"Well, something smells good."

Tsumiki jumped at the sudden voice behind her. She thought that she had been alone in the lodge kitchen, especially given the fact that there was no way anyone would possibly want to be in the same room with her. In fact, she had planned to ride out the entire party by hiding in the kitchen.

She turned to find to find the Super High school Level Gamer, Nagito Komaeda standing in the door way.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did I frighten you?" he asked, concerned.

Tsumiki shook her head vigorously. "No, no! In fact if… if I'm in your way, you can stick my hand in the pot of water, if you'd like," she suggested, nodding toward the merrily boiling pot on the stove.

"No, um, that's alright. I'm good," Komaeda said, walking over to turn the stove knob down a little, just in case. "I was just finishing up cleaning and wanted to see if you needed any help in here."

"T-thank you," said Tsumiki sidling away from the stove a bit. After coming over to turn the fire down, he remained standing awfully close. "I think everything's as under control as it can be, even with me in charge of it... I'm really sorry you had to come all the way in here for nothing…"

"That's alright," Komaeda picked up a nearby fork, prodding the meat searing in the skillet on the burner to next to the pot. "I smells so good, there's no way I could keep from coming in here anyway. I've always been amazed by people who can cook. I always just make up packets."

"Well...there are some people who wind up burning even instant food, s-so if you can cook a packet… that's still kind of good, isn't it?"

The boy let out a laugh. "I suppose so, and who would know better than the Super High school Level Chef? I can't believe that I'm actually going to have a chance to eat your food!"

He watched as she poured some sort of pasta into the boiling pot. He was no expert (Actual cooking was definitely different from playing Cooking Mama), but it certainly seemed to be made from scratch. There was no empty box in sight, at any rate.

"I…I'm not anything special, really," Tsumiki said more to the pot she was stirring than to the boy. "I think that most of the students here became so talented because they had a passion for their crafts, but I…I only started cooking when my parents were too busy to feed me…and then, eventually, I realised," she turned to face him, a the look in her eyes slightly different from usual, "cooking for people…you hold their life in your hands, you know? If I make everything the right way, it-it fuels people, keeps them well. But if I were to add something they were allergic too…or maybe something poisonous, they might die…"

Komaeda raised his brows at this, though the chef didn't notice as she turned again to drain the pasta. "Huh, I never really thought of it like that, but I'm glad that you were able to make something good of your circumstances. My being a gamer isn't nearly as important as that. I can't really help or harm anyone with it; I'm kind of just there." he laughed again.

Once the pasta was safely nestled into a bowl, Tsumiki pulled out a piece, tasting it carefully, before frowning. "Too tough," she sighed. "I really do ruin everything..."

As she picked up the bowl, her foot met with a slick of olive oil that had dripped onto the floor. She lost her footing, her body flying one way, as the bowl flew another, noodle-side-down, of course.

"Ugh…" she moaned, rubbing at her ankle, staring teary-eyed at the scattered noodles.

"Are you alright?" Komaeda asked, offering her a hand.

She took is hesitantly, her hands a touch more sweaty than perhaps a person who works with food's should be.

Once he had her safely to her feet, he bent to inspect the pasta spill, before taking a piece off the top and nipping off a corner. It was a filled pasta, the gooey cheese full of flavor.

"It's not too tough at all. In fact, it's perfect. I just scrubbed the floor before you got here. I think if we rinse them off, it'll be fine. It would be a crime to waste food made the world's greatest young chef. Here, taste it again," he held out the bitten noddle for her to try.

Tsumiki leaned in, quickly taking the noodle into her own mouth, before agreeing that maybe it wasn't so bad after all.

And so the food was rinsed, drenched in sauce, good as new.

"I won't distract you anymore, Tsumiki-san, but before I go, could I borrow a knife? There's one last thing to take care of over in the main hall..."

Would this girl be turn out to be the first boss, or would she join his party?

He could hear her footsteps trotting after him toward the main event hall.

'Press start'...

The end

Trying to catch up on cross posting my newer DR stories over here! Expect more in the coming days. In the mean time, check me out on Archive of Our Own as EvilMuffins :)