Destructive Goodwill (Open)

The other day, I had heard from one of my associates who was interested in Japanese culture, at least thats what he claimed to be though everyone else would call him an otaku, that there was a place in this city similar to a certain type of establishment one normally found in Akihabara. Now, while I was no anime freak like the man who told me, I could never pass up the opportunity to see cute girls in even cuter uniforms, so I inquired around as to where exactly I could find this place, and indeed, what the name of it was.

I learned that the place was called Noblesse Oblige, and it indeed was a specific type of themed cafe, a maid cafe to be exact. I figured that given that this was the west, they would have probably nicer maid outfits than some of the cheap ones worn by the girls in the cafes in Akiba, and would probably look better in them. Not to disparage those beautiful girls or their cute uniforms, but nothing compared to a real western maid. They were slightly taller, and probably filled out the uniforms more, so they likely would be more tempting even than the girls in Akiba.

Deciding that today would be the day to go, I headed out ready to have a bit of exercise on my way there only to be greeted by a spring snow. To a normal person, thsi might have deterred them from going out in my normal outfit, but since I was likely going to keep myself warm by running and the cold would just be refreshing, I decided to push on anyway, and began to make my way though the gentle snow at a slightly faster than safe speed. Luckily I was confident enough in my balance that it wouldn't be a problem unless I hit a really thick sheet of black ice.

After a relatively refreshing jog, I approached the Victorian building that hosted this cafe. It seemed that they were even quite accurate with the exterior of the building. Feeling confident in the building, I opened the door and walked into the cafe, greeted by the sight of the inside. The inside definitely matched the exterior, as expected of a maid cafe run by westerners. When I stepped inside, I could tell that there were at least two other ki artists nearby. Interesting, I didn't take this as a place many martial artists would frequent, but I guess there were always oddities like myself.

One of them was right in front of me, but since I wasn't too adept in this, I could only tell that there was another one in the building somewhere. The ki artist in front of me seemed to be a rather tall man, at least half a foot taller than me, and had white hair. It seemed he didn't know that you usually just took a seat in these places and a waitress would come to you. Maybe, it was different in the west, but I decided to talk to him about it anyway. "Usually one just seats themselves in a place like this," I said, giving him a bit of advice before continuing, "I'll be sitting over here in case you want company."

With that, I made my way over to the nearest open table and began to peruse the menu waiting to see if the man would join me or if I would be enjoying the maids by myself. Either way was fine by me.

Shaw merely blinked at the woman, was there proper etiquette to be seating yourself when there were waitress available to direct you to the next possible tale that had no wait times? Shaw did not want to be rude by taking a reserved table or skipping over anyone that was waiting to be seated, but he wasn’t too much of a native to the culture either. “ I appreciate the thoughtful remark, I think I’ll take you up on that offer. “ Though, Shwa was then greeted by a waitress that kind of told him what his original thought was. “So, it’s best to wait for some waitress? “ Shaw would think as he gave the woman a charming smile and gave her a respected bow. “Greetings Miss Hua, thank you in advance for your services. Yes, I will be sitting with my new associate over here. If you don’t mind, I would like to have some hot coco-…..Tea… mint tea. . “



Shaw would usually take a while before ordering, but it seems as if he already knew what he wanted. Hot chocolate and some cookies, but he was hesitant to indulge in one of his favorite treats ever since he was a kid.

”Eeeh…? Hot chocolate mint tea? Um, I’ll do my best, master!” replied Hua awkwardly to Shaw, not at all expecting that kind of request from the formal man. Well, maybe it came with his profession… rich folks were often eccentric, right? Otherwise they wouldn’t come to a maid café in the first place, ahahaha… swishing her skirt to on side in a sort of half-curtesy, Hua gave him a beaming smile – his wish was her command! The power of a meido would make his wishes come true! That’s right, that was what a maid was all about! ”I’m glad you’re happy to sit together! You look like a good pair~”

As Katsumi expected, however; her sudden flirtations would briefly earn a baffled expression from the poor girl – she had been warned about the customer, but… she hadn’t quite been expecting this. Thankfully, although the lady was heavy-handed about it, she wasn’t too rough… being called cute wasn’t exactly something new to the job. ”A-Ah, of course; thank you for the exceptionally kind compliments, mistress! I’ll make you something nice to fire you up again after your run. I’ll be just a moment, so please enjoy the café while you wait!” chirped Hua in return, regaining her composure quickly – and beaming a bit from the flattery. She might be humble, but… she still certainly had an ego.

With a friendly bow, Hua would hurry away; feeling the pressure of her current situation with the café’s boss fall onto her back again… ugh, how was she meant to handle this? She’d have to put in 110%... but she always did! Maybe she ought to get out the extra menus or something… in her hurry, the poor girl would stumble and trip mere steps away from the pair. She always got clumsy when she got stressed! And while in this outfit, it was even worse… blushing brightly, Hua would twirl back onto her feet; hoping her customers weren’t paying attention. Of all places for her styles techniques to come in handy, protecting her modesty while tripping over wasn’t one that had come to her mind while she’d been training…

Thankfully, Hua’s bouts of clumsiness were made up for with her hospitality – in only moments, the girl would return with a pair of coffee mugs on a silver platter, alongside a box under one arm. ”I couldn’t really mix a hot chocolate and a mint tea, so I made a hot chocolate for you with some spearmint leaves with it and a pinch of extra sugar to the drink; so I hope that sort of matches up! If you’d like, I could get you a proper mint tea before you leave… but, I hope this helps warm you up for now, master!” explained the girl as she set Shaw’s dish in front of him – the man would be met with the hot chocolate and spearmint leaves as promised; although the drink itself was perhaps a bit overwhelming. A tower of artfully twirled whipped cream peppered with chocolate chip, alongside a cluster of tiny marshmallows steamed before him, making the leaf look a bit silly by comparison.

Meanwhile, Katsumi would be met with a flat white latte – albeit with a similarly grandiose touch to it. ”I thought a coffee would help you warm up and get energised, so I hope you don’t mind it. It might be a tiny bit strong, but it’s made from the best quality espresso we have here so I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. Oh, and I drew a little picture in it, of course! It’s Super Sonico! It was tough doing her hood as well as her headphones, but it didn’t seem fair to leave her without it~ I think she’s so cool~ I hope you like it, mistress!”

Seeming satisfied with her explanations, Hua gave another bow and another beaming smile. ”Okay, now let me make your drinks perfect! I’ll use my meido magic to make them extra nice for you! Master deserves only the best!” chirped the girl happily; before doing a little twirl and some bizarre little idol dance before the pair –
”Moe moe kyuun~!”
Of course, it was only expected for the customers to play along! Yes, the tall, scary man wearing a military jacket and looking a tiny bit anxious about something (who smelled of sunflowers…? How lovely!) and the tall, scary lady who looked like a lion stalking her prey (and might indeed compete with Hua’s coffee idol in a certain defining trait)… hang on… ”It’ll be e-even better if you two join in t-too…!” cheered the girl awkwardly, looking from side to side at the other two…

Suddenly, this seemed like a really bad idea.

It seemed the girl was either rather nervous or flustered, possibly due to my flirting, as not a few steps from the table she would stumble and fall over. However, before I even had the chance to go over to go over and help her get up, she used some sort of technique to twirl back up onto her feet. It wasn't odd in and of itself, as I knew she was a ki artist, but the way it was far more agile than what she let on was rather intriguing to say the least. Not only that, but I had no idea what kind of style would have something like that, my knowledge actually failing me on that. This would be good if I got a chance to spar with her, an unknown style meant a possible challenge.

It seemed that my companion at the table wasn't introducing himself, no matter. He did, however, mention his style after mentioning he hadn't noticed because he was too preoccupied. For one, a ki artist being too internally preoccupied to feel other ki artists around was rather odd. I had gotten in the habit of always being aware of my surroundings to see if there was someone I might want or need to fight when I was looking around the seedier areas of the town for a match. Most ki artists didn't suppress their ki anyway, and the ones that did were likely to be not any fun to fight.

However, his style was indeed familiar to me, as it was one of the most popular styles in my homeland. Odd that a westerner was practicing it, but then again, it was odd that a ki artist from Japan was practicing Conquering Lord so I couldn't really judge. Though this did bring up some thoughts about how to fight him, One Heaven Infinite was notorious for attempting to finish the fight with one blow and mixing iai attacks with slashes to open a path for another iai attack. That meant I needed to be more focused on the Iai than the slashes, after all those were the heart of the power of the style.

He then began to ask about my own style, stumbling over where it was even from before realizing that it was based on Muay Thai, though he did mispronounce it slightly. That was odd, I figured that most artists would have known about my style, after all it was rather infamous in the world of Ki artists. Figuring I might as well answer his question, I began to speak. "If you're familiar with Muay Thai, then Conquering Lord is essentially a very aggressive form of it with most of our ki techniques focused on enhancing the already formidable strength of Muay Thai strikes," I said, giving him the very basics of it. I didn't want to give him too much more information than that, as I would much rather fight him and have him learn it that way.

However, before I could continue, it seemed that our clumsy ki artist waitress had come back to the table with more grace than she showed when she had left. She brought the man across from me his drink, which was a hot chocolate with mint leaves, and as for what she brought for me, it was an espresso coffee with one of the nice pictures that was expected of a top tier maid cafe drawn in the foam on the top. I wasn't all too familiar with the character in question, but I had seen her around in my homeland before. Either way, it was extremely well done, and I made a mental note to compliment her when everything was done. Right after she put the drinks down and began to chant the customary "magic spell", which was more a tradition to make customers happy than actual magic, and I joined in as was customary for customers, "Moe Moe Kyuuuun~!" Though she forgot a little bit at the beginning, which I forgave given this was a western cafe. I hadn't expected this at all even until I had come in, but the girl's attitude made me think she was more suited for this kind of thing.

However, something had made the man across from me act very strangely. Either he was eccentric to begin with, or he really was a newcomer and thought that maids used actual magic. He also was under some sort of mistaken impression you could do magic with ki, which was honestly silly. The best one could do was make some manifestations, anything other than that required a mage. How did someone not know this kind of thing when they were a member of the coalition? It was rather strange, and I kind of just stared at him a bit strangely before saying this, "You do realize that its not actual magic and you can't do magic with ki, right?" With that I took out my phone and took a picture of the artwork on my phone, before taking a drink from it. It was hot, but nothing undrinkable, and I gave Hua a compliment about it, saying "Not only cute, but good at art and brewing coffee? Your employer is lucky to have you, cutie." With that done, I sipped at my coffee as I waited for the two of them's reactions.

"Hmm? It's not actual magic? Are you certain of that?" Even though Shaw was a highly intelligent man, he could be gullible at times for the most simplest of things. Then it kind of transitioned towards the woman flirting with the waitress once more. Shaw wasn't too sure if she fancied the waitress or if this action was apart of the natural behavior of this person behind him. "hmm..." Shaw would say as he studied the woman for a few moments until the counteraction of the waitress herself claimed that it was magic after all."I knew it! There had to be some sort of secret maid kung fu involving magic, I read it in....what do you call them? Mangas? Fascinating pieces of literature if I do say so myself. " Shaw would utter this as he watched the young waitress perform the forget me knot technique. He was watching her to see if she channeled any sort of Ki in her moves. What amazed Shaw was that she didn't necessarily need it at all.

However, the waitress did manage to tangle herself in the knot. " Hmm..... so the secret to your technique and performing the move, then immediately forgetting how to do it after it's completion. Your school of "Medio Magic" is very strict, it prevents any and all secrets from getting out. Shaw would then stand up for a brief moment and take one of the knives on the table and slicing Hua free in a matter of seconds at a quickened pace. Afterwards he would place it back on the table and take a seat. " Bravo though, you definitely earned a tip. Didn't she... miss... I don't think there were alot of introductions made clear" Shaw would say as he clapped, he was having such a good time today. However, he refused to be rude."My name is Yiaster Shaw, if I didn't introduce myself before.

Shaw’s utmost belief in Hua’s work just cheered the maid on, leaving the girl beaming happily in return for the faith – she was so happy that he was on board with the magic of the café! If only she always got customers like this, it was so lovely an refreshing. ¬”Yeah! Our manga are like our secret knowledge. We keep them locked away so only people dedicated to our craft can learn our amazing secrets. Things like drawing intricate things in coffees and managing to keep marshmallows in hot chocolate symmetrical!” chirped Hua in return, gladly letting Shaw cut her hands free – oh, she’d get in trouble for that ribbon… eh, oh well! She could surely come up with an excuse later.

”It’s a pleasure to serve you, Master Shaw and Mistress Katsumi.” replied Hua upon hearing the pair’s introductions; albeit feeling a bit awkward – she’d already introduced herself, but… she wanted to do it again now! ”I’m Huang Hua, your loyal servant for today! Welcome home, master~!” said the girl happily, as if they’d only walked in all over again… perhaps it was a bit too telegraphed, but it was hard to argue with her ever-genuine smile. She had tips on the way after all by the sound of things, so maybe she could save her job here! Or at least keep a few shifts.

”Ooh, I can definitely do an omelette rice dish. People never tend to buy them here, everyone’s a bit by the book… so, this’ll be exciting! I’ll make it extra special for you, ma’am!” responded Hua to Katsumi’s request, ribbons bouncing along with her nodding head. She’d then turn to Shaw, though; eager to please as always; ”Would you like anything to eat too, master? I’m sure I could find something sweet to match your hot chocolate if you’d like something more filling with it. Or, would you like to play a game? Your wish is my command~”

Doing a little spin on the spot, Hua looked expectantly at the pair; seeming all the more excited now – while most of her co-workers just glanced her way with expressions of concern or exasperation. She really did stick out in the old-fashioned café with her colourful demeanour, even if her outfit might still be relatively by the book… but on a cold day, perhaps a warm reception was just what the place needed. Though admittedly, Hua might burn someone with a reception like hers...