Takina was crazy. It took only a few months after she started working at Café LycoReco for the rest of the crew to accept that as a fact.
They had a system at the café where the members took turns preparing staff lunches. Everyone dreaded Takina’s turn.
As should go without saying, Mika could quickly whip up a proper lunch for everyone, and you could bank on it being delicious.
Chisato liked challenges and entertainment. She’d try her hand at cooking some foreign dish for the first time or prepare party food, turning the lunch break into an event. She was a good cook, though, and she made the meals fun.
The food Mizuki served would go well with booze, or she’d make something using ingredients that could double up as beer snacks. Any leftovers—and there always were leftovers since she would purposely buy too much of the ingredients with Mika’s money—she’d claim for herself and enjoy later when she was drinking. Mika disregarded it. At least Mizuki had the decency to put effort into cooking, so the lunches she made were pretty good.
As the youngest of the bunch, Kurumi didn’t have much experience with cooking, but her preference probably also played a part in her choice of frozen meals and junk food for the shared staff lunches. Apart from Mika, everyone was happy with whatever Kurumi brought for them, though.
Takina, on the other hand, was terrible news.
It was her turn that day. She came in carrying food for her coworkers. There were no customers then, so the staff sat down in the tatami area to have a meal. But then they saw what Takina was carrying.
“Er, Takina…,” said Chisato. “What exactly is this?”
“Today’s staff lunch. Let’s hurry up and finish before we get more customers,” Takina replied matter-of-factly.
“This…is our lunch…?”
Chisato peered at the items Takina set out in front of the five of them—semitransparent cups with lids containing what appeared to be milkshakes.
Mizuki picked up her cup and shook it. A cloudy white liquid sloshed around inside.
“What is this…?”
“A protein shake. Banana flavor.”
Chisato, Mika, Kurumi, and Mizuki stared at the shakes, crestfallen. Takina frowned.
“They’re very good quality, made in Japan… Would you have preferred chocolate flavor instead?”
Mika pushed his glasses higher on his nose, trying to assume a neutral expression.
“No, Takina, that’s not the problem. What we’d prefer is…something recognizable as a meal. As a lunch… How should I put this…?”
Mika tried to be delicate, but unable to find a delicate way to explain the matter to Takina, he decided to let it go. He picked up his cup, shook it, and sipped some.
“At first, I thought it was pancake mix,” said Kurumi. “I thought you would have us make our own pancakes, adding fruit and toppings we liked. I should’ve known better…”
She also started drinking the shake in big gulps. She seemed to be okay with the flavor.
“I’m curious, Takina,” said Chisato, getting started with her shake. “Why did you decide to go with protein shakes today?”
The protein shake was better than the ones Chisato had tried before. It didn’t have an unpleasant artificial flavor.
“It’s the optimal nourishment to ingest while at work. Not only is it quick to prepare, but it also has a well-balanced nutritional profile… Oh, we have a customer.”
The bell at the door rang, announcing someone’s arrival. Takina got up and went to serve them while the others stayed at the table, dejectedly staring at the shakes.
“She didn’t make lunch for us to eat. She brought nourishment,” Kurumi complained, as if she were waiting for someone to do something about their predicament.
The previous meal Takina had served them was about-to-expire instant food they’d been keeping for emergencies. They didn’t complain then. Chisato thought it made perfect sense, and the others also agreed it was better to use that food up than let it go to waste.
Before that, Takina had served up leftover curry that Chisato had made a copious amount of the day before. Again, it was better for the curry to get used up than go to waste.
But before the curry, the lunch Takina made was really nice. It had included rice, boiled taro, daikon-green furikake that Takina made herself, pickles, miso soup, silken tofu with toppings, and boiled hijiki seaweed. Chisato remembered it well because it was a lunch to which she’d given a five-star rating.
When she mentioned that single great lunch by Takina to the others, Mika looked at her as if she’d just solved the case.
“I could, of course, be wrong…but it seems Takina is simply doing her best to follow instructions.”
“What instructions, Teach?”
“Don’t you remember what happened after lunch that day? Mizuki, at least, should remember. She had a go at Takina.”
“Ah, that’s right. It was a hectic day, and Takina just disappeared into the kitchen for, like, hours! I did tell her off for that, sure. I told her not to waste so much time making food for us. Serving customers was more important, so she had to be more efficient.”
Kurumi stared blankly at Mizuki. Then her eyes narrowed in anger.
“And since then, she’s been feeding us whatever was the quickest to make… You brought this disaster upon us, Mizuki!”
“How was I wrong?! She was boiling frigging taro in the café kitchen! While customers were pouring in! Is that somehow acceptable to you?!”
Chisato shook her shake. Splish-splash.
“You know how Takina is… What do we do?”
“Do we need to do anything?”
“You’re awfully relaxed about this, Mika!” Kurumi snapped. “Of course something has to be done. Our quality of life is at stake!”
Nobody disagreed.
Mizuki sniffed her shake but didn’t drink it.
“Easy to say, but do you have any suggestions?” she asked.
Chisato got thinking. Takina didn’t know how to cut corners. She was a perfectionist with a rigid mindset. She could either cook an elaborate meal or serve up protein shakes. It was all black-and-white to her.
Imagining a future where they’d be given protein shakes every time it was Takina’s turn to make lunch was painful… Chisato would have preferred the sort of food Takina had made the first time, even if it meant they were left short-staffed while Takina cooked. Still, Takina wasn’t assertive enough to do that after being told by Mizuki that she was inconveniencing them all by taking too long in the kitchen.
Mika folded his arms.
“We should have made it clear to Takina what qualified as an acceptable staff lunch.”
“Hmm… Yeah, give her guidelines to follow…”
They tried to develop such guidelines, but it was surprisingly difficult. There was no single answer that would work every time. For example, toast with eggs and bacon made a perfectly good breakfast, but then they imagined having it several days in a row. It wouldn’t take long before they would be sick of it.
If the requirement was that lunches had to be varied, be quick to make and eat, and taste good, protein shakes would still fit the bill. Nobody besides Takina would be content with that, though.
Coming up with menus was surprisingly hard.
“What are you doing? The customers are placing orders. Please get back to work,” Takina called.
They downed the rest of their protein shakes and stood up.
Ding-a-ling!
The bell rang again as someone else walked past. Chisato looked over toward the door. It was Mr. Doi. Perfect timing! He could help teach Takina what sort of food made people happy, and spending some fun time together would help bring them closer. This was just what Takina needed!
Chisato headed right over to Mr. Doi.
“Mr. Doi! Mr. Doi! Welcome! Um, before I take your order… Have you had lunch yet? No?! If you haven’t, then, well, how about, um, we go for lunch together? Let’s do this! Let’s go out for lunch! Taaakinaaa! Get changed. We’re going out with Mr. Doi!”
Not giving Takina any choice in this matter, Chisato dragged her out for an impromptu date with Mr. Doi, who looked flustered but never refused to go out with the girls. A nice guy, Chisato thought, but maybe he went along with them because he was interested in Takina.
A sushi place Mr. Doi frequented offered whatever the staff was having that day for lunch as a set meal to customers, too, so they headed there.
It was a tiny restaurant with only two tables and counter seats. At night, they really put the bar in sushi bar by serving alcohol, too. The setting was informal, with the sushi chef casually dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. He manned the counter while preparing fish purchased that morning for serving later in the day.
“We’ve already had lunch,” Takina protested to Chisato.
“We did, and I’m sure it had the optimal nutritional profile like you said, but it didn’t have enough calories! It also didn’t feel particularly satisfying!”
“It meets our energy needs. If we eat more, we’ll put on weight.”
“Hold on… You’re not assuming the day will end as normal, are you? We might suddenly find ourselves in a situation that will push us to our physical limits! If our bodies didn’t have enough fuel for that, it wouldn’t end well, right?”
At DA, the grown-ups carefully planned and prepared, streamlining every operation for the Lycoris. For example, a Lycoris’s job might be limited to quickly firing a shot at the target while passing them by in town without even lifting her eyes off her smartphone. A specialized team would take care of the cleanup.
Things were different at Café LycoReco. They never knew when they might get an urgent assignment requiring the use of firearms, so there was precious little time for planning. The prep stage usually consisted of the girls grabbing their equipment. They had to improvise, which often involved a lot of running around and even direct combat. Any extra calories they consumed during the day might come in handy.
“If nothing much happens, and at the end of the day, you’re worried about putting on weight, just do some exercises before going to sleep!”
“I suppose… what you’re saying makes sense, but…”
“If you don’t want to exercise alone, we can do it together!”
“I’ll do it alone.”
“Aw, don’t be like that!”
Until then, Mr. Doi had been silent while they waited for their food, but after listening to the girls, he got worried.
“Do you have something athletic planned after this? I’m afraid I haven’t brought my sneakers today.”
“Oh, it’s okay, Mr. Doi! We won’t be doing anything sporty together. Today’s all about having Takina eat a delicious lunch… Actually, I’ve been wondering what you usually have for lunch, Mr. Doi! Do you come here often?”
“Not too often, but yes… You promise no exercise for me after this?”