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Soul Eater Not! Chapter 03: Say My Name, Say My Name
So we open INSIDE THE STUDENT CAFETERIA, as a helpful caption informs us. "Soba please," Tsugumi orders, with Anya and Meme lurking behind her.
"So that will be three orders of soba?"
"No. Just one!"
It's me again, Harudori Tsugumi. And once again we are opening with Tsugumi's narration! Right now I'm in the Shibusen student cafeteria. The menu here is huuuuuge and they have food from all over the world, so it's pretty hard for me to decide what to eat, but...
But she ordered a bowl of Japanese noodles anyway. Way to expand your culinary horizons, Tsugumi!
Our Heroes loom over the single bowl of soba that they will have to share. "If we split this between three people it's not going to be enough for any of us," Me-Me observes.
"But even when we combined all of our leftover money, one bowl of plain soba is all that we could afford..."
This is "soba"...? Anya think-bubbles. It looks like nothing more than pasta noodles in consomme soup...
"Oh, that's not going to be enough for all three of you, is it?" Eternal Feather says, suddenly approaching to sit with Our Heroes. "Here, I brought two more bowls for you. Eat up!"
"SENPAI! ♥" Tsugumi exclaims. "Thank you so very much!!"
"Please, there's no need to thank me..." Eternal Feather says, her hands clasped in prayer. "Tsugumi-san, the truth is, I saw the Witch of the Girls' Dormitory take away all of your money... But I was too scared to step in and try to stop her... I'm so sorry..."
Meanwhile, Anya is officially a Stupid Foreigner and cannot eat with chopsticks.
"'Sokay," Tsugumi says, slurping her noodles. Huh, so the Witch of the Girls' Dormitory wasn't the Chief RA but that cute Senpai after all...
"The witch... Her name is Kim Diehl," Eternal Feather says, bravely donning the Captain Exposition Hat. "Kim and I are in the same class," Eternal Feather goes on, handing a very flustered Anya a fork, "but because of her appearance she attracted everybody's attention right away. Back then she had a sparkling aura and beautiful long hair. But once her rotten behavior started to show through, everybody just wanted to stay away from her."
"I never thought that a girl so cute could be so mean..." Tsugumi says.
"What do you mean by her 'rotten behavior'?" Anya asks. "What sorts of things did she do?"
Eternal Feather lowers her head. "Everybody... Please say my name..."
"E... Eternal Feather-senpai," the three girls say, as Eternal Feather buries her face in her hands.
"It's... It's a very pretty name..." Tsugumi says, trying in vain to comfort Eternal Feather.
"No, it's an embarrassing name," Anya says bluntly.
"Yes, it is," Eternal Feather moans. "Such a horrible name... Kim-san is the one who gave me that name..."
"What?"
"Shibusen is kind of a special school, so it's allowed for students here to go by a 'stage name' if they want to... There's even some student right now going by a freaky name like 'Soul Eater'... So this is what happened to me back when Kim and I first enrolled..."
What, no black border for this flashback sequence? "You're so plain-looking, you really should use a cool nickname," Kim advises Eternal Feather.
"You really think so?"
Kim turns to a bunch of other students milling around. "This girl is going by the name 'Eternal Feather' from now on!" she declares.
"Eter... Wait a minute..."
Back to the present. "The rule is that once you change your name, you have to wait two years before you're allowed to change it again. And she went ahead and registered my new name with the school without my permission... And then, after all of that..."
"You owe me a Naming Fee!" Kim declared.
"She's a demon..." Our Heroes gasp.
"She has a deceptive appearance and a nasty personality. That's why everybody started to call her the 'Witch of the Girls' Dormitory'..."
While Tsugumi ponders this nervously, Eternal Feather turns her head and says, "Oh, speak of the devil..."
Kim and Ox are standing in the cafeteria, arguing about something.
"She's talking about something with that boy," Me-Me observes, stating the stunningly obvious.
"Maybe she's still popular after all... Well, he just got soaked..." Anya says, as Kim throws a glass of something all over Ox.
"That's Ox Ford-kun. He's also in my class," Eternal Feather says. "He's an elite student whose grades among the top in this school. All of the other boys try to stay as far away from Kim as possible, but Ox-kun just won't stop hitting on her."
"Hu----h. Is that so..."
"Oh, that reminds me," Eternal Feather says. "Sorry to change the subject, but... All three of you have run out of your weekly allowance already, correct? In that case you will have to take on part-time jobs in order to cover your living expenses. I brought you a list of job options."
"Most of the students who take part-time jobs only do so because they're in a desperate financial situation, so these jobs pay by the day," Eternal Feather goes on. "Since the three of you are girls I don't think that you would want to do any hard physical labor." Oh yeah it's not like they happen to be girls who are ENROLLED IN A SCHOOL THAT TRAINS THEM TO BE FIGHTING BADASSES OR ANYTHING, jeebus. "Is there any type of job in particular that you would like to do?"
"I don't really have any in particular..." Me-Me says.
"Part-time job, huh..." Tsugumi says. "Age-wise we're all still middle school students, so it's not like we've ever done something like this before..."
"A pa... part-time job..." Anya says, her cheeks blushing.
"Well, as long as you don't have any preferences, how about this one?" Eternal Feather points to a listing.
"Waitressing at a cafe...?"
"Waitressing is an easy job," Eternal Feather says.
Wait
Wait
Whuuuuuuuut?!
NO IT'S NOT
AASDFGHJKL;ASDFGHJK;ASDFGHJK;ASDFGHJK; NO IT IS VERY VERY MUCH NOT
Has little miss Eternal Feather ever waitressed before? Has OHKUBO ever been a waiter?! The answer is obviously "NO." Because only people who have NEVER been a waiter or a waitress would EVER say that it's an easy job.
"Also, the waitress uniforms at this cafe are really cute, so they would fit you three well," Eternal Feather goes on.
"What should we do, Tsugumi-san?" Me-Me asks.
"It sounds good to me!!" Tsugumi says. "And the uniforms are supposed to be cute, too! What do you think, Anya-san?"
"The very notion of me having to do physical labor is absurd," Anya says. "But if Tsugumi-san absolutely insists, then..."
"Then it's settled!" Eternal Feather says. "I'll submit the paperwork on your behalf."
"Thank you very much!" Me-Me and Tsugumi say.
"Unbelievable," Anya mutters to herself. "It's not as if I was ever interested in a pa... a part-time job like waitressing," she says.
So then, after school...
"Why do *I* have to work...?" Anya is still complaining.
"Oh, Anya-san, you forgot the reason that we're here, too?" Me-Me says. "I thought that I was the only one!"
"Er... No... That's not quite..."
"According the map, it should be right around here..." Tsugumi says.
"Oh, how trendy!" Me-Me exclaims when she sees the storefront.
"Is this it?" Tsugumi asks, apparently three mental steps behind Me-Me. Which is really saying something.
"It appears as though this is indeed the place," Anya says.
Tsugumi steps inside. "Excuse me! We were hired to work here for one week."
And oh hey look, it's those dudes from the first chapter! And the Boss Man, whom a helpful caption in the next panel informs us is the "Master." Japanese often uses "Master" where in English we would say "owner and head chef" so yeah this is a little bit awkward-sounding right here, but I'm going to stick with "Master" for the rest of this translation anyway. "Yes, yes, I heard," Master says. "Tsugumi-san, Anya-san, and Me-Me-san, right?"
"Pleased to meet you!"
"We're from Shibusen," Tsugumi says. He's a scary-looking Master---... "We promise to work hard during our week here."
Then Tsugumi does a double-take when she recognizes the other two guys.
"Yo," Spikey-Hair says.
"Good afternoon," Glasses says.
"Oh!!" Anya says. "You were at the new student orientation with us..."
"I'm a weapon. Name's Clay," Clay says.
"Akane," the other introduces himself. "I am a meister."
"I'm... I'm Tsugumi," Tsugumi stutters. They look about high school-aged, maybe...
"I might be Me-Me," Me-Me says. She really isn't sure.
"Anya," Anya introduces herself. "Are you two here because you used up your allowance as well? How surprising. You both look as though you would be more responsible than that."
"This idiot used it all up at the arcade," Akane says.
"Wait a minute... Hey!" Clay protests.
"Yes? Do you have something to say?" Akane says, smirking at Clay.
Clay sweatdrops and lowers his head. "................No. Nothing at all," he says.
Hmm. Hmmmmmm. Somehow I think that Akane miiiiiiight be lying about his partner spending all of their money at an arcade.
Oh, great... Tsugumi think-bubbles. So we're going to be working together with these boys... Come on Tsugumi, don't be nervous...
"Please change into your uniforms immediately," Master says. "There is a changing room in the back."
"L-Let's go, you two!" Tsugumi says, hurridly pushing Anya and Me-Me toward the back room.
"Shouldn't we go too?" Clay says.
Apparently the boys do go because in the next panel they are officially be-uniformed! "Now that I'm in the right clothes I suddenly feel like I wanna waiter my ass off!" Clay exclaims.
Akane laughs. "You're such a simpleton."
"That uniforms looks pretty good on you two," Master comments. "Oh, and here come the girls."
Oh my god. I kind of love those upside-down skull headpieces. "Me-Me-san..." Tsugumi says, her eyes fixated on Me-Me's chest, "When you wear clothing like this your chest... it really..."
Tsugumi, I refuse to believe that you are straight anymore. I absolutely refuse to believe it.
Tsugumi reaches into the dressing room and pulls on Anya's arm. "What are you doing? Come on, Anya-san!"
"Wait, Tsugumi-san! This skirt is so short... I-I can't..."
"Come ooooon, it's no big deal!!"
"It's... It's not too immodest, is it?" Anya asks, nervously pulling down the hem of her skirt.
"But your legs are so white and slender! Don't you want to show them off?"
TSUGUMI I REFUSE TO BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE STRAIGHT. I ABSOLUTELY REFUSE TO BELIEVE IT.
Anya orally molests some ellipses. Then she looks at Tsugumi and says, "You're a pervert."
Unfortunately, this statement has the opposite of its intended effect on Me-Me and Tsugumi! "Tsu... Tsugumi-san..." Me-Me gasps.
"Whoa! She's... She's so cu... cute when she says that..."
TSUGUMI I REFUSE TO BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE STRAIGHT. I ABSOLUTELY REFUSE TO BELIEVE IT.
And oh my god the effect of Anya's moe-blast is so strong that Anya and Me-Me are left leaning against Master's bar and gasping for air. "Ma... Master," Tsugumi pants. "I need some water..."
"That memory is going to be forever burned into my mind..." Me-Me mutters.
"Hmm," Master says. "If I were twenty years younger I suppose that even I would be knocked off my feet right now," he admits. Well, at least he's not a pedophile?
Two glasses of water later: "It's time for your shift to start."
"Roger!!"
"Your responsibilities are to hand menus to the customers, take their orders, and bring their food to their table," Master explains. "Most of our customers know that many Shibusen students work here on a short-term basis. Staff from Shibusen itself tend to frequent this place as well. So this is intended to be a low-pressure, relatively easy job," Master goes on. "Please do your best."
One page and some unspecified amount of time later, Tsugumi is waiting on a customer. "Do your best!" the customer encourages her. Tsugumi laughs nervously.
Medusa enters the cafe.
"And here comes the nurse, Medusa-sensei," Master mutters, looking rather unimpressed by her.
"My usual coffee please, Master..."
"Of course. Thank you." A moment later, Master calls Tsugumi. "Tsugumi-chan..."
"Yes?"
"Take this coffee to that table over there."
Tsugumi is extremely lacking confidence in her ability to carry coffee without spilling it. Meanwhile, Me-Me is listening to another customer's order. "A ham sandwich, one order of bacon and eggs, hot coffee, and an iced coffee."
"Oh, and french fries," the other customer adds.
"Um... Could you say it one more time from the beginning please?"
"Look, we already said it three times. How about I just write it down for you?"
Watching the combined Tsugumi/Me-Me circus, Clay sweatdrops and comments, "Do you think those two are going to be all right?" Akane responds with more of his weird punctuation-less laughter.
Meanwhile, Anya! "Thank you very much! We hope to see you again soon!"
"She sure got cheerful all of a sudden," Clay comments.
Later! "We don't have that many customers right now, so you can take a break," Master says, setting out five cups of tea.
"Thank you!"
"I made you some tea, but please take it to the back room before you drink."
In the back room! Tsugumi sips her tea. Then she makes 0.o face!
"This tea is delicious!" Akane exclaims, a similarly shocked expression on his face.
"Is it really?" Clay asks. "I... can't really tell..."
Maybe that's because you're not Japanese, you dumb foreigner.
Because nobody outside of Japan ever cares about how tea tastes. Ever. Also nobody outside of Japan knows how to eat with chopsticks. Nobody.
(Goddammit, Ohkubo.)
"Since this cafe is a dumping ground for broke-ass Shibusen students I thought it would be a joke of a cafe," Clay goes on. "But apparently not..."
Tsugumi steps out of the staff room and approaches Master's bar. "Um... Master?"
"Hmm? You still have some time left on your break," Master says.
"I know... It's just that... Master, you said that most of your customers come here because they want to see the Shibusen students who work here, but..."
"Uh-huh."
"BUT IT THINK THAT THEY'RE REALLY COMING HERE TO DRINK THE COFFEE THAT MASTER MAKES!"
Complimentary outburst finished, Tsugumi runs back into the staff room.
Master smiles to himself.
Meanwhile, Ox parks his bike outside and schlupps a gigantic bag about half as big as he is toward the door of the cafe. "Death Shipping!" he announces himself. "Your delivery of coffee beans is here. Where would you like me to leave them?"
"Thank you for all of your hard work," Master says.
"Huh? Is that Ox?" Clay says.
"Senpai," Akane greets Ox. Then he mutters to himself, "Ox-senpai is doing a part-time job, too? That's surprising news."
"Uhhh, hey," Ox says. "You guys are working hard too, huh?"
"He may be an elite student, but this probably means that he's wasteful with his money," Anya whispers to Tsugumi. "He may be giving all of his money to that 'Witch of the Girls' Dormitory'," she smirks.
"Shhhhhh!" Tsugumi hushes Anya, finger raised to her lips.
"What is that? What are you doing?" Anya has apparently never been shushed before.
Aaaaaaand suddenly Eternal Feather is there! "You're all working hard, aren't you?" she says. "Don't mind me, I just dropped by to see how you were doing." She turns to Tsugumi. "That outfit looks wonderful on you!"
"May I take your order?" Anya says, smiling cheerfully at Eternal Feather.
"You sure are cheerful! All right, I'll have the apple tea."
"It will be right out!" Anya says. With a little music note in her word bubble. Oh my gosh, she's really getting off on this whole working-at-a-commoner-job thing, isn't she.
Later! I was so nervous. But my first ever part-time job turned out to be really fun... And it felt like the whole week went by in the blink of an eye! And then---
"Here. Thank you for all of your hard work."
Tsugumi accepts her payment envelope. "Thank you very much!"
"Thank you for taking care of us this week!" the students tell Master.
"Thank you for your hard work," Master repeats himself.
"It feels like that whole week went by in the blink of an eye," Me-Me says, echoing Tsugumi's narration box from the previous page. "Or, wait... Was it one week, or one month?"
"It was one week," Tsugumi says.
"Hey, you girls!" somebody calls to them.
Tsugumi turns around. It's Ox. "Can we talk for a minute? You're Harudori Tsugumi-san, right?"
"Ye... Yes! Can I help you with something?"
"I have something that I need to give to you..." Ox says. He pulls an envelope out of his pocket. "This... This is the week's worth of allowance that Kim Diehl took from you the other day."
"What?"
Anya and Me-Me stare.
"But this..." Tsugumi stammers nervously. "This is the money that you earned from your part-time job, isn't it..."
"It's no problem," Ox says. "The only reason that I took that job in the first place was so that I could return this money to you..."
"No way..."
"In exchange for this, can you make me a promise?" Ox asks. "I don't want you to bear a grudge against Kim. Because they call her the 'Witch of the Girls' Dormitory' everybody is afraid of her. But I can tell that she's only acting that way because she's the one who's trying to keep people away from her. Even though I don't know the reason why, I can still tell. Look, I know that it's not my place to ask you this, but won't you please consider this money as forgiveness toward her?"
"What?" Tsugumi asks again.
"I'm really sorry," Ox says. "Please spend this money without any guilt!"
Meanwhile, Kim, who has been lurking around a corner and listening to this entire exchange, blushes and casts her eyes down sadly. "That idiot..."
Later, back at the dorm! "You still haven't decided to accept it?" Anya huffs at Tsugumi.
"...Yeah. I don't know if it's really okay for me to take this money..."
"Ox-senpai said that it was all right, didn't he? And you're doing something charitable in return. The only condition tied to that money is that you have to not hold a grudge against Kim-san, right?"
"It's okay if you just spend it right away, isn't it?" Me-Me says.
"Me-Me, not you too..."
"If you don't spend that money, then all of Ox-senpai's hard work will have been for nothing," Me-Me says.
"Yeah... I get it... That's true, isn't it?" Tsugumi smiles. "Okay. Tomorrow is a holiday, so let's go to Master's cafe and use this money to throw ourselves a party! A Roommate Anniversary party! And then we'll be sure to tell Ox-senpai how we spent the money and thank him so that he'll be happy about it!"
"Good plan!" Me-Me approves.
"Oh, and I have a favor to ask both of you," Tsugumi adds.
"What is it?"
"You don't have to add '-san' after my name anymore," Tsugumi says. "Please just call me 'Tsugumi'!"
"Ummmm, but it's hard for me to drop '-san' all of a sudden," Me-Me says.
"Don't worry about it! We all worked hard together this week, so it's okay!"
Meanwhile, Anya is blushing and muttering under her breath. "Tsu... tsu..."
"Ummm buuuuut just saying your name is kind of~~~" Me-Me is still not down with this.
"It's okay! Really! Just try saying it~~~!" Tsugumi turns toward Anya. "Anya-san, too!"
"Tsu..."
"That's right!"
"Tsu..."
Anya blushes and looks away from Tsugumi. "Gumin," she says.
Tsugumi's jaw drops. "Er, what?"
Gumin means "ignorant people". So Anya can't say just plain "Tsugumi" after all... the end-of-the-chapter blurb informs us. That final 'n' sound is a common vocal tick in some Japanese accents so yeah, that's probably the sound that Anya would add to the end of Tsugumi's name if she was still unable to bring herself to say "Tsugumi" without any name suffixes.
Aaaaand that's the end of this chapter! Next month we will presumably have no more work-related shenanigans, so we might actually get to see what Shibusen's training and classes are like instead! Also, I'm kind of dying to know what sort of Mysterious Secret Reason Clay and Akane are hiding regarding why all of their money was gone. Wild guesses, anybody?
ETA: Also, I think it's worth pointing out that this chapter has clarified a lot about how grades and ages work in Shibusen. Eternal Feather said that she, Kim, and Ox are in the same douki which I translated as "class" but which literally means something like "group that enrolled at the same time." So classes in Shibusen are groups of students who enroll together, not necessarily groups of students of the same age. Tsugumi confirmed that Akane and Clay are at least a year older than her, if not more ("high school age" in the Japanese system means grades 10 through 12, so anywhere from 15 to 18 years old) yet they are still in the same class as her. This also explains how Tsubaki and Liz could be in the same class as Black Star, Maka, and company even though they are "a few years older" than their partners. Traditional level grades - such as "eighth grade" or "tenth grade" or whatever - do not appear to exist in Shibusen. Finally, just to put this stupid internet argument to rest: Yes, apparently students can enroll in Shibusen at any age. Clay and Akane have to be at least fifteen years old, yet they just started at Shibusen; in contrast, Kirikou, whom we saw in the first chapter as already well into his Shibusen career yet who was mentioned as being 13 years old during the Baba Yaga arc, must have enrolled when he was much younger.
"So that will be three orders of soba?"
"No. Just one!"
It's me again, Harudori Tsugumi. And once again we are opening with Tsugumi's narration! Right now I'm in the Shibusen student cafeteria. The menu here is huuuuuge and they have food from all over the world, so it's pretty hard for me to decide what to eat, but...
But she ordered a bowl of Japanese noodles anyway. Way to expand your culinary horizons, Tsugumi!
Our Heroes loom over the single bowl of soba that they will have to share. "If we split this between three people it's not going to be enough for any of us," Me-Me observes.
"But even when we combined all of our leftover money, one bowl of plain soba is all that we could afford..."
This is "soba"...? Anya think-bubbles. It looks like nothing more than pasta noodles in consomme soup...
"Oh, that's not going to be enough for all three of you, is it?" Eternal Feather says, suddenly approaching to sit with Our Heroes. "Here, I brought two more bowls for you. Eat up!"
"SENPAI! ♥" Tsugumi exclaims. "Thank you so very much!!"
"Please, there's no need to thank me..." Eternal Feather says, her hands clasped in prayer. "Tsugumi-san, the truth is, I saw the Witch of the Girls' Dormitory take away all of your money... But I was too scared to step in and try to stop her... I'm so sorry..."
Meanwhile, Anya is officially a Stupid Foreigner and cannot eat with chopsticks.
"'Sokay," Tsugumi says, slurping her noodles. Huh, so the Witch of the Girls' Dormitory wasn't the Chief RA but that cute Senpai after all...
"The witch... Her name is Kim Diehl," Eternal Feather says, bravely donning the Captain Exposition Hat. "Kim and I are in the same class," Eternal Feather goes on, handing a very flustered Anya a fork, "but because of her appearance she attracted everybody's attention right away. Back then she had a sparkling aura and beautiful long hair. But once her rotten behavior started to show through, everybody just wanted to stay away from her."
"I never thought that a girl so cute could be so mean..." Tsugumi says.
"What do you mean by her 'rotten behavior'?" Anya asks. "What sorts of things did she do?"
Eternal Feather lowers her head. "Everybody... Please say my name..."
"E... Eternal Feather-senpai," the three girls say, as Eternal Feather buries her face in her hands.
"It's... It's a very pretty name..." Tsugumi says, trying in vain to comfort Eternal Feather.
"No, it's an embarrassing name," Anya says bluntly.
"Yes, it is," Eternal Feather moans. "Such a horrible name... Kim-san is the one who gave me that name..."
"What?"
"Shibusen is kind of a special school, so it's allowed for students here to go by a 'stage name' if they want to... There's even some student right now going by a freaky name like 'Soul Eater'... So this is what happened to me back when Kim and I first enrolled..."
What, no black border for this flashback sequence? "You're so plain-looking, you really should use a cool nickname," Kim advises Eternal Feather.
"You really think so?"
Kim turns to a bunch of other students milling around. "This girl is going by the name 'Eternal Feather' from now on!" she declares.
"Eter... Wait a minute..."
Back to the present. "The rule is that once you change your name, you have to wait two years before you're allowed to change it again. And she went ahead and registered my new name with the school without my permission... And then, after all of that..."
"You owe me a Naming Fee!" Kim declared.
"She's a demon..." Our Heroes gasp.
"She has a deceptive appearance and a nasty personality. That's why everybody started to call her the 'Witch of the Girls' Dormitory'..."
While Tsugumi ponders this nervously, Eternal Feather turns her head and says, "Oh, speak of the devil..."
Kim and Ox are standing in the cafeteria, arguing about something.
"She's talking about something with that boy," Me-Me observes, stating the stunningly obvious.
"Maybe she's still popular after all... Well, he just got soaked..." Anya says, as Kim throws a glass of something all over Ox.
"That's Ox Ford-kun. He's also in my class," Eternal Feather says. "He's an elite student whose grades among the top in this school. All of the other boys try to stay as far away from Kim as possible, but Ox-kun just won't stop hitting on her."
"Hu----h. Is that so..."
"Oh, that reminds me," Eternal Feather says. "Sorry to change the subject, but... All three of you have run out of your weekly allowance already, correct? In that case you will have to take on part-time jobs in order to cover your living expenses. I brought you a list of job options."
"Most of the students who take part-time jobs only do so because they're in a desperate financial situation, so these jobs pay by the day," Eternal Feather goes on. "Since the three of you are girls I don't think that you would want to do any hard physical labor." Oh yeah it's not like they happen to be girls who are ENROLLED IN A SCHOOL THAT TRAINS THEM TO BE FIGHTING BADASSES OR ANYTHING, jeebus. "Is there any type of job in particular that you would like to do?"
"I don't really have any in particular..." Me-Me says.
"Part-time job, huh..." Tsugumi says. "Age-wise we're all still middle school students, so it's not like we've ever done something like this before..."
"A pa... part-time job..." Anya says, her cheeks blushing.
"Well, as long as you don't have any preferences, how about this one?" Eternal Feather points to a listing.
"Waitressing at a cafe...?"
"Waitressing is an easy job," Eternal Feather says.
Wait
Wait
Whuuuuuuuut?!
NO IT'S NOT
AASDFGHJKL;ASDFGHJK;ASDFGHJK;ASDFGHJK; NO IT IS VERY VERY MUCH NOT
Has little miss Eternal Feather ever waitressed before? Has OHKUBO ever been a waiter?! The answer is obviously "NO." Because only people who have NEVER been a waiter or a waitress would EVER say that it's an easy job.
"Also, the waitress uniforms at this cafe are really cute, so they would fit you three well," Eternal Feather goes on.
"What should we do, Tsugumi-san?" Me-Me asks.
"It sounds good to me!!" Tsugumi says. "And the uniforms are supposed to be cute, too! What do you think, Anya-san?"
"The very notion of me having to do physical labor is absurd," Anya says. "But if Tsugumi-san absolutely insists, then..."
"Then it's settled!" Eternal Feather says. "I'll submit the paperwork on your behalf."
"Thank you very much!" Me-Me and Tsugumi say.
"Unbelievable," Anya mutters to herself. "It's not as if I was ever interested in a pa... a part-time job like waitressing," she says.
So then, after school...
"Why do *I* have to work...?" Anya is still complaining.
"Oh, Anya-san, you forgot the reason that we're here, too?" Me-Me says. "I thought that I was the only one!"
"Er... No... That's not quite..."
"According the map, it should be right around here..." Tsugumi says.
"Oh, how trendy!" Me-Me exclaims when she sees the storefront.
"Is this it?" Tsugumi asks, apparently three mental steps behind Me-Me. Which is really saying something.
"It appears as though this is indeed the place," Anya says.
Tsugumi steps inside. "Excuse me! We were hired to work here for one week."
And oh hey look, it's those dudes from the first chapter! And the Boss Man, whom a helpful caption in the next panel informs us is the "Master." Japanese often uses "Master" where in English we would say "owner and head chef" so yeah this is a little bit awkward-sounding right here, but I'm going to stick with "Master" for the rest of this translation anyway. "Yes, yes, I heard," Master says. "Tsugumi-san, Anya-san, and Me-Me-san, right?"
"Pleased to meet you!"
"We're from Shibusen," Tsugumi says. He's a scary-looking Master---... "We promise to work hard during our week here."
Then Tsugumi does a double-take when she recognizes the other two guys.
"Yo," Spikey-Hair says.
"Good afternoon," Glasses says.
"Oh!!" Anya says. "You were at the new student orientation with us..."
"I'm a weapon. Name's Clay," Clay says.
"Akane," the other introduces himself. "I am a meister."
"I'm... I'm Tsugumi," Tsugumi stutters. They look about high school-aged, maybe...
"I might be Me-Me," Me-Me says. She really isn't sure.
"Anya," Anya introduces herself. "Are you two here because you used up your allowance as well? How surprising. You both look as though you would be more responsible than that."
"This idiot used it all up at the arcade," Akane says.
"Wait a minute... Hey!" Clay protests.
"Yes? Do you have something to say?" Akane says, smirking at Clay.
Clay sweatdrops and lowers his head. "................No. Nothing at all," he says.
Hmm. Hmmmmmm. Somehow I think that Akane miiiiiiight be lying about his partner spending all of their money at an arcade.
Oh, great... Tsugumi think-bubbles. So we're going to be working together with these boys... Come on Tsugumi, don't be nervous...
"Please change into your uniforms immediately," Master says. "There is a changing room in the back."
"L-Let's go, you two!" Tsugumi says, hurridly pushing Anya and Me-Me toward the back room.
"Shouldn't we go too?" Clay says.
Apparently the boys do go because in the next panel they are officially be-uniformed! "Now that I'm in the right clothes I suddenly feel like I wanna waiter my ass off!" Clay exclaims.
Akane laughs. "You're such a simpleton."
"That uniforms looks pretty good on you two," Master comments. "Oh, and here come the girls."
Oh my god. I kind of love those upside-down skull headpieces. "Me-Me-san..." Tsugumi says, her eyes fixated on Me-Me's chest, "When you wear clothing like this your chest... it really..."
Tsugumi, I refuse to believe that you are straight anymore. I absolutely refuse to believe it.
Tsugumi reaches into the dressing room and pulls on Anya's arm. "What are you doing? Come on, Anya-san!"
"Wait, Tsugumi-san! This skirt is so short... I-I can't..."
"Come ooooon, it's no big deal!!"
"It's... It's not too immodest, is it?" Anya asks, nervously pulling down the hem of her skirt.
"But your legs are so white and slender! Don't you want to show them off?"
TSUGUMI I REFUSE TO BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE STRAIGHT. I ABSOLUTELY REFUSE TO BELIEVE IT.
Anya orally molests some ellipses. Then she looks at Tsugumi and says, "You're a pervert."
Unfortunately, this statement has the opposite of its intended effect on Me-Me and Tsugumi! "Tsu... Tsugumi-san..." Me-Me gasps.
"Whoa! She's... She's so cu... cute when she says that..."
TSUGUMI I REFUSE TO BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE STRAIGHT. I ABSOLUTELY REFUSE TO BELIEVE IT.
And oh my god the effect of Anya's moe-blast is so strong that Anya and Me-Me are left leaning against Master's bar and gasping for air. "Ma... Master," Tsugumi pants. "I need some water..."
"That memory is going to be forever burned into my mind..." Me-Me mutters.
"Hmm," Master says. "If I were twenty years younger I suppose that even I would be knocked off my feet right now," he admits. Well, at least he's not a pedophile?
Two glasses of water later: "It's time for your shift to start."
"Roger!!"
"Your responsibilities are to hand menus to the customers, take their orders, and bring their food to their table," Master explains. "Most of our customers know that many Shibusen students work here on a short-term basis. Staff from Shibusen itself tend to frequent this place as well. So this is intended to be a low-pressure, relatively easy job," Master goes on. "Please do your best."
One page and some unspecified amount of time later, Tsugumi is waiting on a customer. "Do your best!" the customer encourages her. Tsugumi laughs nervously.
Medusa enters the cafe.
"And here comes the nurse, Medusa-sensei," Master mutters, looking rather unimpressed by her.
"My usual coffee please, Master..."
"Of course. Thank you." A moment later, Master calls Tsugumi. "Tsugumi-chan..."
"Yes?"
"Take this coffee to that table over there."
Tsugumi is extremely lacking confidence in her ability to carry coffee without spilling it. Meanwhile, Me-Me is listening to another customer's order. "A ham sandwich, one order of bacon and eggs, hot coffee, and an iced coffee."
"Oh, and french fries," the other customer adds.
"Um... Could you say it one more time from the beginning please?"
"Look, we already said it three times. How about I just write it down for you?"
Watching the combined Tsugumi/Me-Me circus, Clay sweatdrops and comments, "Do you think those two are going to be all right?" Akane responds with more of his weird punctuation-less laughter.
Meanwhile, Anya! "Thank you very much! We hope to see you again soon!"
"She sure got cheerful all of a sudden," Clay comments.
Later! "We don't have that many customers right now, so you can take a break," Master says, setting out five cups of tea.
"Thank you!"
"I made you some tea, but please take it to the back room before you drink."
In the back room! Tsugumi sips her tea. Then she makes 0.o face!
"This tea is delicious!" Akane exclaims, a similarly shocked expression on his face.
"Is it really?" Clay asks. "I... can't really tell..."
Maybe that's because you're not Japanese, you dumb foreigner.
Because nobody outside of Japan ever cares about how tea tastes. Ever. Also nobody outside of Japan knows how to eat with chopsticks. Nobody.
(Goddammit, Ohkubo.)
"Since this cafe is a dumping ground for broke-ass Shibusen students I thought it would be a joke of a cafe," Clay goes on. "But apparently not..."
Tsugumi steps out of the staff room and approaches Master's bar. "Um... Master?"
"Hmm? You still have some time left on your break," Master says.
"I know... It's just that... Master, you said that most of your customers come here because they want to see the Shibusen students who work here, but..."
"Uh-huh."
"BUT IT THINK THAT THEY'RE REALLY COMING HERE TO DRINK THE COFFEE THAT MASTER MAKES!"
Complimentary outburst finished, Tsugumi runs back into the staff room.
Master smiles to himself.
Meanwhile, Ox parks his bike outside and schlupps a gigantic bag about half as big as he is toward the door of the cafe. "Death Shipping!" he announces himself. "Your delivery of coffee beans is here. Where would you like me to leave them?"
"Thank you for all of your hard work," Master says.
"Huh? Is that Ox?" Clay says.
"Senpai," Akane greets Ox. Then he mutters to himself, "Ox-senpai is doing a part-time job, too? That's surprising news."
"Uhhh, hey," Ox says. "You guys are working hard too, huh?"
"He may be an elite student, but this probably means that he's wasteful with his money," Anya whispers to Tsugumi. "He may be giving all of his money to that 'Witch of the Girls' Dormitory'," she smirks.
"Shhhhhh!" Tsugumi hushes Anya, finger raised to her lips.
"What is that? What are you doing?" Anya has apparently never been shushed before.
Aaaaaaand suddenly Eternal Feather is there! "You're all working hard, aren't you?" she says. "Don't mind me, I just dropped by to see how you were doing." She turns to Tsugumi. "That outfit looks wonderful on you!"
"May I take your order?" Anya says, smiling cheerfully at Eternal Feather.
"You sure are cheerful! All right, I'll have the apple tea."
"It will be right out!" Anya says. With a little music note in her word bubble. Oh my gosh, she's really getting off on this whole working-at-a-commoner-job thing, isn't she.
Later! I was so nervous. But my first ever part-time job turned out to be really fun... And it felt like the whole week went by in the blink of an eye! And then---
"Here. Thank you for all of your hard work."
Tsugumi accepts her payment envelope. "Thank you very much!"
"Thank you for taking care of us this week!" the students tell Master.
"Thank you for your hard work," Master repeats himself.
"It feels like that whole week went by in the blink of an eye," Me-Me says, echoing Tsugumi's narration box from the previous page. "Or, wait... Was it one week, or one month?"
"It was one week," Tsugumi says.
"Hey, you girls!" somebody calls to them.
Tsugumi turns around. It's Ox. "Can we talk for a minute? You're Harudori Tsugumi-san, right?"
"Ye... Yes! Can I help you with something?"
"I have something that I need to give to you..." Ox says. He pulls an envelope out of his pocket. "This... This is the week's worth of allowance that Kim Diehl took from you the other day."
"What?"
Anya and Me-Me stare.
"But this..." Tsugumi stammers nervously. "This is the money that you earned from your part-time job, isn't it..."
"It's no problem," Ox says. "The only reason that I took that job in the first place was so that I could return this money to you..."
"No way..."
"In exchange for this, can you make me a promise?" Ox asks. "I don't want you to bear a grudge against Kim. Because they call her the 'Witch of the Girls' Dormitory' everybody is afraid of her. But I can tell that she's only acting that way because she's the one who's trying to keep people away from her. Even though I don't know the reason why, I can still tell. Look, I know that it's not my place to ask you this, but won't you please consider this money as forgiveness toward her?"
"What?" Tsugumi asks again.
"I'm really sorry," Ox says. "Please spend this money without any guilt!"
Meanwhile, Kim, who has been lurking around a corner and listening to this entire exchange, blushes and casts her eyes down sadly. "That idiot..."
Later, back at the dorm! "You still haven't decided to accept it?" Anya huffs at Tsugumi.
"...Yeah. I don't know if it's really okay for me to take this money..."
"Ox-senpai said that it was all right, didn't he? And you're doing something charitable in return. The only condition tied to that money is that you have to not hold a grudge against Kim-san, right?"
"It's okay if you just spend it right away, isn't it?" Me-Me says.
"Me-Me, not you too..."
"If you don't spend that money, then all of Ox-senpai's hard work will have been for nothing," Me-Me says.
"Yeah... I get it... That's true, isn't it?" Tsugumi smiles. "Okay. Tomorrow is a holiday, so let's go to Master's cafe and use this money to throw ourselves a party! A Roommate Anniversary party! And then we'll be sure to tell Ox-senpai how we spent the money and thank him so that he'll be happy about it!"
"Good plan!" Me-Me approves.
"Oh, and I have a favor to ask both of you," Tsugumi adds.
"What is it?"
"You don't have to add '-san' after my name anymore," Tsugumi says. "Please just call me 'Tsugumi'!"
"Ummmm, but it's hard for me to drop '-san' all of a sudden," Me-Me says.
"Don't worry about it! We all worked hard together this week, so it's okay!"
Meanwhile, Anya is blushing and muttering under her breath. "Tsu... tsu..."
"Ummm buuuuut just saying your name is kind of~~~" Me-Me is still not down with this.
"It's okay! Really! Just try saying it~~~!" Tsugumi turns toward Anya. "Anya-san, too!"
"Tsu..."
"That's right!"
"Tsu..."
Anya blushes and looks away from Tsugumi. "Gumin," she says.
Tsugumi's jaw drops. "Er, what?"
Gumin means "ignorant people". So Anya can't say just plain "Tsugumi" after all... the end-of-the-chapter blurb informs us. That final 'n' sound is a common vocal tick in some Japanese accents so yeah, that's probably the sound that Anya would add to the end of Tsugumi's name if she was still unable to bring herself to say "Tsugumi" without any name suffixes.
Aaaaand that's the end of this chapter! Next month we will presumably have no more work-related shenanigans, so we might actually get to see what Shibusen's training and classes are like instead! Also, I'm kind of dying to know what sort of Mysterious Secret Reason Clay and Akane are hiding regarding why all of their money was gone. Wild guesses, anybody?
ETA: Also, I think it's worth pointing out that this chapter has clarified a lot about how grades and ages work in Shibusen. Eternal Feather said that she, Kim, and Ox are in the same douki which I translated as "class" but which literally means something like "group that enrolled at the same time." So classes in Shibusen are groups of students who enroll together, not necessarily groups of students of the same age. Tsugumi confirmed that Akane and Clay are at least a year older than her, if not more ("high school age" in the Japanese system means grades 10 through 12, so anywhere from 15 to 18 years old) yet they are still in the same class as her. This also explains how Tsubaki and Liz could be in the same class as Black Star, Maka, and company even though they are "a few years older" than their partners. Traditional level grades - such as "eighth grade" or "tenth grade" or whatever - do not appear to exist in Shibusen. Finally, just to put this stupid internet argument to rest: Yes, apparently students can enroll in Shibusen at any age. Clay and Akane have to be at least fifteen years old, yet they just started at Shibusen; in contrast, Kirikou, whom we saw in the first chapter as already well into his Shibusen career yet who was mentioned as being 13 years old during the Baba Yaga arc, must have enrolled when he was much younger.
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In Japan, middle school = grades 7 through 9, high school = grades 10 through 12.
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I guess she wouldn't know. I'm going to assume that she doesn't know much about American schooling.
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