At the entrance of the Deep Night Diner—
After returning home, Hayashi parked the van with Tohru.
Looking around, the environment was mostly intact.
Only a thin layer of dust and scattered bits of debris from the earlier fight.
Tohru grabbed a broom.
"I'll get it cleaned up."
"Thanks." Hayashi nodded, still carrying Pochita. "I'll go wash him up."
He walked into the courtyard and turned on the faucet.
Water gushed out—thankfully, the pipes hadn't been damaged.
Hayashi held Pochita under the running water.
Then grabbed two towels and started scrubbing off the blood and grime.
While washing, he glanced at him.
"Did you get hurt, Pochita?"
"Nope," Pochita whispered in his mind. "Pochita is strong. Pochita will protect our home—and Hayashi."
"Good."
Hayashi used one towel to rinse, the other to dry.
Pochita squinted with satisfaction, looking like a big golden retriever.
Actually, he really did resemble one.
Meanwhile—
Members of Division 4 and the Anteiku café all arrived.
They watched as Tohru, still dressed in a maid outfit, was sweeping the front of the shop like a dutiful employee.
And Hayashi, the so-called "boss behind the scenes," was calmly washing his devil like a pet in the courtyard.
Everyone was quietly stunned.
If they didn't already know how strong these two were, they would've never guessed.
Or rather, even now, they weren't sure of their true strength.
To strangers, these two just looked like a gorgeous maid and a refined young man—elegant, from good families, and well-mannered.
No signs of a battle-hardened monster.
No unstable mental aura either.
In the courtyard—
After finishing up, Hayashi gave Pochita a good rubdown with a dry towel.
Then set him down and patted his head.
"You did great today. How about a big dinner just for you after we close?"
"Woof~!"
Pochita spun around in place, wagging like crazy. His mouth practically drooled.
Inside his mind, he shouted,
"Hayashi is the best!"
Everyone watching was stunned.
Seriously?
Pochita—the monster devil who just shredded the powerful Leech Devil—
All it took to make him happy was… a home-cooked meal?
And he was ecstatic about it?
What kind of world was this?
Even Makima would call this absurd. Who else had such a way of controlling a devil?
Once Pochita ran off to relax, Tohru finished cleaning too.
She led the group inside. Hayashi glanced around.
There were more people than ever.
"Today's officially the busiest day this diner's ever had."
Tohru thought about it—actually, it wasn't surprising.
With Hayashi's low-key, under-the-radar way of running things, it was a miracle anyone even found the place.
This was the internet age. Good food means nothing if no one hears about it.
If you didn't promote yourself, you basically didn't exist.
So this? Totally normal.
"Tohru, go see what everyone wants to eat."
"Got it!"
Tohru started with Division 4.
Hayashi, not wanting guests to wait, began prepping drinks.
He made coffee, iced water, and lemon tea.
Then asked everyone what they wanted.
Division 4 split evenly between lemon tea and iced water.
Anteiku split between coffee and lemon tea.
Iced water? They finally had a good meal lined up—
Who the hell drinks water?
Of course they wanted something flavorful!
So everyone got their drinks first.
Tohru noted down all the food orders and brought them to Hayashi.
He glanced over them.
"Steak, eel rice, tonkatsu rice, curry rice, tempura ramen, omurice, golden fried rice…"
With this many people, the variety was off the charts.
He had just finished reading the list—
Aki Hayakawa raised his hand apologetically again.
"Um, Manager Hayashi, Makima-sama said she'll be coming over soon. She said just make something simple for her."
"Got it," Hayashi replied.
He left Tohru in charge of refilling drinks in the dining area while he headed into the kitchen to start cooking.
To be honest, with so many different dishes, it really did look like a bit of a hassle.
"But no worries. Let's get started!"
The steak was the easiest to prepare.
Hayashi cooked the steak first, then began working down the order list.
Things like eel rice, katsudon, all the rice bowl types—he decided to make those all in one go.
He prepped the eel, fried the pork cutlet, started simmering the soup.
Then came the tempura. Once the steak was done, he set it aside to rest and retain its juices.
After that, he assembled all the rice bowl dishes, then moved on to the golden fried rice and paired each item accordingly.
Next, he boiled noodles for the ramen.
Finally, when everything was ready—
"Tohru, food's up."
Hayashi called out to Tohru to start serving the dishes.
Tohru came in holding a giant serving tray.
No ordinary person could carry that much.
But this was Tohru.
She served four plates in one go without breaking a sweat.
After two more trips, every order was served.
Only one dish was set aside and kept warm—Makima's.
Hayashi washed his hands and stepped out of the kitchen.
The moment he walked out, he was greeted by a scene of pure bliss.
Everyone had expressions like they were in a dream, cheeks flushed, energized as if they could punch through walls.
The sounds of ravenous eating filled the room—no one cared about manners anymore.
Manager Yoshimura held his bowl of ramen—
Sipping soup, biting tempura.
Even the Owl couldn't stay composed.
Tohru beamed with pride. This was the strength of her Hayashi-san!
Ding-ling~
The bell above the door rang.
Hayashi turned and saw Makima enter.
She wore tailored slacks and a white blouse, hands behind her back as she walked toward him—then suddenly pulled something out and handed it over.
"Hayashi-kun, thank you for your help. This is a personal gift from me."
Hayashi looked down—it was a small cake.
His first thought was: She didn't drug it, right?
But recalling how even drugged food didn't affect him, he accepted it calmly.
"No need for thanks. I was just protecting my own little shop."
Everyone from Division 4 was stunned.
Makima-sama… actually brought someone a gift?
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