Fate Coiling Sword

Chapter 23: Cafe Trouble

Beta read by Shigiya and Darklord331

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-Fuyuki-

"Damn it, Issei," Shirou Emiya cursed under her breath, once again disappointed by himself and his friend for having agreed to do something like this. “This is too much!”

“D-Don’t blame me for this, Emiya! How was I supposed to know we'd be short-staffed!? Nothing is forever except change!” Said Issei while pushing his glass back up with soapy hands before aggressively cleaning the dirty dishes in the sink. 

“Don't you drop that Buddhist monk wisdom on me, just make sure nothing else breaks! I told you we should have called someone else to help out!” The redhead shouted back, whipping his forehead of sweat with a towel as he handled the wok filled with yakisoba noodles.

“Who would you have even called? Shinji didn't come as I expected and don't you dare bring up Tohsaka’s name or else I'll seriously try to exercise whatever curse she placed on you.”

“... I mean, it wouldn't have hurt to as—wah!” He got hit in the face by a wet towel. 

“I knew it, she did something to your psyche and now you're constantly behind her!”

“Are you sure you don’t have a crush on the girl?” 

Issei gagged, a displeased expression emerging on his face with black lines covering his forehead. “If that were to be true and such a day were to pass… then I give you the permission to seal me away and have my father perform an exorcism upon my tainted mind.” 

“Oi, Tohsaka is not some witch you know?” Shirou did not miss the irony of his words, having mostly said it out of amusement to which his friend scoffed. 

“The world is a strange place, Emiya. You are still too young and naive to see beyond the fog.” 

“...what was that?” 

“Don't know, I heard it on TV and it got stuck in my head.” The bespectacled boy shrugged, getting an eye roll from the redhead. “But still, I should be the one asking you about Tohsaka. She's been popping up rather frequently within our conversation. How worrying… are you certain there are no hidden feelings of love from you instead? Because as your friend I can't let you fall to the dark side so easily.”

“This is the first time I'm bringing her up!” Both boys continued to argue, the handful of students trying their best to stay quiet and blend in with the background. Avoid getting sucked in between the hour-long conflict between these two… while not wanting to be called out as well.

The ‘grand’ animal-themed cafe as it was advertised to him, was one that only had masks rather than a full costume due to budgeting. Did he have the capability to sew such costumes? Of course, he patched up enough of his own clothes to become a master at it. Or just make a copy with his Projection Magecraft, not that he would ever do it, as the risk of them getting damaged, and revealing the secret of magic was too high. The lion mask over his head sufficed. 

Today, he arrived early with Issei already present before the sun had even risen, both prepared to assist his classmates with their issues. Initially, Shirou had no clue what to expect or how much he could contribute, believing that he'd most likely find himself fixing a single coffee machine to work and turning a few screws here and there before having plenty of free time helping the others with the part he actually looked forward to… cooking. Boy, how wrong he turned out to be. Issei mentioned working on setting things up and fixing broken machines, which in hindsight, were repairs that didn't take long for him.