Takuya and Gwen cleared the restaurant of all people, allowing the two of them to clean it up together. Takuya was doing most of the cleaning while Gwen was bossing him around, but she did help some.
Takuya, on his hands and knees, was scrubbing blood from the carpet as Gwen swept up some of the pieces of broken wood scattered on the floor. Takuya generally didn't talk a lot, outside of when he was fighting, so the two of them didn't really say much for a while. However, Gwen wanted to know more about the mysterious boy, so she kept trying to get him to open up.
"You ain't much of a talker, huh?" Gwen continued to sweep as she spoke to the boy.
Still scrubbing, Takuya responded in his usually calm, young voice. "I wouldn't say I'm not a talker, I just don't want to bother you is all." he told her, putting in more effort to really get those stains out.
"I don't mind. I quite like your voice. It's nice." she told him, smiling softly as she continued to sweep. "You remind me of one of them poets on the side of the road. The ones that read haikus."
Takuya chuckled a bit under his mask, appreciating the compliment from the girl. "Thank you, Miss..." Takuya didn't know how to address her since he didn't have her last name. "What is your family name?"
"Only if you tell me at least one of your names." Gwen teased him, though she was truly desperate to have his name.
"Takuya." He told her. "Just keep that between you and me, it's probably best that I don't tell anyone I wouldn't trust."
"Oh? You trust me, Mr. Takuya?" Gwen asked him, propping her chin on her hand as it held up her broomstick.
"Well, you are giving me a job and a place to stay... although I didn't need those things. Since I'm basically your employee, I guess you'd need my name, right? Besides, Takuya could be a fake name for all you know."
"That's true. But I know it's real." Gwen told him.
This intrigued Takuya, so much so, he stopped his scrubbing and looked up at the young lady who was still looking at him with a soft smile. "What makes you so certain? I'm a ronin, a killer. Why trust me?"
"Because you want to protect people. You do it in a pretty violent manner, but sometimes violence is only quelled by more violence, don'tcha think? Anyway, you're sincere, I can hear it in your voice."
"I guess that makes sense." Takuya told her, grabbing his soap-filled brush before again asking for her name. "What about your family name? You never told me."
"Stacy. My name is Gwen Stacy." she told him.
"Well, Miss Stacy, I am sorry about all this. Thank you for being so kind to me after it all. Are you sure you're okay with me staying upstairs?"
"Why, of course. There's an extra room up there. Plus, I do get a wee bit lonely livin' out here by myself. I'd like the company."
"Alright then. Thank you, Miss Stacy."
The two of them cleaned up as much as they could for the night before they both headed upstairs to the upper level of the restaurant. Gwen actually lived up there in a pretty impressive renovated spot equipped with a bath as well as two bedrooms.
Once Gwen fell asleep, Takuya used this opportunity to remove his armor and take a bath. As he lay in the tub, the boy thought to himself about everything that'd happened within the last twenty-four hours.
He hadn't killed anyone in his life before that day, and yet, he killed two men as if it were nothing. They were criminals and murderers themselves, but he couldn't help but think about how odd it was that he showed no remorse for his actions once he touched his blade. Even thinking back on it, the boy didn't really feel as if it was 𝘩𝘪𝘮 killing those people. The memory inside of his head didn't feel like memories, they felt like he was watching another man's life through his eyes.
Takuya sighed, falling deeper into the water as he thought about what Gwen told him. 'How does she think I'm so nice after seeing that? Weird girl.' Takuya, however, didn't regret his decisions. Everything was for Aunt Mei after all.
Takuya had brought this sword with him, just in case, and was inspecting it as he sat in the bath. Weirdly, he noticed that the tip of the blade was starting to become black, something that he failed to notice before. In fact, he was certain that the blade did not have that dark edge beforehand.
'What is this? It looks as if the blade was burned?' Takuya thought. 'It is some sort of cursed blade... perhaps this is due to me collecting souls for the spirit... that means I have a long way to go then.'
Takuya placed his blade back on the table next to the bath before continuing to get lost in his own thoughts, once again thinking about Gwen Stacy. 'For an American, she is rather lovely. Though her accent is still funny sounding.'
Takuya soughed, moving his long hair from his face before looking up at the ceiling. 'Chiaki is adorable too, with and without her mask. I wish I'd known sooner that the city part of Kuinzu had so many fetching ladies. I'd have come here way sooner.'
Takuya thought of both girls briefly, imagining what life could've been like had he met them two or three years earlier. However, he shut those thoughts down rather quickly. 'They would've distracted me from my painting anyway. Speaking of which, I should buy some canvases since I'll be staying here for a while.'
Takuya continued to bathe alone for a while longer before finally getting out once the water was cooling down. He got dressed and headed straight back to his room. Staring at his bed, Takuya couldn't help but think about how bizarre the concept of a bed was. 'What is the point of sleeping elevated like this? Americans are strange...'
Regardless, Takuya climbed onto the bed and shut his eyes. He was exhausted, so he fell asleep rather quickly.
For the next week, the shop was closed. Gwen and Takuya worked together to fix the shop back up to a desirable state. Funnily enough, Takuya wore his armor and mask the entire time, assuming this would be allowed once he was actually working. However, he'd be very wrong about that assumption.
The morning of his first day of actual work, Takuya was sleeping like a baby in his bed. Though it was bizarre at first, the bed was actually comfortable for him. As he slept, the look on his face was peaceful...
Until Gwen made herself known.
"COCKADOODLE DOO!" Gwen yelled, despite being only a few feet from the ronin, startling him awake. "Wake up! Time to work!"
"What?" Takuya muttered before feeling his face and realizing he was unmasked. He grabbed his pillow and attempted to cover his face, however, Gwen began to heckle him.
"You realize if you're workin' here you ain't gonna be wearing that silly getup, right?" she told him.
"What do you mean?" Takuya told her. "I'm not showing everyone my face. They can't know who I am."
"They ain't gonna know you're the ronin, silly. You'll just be some young server I hired. I won't tell nobody. Here." Gwen threw the boy his uniform before stepping backward toward the exit. However, she tripped over his sword and nearly fell on her behind. "Wah!" she yelped cutely as she used the wall to catch herself.
"And pick up this dang-" Gwen bent over and tried to pick up the Blade of the Spider Spirit, but it would not budge. It was as if it were a trillion pounds. "Whew, that is the heaviest thing I've ever seen in my life. Pick it up before you leave, 'kay?" Gwen instructed him before leaving the room and closing the door behind her.
'What? The blade weighs as much as any old blade does. Am I the only one allowed to wield it?' Takuya thought, remembering a story about a thunder god he read where his electrified weapon could only be used if one was worthy.
Thoughts aside, Takuya, as he always does, sighed loudly. She was right, no one would know who he was outside of the armor and a samurai serving food would just scare everyone off. He then looked down at the clothes he was given, holding them up before staring at them with a frown. 'She can't be serious...' he thought to himself, once again believing that Americans were bizarre upon seeing what they wear in his hands.
Within a few minutes, Takuya was seen walking down the stairs of the restaurant, catching both Gwen and Chiaki, whom he'd revealed his name to as well, by surprise with how nice he looked in uniform. The sides of his hair were nearly down to his shoulders and the back of it was tied in a bun. He was wearing a brown, American-styled suit vest with a white button-up and a black tie beneath it. Not understanding how to wear it properly, his shirt remained untucked from his black slacks as he stumbled down the stairs in his black dress shoes.
'These are so uncomfortable...' he said internally, looking down at the odd shoes on his feet.
The girls were in shock, never having expected the young man to look the way he did. "He's quite cute." Gwen whispered.
Chiaki nodded. "He's so... ordinary looking, but in a really charming way. It's those drowsy-looking eyes I think."
Takuya stared at them both blankly as the two girls gawked at his appearance. "What?" he said, snapping both girls out of it before Gwen approached him to help fix his uniform.
"The shirt goes inside the pants, Dear." Gwen told him as she assisted him with tucking in the white shirt. Takuya looked down at her as she helped him, their faces were incredibly close, but Gwen seemed to not notice until she looked up at him.
"Thank you, Miss Stacy." he told her with sincerity, prompting the young restaurant owner to blush a little.
"Oh, I- gomenasorry!" Gwen began fumbling with her words, mixing together both Japanese and English before giving the boy some space.
"Gomenasorry?" Takuya repeated.
"Don't you worry about that." Gwen laughed awkwardly as she said this before clearing her throat. "Why don't we practice greeting the customers." Gwen told him. "Go ahead and show me."
"Okay..." Takuya spoke plainly before standing up straight and clearing his throat. "Good morning, welcome to Gwendoline's." Takuya bowed as they do in Japan, though he could tell by Gwen's face that this was unsatisfactory.
"No, silly. It's like this: Howdy, y'all! Welcome to Gwendoline's! My name's Takuya." Gwen then bowed and shook Takuya's hand as she did when they first met.
'She can't be serious...' Takuya said in his own head, thinking no way in hell was he going to start talking with that strange accent.
"Do I have to say: Howdy, y'all..." Takuya asked, getting nothing more than an energetic head nod from his new boss. Takuya exhaled in annoyance, clearing his throat once more before repeating what she said, with no energy in his voice.
"Howdy... Y'all. My name-" Before he could finish his low-effort greeting, Gwen stopped him.
"Nope, like this: Howdy, y'all!" she said energetically. "You gotta act like you wanna be here."
Takuya nearly let out a frustrated groan, but he didn't want to be rude to her so he did as he was told. "Howdy, y'all!" he said with incredibly high energy, bringing a smile to both girls' faces. "Welcome to Gwendoline's! My name's Takuya!" once he finished, he plastered that same drowsy expression on his face as before and spoke to Gwen normally.
"How's that?"
"Perfect! You're gonna do great out there!" Gwen told him, giving him a confident smile, though he did not share her confidence.
As instructed, Takuya greeted every guest that came by the restaurant, speaking like the enthusiastic American he was trained to be. He took orders from the guests as well, getting plenty of mean stares when he messed up the orders due to it being his first time ever working in a place like that.
Chiaki would stop by and check up on him, joking about how funny it was to see him struggle to be a waiter with Gwen. "He's... very clumsy..." Chiaki told Gwen as the two of them watched him apologize profusely for a mixed-up order, hitting his head on the table from his overly enthusiastic bow.
"Are you sure that's the same guy that was doing flips off the walls?" Chiaki asked Gwen, looking at the boy with quite an unimpressed expression.
"I was certain... now I ain't too sure. Maybe he pulled a switcheroo with some young man on the street..."
However, by the end of the day, Takuya was starting to get the hang of things. He had always been a quick learner, so eventually, he was able to take orders without any mistakes and greet the guests as he should.
He even got a lot of tips from older women. However, Gwen and Chiaki thought he was only getting tipped because he was the handsome new waiter.
It was hard to believe that the clumsy, yet charming waiter of Gwendoline's American Cuisine was also a killer. If Gwen and Chiaki didn't know him beforehand, there's no way they would've guessed it was him of all people.
It was as if they were two different people...
Though perhaps there was some merit to that feeling.