Chapter 123 - Lunch

"You're here." Sayuri greets Fumio who just arrived at the private dining room that she reserved for the two of them.

"Hi." Fumio greets back with a smile before sitting on the floor across the table from Sayuri.

"I'm surprised. I thought you'd be very busy. You're still in your boss woman attire." He remarks, noticing Sayuri's pantsuit attire, looking the part of an executive.

"Came here straight from the office." Sayuri shrugs.

"But you. Why are you wearing a fancy kimono? Don't tell me you dressed up for this?" She asks, amused.

"This is my work attire." Fumio shrugs.

"Hah. Good one. What kind of an entertainment agent wears kimonos for work?" Sayuri scoffs.

"Well, my client is an oddball." Fumio does not bother to explain his Muscle Masters uniform.

It has been a month since Sayuri's rescue from the Hasegawa and today being the end of the month, also comes the two's monthly lunch date.

The two initially thought that with Sayuri out of the clan, they would be spending more time with each other, but they are only half right.

Ever since Sayuri started working for Tezguniuth, she and Fumio rarely spend time with each other. She has been busy handling the construction of three locations of Red's future coffee shops. She was so busy that she only got to sleep an hour or two a night; half of her usual full night's sleep.

Fumio meanwhile has also been busy day and night. During the day, he is cooped up in Muscle Masters, serving customers, studying the basics of Reds herbology and herbal compounding, or has been teaching Haruto the 16 basic poses and massaging the young man's meridians.

During the night, he is focused on cultivating and consolidating a True Elixir Sea.

"Right… As if you didn't ask my boss." Sayuri scoffs.

"I didn't though?" Fumio is confused.

"You didn't?" Sayuri is confused too.

"You sure? He gave me the rest of the afternoon off to, using his own words, 'hang out with Fumio'." She asks.

"No… Wait…" Fumio's mind churns and immediately reaches a guess.

He figures that Tezguniuth must have heard from Kotone or Xoz'gekal his rescue of Sayuri all started out from a missed lunch date.

"Okay. He must have remembered huh." Fumio uses his realization to come up with a lie.

"Remembered?" Sayuri asks.

"Yes. Was it the end of June? Or July? He asked me out to lunch, but I refused. I can't come up with a lie, so I told him the truth. That you and I were going to have lunch. After I explained why it was special to me, I guess it must have stuck with him." Fumio lies smoothly.

"Ah…" Sayuri is enlightened but at the same time, moved that Fumio refused to have lunch with a powerful and smart 'superioris' like Tezguniuth, to have lunch with her.

"W-well. I didn't think he couldn't be any nicer. I would have asked and insisted to take the afternoon off, and it would have made things awkward." She is planning on thanking Tezguniuth some time.

"Yeah. I'll invite him out to lunch some time as a thanks... Let's order?" Fumio wants to stop lying.

"I already did. My treat, my food choices." Sayuri says in a playfully stern manner.

"Whatever. You know good food." Fumio shrugs, knowing Sayuri's taste.

"Instead…" Sayuri takes something from under the table and puts it the table.

"…" Fumio is taken aback by what looks like a gift. A small one, but is wrapped in a fancy looking box. It even has a ribbon on top of it.

"What's that?" He cannot help but ask, unsure if what he is seeing is what he hopes it to be.

"A gift of course." Sayuri says as she slides over the box closer to Fumio.

"For what?" Fumio asks, feeling taken aback and pleasantly surprised at the same time.

"…" Sayuri gets confused at Fumio's reaction.

"What's up with you? It's not like I'm bribing you." She cannot help but ask.

"Ah…" Fumio catches his own reaction.

"Of course, not… Thank you, nee-san." He gently puts his hand on top of the box.

"Don't thank me just yet. Why don't you open it first?" Sayuri asks in hidden excitement.

"Okay." Fumio starts unwrapping the present.

Sayuri while watching Fumio, gets confused even more. She sees that Fumio is too gentle at untying the ribbon as if he is afraid of leaving folds on it. She also notices that Fumio's hands seem to be slightly trembling as if the lid of the box he is lifting is kilograms heavy. Finally, she sees Fumio look inside the box with an unreadable expression with  his lower lip is trembling.

"H-how is it?" She asks in worry.

"It looks good." Fumio nods.

Sayuri, seeing the subtle but genuine smile from Fumio, is relieved.

"Well? Try it on…" She urges.

"Alright." Fumio then removes the watch he received from Red from his wrist and puts it on the table. He then takes the brand-new watch inside the box, which is Sayuri's present, and gently wears it on his wrist.

The watch is silver in color including the watch bracelet. While it does not have intricate design and is displaying a minimalist look, it would look suitable for any occasion.

"You really know your stuff about watches." Fumio thanks Sayuri after appreciating it.

"Even though I can't afford luxury watches, this one will last decades." Sayuri is proud of Fumio's assessment.

The reason why she chose a watch to gift Fumio is because she is an expert in it, having managed Hasegawa's watch store for years.

"Thank you. I like it." Fumio says as he starts adjusting the time in it.

"That's a relief. I was worried because you looked like you were defusing a bomb." Sayuri can now relax.

"Was that how I looked?" Fumio is amused.

"How long has it been since I received a gift? Like, a REAL gift? Ten years ago or so? I can't help but look awkward." He chuckles.

He received gifts from Red like seal-imbued clothes and trinkets, but Red insisted many times that those are not to be treated as gifts. Red said it so many times that Fumio is forced to simply treat the things he received from Red as 'company-issued' things. 

" 'Ten years ago…' 'or so…'" While he said those words in passing, Sayuri is taken aback hearing them.

"… Wasn't that…" She starts calculating and shortly comes up with a connection.

"…your genpuku?..."

She is referring to the ceremony that the Hasegawa or any other clan that descended from nobility practice. It marks the transition of a child to adult status in the clan. Fumio underwent his genpuku at a relatively young age of thirteen.

"Uhuh…" Fumio nods.

"But looking back, is a clan-issued wakizashi really a gift?" He shrugs.

"…" Sayuri is speechless.

She knows that non-superiori clan members did not have it as good as the superiori members, but for Fumio to not receive a gift even from their parents, is a shock to her. She always thought that because their family celebrated Fumio's birthday, it was a given that Fumio was also given some gifts. This realization makes her wish she could have given Fumio gifts while he was in the clan.

"Anyways. I hope you didn't break the bank with this, Nee-san. It looks expensive." Fumio takes off his new watch and puts it back in the box.

"Wow…" Sayuri rolls her eyes.

"What?" Fumio is confused by Sayuri's reaction.

"I guess you find my watch too cheap to wear instead." Sayuri says as she picks up the watch that Red gave Fumio and takes a closer look at it.

"This, if I'm not wrong, belongs to Grand Makoto's Dash Line." She says as she looks at the back of the watch.

"I don't know what that means." Fumio tilts his head and knowing Sayuri's expertise, waits for an explanation.

"Grand Makoto is Makoto's luxury brand, and Dash Line is one of their latest design series. This looks brand new too. Did you buy it?" Kotone asks.

"No. Someone gave it to me." Fumio corrects her.

"I thought you didn't receive a gift in ten years?" Sayuri asks.

"I said 'real' gift. My two… colleagues also received the same watch. It's more like receiving a giveaway than a gift." Fumio explains.

While he is appreciative and thankful of the things he received from Red, he feels the lack of sentiment from them compared to Sayuri's excitement, worry, and happiness in giving him the newer watch.

"Wow… A 2-million-yen watch is a give-away?" Sayuri is surprised.

"2 million?" Fumio is surprised too.

But comparing it to his earnings in the four months as Muscle Master's master, which sums up to 14 million yen, he realizes that he can afford it himself, although he would have to grit his teeth to buy one.

What makes the watch's value drop even more in his eyes however is why it was given to him in the first place. The watch is only a glorified receptacle that came along with the demon core that Red gave him, which could possibly sell ten times the price of the luxury watch.

While he wants to refrain from using the demon core to recharge his reserves or to cultivate, he still finds it valuable. The watch can be ran over by a truck for all he cares as long as the demon core is fine.

"Oh well. My boss is rich. Makes sense." He finds an excuse how such a luxury watch ended in his possession.

"Wow. You're big time now." Sayuri is amused by Fumio's dismissal of the watch's price.

"Big time? Nah. I've just seen bigger things." Fumio chuckles.

"This expensive watch can go fuck itself. The watch you gave me is priceless." He assures Sayuri.

"…" Sayuri is pleased with Fumio's words.

*knock* *knock*

"Excuse me." The two suddenly hear someone outside the room's door.

"Our food?" Fumio asks.

"Yeah." Sayuri nods and "Come in.", orders the server in.

Soon, a petite lady, with two tall men following behind her, enter the room, carrying trays of food with them.

"You… why'd you order that much? You already spent a lot on the watch." Fumio asks Sayuri.

He feels burdened being treated to what looks like a kaiseki meal. Although the kaiseki meal is the casual type, it is still a master craft of a sumptuous feast and therefore is very expensive. Even though he has an idea of the salary that Tezguniuth is giving Sayuri, he suspects that this meal, in addition to the watch, put a hole in her wallet.

"Special occasion. My first paycheck outside the clan." Sayuri dismisses Fumio's concern.

"Don't worry. I'm not as rich as you. This will be rare from me." She adds.

"Aight…" Fumio accepts it for now.

Suddenly, *clank* one of the male servers setting up the table accidentally topples one of the saucers, spilling soy sauce.

"Sorry." He apologizes immediately.

"It's fine." Fumio waves the apology off, but he observes the servers as he immediately noticed something strange with them.

First, the food is not that much that it requires three servers to set up the table.

Second, Fumio figures that the servers seem to be inexperienced basing on their rough and overly cautious movements; ones that should not be serving customers in private dining rooms.

And finally, he feels as though there is a snake in the room that is ready to strike at any moment.