Haru was at a loss. She was sitting down on a fancy dinner table, at the fancy restaurant that she passed by on the way to school every now and then. Whenever she was in a rush and her dad was available to drive her to school, at least, he'd always take this road, always giving her an uncontested view of some of the tastiest food she had never tasted. Admittedly, she had never found the need to eat here before, though her mother always had the foresight to have some kind of breakfast in the morning prepared before she would normally go to school. Plus, the food was really expensive. It was still a bit surreal to think about her actually entering in a place she had only seen as a myth, basically, but that's how the way things go now apparently. Of course, given that it was also the current Student Council's preferred gathering place for whatever reason, it almost seemed like she was destined to come here in the future no matter what.
She really shouldn't be feeling this way, she thought. But it's been barely a few days since she first befriended the girl in front of her, and her exceedingly eccentric sister—though, technically, it was only her sister that she had known for a few days, Sona was who she met today. She looked at the piece of paper that the restaurant staff had given her—she shall now refer it as a dish list—, laminated and showing pictures of the food they served, including varieties of Chinese and Korean that she didn't even know existed, some American stuff, European and even Pizza. It was basically all of the good stuff they could find in the world and stuffed it all into one single restaurant, and that was enough to make her inner Demon King (both literally and figuratively) salivate uncontrollably at the piece of paper presented before her.
She found herself really, really hungry, but all the food was so prohibitively expensive that ordering a single one of them—or more, a desperate voice in her mind pleads—-would probably inconvenience Sona so much that she was thinking against ordering anything at all. The immaculate tastes tempted her, however. Her imagination led her to thoughts of deep-fried tempura with the sauces glazing the topside, Korean barbeque cooking slowly on the built-in stove on her table, and the wide variety of sweets that would undoubtedly become her dessert. Her heart beat slowly but impactfully, each pump sending more and more bits of pleasure through her body as she imagined the heavenly tastes go down her throat, dribbles of saliva going down her chin. She was going so far as to put her hands on her face in ungraceful anticipation.
The rather disturbing sight brought Sona into a deep sweat, scooting just a bit further away from Haru. She sighed, wondering if it was really such a good idea to bring her to one of the higher-class restaurants in the City of Kuoh. She was considering the amount of money it would take to pay for a single meal, and the time span it may take to actually deliver it to them on time. There wasn't much she could actually do then, anyway. Since they were already there and all…
It was such a fortunate thing that the staff didn't have to bat an eye at the sight of the two of them in the premises, both of them in cosplay clothing and holding way too much money for their own good. The restaurant staff worked closely with her family in terms of business in the human world, so that meant special treatment for the landlord's daughter, basically. Which worked just fine for her.
She had to clarify that particular piece of information over and over again since Haru's humble background meant that she still didn't actually believe that a kid like her had that much money on hand. It was roughly 30K yen stuffed into her front pocket with a magical seal, mostly as her weekly allowance. And now she was going to use almost half of that to feed a very hungry, and newly minted magical girl. Quite literally for both of them, it seemed. How lovely.
It was pretty interesting to think about, if she could just disconnect the hungry predator sitting in front of her who was currently analyzing the quarry in silence. That which she was planning to hunt down and devour, with what she's learned about the past few days. It's not all too unrealistic for intense moments to make even her feel hungry after a full day's worth of practice. Haru's no exception, but why she only began to feel particularly hungry today rather than the days before was unknown to her.
She put a finger to her lips, and thought. Maybe her mother might just be that good of a chef, then. It's a bit of a stretch, sure, but certainly it must have been hell to think up the culinary skills that would help them in their endeavors. It was also a ridiculous proposition to consider but... Well, she may as well try to ask directly when she gets the chance.
She coughed into her hand, calling to her sister magical girl's attention. Haru stopped her ritual, looking like a deer in the headlights. Then she put herself into a position more appropriate for a young girl such as her, putting her legs on the ground and her hands on the desk. After that, she wiped the drool off her face, picked up the pink beret that fell onto the ground and put it on. It still didn't help her image whatsoever, considering the still wanting expression she could just see in her eyes, but it was a start.
There was a momentary pause. The two of them stared down each other as Sona tried her best to figure out something reasonable to break the awkward silence, but it was no use. They were shivering, ignoring the concerned looks of the people eating on the other tables.
She rubbed a hand behind her neck and sighed. Knocking on the table to call for Haru's attention once again, she called. "So, Haru… How are you doing? Is there anything wrong right now or…" Silence, and apparent apathy was all that was found. "Never mind." She sighed. Maybe she wasn't all too prepared for a conversation this time around, but at least she'll try. The look the other girl gave her was a bit concerning, with her eyes staring straight at her, judging her every being, waiting for the response that she was going to give. A response that she failed to deliver because of said judging eyes, in fact, and she felt disappointed that she could be shut down so easily by that.
Any attempts at further communication were halted the moment the waiter arrived to take their orders. Although she did try her best to give guidelines for Haru to consider what she should order, the earlier response of hers, the veritable lust for all thing's food related on the menu decided the answer for her. She'd just wait for Haru to finish telling the poor waiter to write everything that she wanted, and she'd reserve her concerns to herself. It was their business to keep, after all.
30 minutes later, the food arrived. In another 30, all of the food was eaten, bones included. The bill was roughly equivalent to 132 US Dollars when converted from Japanese Yen, which was very expensive, especially for a full course meal meant for a single girl. Sona looked at it in silence, and grudgingly took the money out of her pockets to hand to the Waiter.
After that massacre of her funds and the plates, she looks on at the satisfied Demon King, who was currently chipping away at a food particle stuck between her teeth and patting her somehow still flat belly. And worse yet, she didn't seem to change her body much at all. All of the food just disappeared for whatever reason in the black hole Haru called a stomach, and that was reason enough for Sona to despair.