- Silas -
It's been a week since we figured out what my Restaurant could do.
As promised, Hayato visited everyday. He even brought some of his friends or rather colleagues with him.
Mikami and the guy from the last day returned too.
He said his name was Suzuki and was someone from a future version of Japan. The year 2138 to be precise.
We were kinda depressed to hear the state of his world.
I mean they had to wear gas masks outside their homes. The only reason he was without the mask last time was because he was on some work for his office and was given some kind of pills which allowed him to walk outside without being harmed.
The man literally cried when he saw the current world as it was.
Really, the greatest danger the human race faces is from themselves.
But enough of the depressing stuff.
The Restaurant had customers who needed food.
I stopped chopping the vegetables to look towards my side. A pink clad ninja girl with black hair was looking at my cutting board.
Shigure Kosaka was one of the teachers at Ryozanpaku Dojo and the Weapon's Master of the place.
"What do you want, Miss Shigure?"
"Your knife skills… are good." She answered while not removing her eyes from my hands. A small rat came out of her pocket and nodded but was eying the food instead.
"Thank you." I answered while getting back to my work.
Shigure was just like this. Quiet and eccentric but incredibly skilled.
She had once chopped Kensei Ma's, one of her colleague's hats in two halves… with a freaking rolling pin, when he tried to peek down her shirt.
I didn't even think it was possible.
I mean where even was the cutting edge?
"Pork Ramen." She uttered when I was done cutting.
I nodded. "I will get it done in a minute, and a cheese cracker on the house." I smiled looking at the rat who gave me a salute.
I finished the dishes for the customers and served them before getting back to Shigure's Ramen.
Several minutes later, I got their orders ready and brought them outside.
"Thank you Silas. Your food is really the best hahahaha." Hayato laughed. Beside him was his granddaughter Miu who was currently enjoying the food with the other Master's of the dojo.
"It seems these food items have a special effects of increasing the effects of training. I have felt slight changes in my body and felt my training yielding better results for the last few days." Akisame said.
Curious, I checked the description of the food and sure enough, some of the things promoted Cell Activity.
"Yes. The Lettuce promotes Cell Activity and the meat is good for healing minute damages to the muscles due to high intensity training. They also provide insane amounts of energy to consumers."
"And it tastes damn good too." Sasaki-san laughed as he picked up some salad from his plate and took a bite.
Just as we were talking, someone entered through the door.
Taking a look at him, he was an elderly man and walked with a slight hunch in his back. He had light blue eyes and tan skin, spiked white hair, thick white eyebrows, and a thick white moustache. He wore a long-sleeved black martial arts jumpsuit, light-coloured pants, and Tai Chi slippers.
Hayato and the rest of the Martial Arts masters however paused and looked in his direction. The man too stopped and looked in their direction.
There was an unspeakable tension in the air.
I waited for a few seconds and decided to break the silence.
"Welcome to the Crossroads Restaurant, Sir. What would you like to eat?" I greeted.
On a side note, I named the Restaurant too.
For a place which acts like a crossroads for different worlds, I named my Restaurant, Crossroads.
My words seemed to have done the trick as he looked in my direction giving me a nod.
Hayato-san seemed to have calmed down too. "Please join us. The more the merrier." he welcomed.
The man walked to the table and joined him and took a look at the menu, ordering a hotpot for himself.
I went back to cooking while I heard them talking.
The man introduced himself as Bang.
"I didn't know there were Martial Artists like you in the area." He said, greeting Hayato-san who explained the power of the Restaurant.
When I got his order there, he questioned me too.
"Is it really true that the Restaurant can connect to different worlds?" he asked, amazed.
"Yes. Both me and Hayato-san are from different worlds. In fact, so are Mikami and Suzuki."
"So, what kind of world do you live in Mr. Bang?" Miu questioned, looking interested.
The man explained some things about his world.
A world of Heroes and Monsters.
It was a dangerous world and I was kinda glad that my world was normal at least. I mean what's a few Yakuza when compared to real monsters who could destroy an entire city.
Turns out that Bang-san was a Hero himself and a high ranking one at that.
"Wow, are you really a hero? Can I have an autograph?" Miu asked excitedly with a spark in her eyes. Even Shigure had a glint in her eyes.
"Hahahaha why not."
Although the start was a bit tense, he seemed like a very kind old man. He got along well with Hayato-san. They also shared a similar philosophy when it came to martial Arts and became friends fast.
A bit later, I got another customer, from Bang-san's world too.
Saitama was someone who was training to be a hero.
He was interested in the talks about games between Mikami and Suzuki.
All three of them found this place to be very interesting.
The Restaurant was getting customers.
_________________________________x____________________________________
I started preparing for the day.
I opened the Restaurant and a while later, the Ryozanpaku members appeared as usual along with Mr. Bang. They had become regulars of my Restaurant since they found the beneficial effects of my dishes to their Martial Arts training.
The two had become quite close and even sparred with each other sometimes.
Quickly serving their orders, I sat down to talk with them when the door to the Restaurant opened again.
This time two people came in at once.
The first was a boy with black hair and eyes. He was wearing a white shirt and looked like a middle schooler.
The odd thing was him looking around the place as if expecting something to jump on him.
The second one was a white haired guy who looked like he was in his 20s.
"Welcome to the Crossroads Restaurant. Would you like to order?"
I went ahead and greeted them.
"Ah yes." The younger boy sat down and looked at the menu ordering some chicken wings.
The older one just wanted to look at the menu for a bit before ordering. He did pause when looking at me though and stared in my direction for a while.
"Do you need anything, Sir?" I asked, hesitantly.
"Nah, I will tell you when I'm ready."
"Sure thing. Take your time."
I went back to cook while the patrons started a conversation with the boy.
A little talk with him led to a couple of discoveries.
His name was Kamijo Touma and he was from a place called Academy City.
Touma was an Esper. His city was full of Espers. Even the world had other supernatural humans.
"That's so cool. Sounds like an anime." Mikami said, listening to the story.
The boy was also astonished at the power of this place.
"Really, this place is a connection between different worlds?"
"Hmm. We are all from different worlds. The owner's shop is near Kyoto but we live near Osaka. Mikami-san lives in Tokyo. Suzuki-san on the other hand lives in Japan of the future and all of these are different worlds. Bang-san and Saitama-san live in a completely different world." Miu explained.
"That's amazing."
"Can you tell us more about your world and Espers?"
"Espers are divided into different levels. The higher the level of the Esper, the stronger they are. Currently the highest Ranked Espers are level 5 and there are only a handful of them."
"What level are you?"
The boy's face fell at the question. "I am a level 0." He sighed.
….
"Oh… I am sorry." She apologised. "But hey, look at the bright side. You can always train and become stronger."
"Actually…"
On him explaining, we found out that his power could negate other supernatural abilities. And it only worked when touched by his right hand.
"That is quite an awesome ability. If anything, it's one of the best. As long as you train yourself more, you could become far stronger. In fact, you should learn Martial Arts to help you."
"She is right. You could always train your body, you know. When you have nothing else to rely on, use your fist." Hayato chimed.
"If you want to join, I can recommend the Ryozanpaku or my own Flowing Water Rock Smashing Fist Style dojo." Bang added his two cents.
He looked at the three in a bit of confusion and I decided to give them a push.
"They are very accomplished Martial Artists. I know you cannot do anything about your luck but you can train your body to become strong enough to be able to survive, right?"
"That… does sound quite reasonable." He shifted his bowl near the Ryozanpaku group and began talking to them about Martial Arts.
It looks like Hayato can get a student.
Touma joined the Ryozanpaku dojo after some thinking.
___________________________________x__________________________________
Two weeks had passed and the Restaurant had two new regular customers.
Both Touma and the other white haired guy came by regularly.
The former always ordered a meal here before going out to train with the Ryozanpaku masters and returned hours later.
It was the latter who was odd.
He always came in before anyone else, ordered sweets and spent the rest of the day in the Restaurant, leaving when I closed the place.
We did talk about several things about my world but till now, he hadn't given his name.
I was fine because the Restaurant was under my control.
Today too, we talked about a few things when Touma returned.
"Goodbye Silas-san." Touma waved but as he was about to leave, the white haired guy stood up to leave too.
"Hello. I guess we haven't really talked with each other much but do you mind if I ask you a few questions." They shook hands first.
"Umm sure."
"You see, I am a bit of a magician myself." He said as he created a red orb in his hand in front of us. "I… please just consider this the curiosity of a magician but can you dispel these kinds of powers too?"
"Eh… I am not sure because I haven't tried anything on a magician before but I can give it a try if you want to." Touma offered.
"Please."
Touma slowly extended his right hand and touched the ball of red light which completely vanished from existence.
"Woah. That was quite cool." I said softly.
"Amazing." The white haired guy said. "Hayato-san was correct. Your power is really amazing. Do you mind if we do a few more experiments? I can reimburse you if you want. From what I have seen, we can convert currencies of different worlds in this Restaurant. Am I right, Owner?"
I looked at him surprised but nodded. "Yes."
He turned back to Touma. "Don't worry. I assure you it won't be anything dangerous. I just want to see the effects of your power on different objects. You will not be harmed in any way."
Touma looked a bit conflicted.
"You don't have to do anything you don't want to Touma-kun."
"I…"
"This will help out a lot of people." The white haired guy said.
"I… sure. I will do what I can." Touma agreed.
"Great. My place is a minute away. You can look at it right from outside the Restaurant. When you are free the next day, I can pick you up or if you want, we can work in the Restaurant too… if the owner permits us." He walked with Touma to the door and went outside first before offering his hands for a handshake again.
Touma took the hand and immediately a cracking sound came from outside.
"What was that?" I asked as he pushed Touma back inside the Restaurant and jumped back in too.
"A cave in. Phew, that was close."
We opened the door a few minutes later and sure enough there was smoke and dust everywhere.
"You can wait here if you want till the fire department clears the place up." I offered.
"Ah… I will be fine. I was just taken aback by the suddenness of the incident."
"You sure?"
….
He looked at us with a grin which looked cocky as fuck. Not exactly annoying but cocky.
"Ahahahaha don't worry… I'm the strongest."
Before he left, he brought out his mobile and sent me a payment.
"This is for the experiment today and twenty percent is the owner's cut. Thanks for the help, Touma-kun, Owner."
I checked the account to find twenty million in my account. Twenty percent of that is… woah.
At that point I remembered something.
He still hadn't told us his name.