StarSong
Door 7: Kengo's Dinner Table
"Never argue at the dinner table, for the one who is not hungry gets the best of the argument."
-Voltaire, the philosopher
Kengo rushed to the kitchen and told the rabbits to hide. The rabbits, understanding what he was trying to say, immediately did. He also went to his room and told the Other students to lay low and to not expose themselves to the real Gentaro and Yuki. Who knew what would happen if both Gentaros and Yukis met?
Kengo knew that rejecting Yuki and Gentaro's offer to have dinner would be a very impolite thing to do. So, taking a deep breath, he opened the door and forced a smile on his face as he saw Yuki enter the house with dinner in hand.
"We felt sorry for intruding on you and wanted to cook something to cheer you up," Yuki explained, removing her shoes. "It's oyakadon and some unagi to go with it. Gen-chan even made some dango to help cheer you up."
"Sweets are said to help make people's lives better than before," Gentaro explained. "It will definitely help put a smile on your face."
I'd smile once you two leave me alone...Kengo thought. Instead he said, "Thank you for your time. Let me set the table and we can eat."
Yuki nodded her head as she approached the dinner table, removed the cloth that tied the food together and opened their lids, letting their aroma settle in the room. Kengo tried his best to smell the food, but it smelled funny. It was if the food was tainted. It was probably his imagination.
"Eh!" said Gentaro, seeing the plates of katsu curry on the counter. "Yuki, look at this!" He scooped some of the curry into his mouth and placed a hand near his mouth. "It's so good!"
"Really?" asked Yuki, also taking a bite out of the curry. She let it settle into her mouth for a few seconds before swallowing. "It is good! Kengo, where did you get the recipe?"
"Um...funny story," Kengo explaned, seeing Gentaro and Yuki each take a plate of curry for their own. "But shouldn't we be having the food you cooked for me, Yuki?"
"Oh!" Yuki placed the curry onto the counter. "Right...that's what we'll do."
Gentaro also set his own curry plate away as he sat down at the dinner table. Once he, Yuki and Kengo said, "Itadakimasu," they began to eat. While Gentaro was joyously praising Yuki's cooking, Kengo had the opposite reaction. The oyakudon tasted rubbery, the unagi tasted too sweet, and the dango was too doughy. However, he was too polite to Yuki to comment on it, but it was strange. He and Yuki shared bentos most of last year, and not once did he complain about her cooking. Was it just him, or was something wrong with his tastebuds lately?
"So, Kengo," said Yuki, once they were done with dinner. "Do you have any clue who might be the Chamaeleon Zodiarts?"
"If it's going after contestants of the Queen Festival, then it has to be someone who wants to eliminate the competition," Kengo stated quickly, downing his meal with some water. "Aside from Miu, there are also her two cheerleading groupies: Tamae Sakuma and Jun Shigeno. Those should be your top two suspects."
"Why isn't Miu one of them?" asked Gentaro, placing a dango into his mouth.
"Because," Kengo set his water cup down and said, "She's not that kind of person to cheat."
"Are you sure?" asked Yuki. "How do you know this?"
"Call it intuition," said Kengo, turning to his room. "The Scorpio Zodiarts, however, I have no idea. It could be anyone in this school—and that's saying something. Also, Kisaragi..."
"Yes, Kengo?" asked Gentaro.
"Don't be an idiot and use the Hopping Switch again," Kengo replied. "You're going to get yourself killed with that thing."
"No I won't!" Gentaro rummaged through his pocket before pulling out the magenta Astroswitch stamped with the number 9. "I'm sure that this can be useful in some way. Trust me on that, Kengo."
Like I'm trusting you with my father's technology? Kengo thought bitterly. Yeah, right.
Dinner soon ended with Yuki washing the dishes and Gentaro talking on and on about his stories before entering Amanogawa High. Most of them were about all of the people he befriended over the years—Kengo remembered something about Gentaro befriending a thousand people in the span of a decade—while Yuki listened in interst. Once the dishes were nice and dry, Yuki hugged Kengo and soon left with Gentaro back home, the two once again talking about Yuki's performance in the talent show. Once Kengo knew they weren't coming back, he closed the door and let out a long sigh.
"All right," said Kengo, clapping his hands. "You can come out now."
The bunnies popped out from underneath the couch, from behind the curtains, the cupboards and other nooks and crannies. They began to reheat the food and prepare the table for four people as Kengo entered his room. Much to his amazement, he found the Other students already working on the origami needed for Other Miu's dress.
"Thought it would be good to speed things up," said Other Yuki, folding a piece of paper to create a small cube. She blew on the end, causing it to expand three times its size. "I thought those two would never leave,"
"I couldn't say no to them," said Kengo, shrugging his shoulders. He saw Other Gentaro folding small strips of paper into tiny stars. "What are you planning with that?"
"I thought we could stuff some of those water balloon cubes with stars and toss them toward the audience. Then they would explode and the stars would shower them. You know, like shooting stars."
"I'm also working on a routine to make the use of our time," said Other Shun. "Each person has three minutes to showcase their skills to the audience and then the day after will be the speeches. The speeches are to showcase what makes the candidate perfect to be queen for the year."
"So it's just a typical festival thing," Kengo muttered, quickly folding a piece of paper into the shape of a bunny. He doodled some eyes, a nose, and whiskers before blowing on its ears. The rabbit's ears twitched before it hopped toward Other Yuki. "Nothing to worry about."
"There's just one problem..." said Other Shun. "JK blackmails potential voters to choose Tomoko and thus turns the tides on the voting. No one is able to prove that the blackmail is going on, but we all know what really's going on."
"Not to worry," said Kengo, gathering everyone together. "I've got a plan."
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"And that's how we're doing it," Kengo finished, seeing the others finally eating dinner. "I think that should get people to vote for Other Miu."
"Ingenious!" said Other Shun, biting on a piece of sweet potato tempura. "I would've never thought of it."
"You're such a genius, Utahoshi-san!" Other Yuki exclaimed. "And this curry's delicious!"
"Thank the chefs," said Kengo, taking a bunny into his hands. "They were the ones who cooked everything."
"And they're so cute!" Other Miu exclaimed. "It's too bad you have to keep them a secret—what if they could do stuff for other people?"
A light bulb turned on in Kengo's head. He whispered something into the rabbit's ear, set it down onto the floor, and watched it hop off into the darkness. He then sat himself down and took a bite out of another piece of lotus root tempura. Unlike Yuki's cooking, he could already tell that the fried root slice was delicious.
"So," said Other Gentaro, setting his chopsticks down. "What did you ask that rabbit to do?"
"I just sent him to a dear friend of mine," Kengo answered. "He'll take care of everything."
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In the Jojima resident, Yuki looked at her Hayabusa cosplay—which consisted of some spare kitchen supplies and a large cardboard box—and smiled in pride. This was definitely going to help her win the Queen Festival for sure!
"Yuki!" her mother cried from upstairs. "Time to go to bed!"
"Coming mom!" Yuki cried, walking upstairs and into the bathroom. She soon began to brush her teeth, recalling the taste of the katsu curry back at Kengo's house. Comparing the taste of that to her own food was impossible. Yet...something was wrong. It wasn't the fact that it was so delicious, but when she observed Kengo eating her own cooking, there was a hint of...disgust. Was her cooking that bad?
Come to think of it, Kengo was bringing lunches to school everyday. Usually, he'd just take something small from the cafeteria, eat, then head to the Rabbit Hatch for some peace and quiet. In the last few weeks, Kengo wasn't acting himself. Aside from him going home early and the lunches from home, he seemed so...distant. There was this look in his eyes that were trying to say, "I feel like I don't belong here." Having known him the longest, Yuki just had a strange feeling that something wasn't right.
After brushing her teeth and dressing herself into a pair of star-patterned pajamas, Yuki Jojima went to bed. While she slept, she didn't notice the bunny rabbit appearing underneath her bed. It hopped toward the large cardboard box, sniffed it, then nodded its head.
It had a lot of work to do before sunrise, that's for sure.
Translation notes
Katsu curry-Curry with tonkatsu (deep fried breaded pork cutlet)
Oyakudon-"Parent and child bowl" consisting of eggs and chicken cooked together on top of a bowl of rice.
Unagi-Grilled eel
Dango-small dumplings made out of mochiko (rice flower). Usually skewered with three dumplings at a time.