Head home... but get side-tracked.

After a few more minutes of cuddling with Miyabi the two of you decide that you should head home and get some rest. Since you’re excused for the rest of the day you decide to make the long walk home. Tomorrow, you and Miyabi were going to be at Hanzo academy, posing as exchange students and siblings. And though your mission was to locate sensitive information about the school, you weren’t sure you wanted to do that.

You had been roped into being an Akunin basically against your will. You don’t necessarily regret being trained in the shinobi arts, but after you graduate, your life would be one that was paved with blood and ****. There was a lot of money in that, but the morality of it made you sick. You had no desire to harm the students at Hanzo academy, because in all honesty you were rooting for them more than yourself.

But now you have these earrings. While they didn’t make you immortal or omnipotent by any means, especially when there was another shinobi out there with earrings too; they did make you able to establish a comfortable life for yourself without bloodshed. It would be no problem at all to walk into the office of a megacorporation’s CEO and say that it was normal for him to send you a cut of his own paycheck every month. With that kind of money, you could get anything you ever really wanted. You could buy and maintain a mansion filled to the brim with gorgeous women you had invited into your harem. You could do this without ever needing to take up arms again, except to defend the ones you loved.

As you walked along the sidewalk of the shopping district, lost in your thoughts, someone caught your attention. She stood about as tall as you with dark green eyes and light brown hair that was down to her neck and curled inward at the ends. Adorning her hair like a crown was a large pink bow. But two things about her were what really caught your eye. Firstly, her tits were huge. If you had to guess, they were probably in the Japanese I-cup range. Your normality to remove back pain must have done wonders for her. The second thing that caught your eye was her outfit. She was wearing a French maid costume that had a pleated knee-length skirt and a very low-cut top that showed off an incredible amount of cleavage.

You were staring.

“Hello there, sir.” Her voice was delicate but seductive, a true siren’s song. “Do you like what you see?” She winked and put her hands behind her head, puffing her chest out more.

“Uh,” was all you could manage to utter in reaction to her forwardness.

“There’s more sights like these inside if you’re interested. Very good tea too.” She winked and gestured to the building behind her.

After prying your eyes away from her curves, with some degree of difficulty, you see the reason she was dressed as she was. The building she gestured toward was a maid café. You had never really considered going into one, not because they didn’t appeal to you, but just because you had always been afraid of someone you knew recognizing you going into one. Everyone knew exactly the kind of people who frequented these places. People like Uchika, or what Uchika will become when he grows old. Now it didn’t matter though. You gave the young woman a smile and walked inside.

You were greeted on the inside by a very different-looking woman. She was shorter, but still had some nice curves, sitting at about an E-cup with alabaster skin and mint-green hair. The most peculiar thing about her was her yellow eyes, which looked like the eyes of a snake. They must be pretty high quality contacts. She wore the same uniform as the woman out front, but this girl also wore a totally deadpan expression. When she finally spoke, her voice was almost robotic.

“Welcome to La Noir café, my name is Hikage and I will be your server. Please follow me.” She led you over to an empty table and set down the menu. You seated yourself and watched as Hikage bowed deeply and walked away toward the kitchen. When you saw her walk away you noticed something about her. She was a shinobi.

When a shinobi goes through training one of the first things they teach you is how to be on guard at literally every moment. Eventually, being on guard becomes your default position. You’re always aware on a subconscious level of where your openings are, what your center of gravity is, when you are breathing in and out, how loud you are breathing, and so on. The difficulty ends up being how to make it look like you aren’t constantly aware of those things, since most people aren’t aware or even care about those things. Someone who is constantly rigid and ready for battle at any moment would stand out. Once you learn this, you can go through everyday life and almost everybody won’t know that you’re constantly thinking about your general readiness. But because all shinobi have gone through that training, they can spot when someone else is faking a casual stance or casual movement, because they have to do it constantly themselves.

You were no exception, and you knew that your server was a shinobi. It was strange though, you knew all of the shinobi from Hebijo, and even just being a shinobi in training awarded you a livable allowance. A graduate shinobi, Akunin or Zennin, definitely wouldn’t need to work multiple jobs to get by no matter what. So, what would a shinobi be doing working at a café? As you were thinking about all of this, you had the menu up pretending to look through its contents carefully.

After a few moments, the last customer had left the café, leaving just you. At this time of day you weren’t surprised, and there didn’t appear to be much staff on duty. You decided to keep your guard up but otherwise not react. The only possible explanation for Hikage being a shinobi and working here would be if she were part of a deep undercover mission, or she was a renegade. Either way, you didn’t really want to cause any trouble. You didn’t have enough loyalty to Akunin in general to care that much about renegades, and you certainly weren’t about to ruin someone’s undercover operation.

After some time Hikage returns to your table. You were acutely aware that the two of you were the only people present inside the main dining area of the café.

“What can we get for you?” She asks from right next to you. You’re about to answer when you suddenly feel something sharp against your neck. You slowly turn your head to meet her gaze. Her expression hadn’t changed much, but there was now a certain animalistic intensity to her expression. “You know I am a shinobi.” She says in a slightly lowered voice.

You gulp and nod. Either you let your guard down for a split second too long or she was really good. There wasn’t much you could do from here aside from summon your wires and slowly move them into a deflecting position. Either way, if things went south, you were leaving here with at least a scar.

“You’re from Hebijo.” She continues. “That used to be my school.” Looks like she was a renegade after all. Definitely not the lesser of two evils here. In fact, she had a pretty good reason to kill you, you were a liability.

“Listen,” you start and you feel her knife press a bit harder into your neck, “I honestly don’t care if you’re a renegade. I’m not going to tell anyone.”

“How can I be sure?” She asks, and she has a good point. You could just be telling her this to get her to let you go, then you could turn around and tell everyone at the academy.

“Let me guess, you left the academy because you didn’t like the way it did things. Maybe you just wanted the freedom to be able to do what you wanted with your life, instead of being **** to follow orders like a pawn.” You were staring into the middle distance now, getting a bit lost in thought again. “I can sympathize with that feeling. I’ve been struggling with it myself. I wouldn’t want to get you killed just because I envied the life you can live but I can’t.”

You felt the blade shake slightly. Her face was just as deadpan as it was before, but her eyes were searching yours carefully. You were beginning to think she wasn’t wearing contacts, the subtle movements of the iris and pupil were too realistic. After a moment, she removed the blade from your neck.

“Look, just to show you how serious I am, my name is Ippan Norizuka. Now you know exactly who to look for if your cover is blown.”

“Who is your sensei?” She asks suddenly, catching you slightly off guard… again.

“Suzune.”

Something flashes in her eyes, and you see her posture get slightly more relaxed. Did she know your sensei? More importantly, did your sensei know about Hikage? That was a strange thought.

“I feel like I can trust you. Hinata’s blade will not taste blood today.” She brings her knife up to her lips and licks the multi-segmented blade with her tongue before folding it into its handle and slipping it inside the sleeve of her uniform. Without saying much else, she takes a seat across from you, keeping her eyes trained on yours.

“Um, aren’t you on the clock?”

“I don’t have emotions, but I can tell you need someone to talk to from the way you were talking earlier. I'm a good listener.”