Only after the Fire Keeper isolated the bizarre thing that insisted it was Ku-chan inside my stomach did the chaos finally settle down.
"Y-you ate that...?"
"I already told you before, it tastes normal."
It really did taste normal.
It just looked a little strange, talked, and seemed to have a sense of self and the will to move around.
"No, but it looked like that. How could you possibly eat it...?"
Kaguya looked at me like she genuinely could not understand me at all, then shook her head and said that.
To be fair, I could understand her reaction. It had looked like a purple lump that crawled up from the underworld.
If you saw that, you would never imagine it tasted normal unless you tried it yourself.
It was even hard to eat because it fought back so it wouldn’t get eaten.
"Was that even food in the first place...?"
"......"
I did not deny Mayuri’s question.
Honestly, if that counted as food, then what in this world would not count as food?
So I kept my mouth shut, and the Fire Keeper looked at me with the expression of someone who had been betrayed.
"My dear...?"
"Ahem! Anyway, why were you making cookies, Sachi?"
Before the Fire Keeper could get hurt any further, I quickly changed the subject and asked why she had made Ku-chan.
Then the Fire Keeper, looking even more dejected, spilled everything to me.
"So, to sum it up, you brought over leftover cookies from cooking practice, and then that just happened...?"
"Yes, that’s right. The club members wouldn’t even try them, and since everyone else was hungry, I was trying to give them away, but they kept refusing..."
I could roughly see how things had gone.
They must have made cookies together during cooking practice today, and the club members who had witnessed that bizarre life-form had absolutely refused to taste it.
Then, after I’d gone on a date with Mayuri after school, dinner had gotten later than usual, and when she heard the others mention they were hungry, she must have taken out that thing called Ku-chan.
Yeah, the intention was good.
The intention was good, anyway.
I was reminded once again that pure goodwill could come across as monstrous malice to someone else.
"So, my dear, how was the taste?"
"The taste was normal. It was normally delicious."
Other than the appearance, everything the Fire Keeper made was always perfectly tasty, so the result was the same this time too.
With no lie in my answer, the Fire Keeper seemed to regain some self-esteem and puffed out her chest proudly at Kaguya, Yuzuru, and Natsumi, who were all avoiding Ku-chan.
"See? I told you my Ku-chan was delicious!"
"No, no, no! It’s not about the taste!? It moved! The food was alive!"
Apparently unable to tolerate the Fire Keeper’s statement any longer, Natsumi screamed in terror.
"That’s because it was fresh!"
"If cookies are fresh, that’s a problem in itself!?"
If cookies are fresh, aren’t they just dough?
While I was having that pointless thought, Yuzuru came over beside me and tapped my waist with her elbow.
"What is it?"
"Hunger. When are we making dinner? The clock hand is already heading for eight."
"Ah, I forgot."
Because the scene I’d seen the moment we came in had been so memorable, I had completely forgotten that we still had not eaten dinner yet.
Good thing Yuzuru reminded me, or we might have ended up skipping dinner altogether.
Clap!
When I clapped my hands, everyone in the living room turned their attention to me, including the Fire Keeper and Natsumi, who had been arguing over whether Ku-chan was food, and Kaguya and Mayuri, who had been watching the whole thing while munching popcorn.
"Ahem. Let’s eat dinner now, shall we? I’m sure everyone’s hungry."
"Come to think of it, we haven’t enjoyed the feast yet."
"Oh, right. I was too busy worrying about my life being threatened to feel hungry."
"I haven’t eaten anything except Ku-chan No. 1, so I’m hungry too."
No, wait, Fire Keeper, there was a No. 1 too?
And you ate it?
It felt strangely unsettling hearing that she had even given it a cute name before eating it.
It was like saying you raised a chick as a child, then ate it after it grew up into a chicken.
What on earth was the Fire Keeper thinking when she cooked?
With that question in mind, I picked up the bag of hot pot ingredients and headed for the kitchen.
"Then I’ll go call Yoshino."
"Please do."
While Mayuri went to call Yoshino, I prepared to make the hot pot.
Honestly, the broth had already been bought ready-made at the supermarket, so there was nothing special to prepare. I just took out a big pot and poured everything in.
Then I boiled it, and ta-da! Hot pot complete.
Of course, I had already seasoned the base with soy sauce and sugar.
I placed the pot of finished hot pot in the center of the table, and while the others moved their bowls and utensils, a voice came from the stairs.
"I-it smells delicious..."
"This smell is hot pot!"
Yoshino had come down from her room into the living room.
She carefully brought her bowl and utensils over, then sat down beside me.
Her adorable little movements made me snort before I even realized it.
"Huh? But where’s Tohka?"
Natsumi looked around and asked where the biggest eater and sleeper among us had gone.
"Oh, Tohka said she was eating with Itsuka-kun."
That morning on the way to school, Tohka had said she was going to eat dinner with Itsuka-kun.
Something about wanting to eat the food Itsuka-kun made.
Thanks to that, we had less to make, so it was a relief.
Because Tohka inhaled food like a water buffalo, the amount of cooking had always been ridiculous, but with her gone, it was truly a blessing.
I even found myself thinking that if it were Tohka, she might have lifted the pot and drunk from it.
...Was that too far?
But with Tohka, it really did seem possible.
"Then, since everyone seems to be here."
Now that Yoshino had arrived and everyone was gathered, we put our hands together around the boiling hot pot and said the same thing.
"Let’s eat!"
*******
Once the hot pot had all gone into our stomachs and the bottom of the pot was showing, it was a very satisfying meal.
"Ughhh... I’m full."
"Kaguya, if you sprawl out like that, you’ll get fat later."
"Eek! That can’t happen!"
While washing the dishes, I warned Kaguya, who was slumping on the sofa, and she sprang upright in a panic.
It was somehow cute and funny, so I ended up chuckling.
What, was she some kind of spring? How was she bouncing off the sofa so well? Maybe I’d discovered an unexpected talent.
"Anyway, just looking at Tohka, it’s not like she’d ever get fat..."
Natsumi, who had transformed into her adult form to help with the dishes, muttered that beside me.
Come to think of it, Tohka really did eat enough to put an elephant to shame, yet she never gained weight.
I hadn’t thought much about it before, but now that I did, it was a seriously enviable ability.
When I thought about how none of the other spirits ever seemed to gain weight either, maybe not getting fat was a passive skill for spirits.
Kind of jealous, honestly.
"We can chalk that up to being spirits, but why don’t you gain weight, Hi? Sachi doesn’t seem to be like that."
"Maybe because I’m kindled ash."
"Kindled ash?"
"Yeah."
I might have just been the guy saying how jealous I was a moment ago, but I also don’t gain weight.
If I had to explain why, I’d say it was probably because I was kindled ash, just like I’d told Natsumi.
That was the only difference between the Fire Keeper and me.
Kindled Ashes are different from ordinary undead.
For one thing, there’s a difference in hollowing. Unless they become hollows of their own will, they don’t turn hollow.
I still don’t know why that is.
And another thing I only learned after coming to this world was that kindled ash gets fixed in the state its body was in at the time it was burned.
Unless some status ailment changes that, health doesn’t get better or worse, and the body doesn’t change except when the soul changes or it gets injured.
In other words, it means you neither gain nor lose weight.
Looking at how the Abyss Watchers went mad after being consumed by the Abyss, it doesn’t seem like it protects the mind, but that’s just the sort of bleak setting FromSoft likes, so it can’t be helped.
"Huh, that world of yours was pretty bleak."
"What can I say? The world itself was heading toward destruction. Well, I got moved in the middle of it, so I don’t know the details."
When I first got possessed, I wasn’t thinking, "Wow! I got possessed into a game! Time to have fun!" I was thinking, "Shit! Why! Send me home!" So I only focused on killing bosses and never really tried to learn the finer details of the setting.
Honestly, in my opinion, the people who enjoy getting possessed into a game are the weird ones.
It’s basically no different from being kidnapped against your will, so why would you enjoy that?
Besides, the world itself was bleak as hell, which made it even worse.
"...Ugh, I should stop thinking about it. Just thinking about it makes me feel gross."
When I tried to remember what I went through in Dark Souls, I just ended up feeling worse, so I stopped.
What was so great about digging up those memories again?
It had just been a time of barely surviving day after day, wishing only to go home.
"Wow, so that kind of thing really existed outside of manga too."
"I never imagined I’d experience it myself either. Alright, dishes are done!"
While talking with Natsumi, I finished washing the dishes before I knew it.
Pop!
The moment the dishes were done, Natsumi returned to her original form.
Ever since I told her the other form suited her better, she’d been staying in her original form all the time except when teasing people or waking me up in the morning.
Compared to before, it was a good change.
"Good work, Natsumi. Thanks to you, we finished fast. Thank you."
"...You too."
After giving a short reply to my thanks, Natsumi went back to her room.
Seeing the tips of her ears turn red, she probably wasn’t used to being thanked and wanted to get away.
She’d have to get used to that too, I guess.
"Alright. I should probably start getting ready for bed too."
There was still plenty of time left, but for some reason I felt unusually tired, so I decided to go to sleep earlier than usual.
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