The breakfast, when it was finally served, was in a very sorry state.
The rice from the bottom of the pot, while cooked, was burnt. Each grain was tainted a brownish yellow, and gave a defiant crunch when bitten into. And those from the top, while spared from being burnt, were undercooked and gave the same crunch without the burnt aroma. To top it off, the smoke from the burning permeated every single grain of the rice with no exception. It simply did not smell or taste like anything remotely edible.
The miso soup was way too salty and tasted of melted plastic, as Rukawa, in his sleepy state, had tumbled the whole tub of the fermented paste into the pot (only to gingerly fish it out way later, after it had half disintegrated). Coupled with the mashed up tofu that Sendoh had the courtesy to step on, and, eh-hem, the bit of Rukawa's drool which Sendoh chose not to disclose, was probably as wrong as instant miso soup could go.
The scramble egg was rubbery, from being on the stove for too long; punctuated by an occasional gritty crunch, since Kiyota had accidently beaten some egg shells into it, and tasteless, as Sendoh, due to the commotion, had forgotten to season it.
The sausages were charred on one side and still pale and undercooked on the other three sides – Sendoh had forgotten to turn them as well.
The pickled daikon was left to oblivion.
Fujima, who had low tolerance of bad food, was beginning to doubt this was a plot of the four juniors to poison them.
Maki led out a deep sigh as he put down his chopstick, and declared the breakfast an utter failure.