Chapter 2: Journey to Relax the Soul

"Colette dragged us here…she sounded worried for you," Genis said as Lloyd let them in. "Is something wrong?"

"He's been obsessing himself over this battle that he's got coming up," Colette said almost pleadingly. "You've got to help him!"

"I have NOT been obsessing over this battle!" Lloyd said. "I just…as an Iron Chef, I need to be prepared for anything that comes my way, especially when the stakes are this high!"

"Lloyd's preparing for something? That's new…" Genis smirked.

"Hey, shut up, Genis! You haven't had any stressful battles as far as I can tell!"

"Enough," the auburn-haired seraph said. "Listen to yourselves, you sound like children." Kratos sat down at the table where Lloyd's recipe papers were and examined one. Bell pepper, it read at the top. Flavor description, underneath.

Green—bitter. Red—sweet. Yellow—tangy. Orange—somewhere in between sweet and tangy.

"Sounds about right to me…" Kratos muttered under his breath as he continued to scan the rest of the paper, which had Lloyd's notes about which tastes or ingredients he could conceivably pair the bell peppers with, along with those he should avoid. What caught his attention after that, though, was a rough sketch of what appeared to be a bell pepper with something inside.

"What's this?" the seraph asked, pointing to the sketch.

"Oh, that?" Lloyd replied, getting a better look at the paper. "I always wanted to try something like that. See how it looks and tastes, you know? In case, say, bell peppers came up as the theme."

"You know the theme already?" Colette asked. "That's great, Lloyd! You'll win the battle for sure!"

"Except he didn't say that…" Genis replied.

"This is true," Kratos replied. "He only said he was doing this in case bell peppers happened to be the theme for the battle."

Kratos flipped through some more papers, seeing some theme ingredient "crib sheets," as Genis called them, for a wide range of ingredients—shrimp, beef, squid, garlic, chiles, even kirima.

"When did you find the time to do all these?" he asked.

"Eh, I dunno, I was trying out new things for the restaurant and decided to map out my thought processes."

"Lloyd's actually thinking about something? Oh, wait until Raine hears this…" Genis said.

"Hey, shut up, Genis!" Lloyd snapped. "This is just about as serious as saving the world was. Just like during our journey, livelihoods are at stake! And I will not let another person be victimized because someone else thinks the only way they'll be happy is to make others miserable!"

"Well, we can't have you obsessing over trying to win this battle either," Genis shot back. "If you keep this up, you won't be in a healthy state of mind to even compete. Trust me, that's what Michiba-sensei told me before I battled for the first time."

Lloyd seemed worried to be separated from his precious recipes. "But…but the battle—"

"That's not important right now, Lloyd," Colette piped up. "We're just worried you're going to overwork yourself, that's all. I already worried for you when you cut your finger earlier."

"I have an idea," Genis said, then pulled Colette over and whispered something in her ear, after which she appeared to light up. "I'm taking this as a yes. Lloyd, we're taking you out to dinner."

The blonde Chosen all but dragged Lloyd out the door of Dirk's house and gleefully hopped onto her Rheaird with him, Genis and Kratos following suit.

"Oh, this'll be so fun, Lloyd!" Colette shouted as Genis sweatdropped at the sight. "It'll be like a nice family dinner!"

Kratos couldn't help but freeze at Colette's remark. It had been quite a long time since Kratos actually had a "family dinner" per se—in fact, he hadn't had one since Anna passed away.

I suppose now that Lloyd knows who his father is, this will be a nice family dinner. Colette and Genis are like brother and sister to him, I can tell… he thought, backtracking on the brother/sister thought.

Well, maybe Genis is just the perennial little brother, but I don't think Colette loves him like a sister would…

"To Mizuho!" Colette shouted, interrupting the seraph's thoughts.

"Mizuho?" Lloyd asked.

"Oh, you'll see."

~料理の鉄シンフォニア~

"You should've told me we were coming to Iron Chef Michiba's place here! I wouldn't have been so confused!" Lloyd pestered Colette as they landed outside Mizuho. "I don't think I've ever been here…"

"I was here once after I gave the lecture at the culinary academy," Genis said. "Easily, one of my favorite meals of all time. I wonder if Michiba-san is working there today…"

The group sat down at the sushi bar, where Lloyd could see the kitchen in the back as well as the sushi chefs hard at work.

And they're putting such delicate work into everything they do, too…I wonder what it takes to have that kind of control over your work.

"Excuse me," Genis asked one of the sushi chefs, "do you know if Michiba-san is here today?"

"He should be here, I think he just got back from the academy," replied the raven-haired chef. "And it's certainly a surprise to see you here, Iron Chef Sage. I see you brought your friends with you as well."

The young mage went bug-eyed when he realized to whom he just spoke.

"Sheena?"

The raven-haired kunoichi-turned-chef gave a light chuckle at her friend's surprise. "Yep, that's me! Hi Colette! Lloyd, Kratos, good to see you," she said as she handed each of them a plate with ginger and wasabi on it.

"I didn't know you worked here, Sheena," Kratos said as he received his plate.

"Ah, yeah, well," she said as she wet her hands, "I took classes under Chef Michiba at the academy to boost my cooking abilities. When I finished a couple of months ago, he gave me an apprenticeship here—said I displayed 'exceptional talent' as a sushi chef. Which is apparently uncommon for a woman, especially here in Mizuho."

"Wow, onee-chan! Congratulations! How long have you been here?"

"Oh, about…three months now?"

"Try about four, Shihna-chan," an old man emerging from the kitchen said. "Your friends are here, I see—eh! Genis-kun! Lloyd-kun! Good to see you again!"

"Michiba-sensei!" Genis stood up and reached out to shake the elder man's hand, Lloyd doing the same.

"Has it really been four months, Michiba-sensei?" Sheena asked.

"Oh yes, and have they passed ever so quickly as well. I was rather disappointed when Fumiko's time was up and she took the head chef job at one of the restaurants Nakamura-san owns in Flanoir, but I know she was going to be successful. And besides, now that you're here, I've never seen the place so packed in my life!" The old man let out a hearty chuckle, then turned to Sheena's companions at the bar. "I must say, Genis-kun, ever since you've become an Iron Chef I've been immensely impressed with your work. Everything is going well in Altamira?"

"Ah, yes, thank you, sir," he replied.

"Good to hear. And Lloyd-kun, Colette-chan, your restaurant seems to be doing well…I keep meaning to come out there but I'm afraid I'm tied up here and at the academy. But just think of how wonderful of a field trip that would be…"

"You're more than welcome to come," Colette said, bowing. "We would be honored to host your students."

"Thank you, Colette-chan," the old man bowed back as he fetched a few bowls from the back shelf. "Lloyd-kun, you don't look well. Is everything OK?"

The twin swordsman didn't respond, but the vaguely pained expression on his face told the story.

"He's just stressed at the prospect of his rematch with the Wonder Chef next week," Kratos spoke up. "He's been obsessed with making recipes for every single ingredient he can think of, and it's beginning to consume him. We took him here to relax a bit—actually Genis suggested we come here."

"I see…a restless soul in need of peace. Sometimes, Lloyd, one needs to relax their drive so as not to let their ideals cloud their judgment. And one needs to enjoy the company of your friends to prevent that, too. That was a lesson you learned on your journey, was it not?" Michiba asked him as he disappeared into the back kitchen.

Even Sheena went bug-eyed at the man's wisdom. He's only lived on Aselia for a couple of years and he knows every conceivable bit of our journey? How in the world…?

"I don't really get it, but OK, I know it's not exactly healthy for me to obsess over something I really want…" Lloyd said, sipping his water.

"Lloyd, you know full well what he was talking about," Sheena said as she gripped her knife and prepared some sashimi.

"I do?"

"…never mind," she sighed.

Lloyd dismissed the thought as he watched Sheena prepare the fish. Never had he seen such care go into preparing something that didn't need to go over a flame—the careful manner in which her knife sliced through the block of fish, the way she took the pieces and laid them carefully on the plate. Even when competing in Kitchen Stadium, he was too focused on getting his dishes done in time to think about the care of actual preparation.

His thoughts were interrupted when Michiba returned with several bowls of soup, which he offered to the group.

"This is on me," he said. "My famous Broth of Vigor. Lloyd, one sip of this and you'll be ready to take on the Wonder Chef in no time."

The twin swordsman took the bowl and lifted it to his lips, taking a sip of the warm broth. The green onions floating in it produced a nice crunch under his teeth, and the small cubes of tofu added a nice soft texture to an already-soothing soup.

"I feel…invigorated," he said with a tone of wonder in his voice.

~料理の鉄シンフォニア~

"Thank you very much, both of you," Lloyd said to Sheena and Michiba before the group left for home.

"Oh, wait a minute, Lloyd," Sheena called out. "Michiba-sama wanted to give you something, I think…"

Sure enough, the old man emerged from the front door with a little figurine in his hands.

"When I think of the definition of an Iron Chef," the old man began, "I think of an old Chinese word called mokkei. Some time ago, there was a king who was very fond of chicken fighting."

Lloyd looked at Michiba as if he was crazy. "What?"

"Yes, chicken fighting. He went out to seek the best fighter."

Colette gave him an even more curious glance, interested by this tale that was sounding stranger to her as Michiba divulged.

"But one chicken was too cowardly, another too flighty, the next one too proud, having won too many battles. So the king struggled to find the best fighter. Ultimately, he found one—carved entirely out of stone."

"Stone?" Genis asked incredulously.

"Yes, stone," the old man replied. "The idea behind a stone chicken was that it would never shirk from battle, that it would never be intimidated by its enemies. Whether it faced a tiger or a lion, the stone chicken was never agitated. Obviously, it's because it has no heart—and, therefore, no feelings. So the moral of the story, then, is that one who can fight without a heart will win.

"That is the philosophy I lived by in Kitchen Stadium, that I wouldn't budge, even if confronted by a lion. A strong Iron Chef keeps his mind and soul focused only on the task at hand."

The group stood silently as Michiba handed Lloyd the figurine—a small chicken carved out of stone.

"I, too, was distraught by the events near the end of the Aselia Cup Tournament," Michiba said. "While I thoroughly believe my judging was as unbiased as possible, I do wish this miscreant would be put in his place once and for all. So it is my hope, Lloyd-kun, that you keep this figurine as an inspiration."

The twin swordsman turned the little figurine in his hands, thanking the old man for the inspiration (even if it took him a little while to understand Michiba's waxing poetics). On the bottom of the small, circular wooden base, he could make out Michiba's famous calligraphy, with two characters on the bottom.

焦点. Focus.