An Encounter As Sweet As Whipped Cream

Even by bike, it had been a bit of a long journey to the new Patisserie that had opened up. Sachika had excitedly showed a flyer of it to Shouma after she saw it. Having a decent amount of money on him, Shouma decided it maybe would be a good idea to go over and get some things to share with Sachika and Hanto later.

Once he had arrived at the correct street, the tall pastel pink building wasn’t hard to spot. He found it a bit suspicious that it was on one of the emptier streets, with no previous signs of construction for the past few days. It reminded him of one of the Granutes he and Hanto had fought recently, but he doubted Stomach Inc. would try the same strategy twice. The building’s style didn’t seem to match them either. But even if he was wrong, it couldn’t hurt to give the place an early look.

Once he stepped in, the first thing he noticed was that the store was just as cute and pink on the inside as it was on the outside. The second thing he noticed was the lovely sweet smells all around. And the third thing he noticed was that perhaps he had showed up a bit too early in the day, as he seemed to be the only customer there.

A young woman, who seemed to be in her very early twenties, was smiling as she looked at her phone and waited at the counter. When she heard the sound of the front door opening, she looked at Shouma and her smile widened. “Welcome to KiraKira Patisserie!”

“Ah, thanks for having me!” Shouma greeted her with a smile of his own as he walked up to the counter. He looked down at the display case and, immediately, it was like all his tiredness from the long ride was gone. He gasped and smiled from ear to ear as he took in the sight of all the animal-shaped sweets.

“Feel free to take your time deciding!” The woman said.

Shouma nodded as he kept his attention on the display, completely enamored. Even though he had tried some of the sweets he had tried before, like strawberry cake and chocolate. But their new shapes made them look even more delicious and appetizing, despite feeling guilty over needing to run that adorable look to eat them.

He ran his hands through his hair as he let out a whine. “It’s too hard to decide! They all look so good!”

The woman giggled. “If you’d like, I could give you some free samples to help you decide!”

“Really!?” Shouma got up in one quick hop. “If it’s not too much trouble… Thank you!”

“Do you have any preferences? Otherwise I’ll just pick a few random things.”

“Ah… I really can’t decide. So I’ll leave it to you!”

She nodded. “Just take a seat and I’ll be right back!”

Shouma happily took a seat at one of the nearby tables. He watched as the woman ran around behind the counter, taking a few things out of the display case. There were also some things she was grabbing from somewhere he couldn’t see.

In just a few short minutes, she was walking towards him while carrying a tray of many different treats. She placed it in front of him with a smile, and started pointing at each of them as she spoke: “Custard pudding, gelato, macaron, chocolate, a mini-parfait, waffles and a slice of strawberry whipped cream cake! I’d recommend trying the gelato first, before it melts.”

Shouma smiled widely as he grabbed the small cup with the blue gelato. Even though some of the samples were too small to showcase the patisserie’s animal themes, they still looked really appetizing. “Thanks for the meal!” He said before putting the first small spoonful of gelato in his mouth.

He immediately couldn’t help but squeal, overtaken by the sweet and refreshing taste. Almost without noticing, he quickly finished the small cup. Even though he was a bit sad at how quickly it was gone, he kept on smiling as he moved on to tasting the other samples.

The small custard pudding, adorably decorated as a squirrel, had a lovely texture and a lovely taste even if it wasn’t strong. The cat macaron was perfect, without a single crack, and the taste was perfectly balanced between sweet and nutty. The chocolate had a nice snap to it, and the little bit of cream and strawberry accompanying it matched its taste wonderfully. The mini-parfait had quite a few different tastes and textures, but they were neither too weak nor overstayed their welcome. And the waffles had a wonderful texture, being a bit crunchy on the outside but very fluffy on the inside.

As he finished the waffles, he noticed the woman had sat down on the chair across from him and had been watching him with a wide smile and a sparkle in her eyes.

“You really like sweets, don’t you!? I can tell from the way you’re smiling while you eat!” She said, leaning a bit closer to him.

Shouma happily nodded. “I really love sweets and snacks! It’s really exciting to get to taste all of this stuff for the first time!”

She paused, seeming a bit confused for a second, but then went back to smiling at him as he pulled the slice of cake closer to him.

He couldn’t help but smile as he ate that one too. It was similar to the cake he had made Sachika, but a professional’s skills really couldn’t be underestimated. If Sachika and Hanto had liked his cake, they’d definitely enjoy this one as well. He could feel his cheeks hurting from how much he was smiling.

He felt something happening in his belly and froze for a moment. A few gochizos were coming out of him.

He looked down, trying to quickly think of any way he could quickly hide them. But before he could actually think of anything, a chocolate one had already slipped from beneath his shirt and hit the floor with a very noticeable clacking sound.

The woman looked down, and the gochizo whined in shock. She made a confused sound before crouching on the floor.

Two cake gochizos slipped from beneath Shouma’s shirt, one of them sliding fairly close to the woman’s feet. His heart started beating faster and had to curl his hands into fists to stop them from trembling.

Despite her confusion, she smiled at the gochizos and picked up the one that had slided close to her, holding it in her open palm as she stood up. Her other hand came up to rub its top with a finger, as if petting a kitten. The gochizo made a delighted noise.

“I’m not sure what is going on, but… I won’t tell anyone.” She winked at Shouma.

Shouma raised an eyebrow at her. He was a bit calmer, but he found it odd for her to have accepted it so easily.

She seemed to read his thoughts just from looking at his face, giggling. “Let’s just say I have… Seen quite a bit of unusual stuff myself.”

She glanced back to the counter, and Shouma followed her gaze. For a moment, he saw what seemed like an odd-looking pink dog. But it hid from sight as soon as it noticed his eyes on it.

The woman looked back at him. “I’m Usami Ichika, by the way! I’m happy to meet another lover of sweets in this city so soon!” She said as she happily grabbed one of his hands with both of hers.

After a second processing such a quick greeting, Shouma smiled back at her. “I’m Shouma!” He brought his other hand to join the others, and the two of them shook hands like that. “By the way… I know what I want to order today!”

“Oh? What will it be?” Ichika let the little gochizo up on the table as she started gathering the now empty plates and small cups.

“The strawberry and whipped cream cake!”

Even though all the sweets had been delicious in their own right, he knew it had to be the cake the moment he tasted it. He could bring something different in his next visit.

Ichika smiled wider than he had seen all day as he said that. “Then, just wait at the counter for a moment and I’ll bring one!”

After the gochizos hopped into his pocket, Shouma happily followed her to the counter. She didn’t take too long to take away the dishes, and was soon putting one of the cakes from the display case on a delivery box. She placed it on the counter.

After she told him the total value, he raised an eyebrow and quickly looked at the price shown on the display case. “That’s not what is written there.” He pointed it out to her.

She winked at him. “Since it’s your first visit and you were such a fun customer, I’m giving you a discount.”

“You didn’t have to! But thank you! I’ll definitely come back again!” Shouma smiled from ear to ear as he carefully held the box.

“Then I’ll be looking forward to your next visit!” Ichika happily waved at him with both hands as he started walking towards the door. He nodded.

Once he was outside, he carefully put the cake box in his bike’s storage compartment. He hoped the cute whipped cream decorations wouldn’t be ruined as long as he didn’t go too fast on his way back.

Before he put his helmet on, he looked back to the pink building. He smiled for the thousandth time that day as he thought of the experience he just had. He definitely needed to come back, and to update his notebook as soon as he could.

Once Shouma was out the door, Ichika took a moment to stretch for a bit. It didn’t seem like her first day in that city was gonna have much movement, but it was nice to have had such a fun first customer.

But not having much movement was perhaps a good thing. It gave her more time to investigate. It was the whole reason she had decided to go there, after all.

She grabbed her phone, and went back to checking social media posts like she had been before Shouma showed up. No news of monster attacks or of that ‘Kamen Rider’ showing up yet. She momentarily held onto her Sweets Pact in her pocket, just to make sure it was still there. If something did happen, it was best to be as ready as possible.

That city did have the ‘Kamen Rider’ protecting it. But when Ichika heard of what was going on, she couldn’t just stand still, worrying about what would happen if he one day didn’t show up for some reason…

She heard an unfamiliar noise. It was like a small high-pitched whine, but it definitely wasn’t Pekorin.

She looked around for the source, and at her feet she found one of those small, plastic-looking creatures that had slipped out of Shouma’s shirt earlier. This one was triangular and mostly white, with a big red circle in the middle.

She crouched and held out her hand to it. “Did Shouma drop you by accident when he was leaving?” The little creature hopped onto her hand, and she stood up. “Or did you just want to stay a little longer?”

The creature leaned forward and then back again a few times, as if nodding.

Ichika smiled. “I’m gonna have to ask him if you have a name next time he comes over.”

She looked at the creature a bit more seriously. Could Shouma perhaps have something to do with the things that were happening in that city?

Maybe she’d get to have a closer look at that ‘Kamen Rider’ soon. Hopefully she'd get some answers then.