26 Day 26: Declarations
"HEY RYAN!" Ryan was surprised when Kiara's voice wasn't the one to come through the phone, despite Kiara being the one to call him.
"Usada-san?" Ryan asked.
"Yep! Kiara-chan told me a lot about you! She's preparing right now and wanted you to come in early because there will be a lot of people coming today!" Pekora exclaimed through the phone.
"Alright, I guess I'll be there in five," Ryan said, hanging up the phone. He knew he could just use a portal to arrive at the KFP instantly, but he refused to give up the walk to work. He liked his daily routine and taking a fundamental part out of it would be criminal.
-
"Morning," Ryan cracked his neck that he walked in. "I heard a lot of people were coming in today?"
"Pekora-senpai!" Kiara shouted from the back. "Don't come in here!"
"Do amo do amo do ama!" Ryan heard Pekora's voice followed by multiple items crashing to the floor. Ryan cautiously walked over to the back room to see Pekora waving around a giant carrot.
"It's too early for this shit," Ryan sighed before walking up behind Pekora and plucking the carrot from her hand. "If you're going to hit someone of something, please do it in the main room."
"Boo!" Pekora pouted as Ryan gave her back her carrot, leading Ryan and Kiara back the restaurant, where Rushia, Pekomama, and a taller green-haired woman who Ryan assumed was Rushia's mother.
"Hello and welcome to KFP," Ryan said with a smile, catching their attention. He honestly surprised himself by not slipping the fact that he already knew Rushia's name. "My name is Ryan Shade. It is nice to meet all of you."
"Hello! I am the super sexy boing boing necromancer Uhara Rushia!" Rushia waved her hand in the air as she introduced herself, a smile on her face before turning to the taller (more boing boing) woman. "This is my mother!"
"It's nice to meet you, Ryan," Rushia's mother gave Ryan a kind smile. "You may call me Rushimama."
"You may call me Pekomama," Pekora's mother offered a similar smile. "I'm sure my daughter has already introduced herself."
"Yep! We talked over the phone!" Pekora waved the giant carrot around before taking a large bite.
"Tenchou speaks very highly of you, Usada-san," Ryan said. He wasn't lying as Kiara devolved into a massive simp when Pekora entered the room first time around.
"Are you bringing the armies of Pekoland with you?" Rushimama turned to Pekomama. "Depending on how things go, this may end up involving them."
"This is our fight. Though we will be fighting MILF, it is a queen's job to keep her people safe." Pekomama replied.
"I see," Rushimama nodded. "Rushia-chan, Calliope-chan, and I commenced a ritual to bring an… ace if you will. As much as I wanted to bring her here… YAGOO and Shade decided against it. Said that 'it wasn't the best idea'."
"I see," Pekomama nodded. "I hope they're right."
Ryan didn't feel the need to add into the conversation, but tucked the interaction into his memory, just in case. He turned to his boss. "So, I heard a lot of people were coming in. What's that about?"
"Well, since the raid is coming in a couple days, people wanted to come here and celebrate," Kiara replied.
"Oh, I see," Ryan tried to keep calm, but failed to repress the shudder that crept up his spine when he remembered the last time they tried to "celebrate" something. He held out his hands and summoned a hammer and some metal plating.
"What's that for?" Kiara asked.
"Just in case Kiryu-san decides to show up," Ryan thanked his quick thinking for once. In reality, he was scared that MILF would find a way to break through the barrier again.
"You seem to know a lot of things about us," Kiara narrowed her eyes, causing Ryan to tense. "But you're right. We should get to work."
-
Speaking of which, as Ryan was finishing hammering the last nail into the outdoor fortifications, the giant purple dragon landed in front of the fast-food joint. Ryan decided to have a little fun. He walked up to the dragon and started her in the eye. The two stared down each other for a tense moment before a polite customer-service smile grew on Ryan's face. "Welcome to KFP, how may we help you today?"
The dragon huffed, steam escaping its nostrils before a bright light enveloped the dragon. Ryan kept his smile as the figure shrunk into a rather tall woman with horns. "Good morning, motherfuckers!" She exclaimed as Kanata landed next to her. "Kanatan! You're late!"
"Well, I'm sorry that I'm not a twenty-meter-tall dragon," Kanata huffed.
"Is that Pekora-senpai? Let's go, Kanatan! I want to do a shitpost review with her!" Coco rushed into the joint, ignoring Ryan's presence completely. Ryan gave a small smile, his eyes following the dragon rush into the store. Well, she was Kiara's problem now.
"Excuse me?" Ryan turned to see Kanata looking Ryan dead in the eye. "I wanted to thank you for what you did for Coco."
"I'm sorry, but I think you have the wrong person," Ryan replied, offering the angel a small shrug. "I've never met that person in my life."
-
"Hey, can we talk for a second?" Kiara had her hands on her hips, giving Ryan an expression similar to a mother's expression after her child broke a glass plate.
"Sure," Ryan said, obliviously following the store manager to the break room.
"There's something that's been bugging me," Kiara closed the door behind Ryan. "You seem to know a lot of names. I've talked to some of them and they never met you before coming here. I've done some investigating and some things just haven't been adding up. Care to explain yourself?"
Ryan shuddered. He knew this moment was going to happen, but he'd been pushing the thought out of his head for a while. As much as he wanted to let everyone live in ignorance of his little journey through time, he knew that at least Kiara deserved the truth. Despite this, the thing was…
"I'm going to be honest; I don't think I'm ready to talk about it," Ryan said genuinely. "Who knows, something shitty might happen in a couple days and I'll have to go through this shit all over again. The last thing I want is to have this conversation multiple times. If we survive day fourteen, then I'll explain everything. Until then, please. I don't think I can do it right now."
Kiara massaged her temples in attempt think. Ryan sighed. In all honesty, he was conflicted, which is why he dropped a couple hints into the situation. He wanted her to know why he said and did what he did. Why he would go raid a military stronghold for a store manager he had known for only a week. "Alright, fine," Kiara said, taking Ryan off guard. "You have your secrets and to be honest, I have my secrets about you as well. Despite that, you saved my life. I'll wait until you're ready to share."
"I know," Ryan said. "Thank you for understanding."
Ryan walked back to go to work, leaving Kiara to blink, processing his reaction. Just how much did Ryan know?
-
When Ryan stepped out, he saw Suisei and a girl with horns and a puffy wool dress casually sitting and chatting with Kanata and Coco. "Hoshimachi-san! It's nice to finally see you!" Ryan said in a joking tone. He didn't have any intention of actually attacking her with his words, rather to poke fun at past events. "It's been a while."
"It has been a while, Ryan," Suisei offered a smile which Ryan couldn't really determine the meaning of.
"Ah, my name is Ryan Shade," he addressed the three people who never really got the opportunity to meet (read: stalk) him. "It's a pleasure to meet all of you."
"Name's Kiryu Coco!"
"Amane Kanata. It's nice to meet you too."
"Tsunomaki Watame, it's a pleasure."
"Pork stew, I'm assuming?" Ryan asked.
"How did you know?" Coco asked. To be fair, the inside joke wasn't well known.
"I know a lot of things," Ryan smirked, tapping his forehead. "Now, let me find Tenchou because I don't really know how to cook it."
-
"Thanks, Tenchou," Ryan said as he placed the giant pot on the stove, effectively leaving the hard work to his boss.
"Ohayappi!" A familiar looking girl walked into the restaurant. Ryan recognized the hat, hoodie, and twin tails immediately. Though it was a minor occurrence considering the past few weeks of Ryan's life, he remembered her slipping an extra 2000 yen in his wallet. What he remembered as well was Kiara talking about how much she hated being called a good person. He resisted the urge to dawn an evil smile.
As the girl walked up and took a seat next to Watame, Ryan slipped a 2000-yen bill over the counter.
"What's this?" The woman asked.
"Oh, you just seem like a nice person," Ryan smiled kindly. "I just hope you'll pay it forward."
"N-nice?!" Towa exclaimed, obviously offended. "I'm not nice, I'm a devil, you know?!"
"Sure," Ryan deadpanned, winking at the others on the counter, causing them to laugh. "I'll believe you."
He noted Pekora, Pekomama, Rushia, and Rushimama sitting off on one of the tables. Ryan sighed. Despite Pekora and Rushia's demeanor normally, their talks became far too intense for Ryan's liking.
"Yubi Yubi!" Ryan shuddered when the yubi-stealing bane of his existence crash through the doors.
"Oh god, someone help," Ryan whispered to himself. Unfortunately, the only form of assistance that came was Okayu hungrily scanning the crowd, looking for unsuspecting souls to prank.
"Welcome to KFP," Ryan said, forcing the memory of fingerless hands deep into his mind. "What would you like today?"
"Give me Yubis!" Korone exclaimed, raising her hand as she took a seat.
"She means head pats," Okayu said, poorly concealing her sick excitement.
"As much as I would love to," Ryan shot Okayu a glare, "I have fingers in the back, I think."
"Yay!" Korone chirped.
"Darn, looks like Kiara-chan already told you about it," Okayu muttered.
"Nah, I've had my fingers removed once," Ryan said, looking at his wiggling fingers before offering Okayu a playful wink. "It wasn't pleasant, I'll say."
-
"It's weird, since ten people is usually pretty normal for a fast-food joint," Ryan placed a plate of fried fingers on the counter at the same time Kiara placed the gigantic pot of pork stew on a table where Coco, Kanata, Suisei, and Watame has since moved too.
"Considering our target audience, then ten people is a lot," Kiara replied as she walked back to the employee's side of the counter. "Plus, I think more people are coming."
"MIKO!" As if on cue, Miko popped into the joint.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE-PEKO?!" Pekora shouted.
"Ara, is that your girlfriend?" Pekomama giggled.
"No!" Pekora's face turned pale. "Don't say things like that-peko! You'll summon her!"
Ryan noticed that it was suddenly dark out, which was weird, since the forecast for the day was sunny.
"She's mine…" As another voice entered the conversation, Ryan shivered as he remembered the first real scary experience he had at the KFP, when the crazy purple-haired lady walked in and almost fought Kiara. Speak of the devil, the girl walked in with a devilish aura surrounding her. Miko turned around to face the woman. The purple-haired girl opened her hand, a rapier being summoned forth.
"FAQ!" Miko reached into her garb and pulled out an unsheathed Shinto. As the two went to clashed, Ryan's hand glowed as he shoved his hand in front of him where a portal formed. His hand appeared in between them, holding a shining white sword, sapphire blue vines encrusted on the hilt and the blade, intervening between the two fighters.
"I'd appreciate it if you didn't fight in here," Ryan said, shooting the girl and Miko a glare.
"Hey Moona!" Pekora shouted over, catching the purple-haired girl's attention.
"Sanchou," Moona bowed respectfully before taking a seat next to her before turning to her mom. "Mother-in-law."
"Aren't you married to Iofi-chan?" Rushia asked.
"We… agreed to an… open relationship," Ryan's eyebrow twitched as Moona's eyes darted around nervously.
"Miko-senapi! Come sit with us too!" Pekora called over. Miko obliged begrudgingly, shooting Moona a glare the whole time while sitting on Pekora's other side. Pekora smiled obliviously as they stared daggers into each other.
"Tenchou, I think I'll let you deal with that," Ryan said, honestly not caring for what was going to happen, deliberately walking to Korone and Okayu. "So, how's your day going?"
"Ah! My day was good!" Ryan still got goosebumps every time Korone took a bite out of a human finger. "What about you?"
"My day was alright, about to bet a lot better," He shot Okayu a wink, who giggled behind a glass of milk and a bowl of ice cream. He opened a portal behind Okayu and Korone and a few pieces of shrapnel flew through. Ryan peeked over, closing the portal. If kills could look, Miko, Moona, and Kiara would be dead two dozen times over.
"Man, this is going to be a rough day," Ryan rubbed the back of his head.
-
Ryan sighed as he opened the door to his apartment, scratches all over his uniform. "Maybe I'll just chill and watch some MeTube today." As he turned on the computer and typed in the URL, the first video he saw was titled "War" with 3 million views, despite being posted an hour ago. He's never seen the creator, but he's heard the name creator. The Masked Mages. For some reason, that name rang a bell in his head. He clicked the link.
"Hello, everyone. You may call me Shade," the man said. The man had a mask on, similar to Jack, Sabrina, Storm, and Reporter's masks, except there was a giant number 1 over it. Was this Shade figure their leader? Who knew. "Today, I will speak upon the behalf of the Mask Mages. The United Nations has something we want. In two days, we will be coming in two days. To the forces of MILF, I'm sure you remember us. If you don't want a repeat of what happened in California, then you'll steer clear from China."
Ryan sighed as he turned off the computer. Whoever these Masked Mages are, they will most likely be in China when he will. Either he will be working with them, or against them.
-
"Are you sure posting that video publicly?" YAGOO asked as Shade sipped a cup of hot cocoa through his mask.
"MILF blames us for what happened three years ago," Shade replied. "They have a bone to pick with us. Publicly calling out them in public would piss them off. From then, we can take them all out."
"I see," YAGOO nodded inquisitively as Shade put hand in a cloak, grabbing a mask.
"It's not too late to join us," Shade said. "We would be happy to have you with us."
"I'll pass," YAGOO offered Shade a smile. "Honestly, I think I've found my home."
