"Yume Miya…"
After exiting the bustling labyrinth of Oshiage Station, Kasumigaoka Touji consulted his phone's map and walked for a few minutes through the lively Sumida streets. He soon arrived at his destination: a restaurant with an elegant, understated sign bearing the name 'Yume Miya'—Dream Shrine.
The establishment lived up to its name. It was sleek and modern, with a floor-to-ceiling glass curtain wall that offered a glimpse into a serene, plant-filled interior. Inside, the tables were cleverly separated by lush, tall greenery and high-backed, plush sofa seats, creating intimate nooks that promised extreme privacy.
Perfect, Touji thought with immense satisfaction as he pushed the door open. This is exactly the kind of place I love.
A soft chime announced his entry, and a polite server greeted him with a bow. After confirming his reservation, he was led through the verdant, hushed aisle.
"I'm sorry, I'm late," he announced as he arrived at the secluded booth.
There, waiting for him, was Kani Nayuta. But looking at the table, his apology turned into a tone of surprise. "Didn't I tell you to order some things to grill first? Why are you just sitting here waiting for me like a proper lady?"
The table before her was conspicuously bare save for a single tall glass, half-full of a dark, fizzy drink—root beer, her favorite. Not a single plate of meat or vegetable, not even the telltale glow of charcoal in the built-in grill at the table's center.
Hearing his voice, Kani Nayuta instantly turned her head. A bright, sunbeam-like smile illuminated her face, making the carefully arranged potted ferns around them seem to glow a little brighter. "Welcome, Winter-sensei!"
Her hands were resting demurely on the table. She was wearing the soft white knit sweater he had vaguely imagined, its long, wide sleeves almost swallowing her hands. Only her delicate fingers, peeking out from the fuzzy white cuffs, were visible as they held the cool glass of root beer. The overall effect was incredibly… moe. She looked cozy, cute, and utterly charming.
"I did order," she insisted, her smile turning slightly sly. "It just hasn't been delivered yet. I was actually just looking around the area and only got here myself a few minutes ago."
Kasumigaoka Touji wasn't fully convinced; he suspected she'd wanted to wait so they could start the meal together. The thought warmed him. He smiled back, sliding into the plush sofa seat opposite her.
As he settled, she raised a sleeve-shrouded hand to point at the sleek digital ordering tablet mounted beside their table. "I didn't order much, Winter-sensei. You should take a look and add whatever you like."
"Alright, let's see what the great Kani-sensei has chosen first," he said playfully. He casually slipped his bag off his shoulder and set it aside, then tapped the tablet's screen to life. A few more taps brought up their current order.
Her claim was accurate. She hadn't ordered much, but what she had chosen was impressively discerning. The list included corn, potato slices, skirt steak (harami), beef flank (sasami), and tiger prawns—one portion of each.
However…
"You're quite the connoisseur, aren't you?" Kasumigaoka Touji looked up at her with genuine, appreciative surprise.
These weren't random picks. Each item was a prime candidate for the grill. Cuts like skirt steak and beef flank were practically born for yakiniku, prized for their rich flavor and ideal texture when kissed by charcoal fire. And tiger prawns, with their firm, sweet flesh, grilled to perfection… She had bypassed all the filler and gone straight for the good stuff.
Kani Nayuta's chest puffed out with a pride that was both adorable and, given the thinness of her sweater, dramatically accentuated. "Of course! As your number-one fan, my taste is naturally more refined than an ordinary person's!"
The "ample fruits" she spoke of, wrapped in the soft white knit, made their presence strongly known with her movement. Kasumigaoka Touji's keen eyes even caught, for a fleeting second, a hint of darker fabric beneath the white—a tantalizing glimpse that sent the imagination into overdrive.
A perfect phrase popped into his head: Pure and seductive!
That was Kani Nayuta in this moment—a blend of innocent charm and deliberate, captivating allure. He allowed himself a moment of unabashed appreciation, the look in his eyes saying everything his words didn't, before turning his attention back to the tablet.
"Well then, let's complement the expert's selections," he murmured, his fingers tapping the screen. "Marbled beef (shimofuri)… we definitely need a portion of that. The ribeye looks good too… Oh, premium thick-cut beef tongue? One of those as well… Fresh squid, why not…"
"Sensei, maybe we should start eating what's already coming?" Nayuta interjected gently, watching the list grow. "If we order too much at once, there won't be any space on the table later, and some things might get cold."
"Hmm, good point." His eyes scanned down. "Ah, grilled rice cakes (yaki mochi). Can't skip those." He added a portion and finally hit 'pause' on his ordering spree. "Alright, that should hold us for the first wave."
He made to get up for a drink, but Kani Nayuta was already moving, half-rising from her seat. "What would you like to drink, Winter-sensei? I'll get it for you."
"I can get it myself," he said, standing up. He glanced at her glass. "Do you need a refill?"
"No need, I still have more than half a cup here." She smiled, settling back down.
With a nod, Kasumigaoka Touji turned and made his way back along the green-divided aisle toward the self-serve drink station he'd passed earlier. The restaurant was hushed, the only sounds the soft sizzle of meat from other booths and the low murmur of conversation.
As he walked, a waiter appeared from a side passage, leading two new customers to their table. And then, Kasumigaoka Touji stopped dead in his tracks.
His brain took a full second to process the sight before him.
The two girls following the waiter were in full, hyper-detailed cosplay. Not the casual, photoshoot-in-the-park kind, but the 'walking-into-a-restaurant-on-a-Tuesday-afternoon' kind. And their attire—the level of commitment and exposure—was shocking.
The first one… was she cosplaying some kind of Snake Spirit? He couldn't place the specific character, but the theme was unmistakable. She was petite, maybe 150 centimeters tall, with a cascade of beautiful, straight golden hair. Two large, sky-blue bows were pinned symmetrically on either side of her head. Two strategic strands of that golden hair framed a face that was, like her figure, petite and lovely.
That was where 'normal' ended. Below her slender waist was not a pair of legs, but a slightly chubby, greenish-blue snake tail. The prop was astonishingly high-quality; the scales shimmered under the restaurant lights, and the way it moved was seamlessly integrated. She didn't walk—she undulated, a smooth, serpentine crawl that was both mesmerizing and slightly unnerving. She was, for all intents and purposes, a living, breathing jashin-chan… a malevolent deity in a yakiniku restaurant.
Kasumigaoka Touji's eyes instinctively flicked upward, and for a dizzying moment, he thought he saw a faint, golden exclamation mark hovering above the snake-girl's head. He blinked, and it was gone—a trick of the light, surely. He tore his gaze away to the second cosplayer.
This one appeared to be a Milk Cow Girl. While slightly less skin-baring than the snake, she was no less eye-catching. She had short, bobbed blue hair, vivid red eyes, and a pair of cute, shiny silver horns poking up from her head. She was about Utaha's height, and her figure was just as… formidable.
The 'abundant fruits' were prominently showcased beneath a white T-shirt that boldly proclaimed '100% BEEF' across the chest—a painfully on-the-nose choice for a barbecue joint. She wore a black pleated skirt and a short, cow-patterned jacket. Her legs, even more slender and beautifully shaped than Kasumigaoka Utaha's, were sheathed in mismatched stockings: one in sheer black, the other in a black-and-white, prison-uniform stripe pattern. A perky silver cow tail swayed happily behind her, swishing with each step.
But the most arresting detail was the thick black collar fastened around her neck, from which hung a small, golden bell.
Ding-ling. Ding-ling—
The crisp, cheerful sound accompanied her every movement, a tiny, dissonant soundtrack that made everyone within earshot turn and stare in a mixture of confusion and awe.
'These two… they can't be… Jashin-chan and… Minos, right? From that show…'
Kasumigaoka Touji stared, dumbfounded, as distant memories from another life's anime viewing stirred and surfaced. A cold shock, distinct from the restaurant's air conditioning, trickled down his spine.
He was shocked.
Previously, when Kani Nayuta had casually mentioned that one of her online gaming friends was a girl named Gabriel who claimed to be a true angel, he'd wondered with a sense of dread: Is this world as simple and grounded as it seems?
Now, he had his answer. It was not.
A wave of surreal vertigo washed over him. Fortunately, the characters manifesting seemed to be from the more… benign, comedic, and everyday slice-of-life genre. If Cursed Spirits from Jujutsu Kaisen, vengeful ghosts, or world-ending monsters started popping up, that would be a genuine, life-altering headache. This was bizarre, but perhaps manageable. Perhaps.
"..."
Swallowing hard, Kasumigaoka Touji silently pressed himself against a large potted fern, making room. The snake-girl slithered past him with an effortless, sinuous motion, her tail brushing the floor without a sound. The cow-girl followed, her bell ding-linging cheerfully, her bovine tail giving a happy little flick as she passed.
Once they were by, he let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding. He hurried the rest of the way to the drink station, poured himself a large cup of iced cola, and drank several long, deep gulps. The cold, syrupy caffeine was a grounding sensation.
"It's really an amazing discovery…!" he muttered to himself, the understatement of the century. Shaking his head to clear it, he refilled his cup and made his way back to his booth, his mind reeling.
As he approached his table, he saw a waiter had been there in his absence. The man was using long stainless steel tongs to carefully place glowing, orange-hot charcoal lumps into the central grill basin.
The first wave of ingredients Kani Nayuta had ordered—the corn, potatoes, and gleaming cuts of beef—were now arranged on pristine white plates beside the grill. The sight of real food and the familiar, hungry-making ritual of barbecue brought him sharply back to the present.
He was quite hungry. The savory, smoky aromas wafting from neighboring tables made his stomach growl in anticipation.
The waiter finished and left with a polite bow. The moment he was gone, Kasumigaoka Touji hastened his steps. He set his cola down on the table with a soft clink and was about to take his seat when his peripheral vision caught movement in the adjacent booth.
He glanced over.
And froze.
Jashin-chan and Minos—the snake deity and the cow demon—were seated at the table right next to theirs. The only thing separating them was a half-meter-wide aisle and a modest, leafy fern. He could hear the soft ding-ling of the bell as Minos shifted in her seat.
Kasumigaoka Touji's earlier shock returned, redoubled. He slowly sank into his seat opposite a blissfully unaware Kani Nayuta, his mind now racing on two parallel tracks: one focused on the beautiful girl and the delicious meal before him, and the other screaming that the fabric of reality was decidedly more threadbare than he'd previously assumed.