While Yune, Jack, and Mary stayed at home trying to prevent others from seeing what they became, Venomion and Cainus began work at Mirey's Bakery.
They were told to wear their light Guardian forms as their uniform. And even Mirey kept her guardian form on. However, each one of them was given a baker's hat and apron to go along with their uniforms.
It was a nice, cozy, little bakery. But Mirey was in charge. Her title was simple, but the logo was a green revolver with bread bullets circling around it. Mirey thought it was genius, but Venomion and Cainus thought that they were some kind of gun store looking at that logo.
Business was slow. News of an approaching storm has been airing for a while, but now it's closer than every. People are being told to board up their homes and stay indoors.
But Mirey saw this as an opportunity. While all other shops closed, her bakery stayed open. She realized that people were going to need to buy essential food, and what better place to get that food than the only open bakery on the street.
Mirey put Cainus in charge of baking. Cainus was surprisingly a good bread maker. She even used her threads to manage multiple ovens. And she was able to make dough quite fast with her yo-yo. She didn't really care, though. As long as she got paid and had a cigarette break, she was fine.
However, Venomion was more of a slacker. Mirey would find her sleeping on the job rather than cleaning. And she often found snakes rummaging through the corners. Although, there was nobody outside, Mirey feared that it may scare away customers.
However, Mirey found a suitable job for Venomion, soon enough.
When she looked out at the street with her binoculars, she noticed every business closed down until further noticed and boarded up. However, there was one that caught her eye.
Joe's Bakery. Just across the street.
This wouldn't usually scare her, but then she saw that it was still open. She saw the owner outside waving kindly towards Mirey.
"Hi, neighbor," he said with a kind smile, "I'm Joe."
"Shouldn't you be closed!? Haven't you heard about a storm coming!? " Mirey yelled angrily.
"I heard. Thank you for reminding me, though, neighbor. I appreciate your concern for my safety, but I got to stay open. Don't worry, though. I've already made sure my bakery is in tip-top structural integrity. No storm will be able to get through it."
Mirey was annoyed by Joe. There were now two bakeries open. If it had been a different business, then she wouldn't have cared, but instead the only other open business was her rival.
Joe didn't see it like any rivalry. To him, it was just a friendly competition at most. He was just a kind, young man who wanted to open a small bakery.
There wasn't anybody around, but Mirey wouldn't let her rival win anybody over who wanted bread.
She called up Venomion and Cainus, and ordered, "Listen up, soldiers. We are now at war."
However, Cainus didn't care. And Venomion was just waking up from her nap. She was drinking some tap water.
Mirey continued, "Joe's bakery, across the street, is planning to steal our customers, poison our bread, slaughter our children, and dump toxic chemicals into our water supply!"
"They are!?" Cainus and Venomion exclaimed suddenly. Venomion spit out her water and tried to gag out the rest.
"More-or-less"
"Wait. Is it more? Or less?" Venomion asked as she stopped trying to throw up.
Mirey ignored her question.
"Alright, guys. We are at war. Does anybody have any idea to win this?"
Cainus suggested, "We could try to advertise and give out some deals."
Venomion suggested, "Industrial sabotage."
While they made those suggestions, Mirey was aiming a sniper rifle at Joe's head as he was mopping the floor. But after hearing those ideas, she looked at the two and said, "Oh. Well, I guess we could try that."
And so, they went to work.
First, they tried Cainus's idea. To advertise and make suggestions. However, since Cainus was baking the bread, Venomion had to do the work. She put up a sign saying: "Two for One Cake deal!!"
And then, she sent out her snakes to spread flyers of Mirey's Bakery with the deal stamped on it. They slithered in every direction holding the papers in their mouths.
But after a while, nobody was coming.
Mirey then gave Venomion a mascot outfit. It was a giant loaf of bread with antennas attached to them. She was told to hold a sign pointing at the bakery and start spinning it around like some performance artist. It was hot and tiring in that suit. The suit may be smiling, but not the girl inside.
Venomion did it, but she wasn't very enthusiastic about it. Then, a gust of wind blew the sign away and Venomion had to chase it while she was in her suit. It took an hour, but she eventually got it.
But after all that time, there was still nobody around. No customers. No person in sight. The storm didn't come, yet. There should be some customers wanting to get some last minute goods, Mirey thought.
And then, Mirey looked at her rival's bakery. She could see through the windows that there was a woman buying a couple of loafs of bread from him. He had a kind smile and handed it over to her. What Mirey didn't know was that the woman was Joe's sister checking in on him and picking up some food for their mother.
"Damn it!" Mirey complained, "This advertising and deal-thing isn't working. Plan B! We're going with sabotage."
Mirey told Venomion to start throwing bricks at the other bakery. Mirey gave her a balaclava to hide her face, however, Venomion was still wearing her guardian outfit, baker's hat, and apron.
But Mirey didn't think about that. And neither cared. She went back inside to inspect the bread and left Venomion to do the work.
She held up one brick and threw it straight at Joe's window like a pitcher throwing a baseball. Did she feel any regret? Maybe, but she was just happy not to be wearing that stupid mascot outfit.
The brick hit the window, but instead of crashing through, the window bounced it back. Venomion ducked as the brick crashed right back into Mirey's Bakery.
Mirey ran outside and noticed the damage.
"Venomion! Not my windows! The other guy's windows!" Mirey yelled.
"I did throw it at him!" Venomion said.
"You idiot!" Mirey said as she conjured a gun a shot a bullet at the window, but instead the window bounced the bullet back at hit another one of Mirey's windows.
As Joe came out to check what the noise was about, he noticed that Mirey's windows were broken. Mirey hid her gun, and Venomion hid the bricks behind her.
"Oh, my god," Joe said worryingly, "You should install some stronger windows before the storm hits."
"Shut up!" Mirey yelled.
Apparently, Joe had installed the strongest glass that money could buy. And apparently, it was strong enough to bounce back bricks and magical bullets.
Then, Mirey had one more plan still relating to sabotage. There was a truck coming that was going to deliver flour to both Joe's and Mirey's bakery. Mirey ordered Venomion to send her snakes to sneak on board as the truck before the delivery truck arrived and to replace Joe's flour. Mirey had discovered that her flour was made by the Darkin's Flour Co., while Joe bought his from the Dunkin's Flour Co.
So, as the truck was on it's way, Venomion's snakes jumped on board and squeezed through.
Then, they began to work. However, it was dark. They looked at the packages, and bit into the ones that looked like they were from Dunkin's Flour Co. The flour spilled. The snakes cleaned it up. Then, they all hid in the bags, so that it would look like it was full.
Venomion couldn't see what the snakes were seeing, but she was confident that they'd get the job done.
Then, they waited. When the delivery truck came, it dropped off the flour for both Joe and Mirey.
However, when Mirey opened her bag of flour, a number of snakes slithered out. Dunkin and Darkin were too close to tell for them especially in the dark. In the dark, they were unable to distinguish the 'a' and 'r' in the company names. Joe's flour was untouched.
Mirey began to shake Venomion for another failure. And Cainus just shook her head disappointed at both of them. But Cainus was tired from doing the same thing over and over, so she didn't really care.
The work day was almost over and there were no customers.
Mirey began to feel down about it. In her office, she began to cry thinking that she wasn't fit for the job. It was so difficult getting people to visit her bakery.
Then, Venomion rushed in, and she quickly wiped her eyes.
"Hey, boss. We got a customer," Venomion said to Mirey's pleasant surprise.
Mirey came out and welcomed her first customer. She kept that memory very close to heart.
It was a simple high-school girl who saw the flyer for the "Two for One Cake" deal. She bought the cakes and asked them to write out on both of them: "Happy Birthday, Anne."
Mirey happily obliged and Venomion wrote the message. It was in pretty bad handwriting, but the girl was satisfied. They were boxed up and she took them in a bag.
Mirey, Venomion, and Cainus waved good-bye to the girl.
And when her first customer , Mirey shouted at Joe from across the street, "Take that, loser!"