While they talked it over in the kitchen, Hatsune, Luka, and Yanhe were busy putting Tianyi on trial out front.
"Tianyi, it really looks like we'll have to keep an eye on your eating from now on." That was the authority of the eldest sister.
"Tianyi, why would you order all that at once?" That was Hatsune, still cross.
"Tianyi. It's your first time meeting him. You shouldn't." That was Yanhe — short and to the point, as always.
Scolded by all three in turn, Tianyi hugged her head like a cornered rabbit, too meek to fight back.
"Then... you'd all better not steal my food later," she dared to mutter, very quietly.
In the kitchen, Yuto looked at Erina and Hisako. "Any problems with the plan?"
"None." They answered as one.
"Good. Let's start."
At the word, both moved to their stations.
Erina took the buns Tianyi had named.
Woman though she was, years at the stove had given her more than enough strength for dough.
Two of each kind — six kinds, twelve buns in all.
Hisako took the noodles: dandan noodles, hot and sour noodles.
Like Erina, two portions of each, six in total, so that Hatsune and the others would have some to pick at as well.
Everything else fell to Yuto — the stir-fries, the stews, better than twenty dishes.
Not enough to trouble him.
What Tianyi had rattled off were all classic Chinese dishes, the bread and butter of any cook trained in China.
For Yuto, making them was so familiar his hands seemed to know the way on their own.
As if at some silent signal, all three began at once.
The two girls set to kneading, faces serious, sleeves pushed back to bare their fair arms, palms pressing down into the pale dough in their bowls.
Noodle dough and bun dough were not the same; each asked for its own strength and its own timing.
Any cook who had seriously studied the pastry station knew the difference — plenty of housewives did too — but working the dough to just the right point took real skill. It tested a cook's eye, their concentration, the strength in their hands.
For these two, it was no trouble at all.
Tōtsuki's finest weren't elites for nothing!
Across the kitchen, Yuto was cutting everything he'd need.
Meat, soft tofu, crisp vegetables — one knife for all of it.
Tap, tap, tap.
The blade against the board sounded like a mountain stream running over smooth stones: steady, close-packed, clean.
The three of them bent to their own work and no one spoke.
The room had taken on the hush of a laboratory mid-experiment — dough striking the bowls, knife meeting board, breathing that ran quick, then even. The sounds wove together and drew everyone into quiet.
They carried out to the front hall, and the noisy group there lowered their voices without thinking, as if afraid to disturb the three at work.
"Tohru, take the dishes out."
The moment the call came from the kitchen, the dragon girl was already on her way.
Out front, the others watched with something close to amazement.
More than ten plates already stood in front of Tianyi, everything Yuto and Hisako had turned out in that short stretch — stir-fries bright with color and heavy with aroma, noodles smooth and springy.
In a little over ten minutes they'd finished what would take an ordinary cook half an hour and more.
Erina's buns had actually been ready for a while, but buns had to steam, and steam took time, which was why none had reached the front hall yet.
Tianyi worked through the food in front of her, deeply content.
Her cheeks moved as she chewed, round and full, so that she looked like a hamster with both pouches stuffed — except she wasn't storing anything away.
She was simply savoring every big, happy mouthful.
All the while, Hatsune, Luka, and Yanhe kept reaching over with their chopsticks to lift food from the plates in front of her.
Inwardly, this displeased Tianyi a great deal.
She didn't dare say much, though.
She was one girl.
How was she supposed to hold off three at once?
"I didn't think Boss would actually make this much, this fast — and every dish this good. It's genuinely impressive."
Admiration showed plainly on Luka's face.
Given her standing and her fame, she'd met all sorts of famous chefs and tasted no end of fine food from their kitchens.
Yet the surprise this little restaurant had just handed her ran deeper than anything those celebrated names had managed.
Fast, precise, and better on the tongue than anything she could remember — it was hard not to be amazed.
"I didn't expect it either. The Boss really is something!" Hatsune sounded proud and pleased.
She was the one who'd brought her sisters here, and the more impressive he proved, the better her own taste looked.
Of course she was pleased.
"Unbelievable." Even quiet Yanhe let a soft breath of admiration slip.
Her thin lips parted, and the surprise on her small face made her look especially endearing.
Tianyi said nothing at all.
She let her actions speak for her instead — eating faster and faster!
Her small mouth opening and closing without pause, quick as a woodpecker at a trunk, while the dishes in front of her shrank at an alarming rate.
Across from the four girls, Ainz and Rimuru sat and watched in silence.
Under their calm surfaces ran a faint, giddy happiness.
For the two of them, just getting to sit there and watch the girls eat was reward enough.
There was no accounting for the heart of a fan.
Just then Tohru came out of the kitchen with two plates of sweet and sour pork tenderloin, the crisp fried pork glazed a bright red, thick sauce clinging to every fragrant piece.
Before the plates even reached her, Tianyi could barely hold herself together.
"Mmph! Mmph!"
'Sweet and sour pork tenderloin!'
It wasn't the most graceful moment.
Her mouth was still full, and she was trying to talk anyway.
Normally the girl minded her image, but with this much good food in front of her, holding back was asking a lot.
Luka, who had been eating quietly, frowned and glanced at her little sister.
In her heart she settled on something: once they got home, Tianyi was overdue for a proper talking-to.
"Here — sweet and sour pork tenderloin." Tohru set the plates down in front of the four of them with a smile.
In an instant three pairs of chopsticks struck at once and carried off three fat pieces.
Tianyi's face fell.
She looked around at the three of them, wounded and helpless.
What was there even to say?
...
Yuto was on the last dish, pork stew with glass noodles — a famous stew.
Across the great expanse of China, the northeast ran broad and boundless, and that rough, open country had raised generation after generation of hardy people.
They were plain and honest, but the ice and snow around them lent their tempers a certain heat as well.
The flavors such people gave rise to matched the land that made them: rough, bold, generous, wide open.
That was the taste of the northeast.
Northeastern cooking wasn't counted among the Eight Great Cuisines, yet its influence reached across the whole of the north, and pork stew with glass noodles was one of its signatures.
Tender chunks of pork belly and smooth glass noodles simmered together in a rich broth to make a flavor all their own.
Even a girl minding her figure would struggle to hold the line once a soft, well-stewed piece of pork belly touched her tongue.
The dish took time.
Yuto had already added the water, now there was nothing to do but wait.
He set the lid on the pot, washed his hands, and stepped out.
A glance at the clock: only sixteen minutes since he'd walked into the kitchen. Sixteen minutes, more than twenty dishes, often two or three things going at once.
Cooks who spent years at the stove picked up their own small shortcuts.
It was respectable enough. He didn't think much of it himself.
When Hatsune and the other three saw him come out, every one of them brightened.
Yuto smiled back.
"How is it?"
Four thumbs went up in perfect unison. That pleased him.
He looked over toward Yuuka, Yakumo Yukari, and the rest.
While he'd been cooking, he'd had Tohru carry Yuuka's flower cake out to her.
As he turned, his eyes met Yakumo Yukari's, and the impossibly alluring woman gave him a faint smile, her beauty flaring bright for just a moment.
"Kamisaka-kun. We'll be going now." She called him whatever she pleased — Boss one moment, Kamisaka the next, no rhyme or reason to it.
"Did you have enough?" Yuto asked, smiling.
"Of course. Boss's cooking is always so addictive. Sometimes I want to spirit you away somewhere and keep you cooking just for me." Yakumo Yukari smiled, radiant, every glance and gesture carrying a charm all its own.
Beside her, Yuuka's brow shifted.
She stole a look at Yukari, who didn't seem to care in the least.
Yuto had dealt with Yakumo Yukari often enough that none of this ruffled him.
He traded a couple of harmless jokes with her, then saw them off. Before they left, Yuuka's eyes went to him more than once.
She seemed to want him not to notice, but he happened to catch it anyway, and the moment their eyes met she looked quickly away. Yuto gave a small smile.
Now that they were parting, the awkwardness he'd felt around Yuuka didn't press on him quite so hard.
Once the Gensokyo group had gone, the restaurant felt much emptier all at once.
The front row sat suddenly bare, and the room took on a strangely hollow air.
"I should head out too." Saitama said it with his usual goofy smile.
He was in the middle of his training routine, and he kept a careful watch on his daily clock: eat, go home, train a while, take a bath, then early to bed and early to rise.
That was Saitama's idea of a perfect day.
He dug a bill out of his pants pocket and handed it over — a rare sight. Until now he'd always paid in coins.
The poor-man's alliance he'd once formed with Ainz had, at long last, come to an end. Because Saitama had money now.
"All right, here's your change." Yuto handed it back.
Saitama tucked the coins away with great care.
Now that things were finally looking up, he had to guard this good fortune properly.
After storing the money, he asked, "Oh, right. Has Goku been here lately?"
Yuto shook his head. "No."
Saitama looked a little let down, but he recovered quickly. "If he shows up, pass on a message for me. Tell him I'm ready for round two."
Ever since their last fight, the thrill of it hadn't fully cooled in his chest.
He still wanted another go at Son Goku.
Only Goku could give him that soaring feeling in a fight.
Problem was, Saitama usually left early, so the odds of catching Goku himself were slim — hence the message.
Yuto agreed, and Saitama left thoroughly satisfied.
Ainz and Rimuru watched him go, and neither could keep the memory of that night from surfacing.
For Ainz especially, it was unforgettable.
The Great Tomb of Nazarick had been left more than half in ruins by Saitama and Son Goku's fight!
Ainz went very still.
No. Absolutely not! Once was more than enough.
There could not be a second time. If those two decided to hold their rematch in his world—
He shut the thought down before it could finish.
"Saitama really is insanely strong," Rimuru sighed.
Ainz hummed low in agreement.
Beside them, Gilgamesh found himself puzzled.
The image of Saitama rose in his mind — that goofy bald man.
'Was he strong?' The King of hero couldn't help wondering about him
....
Erina's buns had finally finished steaming.
As a rule, buns needed only twenty to thirty minutes in the steamer, less if they were small.
The ones Erina brought out stayed true to her style; even plain buns had been shaped by her hand into something unusually delicate.
The ingredients kept them from reaching the refinement of a Western dessert, but next to ordinary buns they were already lovely.
Yuto looked at them and smiled to himself.
That was Erina all over — her stamp on everything she touched.
When Hatsune and the others saw the buns, they were all taken aback. None of them had ever seen buns made to look so fine.
"They're so pretty I almost don't want to eat them." Luka lifted one onto her plate with her chopsticks.
The folds on an ordinary bun ran in a plain spiral and tended to fuse together, the folds Erina had made opened like the petals of a flower.
"Amazing!" Hatsune praised her too.
While they admired the work, Tianyi had already taken a bite.
She bit off nearly half in one go — helped along by how small Erina had made them — then chewed while sharply sucking in air.
Fresh from the steamer, the buns were of course scalding hot.
Rushing on eating it and this was exactly what you got.
Even with her mouth burning, Tianyi still stuck up a thumb!
"Sho good!"
Sucking in cold air while she gave the thumbs-up, she looked more than a little silly, and no one in the restaurant could help being tickled by it.
Luka frowned, her head filling with fresh ideas for how she'd be setting Tianyi straight later.
Yuto slipped back into the kitchen while the others ate.
Of everything Tianyi had ordered, only the pork stew with glass noodles was left.
He lifted the lid and looked in.
The pork quivered with the bubbling broth, and with the spices at the bottom drawing out the flavor, the meaty aroma had deepened.
The pieces, red and white, looked wonderfully appetizing at a glance.
Judging the timing right, he dropped in a handful of glass noodles.
For this stew the noodles always went in last; too early, and they cooked down to mush, impossible to lift with chopsticks.
The starch would bleed out of them and marry into the pork, while the pork itself turned soft and tender, rich but never greasy.
The two made an unusually fine pair — the dish didn't work without either one.
Just then the door out front slid open.
He glanced through the kitchen curtain.
It was Miyazono Kaori and her parents.
But, something about their faces was odd.
The father and mother were all right, if a touch awkward in their smiles.
But the girl herself — her face was rather red, as if she were embarrassed about something!