Zenless Zone Zero: The Front Line

Chapter 2: The Business

It had been a long time since Shion had ever been able to sleep in on a consistent basis. Of course, if he didn't set his alarm, his body would naturally wake him up by 8am. So it caught him by surprise when he was woken up by the light ringing of the bell at the front door of the shop.

The store always opens promptly at 9am.

"You're up late, Shion. Vinny's gonna say something." Manami said when he noticed that Shion was waking up. Shion lifted his head up with a grunt and rubbed the sleepiness out of his eyes.

"You could've woke me up, y'know." He pointed out in a grumbling voice.

"Yeah but you're not scheduled to work today so I figured-"

"It's fine. I need something to do today anyways." Shion said as he got out of bed and pushed himself to his feet.

"You're not gonna rest?" Manami asked, surprised to see Shion pushing himself so soon after his encounter with Ethereals last night.

"I've already gotten plenty." Shion said in reply. He promptly threw on a shirt before urgently making his way downstairs to greet Vinny.

Vincent Laxey, or 'Mr. Vinny' as everyone knew him, was the proud owner of the Phoenix Flower shop on the corner of First and Third Street. What Mr. Vinny lacked in variety he made up for in excellent horticulture; it surprised Shion the first time he saw his handcrafted artsy garden.

As Shion made his way down the stairs that led into the front lobby of the shop he was surprised to see that there was already a customer inside. He paused awkwardly for a moment. Thankfully, Mr. Vinny was there to keep things professional.

"Look who finally decided to return to the land of the living. Ueno, get yourself something to eat, alright? We got some stuff to talk about." He directed Shion. Even after all this time, he still habitually referred to Shion by his last name.

"Got it. Sorry." Shion nodded and offered a quick apology to the present a customer, a young man with blue hair, for appearing suddenly and less than decently.

"Oh haha it's okay. I've done it too at my own store." He said with a chuckle.

"Yeah. This fine gentleman here's name is Wise; he says he runs his own video rental store. I'll take that over the theater any day." Mr. Vinny said with a laugh.

"Oh yeah? That's cool. Are you planning on getting some flowers to decorate the store?" Shion asked curiously.

"That's the plan anyway. My sister wants something at least to decorate the counter with. Word on the street is that this is the place to go to for well-cared-for individual flowers." Wise explained, folding one arm in front of the other and pressing his thumb and pointer finger against his chin.

"That's right! Here at Phoenix Flowers, we offer custom decorated flowers!" Mr. Vinny declared proudly.

"Custom decorated flowers? What does that mean?" Wise asked curiously.

"We use carefully extracted etheric material to modify the growth and the petals. It's harmless to the flower and to you, of course, but it'll make your plants pop in a way that wouldn't be possible otherwise. And they last longer too!" Mr. Vinny explained.

"I can bring one out if you'd like to see." Shion offered, falling into step with Mr. Vinny's sales pitch.

After showing off their product to their customer, Wise decided that he would most likely come back with his sister to decide on a design for a custom flower for their shop counter. Wise also left a free trial voucher card for his video store before leaving.

"Thanks for jumping in there, Ueno. I had a good feeling about this guy." Mr. Vinny thanked him with an approving nod.

"Think he'll become a regular?" Shion asked curiously as he made his way to the back area where the kitchen was. Mr. Vinny followed right behind him so they could talk privately.