Another person walked to the front of the door, Kane and Kenji carefully pulled the doors open, left hand over right, and bowed the person in. Like Rei-sama, the man didn't pay them any heed as he walked through. Person after person walked through the door and as the last person walked through, they bowed to her and stood up. Kane barely hid his stumble as blood rushed back through his legs. Kane bowed to the guests and his temporary boss, then, staying in his bowed position, he backed out of the room with Kenji.

"Alright let's go," Kenji told Kane, leading him to the kitchens. "We need to bring in the equipment, hurry!"

Walking briskly, Kane followed Kenji into the kitchens, grabbed a set of dishes and went back out.

"When you put the dishes down, make sure to put them on her right side while I lay out the tools on her left," Kenji informed Kane.

"Okay," Kenji confirmed.

Carefully, they opened the doors and walked through until they were on each side of Rei-sama. While Kenji swiftly laid out the various tools, Kane quietly set the dishes next to her. When Kane was about to turn and exit, a hand was laced on his foot. Hesitating, Kane shook the hand off of his foot and left the ceremony room.

"Why did you pause?" Kenji asked as they both sat on one of the empty cushions.

"Someone grabbed my foot!" Kane hissed, creeped out and angry that someone would grab his foot while he was trying to do his job.

"What?" Kenji exclaimed. "Who grabs a person's foot during a tea ceremony?"

"A creep," Kane replied. "Only a creep would do something so weird during a tea ceremony.

"As disturbing as that is," Kenji started. "We need to set up plates for the guests who're going to be eating."

"When are those guest going to be arriving?" Kane inquired.

"Probably some time near the end of this ceremony, but we won't be the ones serving them. After the first ceremony is over with, we go on our lunch break." Kenji stated.

"Wouldn't that be a bit early for lunch?" Kane questioned.

"It's not a real lunch break actually," Kenji conceded. "It pretty much consists of the chefs stuffing us with their creations and asking us which one tastes the best."

"That sounds tasty," Kane licked his lips at the thought of it.

"Sometimes it is," Kenji agreed. "But other times you have to eat things like chocolate and onion soup, or orange caramel ice cream. Let me tell you, some of their creations may look good, but they taste disgusting."

Pulling a face, Kane agreed with his opinion.

They entered a kitchen and a person greeted them as they came in.

"Kenji!" the person declared. "What took so long? Did you take another break?"

"No, Masoto," Kenji laughed and clasped a hand on Kane's back. "I was with Kane at the tea ceremony."

"Oh? The new guy?" Masoto took a deep look at Kane. "Nice to meet you! I'm Maki Masoto, but call me Masoto please!"

"Ohayo, Masoto. My name is Kami Kane. Call me Kane!" Kane bowed to him.

"Masoto here is the meat chef," Kenji told Kane with a grin. "I'll introduce you to everyone before we go out to set the tables."

"Haruko!" Kenji called out, attracting the attention of a blue-haired lady.

"What is it, Kenji? Some of us actually have jobs to do around here," she growled.

"This is Kami Kane! He's the new waiter," Kenji introduced.

"Nice to meet you, Kami-san," Haruko nodded. "I'm Saitou Haruko, call me Haruko."

Kane bowed to her, "Call me Kane, please."

"She's the soup chef," Kenji told him as Haruko went back to her simmering pots. "She's also the one who created that onion chocolate soup."

"I'll introduce you to the fish specialist next," Kenji decided, dragging Kane further into the kitchen.

"Jun, this is Kami Kane!"

The large man turned to face them, "Nice to meet you, call me Jun."

Kane nodded to him, "Call me Kane."

"Noboru!" Kenji called out to the round man kneading the dough. "Come and meet the new waiter!"

Never stopping his kneading, Noboru said, "Nice to meet you."

Used to the lack of attention, Kane replied, "Hello, please call me Kane."

Next, Kenji pointed out the rest of the staff. There was Fumiko, the salad chef, Benjiro the Sous chef, Ryoto the grill chef who wasn't here today, Kaoru the saucier, Kura the vegetable cook, Suguru the Pantry chef, Maeko, Hachi, and Haru the line chefs, and Gou the executive chef.

At the end of the introductions, Kenji asked Kane, "Did you notice how there weren't any servers other than us?"

"Yeah," Kane nodded. He was curious about the lack of them because he wasn't planning on being at the restaurant daily.

"The way we do servers is in shifts. So while we may work from afternoon until night another shift works from morning to noon. We also shift days. That way we all get equal pay as the restaurant keeps changing styles." Kenji explained.

The bell rang from the ceremonial room.

"Shoot!" Kenji exclaimed pulling them both towards the ceremonial tea rooms doors. "Remember, collect the tools, bow to all of the guests, then to Rei-sama."

Kenji slid open the doors and stepped in with Kane. They quickly gathered the whisk, cup, teapot, and cleaning utensils between them. After steadying the dishes in their arms, they carefully bowed to each of the guests and to Rei-sama before scrambling back out.

"How come we don't need to bow the guests out of the ceremony room?" Kane asked.

"That's Rei-sama's job," Kenji replied, dumping his armful onto one of the kitchen counters and signaling Kane to do the same. "She decides when the ceremony is actually over, and since they're her guests she bows to them last.

Kenji quickly separated the cleaning utensils from the rest. "Now we need to go and get a new set of cleaning stuff."

"We don't need to wash the bowl?"

"Nah, Rei-sama does that in front her the guests to show its purity or something."

"How do you know so much about everything?" Kane questioned, following Kenji to the back of the kitchen to where the storage cabinets were.

"I've been working here for years," Kenji explained, handing Kane a box containing the cleaning materials. "Even though the servers work in shifts, the restaurant itself changes styles as well. We have to learn the steps to each style Rei-sama picks because she never tells us who's going to be serving for each type of style."

Kenji directed Kane to put the used cleaning materials into a small hamper that was kept inside the storage unit while he laid out the new ones.

"What types of styles has the restaurant done?"

"Let's see," Kenji thought it over. "We've done ramen, soba, yakitori, tempura, sushi, and okonomiyaki. We've probably done more, but I can't remember them."

"We have done more," Rei-sama said, stepping into the kitchen. "I'm thinking about expanding our restaurant into more styles, so expect an information packet soon."