After returning to his room, Shirou first picked up his phone and fiddled with it for a while.
Thankfully, it supported voice input, which saved him a lot of trouble.
After browsing through plenty of information, he roughly got a grasp of ingredient names and cooking methods.
The overall cuisine style in Lungmen leaned toward Cantonese and Chinese cooking. He felt like this was… someone's specialty?
After digging through his memories for a while, he finally recalled the name from another version of himself:
Rin Tohsaka — Archer's Master.
Shirou began to wonder if he had been involved in that Holy Grail War, which caused gaps in his memory. If not for those additional memories patching things up, he would probably only remember that such a person existed, without recalling her name or face.
Shaking his head, Shirou stopped thinking about it.
It was already a fact—no use dwelling on it. Better to focus on how to face the future.
He set his phone to charge, then took out some cash and his ID, putting them into a wallet he had just bought. He placed it into a sling bag, while the remaining money was stored in a cabinet, weighed down with a book.
The sling bag had been recommended by Exusiai, and since it was similar to what he used before, he bought it.
"I still have quite a bit of money… maybe I should buy some ingredients and try cooking?"
After thinking it over, he realized he still had a decent amount left, even after the morning's shopping. It seemed the boss had given him quite a lot, though it was technically an advance on his future salary.
Better spend it carefully.
With his sling bag, Shirou marked a location on his phone, so if he got lost, he could just navigate back.
"So convenient."
Following what Exusiai had taught him, he headed out.
Leaving the dorm, he followed the navigation to a supermarket. After looking around, he found that most items matched what he had seen earlier online. This time, he decided to keep things simple.
The prices were not expensive either, he had more than enough money.
Still, out of habit, he checked the discount section first before deciding what to cook.
"Eggs, mushrooms, and… feathered beast leg meat?"
After a moment of thought, Shirou decided on omurice. The eggs were on sale, so he could buy more.
After deciding, he also restocked some seasonings, especially essentials like butter, salt, sugar, and black pepper. He also picked up a few tomatoes, carrots, and green peas.
"The seasonings are pretty much the same… though seafood seems less common?"
Carrying a large basket to checkout, Shirou recalled that there had not been many seafood options.
Probably because Lungmen was not near the sea. From what he remembered, Lungmen was a mobile city designed to avoid catastrophes.
That topic seemed complicated, so he only kept a general understanding.
Still, his memory seemed to have improved significantly. In the past, absorbing so much information at once would require time to digest but now, it felt like he could remember things just by reading them once.
At this point, Shirou stopped questioning it.
If something did not make sense, just blame the Holy Grail.
When in doubt—blame the Grail.
Following his memory, Shirou returned smoothly to the dorm.
After going upstairs, he plugged in the fridge and stored all the perishable items. The seasonings were placed neatly into the cabinet, everything arranged in the way most convenient for him.
"I remember there's a rice cooker here… utensils in this cabinet… oh? There's even an oven!"
He had noticed some kitchenware and appliances while cleaning the day before, but had not paid much attention then. Now that he could use them freely, he decided to set up the kitchen properly.
Some of the equipment was more modern, so it took him a while to figure out how to use them.
Once everything was arranged, the kitchen finally looked like a proper kitchen.
"Alright, let's start with the rice."
He washed the rice and put it into the cooker. Besides water, he added a bit of oil, this would make the rice look fuller and taste better.
"Let it soak for a bit. I'll prepare the other ingredients in the meantime."
Drying his hands, Shirou took out the ingredients.
He started with the meat, cutting the feathered beast into small pieces, seasoning it with salt and black pepper, then setting it aside before moving on.
Omurice was a relatively simple dish.
First cook the meat, then add the other ingredients, and finally mix in some ketchup, it would go perfectly with rice.
Once the rice in the pan turned a rich red from the ketchup, he stir-fried it a bit longer until it was slightly drier, then plated it.
Next came the egg.
This time, Shirou decided to try a "tornado omelette" style. Compared to a traditional omelette, it was simpler and visually appealing.
He poured the egg mixture (with milk) into the pan. Once the bottom layer set, he used chopsticks to pull from both sides toward the center, gently shaking the pan while slowly twisting the chopsticks.
The egg formed a spiral shape.
He then placed it on top of the molded rice—done.
Shirou carried the dish to the table and took a bite.
"Hmm… the taste is not that different. I can experiment more later."
He was in a good mood. At least the ingredients here tasted similar—the feathered beast meat and eggs were basically like chicken.
Just as he was about to take another bite, someone knocked on the door.
Shirou put down his utensils and went to open it.
Outside stood Exusiai.
"What's up?"
He looked at her, unsure why she had suddenly come down.
"Shirou, Shirou—are you cooking something?"
Exusiai clenched her fists, looking excited.
She had been lounging upstairs earlier when a delicious smell reached her. After searching for a while, she realized it was coming from downstairs their dorm.
Thinking about the new tenant below, she decided it was a good chance to "bond."
So she came down.
"Uh… yeah, just trying out some cooking."
Shirou was caught a bit off guard.
"Can I take a look? It smells amazing from upstairs."
Exusiai's gaze locked onto the dish on the table, her eyes practically glowing.
Watching her reaction, Shirou felt like he had seen this somewhere before—
It was almost exactly like how Saber looked at food when she was hungry.