The Journal of a Connecticut Yankee

Starfucks

"Welcome to Starfucks! May I take your order?" Said the cheerful Mouse girl behind the counter.

Starfucks... Starbucks... Whatever. It was close enough and the seductive aroma of ground coffee told me not to worry, it would all be ok.

"Venti Coffee. Black, no room." I ordered.

Minnie Mouse blanched at my order as she asked, "Are you sure you wouldn't like room for cream and sugar sir? Or perhaps an ice blended- "

I leaned in closer and cut her off while repeating, "Black. Coffee. Large."

The mouse paled even more but said no more as she left to quickly grab my drink.

Yeah dick move I know, but I just wanted what I ordered. Nothing more, nothing less.

"There are many varieties of frozen beverages here. Why that?" Molly asked behind me.

"Because I spent a good 3 plus years of my life running around the mother land of yours without it. I don't give a crap about the other stuff they have. I just want a simple cup of joe."

"Th-that'll be $4." Stuttered Minnie as she set the white paper cup on the counter. On its side was an image of a familiar green Mermaid except in this instance she raping a guy.

Different reality... right.

I realized that I didn't have my wallet, or any personal effects really besides Winona that was keeping my seat warm back in the limo. I looked back to Molly.

"Hey, spot me on this?"

Figured that was the least that could be done. If I was gonna do this shit for free...

From seemingly nowhere, a solid black metallic card appeared in the maids hand as she handed it over to the mouse barista.

"A-A Lilim Express card?!" She squeaked in shock and awe, holding the thing up in two paws as if it were a sacred object. Then as if remembering it was to be an actual form of payment, she quickly swiped it on her register.

Christ. They have their own brand of credit cards now too?

After she handed both the card and the receipt back to the Mantis, I grabbed the cup and made my way to the exit with Molly quickly following. As I walked, I looked around at the shop. Humans and Mamono enjoying their drinks, pastries, on their phones or chatting with each other. Just a normal peaceful day.

I was wrong. Ilias was wrong. I didn't have that much faith in humanity being able to share. I didn't believe that Humans, my Humans would be able to accept a different species as equal to their own. Yet here I saw living, breathing proof of how wrong I was. It gave me food for thought alongside my drink.

Once we were seated inside the limo and it was off, I inhaled the rich aroma from the cup. Molly watched with a mixture of confusion and interest as I slowly took a sip.

The black liquid hit my taste buds like a hammer, imbuing them with words of flavor such as bitter, smokey, rich and full bodied. God, it's been too long. I sighed softly and smiled at the almost forgotten taste that was slowly lifting my spirits. You may think it stupid, but for me it had been many years since I had a cup. Something so simple and mundane as coffee used to be an unthinkable pleasure for me. Next time you take a sip of your morning joe, good reader, think of those that go without that luxury.

"So what's going on?" I asked the maid after a few precious swallows

She seemed confused by my question and answered,

"We are on our way to the location of-"

"No I mean what's the incident or whatever."

She seemed even more confused as she said,

"Her highness explained in the video-"

"I wasn't paying attention. Look, I didn't let my happy ass get thrown across time and space just to end up watching amateur Lilim porn. You tell me what's happening and why am I here."

"Her highness paid a substantial sum of money for a professional production company to -"

"Molly," I interrupted for the third time and counting, "Can we please get on with it?"

Pausing for a moment, the flustered Mantis appeared to collect her thoughts before answering, "A situation has been slowly progressing over the course of a year with a Kejourou named June. She was once an employee of the Home Improver Store we just visited. She had been progressively misbehaving and acting extremely... inappropriate."

A Mamono acting inappropriate... there's a first...

"Because of this, she was terminated from her position some time ago but now it seems that she was also in possession of an extremely powerful artifact. She has used this artifact to give herself powers and abilities unrivaled by that of a normal individual. It has also most likely driven her mad as she has taken many of her former colleagues hostage and will certainly kill them."

Crazy super powered Kejourou's? Hostages? Holy hell, what did I agree to?

But I had to admit to some deja-vu about what she described. Some aspects of this were very familiar.

"So what does this powerful artifact look like?" I asked before taking another sip from my cup.

"It is described as a small yellowish shard of a larger stone. The energy it emits would make it appear to glow."

"That fucking bitch." I whispered under my breath in both anger and disgust as the realization hit me. The Maou had asked about that very thing a month or so back. God damn it! All of this shit was her fault and she manipulated my ass into doing the clean up!

The maid looked to me curiously as I silently fumed. Finally after cooling myself down, I sighed and said,

"Nothing, continue on."

"It is theorized that she may have ingested the shard itself. If that is the case it must be removed from her body by any means possible. Again, it is very powerful and has the ability to imbue the user with great strengths and abilities." She said, stressing the fact to me.

Fuck the news just kept getting better and better. I had the sneaking suspicion that old Maou Ma purposely threw me in over my head on this one. No way out now though. At least I had Winona with me. If there were two things my lady was good at, it was going boom followed by making sure fuckers hit the ground and stayed there. I wasn't too worried... much...