Musutafu – Streets -
"COME HERE!" A Pro Hero yelled, using her powers to turn floor and walls elastic like rubber under her naked feet so to bounce forward at random angles and still gain terrain on her escaping targets.
"We need to split!" The Vigilante Gentle said, already short of breath.
"No!" His Partner, La Brava, answered immediately with wide, scared eyes.
"I am holding you back! If we split, I will keep her occupied while you hide!" The older man answered.
"We can do this together! My Quirk-"
"You have already overused it! Just run!" Gentle answered.
"I WILL CATCH YOU BOTH! You can't escape!" Elasti-Ka, Aka Kasumi Shirogane the freshly minted Pro Hero and former Ketsubotsu student, yelled in answer.
Those two were her ticket to easy glory! Her first capture as a Pro Hero being the infamous 'La Brava – Gentle' Vigilante Duo will definitely make her popularity skyrocket! She had to catch them!
"What if… What if we hide-"
"No! We can't drag him down with us!" Gentle answered.
"But his Dog will stop her!"
"… You go there, I will hold this woman back!"
"GENTLE!" La Brava yelled in horror as he benefactor, crush and the only reason she did not followed through with her initial suicide plan to escape her life of misery turned around and actually ran towards the Pro Hero trying to catch them.
Meanwhile – Abandoned apartment -
"Wakey-wakey…" A voice said with mocking sweetness as soon as Nagant's eyes weakly fluttered open of just a fraction.
"Where...Am I…" She muttered with a raspy voice.
"Apartment 31, the only one still barely livable of this entire complex, although not for long since they will soon demolish this place to build a new one." The same voice answered.
When the woman managed to actually open her eyes fully, she saw the legendary 'Hero Killer' Stein sitting in a corner surrounded by a ludicrous amount of knives while his eyes were glued to a very small and battered portable TV.
"You are… Stein…" Nagant said with a groan, but she soon discovered she could not move a muscle.
"Uh-hu, very observant. I found you half-dead in an alleyway, and I had to remove a couple weirdos that were fumbling a bit with your ruined uniform. As soon as I saw them unzip their pants I took offense to that." Stein answered, uncaringly.
Nagant indeed saw that a couple blades were still in the half-broken sink filled in red water, and decided that she did not feel guilty about whatever those perverts' fate was.
"Dead?"
"There are fates worse than death." He answered with a savage smile.
"So you helped me? Why?"
"I have questions," Stein answered.
"What kind of questions?" Nagant asked, tense.
She didn't like the fact that she could not move a muscle.
"Don't try it, I kept using my Quirk on you during your entire stay here, you won't move a muscle for the next twenty minutes. It helped making sure you would not move too much and re-open your wounds."
"I guess I should thank you?"
"Don't bother."
"Indeed."
"…"
"… So? Your questions?"
"I am aware of your job for the Commission and the League of Villains. Morons tried recruit me as well." Stein answered, taking note of more possible targets to teach a lesson to from the News on TV.
"… And?" She asked, eyes narrowed.
"I know that when you, and people like you, move it's because somebody "important" has a Target they really want to eliminate; your wounds suggest somebody managed to get a drop on you and beat you half to death, who was it? If they were one of those Pretenders I can lend a hand. For free." Stein said.
"Ah, yes. Yours is a not a job, is a matter of Ideals." Nagant said with a mocking tone.
"Laugh all you want, woman. I am not doing this while looking for recognition, I only seek results. I only want proper Heroes out there, not Idols or Primadonnas." He answered, snarling.
"Well, have no fear, I was not about to kill one of your Heroes, this time." Nagant answered, sighing in annoyance.
"Hn?"
"This time I was called to kill a simple Quirkless Chef."
"…"
"I know, it is not one of those 'High Profile Targets' I am famous for nowadays, but the Commission AND the League were pretty insistent, so I tried to kill the boy before taking his pet dog and robot back to the Commission while putting the guy's head in a bag to appease the League and their psychotic Leader. I just was not told that dog was that strong." She finished saying with a groan of shame.
"…"
"Stein?" Nagant asked once the silence of the man grew far too long.
"… Of all people… You want to kill the boy that owns Green Cloud?" Stein finally asked.
"You know him? Do you go to his Rest-"
He was now towering over her with in his hand a far too long knife with a jagged blade probably more useful to painfully tear apart a victim than making clean cuts, as if the man had purposely made the blade that jagged just to inflict as much agony on his victims as possible before they died… And Nagant was unable to move, heavily wounded, weakened and unable to activate her powers.
"That boy is one of the 'Good Ones'. You and those morons are not touching him." The Hero Killer said with a hollow voice.
"Oh…" It instantly downed on the woman that she had maybe only a few minutes to talk the psycho mass-murderer looking down at her into not putting a very painful end to her life. Or at least talk him into making it quick and with as little gore and dismemberment as possible.
Meanwhile – With Izuku and Ochako – Other Dimension -
While all those messes happened, in the small flat above the Restaurant Izuku and Ochako were temporarily working in until the young Chef could complete his mission, the only thing going on was the two sleeping peacefully as it was still the dead of night.
Pat pat pat pat…
Soft steps then echoed in the empty apartment as a strange being resembling a malformed cat with a big round head and two tiny beady eyes adorning its expressionless face entered from the window by melting into a liquid form and then returning to normal once inside.
Nobody seemed to notice, as Ochako and Izuku were deeply asleep while hugging each other tightly, too content to bask in each other's presence to care about anything else.
The System knew what that creature was, and the Entity was aware that they and the thing's race did share the same kind of curiosity about Mortal Beings and their reaction to various situations and their Emotions, reason why The System often left small 'Incidents' happen just to see how its various Hosts would react… But contrary to that furry turd and its race, The System had an actual set of morals too, no matter how much slanted or loose-looking, that is why during Izuku's sortie with Rumi in the Fantasy world it permitted to that guy to paralyze both instead of keeping the Host's protection active rendering both immune, The System wanted to see what that guy wanted to do, but as soon as he made it clear he had bad intentions towards both Izuku and Rumi, the Paralysis was removed and the pervert got his just punishment, plus interests.
That thing now walking silently on top of the bed came from a race with zero morals instead, and the Entity was ready to make them all go Extinct if one of them tried anything against the System's Host.
No Expy. It is literally one of them. Sorry.
"This one is good. Should make a good Sacrifice to avoid the end of the Universe." The small animal said, with its head leaning to the side.
"Now I need to rip out her soul by pretending to be a cute mascot offering her to be a cute Magical Girl, then put it into an ugly gem that looks like we got it from a bag of chips, and then constantly put her through every possible grief and trauma known all at once with some bullshit excuse about her protecting Innocents so to harvest the power of her emotions and use it as fuel to keep the Universe spinning…. Sure she is a bit too old, since we usually do this with underage girls because 'Torturing, maiming and traumatizing underage kids is tight (Just look at Made in Abyss, people love that!)', but I can't find proper candidates lately, they are already a mess of personal issues on the brink of depression by themselves without me helping breaking their spirit." The thing said, looking at Ochako's sleeping face with empty, emotionless eyes.
"I guess she will have to suffer and live like shit for ten or so Candidates at once until I find more, they all keep painfully transforming into monsters after too much trauma is subjected." The thing said to itself with a monotone voice.
"Do you at least have proofs that your kind is actually helping the Universe not to die, or are you just winging it?" Shiro asked with a bored tone, awakening from his slumber on Izuku's own pillow to look at the thing with half-lidded eyes.
"… Why something like you is here?" The animal asked.
"My business, you little nothing. You are trying to pull that bullshit on the woman of a God of Cooking Candidate, one that happens to be my Esteemed Persona's beloved Partner. And I won't let some fools strut in my turf just like that. Your kind is a useless bunch of cretins that think they know everything while knowing absolutely nothing instead, and contrary to everybody else, I am not merciful enough to let you continue this useless crusade of yours." He answered, stretching a bit.
"We-"
"This Esteemed Taotie alone is way older than your entire race, and my Partner's Sponsor is even older than ME. We have been around for a long time! That Thing was around since even before Time started flowing and Matter blinked into existence! I was born as soon as the very first Life felt Greed for the first time… We know how things work as we saw them starting to work.
Everything has a beginning and an End, so even Creation as an expiration date, past that, everything will die and then start anew, in a new cycle. That is how it works because that is built-in in the very blueprint of Existence and this is how it will always work. You little things are just wasting time as not even you can prolong the life expectancy of the Multiverse, and let me tell you, we 'Old Folks' have grown tired of people like you trying this over and over at every new Cycle…" Shiro said, walking forward until he stood face-to-face with the thing.
"We-" The thing tried saying again, but billions of voices started to scream inside its head, only to slowly but steadily decrease in number at a high pace.
"That is my Partner's Sponsor. Many call it 'The Gourmet System', one of the Ancient Ones. As we speak they are erasing your race, except you. You will have the honor of being my Midnight Snack and spend the rest of Eternity being endlessly digested alive, with no escape, only the constant, endless feeling of your body melting, of your skin burning and your organs dissolving, over and over and over again. Forever."
"Why?" The Thing asked.
"Because we are tired of seeing morons getting in their heads that they can subvert how the Universe works because 'They know better', and even more importantly… We just don't like you." Shiro answered, and with a single gulp, the strange creature was no more, it and its race extinct, gone forever.
"Seriously, The Multiverse has already ended and started anew dozens of times, and this kind of Morons keep popping-up with an always wilder plan to stop the Cycle. Unbelievable." Shiro muttered to himself while shaking his head, then he just gave a tiny and adorable burp and went back to sleep.
The Next day – Morning -
Both teens woke-up with no issues and unaware of what happened, they just took turns to change and use the bathroom and got ready to meet the so-called Sages behind the four Teams of "Heroes" protecting the city.
"I wonder what those Sages will look like," Ochako said.
"Hopefully less intense than the girls they recruited." Izuku answered, sighing.
"Let's hope so."
Since it was not a working day for that restaurant, a surprise for somebody with workaholic tendencies like Izuku, the two Travelers used the freedom provided by the place being closed to immediately start looking for any clue about that dragon at the local library.
"Those colorful Pets said that the Dragon has been sealed away long ago, so maybe if we are lucky somebody has recorded the thing somewhere as a legend, or at least some fragmented details about it." Ochako said.
"Good thinking!" Izuku answered, making her smile proud of herself.
"Sure 'Legends about dragons' is a bit generic as a research prompt, but it's a good starting point." She also admitted.
Theory proved right when once talked with the helpful old lady and old man behind the library counter both she and Izuku collected a staggering amount of books, far more than they expected.
"… That's far too many." The young Chef admitted with a whisper.
"Holy crap." Ochako echoed, straining her neck to look at the summit of the mountain of books they collected.
"Actually, we lack a few that still have to be brought back by the visitors that took them, sorry for the inconvenience." The old man curating the library answered with a contrite tone, before leaving the teens to their reading.
"Well, better start looking!" Izuku said, sighing and grabbing the first one.
"Yes, we are on a schedule, you are right." Ochako answered, grabbing a book herself and sitting next to him to read.
Several hours passed, book after book and legend after legend passing under their eyes, but none of them seemed to match what few tidbits of information they had about Izuku's required Ingredient.
"Nothing! Just pages after pages about this guy's Hate Boner for a Pharaoh and his duels against the guy using a blue-eyed dragon! But his was silver-white, not golden!" Izuku finally said in anger once finished checking his latest book.
He also slammed his head on the table to muffle his frustrated scream.
"What about you, Occhan?" He then asked, leaning his head on a side to look at the girl.
"Bleh! Nothing here either, just a legend of a kid forced to steal a golden egg from a dragon for some stupid competition. The only gold mentioned was from the eggs, not the dragon itself." She answered, leaning her head on the table as well so to meet the Chef's eyes.
"It was a good idea, though. But we need a way to narrow-down results." Izuku said, sighing.
"We can do this, we just need to keep trying." Ochako answered.
"Well said," He answered kissing her and enjoying the adorable shade of red she turned into.
"Teaser." She muttered shyly, kissing him back.
Just as they kept exchanging fast kisses and chuckling softly, somebody else neared their table.
"Ah-Hem, sorry to disturb you and interrupt your kissing competition, but you seem troubled, may I help you?" The young man asked, adjusting his glasses.
He was a very average guy in built and wearing round nerdy glasses, and yet he looked so normal compared to the insanity both Izuku and Ochako met ever since they arrived in that world that he still managed to stand-out like a sore thumb.
"Oh! Yes, maybe we were being a bit excessive," Ochako admitted.
"Our apologies." Izuku added.
"No! No! Nothing wrong with being in love! It's actually cute you are so much into each other! Very pure!" The guy answered, turning frantic at being misunderstood and rattling his answer out while wildly flapping his arms in alarm; unfortunately his words had the opposite effect making the two teen's face turn crimson in embarrassment.
"AH! I MADE THINGS WORSE! SORRY!" The guy yelled.
"SILENCE IN THE LIBRARY!" Soon followed by the Librarians chastising him.
"AH!… S-Sorry!" The Guy whispered, looking ashamed to near-death.
"It's okay, it's okay. I am Ochako, and this is my boyfriend Izuku. Nice to meet you." Ochako answered.
"I am Haruki, nice to meet you." The young man answered, shaking both Teens' hands.
"So you say you want to help us?" Izuku asked.
"Well, I noticed how you pretty much sequestered every book on legends here, so I guessed you had some difficult assignment to write, and… Well… I often help my classmates with our homework, so I guess it is a reflex for me to help people study now." Haruki answered, shy.
"You must be a very good guy." Ochako answered, smiling.
"I try to be, Ochako-san!" He answered.
"A helping hand would help us immensely, truth be told." Izuku admitted.
"So it is an assignment?"
"… Yes." Both answered after exchanging a rapid glance.
"Our teacher wants us to collect data and talk about a legend we find interesting, I suggested one I faintly remember my grandmother told me about…. But I can't remember a lot about it, so we hoped to find it here in some book, but…" Ochako said, surprising Izuku.
"But you can't find it," Haruki said, looking thoughtful at the mountain of books.
"Yes," Izuku, sending a discreet thumbs-up to his girl, confirmed with a nod.
"What legend are we talking about? This city and the area around it is full of legends about dragons, some way outlandish and others fairly dumb and plain."
"I don't remember much, only that it talked about a dragon made of gold that was apparently very Evil and Big. Oh! And apparently it got sealed away somewhere!" Ochako said.
"Uuuhm...That's not much." Haruki commented.
"You tell me, we have been going through books for at least three hours." Izuku answered, sighing.
"I will help you research, another pair of eyes means more books checked in less time!" Haruki said.
"You sure?"
"Of course! One of these books will certainly hold your Legend!… Except that one, whoever wrote that was certainly either tripping under the effects of 'Magical Herbs' or straight up trolling." Haruki answered, before actually taking a book and throwing it aside.
"Uh?" Both Travelers muttered, confused.
"Just the diary of a guy saying that if you collect the testicles of seven dragons then you will be granted the power to have a wish come true, no matter how impossible that wish is, even resurrect the dead." Haruki answered with a scrunched nose.
"Ugh!" Ochako grunted with a green face.
Driiiiiin!
Before the three could actually start their research, Haruki's phone buzzed, signaling that he had just received a message.
"Oh! It's Michiko-chan!" He said once checked, and his eyes gained a very bright spark.
"Isn't she one of those strange girls?" Izuku asked, making Ochako's mouth drop in a wide O of surprise.
"Hey! Haruki! I am, like, super tired! Do you mind bring me one of those super awesome smoothies they sell next to our houses? Pleeeease? It's on the way home! Pretty please? It's too hot and I don't want to get out!" The girl's voice said.
"That your boyfriend?" a male voice was heard very faintly in the background.
"No! My best friend forever! You put your head back down there, I am record a mess-" The recording ended there.
"…" Both Izuku and Ochako were once again at loss of words.
"Please forgive my friend, Michiko is a bit of an air-head, but we are childhood friends, we grew-up together ever since we were in the crib and have been friends since forever. But I must admit that lately I have been developing feelings that I am not sure are just Friendship anymore and…" Haruki explained while looking down, his hands were even closed into tight, shaking fists.
And luckily, his mindless rambling as he poured-out his sad romantic backstory and the fact his eyes were glued to the floor made him miss Izuku's and Ochako's shoulders shivering heavily, not because they were touched by the saccharine, romantic story he was telling them, but out of overwhelming Cringe.
"He is the Childhood Friend that falls in love with the girl." Ochako thought with face twisted into a mask of despair, she knew even MINA and TORU, her two friends obsessed with Romance, would find all that far too cliché to be enjoyable.
"He is in Love with her friend and can't admit his feelings," Izuku, suffering as well, thought while gagging a bit.
"He is so infatuated he didn't even notice, or openly choose to ignore, that the girl is with somebody else already." Shiro thought.
"I know she has had several boyfriends already, but nobody understands her like I do, but I want her to be happy, even if with somebody else!" Haruki finished saying.
"…"
Izuku, Ochako and Shiro.
"She had multiple boyfriends?" Izuku asked, once recovered enough self-control.
"She is just confused, that one in the message was also a new one, she already switched for another guy." Haruki answered.
"Already? Does she… Change boyfriend often?" Ochako asked in dread.
"… Now that you mention it… Y-Yes, she does change boyfriend often, like, a different one every day." The young man answered, gaining a confused expression.
"Are you sure that your friend is not a bit Promiscuous? No offense meant, but, you have to admit she sounds very shallow," Izuku said.
"She is not shallow!" Haruki bristled.
"Are you sure? Have you ever noticed how often and why she changes boyfriend?" Ochako asked.
"She is just clearly looking for the right guy! And… And I am sure I can be that guy, i-i-if I could just stop getting tongue-tied whenever I try to tell her how I really feel!" Haruki answered, face red.
"… Are you sure that that's the problem with her?" Ochako asked again.
"Of course! What else could be the reason she switches to other men so easily?!… Unless…" To their surprise, the young man did the 'Scrubs daydreaming head tilt thing' and looked slightly upward and to the side while deep in thought.
"Hello?" Ochako muttered, confused by his sudden silence.
"What is he doing?" Izuku added, just as shocked.
Haruki saw Michiko walk past him on the opposite side of the road, holding onto the arm of a tall guy, when a foreigner neared them both.
"Hey! I am a stereotypical foreign guy, and my penis happens to be bigger than your boyfriend's, want to ditch him just because I am good at sex?"
"Oh! Sure! I don't know you at all and you are probably just a piece of shit trying to woo a girl already in a relationship just because you think you are an Alpha Male and deserve every girl you want or similar bullshit, but why not! I will of course drop somebody I am supposed to like for proper reasons and just go for another guy only because he gave me a good orgasm!" Michiko answered, latching to the new guy's arm and walking away.
"Nooo! I am definitely not fighting back because another guy wants to have sex with my girl, how am I supposed to react to this even if we both are equally matched physically and I could just beat the shit out of him?" The dropped ex-boyfriend yelled to the sky.
The same thing happened the next day, with a super fat guy ugly as Sin and smelling like somebody that never washed once in their entire life.
"Hey! Wanna ditch that guy? I'll treat you like an animal, disrespect you at every opportunity and just use you like an object until I breed you and ditch you. But at least sex will be good!" The guy said, releasing a loud belch so foul in smell the paint of the wall next to him peeled-off by itself in long twirly strips while random birds fell down the ground dead all around him.
"Cool! I like throwing away my dignity and human rights just for sex!"
"Good! Follow me!" The man said, dragging her away from her new boyfriend.
"Nooo! I was betrayed as well! And now I am the one that can't fight for her even if that guy looks so out of shape a gust of wind could give him a heart attack!" The Foreign guy yelled in despair.
Then the same thing happened to her the day after with a different guy just swooping in and " Seducing" her, then again the day after, and the day after that and…
"… I wonder how many different STDs a human body like hers can contain before collapsing on itself like a supernova…" The guy said aloud once out of his thinking fit.
"Yeeeeah. We… We will be going then, we have another appointment, have a nice day." Izuku muttered, and he and Ochako slowly walked away from the weirdo while making sure to never let him out of their sight, until they were far enough to start running.
Far from the Library – Streets of the city -
"Okay, back to square one, the library was of no help," Ochako said, sighing.
"Let's hope that those Sages will be more useful." Izuku added.
"To be fair, me and my colleagues usually consider ourselves very useful." An old woman with a pure-white cloak and hood fully covering her head and hiding her identity appeared behind them.
"Hello?"
"Ah, please excuse my lack of manners. I am Adelia. One of the four Sages." The old woman said, showing her face under the hood, she had her gray hair tied into a very austere chignon and wore round glasses with a bone rim, under her cloak she wore plain scholarly robes, a design simple and geared towards actual usefulness.
"…"
"Yes, I am aware that my clothing is not as gaudy as the Magical Girl I champion, unfortunately I am the only one pushing for actual change and professionalism, the other Sages are clinging to traditions, and those traditions are a bit…" Adelia tried saying, grimacing.
"Excessive?" Izuku tried saying.
"I was about to say 'Please gouge my eyes out', but your term seems more fitting. Please, follow me." The old Woman gave a wide wave of her cape and disappeared.
"… To where?" Ochako asked aloud once she left the two of them behind.
"I don't know, she didn't say where she wanted to meet." Izuku answered.
"You were supposed to be transported with me." Adelia answered, returning and looking at them with a raised eyebrow.
"My Partner's Sponsor is paranoid." Shiro explained.
"… Lord Hunger? Ok. Boy, you are definitely a very interesting kid." Adelia admitted with her eyebrows shooting up in surprise.
"Where are you plan to take us?" Izuku asked.
"To a very nice cafe nearby, we will talk a bit between us before going to the… The…"
"Just say it." Izuku said, sighing.
"The Cave of friendship and cuddles…" The old woman said with a shudder.
"You really don't like it, hn?" Ochako said.
"I really, really hate my job, but I am the only one between the Sages that knows how to create and repair the Transformation Jewels. But they never let me decide on the costumes or the jewels design." She answered, eyes cloudy in tears.
"It's okay. We understand." Izuku answered.
"Thank you. Let's go, I need a coffee. Bitter. I am tired of sweets." She said, about to repeat the cloak thing but stopping.
"Might I?"
"… Go ahead." Izuku confirmed, once got the green light by the System.
"Good." Adelia said, moving her cloak to cover herself and the two teens with a flourish, but instead of covering the group, all of them disappeared in an instant, swallowed by the fluttering cloth.
Opposite side of the city – Bar -
The quaint little bar was a small cozy local with a minimalist décor and furniture, hidden away in a side street away from the bustling streets, the inside was very welcoming and quiet, with jazz music playing softly in the background.
Izuku and Ochako, accompanied by Whitey and Shiro, found themselves sitting with Adelia in an isolated table in a far away corner, next to the old-looking jukebox playing the music.
"I had no idea that a place like this existed here." Izuku admitted in wonder.
"It does because I fight tooth and nails to stop the owner from joining the insanity of this world," Adelia answered, chuckling.
"This world?" Ochako asked.
"You and your boyfriend are not the only ones that can travel through worlds." She answered with a cheeky smirk.
"So you know?" Izuku asked, surprised.
"About you being a God of Cooking candidate? Yes, you Chosen are absurdly rare, but the legends about your skills are well-known to people old enough." Adelia answered.
"Or strange enough." Izuku added, smirking.
"That too is a requirement, yes." The old woman answered, chuckling.
"So you know why we are here?" Ochako asked.
"That escapes me instead, my dear. When those pesky over-achieving furballs came whining about another Squad of Magical Girls getting involved, the other Sages panicked, but I instead grew curious: contrary to them I know every other Squad around, and not a single one of them had members matching your description, so I made some Divination and… Well… My crystal ball exploded like a grenade." Adelia answered.
"The System is not apologizing." The Entity answered inside Izuku's head, making him chuckle.
"When I saw that my Divination failed that spectacularly, no matter what method I used, I smelled something fishy and came to see you to in person, and as you can imagine, discovering that you are a Candidate was a big shock! But it still doesn't explain why I can't Divine a thing about you."
"My Sponsor values my Privacy a bit too intensely." Izuku admitted, sheepish.
"It doesn't explain yet how-"
"It's an Old One, one of the very old ones." Shiro said, rolling his eyes.
"… That explains it." Adelia finished saying, with a groan while removing her glasses and rubbing her eyes.
"Sorry."
"No need to apologize. Those Things have their own way of doing things, it's not your fault." Adelia said.
"Thank you for understanding."
"So? With whom do I have the pleasure to talk to?" Adelia asked once donned her glasses again.
"Izuku Midoriya, God of Cooking Candidate." Izuku said, shaking her hand.
"Ochako Uraraka, Hero Student." Uraraka said, shaking the woman's hand with her pinkie finger lifted to not make her float.
"Adelia Diriclaw, Sage. Honored to meet you." The old lady said.
"Honored." Both teens answered.
"So? What brings you here?" Adelia asked.
"I am here because I am supposed to capture a specific Ingredient." Izuku answered.
"A rare one, I take? Considering you looked pretty distraught about finding it."
"Pretty much, Madam. One called the Cloud-Eating Golden Dragon." Ochako answered.
CRACK!
"MADAM!" Both Teens yelled when they saw the old lady's face impact heavily with the top of the table.
"You want to capture Obscurus the Dragon Demon Lord and use him as an Ingredient… Goddamnit, your Sponsor is the Entity of Taste, The Gourmet System!" The woman said with a whine worthy of a dying animal.
"… How?" Izuku asked with wide eyes.
"Because of all the Old Ones out there, that THING is the only one so outlandishly lacking in fucks to give to treat everything as an Ingredient!" Adelia answered, momentarily losing her austere composure.
"…"
"Cough! Sorry, didn't mean to slip." The woman said, clearing her throat and recomposing herself.
"It's okay." Izuku conceded.
"She's not exactly wrong in describing your Sponsor, Icchan." Ochako whispered.
"Quite a bit, yes."
"So that monster is your target, this makes things both more complicated and easier." Adelia said.
"Uh?"
"Easier because if you are here it means that you and your bodyguards are deemed by your Sponsor strong enough to capture him. Harder because those Morons of my colleagues won't understand and will keep insisting that only their precious Magical Girls can defeat that Dragon." She answered, sighing.
"Any idea how we can do this?" Izuku asked.
"… I do have a plan… And your being here may be the final piece I need to finalize it." Adelia answered, unsure.
"Why I am smelling bullshit?" Ochako asked with narrowed eyes.
"Well, there may be the need of us using a bit of underhand tactics." The old woman answered.
"That's it? No problem then! As long as nobody dies!" Izuku answered.
"Oh! Absolutely no victims!" She answered, sighing in relief.
"What's your plan?" Ochako asks.
"My plan is two-fold, and we need both the other Sages and the cult of Edgy Weirdos that is trying to free Obscurus for it to work."
"… We are listening!" Izuku said after a rapid-fire whispered back and forth between him and Ochako.
"Wonderful! I love working with people with an actual brain inside their heads! Come closer, children! I'll explain you everything in detail and the we will move through phase 1!" Adelia said in actual glee.
Later that day – Isolated cave between the mountains -
A long mountain chain circled around the city, surrounding the entire place like a protective ring, hidden in one of those mountains stood a wide cave system often visited by bears, but it was nothing a couple of slaps of Whitey could not resolve, making the bears run away scared and wonder what they did to deserve such humiliation.
"Stay close to me, kids and… Try to not gag too loud, those guys are a bit weak Ego-wise." Adelia said, sighing, and accompanying Izuku and Ochako inside one of the caves and through a maze of stone corridors.
"We'll try our best." Ochako promised.
"Yes." Izuku said, sighing.
"I live with them while you two are just visiting, I got it worse." Adelia answered.
Finally they reached their destination, a cul-de-sac, the end of a tunnel that was just a smooth wall of stone.
"What now?" Izuku asked.
"Now I say the password and I let you two in to meet the other Sages." She answered, taking few deep breaths and looking straight at the stone wall.
"In the name of Friendship, Love and everything Pure, let me in to meet the Sages and Guardians of Cuteness and Adorable Fluffiness!" Adelia chanted.
"…"
"No comment." She warned the two teens between clenched teeth.
The door faded away to show a new cave… A pink one.
Everything was pink! The floor, the walls and the ceiling! The stalactites and stalagmites naturally formed hearts while giant pillars of pure pink crystals adorned the entire place and projected rainbow light everywhere, the floor was covered in a thick carpet of pure-pink moss with tiny purple flower patches and bright yellow mushrooms here and there.
"Wow." Ochako admitted, her horror going full-circle and becoming awe.
"Very… Cute?" Izuku tried saying.
"Don't sugar-coat it, my boy. This is a nightmare out of a five years old girl's head, call it with its name." Adelia said, sighing.
"Where are the Sages?" Izuku asked.
"They are hiding, they just love to make an entrance, too bad they suck at it." Adelia answered.
"Hn?!"
"Here they come."
What horrified both Izuku and Ochako was the pretty-bad Special Effects that heralded the arrival of the other three Sages, it was a spectacle of such bad CGI that by comparison a Ugandan Action Movie would look like a James Cameron production.
Each one of them arrived in the form of a pink cloud of smoke leaving behind a trail of red hearts that first circled Izuku, Ochako and Adelia several times, then the various trails of smoke climbed up to a line of very gaudy, heart-shaped thrones sitting atop of large pink crystal pillars, and once transformed back into people, the three Sages addressed them all.
"Ah! Here we are! It is us! The Sages of Hugs and Kisses!" One of the other Sages, wearing an adult-sized onesie of a pink unicorn, said with a booming voice while pointing at Izuku and Ochako with his walking cane topped by a giant heart-shaped crystal.
"So you are the strangers that came to visit us! Welcome to the Cave of the Sages!" The second Sage, a fat man with thick walrus mustaches and dressed in a princess costume two sizes too small, added.
"Ready to be enlightened by our wisdom?" The third Sage, a Very old woman so thin to look more similar to a mummy, finished saying while wearing her own Magical Girl outfit, hers though clearly as "Ancient" as she was since the constant washing had turned its once bright colors into a bland mishmash of shades of different colors so faded to be barely distinguishable from one another.
"…"
"Don't look at me like that. I tried to make them look less atrocious numerous times, but after centuries even I had to throw the towel." Adelia answered angrily to Izuku and Ochako's horrified looks and silent question.
"Adelia! Who are these people?" The Ancient Woman asked once noticed how Off Izuku and Shiro felt.
"Izuku, Ochako, these are the other Sages: Kala, Augustus and Lorenz. My colleagues and partners in the fight against the Forces of Evil." Adelia introduced them, and only Izuku and Ochako heard her add a muttered "Unfortunately" to her introduction, making them chuckle.
"And I suppose they are the Outside Squad we have been warned about by the Pets of our Teams." Augustus said while twirling his walrus mustaches.
"Yes, those guys were talking about them, and since, as always, you three were wasting time in arguing about any and every possible What If scenarios. I decided to take matters in my hands and actually get concrete results, as always." Adelia answered, rolling her eyes.
"Yes, yes, you take risks, we know." Lorenz answered, huffing annoyed and twirling his walking cane at high speed.
"Why they are here?" Kala asked.
"I needed their help for a little personal project of mine, nothing serious. UNFORTUNATELY, I know that you three are far too paranoid to just trust my judgment and let us pass by the Sancta Sanctorum to reach my personal quarters." Adelia answered, rubbing her temples, and Izuku and Ochako felt a wave of sympathy for the poor lady.
"The Sancta Sanctirum is where the Great Heart of Pure Dreams resides! It's too much of a security risk! Even if you personally are vouching for them!" Augustus answered, outraged.
"I am the actual oldest member here, you three wouldn't even be here if not for me helping you actually organizing this entire Magical Warriors-"
"MAGICAL GIRLS!" The other three interrupted her.
"Magical girls project." Adelia finished saying between clenched teeth.
"We are aware of your help in this project, but still, we outvote you three to one, we decided to always decide by voting, and we never ever broke this tradition in the two hundred years we have been doing this!" Kala said, dull eyes drilling a hole in the teens' eyes, enough Ochako felt a shiver run up her spine at the creepy sight.
"Unfortunately, yes, I am aware of that too. But still, I need passage and to take those two youngsters in my studio, so… As far as I am concerned, we are in a quandary." Adelia answered, arms crossed and eyes narrowed.
"You are not backing down, and neither are we, so what?" Augustus asked, huffing.
"We will fix this the easy way: The boy will challenge you in dessert making, Augustus. If he wins, you will let us through AND you three will let me add them to the security wards, since I know you three enough to just know you will just activate them "by mistake" and evict them, if only because you are all a bunch of crybabies that hate not having things go your way." Adelia answered, smirking.
What followed were three indistinguishable voices screeching at a high pitch at the same time in anger and insulting Adelia for her, clearly, accurate accusations; the overall noise reminded to Izuku and Ochako of a bunch of chimpanzees howling and screaming at the same time.
"Give them five minutes, once done throwing their tantrums, they will listen." Adelia, completely unfazed, took out of one of the pockets of her belt a pocket watch and checked the time.
"Does this happen often?" Izuku asked while the monkey-screaming was still ongoing.
"Every time we have to discuss something, and that means: every time we need to discuss something the three of them want to do and I try to shutdown with the magic of Common Sense." Adelia answered.
"… Why do you still work with them?" Ochako asked, confused.
"At the time they were the strongest Magic Users and Alchemists I could find. I needed help to counterbalance the overbearing forces of Evil and was desperate enough I had to improvise and get all the help I could get to finally push back Evil." Adelia explained, sighing.
"Must have been some pretty desperate times," Izuku said.
"Oh, yes. As you may have seen people here kind of Overreact when faced with overabundant Evil or Good. That because the Heart of Light we have here and the Heart of Darkness that the bad guys are trying to use to free Obscurus are not supposed to be here on this planet, they are supposed to be held in the very center of the Universe, floating in the void, and influence everything and everywhere the same way. With both here instead, this planet is getting overdosed constantly in their radiations while other worlds too far are getting nothing." Adelia answered.
"Ah, that kind of explains what is happening here." Ochako answered.
"And fixing that is part of my plan." The old woman answered, nodding.
Finally, they started to hear panting, and when the three of them looked at the other Sages, they saw the three weirdos doubled over gasping for breath trying to recover from their screaming tantrum.
"So? Are we doing this Challenge?" Adelia asked with a wide smile.
"… Fine! I will kick that boy's ass. And then we will take care of more pressing matters: we need to add more hearts to the girls' outfits." Augustus answered after a couple more deep breaths.
"AGAIN?!" Adelia shrieked in horror, with her eyes looking ready to plop out of her sockets.
"They don't inspire enough happiness and joy yet." Kala answered.
"…" Izuku watched Adelia's mouth open and close a couple times in abject horror, unable to voice her answer properly, or at least with the least amount of profanities possible.
"FINE!" She finally spat with enough vitriol in her tone a nearby pink stone pillar physically gained cracks.
"If you win we will double the hearts on the outfits, how I don't know since there is no physical space to add more decorations, BUT! If the boy wins, you all will drop that bullcrap and do as I say!"
"Very well! May the kitchen workstations of Friendship appear!" Augustus declared while clapping his hands to summon a workstation equipped for cooking: pink and white, covered in hearts and with a small rainbow shining above it.
"Adelia-san!" Izuku said with eyes full of horror.
"Don't worry." Adelia answered, patting his back and summoning with a gesture a workstation made in somber and lacquered dark-brown workstation with simple black equipment, everything was elegant and functional.
"So plain." Kala said, grimacing.
"Very professional! I like it!" Izuku countered with a beaming smile.
"I will help you." Ochako said, standing next to him at the table.
"Then I will help Augustus, easy victory." Kala said.
"Yep! We are the invincible duo! And I will make my perfect secret dish! My prized Doki Doki Lovey-Dovey Strawberry cuddles cake!" Augustus declared haughtily.
"Jesus Christ…" Izuku and Ochako muttered as one with a wince, Adelia just looked at the sky looking for divine pity.
"The cake is objectively good, just with a terrible name and a far too heavy taste." She admitted.
"Heavy?" Izuku asked immediately.
"All Augustus's sweets are… Well… Sweet and Heavy, I don't know how to explain it. They are good, but… Too much." Adelia explained.
"How will you defeat him then?" Ochako asked.
"…"
"Izu-kun?" She asked with a blushing face once seen the intense way he was looking at her.
"… You are a very good source of inspiration, you know?" Izuku answered with a blinding smile that melted her heart.
"Uh?"
"I will prepare a Matcha Mille Crepe Cake. I hope to not disappoint you, since I got the idea thanks to you." Izuku answered smiling.
"Matcha… Green Tea… Midori(ya) Ocha(ko)… KYAAAAAAH!" Ochako took only a coupe seconds before understanding what Izuku said, and with a stricken squeal she covered her dark-red blushing face and started floating, held in place only thanks to Whitey's hand grabbing her ankle.
"Huhuhu! Told you! You are a great source of inspiration, that is why I am dedicating this cake to you. Well, to us!" Izuku explained, his face too faintly tinged red.
"Kyaaaaah! I love you too!" Ochako squealed again.
"Aw, aren't you two adorable!" Adelia said, chuckling.
"Enough pleasantries! Let our Patisserie challenge begin!" Sage Augustus yelled, making both his walrus mustaches and round belly tremble a lot.
Immediately Ochako's eyes turned sharp and icy, and she dropped on the floor.
"READY!" She declared, landing next to Izuku with blazing eyes.
"Hero Mode on?" He asked with a loving smile.
"Yes! Let me help you kick his ass!" She answered.
"Of course! I will summon my Ingredients, you pass me what I need when I ask, okay?"
"I am all ears, let's beat them, Izu-kun!" she answered, nodding.
"AAAAND, GO!" Adelia gave the start, and Immediately Sage Augustus and Sage Kala started cooking with a frenzied pace.
"Come, my little friends!" Augustus called-out with a joyous and booming voice, and many cute little animals barged into the cave carrying on their back ingredients and equipment, like little birds chirping merrily and carrying a basket full of sticks of butter or Does carrying big pans on their backs; every animal had big adorable eyes, even the butterflies, all of them skipping merrily around the laughing Sage in a scene even Snow White would have found a bit excessive.
"I swear, if he starts Disney-singing while cooking I will throw-up…" Adelia muttered, face-palming.
At the other side instead, the shuddering Izuku and Ochako looked more calm while matching them in speed, and without all that flare.
"I'll take care of the vanilla cream!" Ochako said, following Izuku's instructions about the quantities of Ingredients used, and whipping the cream and sugar at a steady pace.
"Thank you, Occhan! Me instead, I will prepare the matcha crepes." Izuku answered.
"Matcha… Our crepes! Hihihihi!" The girl giggled cutely while still whipping the cream, and showing an adorable smile the entire time.
Chuckling in fondness, the young Chef collected the Ingredients from his personal Island Storage, and shaking his head at the not-so-brilliant idea Sage Augustus had at letting Izuku use his own Ingredients following Adelia's suggestion, but Pride always comes before the fall, or so they say.
"Pearl Milk, King Korn Flour, BB Cornstarch, Emerald Matcha Powder, Star Sugar and Lightning Phoenix' Eggs… Sure I would like to have better eggs for this, though." Izuku thought while summoning every Ingredient.
"Done with this Sortie, Host Izuku. The System will soon start Issuing shorter, easier Inter-dimensional Missions to hunt for minor Ingredients, like Minotaur Meat or more Kraken Meat or Cockatrice Meat. If Host wants, in one of those Sorties he will be able to get a chance to capture Yatagarasu Eggs as an Ingredient as well to add to your storage, they are between the absolute best eggs to use for dessert-making." The System answered.
"Easier and faster Sorties in Other Dimensions… Will they be safer too? Or at least quiet and not as Intense as the ones I had until now?"
"Of course, Host. Those micro-Sorties will be fast and safe. The System assures zero issues during those. Host can almost think of them as leisure strolls, nothing to be worried about." The System answered.
While mentally talking with his Sponsor, Izuku's hands never stopped moving, mixing all those Ingredients he collected or unlocked during his tenure as Chef of Green Cloud and God of Cooking Candidate, and started blitzing them by hand until a silky-smooth batter formed, a perfect blend completely devoid of blemishes or clumps.
"Whitey, pass me my ultra fine sieve." Izuku asked, presenting his empty hand to the robot.
"Yes, Host." The Chubby robot answered, opening its soft belly to show a bottomless void from which he recovered a sieve he then handed Izuku.
After passing the Batter through the sieve, the young Chef warmed some oil in one of the frying pans given to him by the Sages and wiped off the excess hot oil from it with a cloth.
Siiiiiiiizle!
With rapid and precise movement, a ladle of the filtered batter was poured and twirled around the pan to uniformly coat its bottom.
"Perfectly matte. Time to flip it." Izuku muttered, pleased, after a short pause.
When he actually flipped the crepe with a flip of his wrist, the thing floated briefly in the air like a disk of fine cloth, perfect and spotless and extremely thin, almost transparent.
"… How in the name of cuddles did you make them so damn thin?!" Augustus asked with bulged-out eyes.
"Talent and lots of experience." Izuku answered with a cheeky smile, and catching the delicately falling crepe in the pan to cook its other side, then gently deposit it aside once done.
"Good. I got the Ingredients' timing down, I can speed-up!" Izuku muttered with a nod.
Under the gaze of the shocked Sages, the young Chef channeled his Food Honor at full throttle, eliminating excessive movements and acting on actual instinct more than will, thus accelerating his movements and increasing the rate he prepared the various crepes, piling them one over the other at ridiculous speed, using every single drop of batter to create a small tower of crepes.
What actually scared Augustus was that even if the young man was that insanely fast in making crepes, Izuku still managed to make all of them exactly identical in size and shape, all perfectly circular and identical in circumference, so much that the small tower of crepes looked like a single cylinder instead of a pile of separate layers. Not even a machine could have hoped to manage what the young man did by hand.
"Done! Now I will let them rest and reach room temperature." Izuku declared, happily.
"…"
"You are going to catch flies with your mouth hanging open like that, Augustus!" Adelia said, laughing.
"SHUT UP!" Augustus shrieked, and returning to focus on the insane quantities of butter and sugar he was adding to his cake.
With Izuku and Ochako -
"Crepes and Vanilla cream are ready, what now?" Ochako asked, curios.
"Now I need to make the Matcha White Chocolate Ganache." Izuku answered.
"Nice!"
"Good job on the Vanilla cream, by the way. Very well done!" He then added, kissing her cheek in pride.
"Hihihi! Thank you!" She answered, her beaming smile illuminating the room.
"Stop flirting!" Kala shrieked.
"HUSH!" Ochako barked back, silencing her.
"Don't listen to her, she doesn't deserve your anger," Izuku said, rubbing her back.
"I'll show her the power of True Love! Something she clearly never felt since she is clinging to her days of youth now that she is probably 8000 years old!" Ochako answered, making Kala howl in anger.
"So mean!" Izuku answered, chuckling and kissing her cheek.
The Hero student chuckled a bit and then passed him some matcha powder for him to sieve over some white chocolate in a bowl.
"Pass me the saucepan, please." Izuku asked.
"Okay!"
"… What's he doing?" Kala whispered.
"He is making a ganache." Augustus answered.
"Ooh!… The hell is that?"
"How do you not know what a ganache is?! Why you offered to help me if you don't even know the basics?!"
"SHUT UP!"
With Izuku and Ochako -
"They are arguing," Izuku muttered, humming.
"Quite violently too," Ochako answered, unfazed and moving her head aside just enough for one of Augustus' pans to fly past her head and clatter against the wall.
"Oh well, my fault for expecting proper cooking etiquette from somebody that keeps adding butter and sugar in industrial quantities to his dish." The young Chef answered, shaking his head in sadness while finishing heating the cream in a small saucepan, with the tiny swirls of steam adding a more mysterious flare to his cooking.
"He is overdoing?" Ochako asked.
"It's a small difference, but he is using too much butter. My guess is that he likes his strawberry pie to have a more buttery undertone in taste. As for the sugar… I think the glace will be far too sweet, but more than incompetence, all this is a matter of his own personal taste influencing his cooking." Izuku explained.
"UGH! I once ate one of those cheap chocolate bars from oversea… I swear that for a second I wondered if I had bitten on an actual stick of butter by mistake." Ochako answered, grimacing.
"Augustus has a very pronounced sweet tooth, unfortunately if he's is not careful, he makes desserts following his tastes, not trying to make it following the taste of others." Adelia admitted, nearing their workstation to check how things were going.
"It's a common mistake, one even professionals do. I did that a couple times too! More spicy, more salt, less sugar, chocolate more bitter than what the dish suggest, using brandy instead of scotch and so on. Often we forget that when cooking, we are not just making food for ourselves, but for others too." Izuku said, sighing.
"Is that why you have me and Himiko ask if the customers have any preference when it comes to the dish they ask for?" Ochako asked.
"Precisely. Curry rice might taste delicious when extra spicy to me, but a customer might prefer theirs more on the mild and aromatic side, and I believe it's a mark of the Chef's caring about their customers to ask that. Or at least warn them about certain details if tailoring the dish to their specific taste is not possible." He answered.
"Good way to see things. How far did you go in preparation?" Adelia answered.
"The chocolate is fully molten and I mixed it well with the cream until smooth, now I need to set this aside for a bit and I will be able to build my cake." Izuku answered, adding milk to the molten chocolate and stirring it until it became a shiny and smooth cream.
"Augustus instead is panicking, since arguing with Kala made him waste precious time, but he should be done soon." Adelia muttered, humming.
"He has good techniques though, it's just that his attitude and short fuse don't really help." Izuku answered.
"Ego and Pride had always been his weakness. Take a breath and then assemble your cake, I will look for a couple unsuspecting taste testers in the city too, just in case."
"Thank you." Ochako answered, and the two watched their friend disappear without too much fanfare, she merely faded away in complete silence.
A short time later -
"Uhhm. Everything is ready, the Ingredients too feel ready for the show, it's time to assemble the dessert," Izuku had been silently watching both Augustus cooking and the various ingredients her prepared resting, then he suddenly he nodded with a pleased smile.
"The Ingredients told you?" Ochako asked.
"Yep!"
"… Do they actually talk?"
"Huhuhu! It's more of a feeling thing. I feel their emotions, and they make me understand by feeling alone what they want or wish for, it's not proper dialogue. You can call it a sixth sense thing."
"Still sounds cool!" She answered with a thumbs-up.
"Thank you!"
"About your dessert, how does the assembly work?" Ochako asked.
"Pretty simple! I will lay one crepe on the plate and spread a thin layer of matcha cream over the crepe and top with another layer of crepe, every five crepes I will spread a thin layer of cream over the top crepe, then other five crepes and then cream, over and over until I use every crepe." Izuku explained while his hands moved at ludicrous speed to assemble the various layers of crepes and cream, every once in a while he would also add sliced strawberries on top of the cream, cover those slices in cream and restart using the crepes to build a new crepes layer.
Once used every single crepes, he topped the cake with the cooled chocolate ganache, and used a bit of cheating by summoning the Myriad Manifestation Mallet from the tattoo on his arm and use its ice powers to flash-cool the pie, turning the act of cooling the cake into the freezer for an hour into an instantaneous cooling that didn't ruin the dish' final result at all.
"God, I love magical equipment…" Izuku muttered, chuckling, and dusting the entire cake with matcha powder until the entire cake was completely and perfectly covered.
"Done! My Matcha Mille Crepe Cake is ready!" Izuku declared, proudly.
( Like this, only more precise. "Anime Perfect" so to speak. )
"Holy shit…" Lorenz muttered in awe.
"I CAN STILL WIN!" Augustus shrieked with a red face.
"Unlikely." Lorenz and Adelia muttered.
"I will win instead! Nothing can beat my perfect strawberry shortcake!" The Sage said, showing his own creation.
"You know? I am starting to get tired of the color pink," Ochako admitted with a grimace.
"It was made with great skills…" Izuku said, unsure.
"But?"
"I am afraid about the taste, I hope I am wrong." Izuku admitted, frowning.
"Hn?" Ochako muttered, confused.
"Very well! We will taste half of them between us while the other half will be split in five parts and given to five random people I picked from the street, the cake that takes more votes win." Adelia said, and showing to the others through a mirror portal how five random people were now sitting at a small table waiting to taste the finished cakes.
"And how can we-"
"I swear I didn't tell them who to vote for, but to freely choose which one between the two cakes they will try which one is the best, and just to show I won't cheat, I also took an Oath of Truth, Augustus." Adelia said, shocking the other Sages.
"A what?" izuku asked.
"A magic Oath. I swore to tell the truth and vote fairly, otherwise I will lose my Magic and Life." Adelia answered, unperturbed.
"NO!" Both teens said, horrified.
"I trust yous skills, Izuku. As a Candidate and as a good person, I may be unable to really see your Heart thanks to your Sponsor blocking my powers, but my Instinct still work, and that has served me well even better than Magic in learning how to recognize good people." The old lady answered with a kind smile.
"Adelia-san…" Izuku muttered, touched.
"F-F-Fine! I-I will take the Oath too!" Augustus, already sweating by the buckets, answered while lifting a very gaudy wand in the air and surrounding himself in a blinding magical light.
"If… If we have to…" Kala and Lorenz did the same, very reluctantly, and they too took the oath of truth.
"Wow." Ochako muttered, unsure.
"Yep…"
"I say we start with Izuku's cake first, as the Challenger." Adelia said.
"I don't think it is a good idea…" Izuku said, grimacing, again filling Ochako's head in questions.
"It's okay, it's okay. Challengers go first." Augustus said with a nod.
The Matcha cake was then split in half, making the onlookers marvel at the insanely-precise straight lines created by the various layers, half was then divided between the four Sages and Izuku and Ochako, while the other half was sent to the five people Adelia choose with the excuse of them trying the products of a new bakery about to open.
"Let's see what he made." Lorenz said, looking at the cake in dread.
"It's the first time I am eating a cake not made by Augustus, he is usually the one taking care of baking here." Kala added.
"Because he doesn't want other sweets in here besides the one he makes," Adelia answered.
"Yes? What about it?!" The man said, frowning.
"Exactly, some novelty never kills, that's why I usually sneak out to eat sweets from other stores." Adelia answered, smirking.
"BETRAYAL!"
"Ho! Just shut-up and try this!" She answered, taking a big bite from her slice and developing a blissful expression.
"Oh! So fluffy! I love the slight bitter undertone!" Ochako admitted, eating her portion with a wide smile.
"It's the Matcha Tea powder. It is sweet, but keeps a small bitter undertone that counterbalances it."
"Sweets have to be sweet…" Augustus said, defiantly.
"Not like yours, though!" Lorenz admitted.
"HN?!"
"Yours are too sweet! Too much sugar! Too much butter! I can hardly taste anything else in yours! At least here I can taste the cream, the fruits and the powdered tea! It reminds me that there are more tastes other than "SUGAR" in a sweet!" Lorenz spat in answer.
"TRAITOR!"
"Oh Dear! This goes so well with tea!" Kala admitted while taking a bite of her slice and drinking some tea right after.
"YOU TOO?!"
"It doesn't glaze your mouth and throat, right?" Adelia said, pleased.
"Yes!"
"What do you mean?!" Augustus asked with a roar.
"That your cakes make me feel like there is a layer of butter coating my throat at every bite, as if there is a coating of glaze occluding my windpipe." Adelia explained, finishing her portion with great gusto.
"Lies!"
"Oath of Truth."
"GODDAMNIT!"
"Aah! So that's what it is! I thought I was the only one!" Lorenz admitted in relief.
"Me too!" Kala added, nodding along.
"YOU BASTARDS!"
"And that is why always telling the absolute truth is bad," Ochako said with a sigh.
"Yep, lots of hidden closet skeletons popping out to say Hi." Izuku answered, shaking his head.
"So all of us are unanimous that this was good?" Adelia asked.
"Yes." Lorenz and Kala answered promptly, as if the very Oath wasn't even necessary.
"I didn't like it! It wasn't sweet enough." Augustus answered.
"Besides being one of the Challengers, so unable to actually vote, let's be honest, we know how you make sweets, so your opinion is invalid." Lorenz answered, huffing.
"I hate you." Augustus answered with a tone of pure vitriol.
"The Taste Testers I choose in the city agree too, they like it." Adelia added, and they all could see the people that tried the matcha cake ask when the bakery will open so to buy more.
"It means nothing! Once they taste a proper cake like mine, they will declare me the victor!" Augustus declared, face red and walrus mustaches trembling heavily at each word.
"Let's try it then! I am curious at the taste," Izuku said with an encouraging smile, and yet Ochako could sense the nervousness in his tone even if he was hiding it perfectly.
"Izuku?" She muttered, unsure.
"Sorry, Occhan." Izuku answered.
Once again the cake was divided in half, one for them and the other for the five people in the city, each half then cut in slices.
"Here we go… An Augustus cake… Again…" Lorenz muttered, bracing himself for the taste.
Chomp!
There was a long minute of silence, then five faces slowly morphed into a small frown while a shiver was visibly crawling up their back, while Augustus himself developed an expression of bliss.
Everything about the strawberry cake was perfect, the density and fluffiness of the cream and the pink frosting, the softness of the cake base and layers and even the freshness of the cut strawberries used, everything was very good… Except the taste.
Too much Butter.
Too much Sugar.
It was a clear difference, but tasting it after Izuku's Matcha cake and its more soft sweetness, the contrast and presence of the extra butter and sugar became even more evident, heavily so.
"… Hn!… The butter it's coating my throat." Ochako gurgled, massaging her throat while eating.
"Told you." Adelia answered, drinking some water to push down the bite.
"You people have no taste, this one is the perfect cake." Augustus answered, eating happily.
"And you eat this everyday?" Izuku asked, taking a tentative breath with his mouth instead of nose and going wide-eyed at the feeling of glazed throat all that butter gave him.
"Unfortunately yes." Lorenz answered, powering through eating his entire portion with the ease of unwanted experience.
"And how did you… You know…" Ochako said.
"Avoid getting Diabetes or heart attacks?" Kala answered, panting a bit after finishing her portion.
"Yes."
"Magic." She, Lorenz and Adelia answered as one.
"Mister Augustus, why you use so much butter and sugar? The cake was amazing, so you have a great talent, so… Why?" Izuku asked, confused.
"Uh? What do you mean? It tastes perfectly fine to me, I really can't understand why you all are making such strange faces." Augustus admitted, confused.
"It tastes normal to you?" He asked.
"Yes, I had to modify the original recipe because it uses far too little sugar, enough to taste like cardboard."
"Like cardboard?"
"Exactly, almost tasteless."
"Almost tasteless… You remind me of one of the girls I met in cooking school (As Zaus)… Do you suffer from Dysgeusia, perhaps?" Izuku asked.
"Hn? Dys-what?"
"A disorder that distorts your sense of taste. Besides being tasteless, does food sometimes taste bitter too to you? Or metallic?" He asked.
"Not always? Everything the others make usually tastes too bland to me, that's why I pretend to be the one to make cakes, at least sweets I want to taste properly instead of faint plastic-like." He answered.
"…" Izuku face-palmed and shook his head.
"found the issue?" Ochako asked.
"Yes." he answered, sighing.
"What is that… Oh, oh damn… Augustus, why you never told us?" Lorenz asked, slowly, once checked a bit what Izuku was talking about on his phone's internet app.
"Because you always get whiny when I insult your cooking. So after a while I stopped bothering." He answered, shrugging.
"That explains far too much." Adelia said with a sigh after she too made a fast research online.
"Hn? What do you mean? You are scaring me, you know?" Augustus asked with a pale face and a trembling voice.
"Come with me, you fool. I'll give a look at that and prepare a potion to finally fix it, it's obvious that wide-scale healing spells don't work on that problem of yours, it probably needs a specific cure." Lorenz said, shaking his head and taking the guy away.
"I am not going to die, am I? I smoke a lot, is that gonna be a problem?" Augustus asked with a small voice.
"It's just a minor condition of your sense of taste, nothing lethal. Let me give a look at it and I will fix it in a couple days at worst." The other answered.
"Thank you, Lorenz." The Sage said with a low voice, the two then disappeared into swirling plumes of pink smoke that flew through a door nearby leading deeper inside the cave.
"Okay, maybe the Oath of Truth did more than just assure fairness. And judging by the grimace of those people in there, they too find the cake too sweet and buttery. I dare say this is a win for young Izuku." Kala said, sighing.
"I did not expect to win like this, to be honest." Izuku said, sighing.
"It's okay. A loss is a loss. You take these two to your study, Adelia. I will take care of adding them to the wards, just do not let them wander off." Kala answered.
"Thank you. Follow me, kids. This way." Adelia answered, signaling Izuku and Ochako to follow her.
Adelia's Quarters -
A short walk later, Izuku and Ochako reached the small area Adelia used as her own living quarters, a small bedroom and a sizable laboratory full in bubbling cauldrons and every wall covered by giant bookcases.
"So, have you seen the Heart of Light?" Adelia asked.
"You mean the giant translucent diamond cut like a heart spinning on itself and shining in pure white light? Yes, We saw that." Ochako answered, grimacing.
"That feeling of discomfort you felt was the Heart trying to forcibly turn you into pure Good, throwing the Balance of your soul to shambles...Basically what is happening in this world." She explained.
"That feel too sweet, on a spiritual level." Ochako admitted, shivering.
"Didn't feel a thing." Izuku admitted, unsure.
"Host, The System doesn't appreciate minor playthings interfering with the System's Host path towards Ascension to God of Cooking." The System answered.
"… Your Sponsor?" Adelia asked.
"Yes, they stop that thing's influence."
"Of course it does." The old woman said, sighing.
"What is your plan?" Ochako said.
"The followers of Obscurus need the Negative Energy a Human Heart can produce, once collected enough of it, the will use it to quite literally blast a hole in the seal keeping Obscurus trapped and sleeping. I plan to use the Light Heart to forcibly summon the Dark Heart next to it, since they are two sides of the same coin. If I do that, the seal holding Obscurus will also break, since that Dragon is feeding on the Dark Heart to get stronger. Once summoned both Hearts I need you to defeat that dragon and tear the Dark Heart from its clutches, so that I can return both Hearts to their rightful place. Hopefully this will return this world to some normalcy." Adelia answered.
"Seems straightforward enough. But what about the guys Worshiping Obscurus?" Ochako asked.
"Those will be dealt by the Magical Girls that while looking… Like that. Still are equipped with the right power to hod them back long enough for us to banish the Hearts. If we pull this off, both them and the Magical Girls will lose their powers since they come from the Hearts." Adelia answered.
"Is that why those girls look that ridiculous?" Izuku asked.
"That and, well, you saw my colleagues." She answered with a groan.
"… Yeeeah. We saw them." Both answered.
"Precisely. It will be a big messy battle, but it's that sort of chaos we three need to fix things, because theings here are getting worse by the day and soon even I will start being corrupted by the Light Heart. And I really don't want that." Adelia said.
"We will help you, this is not just about my Mission, but the sake of this world." Izuku answered.
"Yes! Those things are making everybody going insane, this can't continue." Ochako added.
"Thank you, Izuku, Ochako. Come, let's organize the great finale that will finally save the world!" Adelia said.
Meanwhile – Izuku and Ochako's home Universe – Nezu's Office in UA -
The small chimera was perusing the giant stack of notes Power Loader wrote down for him, Himiko was sitting at the opposite side of his desk with her shaking hands held gently by Momo.
"Quite interesting. Are you sure this is the general area of those labs?" Nezu finally asked.
"My memories are still fuzzy from all they did to me, but I do have small flashes and fragments. I went there with Detective Tsukauchi and I could recognize a couple details, like flower vendors or graffiti at the walls; those are all minor labs, but they should be in the general area they circled." Himiko answered with a small voice.
"So nothing major like the main Nomu Production labs?" Nezu asked.
"I don't think so, Kurogiri was too paranoid to let anybody in those places, but I did bring few blood samples myself in the time period Kurogiri was recovering from Blackie's… well… He calls them caresses."
"I am well aware that that guard dog of your friend has a very askew sense of power scaling, still, I guess we can thank their thinking your being a drug addict would have made you forget where you went for this."
"I did forget almost everything, if I could recall anything worthwhile it was through those meditation sessions Hound Dog had me do to help me fight my anxiety attacks, along my keeping a dream diary, as he suspected most of the times those are not dreams but fragments of memories." Himiko answered, shuddering.
"Sssh, it's okay." Momo answered, and giving her hands a reassuring squeeze.
"I wouldn't feel too bad if I were you, while they are minor details, your help gave me quite a bit of insight on how dear 'All for One Moron' thinks like." Nezu answered, pleased to see Himiko give a shy smile at his nickname for the Villain.
"So she is helping?" Momo asked.
"Just a bit, but as I said, those tiny details helped me refine my view of the chessboard, so to speak. The more I get the less I feel like playing chess while blindfolded with our long-living Menace." The Chimera answered, humming.
"The pub location?" Himiko asked.
"We are organizing a small visit, nothing major, just a small care package," Nezu answered, easily withholding the precise number of demolition charges that will be hidden inside the colorful box.
"Can I call you if I manage to recover more memories?" Himiko muttered.
"I would be very happy if you do, Young Toga. For now, though, you and Miss Yaoyorozu should go, youngsters like you shouldn't skip on sleep." Nezu answered, returning to read the stack of notes.
"Yes. Goodnight, Mister Nezu." Momo answered, bowing.
"Goodnight." Himiko said, copying Momo and following her out of the office.
"Ready to go?" Cementoss said as soon as the two girls exited.
"Uh-hu, let's go." Himiko answered, nodding and following the Pro Hero back to her cell/bedroom.
"Himiko!" Momo called out.
"Yes?"
"Thank you," She said.
Himiko answered to those heartfelt words with a wide, happy smile, glad she could help her new friend once again.
She was starting to feel like maybe this time she did manage to find her Family, thanks to Izuku and Momo and their friends, and if that was the case, Himiko felt that she was ready to do anything to help them.
Omake -
Dimensional Ingredient Hunt -
A chef Versus and Entire city!
Inkopolis -
There was a huge, city-wide party ongoing with several styles of music overlapping and every single citizen dancing and laughing in the streets to celebrate yet another catastrophe being averted, his time at the paws of an evil giant bear and its fuzzy goop.
"I can't BELIEVE we stopped another Doomsday!" Callie said, sighing.
"This is the third time, only this time on a worldwide scale." Marie answered, sighing.
"Only this time it was not Octavio the perpetrator." Capt. Cuttlefish corrected her, chuckling.
"WHAT IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!" A purple octopus shrieked in rage.
"Oh! There you are! You are back!" Cuttlefish said, chuckling.
"I just finished de-fuzzing my people and was coming here to TRY testing this Peace of yours, and you already start pointing tentacles!" The Super DJ said with a growl.
"I WASN'T!" Cuttlefish yelled back.
"CHILDREN! BEHAVE!" Pearl chided them.
"WE ARE NOT CHILDREN!" Both old men yelled.
"Then please stop acting as if you were." Marina asked, rolling her eyes.
"The fact remains that we all had to work together to stop that bear, that means that we CAN live in peace." Frye said.
"Yeeeep!" Shiver added, nodding.
"Yeah!" And Big Man echoed with a wide smile.
"… Okay." Both Cuttlefish and Octavio answered, begrudgingly shaking hands.
"Come on! There is a party ongoing! We are finally out of danger! Let's go party! I wanna sing all night!" Callie said.
"Why not! Let's-"
"DANGEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER! WE ARE DOOOOOOOOMEEEEEEEEED!" A random Inkling girl came running through the streets.
"… WHY ARE YOU LOOKING AT ME!? I DID NOTHING, I SWEAR!" Octavio said with a shriek once everybody looked at him.
"What is happening?" Marie asked once forcefully stopped the running girl.
"Humans! Two humans popped-up and started attacking Restaurants!"
"… What?" Marina asked with a small voice.
"More details, now!" Pearl demanded.
"A human suddenly appeared in Squid Town and started attacking restaurants, he challenged ALL OF THEM, he defeated all of them, took their Chefs' best knives and their best recipe and moved to the next city, then the next city and the next one and the next one! Now he is coming here!."
"Attack as in…" Cuttlefish asked, tense.
"As in a cooking challenge! And now he is coming here to Inkopolis!"
"AND YOU WERE SCREAMING LIKE A LUNATIC JUST FOR THAT?!" Octavio roared.
"It's a human! We are the dominant species now! We can't let him defeat us in anything! Even just food." She answered.
"… Go splat yourself, girl."
"Pearl!" Marina said, scandalized.
"She almost gave me a heart attack! Just for a cooking challenge!"
"Well, his female companion did say that he is winning far too easily." The Inkling girl said with a small voice.
"… Too easy?" Cuttlefish asked, slowly, while Octavio's eye went overcome by an angry tick.
"Yeah, rumors has it she said it as if our cooking was a joke!"
"...Oh she didn't! It's so on!" Callie said.
"Callie!" Marie said, shocked.
"It's a matter of Inkling and Octoling and everybody else's honor! It's like a Splatfest only… Only in cooking!" Callie said.
"Fair enough."
"If he wants a Challenge, he will find us ready!" Cuttlefish said, shaking his walking cane in righteous fury.
"… What?" Octavio asked.
"We might need music. You on? As your first act as friend of Inkopolis?"
"FINE! But we'll do it MY way!" Octavio answered.
"Good enough for us!" The others answered as one.
The Next day -
The bus deposited Izuku and Rumi right at the entrance of Inkopolis, the place was strangely silent and empty as they started walking through the streets, with every restaurant closed with a sign detailing how every Chef available was in the main square.
"… Some kind of cooking festival?" Izuku asked.
"Don't really know, I just hope the ones here will put up more of a challenge." Rumi said, huffing annoyed.
"I am sure they didn't mean to act that racist against humans. They did explain that technically here humans went extinct a long time ago, they are justified in being surprised at seeing two." He answered.
"It sounded racist to me!" She answered, pouting.
"It's okay, Rumi, it's okay." He answered, rubbing her back.
"Okay," She answered, asking for a kiss to the cheek and smiling when he gave her one.
"Even then, SHOULD they have problems with humans, Whitey and Shiro will help us fend them off," Izuku said.
"They will regret it all if they try any bullshit." Rumi answered.
When they reached the main square, music started blaring all around them as everybody rushed out of their hiding spots inside colorful splashes of ink of every possible color, then they all took position: the Chefs and their staffs at their workstations and everybody else all around the main square to act as audience.
THEN a massive robot with three arms floated down from the sky, shaped like a samurai helmet and with behind it a collection of giant screens and hilariously-big speakers and sub-woofers, each arm held in its hand a giant plate-shaped platform with a full set of equipment for Callie and Marie, Pearl and Marina and Frye, Shiver and Big Mac to sing and perform on.
"Okay, now that is a fucking entrance!" Rumi commented with an expression of excitement.
"YOU WANT TO CHALLENGE INKOPOLIS' CHEFS?!" Octavio's voice boomed from the giant speakers.
"Yes?" Izuku answered, unsure.
"THEN BE READY TO CHALLENGE THE ENTIRE CITY IN ONE GO! AND ON THE NOTES OF OUR HEAVENLY MELODY, YOU. WILL. LOSE!" The DJ answered.
"BRING IT!" Rumi yelled back with an excited smile.
"This is different, but okay! I accept! I will challenge them all, all at once! We all will prepare our best dish, and the audience will taste and decide who wins by voting!" Izuku answered, tying a green bandanna on his head.
"VERY WELL, WE ACCEPT! HIT IT, GIRLS!" Octavio yelled at the mic, and as he started playing and remixing, the Chefs started cooking.
Immediately music started blaring from the flying robot's audio system, and from the audience, giant drums, electric guitars, sitars, metal drums and dozens of other instruments started playing along, with hundreds of voices perfectly in sync to add the chorus to the song.
Octavio himself was once again establishing himself as THE Greatest fucking DJ to ever live by mixing in perfect harmony all those hundreds of voices voices, dozens of instruments, Callie and Marie's singing style, Pearl and Marina's Singing Style and Friye and Co.'s own together with his own Woobs and vocalizations, while at the same time moving the robot arms to follow the three group's specifics, flying the robot around, controlling the smoke, foam and laser machine and even the fireworks going off in time with the song.
All alone by himself.
Seriously, if there will ever be a 'God of DJ' position open, Octavio had it in the bag.
"HOLY SHIT!" Rumi yelled with wide eyes.
"Focus, please!" Izuku, looking unfazed instead, immediately threw himself fully into cooking, shocking the locals by matching the pace of all those Chefs and their staff.
With Cuttlefish -
"The boy can't do it, there are over two hundred Chefs present here today, all of them with at least ten people helping them while he is working alone." Captain Cuttlefish said, humming.
"Serves him well for challenging us!" One of the Chefs said, laughing.
"RUMI! THE FIRST DISH IS READY!"
"OKAY!"
"GUH?!" Both old men gurgled with wide eyes.
"HE MADE THE SUSHI ALREADY?! HOW!?" The Chef yelled in hysteria.
"We can't keep up!" Another Chef nearby cried in horror.
"Then work faster! You have ten workers! USE THEM!"
"I am trying! But we filet one fish in the time he takes to filet twenty!" The poor woman answered in tears as she and her Restaurant staff kept falling behind at an always greater margin.
"WORK FASTER!" Cuttlefish shrieked.
With Callie and Marie – Platform 1 -
"He is making crabby cakes! That smells so gooood!" Callie said with a dreamy expression while drooling.
"FOCUS! We are suppose to sing to help our Chefs win!" Marie answered.
Siiiiiiizle!
"… Coddamnit, he is making prawns with wine sauce now…" She then muttered with a grimace of pain when that particular smell made her stomach growl.
"Ah-ha!" Callie said, smirking in vengeance.
"S-S-Shut up!"
Platform 2 – Pearl and Marina -
"Oh yes, dirty boy! Stack those buns! Make them meaty and juicy!"
"PEARL!" Marina yelled, horrified.
"Uhhhmmmm! That cheeseburger looks so big and thick! Add more sauce! More! MORE!"
"Pearl! For the Love of Cod!"
"AH! Sorry! He was… H-H-He was just seducing me! It's his fault!" Pearl tried saying.
"He is making a cheeseburger." Marina said with a deadpan tone.
"But! But! It's so girthy, big and juicy! It will never fit in my mouth, but I want it!"
"PHRASING!" The poor girl said in dismay.
"He is making squid ink spaghetti with shrimps too, you know?" Pearl said, smirking.
"WHERE!?" Marina yelled with the grace of a drug addict on withdrawal.
"Spaghetti are ready!" Izuku was heard call-out from ground level.
"Coming!" Rumi answered, moving to deliver the various plates to the selected judges.
"Noooo! Gimme! Gimme! Those are mine! Pleeeeeeeeeease!" Marina said with a childish whine and tears-filled eyes.
"Hypocrite." Pearl muttered under her breath and rolling her eyes.
Platform 3 – Frye and Co.
"He is making Ramen! Big Man, go get me some!" Frye barked-out her order.
"NO! We are singing, and we will keep singing until he is defeated!"
Izuku! Is the Coffe Cake ready?" Rumi was heard asking.
"C-C-Coffee cake?!"
"Ready! All fluffy and sweet!" Izuku answered, proud.
"MINE!"
"BIG MAN! RESTRAIN HER!" Frye yelled in horror, luckily it was her turn to sing so the song wasn't disrupted by the big manta wrestling with Shiver to stop her from jumping down the platform to get some coffee cake for herself, or even the entire damn cake.
Ground Level -
Cuttlefish has been face-palming for a good half an hour now as at each dish the flying robot would wobble heavily once Octavio's own favourites started appearing on the tables of the judges; apparently while the song was kind of empowering the Chefs, that human's food was affecting the DJ and the singers, that was very unprofess-
"Your Crab cakes, Old man!" Rumi said, interrupting his train of thought to deliver him a plate of hot crabby cakes perfectly done he wolfed down with zero manners or self-control.
"Thank-Nom-You!" He answered, hypocrisy made Inkling.
With Izuku -
The Young Chef was having fun, finally with a proper challenge eve since he arrived in that strange world, even if it was a simple matter of Quantity making up for Quality, at least the sheer number of different dishes he needed to make at the same time required more skill than just doing it one plate at a time.
"I am ready to deliver the desserts, Baby." Rumi said.
"They are almost ready, Rumi," He answered, winking.
"Good!… Hey…"
"Yes?"
"Do you think we will have to… You know…" Rumi asked, tense.
"Run away from one or more psycho?" Izuku asked, sighing.
"Yeah." Rumi answered, sighing.
"I would love to avoid that just once, but just to be on the safe side, I asked Whitey to preemptively create a path for us to use to run away." He answered.
"To think you told me you were promised that these mini Sorties wouldn't be stressful." Rumi said, hugging him tight.
"I know… I know… But with you all by my side, I know I will pull through."
"That's right! Come on! Let's deliver the last few dishes and finish kick the asses of an entire city!"
"It's a strange situation, isn't it?" Izuku asked, smirking.
"You joking? I am in a damn Rave Party the size of freaking New York! I am having a lot of fucking fun!" She answered, laughing.
"Hahahahaha! I am glad to hear you are not getting bored! Here are the desserts!"
"Right away, Boss!"
One Hour Later -
Every dish had been delivered and evaluated by the judges, now Cuttlefish, the assembled singers and Octavio were waiting with baited breath as the judges finished talking and arguig between each other to decide the winner.
"We have to win this one!" Octavio said.
"… You don't believe we will win, don't you?" Cuttlefish said, sighing.
Woomy!
Woomy!
"Quit it!" Octavio yelled.
"Shoooo Guuuooood!" Marie said in awe and talking with her mouth full.
"Oh Cod, his thick creamy sauce is spilling everywhere! It's filling my mouth so nice!" Pearl said between mouthfuls.
"Nom! Phrasing!" Marina said while going through her third plate of pasta.
"We are going to lose, isn't it?" Octavio asked with a miserable expression.
"Don't sell our Chefs short! There is no way he-"
"With a unanimous vote, we declare Mister Izuku, the human, the winner!" The Head Judge said, making the audience roar in excitement and surprise.
"… He won." Cuttlefish finished saying with a long whine.
"AAAAAAAAARGH!" Octavio bellowed in rage.
"Please deliver the knives! And remember to write your name on the blade, thank you!" Rumi said, smirking, and collecting every knife from the defeated Chefs.
"Here is the recipe for my prized Shellfish Soup Bonanza… Choke on it." One of the Chefs muttered dejected, but still handing Izuku the recipe for the dish the guy wrote in great detail.
"Thank you, Mister Urchin!" Izuku answered, grateful.
"Yes, yes…" The Octarian answered, walking away while shaking his head.
"Next!" Izuku called-out, making the next Chef in line groan and start writing her name on her favourite knife and prepare the recipe of her best dish.
With the Squid Sister, Off the Hook and Deep Cut -
"Everything tasted so gooooood!" Callie said with a long satisfied moan and a now bulging belly.
"I can't believe we ate all of this," Pearl answered while looking in awe at the insane amount of plates surrounding their groups.
"Bit shameful," Marie admitted with a low voice.
"It's going to take a while at the gym to burn this off." Shiver admitted.
"Still worth it." Marina answered, shy.
Sigh! "I guess we will need to get used to a couple of humans, one of which with strange ears, going around cooking." Cuttlefish said.
"If we have to." Octavio answered, grumbling.
"Ehm...Sir?" Izuku asked, nearing the group.
"Hn? What do you want?" The DJ asked.
"It's a bit silly, but I couldn't help but notice how good you are at the DJ set...S-So I was wondering if you had any music I could buy." Izuku said with a shy smile.
"… Are you a fan now?" Octavio asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Is it a problem?" He answered, unsure.
Sigh! "Here." Octavio answered, pressing a button and opening the back compartment of his giant robot to show the INSANE quantity of CDs in there, all with his face on the cover.
"Wow…"
"This is from my Violin Period. Should be a good start to listen to my Art." Octavio said, handing Izuku a CD with Octavio on the cover about to play a violin on fire.
"Then there is this, I was experimenting with double scratches in this. This is a collection of my more classic pieces, this is more on the Exotic Side, then my Sitar Experimentation collection, my Heavy Drum one… Oh! And these three, it's a three part collection of me revisiting and updating some old music with a bit more kicks and basses." Octavio listed while piling CD after CD in Izuku's hands.
"Oh, wow! Thanks Mister Octavio! How much do I owe you, this must cost a fortune!" Izuku said in awe.
"… Just take them, personal gift." The DJ answered, waving Izuku's question away with several tentacles.
"Hehehehehe! There is a heart then under all that grumpiness!" Cuttlefish said, chuckling.
"Oh! Get splatted, you fool!" Octavio answered.
"Thanks a bunch, dude!" Rumi said with a smirk and a thumbs-up.
"Where will you go now? Or do you plan to saty in Inkopolis?" Marie asked.
"Oh! I am a wandering Chef, so I am always on the move to better myself," Izuku answered, smiling.
"And there is no way we can convince you to stay?" Pearl and Marina asked.
"…"
A very tense silence fell between the group.
"He is taken, you slimy skank." Rumi said with a growl.
"I can't see your name on him anywhere, Human." Frye answered, eyes narrowed.
"Oh, no…" Izuku muttered in horror.
Ten Minutes later -
"WELCOME TO THE SPLATFEST! TODAY WE HAVE A SPECIAL EVENT!" Cuttlefish said on the mike.
"We are about to have a legendary battle! The prize will be the young and talented Human Chef! On one side, the Dream Team: Callie, Marie, Pearl, Marina, Frye and Shiver! On the other… Where in the name of all that is Inky did they go!?" Cuttlefish started introducing the contestants when he saw how Rumi and Izuku where nowhere to be seen.
Not too far away -
"RUUUUUUUN!" Izuku yelled running ahead.
"Told you that accepting their insane game would have helped!" Rumi, running at his side, said.
"CATCH HIIIIIIIIM!" Somebody bellowed behind the group as colorful bullets of ink started raining all around them.
Luckily Whitey and Shiro could protect them with no issue.
"SYSTEEEEEEM!" Both Teens yelled, and a blinding light whisked them away.
Outside Reality -
BOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!
The Gates of Fate Trembled heavily under blows with the power of Erasing entire Realities.
"Open, The System only wants to talk." The Monotone voice asked with a new cold edge never heard before.
BOOOM! BOOOOM! BOOOM!
"GO AWAY! GO AWAY!" Many Gods governing the Wheel Of Fate screamed as one in tears and overcome by absolute terror while amassed in a corner
"Somebody is making The System look like a fool. The System only wants to talk before the culprit's termination. If nobody of you is responsible, why are you not opening?"
BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!
CRAAAAAASH!
"Open, finally." The Entity said once even the Doors of Destiny went blasted to chunks.
"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Every God and Goddess present shrieked in fear, already losing bowel control.
The System will discover the anomaly, one way or another and ERASE IT.
No matter what.
