Day 2: Mother and Daughter

Ryan threw himself on his bed. The past eight hours have been the most tiring hours of his life. Despite Kiara's yelling and having expectations that were clearly beyond that of human expectations, he actually had a lot of fun. Although Kiara tended to shout a lot, Ryan knew she was doing so in good faith, constantly making lighthearted jokes at his expense and showing genuine concern for him as if she didn't just yell at him for not being able to move 200 pounds of (refrigerated) chicken from outside the joint to the back room in three minutes. Ryan was surprised how down to earth and transparent the billionaire was. She reminded him of… 'Damn it, why do I always go back to that?' Ryan knocked his head a couple times, trying to perish the thought. 'Just go to sleep, moron. I probably have work early again tomorrow. Stupid Tenchou, not giving me a schedule.'

-

Ryan woke up not to the sound of his alarm, but the sound of a phone ringing. 'Great, I guess mom's going to chew me out now,' he thought to himself, reaching for his phone. For the past couple months, Ryan's mom would be the only one who would call him, only to chew him out for his lifestyle. He wasn't sure how she was going to react to him getting a job. Either she would be really happy or get mad and would insist that he could do better.

It came as a surprise when a random number popped up. It could just be one of those spam calls, but Ryan figured that he should answer anyways. He was an adult now and taking phone calls was part of being an adult. He pressed the green button and put the phone to his ear. "Hello?"

"KIKKERIKIII~!!!" Kiara's voice came out so loud, Ryan had to move the phone away from his ear.

"Oh, hello Tenchou," Ryan looked at his phone. "What do you need? It's like 5 am. Also, how did you get my number?"

"Don't worry about it," Kiara said cheerfully. "I need you at the site in five. Your training isn't complete yet."

"You're kidding, right?" Ryan asked.

"Nope!" Kiara chirped, popping the p. "Now get your ass over here before I get your ass over here!"

Ryan gaped at the phone as the line went dead before sighing. 'This is my life now,' he thought to himself as he forced himself to get out of bed.

-

"You've been doing well," Kiara said, munching on a fried chicken leg. "I can taste it."

"Yeah, yeah," Ryan put another set of chicken in the fryer. "I've been at this for three hours. How are you able to eat all of the chicken I'm making?"

"I'm just that good," Kiara winked at her sl- employee, throwing the eaten chicken bone in the trash.

As Ryan started to think of a witty comeback, the doors slammed opened. "Konpeko, konpeko, konpeko!" A short girl with an unusually high-pitched voice and bunny ears barreled through the door. The girl had blue hair with carrots braided into them. She wore a light blue dress with pieces of fluff at the bottom. "Usada Pekora has arrived!"

"Pekora-senpai!" Kiara all but squealed, running over to the counter. Usada Pekora… the name rung a bell in Ryan's head. He remembered reading an article about Usada Construction back when he was trying to trade stocks for a living instead of getting an actual job. Apparently, sometime six months ago, the stocks for the company almost doubled when the new CEO, Usada Pekora took over the position from her late father.

'Jeez, why do so many famous people show up here?' The Ryan from two years ago would have beamed at the opportunity to meet so many celebrities, but the Ryan now is just tired of everything. Sure, it's still surprising to meet all of these people at a KFP of all places, and frankly, jumping out of his skin in excitement was probably a good thing.

"Ah, if it isn't Kiara-chan," a taller woman walked in, not far behind Pekora. Her hair color matched that of Pekora's flowing all the way down her back. Her yellow eyes matched that of Pekora's, though hers shone with fondness in experience while Pekora's were full of excitement and energy. She wore a yellow sundress with an apron, a carrot sewed into the center.

"Hi, Pekomama!" Kiara chirped, closing her eyes and smiling widely. "It's nice to finally meet you in person!"

Ryan walked out over to the counter, holding a tub of fried chicken. "Hello, my name is Ryan Shade," he introduced himself. "Would you like this very nice tub of fried chicken?"

"No!" Kiara swiped at the tub of chicken, but Ryan raised the tub out of Kiara's reach. "Those are mine! Mine!"

"Tenchou, we have customers," Ryan sighed, already getting used Kiara's antics. "They take priority."

Pekora laughed out loud at that. Ryan noted that her laugh was very… unique, but who was he to judge? She was a billionaire and he just recently lost his status as a NEET. "It's okay-peko," Pekomama replied. "We're herbivores. Some carrots would be nice, though."

"I'll deal with it!" Kiara offered. "You've been working for three hours straight. Take a break and talk with the customers here."

"Ah, so kind-peko," Pekomama chuckled to herself.

"I know Kiara-peko-chan," Pekora said, laughing to herself. "She probably called him in an hour before opening."

"How did you know?" Ryan asked, genuinely startled. Why did so many people know so may things about him? First his phone number, now his schedule. He doesn't even know Pekora.

"Kiara-chan is known for pulling things like this-peko," Pekora replied. "It's become an inside joke. She cares for her employees but is infamous for giving them overtime and low wages-peko."

"Those seem to contradict each other," Ryan deadpanned.

"I heard that!" Kiara's voice rang from the back room, causing all three of them to burst out laughing.

"So, Ryan, tell me about yourself-peko," Pekomama said, a gentle smile on her face.

"Oh, I'm nothing special," Ryan replied, waving a hand dismissively. "I'm just some NEET who finally got off his ass and got a job. I was born in America, but that's about the only thing interesting about me."

"You must be special, otherwise Kiara-chan wouldn't have hired you for this job-peko," Pekora said, looking into Ryan's eyes. Even knowing Pekora for only a few minutes, Ryan could tell this was out of character for her. Even Pekomama gave Pekora a confused look.

"What do you mean?" Ryan asked, deciding whether he should be confused, scared, or both.

"That's enough of that!" Kiara burst through the door with two bowls of boiled carrots, place it in front of the two rabbit girls.

"Tenchou, what is she talking about?" Ryan turned his head to look at his boss. Ryan didn't know why, but Pekora's attitude unsettled him. When Pekora was looking into his eyes, he felt exposed. As if his soul was an open book and she was just casually reading it.

Kiara sighed. "You'll find out eventually," she said. By her expression, Ryan concluded that she didn't want to talk about it.

"Whatever you say, Tenchou," Ryan grumbled. He really wanted to trust his boss, but already keeping secrets was kind of a red flag.

"You seem like a very kind young man-peko," Pekomama said, trying to lighten up the mood.

"O-oh," ominous prophetic messages instantly forgotten, Ryan's face immediately reddened. Even after all these years, he still sucked at taking compliments. Probably because he never received much of them in the first place. "Thank you…"

"It's just the truth-peko," Pekomama smiled, putting a hand over her mouth.

"What about me?" Kiara pouted. "I want compliments too!"

"Well, Kiara-chan, you are very cute-peko," Pekomama even put a hand on Kiara's head, rubbing it a little, causing Kiara to giggle excitedly as a response. For some reason, Ryan felt a twinge of jealousy. He suppressed it on the thought of a billionaire CEO acting like a lost puppy begging for pats.

At that moment, Ryan shuddered. He felt as if being watched. He looked over at Kiara, who seemed to be looking at the door, her eyes wild with fear. Ryan honestly wondered what could scare her, considering the giant scythe and the eldritch tentacles from the day before failing to even faze her. She followed her eyes to see a girl with long, purple hair and a gaze that could kill a dragon piercing Kiara with her eyes. She slowly entered the room, extending her arm to her side diagonally. A white light started to glow as a rapier formed into her grip. As the light faded into a powerful blue aura surrounding the blade, she pointed it at Kiara. "She's mine."

Kiara took the badge from her shirt and the little badge on her belt and held them in front of her. One of the badges blazed to life, creating a plasma sword that was shaped like a lance if it was a bladed weapon rather than a cone. The other formed into a shield, the few solid parts being weaved together with energy. "Don't take my senpai away from me!"

Ryan turned to Pekora and Pekomama. While Pekomama looked thoroughly distressed, Pekora didn't do much other than nervously laugh. "Well would you look at the time-peko!" Pekora grabbed her mother's arm and snapped her fingers, a blinding blue light shining throughout the establishment. Ryan averted his eyes, and by the time he looked back, Pekora and Pekomama were gone.

"You're safe for now," The purple haired girl growled at Kiara. "But believe me, I will be eating fried chicken tonight."

"If so, please remember that we are selling our Phoenix Fire Chicken combo for only 850 yen!" Ryan said, putting on his best customer service voice. What the hell was he doing? The crazy girl had a sword! He was going to die because he made some cheeky joke to a psychopath.

'Oh well,' Ryan resided to his fate. If I go out, 'I might as well go out laughing.'

The crazy girl just gave Ryan a look before turning around and stalking off, weapon in hand. Ryan gave a deep sigh of relief as she faded from view. Kiara, on the other hand, burst out laughing.

"Jeez, kid! You have spunk!" Kiara said between laughs, slapping Ryan on the back.

"Don't call me a kid," Ryan grumbled. "You look younger than me."

"I'm much older than I look," Kiara said matter-of-factly. "Plus, you shouldn't bring up a woman's age, ya know? You're never going to get a girlfriend like that."

"I don't even want a-" Ryan cut himself off when he realized who he was talking to. "Oh crap."

"That's two hours of overtime for you!"

-

Ryan forced himself to take another step. The bed was only three feet away. He could do this. He crouched, as if preparing to hunt a piece of prey before lunging towards the bed. Of course, he didn't end up lunging. What he did was more akin to stumbling and tripping onto the bed.

"Finally," Ryan groaned as his muscles seared in pain. "I can sleep."

As if the universe was trying to play some sort of sick joke on him, Ryan heard a knock on the door at that very moment.

"Ugh, death take me now," Ryan grumbled. Meanwhile, a pink-haired reaper cringed. "On second thought, I'll pass."

He stumbled over to the door and opened it. "Man, can this wait until tomorrow?" He said before looking at the person at the door. To his surprised, it was a man fully armed in SWAT gear. What the hell did the police want with him? He certainly wasn't dangerous enough to warrant a SWAT team.

"Hello, I am from the Magical International Liberation Foundation, otherwise known as MILF," the man said. Ryan had to remind himself the man had an automatic rifle when he said the abbreviation. "We have reason to believe that you have made contact with a large number of magical beings. Is this true? And if so, would you happen to know their location?"

What. The. Hell. First the phone number, then the schedule, now this. Fool him once, shame on you. Fool him twice, shame on him. Fool him three times, and he was growing tired of this stuff real quick. He then thought of the repercussions of his next action. These guys were probably with the United Nations. The United Nations wanted to eradicate magical beings to return to the status quo.

Ryan remembered the past two days. They had been exceedingly weird, definitely life threatening, and had been more work that Ryan had ever put in his life. Despite that, he remembered everyone that had come in. Gura's innocent smile, Ame's constant desire to "ground pound" his mom (whatever that meant), Calli's antics, Ina's bad jokes, Pekora's quirky laugh, Pekomama's gentle smile, and Kiara. Kiara had given Ryan a chance when most of society would scoff at him. Most of society did. Even his parents didn't really like him, but yet he found peace at his new job. Well, as peaceful as having his life threatened at least once a day. 'Ah, sod it,' he thought.

"Sir, this is a KFP drive-thru," Ryan deadpanned. Again, if he was going to go out, he was going to go out laughing.

"I guess that is a no," the man said. Ryan gave him a nod. "I see, thank you for your cooperation."

The man closed the door and Ryan sighed again with relief as he heard the footsteps fade. This probably wasn't good. He needed to warn Kiara, but first, he needed rest. Today had been a hell of a day.