Disclaimer: Kirby belongs to Nintendo and HAL Laboratory.
Two days have passed since the harvest. Since then, Zan Partizanne has been packing up. Fecto Elfilis made a bunch of knick-knacks for their sister, primarily going on the assumption those inexperienced with magic or lack it would get a sense of awe when they'd wander into a room full of magical doodads, making any mage appear more impressive.
Once Zan Partizanne finished packing up, she, Vesa and Elfilis left the tower. The human took a moment to adjust her scarf while walking alongside her partner. The ultimate life-form was carrying an ornate wooden cabinet which would fit well in their sister's office. The three ventured along the dirt path, making brief glances at some nearby critters foraging for the winter. Passing by the lake, they arrived at the edge of Capupu Village. Vesa noticed as a couple cappies carried firewood to some sort of destination. She simply shrugged as they meandered through the village.
When Vesa, Elfilis and Zan passed by Kawasaki's restaurant, the human spotted a spherical figure with a mustache and a chef's hat nearby. The ultimate life-form also happened to notice the newcomer, but didn't show interest in getting involved. They pressed onward until they reached the courtyard of Castle Dedede. Back in the distance, they could hear loud swearing as Chef Kawasaki bickered with the round old man.
"Juh?" Zan blurted, sharing a glance with Vesa, "do I want to know what this man's problem is?"
"He didn't even call us over," Vesa shrugged.
"It's probably some kind of teacher-student ordeal," Elfilis sighed.
Vesa, Elfilis and Zan Partizanne reached the palace doors. The Waddle Dees guarding the large front doors nodded at the visitors before they opened the palace doors. Once the three set foot inside, they made their way to the throne room. Ahead, King Dedede sat upright in his throne with Bandee standing nearby. As the guests made their approach, the Waddle Dee walked over towards them.
"Hiya!" Bandee chirped, "glad to have you working with us, Miss!"
Zan nodded and gave a deep bow of respect.
"Bonjam," she replied, "it's a pleasure to work with you, Sire."
Dedede smiled as he stood up.
"And it's nice to have you working for us, girly!" he winked.
Dedede walked over before he and Zan shook hands.
"Alright," Dedede gestured, "we got somethin' set up for ya, just follow me!"
Vesa, Elfilis and Zan followed Dedede down the hall while a squad of Waddle Dees accompanied them. They reached a spiral staircase and climbed the steps. Soon enough, Dedede led the visitors into an empty tower, complete with three different floors connected by a staircase. The lightning mage immediately began to examine it.
"We weren't using this tower much, anyway," Dedede explained, "the most use the tower got was back during the robot invasion thing. Anyway, we had some Shotzo stationed up on top of the tower during that time, but they didn't really do much."
After a moment of silence, Zan nodded and returned her gaze to Dedede.
"This will work perfectly," Zan gave another bow, "thank you, Your Highness."
Vesa smiled while Elfilis set down the cabinet.
"This is full of," Elfilis glanced at Dedede for a split second, "magical tools. I made them for you the other night since I thought they would be handy to have in your office."
"Ah," Zan blurted, placing her hand behind her head, "jamanke, Elfilis!"
"No problem," Elfilis replied.
Zan Partizanne immediately began to unpack and arrange the furniture in her new homestead. Vesa and Elfilis followed Dedede out into the hallway. The way back to the entrance seemed quiet, almost as if the king couldn't come up with a topic for a conversation. When they reached the foyer, Bandee stood at the door and waved his arm at Dedede.
"Bandee?" Vesa paused.
"So Kawasaki and his…master? Maybe?" Bandee informed, "they're currently in the courtyard for some reason. Just thought I'd give you a heads up."
Dedede raised his eyebrows before he made his way to the doors and pushed them open. Outside, Kawasaki and the older chef stood at the bottom of the steps. Kawasaki lowered his gaze in embarrassment while his mentor made a stoic expression. Vesa and Elfilis caught a glimpse of the two before exchanging puzzled glances. The penguin king descended the stairs to greet the two chefs.
"So what's all the hubbub goin' on down here?" Dedede asked.
The older chef simply gave a bow of respect.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, Your Highess," he greeted, "I am Kawasaki's old teacher. Clearly, I haven't taught him properly and he'll need reeducating…which is why we are here."
"Osaka-sensei," Kawasaki muttered in chagrin.
"I am not your Sensei until I can successfully teach you, boy!" Osaka reminded bluntly, "if you have learned absolutely nothing from my lessons, then clearly I haven't been teaching you properly!"
Vesa blinked twice as she tilted her head sideways. Dedede rubbed the back of his neck.
"Right," Dedede drawled, "well, why don't we take this discussion inside?"
Osaka and Kawasaki followed Dedede back into the castle. Once in the foyer, Vesa made a brief gaze at the older chef. Elfilis perked up their feelers when they noticed their girlfriend started following the three. They all set foot into the banquet hall, standing before the archway to the kitchen. It only took Chef Osaka a second to notice Vesa was tailing them.
"What is it you want, girl?" Osaka barked.
Vesa stammered as Dedede, Bandee and Kawasaki fixated their eyes on her.
"Ah!" Vesa blurted, "well, I assume you're a talented chef, right?"
"Right now, I'm not so sure," Osaka grumbled more to himself and started to walk off again.
"Why'd you ask?" Bandee pondered.
Vesa twiddled her fingers nervously as Elfilis stood next to her.
"Well," she tried to explain, "I have yet to record the next recipe from my home country…before my planet was abandoned. I'm still learning how to cook and I wonder when he would be ready to offer some techniques for me to learn…"
Vesa paused to take a deep breath.
"That way," she continued, "I'd be ready once I finish writing down my recipes."
To prove her point, Vesa pulled out her cookbook from her pocket bangle, showing Dedede, Bandee and Kawasaki the few pages of the recipes she recorded so far. Clearly, she had a long way to go.
Meanwhile, Osaka was still figuring out where he went wrong in his training of Kawasaki. He taught him exactly as he was taught when he was a young lad; consisting of a large amount of self study, followed by correcting mistakes where he finds them, and then criticizing the finished product. When Kawasaki left his tutelage about six or seven years ago he seemed to be doing pretty well at the time. His food wasn't 4 or 5 star just yet, but none of it was entirely inedible like it was now. Osaka pulled out a pipe and a match, huffing under his breath as he lit the contents of the pipe and began to smoke.
All the while, Vesa held onto the book in her hands, allowing Kawasaki to examine the recipes on each page.
"My," Kawasaki commented, "I've never seen dishes like these before."
"If this is a cooking lesson," Vesa told Kawasaki, "maybe I could join in."
"I," Kawasaki glanced at his teacher, his expression uncertain, "I guess I don't see why you couldn't?"
Vesa made a brief glance at Elfilis, who simply shrugged.
"Whatever the case," Vesa assured Kawasaki, "I'm sure it'll be worth it."
Vesa shifted her gaze to Dedede and Bandee.
"Right?" Vesa smiled.
"Don't bring me into this, girly!" Dedede groaned with a facepalm, not looking forward to what would come next.
Vesa sighed and stashed the cookbook into her pocket bangle before setting foot into the kitchen. The Waddle Dees staffed there were focusing on Chef Osaka. He bopped a Waddle Dee on the hand with the side of his frying pan.
"Keep an eye on your boiling water!" Osaka scolded, "people get hurt when you aren't paying attention to your workplace!"
While the Waddle Dee nervously returned its gaze to the pot on the stove, Vesa stiffened at Osaka's loud voice.
"Oh boy," she muttered.
Osaka went on to pace around the kitchen, chastising the Waddle Dees for how they were storing their tools, and even how the dishes were being cleaned. He even pointed out expired meat in the freezer being stored with the good meat.
"He sure reminds me an awful lot of Randell Godfrey," Vesa mused to herself.
Kawasaki gave Vesa a puzzled look.
"A master chef in Stradan," Vesa clarified, "he had his own TV shows when humans were still on my planet."
"I believe he's just serious about his job, is all," Elfilis replied with a soft hum, watching Osaka get into his element.
Kawasaki gripped his apron nervously. Vesa adjusted the collar of her shirt as she checked the pantry. The abundance of ingredients seemingly overwhelmed her, ranging from rice to flour and potatoes. There didn't seem to be canned food like she would remember in the grocery store back in Ioskaria. As she rummaged through the shelves, Osaka made a brief glance at her and Kawasaki. It didn't last long as he quickly broke eye contact. Vesa pulled out her cookbook again and tapped her finger on the page holding the qifqi recipe.
"This pantry should have the ingredients we need for this one, right?" Vesa asked Kawasaki.
"I dunno," Kawasaki shrugged, "I haven't ever been to the palace kitchen before. The king put a ban on me from going anywhere near it. Honestly, this is the first time I've even seen this place."
"You liar!" Dedede yelled while comically flailing his arms, "you broke in here a few weeks ago!"
"I wanted to admire the place a little," Kawasaki blurted sheepishly.
"You get to be in here just this once while your master is here to keep an eye on ya," Dedede insisted.
Vesa tilted her head sideways and gave Kawasaki an awkward expression. She turned towards the pantry and grabbed a bag of rice, salt, pepper and a bottle of olive oil. She placed the ingredients on the counter before heading to the cabinet and grabbing a few eggs.
"Well, I have some stuff to do," Dedede sighed, "I can't stick around for too long, I have a lotta' stuff on the metaphorical back burnah' right now; like that whole advisor thing and recruitin' other members for the cabinet."
Dedede pointed to a pair of Waddle Dees in little waiter uniforms.
"You two," Dedede instructed, "make sure Kawasaki doesn't touch nothin' until his master gives the say so."
"Wanya!" the Waddle Dees nodded happily.
Dedede nodded at Elfilis before he and Bandee turned to leave. Vesa checked the cabinets for a saucepan. She grabbed one and filled it with water at the kitchen sink. When she walked over to the stove, she set the pot on the burner next to the one the Waddle Dee was using. Vesa paused for a moment and checked the recipe in her book when Osaka passed by. He simply peeked over at what she was doing before moving on to chastise someone else. Kawasaki paced around while Vesa waited for the water to boil.
"How am I gonna make it up to him?" Kawasaki lamented, "just about the only thing I can cook properly is rice."
"I…never cooked rice before, actually," Vesa admitted.
Osaka paused and blinked twice upon hearing those words.
"Well, you can't do much worse than me," Kawasaki replied, "I don't know what my problem is… When I was working for my master, my cooking seemed fine. It wasn't perfect or great, but it was above average. But in just a few years, I have turned into such a failure…"
Vesa turned her gaze towards the orange chef for a brief moment.
"Hopefully," she tried to assure him, "we could figure out what went wrong and come up with solutions…that could lift your spirits, I think."
Vesa returned her gaze back to her heating pot.
"Maybe," Kawasaki said sadly.
Elfilis fluttered their feelers at the sight of Kawasaki's expression, suspecting there might've been a curse. Vesa carried the bag of rice to the counter next to the stove and searched the cupboard for measuring cups.
"So it's your first time doing this?" Osaka clarified as he walked over, "you certainly know your way around a kitchen at least."
Vesa stiffened as soon as she grabbed the measuring cups when she spotted Osaka.
"W-Well," Vesa stammered, "I'd explain to you about the illness I used to have growing up, but we'd be here all day."
Vesa scooped some rice into a measuring cup, even if the water hasn't started boiling yet.
"I don't care what your past is," Osaka said bluntly, "I'm just complimenting you, is all. You're doing well so far, keep it up."
Elfilis rubbed their lower jaw, a little annoyed at Osaka's comment, but silently acknowledged he had a point. The master chef and Kawasaki soon exchanged glances.
"So I've heard," Osaka grumbled, "not great things."
Kawasaki gulped nervously.
"I think I've lost my touch," Kawasaki teared up a little, "anything I make seems to just turn out awful. I have no excuse, I-I'm a failure…"
"No, I'm the failure," Osaka corrected, giving off an aura of sadness, "somehow I missed something, somewhere in your teaching, the failure belongs to me."
As Vesa continued to follow along the recipe, Elfilis approached the two chefs.
"This drop in skill sounds…unnatural," Elfilis commented, "are you certain there's no cause for it?"
Osaka and Kawasaki paused before shifting their gaze towards Elfilis.
"What are you saying?" Osaka asked cautiously.
"I'm saying that he might be cursed," Elfilis clarified, "in a more literal sense than you both assumed."
Osaka and Kawasaki both stiffened at the thought.
"I can remove it," Elfilis offered, "though I would like to let my apprentice have a crack at it first. I doubt anything can go wrong, but if it does, I'll be on standby to help."
Kawasaki scratched his head.
"So what you're saying is…I might not be a bad cook?"
"Oh no, your cooking is awful," Elfilis made a sardonic comment, "it's so bad I have to wonder if you use arsenic as a spice."
Kawasaki lowered his head.
"Maybe it could be that this curse is taking away your knowledge," Elfilis added, "you may need to relearn everything if it's as malicious as I suspect."
Osaka let out a thoughtful hum.
"Well," Osaka reasoned, "if you can help him, then I would be more than willing to re-train him. He's still my student."
Time continued on as Osaka began basic cooking lessons in the kitchen. All the while, Vesa continued to follow the instructions through the recipe she had at hand with a few tips the nearby Waddle Dee offered her. By the time Vesa finished her qifqi, she arranged them on a plate. She made a brief glance as Elfilis used their senses to prod Kawasaki, trying to locate the curse yet not having any luck so far. Vesa carried the plate over and set it down on the kitchen table, eliciting a curious eye from Osaka.
"Are you finished?" he asked her.
Vesa simply nodded.
"It's a recipe from my home planet," she clarified.
"Very well," Osaka came over, "did you want me to try one and judge for you?"
"Yes," Vesa answered.
Upon cue, Osaka took a qifqi and tried a bite.
"It's not bad," he commented, "I fear you've slightly under-cooked the rice, however."
Vesa took a deep breath and her face reddened with an awkward expression.
"I…understand, sir," she stammered.
"It's not catastrophic at all, or I would've had some more choice words," Osaka continued, "you also aren't a professional like these people here are, or I would probably be complaining more. But for someone who is doing it as a hobby and not as a job, it is fine."
Vesa let out a sigh of relief.
"Thank you!"
Vesa returned her gaze to Elfilis as she sampled a qifqi herself. The ultimate life-form continued prodding at the uncomfortable Kawasaki, their hands and the rings on their eyes glowing slightly.
"There," Elfilis announced, eyes narrowing at the nasty source of the orange chef's issues.
"Oh?" Vesa blurted.
"He is cursed for certain," Elfilis told Vesa and Kawasaki, "come with me."
Elfilis made their way out the door. Vesa handed the plate to the nearest Waddle Dee waiter.
"You mind sharing a sample of these with Dedede?" Vesa requested.
The Waddle Dee nodded before darting off with the plate. Vesa followed Elfilis, Kawasaki and Osaka.
"We could find a spare room here or set up a room back in my home in ten minutes," Elfilis continued, "but this curse is quite…lively."
"I'm sure teleportation would bring us closer," Vesa answered.
Chef Osaka is basically Chef Shiitake from the Kirby anime.
Feel free to make some fanart related to this fanfic!
And leave a review so Kirby can use them to buy snacks for him and Elfilin.
