2 Taking The First Step

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"Talking"

'Thinking'

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"Alright, I think I'm ready!"

Yuzuki smiled as he looked at the arrangement of different plates, cutlery, and also a few tissues placed and set up neatly on each table. A cloth was also placed atop each of the round tables, mainly to prevent potential spillage that would go on the table. He knew that the furniture wouldn't be damaged, but having the white cloth made it look better in his opinion.

He also made sure to check that the bathrooms were all properly functioning, and they thankfully were. It would be bad if someone needed to use the toilets and have them turn out to be in maintenance. It would be a very big disaster if that were to happen.

Nodding his head, he turned to look at the open section viewing the kitchen to see his tow helpers standing at the ready. They both nodded at him as he nodded back to them. They appeared to definitely be sentient and had their own thought process, so at least he didn't need to feel strange about talking with non-sentient beings.

It was nice to have the company 24/7 when no customers were in.

Seeing that everything was prepared, he gave one deep breath before turning towards the entrance, which was a simple fancy wooden door with a black screen that displayed the words 'CLOSED' on it in a big font. He walked on over before looking at the circular wooden button next to the door, to which he then pressed it.

He had never felt so nervous to press a button...

When he pressed it, a ringing sound was heard through the dimension as the screen on the door soon displayed the words 'OPEN'. Of course, he hadn't expected anyone to walk through immediately, that's not how things worked. It would probably take time for someone to walk through the door.

He turned around and gave a smile as he prepared himself for work.

The door that appears in all different worlds could appear ANYWHERE, so it would be sensible for him to think that some people would be cautious to enter a random door they had never seen before. It was human nature to be cautious of the unknown. He may not even get a customer for hours, though he wouldn't be surprised.

*𝑫𝒊𝒏𝒈*

"Already?" Yuzuki muttered in surprise as he had only just started walking away from the door to check on other things. He hadn't expected the first customer to appear so quickly! He quickly calmed and relaxed into a professional stance, the first impression for a restaurant is always vital. 'Though, how will they think of me being a kid...?'

He watched as the door slowly opened as faint voices could be heard from the other side, he noticed how the door was completely white for him on the other side. It wasn't long before the head of an individual soon poked out from the door, to which said person soon stepped out and another person soon walked through as well.

"Woah, what's this place?"

"Natsu, don't just barge in!"

The voices of two people who Yuzuki found somewhat familiar sounded as they walked on through the door. The voices belong to two people, a young blonde female along with a young male who had salmon coloured hair. Yuzuki didn't react, but he saw a blue humanoid cat with angelic wings fly on through as well.

"Greetings, I welcome you to my Beyond Dimensional Restaurant." Yuzuki politely bowed as he welcomed them in. The three seemed surprised by his sudden appearance as they looked down at him, they were decently taller than he was. They seemed mostly confused by the way he greeted them, though the blonde soon asked.

"Uh, if I may ask. Where is this exactly?"

"As I have said previously, this is my Beyond Dimensional Restaurant. It simple terms, this is an eatery." Yuzuki stated as they seemed confused. They watched as he then calmly walked towards one of the smaller tables before he gestured towards it. "Please, why don't the three of you take a seat and I'll be right with you."

The three looked at one another before deciding to do just that as they walked on over to the table, the two humans pulling out the two chairs that were stationed at the table before taking a seat. The flying cat soon dispersing its wings before dropping onto the edge of the table and took a seat, they all were staring towards Yuzuki in confusion.

The boy at the moment having just walked into the kitchen.

"Who do you think the kid is, Natsu?"

"I don't know, he smells funny though..." The one known as Natsu responded. The male then closed his eyes before opening them as a small bit of drool soon escaped through the side of his mouth, causing the blonde to sweatdrop heavily. "Though, he DID say this was an eatery, Lucy! Let's order some food to eat!"

"Aye! I want some fish!"

"Of course you both would only think of food in this situation..." Lucy deadpanned as she facepalmed. She then stared at both of them with a tired look on her face. "DIdn't you guys hear what he said about this place? He called it his Beyond Dimensional Restaurant! Just what kind of normal restaurant is called that?!"

"Who cares about the name, Lucy! Let's order some food!"

"Aye!"

"I can't deal with you guys..."

"Sorry if I made you guys wait too long." The three of them turned their heads to the side to see that Yuzuki was walking towards their table. He had a silver platter in his right hand and was holding some kind of thin large book underneath his left hand. "Here is some water for you to hydrate yourselves with. Would you like to order anything?"

"Yes!" Both Natsu and the cat had shouted as Yuzuki just chuckled softly. He then handed three menus to each of them before placing down a jug of cold water along with three glasses full of ice. Natsu and the cat both scanned over the menu with hungry eyes as they looked through everything that was available to them.

"As this is the opening of my restaurant, don't worry about paying. You may choose any singular item from the menu for free." Yuzuki assured as they nodded their heads in response. Yuzuki then gestured towards the machines connected to the walls. "However, if you are to return again some other day. Be aware that you will need to pay. That machine will allow you to convert your currency into Cosmic Tokens. Which is the currency used here."

Hearing this, the three of them nodded their heads in understanding.

"E-Excuse me?" Lucy stuttered slightly as Yuzuki turned to look at her, he didn't need to look up to look her in the eyes as he was standing at perfect eye-to-eye height. "Who are you exactly? Also, what exactly is this place? I know you said it's a restaurant, but this seems kind of bizarre if I am honest. The name doesn't help either..."

"Oh, how rude of me. My name is Yuzuki Aoi, just call me Yuzuki. I am the owner of this restaurant." Yuzuki introduced himself with a polite bow as he held his silver platter in front of his stomach. "For the part about my restaurant. It's as the name suggests. I'll explain it as bluntly an simply as I can. My restaurant is basically a place existing in a different world."

"Wait, world...?" Lucy muttered with widened eyes.

"I know it may sound rather ridiculous, but it is the truth. I believe you three came through a door that randomly appeared?" Yuzuki asked. Lucy nodded her head at this as Yuzuki then explained. "You see, this restaurant is accessed by doorways that have randomly appeared throughout different worlds."

"But... how come it appeared right in the middle of my apartment room?"

"Uh, I'm afraid that I have no control over where they appear...." Yuzuki sweatdropped as he heard this. The placement of the doorways was completely random and he had no control over just where they happen to appear. To hear that one appeared right in the middle of her apartment room was... kind of funny. "I apologise if it is a major inconvenience. Miss...?"

"O-Oh, sorry! My name is Lucy Heartfilia, nice to meet you. Don't worry about the door, it doesn't really take up much space at all." Lucy assured Yuzuki as the boy nodded his head. Though, it was still really weird just having a wooden door at the centre of her room. "These two are my friends, we're all apart of Fairy Tail."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Natsu Dragneel!" The salmon-haired male grinned as he looked up from the menu. "This here is Happy!"

"Aye! Nice to meet you, sir!"

"Just call me Yuzuki, nice to meet you both." Yuzuki smiled. He knew that he recognised this group from somewhere, and it was from one of the animes he watched a long time ago. He only watched like five episodes though, so he really didn't know much about it at all. "Please look through the menu. I'll be back to take your order shortly."

With that, Yuzuki made his way back into the kitchen.

He left the group to search through the menus as he prepared himself for their orders. He went to the sink as he began washing his hands, the two helpers doing the same as Yuzuki then decided to ask something to the system as he was finishing up. 'System, I was wondering. Is it possible for me to even leave this place to other specific worlds?'

[It is indeed possible for Owner to do so. However, it is highly recommended that Owner makes sure to close the restaurant as to not have customers come in when Owner is unattending] System explained as Yuzuki nodded his head in understanding. While he would definitely visit other worlds some times, he won't stay for long as he needed to run this place.

He can't stay closed for too long now.

'What will happen to my powers?'

[All powers will remain fully functional for the user. The only skill that will not be functioning is Absolute Domain]

'Ah~, I see. Thank you.' Yuzuki nodded as he then grabbed a towel before drying off his hands and began to walk out of the kitchen. He nodded at the two helpers, who nodded back as he then went to get the group's orders.

"Wow, this place sure has a lot to choose from..." Lucy had muttered in awe as she read through the menu. While the book was rather thin, the pages were the same and were filled with many many different dishes. It wasn't surprising as practically every known dish in his world was present here. Let it be from Asian cuisine to French, to English and more.

"Natsu, look at all these fish dishes!" Happy marvelled as he looked mainly at the section were many different dishes involving fish as a main were shown. He was particularly interested in the raw fish dishes, a lot of them were very unique. Natsu was also drooling at the look of everything, though he wanted to choose one that he won't regret. Though, he doubted he would regret any.

"Have you all decided?"

"Yes, can I please get the ham sandwiches please?" Lucy had ordered one of the most basic of the dishes. She wasn't really feeling all that hungry right now, and a light meal sounded good to her right now. She then also pointed at one of the drinks at the back. "I'll just take grape juice, please."

"Of course. What about you, Natsu? Happy?"

"I'll take the largest pepperoni pizza you got!"

"I want this one!"

"Nice choices." Yuzuki nodded as he wrote down all of their orders. The pizza that Natsu had ordered was much bigger than a normal large pizza you would normally get at normal stores and such, though he did remember that Natsu had a big appetite from the first episode of the show if he wasn't mistaken.

Happy's decision was quite expected. The dish he had chosen and pointed towards was quite the popular dish in Japan, that being none other than Sashimi. He was a cat, so he kind of expected Happy to order something that was involving fish in it.

Yuzuki finished writing down everything and took hold of the three menus as he gave another small bow.

"It won't be long, please wait for a moment. I'll be out shortly."

Moving into the kitchen, Yuzuki quickly got to work alongside the two helpers as the helpers would working on the pizza as Yuzuki took on the easier two dishes to make. The helpers would be able to finish the pizza quickly with two of them, and it seemed that they were capable of working completely in sync, which was fantastic.

Yuzuki started with the sandwiches as he had sliced up the bread perfectly along with all the contents that would be inside. He made them quite quickly and expertly. Even though he didn't have a skill that said he had incredible cooking skills, he had noticed his mind fill with information at the start about all cooking techniques and dishes.

After finishing the sandwiches and plating them beautifully. He quickly started on the Sashimi as he took out a fresh fish from the back as he easily used his strength to hold it down as he ended its life with the most humane method possible. He then drained the fish of its guts and blood completely before taking care of the rest.

It didn't take him long to start cutting the rather thick pieces of flesh on the fish into rectangular blocky pieces that were all perfectly the same size. He placed them onto the plate alongside some white radish and shiso herbs. To end it off, he placed a small circular dish of soy sauce onto the plate as he placed the dish next to the previously completely dish.

He looked back towards his helpers upon finishing his part as he saw that they already had the pizza in the oven cooking, the timer was already almost done as the pizza was about to finish any second now. The oven that they had seemed to cook much faster than any normal oven, and without seemingly any potential hazards.

He had to thank the system for providing such high-quality ingredients and tools.

Now, it was just them waiting on the pizza...

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The entire time that they were waiting, they couldn't help but drool when the smell from the kitchen invaded their noses. The smell of the food cooking was greater than any kind of food they had smelt before, and it was by the smell alone that they could tell that the food they were going to have was top notch!

Not long after, they saw Yuzuki walked out with a cart, a large plate of pizza present covering more than half the cart as the other two dishes were carefully placed as well. He walked on over as he locked the cart in place with a switch on the legs, this preventing the cart from moving beside the table.

He would need to keep the cart here as the pizza wouldn't fit on their table.

Yuzuki took hold of Lucy's and Happy's dishes and placed them on the table in front of them.

"Voila, please enjoy, mesdames. Messieurs." Yuzuki had made a small little act by speaking in a French manner as he gave another small polite bow to them. He just chuckled when the group were all drooling, even Lucy, who was not known at all to overreact to something like food.

Despite the sandwiches's simple appearance, as well as the Sashimi, something made them truly stand out to them from any other dish. In truth, all the ingredients used and provided here in the restaurant were always the absolute best they could ever be. A simple tuna could be as delicious as even the most expensive of fish out there.

"How old are you, Yuzuki?" Lucy asked as she held one of the sandwiches in her hands as the other two were greedily devouring their own dishes. Comical tears of happiness present in their eyes, and Happy's tears only increased tenfold as the flavour from the soy sauce improved the fish greatly.

"Hm? Oh, I'm thirteen."

"Thirteen!?" Lucy went bug-eyed as she stared at the boy. She knew that he looked like a kid, but perhaps it was just that, he LOOKED like a kid. She just hadn't expected him to actually BE a kid! "Just how long have you been cooking to get this good at it...?"

"Well, I started cooking myself three years ago when I was ten." Lucy was just astonished as she looked at the kid. It was true that he was already a decent cook even before this happened, but his skills multiplied on so many levels when it did. He didn't know if he should feel flattered by her statements as he felt wrong taking credit for the skills.

As they were talking, a familiar sound was heard.

*𝑫𝒊𝒏𝒈*

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