VOLUME 2

Chapter 4: Part 3

When lunch break arrived, Tomonori came over as promised. I opened the bentou that Haruna had packed for me, and Orito also opened up his own lunch.

By the way, for me, today’s menu was… fried eggs. Ahh, those ultimate fried eggs I had before? They sure were delicious, but the quant.i.ty was just…

Tomonori saw what was in my lunch and burst out laughing.

“Ahah! It’s completely fried eggs?! That’s terrible! Alright, here. This is Aikawa’s bentou.”

She pa.s.sed over a bentou box.

“Oh? What about Tomonori’s bentou?”

At Orito’s question, Tomonori puffed out her chest and spoke proudly.

“I don’t get hungry!”

Tomonori hummed in self-satisfaction, and Orito’s eyes began to sparkle. He gave me a disgusting look, almost as if he saw through everything.

“Aikawa, tell her. Tell Tomonori that she doesn’t need to go on a diet.”

“A-are you an idiot?! You think I’m on a diet?!”

Tomonori began to whack Orito’s spiky head over and over again.

“Ah, but it looks like you are.”

I opened the bentou box Tomonori had given me and picked up a piece of shrimp stir fried in chili sauce.

At that point, an indescribable sense of anxiety ran through me. I gulped.

“W-What’s wrong? Hm? That’s a shrimp, right?”

I glared at the chili shrimp and hesitated. Tomonori watched me, bewildered.

“Yeah. That’s not the problem.”

My apprehensions were coming from the fact that it was unclear whether “vampire ninjas made awful food,” or “Sera’s food was exceptionally awful.” If the former, the minute I ate this food I would end up at the nurse’s. Or maybe I’d even get hauled to the emergency room.

Should I get Orito to taste test it? … Nah, let’s prevent any casualties here.

Seeing Tomonori giving me that worried look made me feel pretty miserable though, so I took one deep breath…

Here I go! Whatever happens, happens!

When I put the shrimp in my mouth, I felt a bit of spice, but overall it was pretty good. The fried chicken was also not bad. And unlike Haruna, she actually put some white rice in too.

In other words… it was normal! At that point, I came to the conclusion that Sera’s cooking was just exceptionally horrible.

Grrrr~~~

Hm?

“What was that sound just now?”

Orito and I both c.o.c.ked our heads to the side at the same time.

“Ah, well,” Tomonori shrugged. But then…

Grrr~~~

It was a sound that was coming from Tomonori.

“Sounds like you’re hungry.”

“S-Shut up! I told you I’m not hungry!”

Her face turned red and she desperately fought back. However, her stomach kept growling.

“Here, eat up.”

I offered her a bite of Haruna’s ultimate fried eggs.

“I’m serious! My body just seriously doesn’t get very hungry!”

Tomonori continued to yell her objections, but when I forcibly presented the eggs to her, she gave up and took a bite. And then, she looked amazed at how good it was.

“What is this?! It’s great! Aikawa made this?!”

“This is something Haruna made.”

She might get jealous at that. I immediately thought that maybe I shouldn’t have said that, but Tomonori gave me the look of an innocent and pure child.

“This is amazing! How did she make it this delicious?!”

It seemed that Tomonori just wasn’t the type that was capable of jealousy.

Amazing things were amazing, and she could enjoy those things without any ulterior motives.

“Could I start calling her ‘master’?”

“I mean, you really don’t have to ask me for permission…”

“Could I have some more?”

“Yeah, as you can see, I have quite a lot here.”

“Hooray! W-Wait here just a second!”

Tomonori held out both her hands to me, signaling “stop!” and left the room with the speed expected from someone on the track team. She returned a few seconds later.

She held a strange-looking bag in her hands, and in that bag was… mayonnaise, all sorts of dressing, sesame oil, sunflower oil, chili oil, olive oil… why so much oil?

“What the h.e.l.l is that?”

“Thanks for the meal!”

Tomonori was smiling ear to ear, and poured dressing all over the Aikawa household’s Ultimate Fried Eggs.

“Y-You! What the h.e.l.l are you doing?!”

Orito was the one who had screamed. He still hadn’t gotten a taste of the fried eggs today yet. He stood up, his chair making a rattling sound. And then, he looked at the eggs with a sad, yearning expression.

“Tomonori, you’re not supposed to put dressing on fried eggs~~~.”

Orito spoke in an emotional tone. I felt this indescribable feeling deep inside, as if someone had just splashed lemon juice on my fried chicken without warning, but for now I decided to just smack Tomonori.

“Ow! Come on, isn’t sesame dressing nice? Remember, if there’s no oil, it’s no good!”

“No, that’s not it, we couldn’t care less about your salad obsession!”

Orito and Tomonori glared at each other.

Spotting a chance there, I s.n.a.t.c.hed and began to eat Orito’s bentou…

TRANSLATOR’S NOTES