IT was late in the evening when Mia and the Crow Rangers who had finished work gathered in a family restaurant on the main street. Misaki was on duty, so he wasn’t with them. When Mia and Aya explained Sayoko’s situation to the rest of the group, Shou hummed thoughtfully,
“Hmm, so it’s a lady and the tramp situation, with a long-distance angst twist. Misaki’s living in a melodrama.”
That was when a waitress appeared to take their orders. Mia hurriedly flipped through the menu.
“I’ll have a loin steak and a scallop gratin. Set A, please. With a side of rice.”
“Set C, and omelet rice with demi-glace for me, please.”
Mia was intimidated by how quickly and smoothly Shou and Ren rattled off their orders. While she was staring at the menu in desperation, however, Aya and Subaru finished their orders too. She felt everyone’s eyes converge on her.
She awkwardly peeked out from behind the menu, and inquired timidly, “Um… Excuse me, could you please tell me what a ‘self-service drink area’ is?”
Not only the Rangers, but the waitress, too, widened their eyes comically. Mia realized that she had asked something stupid and dropped her eyes to the table in embarrassment, but Aya spoke to her softly, “See that area over there, with the drink machines? You can pour yourself juice, tea, or any other beverage you want. It’s like a buffet, but for drinks, you know?”
“I see. For just two-hundred yen, it’s very reasonably priced. A-All right, then I will go with a Japanese-style steak and set A.”
“What would you like on the side, rice or bread?”
“Bread?! Er, ah, um, ri-rice, please,” Mia stuttered out shakily.
After that, the waitress confirmed the group’s orders and walked away.
Mia, relieved by the waitress’s departure, let her eyes flit around the restaurant. It was packed, likely because it was dinnertime. Just as Mia was musing about how most people were with their families, which made sense for a family restaurant, she heard someone snickering next to her.
“You really don’t know anything, do you?”
“Hmph. This is my first time coming here. Not knowing how this system works is only natural if one has never been to such an establishment before,” Mia replied grumpily, taking Ren’s words to be a mockery of her ignorance.
She was about to fix him with a glare, but when she looked at his face, instead of his usual wicked grin she found a soft smile. He gently carded his hands through her hair, “Yeah, that’s true. Well, you can start learning about these things now. I’ll take you places.”
“…” Mia’s mouth formed a small O in surprise.
She felt her cheeks grow inexplicably hot, and she started babbling uncontrollably, “Wha-a-ah, er-r, tha—, you don’t ha—, thank—, um, no…”
What was she getting so flustered about? It was all Ren’s fault for smiling at her in such an unusual way! She desperately tried to convince herself that this was only her being surprised at his actions, nothing more. To distract herself, she confirmed how the drink self-service system worked with Shou and Aya and poured herself a cup of grape soda.
“Well now, let’s decide what we’re gonna do, shall we?” Shou breached the topic, taking a big gulp of his melon soda.
“Hmm, well first of all we have to know what Misaki’s feelings on the matter are. If he’s given up, then that’s that,” Aya answered, stirring her iced tea.
“That’s not possible,” Subaru declared resolutely, sipping on his cup of Assam tea. “Today, before coming here, I witnessed Misaki’s bad temper hit a new record. It was so foul even the section chief cowered in fear before him. That man’s oozing bitterness.”
The rest of the gang hummed, resting their chins in their hands.
Eventually, the food came, plates lining up before each member of the group. Mia was brought a steaming Japanese steak and some rice served on a plate. But wasn’t rice supposed to come in a separate bowl? Mia was certain that was the norm.
“There’s rice on my plate!”
“Yep, you’re right,” Ren snorted.
“Hmm, would you look at that,” Aya agreed.
“Why is rice served like that with a Western-style meal? Who first thought of this, even?”
“Isn’t it because it’s easier to eat from a plate with a fork?”
“I think I heard somewhere that it’s because rice isn’t supposed to be served in bowls in Western cuisine.”
After Shou and Subaru shared their expert opinions, everyone dug in. Mia started on her steak, armed with a fork and a knife. She was ashamed to admit it, but she wasn’t very proficient with the cutlery.
The meat was delicious, though. It couldn’t compare to the steak Subaru could cook, but it was nice and moist, juice bursting forth at every bite. The flavors of grated daikon, ponzu and shiso complemented it well, lending it a mild, aromatic sweetness. The only downside was that it was pretty small for its price. Even the roughest estimate said that she could have Subaru make the same thing for about a half of what she had paid here. Mia secretly decided to ask Subaru to make a Japanese-style steak one of these days.
As the amount of food decreased on their plates, Shou brought up the reason they had gathered here again, “First of all, we have very little time. The meeting with her fiancé is scheduled for tomorrow. Subaru’s off duty then, and if there isn’t any extra work or incidents, he could travel to Kyoto, but realistically, that doesn’t sound like a viable option.”
“We don’t know the time or the place of their meeting. Subaru can’t ask Ms. Tougou that, we don’t even have her contact info,” Ren pointed out the fundamental problem, chewing on a piece of his steak.
The meeting would take place all the way in Kyoto, which was quite far from where they lived, and without knowing the place and time, they couldn’t act even if they wanted to. Shou and Aya both heaved a frustrated sigh.
“Hmm, let’s see, if this is the first meeting for an arranged marriage, their parents will probably be there too. Let’s go from there,” Shou declared. Shoving his omelet rice aside, he procured an A4-sized LED tablet from his bag, and started typing away.
Mia was patiently nibbling on some potatoes when Shou pushed the tablet to the middle of the table excitedly, exclaiming, “I think this is them! I tried searching for companies based in Kyoto with a president whose surname is Tougou. I found two on the web. Tougou’s a pretty rare last name. I wonder which one’s our guy?”
Tapping on the LED screen with his finger, he opened the homepages of the companies he mentioned.
Ren touched his hand to his chin. “I think it must be this public stock company. The other one’s a limited liability company, it seems too small-scale. Misaki’s girlfriend is obviously from a very wealthy family. This company’s performance seems great for a middle-sized business, plus it has history.”
“A subcontractor of a famous kimono shop, huh? I see. That explains why her father felt so threatened by the potential bidding war. The market for Japanese clothing is rapidly shrinking. Does that mean that her future husband is supposed to be the owner of that kimono store?” Aya, who was the first to finish her food, cocked her head to the side, bringing her cup of iced tea to her lips.
Shou nodded, swallowed the last piece of his omelet rice, and took out his smartphone. “Well, let’s find out right away!” His face split into a sly grin.
Mia, who was technically taking part in this so-called strategy meeting but didn’t participate in the ongoing conversation, observed Shou’s actions with bemusement. Crow Ranger Yellow squinted at the screen of his tablet and typed a number into his phone, then he put it to his ear. Apparently, he was going to make a call.
“Hello. Excuse me, am I speaking to Mr. Masataka? I’m Yamada of Ito Textile.”