“Piplup pip.” (Tuna)

“Yes, I’ll send the new batch of tuna by 9.” (Chief)

“Piplup?” (Tuna)

“Your family ate too many oysters yesterday so no more until next Saturday.” (Chief)

“PIPLUP! Piplup pip.”

“No can do. I can give you some scallops instead.”

“Piplup.”

“Yes yes. I’ll have some bread-crumbed salmon with fried rice.”

“Tota tota ta.” (Kelp)

“Fine, I’ll have some potato salad so you can do something.”

“TOTA!” (Kelp)

“Hey, why haven’t you guys even ordered yet?”

 

Yagoo, Sora and A-chan were watching the spectacle of three Piplups and three Totodiles in the cafeteria kitchen. Yagoo was confused about these ‘strange’ creatures; thinking of them as living plushies, Sora was resisting the urge to hug these adorable and cute things while A-chan was afraid of their powerful aura that was slightly hidden.

 

“What are these……creatures?” Yagoo asked, unsure what to classify the water pokemons as.

“Oh, right, I never introduced them. These are the newly hired chefs of the kitchen, a creature type called Pokemon. These penguin-looking ones are called Piplups and the crocodile ones are called Totodiles.” Chief introduced them as the little ones waved their paws to say hi while working.

 

“They are so cute!” Sora squealed, watching them earnestly cook with their cute movements.

“Easy now, Sora,” A-chan quickly held the reins and whispered to her young lady, “We shouldn’t leave a bad impression on our colleges.”

“Right, right. I’ll try and control myself.” (Sora)

 

“They also have names. These Piplups are Tuna, Carp and Mackerel and these Totodiles are Kelp, Nori and Moss.” (Chief)

“Piplup!”

“Tota!”

“So cute!” (Sora)

“Wonder if we can make them into marketable plushies?” (Yagoo)

“...” (A-chan)

 

“Based on their daily deliveries of fresh stock, Tuna and Kelp will make a small menu with lots of selections any time of the day. They’ll be here from morning to night, doing any meals for the employees of Cover. Take a look at the board here and request whatever you want for lunch, they’ll understand our words so don’t worry.” (Chief)

 

“Tota TA!” (Moss)

“Ah, thank you for the meal. Just order up and we’ll sit there.” (Chief)

Chief, with his meal set, walked off to one of the common dining tables, leaving the trio in front of the canteen.

‘How are we supposed to communicate with them again?’ (Yagoo, Sora & A-chan)

 

“TOTA!” Kelp raised his paw towards them, asking them to hurry with their order so he could eat his salad with no distractions afterwards.

“Um, can I please have a grilled mackerel and an egg salad? Oh, and some rice as well. Thank you” (Sora).

“I’ll have the same set as Sora.” (A-chan)

“I’ll go with roasted pork with fried rice and a cup of pudding. (Yagoo)

“Tota to ta.” Kelp agreed to the requests, a tad bit disappointed that Yagoo didn’t ask for any greens.

 

The trio watched the Pokemon get to work, Piplups handling the knife work and presentation while the Totodiles skillfully played with the hot pans and loved chewing on extra ingredients laying around.

“Nori, if you keep eating 6 more seaweed sheets, I might need to dock your pay to cover costs.” (Chief)

“TOTOTA?!” (Nori)

 

After a short moment, the trio got their fresh meals and sat with Chief; Yagoo was next to Chief and Sora was opposite them with A-chan.

“Delicious!” Yagoo ate with relish, eating quite quickly and only had the pudding left.
“Those…Piplups and Totodiles are very skillful with these meals. It was very tasty.” Sora nibbled on the last leaves of the potato salad. A-chan ate with a satisfied smile, matching the same eating pace with Sora.

“Yeah, they are the best of the ones I trained. I would have brought more if they weren’t so troublesome. Oh, A-san, you need this as a new rookie manager.” Chief passed over a light blue little tablet. A-chan held it and saw the simple programs for her job like scheduling and digital manuals for each piece of equipment in the company.

“Chief-san, why do I only have 3 singing lessons and 3 study lessons in a week?” Sora asked as she peeked at her schedules on the tablet.
“Huh? Sora-san, you only just started, no need to work so hard on yourself. I’m not in a rush, Yagoo is still preparing for returning employees and A-chan is still learning her job. You can spend the free time researching other idols and learning what to do for your streams. Take it slow and easy.” (Chief)
“Hai, Chief-san,” Sora said meekly, afraid that she was going to be reprimanded for showing a different attitude than he expected.

“See, this is why your work culture sucks. First couple of days in and she already wants to be driven to the bone.” Chief joked towards Yagoo.
“No,no,no. You know our work conditions are fine in Cover, she is just worried that she isn’t doing enough for your generous pay and workspace.” Yagoo lashed back.
“But it’s normal.”
“No, it’s not!”

BBBBZZZZZZ BBBBBBBZZZZZ

“Sorry, that’s mine.” Chief excused himself and walked a bit from the table before picking up the call.

 

BBBEEEEEP

“You know you can just tell me directly.”
<AND MAKE THE NEIGHBOURS WONDER WHY YOU ARRIVED HOME WITH NO CALL?>
“And why is that a problem?”
<BECAUSE THEY ARE WITH ME>
“? I thought you had a problem with them like a month ago.”
<I WOULDN’T HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THEM IF I LET THEM IN OUR HOME, MASTER>
“Whatever then, what do you need me for?”
<OBVIOUSLY TO HELP ME ARRANGE AND SORT OUT THE DOCUMENTATION FOR THE HUGE MESS YOU LEFT TO RENOVATE COVER CORP>
“But I thought you had it all under control?”
<MORE ASSISTANCE WOULD BE APPRECIATED CONSIDERING YOU HAVEN’T BEEN HOME IN 2 WEEKS>
“...Fine, you got me, Alice-chan.”
<CALL ME ALICE>
“No.”
<UWU>
“Yeah, I’m hanging up, I’ll be back in 5.”

BBEEEEPPP

“I need to go back home,” Chief returned to the table and informed the group.
“Was it Alice-chan?” Yagoo asked, which raised an eyebrow for Sora.
“Yes, she needed some help so I’ll head over there in a bit. Call me if you need anything.”

 

[WARP]

With a finger snap, Chief disappeared into thin air.

“Ah, dammit! How am I going to get home if he leaves first?! Welp, I’ll just call a cab to make it home on time.” Yagoo mumbled before waving goodbye to Sora and A-chan, leaving to finish off little plans in his office.

“Um, Sora-chan, what should we do?” A-chan asked as she was fiddling with her new tablet, unaware that Sora’s eyes and feathers were fluctuating with a dark grey colour. She was in a trance for a bit before snapping out and looked at the tablet.
“Is there anything in the lessons?” (Sora)
“Um, not much,” A-chan tapped around the schedule, “There’s details, notes….some little suggestions and a bit of advance plans but it’s only stretched till next month, so there is not much else. Huh, there are booking options for Chief-san and teachers. So we don’t need to always have the teachers during lessons and also provide an advance warning if they are busy. Oh, we can even make our own little events in the schedule.”
“We can book teachers and Chief-san?” Sora immediately asked.
“Ah, yes. It says right here,” A-chan showed the tablet with a lesson with the booking features.

“Let’s add Chief-san to all our available lessons.” Sora’s eyes fluttered from grey to a fading yellow tint. She glared at the Chief’s name in the booking, before snapping and looking back at A-chan with her natural hazel shade.
“Why?” A-chan asked, but still added the bookings, “I don’t think he needs to supervise us for every lesson and it could be time-consuming.”
Though A-chan gave quite good points, Sora didn’t back down.
“I beg to differ, the first couple of months are crucial for becoming an idol and Chief-san being there can closely monitor our progress while preventing any long-lasting mistakes.” (Sora)
“Hmmm, that does make sense. Sure, let’s hope he agrees to the arrangements. How about we go back to the streaming room? I wanna see if these…Piplups can make a cake for us to snack on.” (A-chan)

 

=============

=============

 

Chief appeared on the 6th floor of an apartment. Despite the size of the large building, there were only two doors in this whole floor, completely modified by Alice-chan because she loved having more room for herself. Chief sighed, thinking about the long night ahead of dealing with Alice while she may try to coax him, though very unlikely if the neighbours are here. 

 

===A/N: Alice looks like Isla from Plastic Memories, just more mature and taller.===

 

“I’m back, here are some gourmet chocolates from the store nearby.” Chief opened the door and handed an exquisite box to the person waiting by the entrance.
<ARE THEY NOT MADE BY YOU?>
“Of course not.”
<THEN I WON’T EAT IT>
“Fine, I’ll make some later. Just give it to the neighbours or something.”
<OKAY MASTER>

Chief changed his footwear with a flick and walked to the huge living room. Electrical scraps and numerous pieces of paperwork are littered on one side of the room, mostly held by low coffee tables. The other side was much cleaner, hosting two individuals who liked visiting his abode; even though he was barely here for the last couple of months.

“Welcome back, Chief-san,” a blue-haired girl greeted him from the large main table, pausing her schoolwork before resuming again.
“Hi again, Chief! We haven’t seen ya in quite a bit, where have ya been?” a pink-haired girl cheerfully greeted as well, jumping at a chance to hug him. Chief dodged the incoming pink missile and sat down next to Alice-chan.
“I was away to settle some…company branching. Not too difficult but it took quite some time.” Chief replied while multitasking with the documents Alice-chan handed over.

 

“Oh, new company branches! Can I join this time?” the pink-haired girl was enthusiastic and tried to jump at the chance of a possibly good job. The blue-haired girl was also interested in the conversation but tried to hide her expression.
“No can do, Anemachi-san. The company was merged with another local business so there aren’t really any new spaces. I’ll let you know if we get a new spot available.” Chief regretted immediately. He knows Anemachi’s messy habits and hopes it doesn’t spread to the company like the last branch in Florida, America.
“Don’t worry, Chief. I was just curious so that Suisei could take the job first before me.” Anemachi grinned and hugged the blue-haired girl, who looked slightly uncomfortable with the closeness but just sighed.

“What kind of company is it, Chief-san?” Suisei asked when she observed the Chief not focusing too much on his tasks, making sure it didn’t disturb his work.
“A tech company that got turned into an idol agency recently.” (Chief)
“..?..” Suisei was confused by the answer.
“Hahaha, how does a tech company become an idol agency, Chief? That’s hilarious!” Anemachi laughed at the idea.
“Dunno, ask the CEO that question. I only invested and jumped the wagon to see what he had in store.” (Chief)
“...Why do I feel like you dragged a poor man into a big mess?” Anemachi chuckled weakly.

“Mess? Oh, you have no idea the huge mess he is in.” Chief smiled.

 

=============

=============

 

{Little Segment}

 

“Welcome back, Subaru.”
“Oh shut up, Chief.”

Chief floated above an occupied bed, peering at the Japanese teen below.

Subaru Natsuki got out of the same bed he returned to multiple times, trying to sneak out of the room to avoid the residents of the mansion.

“Left, left, right, left. Done.”
“Dammit, I wanted to remind you this time.”
“Yeah, yeah. Can I have the notebook now?”
“Sure. Let me just [ISOLATE] first.”

Subaru was kneeling on the floor in a small storeroom, scribbling in a messy notebook. He was tired beyond belief but he needed to add the last points in just before he collapsed.

“Shit, give me the sword. Don’t think I forgot about it.”
“Tsk, I was close to adding another one to the collection.”
“Bullshit, you stole so many swords from me when I went crazy.”
“You’re thinking too hard, just take a nap.”
“Fucker!”

Chief looked at his watch, making sure he got the right time.
“You got 3 minutes and 23 seconds left, Toyota.”
“I know, I know. Gosh, I hate that nickname. Just keep an eye on when Rem and Ram come back.”
“Nah.”
Subaru frowned, having to deal with one of the Chief’s antics again.
“Fine, I’ll give you that 2nd dagger nearby.”
“Nope, both daggers will seal the deal.”
“Fuck! Fine! Tell me when there is one minute left. I can probably make it back to bed and doze the rest of the day.”