Chapter 36 - Old Acquaintances

"Wow... Yami's gonna be pissed." Looking at the messed up courtyard, Finral couldn't help but comment while Grim and Luck were laying down catching their breaths.

"Tell me something I don't know." Grim laughed.

"So... Before Yami comes out and kills you, wanna go to a mixer?"

"A mixer?" Imagining Yami's reaction to the state of the courtyard, Grim only asked one question. "How fast can we leave?"

"Right away." Opening up a portal, Finral smiled.

"Great! Lets go Luck." Grim said jumping up from the ground.

"Sure."

"Actually..." Finral cut in. "Its a 3 on 3 mixer and I kinda already invited Asta so..."

"Oh..." Grim and Luck looked at each other.

This took all of five seconds before Grim abandoned Luck by jumping through the portal.

"GOOD LUCK!!" He shouted.

[A/n: That pun tho.]

Knowing that Luck was a lot faster than him, the chances of him escaping Yami's wrath was a lot higher than his own, therefore he didn't hesitate to leave his friend behind.

---

Crossing through the portal, Grim found himself standing outside a familiar looking restaurant.

'Wait a second... Isn't this where I used to work?'

"You made it!!" A voice sounded out from besides him.

"Huh?" Turning his head slightly, Grim the smiling face of Asta waiting for him.

"Hey..."

Before the two could start their conversation, Finral quickly came through the portal with slightly frazzled hair.

*Heavy Breathing*

"Damn that battle maniac!" He cursed before noticing that Grim and Asta were staring at him.

"Ahem." He coughed and combed his hair back to normal with his hand. Putting on a friendly smile and pretending that the past 10 seconds didn't happen, he directed his attention to the two and said. "Follow me."

Ignoring their stares, he walked into the restaurant without looking back.

Looking at each other, Grim and Asta shrugged before following him inside. Following his lead, the two were lead to table where three lovely ladies were waiting for them.

'So these are our dates...'

Knowing that showing up late wouldn't leave the best first impression, Finral went into gentleman mode as the aura around him changed.

"Sorry for the wait ladies, we had to deal with a small issue." He smiled.

"Huh? Oh, its oka- GRIM!!" One of the ladies suddenly exclaimed ignoring Finral's gentleman act.

"Eh?"

Hearing his name being called, Grim took a closer look at the ladies and realized that he had met them all before.

"R-Rebecca!!"

---

"So... You guys all know each other huh?" Aiming his smile at Grim, Finral asked this question with a strangely dark aura around him that made Grim feel slightly uncomfortable.

"Know each other? I'd say we more than know each other right Grim?" The blonde lady said with a more than enthusiastic tone.

"Yeah." Grim nodded, considering that he didn't know a lot of people, he wondered how he managed to get into a mixer with three women that he had known for years.

"Is that so?" Finral smiled while his dark aura intensified.

"Yeah." The girl with black hair nodded. "Whenever we came to visit Rebecca at work, we always ran into Grim here. He was very polite."

"Was he now?" Finral said giving Grim a weird look.

"Woah! You guys must be super close then!" Asta gasped not reading the room.

"Not as close as I'd like." The blonde one mumbled under her breath.

Picking up on this, Finral's dark aura increased to a terrifying level.

'Why is it that I'm the only one that can feel it?'

Brushing off Finral's glare, Grim turned his attention to the only girl who had kept silent throughout the conversation.

Remembering the letter he had left her telling her that she was a massive bitch, he didn't know what to say except "Its good to see you again."

"Is it?" Rebecca finally spoke.

'Not really.'

"...Sure..."

"That's strange, because if I remember correctly, the last thing I got from you was a letter detailing the ways in which I had and I quote, a bitch face, reeked of something you called thottery and was a future champion at tonsil hockey."

*Silence*

'Tonsil hockey? Damn, I must have been in a really good mood if I based one of my insults on a game these guys don't even know of.'

Feeling everyone's eyes fall on him, Grim coughed lightly before continuing the conversation. "So how much of that did you actually understand?"

"...Only the part about you calling me a bitch."

"And the rest?"

"Gibberish."

'So I wrote that letter all for nothing...'

*Sigh* "In my defence, I called a bunch of nobles inbreds the other day, so you don't have to worry about being the only person I insult."

Hearing this, Rebecca frowned.

"You insult people other than me?" She asked ignoring the part about him insulting nobility.

"Yeah. Quite frequently."

[A/n: Lol, the realization that you're not special.]

Seeing that Rebecca had fallen silent, Finral took the opportunity to take control of the conversation. "Ahem, I know that you guys already know each other, but I think it's time to introduce ourselves."

"Oh!" The blonde haired girl said in surprise before looking a Finral. "I completely forgot about you."

*Ooof!!*

"T-That's okay..." Finral said with a strained smile."

"I guess I'll go first then." The black haired one began.

"I'm Erica and I work at the tailor shop across from here. I'm very good with measurements so if you're ever looking for a personal tailor then I'm your gal."

Next up was the blonde haired girl sitting next to her.

"I'm Ellen, I work at the salon down the street. And while I'm used to working on women's hair, if the right guy came along I wouldn't mind cutting his hair." She winked at Grim.

Seeing her actions, Finral turned to look at Grim and spoke in a hushed voice.

"Did she ever cut your hair?"

"Yeah." He nodded. "I didn't want to pay and she never charged."

"...."

Moving onto the next person, Rebecca cleared her throat and gave Grim a hard look before introducing herself.

"I'm Rebecca, I work in this restaurant and used to be Grim's co-worker."

"Wow!" Finral exclaimed. "Lovely jobs to fit such lovely ladie-

"So Grim." Erica interrupted and switched her attention to Grim.

"How's the magic knight business going?"

"Its pretty fun, I get to fight a bunch of strong dudes and managed to break a ton of bones in the process. I even got to cut a guy's head off the other day. Its the perfect job."

"That... sounds nice." Erica said with a cramped smile.

"So my name is Finral and-

"It must be scary right?" Ellen said ignoring Finral in the midst of his introduction. "Fighting all those scary guys not knowing whether you'll live or die?"

"Nah, that kind of stuff gets my blood pumping, and besides, I only came close to dying once."

"What!? When?" Rebecca looked at Grim with concern.

"When the capital got attacked by the eye of the midnight sun. I let a guy hit me with an attack but I underestimated the power it and almost died in the process. Haha, I was actually quite lucky that Mimosa got there so fast."

"Mimosa?" For some reason, the minute Mimosa's name escaped his lips the expression on all three girl's faces changed.

"Y-You have a friend named Mimosa? What an unusual name for a boy." Ellen asked with a strange smile.

"Mimosa's a girl so its not really strange." Grim responded before taking a sip from his drink.

"A girl huh... Is she pretty?" Rebecca asked taking control of the conversation.

"I guess... I mean she has really big bȯȯbs and I sometimes feel like they're daring me to squeeze them. Pretty funny right?"

"Hilarious." Rebecca smiled and quietly clenched her cup so hard that cracks were starting to appear.

"Um guys, I'm Finra-

"How come you're not working today? Did the boss give you a day off?" Grim asked Rebecca while Finral failed to introduce himself again.

"Nah, my shift is being covered by a new girl."

"Boss hired another waitress?"

"Yeah, she's right over ther- Where is she?" Looking around the restaraunt, Rebecca was confused when she didn't see anyone serving the customers.

"She's not here?" Grim asked also looking around.

"I guess she must be doing something else for the moment."

"Guess so... So how are your siblings?"

"Well Marc..."

While Rebecca recounted the events that happened over the past few months Grim smiled lightly and kept nodding his head while wondering how Luck was handling Yami's rage.

'Should I have ditched him? I mean he's fast and all but who knows what Yami's capable of when he's angry... Nah, he'll be fine, he'll probably even try to fight him if given the chance. The real problem is that Yuno guy. The power he displayed recently was astonishing, the one spell I have in Breath of Wind doesn't even compare to that wind eagle he launched at Asta. Hmm... after letting that wind mage attack me back then, I can safely ȧssume that Breath of Mist probably isn't the best magic to use against wind mages. Actually, if I think about it now, the only magic I haven't upgraded so far is Breath of Thunder. Having only one spell in my lightning arsenal is quite embarrassing... Since it doesn't seem like I'm getting any buffs from fighting and tanking Luck's attacks, I guess I'll have to think of another way... I wonder if I can find anything in the library? Do we even have a library?'

"I'm really glad you think so to Grim." Rebecca smiled unaware that Grim hadn't been listening.

"Huh? Yeah sure."

'What did I agree to?'