For the moment, they agreed Hymeria would work at the café as a trainee. Once she was sufficiently ready to take over, Taichi would set off with Luke to the neighboring nation.
“Oh, right. She’s going to need an apron,” Taichi said to himself. Fluffy Café had no set uniform, which made the apron integral to indicating who was staff. “I’ll make one for her and an extra, just in case. All right, Create!” Taichi fashioned five dark green aprons, complete with the Fluffy Café logo on them.
By the time he finished, Hymeria had arrived.
“Good morning! Thanks for coming,” he told her.
“Morning,” Hymeria greeted in turn. “I’m excited for today! I’m happy I get to work surrounded by a bunch of cute, fluffy animals!”
Taichi nodded and held out her apron for her. “Make sure you wear this when you’re working.”
“Ooh! How cute! Now I’m officially a member of the Fluffy Café! You won’t be disappointed.”
One of the Berry Bunnies hopped over. Taichi scooped them up and told them, “Hymeria will be joining us starting today.”
“Kree!”
“Yay!” cheered the three Cerberus heads in unison.
Hymeria eyes filled with emotion seeing the animals come to greet her. She was more motivated than ever to give this her full effort.
“All right, let’s get started with your training, then.”
“Yeah!”
✦ ✦ ✦
The first order of business in the mornings was to check on the health of the monsters, which involved talking to them and making sure none were ill.
“How should I go about doing that?” asked Hymeria.
“There’s no specific way. You can pet them or hold them. Just watch how they act.” Taichi patted the bunny he was holding on the head.
“Kree,” the bunny cried gleefully.
“If they are feeling under the weather, they won’t seem like their usual upbeat selves. Make sense? If everything seems normal, I would assume they’re okay,” said Taichi.
She nodded. “Yep, makes sense to me. Monsters are pretty strong, so it’s probably pretty rare for one of them to feel unwell.” She kneeled to grab a Berry Bunny that had wandered close. Petting it, she asked, “Are you feeling all right, little one?” The bunny ate up the affection. “Seems fine to me!”
“Then our next order of business is washing them.” He motioned to the monsters and said, “Come on, everyone.” He spoke first to the bunnies but then called for Luke and the Cerberus to join them as well. Together, their group moved toward the back door.
Hymeria was surprised; she hadn’t been anticipating bath time so suddenly.
“We wouldn’t want them to stink when they have customers touching them,” Taichi explained. “Generally, I wash them once a month. If one of them starts to smell funky, I’ll do it sooner.”
“Makes sense.”
“To be clear, I don’t think you’ll need to clean them while I’m gone, but I want you to know how just in case any of them get dirty. Like if they get poop stuck in their fur or a drink spilled on them.” He explained when she would need to use shampoo on them as they stepped into the rear garden, where the shed that contained their bath was located.
“Oh, so this is how it looks behind the café.” Hymeria paused to take it all in.
“Yep. It’s large enough they can exercise too. Pretty nice, isn’t it?” They hadn’t really used the rear garden much for exercise, though. The bunnies didn’t really need it and preferred to spend their time inside the café, and Luke’s definition of exercise far exceeded what the rear garden could provide. The Cerberus preferred to play with Taichi or the bunnies over running around by himself outside. I’m sure I’ll eventually add a monster who will appreciate this garden.
He cracked open the door to the shed, which led into the changing area. “There are plenty of towels in here, so use them as needed.”
“Sure, but I have to say, I thought you would use the well to wash them.” She was scrunching her face, confused as to what this shed was supposed to be—or how it worked.
“Oh, this is a bath,” said Taichi. He opened the door leading further in, and Hymeria’s eyes went wide as she saw the interior. There was a tub large enough for a person and a much smaller one beside it for the monsters to use.
“Huh?! Why is there a bath here? And you even have a separate one for your monsters?!” Hymeria’s voice hitched with surprise. She stared at the bath in disbelief. Beneath her breath she muttered, “There aren’t many places where you can find something this fancy.”
“Hymeria?” Taichi spoke her name questioningly, unable to hear whatever she was saying.
“Oh, it’s nothing! I was thinking this place is incredible.”
“Oh, yeah? This here is the faucet. Turning it will make warm water flow through the spout, which is how you fill the bath.”
She froze. “Huh? Warm water comes out? So you don’t...get water from the well yourself?”
“Uh, nope. Um...” Taichi was inwardly panicking as he realized how unusual this bathroom must be if she was asking that. “This kinda technology exists where I come from, so I used it to make this bathroom! I’m out of the special parts, though, so I can’t make any more.”
“Oh, um, I see.”
This bathroom worked the same as the one he’d had in Japan. She wasn’t likely to have any problem using it. On the other hand, it was probably best not to discuss the matter any further, since he’d only be digging his own grave.
Once the warm water had sufficiently filled the human-sized tub, Luke said, “It’s time,” and dove in. He was too large to fit into the smaller one. After realizing that first day how wonderful it felt to be in a warm bath, he basically joined Taichi every single time Taichi got in, which was usually once every day.
“Luke’s such a good boy, getting in by himself,” said Hymeria.
“The others will do the same. See? They’re doing it now.”
“Kree.”
“Kree!”
“Yeah, we do!”
“It feels so nice...”
“Aren’t you gonna join us, Taichi?”
The last three voices belonged to the Cerberus heads. At Taichi’s prompting, they and the Berry Bunnies had hopped into their small tub.
“Wow,” said Hymeria. “What good babies!”
“Yep, but it’s our job to wash them up,” said Taichi.
“I’ll try my best!”
Taichi grabbed his bar of soap and began lathering up the bunnies one by one. Since it felt nice, they obediently let him. Ahh, now this is true happiness, he thought.
“Eep!” Hymeria cried.
Taichi was shocked out of the daze he’d fallen in. “Hymeria?” He twisted around to see what was happening.
Cerberus was drenched like a wet rat. One of the heads cried, “My beautiful fur’s gone flat!”
“Oh, that’s what’s going on. Yeah, normally their hair is fluffy and dense. Probably surprised them, getting all wet like this.”
Hymeria sniffled, tears in her eyes. The Cerberus’s devastated reaction had unnerved her.
“It’s okay. Once we’re done, we’ll dry them, and they’ll be back to their usual energetic selves.”
“R-right,” Hymeria agreed with a stiff nod, trying to encourage herself. “Yeah. I need to hang in there!”
After everyone left the bath, Taichi brought in towels to begin wiping them down, moving with practiced efficiency. After watching him, Hymeria hesitated a moment before holding out her hand toward the Berry Bunnies. “If we’re going to dry them, my magic might be more convenient. Gentle Wind!” Warm wind buffeted the animals, drying their fur in seconds.
“Ooh! Amazing! You mages are something else.”
“Hee hee!” Hymeria giggled bashfully, pleased to have been helpful.
Man, I envy her. I only have Tamer skills. Wish I could do stuff like that. If he was going to hire someone on permanently in the future, a mage might be best.
Hymeria was a quick learner, picking up everything Taichi imparted with little difficulty. Before he knew it, she was trained enough to handle everything on her own.