Prologue: The Grand Reopening

Prologue:
The Grand Reopening

 

One day, sometime after the master’s grandmother dropped by to pass down the restaurant’s key, Aletta stood before the door to Western Cuisine Nekoya as usual.

“Huh…?”

It was the Day of Satur, but something was weird about the well-kept oak door. A written sign hung from it. Aletta tilted her head, bewildered.

“Er, I’m pretty sure this writing is from my world, right?”

Unfortunately, Aletta couldn’t read, so she wasn’t sure what the words on the sign actually said. However, she was certain that they weren’t letters from Western Cuisine Nekoya’s world. Having lived in the capital as long as she had, Aletta was at least familiar with the Eastern Continent’s written language. Thus, she recognized the characters on the sign.

“I wonder what’s going on?”

Confused by the unfamiliar sign on the door, Aletta placed her hand on the knob and turned it. As the door slowly opened, the sound of bells ringing filled the air.

“Hey! Top of the morning.” By this point, the master had a fairly good idea of when Aletta would show up for work, so he always made a point of greeting her with a smile.

As per usual, Aletta was followed by the other waitress who worked at the restaurant on Saturdays.

Good morning.

“Good morning.” After trading greetings with the master, Aletta immediately asked him about what was bothering her. “Um, what’s with the sign on the door?”

“Ah, I just had a thought is all,” the master responded.

Aletta looked puzzled. Although she hadn’t received a proper education, she was no idiot. The master knew full well that she would ask about the new Saturday-specific sign.

“Well, you know that one regular, right? The old gentleman?” the master asked, nodding. “He taught me a thing or two about writing in your language. The sign reads, ‘Nekoya, the Restaurant to Another World.’”

He gazed down at the pocket where he kept the master key his grandmother had passed on to him. It was a special key that worked in opposition with the bell on Nekoya’s door, enabling the master to cut the restaurant off from the other world forever. Should he choose to end the Restaurant to Another World, he could.

 

***

 

After over sixty years of business, Nekoya had completely and totally fallen into the master’s hands and become his and his alone. When that had finally happened, something had crossed the master’s mind.

“Pretty much anything that ain’t from Japan is ‘western cuisine,’ right?”

That was what the master’s grandfather had always said. He’d been born and raised on the mainland, not in Japan, so he hadn’t really nitpicked when it came to the menu. As long as a dish was delicious, it qualified.

According to what his grandfather had told him, the master’s grandmother was from the “other side.” He’d even heard that his grandfather had found her by the ocean or something. Whether that was actually true, who knew?

 

***

 

The master followed the same creed as his grandfather. Although Nekoya supposedly served western cuisine, he was willing to make any recipe, so long as it was delicious.

“I figured it’d be more inviting to put up a sign that folks from your world understand, rather than some sign that none of you guys can even read. I can’t even imagine how suspicious the door must look when it pops up out of nowhere over there.”

For years, the master’s grandfather had drawn a line between the “other side” and the world he lived in. The master didn’t intend to reject that way of thinking, but now that Nekoya employed otherworldly workers, he felt that it was appropriate to bend the rules a little.

Why not be more proactive and help bring the two worlds a tiny bit closer together?

“From now on, on Saturdays, this place’ll be ‘Nekoya, the Restaurant to Another World,’” the master explained.

“Wow! Awesome!”

Understood.

The two young women approved of the master’s words, marking the establishment of Nekoya, the Restaurant to Another World.