Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Where We Come From

Identity

Now that poor Meiko had her nourishment finally brought to her she could finally dig right into it. There was something odd to be found in the manner in which the armored girl ate. She wasn't one of those brutal devouring monsters that just made food disappear in the most beastly manners imaginable, Meiko was much more sophisticated than that. She ate every piece of meat gently, just like a normal person would. She used utensils and all that, never let any of the sauce drip to the side. That being said, she still ate literally everything that was brought, while watching her eat was somewhat pleasing and elegant, she still took double time doing it. At that point, the magician started wondering if her eating like a monster wouldn't have been better...

At some point even observing her friend display all of her elegance and manners at making food disappear got boring, there were only so many thirty minute intervals one could've spent watching someone eat and so the magician found her gaze wandering through the restaurant hoping to find something interesting enough to occupy her attention. It appeared that Shimo was doing the same. It was awkward how little two friends separated for years had to talk about. The several attempts of Mana's to find out more in-depth about his trip were quickly shot down by Shimo changing the subject making the girl believe that he just didn't trust her enough.

There was always that crushing moment when one realized that the person one thought of as one of their best friends had stories and other friends they didn't trust one with. Mana didn't have much experience with dating but she was sure that having her genuine feelings rejected by a boy must've felt somewhat similar. Now that she saw Shimo's hesitance to talk to her about his time away from the village or his lack of interest in what happened to her during the meantime she felt like the Yuki was avoiding her friendship for some reason.

"Shay, Mana... What wazhat Hokage shaid abouf yer shakra?" Meiko suddenly decided to ask with a full mouth. "Why did she take you for a civilian? Why are you just a client in this mission?" the blacksmith wondered. She must've heard bits and pieces about Mana's problem from when the girl was talking to the Hokage but neither she nor Shimo could've known the full story.

"It's nothing, really. Just an injury I had on the last mission, Hokage-sama is just worried if it's more than it actually is, there's nothing to worry about..." the magician smiled and looked away.

Mana's eyes fell on a peculiar young man standing by the counter to order, he must've been particularly impatient since the waitresses usually came to hear one's order out in a while right after sitting down. Why would this man be in such a rush to eat? Such a weird and unimportant detail interested the magician a little so she let her attention remain focused.

"Ummm... Yeah, I'll have the celery carpaccio please..." the man mumbled out like he had just woken up several minutes ago and stumbled into the restaurant for his breakfast.

"Sorry, sir, such a dish doesn't even exist. Carpaccio is an exclusively meaty snack..." the waitress quickly spilled her response out, feeling bad for the fact that she had to refuse a client. The staff here was quite polite.

"Oh... Then I guess... Cabbage shashlik is what I'll have..." the man quickly jumped to another dish.

"Yeah... That's... Not a thing either, a cabbage shashlik would be just cabbage poked on a stick, I mean..." the young waitress was starting to get quite nervous. It was visible that the client annoyed her and yet she felt bad for refusing him as if she felt like she was actually the one who was at fault for not knowing those non-existent dishes.

"Okay, I suppose I could then eat barbecued peas..." the man answered with the same indifferent and sleepy tone.

"Sir, this is a barbecue restaurant, also no one barbecues peas, I am as sure of it as I've never been sure of anything in my life" the waitress responded wiping the sweat off of her forehead, someone signaled the young woman that they were ready to order and the woman rushed off, an older woman came to change her younger colleague.