168 Team, Meat, Greet

With a glance outside, Mitsuna could see that sundown was a good few hours away.

With nothing better to do, she put on her clothes, grabbed her glasses and left her room.

Now with some pretty pennies to her name, she chose to walk around and shop a little.

Striding through the groups of people moving on the street, Mitsuna explored some streets and locations she had yet to visit.

With a turn to the left and a swift walk through an alleyway, she found a cafe of sorts on the corner of the alley. The wooden sign was scratched, dented and old enough to look like a relic. The only readable part of the sign only had the letter D.

Through the window of the door, Mitsuna could see the light of a few lamps. She couldn't hear anything from inside and all the movement she sensed was that of a single person.

Feeling a little pull from the place, she entered without much thought. The bell hanging above the door rang as she opened it.

The inside of the cafe was clean and tidy unlike the sign outside.

Tables with cloth covering the surface and chairs with pillows on them. Each seat was accompanied by a metal fork and a metal knife.

On the other side of the room, there was a small bar where an old man standing straight and tapping on the wooden counter with his index finger.

It was nice and quiet.

Mitsuna moved to the bar without so much as a word, the old man didn't greet her, only gazing at her eyes for a moment when she opened the door.

Sitting down behind the counter, Mitsuna opened her mouth to speak and say hello to the old man but before she could even get a word out the old man placed a menu on the counter.

'Drinks and Cake.'

Those were the only things one could buy here. Alcoholic, non-alcoholic, fizzy and so on. The cake section had a similarly large amount of choices.

The prices weren't that high and the options for cakes all sounded rather high-class.

Pointing towards the iced coffee and cheesecake options, still silent as ever, Mitsuna saw the old man only send a glance at the menu before taking it back and turning around.

He opened a small cupboard filled with ice and reached his entire hand in. It seemed to be bigger on the inside than on the outside.

The old man then took out a whole entire cheesecake before cutting a piece off and placing it on a plate. Garnishing with some strawberry and chocolate sauce, he placed the plate of cheesecake in front of Mitsuna before grabbing a cup of iced coffee from below the counter almost as if summoning it from an Inventory.

With the coffee and food presented, the old man reached out his palm where Mitduna placed the appropriate amount of coins.

Receiving some change, the old man moved away slightly before looking towards the door. He again started tapping his finger on the counter.

'Like he's waiting for someone.'

Mitsuna thought before turning her gaze back to her 'breakfast'. The cheesecake had the name 'Dan' written on it with melted chocolate.

'Name of the place I guess. Dan's Cafe Or just Dan?'

She wondered as she started enjoying her meal in the unbreakable silence of the place.

She thought about starting a conversation but felt as if she shouldn't, considering how much focus the old man was placing on watching the door of the place.

The cake and coffee were well made, Mitsuna hadn't had anything of this quality in a long while.

After finishing everything, she turned her gaze to the old man yet he was still completely focused on the door.

'I wonder what this guy's story is.'

She thought before standing up and leaving with a small wave of the hand.

Returning to the alleyway, sound suddenly filled her ears as she could hear the hustle and bustle of the surroundings. Not only that, it also felt like her hearing was slightly enhanced. However, the difference was so very slight that it could have just been the sudden change in sound levels.

Looking at the sign of the cafe, Mitsuna committed the name and place to memory before walking off.

Down to a nearby street, through the crowd of people, she could see a shop with a metal sign of a burning bullet.

Intrigued, she walked to the shop without much of a care and entered without a second of hesitation.

It seemed to be a good quality shop. Multiple differently coloured cases of ammunition littered the displays. Some bullets seemed to be for revolvers, others for rifles and larger cases seemed to just hold bombs.

Walking to a display, she looked through each case.

'I did find out that throwing bullets actually works... or rather flicking them works to some degree. I should get a case or two for my gun and a case of higher calibre bullets to test out this new attack method. It would definitely catch opponents off guard if I just started chucking bullets at them with no gun in hand.'

She came to a conclusion as she landed on the price of a case of Shadow Magic bullets.

'... I'll just get regular bullets for my gun... Maybe a small case of Fire Magic bullets or something for tossing.'

With her mind made up, she turned and walked over to a person who seemed to work there.

Giving the guy the details of what she wanted, specifying the details of the magic bullets and getting the estimated price of her purchase, Mitsuna went on to pay as she carried the large cases of bullets with one hand, having them lean onto her chest since she didn't want them to fall and explode or something, and paying with her other hand.

As she did so, she heard a slight commotion coming from her right.

"Sir, again, there is no recorded Bullet Maestro working with our store that creates Ice Magic bullets such as these."

"Well, it seems like no store works with said Bullet Maestro then! I've been to every bullet store from Richwoman's Gultch to the Capital and not one has heard of this Maestro. For someone so skilled and seemingly influential, isn't it suspicious for no one to have heard of or worked with them?"

A man seemed to be arguing with an employee while waving around a bullet.

'Isn't that one of mine?'

Mitsuna thought as she looked at the bullet in his hands.

'Ah. Ice Bullet. Might be the one I shot towards that one group who was fighting a bunch of insects out in the desert.'

She concluded as she turned back to the employee helping her and receiving her change.

"Thanks."

She said as she started holding the cases of bullets with both hands.

With another glance at the loud man who was waving a bullet she had made around, she walked out of the store while carefully holding the cases of bullets so that they wouldn't fall.

Opening the doors and walking through, she cleaned her hands with a clap as she stored away the bullet cases.

Looking up at the sky, she could see that sundown was now a little while away.

Deciding to just show up early and take a nap or have some more food if she could, Mitsuna started walking to the Northern gate.

On the way there, she splurged a little and bought a few kebabs. 5 in total as she felt a little hungry.

Finishing her second as the gate became visible, Mitsuna narrowed her eyes as she noticed everyone that was standing there waiting.

'And I even decided to show up early...'

Mitsuna thought with dismay while taking another bite of one of her kebabs.

Walking closer to the group of soldiers and other military individuals who were there for some reason or another, Mitsuna greeted them.

"Hey."

Taking another bite of one of her kebabs, she could see all eyes turn to her.

All the soldiers who were standing in a straight line gazed at her while the few people who seemed to be higher ranked in the military affairs of the country glared at her, one of them facepalmed while shaking his head.

'Maybe it's my outfit... Nah.'

Mitsuna thought as she made eye contact with the General who made her come all the way out here. It wasn't really that far but oh well.

Moving on from the facepalm and rubbing the bridge of his nose, the General looked at Mitsuna.

"Sniper..."

"What? I came early."