Twenty minutes after the call, Chisato arrived with Kurumi in tow. Kurumi reluctantly picked up the tablet.
“Sorry to bother you this late.”
“Don’t be. This is prime time for me. But I’d like to stress my field is cyberspace. I’m not an electronics technician.”
“Same thing, no?” Chisato waved dismissively.
“That’s like saying driving and repairing a car require the same skill set.” Kurumi shut her up.
“So there’s nothing you can do?” asked Takina.
“I can salvage the data. That’s not a problem. The case is busted on the back and the sides, and the charging port’s done for, but the SSD is fine. Actually, most of the internals are fine. I might be able to fix it… Let’s see…”
Kurumi searched the room. She found an old PC in a closet, got it out, and started taking it apart, probably to cannibalize some pieces of wiring as a temporary replacement. Despite her protests that repairing electronics fell outside her realm of expertise, she’d brought tools all the same. Takina was impressed.
A mere fifteen minutes later, Kurumi managed to power the tablet on. She disabled the security lock in the blink of an eye to verify that the data was intact. Just to be safe, she swiftly copied the data to her laptop.
“All right! Now we just need to wake up Ms. Itou and have put the finishing touches on her manga!”
“Chisato, the sun’s coming up already. There’s not much time left.”
“Gotcha. Ms. Itou…? Wakey, wakey! It’s morning! Your deadline’s, like, right now!”
Chisato lightly slapped Itou on the cheeks, but the artist wasn’t waking up.
“Dang, no response.”
“She’s out cold, eh?”
“Did you hit the back of her head to knock her out, Chisato?”
“No, of course not! You could kill someone if you do that! Ms. Itou! Your deadline! Your deaaadliiine!”
Itou continued to breathe evenly in a deep sleep. Perhaps when she showed up at the café, she’d already been deprived of sleep for many days.
Deciding there was no alternative, Takina grabbed Itou’s feet and pulled her off the bed in one swift move, as if taking off the bed sheet.
“Whoa, Takina! That’s kinda drastic!”
“Drastic times call for drastic measures.”
No matter how deeply someone was sleeping, they’d instinctively wake up when they sensed they were falling, or if there was a pronounced, abrupt change in position.
“Ow… Huh? What time is it…?”
“The sun’s just rising, Ms. Itou. See? It’s morning!”
“…Zzz…”
“It’s no use…”
“You had me come all this way. Don’t tell me it was for nothing.”
“We could try lifting her up overhead and then dropping her back on the floor?”
“Are you trying to kill her?!”
“Got any other ideas?!”
Chisato frowned and folded her arms.
“Argh, fine, last resort! Hold on, guys.”
Chisato got her phone out and made a call.
“Hi, Teach! Yeah, we’re still at Itou’s… Could you please bring us super-extra-strong coffee? Something that’ll wake up the dead! Yeah. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. You will? That’s amazing. Thanks!”
Chisato ended the call and wiped her brow.
“Mission complete!”
“This predicament hasn’t been resolved yet. Is the boss still at the café at this hour?”
“Yeah, well, we’re on a late-night job, so he’s staying up until we finish, I guess?”
Their boss tended to worry too much about them. Rather, he was overprotective. Takina and Chisato had left, prepared to spend the night at Itou’s house. There was no need for Mika to wait for their return at the café.
But Chisato had called, certain that Mika would still be there.
They’re like father and daughter, thought Takina. The child never doubting their parent’s unconditional love… Or maybe Chisato just happened to see Mika at the café when she went to grab Kurumi earlier, and that’s how she knew he was still there.
When considering the facts at hand, there was a perfectly logical explanation for most things.
A little while later, Mika appeared at the door with his special brew in a flask. Right away, Chisato shook Itou to rouse her, and when the artist still seemed barely conscious, Chisato pinched her nose to force her to open her mouth, and she started pouring the coffee in.
“It looks like you’re torturing her,” said Takina.
Mika shot her a hurt look.
“It’s good coffee, I promise,” he said.
“I don’t really think the flavor is the main issue with this picture.”
“Obviously,” muttered Kurumi.
Despite her concerns, Takina too was hoping the coffee might wake Itou up… And before long, Itou’s eyes shot open. It wasn’t the taste of coffee that woke her up, though, but the temperature of the beverage.
“Hot, hot!” she screamed, writhing in pain, fully awake. Her aching mouth was probably full of drool.
What really struck Takina was the chagrined look on Mika’s face, but his pride had to be sacrificed for the greater good.
It was only after the fact that it occurred to Takina they might as well have used hot water instead of coffee.
In any case, Itou was awake, and she went back to her battered tablet to finish her work. The girls told her that she’d dropped the heavy metal model rifle on her tablet, smashing it, and that she passed out from shock. Anything else she thought she remembered was just a dream…
Chisato found a megaphone in a closet. She grabbed it with both hands and began chanting as she walked back and forth.
“Ms. Itou! You can do this! Keep going! Allez, allez! Go, Ms. Itou, go! Allez, allez! Allez, allez!”
Kurumi appeared with another megaphone.
“Wooooo,” she joined in.
They were making a racket, but Itou wasn’t saying anything, so Mika and Takina let Chisato and Kurumi carry on while they sat down quietly at the low table.
“Ugh…! I can’t fail now, after you’ve done so much for me… I have to finish in time… But argh! There’s just not enough time!”
“What time is your deadline, exactly?” Takina asked, looking at the clock. It was already half past nine. It wasn’t unusual for businesses to be open already.
“It was technically last night… But practically speaking, I have until my editor arrives at her desk, which is usually around ten.”
“Late, like a CEO,” remarked Mika.
“No, Teach, that’s totally normal in the publishing industry,” Chisato corrected him.
“Oh, well, sounds like you need me again,” said Kurumi, opening the laptop she brought with her, along with the tools. “How does this editor commute to work?”
“Huh…? She drives… Why do you ask, Kurumi?”
Without answering, Kurumi asked for the editor’s name and phone number. She was typing something very quickly.
“Don’t mind me, keep working… Hmm… Found it. Your editor will have to take the train today.”
Kurumi didn’t say more than that, but Takina guessed she was going to hack into the editor’s car. That sounded far-fetched, but it was probably child’s play for Kurumi.
She had bought Itou a little more time.
“Should I make coffee for everyone?”
“Heading back to the café, Boss?”
“No need. I took this eventuality into account and came prepared with the tools of the trade and freshly ground coffee.”
“You think of everything, Teach!” Chisato cheered.
“With so much support from everyone, I’ve gotta give this my all!”
“Wooooo,” Kurumi cheered, still typing on her laptop.
“This has turned into a top priority mission for Café LycoReco,” remarked Takina.
Everyone from the crew nodded. Kurumi turned away from her screen and looked at them, cocking her head to the side.
“And how much are we getting paid for this?”
Chisato patted her on the head.
“Don’t be greedy. We’re doing this just to help out!”
“We can ask her to buy us lunch at a cheap restaurant,” whispered Mika.
“But…this has snowballed into a high-effort request. Lunch is hardly enough to justify this. Standard Lycoris work would be much more—”
“Yeah, buuut!” Chisato cut Takina off. “Which is more fun?”
No one chose what job to do based on which one was more fun. This much was common sense to Takina. But she did consider Chisato’s question…
“This task required more effort.”
“I’m asking which was more fun!”
“I don’t know.”
“Lies! Just say what you think!”
About an hour later, Itou finished her draft of the manga and sent it off to her editor (who was lamenting her broken car) hot off the presses, so to speak.
The Café LycoReco crew, along with Itou, celebrated this happy conclusion, but everyone was pretty tired. They agreed to let Itou take them out for lunch the next day, and said their good-byes.
Meanwhile, at Café LycoReco, Mizuki was about to start a nightmarish shift, running the café all by herself… But that would be a story for another day.