Rowan walked through the streets of Tokyo, exploring the city, seeing the sights, and—most importantly—looking around for a quiet little restaurant where his peerage candidates worked as waitresses. Which, of course, was a front for the real business. But, you know—semantics.
Then finally, he found it: Café LycoReco.
He walked in and sat at a table. The other patrons looked at him like he was an oddity. Most of them were older and average-looking, while he was young and handsome—he stood out. Unsurprisingly, this put the staff a bit on edge, especially because Rowan moved and carried himself like a trained professional.
Behind the counter stood a tall man with long black hair braided in the back. He had a goatee and wore square, green-rimmed glasses over his brown eyes. His skin was dark, and he wore a purple kimono with black combat boots. This man was the boss, Mika, and he stared at Rowan suspiciously.
There was only one thought in Mika's mind: No way this kid's a normal person.
Mika kept an eye on Rowan, though not obviously—yet Rowan noticed the moment he walked in. Not that Mika needed to know that.
Rowan went through the menu until one of the waitresses walked up to take his order.
The waitress in question was Takina Inoue, a 16-year-old girl with long black hair tied into two twin tails. She wore a cerulean-blue samue. Calm and serious, she approached with a narrow gaze, subtly ready for combat should Rowan try anything.
"May I take your order, sir?" she said politely.
Oh, so Takina's already here. That speeds things up a bit, Rowan thought to himself. I can sense three more presences besides her and Mika. That means the hacker chick's already here too, which means we're already a good ways into the events of the series.
Rowan pretended to look at the menu for another second, then said, "Yes. I'll have some dumplings and some coffee." He handed her the menu.
She nodded. "Perfect. That'll be out in just a few moments."
Rowan smiled. "Take your time. I'm in no hurry."
Not long after, she returned with the dumplings and the coffee. Rowan enjoyed his food—it was pretty good, though not anything special. Then again, thanks to his skill, his cooking was at a level normal people couldn't reach. Maybe his taste buds had been ruined after all.
From what he heard from Sora, the skill was based on the cooking style of The Master from Restaurant to Another World. And while not as crazy as the monster chefs from Food Wars, the Master's skills were still legendary.
Rowan got up from his chair, and immediately Mika and Takina were on guard again.
Damn. Do I look that suspicious? Rowan thought.
He smiled, approached the counter, and paid for his food.
Mika looked at him and asked, "Did you enjoy yourself, sir?"
"I did," Rowan said. "Though I do have a suggestion."
Mika raised an eyebrow. "Oh? And what's that?"
"Have you ever considered putting curry on the menu? The rich spiciness might go well with the bitter coffee."
Mika looked at him strangely. "Curry and coffee? That's an odd combination."
Rowan shrugged. "You'd be surprised. They actually go pretty well together."
Sometimes Rowan wished he'd ended up in Persona instead. Oh well, maybe next time.
Then, from beside him, he heard a cheerful voice say, "Huh, that might actually be an interesting combo. Maybe we should give that a try, Boss."
Rowan looked to his left and saw a young girl with medium-length blonde hair in a bob cut, a crimson ribbon tied to the left side of her head, and red eyes. She wore a red samue and had a bright, cheerful smile on her face.
This girl was Chisato, the other main protagonist of Lycoris Recoil—and just like the rest of the staff, she was on guard against Rowan. She was just better at hiding it.
Rowan noticed Takina standing further behind, cleaning a table. But she didn't take her eyes off him.
He also noticed that the rest of the customers had left.
Then, Chisato, still smiling, said, "Look, let's be real. You aren't like the usual customers we get through here. Do you need something specific, sir?" Her voice was sweet, but her tone was sharp.
Rowan smiled. "Actually, yes. I do need something specific."
Mika looked at him. "And what's that?"
"Information," Rowan replied. "I'm looking for some specific people. You can think of them as religious nutjobs."
"And what did these religious nutjobs do?" Mika asked.
"The usual—murder, human trafficking, the works. Since I was in the area anyway, I was asked to deal with them. But they're a bit harder to track down than I thought."
Rowan wasn't lying. When he'd told Rias and Sona he'd be making trips to Tokyo over the next month, they didn't stop him. Instead, they gave him work. Apparently, they'd heard that some fallen angels and rogue exorcists were active in Tokyo. Since Rowan was already going, they asked him to deal with them.
He would've taken care of it immediately, but Tokyo was a massive city. Even finding supernatural targets took more time than he'd like.
Times like this make me wish I asked Nikolai to help me learn some sensory-based abilities, he thought. Oh well. I'll pick those up later.
He was brought out of his thoughts when Mika asked, "You got a description for these guys?"
"Unfortunately, no," Rowan said. "The people I work for didn't have one. They just said some suspicious former members of the Catholic Church are active here and they're up to all kinds of shit—anything from killing to forcibly recruiting people."
Mika thought, Why the hell haven't I heard anything about that?
He said aloud, "Anything else we should know?"
"Yes," Rowan replied. "If you manage to find them—do not engage. They are highly dangerous."
Mika said, "We've dealt with dangerous before, sir."
"Not like this, you haven't," Rowan replied.
"All right. I'll keep that in mind," Mika said.
Then, from next to him, Chisato smiled and said cheerfully, "Don't worry, we can handle ourselves."
Takina, from behind, added flatly, "I don't think we would have been warned if these people were to be taken lightly."
"Yeah, definitely don't take them lightly," Rowan said. "That would probably be the worst thing you could do. If you see them, call me at this number." He handed Mika a business card. "I'll be by every now and then to check in."
Mika said, "That's all well and good, but this ain't a charity."
"Yeah, yeah. I know the drill," Rowan said and handed Mika a briefcase with 250 grand in it.
Before Rowan could even say anything, Mika snatched the case and stowed it under the counter. "Pleasure doing business with you, sir," he said, straight-faced.
Rowan chuckled lightly. "Pleasure doing business with you."
Then he got up and walked out.
Once Rowan was down the street, Mika looked at Chisato and Takina. "Follow him. But don't let him catch you."
"You think he's up to something?" Chisato asked.
"I'm not sure. But I don't think he told us everything," Mika replied. "Follow him and see if you spot anything out of the ordinary."
"Got it," they said. The girls quickly changed into their DA uniforms, prepared their weapons, and followed Rowan.
Meanwhile, as Rowan walked down the street, Sora appeared next to him and said, "You know they probably think you're suspicious as hell, right?"
"Oh, without a doubt," Rowan replied. "Problem with being properly trained is, I'm not yet experienced enough to hide it from professionals. They knew I was dangerous the moment I walked in. But they were terrible at hiding that they knew."
As they walked, Sora asked, "By the way, I've been meaning to ask you for a while now—where the hell do you keep getting all this money?"
Rowan smiled. "Discarded I may be, but I'm still a noble. And for devils, money's not really an object. My wealth would be a drop in the bucket to the main family—but I'm still obscenely wealthy. Inheritance from my parents and all that. I'm just surprised the main family let me keep any of it, but whatever."
Then, as they walked, Rowan said, "Oh—they're already following us. Get out of sight, Sora."
"Yeah, yeah," she said and vanished.
Rowan found a nice secluded park, bought three drinks, and sat down on a bench. Then he shouted:
"I know you're there."
From the brush came Chisato and Takina.
"How... I was certain we were well hidden from you," Takina said.
Rowan held up a finger. "First, you were all very terrible at hiding how suspicious you were of me. Second, I'd have been insulted if you hadn't followed me. And third, the two of you stick out like sore thumbs. Once you've seen two people as uniquely beautiful as you two, you tend to remember."
Takina blushed. Chisato clapped her hands together with a smile. "Aww, you mean it?"
---
System Notification:
Takina Affection: +5
Chisato Affection: +3
Takina Relationship: Potential Enemy
Harsh, Rowan thought.
Chisato Relationship: Suspicious Stranger
That one isn't much better, he sighed internally.
Why did Takina's go up faster? Rowan wondered.
Sora (in his mind): It's 'cause of your title: Nekomancer.
I thought that only worked on catgirls, Rowan replied mentally.
Sora: It also works on people with aloof personalities.
Oh. Okay, Rowan thought.
"Can I offer you ladies a drink while we talk?" he said, holding up two cans of juice.
Chisato immediately took hers. Takina took hers after a moment's hesitation. They sat down and started drinking.
"Oh, and before I forget again—my name is Rowan Bael. Nice to meet you, ladies," Rowan said with a casual smile.
"I'm Chisato Nishikigi,Good to meet you," replied Chisato, her tone cheerful as ever.
"And I'm Takina Inoue, A pleasure," said Takina politely, offering a small nod.
"So, why are you following me?" Rowan asked. "I'm guessing your boss ordered you to."
Chisato replied, "Can you really blame us? You're pretty suspicious. And the job you gave us might even be fake."
Rowan raised a brow. "Why the hell would I give you a quarter of a million dollars for a fake job?"
She shrugged. "Weirder things have happened."
Rowan thought about their anime for a second. She's not wrong.
"All right, you want the truth?" he said. "I'm actually a devil, and I'm here in town on a mission to kill some rogue exorcists and fallen angels."
The girls gave him a deadpan expression.
"If you don't want to tell us, just say that," Takina said flatly. "But don't make fun of us."
"Or maybe I told you the truth because the truth is so unbelievable you wouldn't believe it even if I told it to you," Rowan countered.
Chisato laughed. "Okay, Mr. Devil. It's clear you don't want to tell us what you're really doing, so we're just gonna call this mission failed and head back... unless you want to have a shootout," she said with a cheeky grin.
"Nah, I'm good. See you next time," Rowan said.
The girls turned to leave, but Chisato looked back and said, "Oh! By the way, we—"
But when she turned around, there was no one there. Just an empty juice can on the bench.
"Whoa. I've never seen that happen in real life," she said. "You think maybe he can teach me?"
Takina facepalmed. "He's probably our enemy."
Chisato shrugged. "Doesn't hurt to ask."
As they walked back to the café—
---
System Notification:
Chisato Affection: +4
---
Huh? How the hell'd that happen? Rowan wondered.