More Than Forty Nine Situations That Could've Gone Different...

... If all the characters were smarter, dumber or, well, just plain crazier.


6. Be Upfront About It

"Uhm... actually, to be perfectly honest, I don't know how to cook..." Makoto admitted.

Mana smiled. "That's no problem. I can teach you," she said.

The man with the camera rubbed his chin. "Actually, that's even better. Cute girls doing cute, girly things," he muttered to himself. "Okay, change of plans, everybody, we're filiming Makopi learning how to cook!"


"That's gonna be edited out, isn't it?" Makoto wondered, as she used a napkin to remove the egg from her face.

"Are you kidding? Fans would kill to see this kind of imagery," the cameraman said, giving her a thumbs up. "Go on!"

Shrugging, Makoto returned to Mana's lesson.


As she was about to wipe her eyes with her onion covered hand, Mana stopped her, shaking her head. "You were about to get onion in your eye. Here, let me," she said, wiping Makoto's hand slowly with a handkerchief and giving her a clean napkin to dab at her eyes with. Makoto thanked her with a warm smile.

"Most of the time, you're going to want to keep one of these in hand," Mana noted, "because getting onion in your eyes hurts. I should know. I've seen Papa crying for hours over it."

Everyone laughed, even Mana's own father, at the thought of the skilled cook ever making such a dumb mistake.

His family, who saw him do it on a regular basis, laughed even harder.


Alice smiled, shaking her head. "You're too tense. You need to relax," she said. "This isn't a race, you need to be more careful than forceful. Let me show you," she said, "gravity does most of the work."

Makoto nodded and watched as Alice peeled the carrots fairly deftly. Few would ever assume that the Yotsuba heiress would ever dirty her hands, let alone do such a mundane task as peeling carrots.


Rikka shook her head. "If you use detergent, the taste will be terrible later, and people could get sick," she explained. "You wash the vegetables by hand, slowly and carefully so you don't damage them," she explained. "It's not so difficult with carrots and onions and the like, but with softer, more fragile things like lettuce or other such things, you need to be even more careful than this."

Makoto nodded, taking in the sight as Rikka's hands moved about, skillfully removing all the grime that had become attached to the vegetables.


"When you're cutting, it helps to have a rhythm on your head so you don't go overboard," Mana noted. "You don't need to hurry, and remember, it's more important to avoid cutting yourself than it is to cut things perfectly," she said.

"So says the girl who's nearly cut the tips of her fingers off more times than I can count," Rikka noted, somewhat sourly.

"Yes, but that was a long time ago," Mana said, waving her hands. "I don't even have the scars anymore," she noted.


"Visual cues are very difficult, and really, it comes down to practice," Mana noted.

Alice smiled. "Yes, really, most of this eventually becomes second nature and you just do it naturally. It's not something I do often, but it's quite fun to make your own food every once in a while."

Makoto admitted that yes, it was. "It gives me a different perspective, for sure," she added. "I never thought so much went into what we eat daily."

"Well, Mana's father does hundreds of these a day, and so he can whip them out pretty quickly without sacrificing quality," Rikka noted. "I've seen him do large orders."

"I've never seen your grandfather cook, though," Alice noted, looking somewhat curious as she did.

"Eheh... Grandad is... well, there's a reason why he complains so much about my father not being half the man he is," Mana said, scratching the back of her neck. "The pan is ready, by the way, you should pour the egg now," she added.

"Really?" Makoto asked, tilting her head. Given that the man had whipped up a feast earlier for the TV Crew, she wondered how someone could be superior.

"Mana's grandfather doesn't cook very often, but when he does, it's... it's just amazing," Rikka noted.

"He does have much more experience than I do," Mana's father noted as he came in. "How are you doing, girls?"

"We're almost done," Mana noted.

"Hm... you poured the egg in a little early," the man noted, putting the pile of dishes he'd been carrying on the sink and getting started on washing them.

"You could tell?" Makoto asked.

"Yep. I've been doing this for quite a while now, so these days, it's really easy for me to tell. When you're as used to this kind of thing as I am, you tend to skip a few of the safety steps, as well. For instance, sometimes I just stick my finger into the oil or water to check how hot it is," he said. "I've burned my fingers so many times that they're pretty resistant these days."

Makoto nodded. "That's incredible."

The man shook his head with a chuckle. "It's not that big a deal," he said. "Anyway, don't get distracted, the egg can cook very quickly," he warned.

It was then that they noticed he'd washed quite the pile of dishes in a very short amount of time.

"Amazing..." Makoto muttered. "I could never be like that..."

The man chuckled. "Don't say that. Of course you could be," he said, shaking his head. "If you pour your whole heart into it... then no matter what, there's no way you could fail."

"Hm. At least one of my lessons that you've taken to heart," the man's father in law said, as he leant on the doorframe, arms crossed.

Mana's father laughed. "Just you wait. Soon enough, I'll be the master teaching you."

"Yes, and that day, pigs will fly."

"To... pour my whole heart into it, huh..." Makoto said, frowning. "I guess I got a bit too impatient," she said, shaking her head a bit and slapping her cheeks. "You're right."

"If it's something you love, then there's no reason to do anything but give it your all," the old man said. "If you do, then your future will be bright."

Mana's grandfather followed his son in law back into the restaurant proper, where the crew were still eating.

"They're pretty cool when they want to be," Mana said, smiling widely. "Anyway, let's finish this up so we can eat it! I can't wait to taste Makopi's omelet rice!"


The program was a major hit, and though Makoto WAS approached to make a 'cooking with Makopi' show, she declined. Mostly because her inner fire had been reignited, and she took to the stage with renewed vigor.

Also Ira made an ego shaped like a pig out of the cameraman, who wanted to taste test Makopi's omelet rice, as he said, but that's a story for another time.