Boneless Sushi

Oishī was a small Japanese restaurant located in the backlight. It was a family restaurant, Hono was wearing her normal outfit as she waited tables, the restaurant was rather small with just a couple of tables. The lunch rush had ended so the store was completely empty. Avan, her father, was behind some curtains that lead to the kitchen awaiting orders.

Hono was sitting at the bar playing on her phone, she was playing one of those silly idle games. Her father didn't mind as long as there were no customers, but the second that bell chimed Hono had to get back to work. The worst part was Hono was forced to be nice to her customer, her dad hated when she was rude to customers. She just kept tapping away, making more and more fictional money.

The chiming of the bell marked the arrival of a new customer, and with it the end of Hono's moment to put her feet up and not have to make niceties through gritted teeth.
And given who in particular had arrived, taking their headphones from atop their head to rest about their neck, they had reason to have to grit their teeth.

"...huh..." Cecil looked about the place, craning his neck about to find not a soul in sight. "...are the staff in the back...?"

Hono quickly slipped her phone into her pocket. The waitress headed back to the door to greet the customer. She didn't notice who it was at first, she shut her eyes and gave a big fake smile. "Welcome to Oishī! Please have a seat and I'll be right with you!" She quickly bowed. As she came back up she opened her eyes. She finally saw who it was, her smile faded back to her slight frown.

She spoke in a soft voice. "What the hell are YOU doing here?" she said in her normally stern voice. She then thought, she needed to be nice or her dad would be mad. "Anyway..." She cleared her throat and went back to a fake happy voice. "Take a seat and I'll take your order!" She smiled once again, she was definitely uncomfortable with being so nice to someone like Cecil.

"Oh, there's someone..." He waited as the waitress approached, only to realise just who it was he was dealing with. And on top of that...they didn't actually recognise him.
He couldn't really help the little flicker of a smirk that developed as he waited to see if the other shoe would drop.
And drop it did.

Suppressing a snicker as Hono oscillated from annoyance to falsified friendliness, he raises an eyebrow. "I just wanted some Japanese food, Hono, and I heard some decent things about this place. I didn't realise I'd get such a hostile greeting from the wait staff, though..." He'd lowered his voice a little as he spoke, but he wasn't exactly being quiet the way Hono had been. Just quiet enough that he'd only...sort of, be heard outside the room. Not clearly, but enough for someone to catch the false hurt of his tone if they weren't distracted.

"Ah well."

With a shrug, Cecil goes along with the request, plucking out a small booth for himself among the abundance of free seating. He looks over the table, then over the others...hrm. "Can I get a menu?"

Hono grit her teeth a little hearing his little comment. None the less she watched him sit down at the small booth. No matter who sat down Hono had to act happy and serve them, she couldn't disappoint her father. The cadet headed to the cash register, bending down and pulling out one menu for him, quickly Hono walked to the booth sliding a menu onto the table. It had various Teppanyaki dishes, meats, rice vegetables, sushi, that kinda thing.

Hono headed behind the bar and poured Cecil a glass of water, even putting a staw into it. The waitress headed back to him and placed the glass down. Hono then pulled a small notepad and pen out of her pocket, as she flipped to an empty page she clicked the pen and spoke. "Do you want anything else to drink? And do you have any questions about the menu?" she said looking at the customer then back at her notepad. Hono just hoped he wouldn't intentionally make things hard for her. "If you need more time to look just let me know,"

Cecil nodded as Hono set the menu down, and started flicking through the menu. Honestly, there was a decent selection here - though of course, if it was any good was another matter.

He looked up again as the glass was set down, the - he had to be honest, fairly abrasive - pink haired girl waiting on his response. "Just the one question right now. How's the ikayaki prepared here?"

Hono, in general, was abrasive. She listened to Cecil's order. "we grill it, then spice it up and then cover it with special sauce, and you'll get soup or salad and rice," she said tapping the pen against her paper as she explained it.

Hono then shouted at the kitchen, in a mix of what appeared to be German and Japanese. It was something along the lines of telling her father to get the stove ready. "I'm gonna guess you want that?" She asks returning to English, raising an eyebrow at her customer. she got her pen and got ready to write.

The blond gives a small nod, seeming interested. "Sounds good. It's fine plain and all, but it feels like a waste after some of the culinary magic I've seen worked." And they made a full course of it too, it seemed. It was always 50/50 whether this was a side or not, in his experience.

"Yep. Some lemonade would be nice, as well."
He was content to wait from there as Hono put the order in, taking in the atmosphere. The place was still relatively quiet, some stray passersby peering in from outside but never quite opening the door. "...I have to be honest, I'm surprised you work a job like this. Would have figured it the sort of work you'd rather stay far away from."

Hono began writing it down on her notepad. "Ikayaki...." She glared at Cecil then back at the notepad. "And you're getting soup." She said not even letting him decide between soup or salad. "Lemonade..." she said to her self as she wrote it all down.

He commented on her choice of work. She rolled her eyes. "What kind of work do you expect me to do?!" She asks raising an eyebrow pointing the pen at him. "Is it really a surprise that I'm helping my dad?" She said.

"Can't say I really know, but I'm pretty sure you'd rather not have to pretend you actually like me, no? And I didn't do anything that crazy. Meanwhile, people get practically abusive with the wait staff, and you still have to act like it's a pleasure. So...forgive me for thinking you'd rather not have anything to do with that." He takes a sip of his water, and raises an eyebrow. "I didn't know this was your dad's place. It explains why you'd be willing. I just get the impression that you wouldn't be doing this if this place wasn't run by family."

He gives her a small smile. "It's nice that you're willing to do that. There's a lot of people that'd have to be forced, even if it was their parents they'd be helping."

Since Cecil was being so blunt and honest Hono decided to be the same way. "Acting is kinda my thing dumbass" she chuckled a bit walking behind her sushi bar. She said that in a nice tone for once. Hono seemed really relaxed working. She peeked behind the curtains and handed the slip of paper. Her pink hair soon appeared back behind the bar. She got a glass and poured some pink lemonade into it. She listened to him talk. "If someone's abusive with me..." She smirks, "you know how I am" Cecil's waitress sat his drink on the table.

"Yep. My dad runs and cooks the food," she told him. "Hell no, I wouldn't be here if my old man didn't run it," she admitted. "My family is... the most important thing to me. So I would do anything for them, you know?" she asks. Now that the food was being cooked Hono leaned against the table as she made small talk with Cecil.

Cecil snickered at the reply. "Alright, fair, fair!" He drains the remaining water as the - pink? Not quite what he meant, but alright - lemonade was placed down. "At least it's just your dad you have to answer to when that happens - he'll probably be more sympathetic. I can think of someone I know who had their pay docked for not grinning and bearing it when someone decided the waitress was on the menu."
He smiled along, but there was a biting edge to the words as he recounted what he'd been told.
He did not seem pleased.

Clearing his throat, he moved on. "But, yeah. I get that. Family should look after each other." Should, but not always did.

Hono listened to Cecil some more. "I guess you're right. My dad is a good boss." She told Cecil with a soft smile. Hono peeked into the kitchen to check how her dad's cooking was going. It was almost done, but it would take a couple more minutes. Hono returned to the main area of the restaurant.  

"You're right. I became a cadet so I can protect them from those terrorist" she said clenching her fist. "And I'll be damned if anything happens to them!" She said angrily. "S-Sorry-" she headed into the kitchen and soon walked up towards Cecil's table holding the food he ordered in her hand. She placed it on the table.

Cecil gave Hono a quizzical look at the outburst. "Uh...that...came out of nowhere?" He looked about, a little taken aback. "It's kind of unethical business practice but - I don't think running a restaurant like that is terrorism."
He stays silent a moment, not really sure what to say, and just starts sipping at his lemonade until Hono returns with the food. "Thanks."

The conversation stalls for a while as the blond eats his meal in silence. It was good food, no doubt about that, and it made for a nice little diversion for a while.
A cadet, huh? They really took all sorts into their ranks, didn't they?
"...what's being a Cadet like?" He wouldn't have known prior to the outburst, but now he did, he may as well see what she thought. She was probably a new member if he had to guess, but if anything that meant a fresher impression of what she'd seen so far. "Done anything important yet?"

Hono chuckled. "I didn't mean the other restaurant owners are terrorist..." She sighed. "Nevermind" She gave him some space allowing him to eat his food. She went back behind the bar and cleaned a couple of glasses. She watched him from afar to see if she could figure out how he liked the food.

Hono then heard a question escape from the customer. She looked up from washing the glasses and set them to the side. Walking back over to the table. "It's fine so far," she gave a brief and quick answer. "No, I haven't been on a mission yet..." She rubbed her neck, a bit embarrassed by the statement. "How's the food?" she asks looking at the squid then back at Cecil.