When Saitama came in that day, Genos wasn't with him.
That surprised Yuto a little.
He knew how attached Genos usually was — at the restaurant the young man was endlessly respectful, handing Saitama his chopsticks and spoon before he could reach for them, hovering like a devotee before his god.
"Yo, Saitama!"
"Huh? No Genos today?"
"Yeah, that's rare!"
Ainz and Rimuru had the same question Yuto did.
Under the light, Saitama scratched his gleaming bald head and gave a simple, goofy smile, the very picture of an airhead.
"Genos went to get some parts replaced today, so he stayed home." He dropped onto the seat beside Ainz and Rimuru.
"Eh?! He can replace parts?!" Rimuru looked genuinely stunned.
"Yeah. Shocked me the first time I heard it, but Genos is a cyborg, so I guess it's normal." Saitama said it with the same silly grin.
Yuto found himself quietly impressed.
Cyborgs really were convenient.
If any part of the body could be swapped out whenever it wore down, then in theory — keep replacing the parts, and couldn't a person just go on living forever?
"Come to think of it," Saitama said, "it's rare to see you two not glued to a game."
"Hatsune-chan is coming later!" Rimuru burst out. "Of course we can't miss her because we're busy playing games!"
"Exactly, exactly." Ainz nodded along.
Saitama looked as if that explained everything. "Oh, right — did you two go to Hatsune's concert today?"
"Of course!"
"Obviously!"
"Oh. It must've been amazing."
"Saitama, you really should've come! It was a once-in-a-lifetime thing!"
"Mm. It was excellent."
Saitama scratched his head as he listened.
Truthfully, given the choice between a concert and a few more hours of training, he'd take the training.
"Let me tell you—" Rimuru couldn't hold still, already winding up to recount the entire afternoon in detail.
Yuto stepped in before it could. "Let's figure out what Saitama wants to eat first."
Saitama turned, as if he'd only just remembered. "Oh, right, I almost forgot. Pork cutlet rice today. Toss an extra egg in there too!"
"No udon?"
"Had a little extra coming in lately. Figured I'd treat myself for once." He smiled.
Lately, with all the time he'd spent out cutting down monsters, the Hero Association had handed him a fair bit of bonus money.
"All right, coming up. You three keep chatting." Yuto headed for the kitchen.
Rimuru had already caught hold of Saitama and was walking him through the concert in detail, with Ainz adding a comment here and there.
Pork cutlet rice was one of the pricier dishes in an ordinary little place like this.
It carried a certain meaning, too.
In this country, tonkatsu stood for victory — a well-earned reward after hard work.
Yuto took out a cut of pork loin.
He tenderized it with the back of his knife, gave it a short marinade with cooking wine, ginger, and a few other seasonings, then whisked together egg and starch.
Pinching one edge of the meat, he dipped it into the batter, heated the oil, and eased it into the pan.
It hissed the moment it touched the oil.
The cutlet slowly turned gold, the coating puffing up until it looked like a small, swelling balloon.
The smell followed close behind — rich meat threaded with the warm scent of cooked egg, drifting out across the room.
Yuto turned the cutlet with his chopsticks, calm and unhurried. He was long used to the smell by now.
While the cutlet was still frying, the door opened, and the person Ainz and Rimuru had been waiting for all this time finally arrived.
Hatsune hadn't come alone.
Several figures trailed in beside her, and Yuto recognized every one — Luka, Luo Tianyi, and Yanhe.
The four girls set Ainz and Rimuru off at once.
The two kept calling out "Hatsune-chan," over and over, exactly like a pair of fanatical fans.
Everyone else watched them with the same helpless look.
Saitama, sitting beside them, reached out and held them both back. "Hey, hey. Settle down a little, you two."
With him keeping them in check, Ainz and Rimuru reined themselves in — somewhat.
Hatsune and Luka seemed unbothered, but Tianyi and Yanhe looked a little on edge.
It wasn't the pair's excitement that did it; as idols, they were well used to that sort of thing. What unsettled them was the two of them themselves.
One was a full skeleton, the kind of thing that walks out of a movie as the villain.
The other was, apparently, a slime.
For Tianyi and Yanhe, it was the first time either of them had laid eyes on something that wasn't human.
"Did you scare them? Ainz, Rimuru — can't you two be a little more careful?"
Yuto came out just then with Saitama's pork cutlet rice.
One look at the girls' faces and he understood.
He turned on the pair with real irritation, and both of them shrank, caught out and embarrassed.
"Sorry about that. Don't let their looks throw you. The truth is..." Yuto explained the situation, and told the girls that the two armored figures from the afternoon had been Ainz and Rimuru all along.
By the time he finished, the tension had eased from their faces.
Ainz and Rimuru offered their own apologies, and Tianyi and Yanhe were able to look at them calmly now, waving off the whole thing.
"Ehehe. I forgot to tell you two ahead of time." Hatsune gave a small, mischievous, slightly guilty smile.
Behind the others, Luka sighed.
She'd been certain Hatsune had already warned them.
"Honestly — give us some warning next time!" Tianyi sounded a touch put out.
Yanhe only let out a quiet sigh.
Back in the afternoon, when Yuto first met Yanhe, he'd noticed she wasn't one for talking much.
She wasn't cold, though.
The quiet came across more as a modest, reserved nature than anything else.
Hatsune and Tianyi were much alike — both bright, lively girls.
Yanhe and Luka each spoke less, but there the resemblance ended. Luka leaned strong and assertive, Yanhe was the gentler of the two.
"Ah... looks like there aren't any seats together at the counter." Hatsune glanced along it.
Four stools sat empty in all, but scattered apart — and naturally the four of them wanted to sit together.
Yuto looked as well.
Everyone had settled into loose clusters. The Gensokyo group had the front seats, Ainz, Rimuru, and the others held one side, the Hero King and his group had the other.
There simply weren't four in a row.
"Wait — you can sit here! I'll move across, and that'll give you four together!" Rimuru sprang to the far side of the counter, his round body carving an arc through the air like a tossed ball.
There was no way he would let Hatsune and the others end up at some distant table.
If they sat too far off, talking to them would be a pain — and as a fan, of course he wanted to be as close to his idol as possible.
Hatsune blinked, thrown for a second by how fast Rimuru had moved, He had leapt across almost before the words were out.
"In that case... thank you, Rimuru."
She gave him a small, adorable smile.
"Hehehe. Don't mention it." The moment the thanks landed, Rimuru seemed to melt where he sat, his round body sagging with pure delight.
"Then I'll move over with Rimuru too!" The instant Ainz saw Hatsune thank him, he came to the very same decision — announcing it, then hurrying to plant himself beside Rimuru on the far side!
Hatsune froze all over again. "Then... thank you too, Ainz."
A tremor ran through Ainz's old bones as he drew a deep breath.
"It's nothing. This is what I should do!" He looked so upright and pleased with himself that anyone would have thought he'd performed some genuinely noble deed.
That left only Saitama at the original three seats, staring after the two of them, utterly lost.
"Hey, you guys..." He couldn't even find the words.
Soon enough, Hatsune and the other three settled in, and Ainz and Rimuru ended up beside the Hero King's group, seated directly across from Hatsune's.
The two of them looked equal parts bashful and thrilled.
One was a skeleton and the other a slime, but Yuto had spent enough time around them by now to read the mood off them through a hundred small tells.
He could only sigh.
More and more, he got the feeling that Ainz and Rimuru were wandering farther and farther down a very strange road!