Sum: Picture Faust. Picture Faust in the supermarket with Manta. Picture Eliza. Picture Eliza in the kitchen with her scythe. Picture a traditional Faust family meal on the table and six unfortunate souls who are trying to help a German necromancer feel at home. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is all Yoh's fault.
A Meal to Remember
Chapter One
"We're not cooking dinner tonight."
Yoh stopped his music; Faust and Eliza looked up from their book as Manta did the same from his laptop; Frankie raised his skull head; Chocolove and Horohoro tore their eyes away from the TV screen; Ryu and Ren abandoned their activity of arguing who was stronger than who to stare at Anna and a nervous Tamao standing in the kitchen doorway.
"Why?" Horohoro asked, incredulously.
"Because," Anna said as her eyes dangerously narrowed, "Tamao cut her hand." As if on cue, the timid pink-haired girl held up her right hand, which was wrapped awkwardly in a bandage to make it look like one big giant fist. "And it wouldn't be fair if I had to cook alone while the others cook together in pairs, would it?"
"But Tamao's the one who cooks whenever it's your turn anyways!" Horohoro yelled as he pointed an accusing finger at Anna. He was awarded with a smart slap on his cheek that sent him flying across the room.
"Tamao cut her hand," Anna repeated as she gazed at Horohoro with half-closed, menacing eyes. "You don't expect the injured to cook do you?"
"N-no... " Horohoro nervously laughed as he inched away to hide behind Faust's chair. "Tamao shouldn't move a finger tonight! The injured making dinner! Yeah, that's just bogus!" Ren rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath, but the keen ainu managed to hear the last word which sounded something like "pathetic."
"I'm going to take Tamao to the doctor's," Anna continued. "We'll be back late, so you boys should fix dinner yourselves."
She surveyed the room with her most famous death glare, silently daring anyone to raise an argument. Nobody made a sound.
"Right, then..." Anna crossed the living room and headed towards the hall. "I want the house to be speck and clean when I come back; it looks like a pigsty." Sure enough, the living room alone was a mess. Comic books were strewn everywhere, cracker crumbs littered the tatami mats and the round table, a few socks here and there, and an occasional tangerine peel could be seen on the floor. "I'll see you boys tomorrow at four in the morning for your early training."
Tamao scurried after Anna, keeping her head down and frantically muttered apologies as she followed her mistress out of the room. There were the sounds of the front door sliding open, the girls putting on their shoes, and the final clang of the wooden gate doors being closed. Silence ensued for a brief moment.
"That bossy witch!" Horohoro suddenly howled as he nursed his red cheek. Kororo chattered sympathetically as she hovered near her partner's injured cheek."There wasn't even blood on that bandage! That was just an excuse so they could skip their turn of making dinner!"
"But you should know better than to argue with Anna, Horohoro," Yoh said with a teasing, relaxed voice. Amidamaru chuckled.
"That doesn't mean she can just slap me across the room!" the distressed ainu hollered.
"You're the most pathetic shaman I've ever laid my eyes on, ainu-baka," Ren sneered with a smirk. Bason, Ren's obsequious spirit, nodded sincerely in agreement.
"NANI?!"
"So who's going to cook dinner?"
Ryu's question was simple; so were the reactions. Horohoro stopped in mid-snarl as Ren's smirk disappeared in a flash. Yoh suddenly became very interested in a piece of lint on the tatami mats and Chocolove abruptly turned his attention back to the TV screen, careful not to crack any jokes to attract attention.
"I can't believe a bunch of shamans are unwilling to fix dinner than they are on risking their life in the SF," Tokagero, Ryu's former bandit spirit, snorted.
"Well... Yoh cooks the best out of all seven of us, so..." Horohoro said as he glanced hopefully at Yoh.
"But Manta and I were in charge of dinner last night," Yoh mumbled.
"You aren't possibly suggesting that Ryu and Ren should cook are you?" Chocolove asked with a uncharacteristically serious look. "Don't you remember last time when they served curry?"
"Oh yeah... Paste X," Horohoro snickered as he recalled the gooey, black substance Ren and Ryu had made in an attempt to fix a Three Minute Do it by Yourself Curry for dinner. Ryu was actually considered as a good chef, but reccently most of his works ended up disasterous ever since he was partnered with Ren for serving dinner (the team had chosen partners randomly by picking straws). Not only that, there were a lot of dishes broken in the process as they bickered continuously and not even Ryu's good cooking skills could do anything about the burnt/salty/tasteless/inedible dishes Ren cooked, which were mostly what the team ended up eating.
Ren's jaws tightened; he didn't like being laughed at even though it was for being incompetent in doing household chores. But he soon scoffed and s aid, "This means that me and Ryu are out of the question of whose serving dinner, jackass."
"Chocolove," Yoh said as he poked his friend in the side, "couldn't you and Horohoro cook tonight? You two are in charge of dinner tomorrow night anyways..."
"But I really don't feel like cooking right now," Chocolove sighed as he leaned onto the round table. "And Kororo always bothers us whenever Horohoro is cooking with me..."
"Well, someone has to cook dinner," Manta irritably said.
"I'll do it."
All heads snapped towards the owner of the voice. Faust, who had been silent through the whole conversation, was smiling merrily in his chair, his book closed.
"... 'I' as in you, Faust?" Ryu asked stupidly.
"Yes," the German necromancer cheerfully said, getting up from his seat. Frankie let out an excited bark as he raced into the kitchen. "It's been such a long time since I ever cooked anything and it would be nice to do something useful for everyone after all the help I got from Anna-san."
The boys glanced each other nervously.
Faust?
Cooking?
Come again?
None of the boys had a good feeling about it. Why?
1. Faust liked dissecting people.
2. Faust was German, meaning that he had different tastes as them.
3. Faust liked dissecting people.
4. Faust did not look like the type who could wear a frilly apron and use the stove.
5. Faust liked dissecting people.
To put it simply, nobody was keen on letting Faust serving dinner because Faust was... well, Faust.
"Uh, don't you think you're overworking yourself, Faust?" Horohoro nervously said as he stumbled over words for the right ones. "I mean- uh- you're a doctor and all and we can't have you- uh- getting sick... Yeah! We can't have you getting sick!" he finished triumphantly as he came up with the last excuse.
"I am quite fine, thank you Horohoro-kun," Faust smiled, gently leading Eliza by the hand to the kitchen. Chocolove quickly blocked the entrance with a nervous laugh, racking his brains for a random punch line that would go with the situation but his mind was blank.
"You don't have to cook, certainly not!" Chocolove exclaimed as he tried not to sweat under Eliza's impassive, yet boring gaze. "Say, have I already told you about that joke about the German and the-
"Yes, you have," Faust said, quirking a suspicious eyebrow as he tried to get past but to no avail. "And I assure you, I'll cook quite fine with Eliza to help me. Unless..." He hesitated, lowering his head and pursing his lips slightly as he looked down at Chocolove. "Unless you do not wish for me to serve dinner..."
Chocolove was quite taken back at his reaction; but he was even more surprised when he found Eliza glaring menacingly at him for upseting her husband. Horohoro shared quick glances with Ren, bewildered of why anyone would get so upset of not getting the job of cooking dinner. Manta already looked nervous, afraid of what Eliza would do if Faust was displeased, but Yoh, like usual, was the one who patched up the situation.
"Not at all, Faust," Yoh said with his laid back smile, earning a few incredulous glares from his friends. "We've been selfish, hogging all the cooking tasks for ourselves. We'd love it if you'd cook for us. It won't be so bad trying out a new cuisine, ne Manta?" He asked, innocently grinning towards his human friend.
"Y-yeah..." Manta tentatively replied.
A bright smile immediately replaced the mild, depressed look on Faust's face. "Well, then!" he cheerfully said as he passed a dumbstruck Chocolove, "You may look forward to dinner, gentlemen! I'll make this dinner a meal to remember!"
As soon as Faust and Eliza disappeared into the kitchen, all six occupants of the room stormed over to Yoh, shooting him accusing, annoyed looks.
"Not cool, man," Chocolove said, shaking his head. "Not cool."
"What the hell were you thinking, Yoh?" Horohoro groaned in a hushed whisper. "It's Faust we're talking about cooking here! FAUST!"
"We never even saw him cook before, baka!" Ren hissed. "Who knows what the maniac will do?"
"Yoh-danna," Ryu said with a worried face. "Faust may be our companion, but that doesn't mean he's not capable of accidentally poisoning us."
"What if he slips in an intestine or something?" Manta moaned, slightly shaking. "Or uses one of his skulls for brewing soup-"
"Minna," Yoh said calmly in his mild voice, silencing everybody. "Faust is our friend. He wants to help us; he means no harm, you know that. It's bad enough that he's naturally quiet, but he's having trouble trying to fit in with us already because of different languages. Faust wanting to serve dinner means that he's finally opening up to us. Let's give him a chance."
It was one of those rare moments when Yoh would actually say something that wasn't rash or overly optimistic, but was commenting the truth. The others said nothing, but still had apprehensive looks.
"Manta," Yoh said with a warm smile as he turned to his friend, "I know you're still afraid of Faust, but you have to understand that the Faust you were scared of is not the Faust of the Funbari Onsen Team. This Faust is innocent now that Anna has permanently called back Eliza's soul. He's just a gentle, happy guy; he's not that crazy maniac who tried to dissect you. Forget the past and try bonding with him. He's a nice guy."
Manta stared at Yoh and realized that he was right. Faust was never a bad guy... He was simply so innocent that he was driven mad by the loss of his wife, but now that Eliza's soul could be called upon by Anna, Faust had no motive to be Shaman King. And Faust DID take care of him whenever he was ill...
As Manta pondered quietly, the others looked up as Faust walked in with Eliza hand in hand.
"Oi, where're you guys going?" Ryu asked.
"There's not enough ingredients for dinner, so Eliza and I are going to the market," Faust smiled enthusiastically, still thrilled about the thought of making dinner.
"Hey, how about one of us go with you instead of Eliza?" Yoh suggested with a laidback grin. "You'll need someone to help you with Japanese and the rest of us will help Eliza set up dinner."
"I do not wish to be much of a trouble..." Faust muttered, but stopped short when Manta abruptly stood up.
"I'll go with you, Faust!" the abnormally short boy announced, his round face shining with determination.
"Yeah, go with Manta, Faust," Yoh urged as he got to his feet, smiling. "It'll be much faster if Eliza stays back to get other ingredients ready. And we'll help her along, right, minna?" He grinned at the rest of the group.
The boys looked at each other for a moment. Ryu was the first to get to his feet.
"I say we split up the tasks! Me, Yoh-danna, and Chinese baka will fix up the house and Chocolove and Horohoro can help with the dinner!"
"Why am I included in there?" Ren snarled.
"You live in this house too, Chinese chibi!" Ryu argued back, his face dangerously close to Ren's and pointing an accusing finger at the annoyed shaman's chest. "And you'll be suffering along with us when Okami comes back to find the house still a mess!"
"Ryu's right," Yoh laughed, "Anna will surely triple our training sessions if the house cleaning is not satisfactory."
"Well, as long as Ren and Ryu aren't cooking," Horohoro grinned, "it's fine with me!"
"And I'll provide a dinner show while everyone's working!" Chocolove exclaimed, suddenly dressed in his favorite banana suit.
"We don't need any of your stupid jokes, BAKA!" Horohoro yelled.
Faust watched quietly Ren and Ryu bickering, Horohoro wrestling Chocolove out of his ridiculous banana suit, and Yoh laughing heartedly. He wondered again why he even bothered staying in this cramped house in a foreign country full of bickering, overly lively kids, but he knew the answer to that already.
Smiling warmly, he looked down at Manta, who was fidgeting slightly.
"Go and get your coat, Manta-kun," the doctor softly, barely audible over the shouts and quarreling. "It can get chilly outside."
Manta smiled and scurried off. Faust turned back to his wife, who had a curious expression on her face.
"Manta-kun will accompany me to the market, liebe," he said as he kissed her forehead. "Would you please stay here and get the vegetables ready?"
She gave him a wistful look, showing her disapproval of being separated, but gave a nod. He kissed her forehead again and nuzzled his nose into her soft hair. She whispered softly in her native language and Faust merely nodded as she glided out of the room and down the hallway.
"Hey, where's Eliza going?" Manta asked, getting into his coat.
"She wants to change into a more comfortable outfit. Summer in Japan can get quite humid compared to Germany," Faust answered cheerfully.
"We'll be going then," Faust said as Manta hurried towards the door.
"Ah, come back soon, okay?" Yoh grinned, not paying much attention to the "I'll slice that ridiculous hair of yours!" nor the "You call mine ridiculous, pointy head?" and the "People never appreciate good jokes anymore!" and the "Just get your fat ass out of that dumb banana, puffy hair!"
"Hai," Faust smiled.
It all started off with Yoh's simple suggestion of pleasing Faust. After realizing what Yoh had said was absolutely true, no one was going to argue about the issue anymore. Which was such a shame. Because no one even had the slightest idea of how this simple suggestion of letting Faust fix dinner was going to become TRUELY "a meal to remember."
Vocabulary:
Nani - what
Baka - stupid
Minna - Everyone
Chibi - shorty
Okami - similar to mistress. Ryu tends to call Anna this way.
Liebe - love (German)
It's been such a long time since I have read Shaman King. I've reccently seen a few episodes of the animation and I like the idea of Faust keeping his legs, thank you very much. I will appreciate any review that points out errors about Shaman King protrayed in my story, but I do not see complaining about OOC as an error about the manga/anime 'cause I'm going to ignore those reviews:).
Thank you for reading. The story is eventually going to develop into humor. Reviews will be nice and will mean faster updates:p