Volume 1, Chapter 10.5: Interlude/Omake
Maris Hackard experiences a taste of a different world.

If someone had asked me to describe my party member Hikitani–errr, Hikigaya, but well, old habits die hard, I guess. Ahhh, whatever, I've been calling him Hikitani this whole time! It's fine!

Ahem! Anyways, if someone had asked me to describe my party member Hikitani, I'd have to get back to you on that.

Hikitani was strange.

Well, 'strange' wasn't even half of it.

Hikitani was like one of those unsolvable layered boxes, you know, with those weird mysteries and puzzles that they give to children on the street–you know, you have to turn the tiles in a certain way to unlock another puzzle, and then you slide the tiles correctly into a formation to find whatever, and then a twisty-turn–ah! It's called a puzzle box, that's what it is. Yeah, Hikitani was like a massive puzzle box, and with every mystery and expression that I understood there were suddenly 5 more I didn't know or weren't able to solve.

To begin with, his physical appearance: Compared to the rest of the people in Orario, he was unusually tall; I'd say a good 10 centimeters or so if I had to take a guess. His hair also had this weird tuft that would stick out over the rest of his hair, almost like a small tail, but from his head! It was really cool, because no matter what occurred in the Dungeon that strand would still end up like that. And there was this one time I tried flattening it but then it just sprang back into shape magically! It's so cool!

Overall, other than that, he was a normal looking guy, you know? Not too handsome, but not super ugly, either. Well…

His eyes, on the other hand...

I'll be honest, his eyes are the worst. The rest of him is definitely bearable to look at, but if you looked into his eyes I'm willing to bet that even someone like the Level 6 Braver would be unnerved. They're just that bad. As someone who used to be part of the Dungeon cleanup crew in Babel before I decided to register as an adventurer, I've seen corpses with better eyes than him.

And gods forbid that he smile. It was more like a stretching of the muscles to form a sarcastic grin on his face than an actual expression of happiness. Whenever Hikitani smiled, I was pretty sure a small dog or cat died somewhere.

Compared to his appearance, Hikitani's attitude wasn't much better, either. He was lazy, rarely talked or even tried to interact with the rest of the party, sort of coarse when he did occasionally choose to talk(usually telling us to stay on our guard or something), and he was always no-nonsense in the Dungeon, which was quite the mood-killer. Something about how the Dungeon was ready to kill us at any time and how we should never let down our guard unless we were looking for death. Yeesh, what a guy.

He was smart though, no doubt about it. It was just the way he spoke and the way he acted.

Neither Yelena nor I were illiterate: we knew our fair share of words and we had read books on occasion when being forced to study by Eina or reading the tales of ancient heroes for fun. But Hikitani took that to an entirely different level.

He only had to read the books once. No rereads, no notes, nothing. Just him sitting in a room, flipping through that book for hours before closing it and silently starting on the next volume. Hikitani was definitely a scholar, or had received scholarly training of some kind.

I had asked him once about it while we were Dungeon-diving together, but he had clammed up even more than usual and wouldn't even talk to me for the rest of the day, instead just leaving after we were done without even a word of farewell. Was it a family issue? Or…?

I don't know. All I know was that it hurt for him to think about his family or his life before he became an adventurer. It wasn't in me to pry, either, so I let it be. He seemed to have done a somewhat good job at not thinking about it, and if that was what kept him going, so be it.

It's not like I was much better either… haha, I probably shouldn't think about that right now.

He also, for some reason, worked part time at a tavern. Our adventuring would usually start from 8 and end at 5 because Hikitani would have to go work a shift at the Hostess of Fertility. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I hated the Hostess or anything, but it was just plain weird, especially since apparently his duties there were on a higher priority than they were here. I mean, just last month he had to excuse himself for 3 days because the tavern had been damaged in a brawl and he had to be part of the cleanup crew. It didn't really make sense. Why would you be part-timing if you could just work as an adventurer? It paid so much better, and with people at our level, why would you live in a tavern if you could just live with your familia in an inn or a small apartment? It didn't really make sense to me.

Hikitani was totally mysterious; a complete enigma. If you had to ask me, I'd had to get back to you with either 'mysterious' or 'puzzling'.

~~This is a Line Break~~

It was another day in the Dungeon, and it was getting routine. We had been on the 9th Floor for two weeks now, and it didn't look like today was going to be anything different.

Hikitani was still as brooding and creepy as ever, except overall his eyes looked even more lifeless than usual, if that was somehow possible. For the sweet love of Zeus, Hera, and all things beautiful and holy, please never stare at a child with those eyes. You're just going to make them cry.

Seeing as how he almost had this gloomy cloud of darkness hanging over him, I decided to try and ease his troubles. "Hikitani, man, you should try to loosen up a little!" Smacking a hand onto his shoulder, I flashed him a thumbs-up. "What do you say to having a party-night sometime soon?"

He just turned and… stared at me with his eyes without a visible change in his expression whatsoever. I gave an awkward laugh, averted my gaze away from his eyes, and removed my hand.

There was a long silence before he chose to reply. "No thanks."

"Come on, Hikitani! Relax and have some fuuuuuun!"

There was a short screech as a goblin appeared from one of the doorways, but Hikitani effortlessly separated its head from its shoulders with a flick of his wrist. "I do have fun. What makes you think I don't?"

"Uhhhh, your eyes?"

"I'll have you know that these eyes are perfectly fine and healthy, thank you very much." Hikitani let out a sigh before moving towards me. "Left, Hackard." I obliged, stepping to the side as Hikitani lunged and stabbed a kobold which had come up from one of the rooms we had passed earlier. "Pay attention when we're in the Dungeon."

" I could've taken it–" I closed my mouth when he turned and stared at me.

"If you let your guard down here, you're just asking to die at a level that shouldn't have been a problem." As much as I wanted to argue with him, he was right. "Don't you ever read those books that Tulle hands you?"

"Hrgk!" The question he posed stabbed me all the way to my chest, causing a stab of pain. Clutching at my chest, I struggled to come up with a response, but he was right.

"Hahaha, looks like Hikitani's outsmarted you yet again, lass." Umbar let out a bellow of a laugh as he used his hammer and batted aside two goblins as if they were nothing but pieces of driftwood. I followed up, my broadsword instantly cleaving through their bodies and sending them to the floor.

Our conversation fell into silence as we entered a room, cracking noises echoing out as all around us, kobolds and goblins began spawning from within the Dungeon. "Ahhh, man. Everyone ready?" I lifted my broadsword. Around us, the goblins shrieked and the kobolds snarled before everyone else moved to engage them in battle.

Beside me, Yelena's knives flashed as she threw them, two goblins in the room letting out surprised shrieks before collapsing to the ground. Gracefully bounding across the room, her blades flashed in metallic arcs as she cut through two more of them before retrieving her throwing knives and resheathing them at her waist.

We continued like this for a while - me and Umbar at the front, slowly cutting down any opposition, Yelena diving amongst the group flitting here and there to fill up for gaps in the group's defense.

"Ha, 13!" As the battle concluded I drove the blade of my sword into the skull of the last goblin. "How d'ya like that, suckers?"

"Ugh… 8." Yelena's ears drooped as I planted my boot upon the corpse of a goblin and let out a haughty laugh. Fufufu, yes, bow and acknowledge my superiority as an adventurer!

"Not bad, lass… but 17." Umbar casually rested his hammer on the ground, letting out a chuckle as he watched my expression sour.

"Hmph! What about you, Hikitani…" I felt my jaw drop open in surprise as I saw Hikitani, who was already crouching next to a substantial pile of ash as he worked on the dead bodies around him, harvesting their cores with quiet efficiency. Was that... 23? 25?

There was a very quiet, very still silence as the rest of the party turned around, spotted the dead bodies around Hikitani, and got to work harvesting the stones.

As we finished, Umbar cracked open one of the walls in the Dungeon, the rest of us sitting down and taking a short break. It was all according to schedule so far; we'd make our way through the Dungeon, clear out 4-5 rooms, then take a break.

I'll be honest with you, though, it was boring. There wasn't excitement, there wasn't much thrill aside from the occasional horde of goblins or kobolds that I was given permission to take on by myself. It was all very routine, very scheduled and according to plan.

Call me crazy, but adventuring wasn't meant to be like this. It was supposed to be a thrill like in the legends, where heroes fought and won against impossible odds. Saving people, slaying the undefeatable, standing victorious over the bodies of your conquered foes, being praised by those who had scorned you in the past… that was what adventuring should've been.

Not… this. This was no better than an ordinary job.

At least it paid better. And it was safe, so I guess that's what counted.

As Yelena took the watch, Hikitani, Umbar, and I sat down and began talking to each other. Well, more like Umbar and I talked. Hikitani just put his back to the wall, closed his eyes, and occasionally drank from his water canteen.

"Hey, old man, how're your stats coming along?" In response to my light-hearted question, Umbar chuckled.

"It might surprise you to hear this, lass, but my Strength has hit B!" This statement was punctuated by a flex of his arm, which rippled with muscles. "Might've taken me a good 3 years, but here I am, hahaha!"

"Woah, congrats! Want me to buy you a drink later?!"

"Bwahahahaha, lass, I'd rather you buy me a new stall snack if you know any!" Exotic dishes weren't exactly what dwarves were known for liking, but Umbar was one of those 'try-everything' types of guys, like me! So far, our record had been 56 food stalls in a single night's worth of partying and an accumulated bill of 10,000 Valis or so.

A new stall snack… I frowned. I'd only frequented the market yesterday, but I hadn't seen any of the new stalls yet. There was an advertisement about a new stall opening on East Main, though…

"Umbar, what do you say I take you to that new stall for... uhhh…" I struggled to remember the name of the stall. It was some sort of noodle soup with meat and vegetables in it from the Far East. What was it called again…? Ah, I know! "Ramen! What do you say to eating at a ramen—"

PAHHHH

The first thing I registered was the sound of someone spitting out water.

The next thing I registered was the fact that there was water in my eyes, my mouth, and across my face.

It really didn't take an idiot to put two and two together and realize that someone had spit their drinking water into my face as soon as I had said something about the ramen stall that was freshly opened on East Main, and that the someone in question was probably Hikitani.

Unfortunately, I was too busy trying to wipe my face, spit out the water in my mouth, spluttering, and recovering my dignity to care about it in the present moment. "AGGGGGGH! WHAT THE HELL?!" Blindly fumbling around, I grasped at the hem of my cloak and furiously scrubbed my face, trying my best to get rid of that horribly wet sensation.

By the time I had looked up, Umbar was roaring with laughter while Hikitani's facial expression hadn't changed in the slightest. But he had closed the distance between us and he was staring at me right in the eyes, causing me to reflexively back up a little. He coughed into his fist twice. "Hackard, did you say something about a ramen street stall?"

"Uh..." Woah, his eyes were intense. "Yeah…"

His hand snaked out and grabbed my collar. "Take. Me. There." It wasn't a request.

"Hahaha, sure..."

And that's why, after cashing in our wins for the day, we found ourselves in front of a large, somewhat run-down stall with a large bench out front for 3.

It was... well, to be honest, it was very plain. It was pretty much a glorified booth with a table in the middle which divided the customers and the chef. Along the sides of the walls were various wooden signs with Koine words on them. I could catch the words 'Salt', 'Soy Sauce'... whatever that was, on one side; on the other, ...Mi-so? 'Miso', whatever that was, and ... Ton..kot..su, so 'Tonkotsu', whatever that was.

Although... there were several large metal pots behind the chefs with steam rising from them... damn, that smelled good. It was this sort of foul, kinda porky stench that was almost pungent in its density. But it smelled… weirdly mouthwatering, for some reason.

I snapped out of my daze when Umbar nudged me. "So, lass, how do we order? That chef's just mindin' his own business. It'd be rude to interrupt–"

"I'd like a tonkotsu ramen, please."

There was a long silence as both Umbar and I blinked and looked at the spot where Hikitani should've been, which was right next to us before snapping our gazes to his current spot, which was him at the bench in front of the stall.

Hikitani had already seated himself at the stall and begun ordering. How the–? I didn't even see him move!

"One tonkotsu, comin' right up! Specifications?" And the chef proceeded to respond as if it were a perfectly natural thing.

Man, these foreign customs were weird. This was the first time I had ever heard of someone walking in and ordering right off the bat without even announcing their arrival, instead of having the owner make a move or having one of the servers approach them first.

"Firm noodles, extra chashu, menma, seaweed, moyashi, ajitama." Faster than I could say "blink and you'll miss it", Hikitani rattled off a list of what must've been ingredients as the chef got to work. The only terms I caught that I knew were 'firm noodles' and 'seaweed'.

"Hoho! It seems you're quite the knowledged customer, young man. It's not very often that I don't have to walk my customers through such a process." The chef chuckled a little as he bustled around the kitchen.

"I've eaten ramen before." Hikitani replied simply, before noticing that both Umbar and I were still standing there. "What are you doing? Take a seat and order."

"Ah, um, yeah." Sitting down at the bench, I looked around. "So, uh… how do we order?"

Umbar stroked his beard. "Looks to me that the 4 wooden signs are the 4 different types of ramen that the chef serves here. In that case… I'll be having a Soy Sauce ramen."

"Specifications?"

"Erm…" Umbar paused for a moment. "Hikigaya, what specifications are there?"

"Noodles usually have four types: Extra firm, firm, regular, and semiraw. For toppings, the ones I got include extra chashu–so extra meat, basically, as well as menma(bamboo shoots), seaweed, moyashi(bean sprouts), and ajitama(soft-boiled egg). Although I'm sure the owner has other toppings as well."

"That's right, my fellow kinsman!" The chef turned around and beamed at Hikitani, before explaining the rest to Umbar. "Other toppings include kamaboko, which is fish cake, as well as corn."

"Hmm… I'll take 'em all!" The dwarf let out a laugh before seating himself at the bench next to Hikitani. "Maris, it's your turn."

"Ah… uh…" My brain shifted into panic mode. What do I order? Salt? Salt soup? No, that just sounds weird! I don't know! Help! In the midst of my silent struggle, my eyes alighted on Hikitani. "I'll… uh... I'll just have what he's having." I pointed at Hikitani, who shrugged as he reached towards a tin of long metal sticks, took two of them, and put them in his hands.

"Uh… Hikigaya, what are those things you're holding? Some sort of skewer?"

"They're called chopsticks." As he spoke, Hikitani held up the two sticks with a single hand and proceeded to move them with such ease and fluidity as if they were a part of his hand. "They're for eating ramen."

"Hoho, how interesting!" Picking up two of the sticks as well, Umbar proceeded to attempt to copy Hikitani's grip, with me following suit.

"Is this how…?" I tried to hold them together, but the lower stick slid out of my grip almost instantly and fell onto the table. "Huh...?" Again, the stick slipped from between my fingers. "Wait, hold on… I think I got it this time…" But the stick eluded my grip once again.

"Umbar, how're you doing–" I turned to find Umbar holding a fork, his chopsticks laid to the side. "... Huh?"

"Haha, lass, that coordination and dexterity is not something you can learn on the spot. You'd best be quittin' while ahead."

"... Just one more try–" clank "Yeah, Umbar, hand me one of those forks." Umbar passed over one of the forks with a chuckle and I took it with a huff, opting to lay the chopsticks on the side.

As the chef placed our bowls in front of us, I was able to catch the scent. Yeah, it was that thick, rich sort of stink from the broth, but it seemed… less pronounced, somehow. I eyed it suspiciously, but otherwise there was nothing else to do but to dig in. I raised my fork–

slurp slurp slurp

Woah, Hikitani's loud. And pretty obnoxious. Did all Far Easterners eat their food like that? I mean, Hikitani was nothing short of quiet in the Dungeon when he ate his lunch, and he'd usually finish pretty quickly, but the very same Hikitani was sitting here, noisily slurping away at his ramen.

"Ahhh, hot!" I put the spoonful of soup to my lips and instantly recoiled at the burning liquid. Blowing on my spoon, I finally swallowed it, but it was still so, so hot. I couldn't really taste the flavor; there was just the heat.

Umbar, on the other hand, simply drank it without a change in his expression whatsoever.

"Umbar, how are you doing that? This soup is so hot!"

"Hot soup is always good, lass. I just drink it down, since we dwarves have higher tolerance than you do."

"That's why you slurp it, Hackard," Hikitani interjected. In between bites, he spoke. "Slurping lets you drink the soup without being burned by its heat. It also lets the flavor soak in with the air better."

"I… see." I awkwardly copied him and slurped it, and to my surprise, he was right. The broth was thick, rich, and almost creamy. The noodles had a strong firmness to them and they were soaked with the flavor of the broth. This was… actually really, really good. I slurped the noodles down with the broth, following Hikitani's style.

The meat was soft–not soft enough that it went to pieces when I picked it up with my fork, but it easily fell apart in my mouth, flooding it with its fatty flavor. The egg opened with a poke of the fork, flooding the noodles with the liquidy consistency of the buttery yolk, the flavors of the meat, the soup, and the egg dancing in my mouth.

It was something different from what I was used to; it was a turn from the breads and the meats and the pasta and the risotto, all of the dishes that utilized numerous spices and flavorings to go down with alcohol. It was a refreshing, yet still powerful sort of dish that I don't think I could ever get tired of.

It was delicious–no, it was more than that; it was so delicious that I lacked words to describe it. I was sure that had I had the stomach, I surely would've ordered another bowl of this miraculous, flavorful dish.

I could see why Hikitani practically begged me to take him here now.

As I began slurping up my soup from the bowl, having no ingredients left, my eyes caught Hikitani reaching out to a small container in front of him.

Is that…? Huuuuh? Isn't that garlic?! Wait, Hikitani, why are you putting that stuff in your bowl?! Hikitani, are you crazy? Who puts garlic in their soup? With that aroma in the soup already, and you're adding garlic?! Are you crazy? Wait, why are you drinking that?

As I watched, Hikitani proceeded to take several cloves of raw garlic and toss them into his bowl before drinking the whole thing.

My surprise must have reflected on my face, because he gave me an questioning glance. "What is it, Hackard?"

"Err… nothing, never mind." Yeah, I take back what I said about Hikitani being weird. Far Easterners as a whole were weird.

~~This is a Line Break~~

Once we finished eating, Hikitani paid for all three of our meals.

"Hikitani, you really didn't have to…"

"No, it's fine. Ramen is my favorite food anyways, and I never thought I'd taste it again…" He had a wistful look on his face. Was he thinking about his home?

"Ah, so you're from the Far East as well, lad?"

"... I suppose you could say that, yeah." For a second there, I was sure that Hikitani stiffened for the slightest of moments.

"How'd you get here?"

"... I walked." His voice was low and it carried a somber tone, completely opposite to the lighthearted words that floated out of his mouth. I caught a glimpse of his deader-than-dead eyes and I was surprised to see… nostalgia?

No… more like… homesickness.

"Bwahahaha!" Umbar let out a bellow of laughter in response, completely oblivious to Hikitani's discomfort.

I forced myself to laugh along with the dwarf, having nothing to really say. The situation was turning very awkward as we slowly made our way towards the center of the city.

Umbar parted ways with us as we slowly reached the Tower of Babel, heading off towards South Main, probably to go drink his heart out at the Hibachitei. Normally, I would've joined him, but today, I turned towards Hikitani.

Did I feel… pity for him? Or was it something else? Regardless, before Hikitani could turn and leave, I clasped a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, Hikitani, if you're up to it, wanna grab–"

"See you tomorrow, Hackard." My request hadn't even fully left my mouth before Hikitani–no, Hikigaya–brushed off my grip on his shoulder and began trudging towards the Hostess of Fertility.

Slowly, bit by bit, the features that could've separated him from the faceless commuters within the city mixed into the crowd, until at last even his singular strand of hair disappeared, melting into the night. For some reason, as my outstretched arm slowly lowered to my side and his silhouette disappeared into the crowd, something within me whispered that I should've stopped him from leaving.

As I watched Hikigaya's nondistinct silhouette mix into the hubbub of Orario's nighttime crowds, I couldn't help but feel like he was hiding something, something that he cared about too much to show to any of us.

If someone had asked me to describe my party member Hikigaya, I think that in that moment, I would've replied with a single word, above all else.

Hikigaya was lonely.

To start, I'd like to remind you that "My Otherworldly Adventure is a Disaster, As I Expected" is not a cooking manga, a cooking series, nor anything remotely close to that genre.

Also, we've hit 340 Favorites, 478 Followers, and 110 Reviews! WOOHOO! Thank you for your continued support!

In terms of this chapter, I kinda wanted to partially frame Hikigaya in terms of how another character viewed him, but without the 3rd-person view I had implemented for Ryuu. Therefore, it was clearly someone that would appear repeatedly throughout the story that I planned, and it couldn't be a throwaway character–hence, Maris Hackard, the blue-haired broadsword girl in Hikigaya's party. Honestly, since Maris is very blank as a character, that meant I could effectively write her in any way I wanted.

Anyways, this is the last chapter before we get to the real stuff in the story, sort of.

One last note of clarification: Interludes are where the story is told from the viewpoint of a different character, be it in 3rd person or in 1st person. Omakes are simply chapters that don't really push the story, and are just for fun. The Sidestories threadmark I assigned for the lovely Omake that finaltrinity5 wrote(kudos to the man himself), and hopefully more stories in the future, are for Omakes that I don't write.

Regarding ramen knowledge:

Ramen is delicious. The reason this chapter took so long was because I couldn't figure out how to make Maris describe ramen without having a bowl of ramen in front of me, so I had to wait until today for takeout.

Oops. Teehee!

Also, regarding the '4 noodle firmness' thing: I pulled that out of my ass. I'm actually not sure whether or not that's how it works. DO NOT trust me on this. I live in America, where we get takeout ramen, so I have never been to an authentic Japanese ramen restaurant/ramen stall. I'm not sure how the toppings actually work either in authentic restaurants since I only had a list of the possible ingredients so I had to take artistic license. Yup.

Well, see you guys around. Remember to like and review. Until then~