A young boy sat on a bench on the sidewalk, nibbling at a piece of taiyaki in his hand, glancing every so often at the doorway of a nearby cafe. He had a furrowed brow and a worried expression, an expression that would normally garner some sympathy from a passerby had it not been covered by a sporty red cap the boy had on his head. As it was the passersby barely gave the boy a second thought, which was exactly the way he wanted it.

Kael had been sitting on the bench, sans mask, for some time, trapped by none other than a dilemma. On the one hand, he wanted to go into the cafe. on the other hand was the fact that there were a lot of people in there. In reality there was probably no reason not to go in, since it was highly unlikely any of them had the intention of harming the young boy. But at the same time, it was impossible to rule out the risk. What if one of the customers was a demon serial killer in disguise who wanted nothing more than to murder unsuspecting young devils like Kael? Or what if it was one of his relatives instead, here to drag him to one of his dreaded family reunions? Among the countless reasons not to go inside, one was that he didn't really need to be there. His shift wasn't until later that day, in trough hours of the cafe. But he did want to be in there, and why he wanted in had nothing to do with seeing his master in a uniform serving customers. No really.

He continued to chew thoughtfully on the fish-shaped delight in his hand. When he came into the human world was amazed that humans could come up with something so interesting. He'd bought some to share with the rest in an effort to perhaps foster friendly relations among his master's peerage. He'd hardly talked to any of them ever since he joined, and that was making him worried. Teamwork was crucial for the rating game, after all, and Kael didn't want to hold his master back. Hence, he'd devised a plan to garner a positive image by providing his new teammates with gifts. But the big flaw with the plan was that Kael didn't know what to do afterwards, with a more minor flaw being his inability to enter the premises. It was simple enough in theory; use the food as bait to start the conversation, carry it into other topics. But the number of topics he could actually talk about with his colleagues was close to 0, unless one of them had secret assassin training (he was pretty sure they hadn't but the possibility was always there), and even if he had something to talk about it would only go well if he didn't stutter through the whole thing. And that was a pretty big if.

Kael was broken out of his musings as he spied a priest out of the corner of his eye. He immediately froze and tried to make himself even smaller as he walked by. He stared at the priest from under his hat as the clergyman walked by, watching him enter the cafe. Any demon knew about the danger of crosses and holy water and the like, but the most dangerous people for any demon were always the source of those: priests. He had heard they were all crazed demon hunting fanatics with no other purpose in life than exterminating demons. Although maybe things had changed recently, but the man doubtlessly had foul intentions for the cafe and its inhabitants.

Kael pulled his mask back up and began to rise from his seat when a sudden blur entered his vision. He hastily stepped back as a familiar brown-haired blur streaked past his seat. He watched, bewildered as she crashed into the cafe, apparently unaware of the holy power gracing the cafe. Kael was once again conflicted. The priest demanded immediate action and considering the person who just blundered into the cafe was a teammate it looked like the situation would be favorable. But this was the one teammate he really couldn't deal with. It wasn't about him talking to her it was her communicating with him. His brief attempt at conversation had sapped his energy rapidly as he tried to keep up with her apparently endless joyful energy. He was afraid she would one day drag him off to who knew where and do all kinds of things to him, like take his picture, or forcing him to sing a funny song, or something. Every single carefully laid plan had crumbled under the seemingly insurmountable girl and he wasn't ready to face her again just yet. Still, the situation was potentially dire and his master could have need of his assistance.

Kael sighed heavily before getting off the bench. This wasn't something he could avoid forever and social contact with someone he couldn't understand would be a small price to pay. Steeling himself, Kael slowly approached the door to enter into the cafe. As he opened the door, however, he was suddenly met with the scene inside the cafe, with the maelstrom of a girl wrapped around his master, and he lost all of his courage. Kael slowly let the door close before taking refuge under one of the front windows, face beet red, with his mind awhirl. He hadn't been expecting that particular scene. He felt incredibly awkward as he thought about trying to walk into that scene. Maybe he should stay outside a little longer...