakes, I have no idea if she might suspect Momo but she hasn't said anything. In any case, I see potential in the angel, because, unlike Tamamo, she is more measured when it comes to cooking, so I think I can teach her to cook without fear of losing the appliances, this could even help her to have something extra that will give her value against her rivals. The next one is Lisa, who to my surprise turns out that she knows how to pretend not to be completely crazy, but only towards a part of our clients. Right now she is serving a group of girls with great delicacy and professionalism, so much so that I can even almost understand that she was an angel in the past, but as she turns around and sees that at the table behind her there is a group of men, she spilled coffee on the table and threw a cake at another in the face, along with a face of total rejection and the set of threats what she usually says. Clearly, she is super forbidden to do anything violent inside this place, even Cesar himself ordered her that she could not kill anyone in this place, but that does not mean that she can treat men as badly as she wants, something that she does not doubt do even without provocation. But the strangest thing is that it is those same clients that she treats badly that are the ones who most frequently visit the store, and who look for her to serve them. Without a doubt, Japan has people with rather strange tastes, because, for someone like Lisa to have what seems more like a fan club they began to call her the ice queen, they bring money, I let what happens between them and the demon pass by, the other clients find it funny because they see it as part of their "character", without seeing that she is really like that. I think the most surprising thing is their perseverance because even Lisa is tired of them. But surprisingly, the one that does worse is Maria, she directly does not know how to deal with people, she continually gets the orders wrong or mixes up the tables, but what worries me the most is that it is quite evident that she does not know how to relate to people. It seems that she is afraid of strangers or doesn't know how to start conversations with them, which brings out an even bigger problem in her. Now that I thought about it, I think it was the first time that Maria had to interact with people who were not part of her family or doctors, and that has taken its toll on her now that she has to do it on her own. And now that I think about it, she still doesn't have any friends her age. I have to do something about it and correct it.

The doorbell rang, indicating that new customers had entered my restaurant. They were the inspector and his granddaughter Haru, the latter pulling the older person by the arm because she was the one who was excited to enter.

"Come on Haru, you only like sweets, you don't have to use the excuse that you need coffee right now " Said the inspector while still walking through the door, but with a smile 

"Okay, you can have the coffee, I'll order a juice and a cake!"
"I can't wait to see how it looks after the changes!"
"Hello, Lisa how are you! Can you give me this cupcake here?" Said the girl quite cheerful

"Give me a moment, I'll prepare a table for you and I'll take it to you right away" The demon answered in a courteous way only because it was the girl who spoke to her.

????

!!!!!

Mr. Yamamoto was standing petrified with an angry face and what was worse, he had one of his hands inside his jacket. I had no doubt that he had looked for his pistol and was ready to fire it. Was it possible that she recognized Lisa right away!? This is bad, I have to stop them from fighting inside my store! 

"Hello Inspector Yamamoto! How glad I am to see you on this day!" I spoke louder than usual so that he could notice me above his concerns.
"Is there something you want to try specifically?"
"I'll give you any for free for your continued patronage"

The inspector noticed me and suddenly stopped whatever he was planning to do, he turned his head and saw me, put his gun back in its place, took off his reading glasses, scratched his eyes in frustration, and went to the counter.

"Why whenever something happens you are in the middle?"
"Do you even know what you're doing with that girl over there?" Said the frustrated man 

"Who? Lisa?"
"She works for me, can't you see? She's been with us since my office was attacked"
"To summarize, she is another friend of Elise, so she is usually in the same line of work" I try to sound as friendly as possible, in order to ease the tension.

"You do know that she attacked me in my own house right?"

"That happened when she is not with us yet !"
"At that time we were looking for her as much as you"
"It wasn't until later that we were able to put everything in order"
"I'm so sorry for the trouble we've caused you" I tilted my head as far as I could, I even almost hit the counter, but even though it wasn't our mistake, we still had to face it.

"Is even safe to have her close?"

"Of course yes, after all, they already put almost everything under control in it"
"Hey Lisa! can you come here for a moment"
"There's someone I want you to talk to for a moment"

For all that you want most, my God, please, I beg you, I pray to you for in case of the slightest chance it could happen please don't let Lisa screw up in this time of dire need.  Please hear my plea. 

"Yes? dear mother-in-law? is there something you need?"

"This is Mr. Yamamoto, he is a good friend of Elise and mine"
"He was telling me that you recently had a problem with him, so he is expecting an apology from you"
"So if you would be so kind"

Lisa looked at me with a surprised face, as if to say: are you kidding me? But I didn't change my posture, then she began to look more and more nervous as she seemed to realize my intention. She clenched her fist tightly and held her breath.

"I am very sorry for my previous behavior Mr. Yamamoto, it was really my fault for everything that happened and I am so sorry to cause trouble for you and your family."
"I regret my way of acting, I know it was not correct, I know it is unworthy of me to ask someone like you for something, but please do not retaliate against this family that has been so kind as to accept a nuisance like me, so if you take action please let it be towards me and not towards them."

Lisa lowered her head as a sign of apology and respect, it hurts that the rest of her body didn't seem to have the same intention of what she was saying. But even so, it had to be recognized that for someone like her this was a huge step that I did not think I would ever see this morning. On the other side, her hands looked like they were trying to strangle a ghost and in the tone, she said it seemed like she was filled with fury before regret. But it was a step no more no less.

"Haha, girl if you want to lie you have to try much better as if you at least believe in what you are saying."
"But at least I see that your feelings about protecting them is just as honest as your way of acting"
"Although if what you were looking for was to help them from the beginning it would have been much easier if you had come and talked to us from the beginning"
"Adelis has helped me a lot for years, so if you had told me that you were on my side, she would have helped you without giving me much thought"
"There are still 3 bodies in the morgue that I thought was your fault for the way you acted in my house"

"Lisa, that group of beech is finished, can you pick up the plates?"
"..."
"Regarding that case, we have a little problem"
"Lisa is not slightly suspicious, she is the perpetrator"
"We have to do something about it"

"On the one hand I imagined that really was she was responsible for after seeing that she works for you"
"But on the other side do you know how problematic the conversation we're having is?"
"You can't just walk in and tell the chief of the police investigation team that one of your stepdaughters is the serial killer we've been looking for endlessly"
"What the blue girl did is something so remarkable that I can't pretend to forget"
"Journalists are anxious to obtain information, the police chief promised to take someone to justice"
"Even a senator is following our case personally in case we need help"
"Someone will have to pay yes or yes"
"..."
"So, do you already have in mind who to blame?"

"I have a leader of a criminal gang who, relatively speaking, has a relationship with the victims when I finish incriminating him and one of his lackeys with financial problems"
"With a simple push, I could make someone make a bad decision and make it all seem like revenge or betrayal in favor of a rival gang"
"You can choose the ending of the story you want"

"The method was quite violent and specific, any particular reason or how to recreate it?"
"Are you going to use a hammer?"

"Lisa suffers from extreme androphobia, it seems that it has something to do with her past"
"Her main behavior is violence, she seems that she seeks to defend herself by being as fearsome as possible"
"So hers that the manner of the deaths seem to reflect this, they try to carry a message"
"So I think we can redirect this as a mark that the yakuza used to make an example or something like that"
"We will kill the leader in the same way, we will let him dry a bit and I'll ask her for a batch of those metal stakes to put in the poor man's apartment. "
"There I'll pass you the information when I finish, you just arrive and finish pushing others towards this story to give it more credibility, and in three days you will be live in an interview on the noon news "

"Ok, good enough"
"I am glad to know that I will be able to finish this case soon"
"Can I claim that free cake right now?"
"I think Haru would love the one with the chocolate animal design"

"Of course!"
"Which one, the rabbit one or the cat one?"

The rest of the day continued without much more trouble until it was time to close. In which I sent almost everyone to the house first, except Lisa, because no one will stay calm unless I are always accompanied by someone who knows how to fight, and because I have realized that she, who is normally not interested or not, is not capable of understanding sensitive matters, making it perfect for sensitive conversations that you don't want other people to hear. And the other was Maria, who I made her stay later with the excuse that I wanted her to clean the tables, but the truth is that I wanted to talk to her about something a little more serious, a mother-daughter conversation. 

"Maria, you know I've been thinking about your future a little bit and there's something I want to tell you"
"For the next school year, I am going to enroll you in a different class than the one Cesar is in and the others"
"Would you have a problem with that"

"???"
"Sorry?"  She stopped short without finishing cleaning 
"Me in a different class than the others? Why? isn't that a bit unnecessary?"
"They don't charge for that right?"

"Well, yes, but I think it is necessary and I would like you to hear why."
"You see, lately I've noticed how difficult it is for you to serve customers, more than necessary in fact."
"So I have reflected a little on the reasons why and I think I realized why"
"..."
"You have no friends your own age, or at least not outside the influence of your brother and his acquaintances"
"Until now I have not seen that you have made a single friend on your own and I think that has been taking its toll on your development, as a person"
"So I think maybe you should stay a little further away from your brother and try your luck on your own, see how it goes without the help of others"
"Don't take this the wrong way, we're all happy to see you completely healthy and out of trouble, but I think both your father and Cesar would love to know that you might be able to make friends on your own and relate to others"

"Well I think I could try, and in case it goes wrong I'll still be in the same school as him."
"So in the worst case, I just have to talk to him again, right?"
"I think I can handle it."

"Thanks for understanding me"  I answered with joy.

Back at the house, I asked Lisa to give me several of the metal stakes that she uses and the truth is that I have no idea where she even gets them from if she keeps them like Cesar and his giant sword or creates them herself, but then I remember that I'm talking about a being capable of walking through walls or hiding in the shadows, so the logic is that it doesn't work very well with her. At first, she didn't want to, but when I told her it was to be used on an evil man she happily gave me a bunch without hesitation. After that, I took my cell phone and called Xian, because I would have her take care of the rest since she was the expert in this field and a professional. Tomorrow the police will have enough work.