Infinite Stratos, Volume 4, page 11
“How rude! It’s a manju!”
“That just makes it even more confusing!”
“Shut up! You’re the one who made a cube and called it stew.”
“C’mon, I made a bunch of them! And even Dan managed to figure it out.”
“That’s just because we’d just had stew for lunch!”
Jealousy shone on the others’ faces as the two went back and forth about old memories. But the past was past. The future was what they could change. And then, the second round began.
“I know, it’s a crab stick.”
“Wrong! And rude, too!”
“Laura, is yours a person?”
“No. I don’t know how you don’t get it. I sculpted it perfectly.”
“This time I’ve got it. Cecilia, yours has to be a tomato.”
“Does this really look like a tomato to you, Houki?”
Time flew while they were having fun. Before they realized, it was past four o’ clock, and there was another unexpected arrival.
“I thought it sounded a bit loud in here.”
It was none other than Orimura Chifuyu. She was dressed in a jeans and boyfriend shirt combo that matched her active personality, with a black tank top underneath straining to hold in her breasts.
“Welcome home, Chifuyu.”
“I’m back.”
Ichika immediately rose to her side, taking her bag as if he were her personal valet.
“Have you had lunch? If not, is there anything you’d prefer?”
“What time do you think it is? Of course I ate.”
“I see. Perhaps some tea? Would you prefer hot or cold?”
“Hmm. I just got back, so how about co—”
It was then that Chifuyu noticed. Noticed the jealous stares of her students as Ichika waited on her attentively.
“Actually, it’s fine. I have to go right back out for work anyway.”
“Oh? That’s too bad, we were just about to have the coffee jelly I made this morning.”
“I’ll have to have it some other time. Anyway, I’m going to go change.”
“Ah! I laid out a fresh suit for you, along with your fall clothes. Don’t forget about them.”
“Okay.”
Chifuyu thought of joking that they were an old married couple, but then thought better of it. The girls were obviously already working toward that conclusion, and even if she was kidding she’d probably be taken too seriously. Instead, she simply closed the door behind her. Only then could the girls nervously exhale.
“You always suck up to Chifuyu.”
“Oh? You think so? Isn’t this how siblings normally get along?”
“Uhh. Maybe in your head.”
Ling had been visibly irritated since Chifuyu’s arrival—well, since Ichika’s reaction to it. His other childhood friend Houki, though, had always realized how close they were and kept her worries about it bottled up inside.
Is Ichika getting even more hung up on his sister?
Cecilia and Charlotte, on the other hand, thought back to the previous month and silently deflated.
She still only thinks of him as a little brother, surely...?
There’s nothing else, no ‘just the two of us’ going on, right?
Laura’s jealousy of their relationship had already come up once, but now it was aimed in the other direction. Hmph. Ichika, you’re my wife! But if it’s mein Lehre—no, even if it is her! I won’t allow my wife to be so close to anyone else! But how do I... Ugh...
An awkward silence settled over the living room.
“Huh? What’s up, guys?”
“...Jelly.”
“Huh?”
“Bring out that jelly! You already forgot about afternoon snacks, ugh!”
“What are you so mad about, Rin? You don’t even like coffee.”
“That doesn’t mean I don’t like coffee jelly!”
“Really? You said before you didn’t want—”
“Well now I do! It’s my new thing! Problem?”
“Not really, but...”
Ichika knew that discretion was the better part of valor here, and tried not to set off Ling, only for Houki to lay into him from the other side of the table.
“Ahem! Now that I think of it, I’ve become quite a fan of coffee jelly lately too.”
“Eh?”
“Maybe I can sample some.”
As he tried to stave off Houki’s stern demand, he ran straight into Laura.
“Yes. A sample. I must make sure her food isn’t poisoned.”
“Huh? What do you mean, Laura?”
“I mean I’m going to eat some. Bring me a dish.”
Then Cecilia and Charlotte joined in.
“Indeed! I’d like a sample as well!”
“I guess me too...”
“Even you, Charl? I don’t want to hear any complaints if you don’t like it...” Ichika resignedly stood up and headed toward the kitchen to pull the coffee jelly from the fridge. “I made six, so there should be just enough. Though that means none for Chifuyu...”
“She said she’d have to have it some other time, right?”
“I guess, but...”
Just as Ichika was about to finish, the door to the living room opened again.
“Are you arguing about something? I expect you to get along when you’re at my house.” Chifuyu had changed into a suit, and looked stunning enough—even to other women—to silence the girls. She briskly gathered a few final things, and not even two minutes later stepped back to the living room door.
“Ichika. I won’t be back tonight, so feel free. But no sleepovers. We don’t even have enough blankets for that,” she added before striding out again, leaving before anyone could even say goodbye.
“Did something come up at work for her? Well. I guess that happens.” Ichika set a coffee jelly on the table in front of each person. “Chifuyu likes them bitter, so feel free to add milk. And syrup, I didn’t add sugar either.”
After seasoning their dishes, everyone dug in. Laura and Cecilia had at first tried theirs black, but quickly changed their minds after their first bites.
“This isn’t half bad.”
“How’d a guy get so good at making desserts? It’s no fair.”
“Can you bake, Ichika?”
“I guess a sponge cake, maybe. The kind you’d have with cream and fruit.”
“That sounds simply wonderful. I’ll have to try it sometime.”
“If I ever get the chance.”
“And Ms. Orimura gets to eat your cooking every day? I’m jealous.”
“I don’t think it’s that big a deal. Hey, actually, how late are you all gonna be here? I’ve gotta go buy something for dinner if it’s gonna be late.”
Ten—well, at least nine—eyes glinted in unison as he spoke.
“Let me help out with dinner! I owe you after the jelly,” Rin let out with a jump.
“Yeah! I’d love to show what I’m capable of,” Houki replied.
“I guess I’ll help too,” muttered Charlotte.
“Myself as well, of course. My unit took turns cooking, so I know my way around a kitchen,” said Laura.
“It’s been some time since you all had the chance to try my cooking. Perhaps you’ve come to appreciate it?” Cecilia remarked.
Five people held in a ‘no way’ as Ichika glanced at the clock on the wall.
“All right, I guess let’s head out at five? There’s a supermarket nearby, we can just go there.”
They continued to chat while finishing their coffee jellies. It went on and on, until it was five.
◆
“Sorry to keep you waiting!”
Ms. Yamada—Yamada Maya—stepped into a basement bar in a shopping district near the station for a breather. It was ‘Crescendo,’ open from 4PM to 8AM. A stylish meeting place for grownups with all French furnishings, it was Chifuyu’s usual spot.
“Sorry to drag you out here.”
“Oh, it’s no big deal. I was just sitting around looking through a catalog.”
Maya sat down at the bar next to Chifuyu, who immediately ordered a black and tan. For Maya, of course.
“Can I get you another, Chifuyu?”
“Yes, please.”
“Coming right up.”
The owner-bartender, a bit of a silver fox with slicked-back hair and white mustache, had plenty of female regulars there for his looks. What brought Chifuyu back time and again, though, was the calm tone of his voice.
“Here you are.”
After delivering Maya’s black and tan, a schwarzbier for Chifuyu, and a complimentary cheese tray, he drifted away seamlessly. His long experience had taught him when to let people converse naturally, without the pressure of being watched.
“Cheers.”
After clinking their glasses together, Maya took tiny sips, while Chifuyu took one long, slow one.
Once her glass was half empty, Maya inquired curiously. “So, why here today? It’s a day off, isn’t your place better?”
“That’s what I thought, but then, out of nowhere, girls.”
“A girl? Ooh, Ichika has someone over?”
“Yeah. My class, you know, the usual suspects.”
“So the six with their own IS, all in one room. That’s enough firepower to start a war.”
“That’s probably not a good thing to joke about.” Chifuyu still chuckled, though, as she nibbled on some cheese.
“And what about you? What do you think of your little brother having a girlfriend?”
“Well...” Reaching the bottom of her glass, Chifuyu signaled for another. She took a long chug from this, her fourth, before continuing. “You remember the class trip last month?”
“Yes. Of course I do. So much happened.”
“Never mind the Gospel. I said something I really shouldn’t have.”
“...Like?”
Maya’s curiosity was written all over her face. She’d never seen Chifuyu be so evasive, and couldn’t wait to find out what it was about.
“I said it to those five.”
“Yeah?”
“I said I wouldn’t let them have him.”
“...Yeah?” Maya repeated with a blank look. She’d never seen Chifuyu be so out of sorts, but the alcohol was beginning to open her up.
“Well, uh, not like that. I mean, it’s not about him, just... He’s my little brother, you know?”
“I’m an only child, but I’ve heard.”
“I didn’t mean it weird or anything. But now... All of them think they’ve gotta look out for me, and they’ve backed off...”
Maya finished her glass, and fell silent until her refill came, “So are you okay with him going out with someone, or not?”
“I’m okay with it. He needs to learn. Learn how to deal with other people. Learn how to deal with women.”
“So it’s fine, then, right?”
“No, it isn’t.”
Maya stifled a surprised ‘what?’
“I mean, it’s not not fine, just... I want him to end up with the right woman. The boy has no judgment.”
“So, you’re worried about him?”
“Nah. It’s his life. He needs to live it.”
Another stifled ‘what?’
“So what did you mean when you said that? Something like ‘I won’t let anyone I don’t approve of have him!’?”
“Not quite, but... Honestly, I don’t even know what I should have said.” Chifuyu tilted back her glass and let the dark beer flow down her throat. “Another, please.”
“Coming right up.”
Chifuyu chugged half of the fresh glass in a single gulp and continued, “Well, anyway. That’s why I’m here today. If I was around, they’d never be able to work up the guts to do anything. I didn’t want to get in the way.”
“Sometimes you’re just like Ichika.” —Too kind for your own good, she meant.
“Whaa? How’s that? Maya, you don’t know a thing about men either.”
“I guess.” Maya giggled.
“Hmph...”
The idea of Maya as a little sister teasing her amused and angered Chifuyu at the same time, and she tilted back the rest of her beer in a single go.
“The night’s still young, you know.”
“Why don’t you ever try saying that to a guy?”
“Why would I, when the manliest person I know is right here?” Maya grinned at Chifuyu cheekily.
“You mean the bartender? Go right ahead, I won’t get in your way.”
“Chifuyu, it’s not nice to tease the elderly like that.”
As if summoned, he appeared with another drink—but a salty dog, rather than a beer. The salt on the rim of the glass glimmered like snowflakes.
“...I didn’t order another yet.”
“I had the feeling you’d appreciate one, though.”
“Hmph. Everyone around me just butts in all the time.”
Chifuyu was bitter at being read so easily, but soon enough she lifted the glass to those scowling lips. Like two parents coddling an angry child, Maya and the bartender declined to reply directly.
“It’s because you’re well-loved. Right?”
“Right— I suppose I’ll butt in with a meal as well,” he spoke as he made his way back to the kitchen. Chifuyu, meanwhile, childishly took a handful of cheese and stuffed it in her mouth all at once.
“Everyone’s growing and learning in their own way.”
“Hahaha. You sound like an old lady.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? C’mon! Don’t be mean to me!”
“Sorry, sorry.”
Chifuyu laughing, Maya with a puffy-cheeked pout. The ice cubes in the salty dog clinked back and forth as if chuckling at the scene.
◆
Meanwhile, back at the Orimuras’. The scene was as grim as a camp of soldiers awaiting a battle they knew would be their last.
“There. Ugh, these potatoes are so hard to peel.”
Ling was, with an excess of caution, paring off not just the potato skins but chunks of the potato as well. Next to her, Cecilia, who allegedly knew how to make hashed beef, was enthusiastically squirting ketchup into a pan.
“Well, that’s strange. It doesn’t look anything like the pictures. Not nearly red enough.”
“Uhh, are you sure you need that mu— Whoa! Turn that down!”
“No need to worry, Houki. My meals are always saved by the bell.”
“This is cooking, not boxing...”
Houki, in a Japanese-style chef’s coat and apron, sighed as she turned back to her own, less shambolic, dish: simmered flounder.
“What are you making, Charlotte? Yakitori?”
“Nah, Laura. This is fried chicken. I’m just marinating it a little.”
“Oh, I see.” As she spoke, Laura expertly paired a single long strip of daikon. Her knife skills would impress even a professional chef. Even if she hadn’t been using a survival knife...
“You’re amazing, Laura. Where’d you learn to do that?”
“By imitation. I saw a cook on TV do it.”
“You can do it that smoothly just by imitating?”
“I’m already well-trained with a knife. Otherwise, in jungle warfare, I wouldn’t be able to make a single trap.”
“U-Uh, anyway. What are you making?”
“Oden.”
“.........”
“Oden.”
“You didn’t have to say it twice. But isn’t that a winter food?”
“That doesn’t mean you can’t eat it in summer.”
“Well, you’re not wrong, but... Oh, can I have any daikon you have left over? Ichika said he wanted some in the marinade.”
“.........”
“Laura?”
With the sudden loud thwack of a knife onto a cutting board, Laura chopped the daikon in two.
“Oh, sorry. I was focused and wasn’t listening. What was it?”
“If you have any spare daikon...”
“I see. Okay.”
Thwack! A precise, five-centimeter length came off its tip.
“Chopping now.”
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
The vision of an apron-clad girl with an eyepatch precisely, mechanically chopping a daikon was surreal. Ichika couldn’t help but watch them cook with a sense of impending terror. Even though he was told to just relax and watch TV, the suspense of whether they’d collectively produce an edible meal was too much. Especially because if they didn’t, it was his stomach on the line.
It’ll be fine, right? Edible, at least.
His biggest worry was Cecilia, whose cooking he’d already experienced, but watching Laura cook, he mentally added her to the danger list.
“Hmm-hm-hmmm~♪”
Ling happily hummed to herself as she finished chopping her vegetables and began to sauté. It bothered Ichika that she wasted so much food while peeling, though.
He was suddenly reminded of the words of a famous foreign writer. “Let me tell you the good thing about time. It always passes.” But that wasn’t all. “Let me tell you the bad thing about time. It always comes.” And right now, the time had come.
“.........”
Five hand-cooked dishes from five cooks sat on the table. Standing out conspicuously in the center were, of course, Cecilia and Laura’s.
“What do you think, Ichika? It’s my signature dish.”
The hashed beef looked perfect, but the pungent smell coming off it was anything but.
Tabasco?! Did you put tabasco in just to get it to turn red, Cecilia?!
And Laura’s...
“That’s some... Unusual oden, Laura. It looks more like barbecue.”
The single long skewers loaded with a mix of daikon, egg, fish sausage, and konnyaku were unusual enough, but for some reason, it also looked like it had been grilled rather than stewed in broth.
Why was it browned? Was she trying to copy how it looked in comic books? No, wait, I don’t want to know.
Next, Ichika looked over to Ling’s dish.
“What do you think of my beef stew? Great, isn’t it?”
She was visibly proud of it, even though the potato chunks were smaller than the massive cubes of beef.
Was it overdone? No, thankfully. At least the flavor would be fine. Rin’s presentation has always left a bit to be desired.
His nerve recovered, Ichika turned his eyes to the safe side of the table: Charlotte’s fried chicken and Houki’s simmered flounder. He’d suggested that everyone cook something so there’d definitely be enough, but he realized too late that he should have left the cooking to those two.
