Chapter Thirty (Shokugeki no Soma)
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- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Chapter Thirty (Shokugeki no Soma)
The Lemon Curd Italiano Semifreddo was delicious. The smoothness of the ice-cream and heavy cream mixed with the light firmness of the lemon curd. I felt at ease as I gingerly ate the thirtieth iteration of the dessert, my eyes closed as a hot cup of flawless coffee soothingly emanated a delicious aroma to fill my nostrils. The trattoria Aldini had long since gone past the closing hours, but I hadn't been imposing myself. I handsomely paid for the privilege of eating all the Semifreddos I wished to, and while they were baffled that I had reached the thirtieth, the thirty-first was already coming to my table.
A bottle of limoncello was half-empty nearby, and a gentle and soothing violin orchestra played in the background.
I was at peace.
My little slice of heaven was once more finished, and this time I decided to stop at thirty-one rather than keep the tally going. I drained the mug and bid the waitress goodbye after leaving a generous tip, and then decided to simply take a walk through the streets, at least until something caught my eye. Well, not really someone as much as something.
"What are you doing?" I asked the small Sliver, whose major characteristics seemed to be that of having most of his hardened exoskeleton replaced with fluffy pink fur, and two tiny blunt talons to skitter about on the ground.
The Sliver screeched, and then extended his talons upwards in a pick me up gesture. I exhaled, loudly, and did just that. He was soft and warm admittedly, but his appearance meant something else too.
"Kischur," I said dryly, my eyes locking with those of the old man standing proudly in front of me. He also dared to smile. "Have you grown tired of your immortality?"
"I think I found one of yours yet to awoken, Tyrant," Kischur replied with an amused expression, and as he did, I felt strangely at ease. My eyes glanced down at the fluffy pink Sliver who emitted gentle sounds of soothing peace. I scratched his back, and then gave him one last hug before letting him return to the old man's side, where he merged seamlessly with one of his shoulders.
"I hate that place," I said nonchalantly. "Who is it? If it's too troublesome, I can just ignore them."
"When you understand something, it stops being special," Kischur said. "Why should I take away the novelty?"
"Because I'll just rain fire and watch who doesn't die out of the whole plane?" I replied quite calmly. "There are billions of people in that plane, and I can kill them all in two hours and twenty-two minutes. I have better things to do than waste two hours and twenty-two minutes."
Kischur's smile didn't leave his lips, utterly nonplussed by the empty threat. "Like what? Eating and drinking?"
"Two hours spent eating and drinking delicious food are two hours well spent," I replied. "The remaining twenty-two minutes I can waste sipping coffee."
Kischur shook his head once, his gloved hands both atop his walking cane. "Normally, I'd share the sentiment," he said plainly. "But you did ask to be warned should one awaken or be felt as such by myself. Considering the circumstances that lead to that, why are you surprised I have no intention of divulging more?"
"You are one annoying old flea," I said with a sigh. "Thankfully, I am a kind person. Just stick to your curfew and don't go out at night. If the world starts burning, then you called it upon yourself."
"What a fickle god to oversee us all," Kischur replied, bowing his head slightly. "I shall offer you a most insincere prayer."
"Coming from someone who hands stuff over randomly to random people, you should be thankful I have an appearance of logic," I retorted as I gave him a curt gesture of dismissal with my head. He disappeared back where he had come from, and I exhaled, pushing my right hand against the side of my head as I felt the connection with the planes and past them, into the Blind Eternities and their passage.
Amusingly, there was a neat distinction between a Plane and a Dimension. Planes were the largest possible denominator, and they encompassed both the principal world, the alterations and variations of it, and the same world cast in different time-streams. Thus, one could go from one world's dimension to another where apples were called oranges and viceversa without leaving the same Plane, or one could effectively travel to another Plane where such a thing was possible too.
The difference was all on what belonged to the so dubbed Prime world when compared to the infinite shadows and mirrors that composed all of the other parallel dimensions.
I appeared inside a typical Japanese house, the wooden floor creaking menacingly as I didn't care one bit about the fact one wasn't supposed to keep shoes while inside. The problem with flinging a meteor down on the whole town of Fuyuki was that if I did it, and the Planeswalker triggered and escaped, I might end up not being able to follow his or hers tracks due to the residual Mana.
I didn't even know why I was bothering with it. It was a matter of centuries ago, I reckoned, back when perhaps the likes of a True Ancestor or the Goddess of the Sun might have brought forth trouble had they Sparked.
Right now I could easily rip out all of Amaterasu tails and force-feed them to her without qualms, but it didn't mean it would be as easy if she actually managed to acquire some time to prepare and understand how vast and different her powers could grow up to be. The decisions on whether or not to rip the Fluffy Tails aside, I could feel Kischur's lingering scent —calling him Zelretch was too easy, and he had no way of opposing me if I ever decided to call him fluffy bunny anyway— and wondered why he'd actually come all the way to this seemingly meaningless place.
While it was Fuyuki, it also wasn't the house of Shiro, or Rin, or any other important individuals to the Plane itself, if such a thing had any worth. This person in particular had to be a meaningless one. Maybe they had the same name as the most common name and surname in Japan, or perhaps they had been nothing more than a background character. Their identity, what made them unique, what made them different would awaken with a period of great stress, or an abrupt near-death experience.
It was because of that reason that my encounter with this young girl happened as it did.
"Enough crying," I said as the girl tensed and gasped within the confines of her sheets. "Come on out. The sooner we leave this place, the better."
The girl had pale skin, and white hair. One of her eyes was red, and the other was covered by a colored eye-patch with the drawing of a bunny atop it. I looked at the girl in question, and then I cursed softly.
She looked frail, and bandages covered most of her body. Whatever form of death she had faced, it had probably decided to kick her in the teeth while she was down too.
"Who...who are you?" she asked, her voice not even rising to the level of proper speech, and more of a whisper instead.
"Someone without a name," I answered with a small smile. "You don't look too well," I extended my right hand to my side and, as if by magic, conjured forth a chair. The girl's eyes widened as I sat down. "Do you want to talk about it?"
The girl looked in wonder at the chair that hadn't been there a second before.
If there was one thing that I honestly disliked...
...it was when the burden of power was placed on shoulders too weak to hold it.
The Lemon Curd Italiano Semifreddo was delicious. The smoothness of the ice-cream and heavy cream mixed with the light firmness of the lemon curd. I felt at ease as I gingerly ate the thirtieth iteration of the dessert, my eyes closed as a hot cup of flawless coffee soothingly emanated a delicious aroma to fill my nostrils. The trattoria Aldini had long since gone past the closing hours, but I hadn't been imposing myself. I handsomely paid for the privilege of eating all the Semifreddos I wished to, and while they were baffled that I had reached the thirtieth, the thirty-first was already coming to my table.
A bottle of limoncello was half-empty nearby, and a gentle and soothing violin orchestra played in the background.
I was at peace.
My little slice of heaven was once more finished, and this time I decided to stop at thirty-one rather than keep the tally going. I drained the mug and bid the waitress goodbye after leaving a generous tip, and then decided to simply take a walk through the streets, at least until something caught my eye. Well, not really someone as much as something.
"What are you doing?" I asked the small Sliver, whose major characteristics seemed to be that of having most of his hardened exoskeleton replaced with fluffy pink fur, and two tiny blunt talons to skitter about on the ground.
The Sliver screeched, and then extended his talons upwards in a pick me up gesture. I exhaled, loudly, and did just that. He was soft and warm admittedly, but his appearance meant something else too.
"Kischur," I said dryly, my eyes locking with those of the old man standing proudly in front of me. He also dared to smile. "Have you grown tired of your immortality?"
"I think I found one of yours yet to awoken, Tyrant," Kischur replied with an amused expression, and as he did, I felt strangely at ease. My eyes glanced down at the fluffy pink Sliver who emitted gentle sounds of soothing peace. I scratched his back, and then gave him one last hug before letting him return to the old man's side, where he merged seamlessly with one of his shoulders.
"I hate that place," I said nonchalantly. "Who is it? If it's too troublesome, I can just ignore them."
"When you understand something, it stops being special," Kischur said. "Why should I take away the novelty?"
"Because I'll just rain fire and watch who doesn't die out of the whole plane?" I replied quite calmly. "There are billions of people in that plane, and I can kill them all in two hours and twenty-two minutes. I have better things to do than waste two hours and twenty-two minutes."
Kischur's smile didn't leave his lips, utterly nonplussed by the empty threat. "Like what? Eating and drinking?"
"Two hours spent eating and drinking delicious food are two hours well spent," I replied. "The remaining twenty-two minutes I can waste sipping coffee."
Kischur shook his head once, his gloved hands both atop his walking cane. "Normally, I'd share the sentiment," he said plainly. "But you did ask to be warned should one awaken or be felt as such by myself. Considering the circumstances that lead to that, why are you surprised I have no intention of divulging more?"
"You are one annoying old flea," I said with a sigh. "Thankfully, I am a kind person. Just stick to your curfew and don't go out at night. If the world starts burning, then you called it upon yourself."
"What a fickle god to oversee us all," Kischur replied, bowing his head slightly. "I shall offer you a most insincere prayer."
"Coming from someone who hands stuff over randomly to random people, you should be thankful I have an appearance of logic," I retorted as I gave him a curt gesture of dismissal with my head. He disappeared back where he had come from, and I exhaled, pushing my right hand against the side of my head as I felt the connection with the planes and past them, into the Blind Eternities and their passage.
Amusingly, there was a neat distinction between a Plane and a Dimension. Planes were the largest possible denominator, and they encompassed both the principal world, the alterations and variations of it, and the same world cast in different time-streams. Thus, one could go from one world's dimension to another where apples were called oranges and viceversa without leaving the same Plane, or one could effectively travel to another Plane where such a thing was possible too.
The difference was all on what belonged to the so dubbed Prime world when compared to the infinite shadows and mirrors that composed all of the other parallel dimensions.
I appeared inside a typical Japanese house, the wooden floor creaking menacingly as I didn't care one bit about the fact one wasn't supposed to keep shoes while inside. The problem with flinging a meteor down on the whole town of Fuyuki was that if I did it, and the Planeswalker triggered and escaped, I might end up not being able to follow his or hers tracks due to the residual Mana.
I didn't even know why I was bothering with it. It was a matter of centuries ago, I reckoned, back when perhaps the likes of a True Ancestor or the Goddess of the Sun might have brought forth trouble had they Sparked.
Right now I could easily rip out all of Amaterasu tails and force-feed them to her without qualms, but it didn't mean it would be as easy if she actually managed to acquire some time to prepare and understand how vast and different her powers could grow up to be. The decisions on whether or not to rip the Fluffy Tails aside, I could feel Kischur's lingering scent —calling him Zelretch was too easy, and he had no way of opposing me if I ever decided to call him fluffy bunny anyway— and wondered why he'd actually come all the way to this seemingly meaningless place.
While it was Fuyuki, it also wasn't the house of Shiro, or Rin, or any other important individuals to the Plane itself, if such a thing had any worth. This person in particular had to be a meaningless one. Maybe they had the same name as the most common name and surname in Japan, or perhaps they had been nothing more than a background character. Their identity, what made them unique, what made them different would awaken with a period of great stress, or an abrupt near-death experience.
It was because of that reason that my encounter with this young girl happened as it did.
"Enough crying," I said as the girl tensed and gasped within the confines of her sheets. "Come on out. The sooner we leave this place, the better."
The girl had pale skin, and white hair. One of her eyes was red, and the other was covered by a colored eye-patch with the drawing of a bunny atop it. I looked at the girl in question, and then I cursed softly.
She looked frail, and bandages covered most of her body. Whatever form of death she had faced, it had probably decided to kick her in the teeth while she was down too.
"Who...who are you?" she asked, her voice not even rising to the level of proper speech, and more of a whisper instead.
"Someone without a name," I answered with a small smile. "You don't look too well," I extended my right hand to my side and, as if by magic, conjured forth a chair. The girl's eyes widened as I sat down. "Do you want to talk about it?"
The girl looked in wonder at the chair that hadn't been there a second before.
If there was one thing that I honestly disliked...
...it was when the burden of power was placed on shoulders too weak to hold it.
