"Igo~~ The food is ready! Come eat while it's still hot!"
"Ah! Yes!"
The chefs have worked fast and diligent as the fish that I just caught have been turned into a delicious looking meal. There is a huge ceramic cooking pot that contains the main meal which is the fish that I caught earlier thoroughly cooked in a savory dark brown broth. It's clear that the fish had absorbed some of the broth with how brown its meat is. In the broth are several vegetables like carrots, broccolis, spinach, and mushrooms to balance the meal.
"It barely fits, huh…"
"You caught a big one so of course it barely fits." I was as surprised as everyone when I pulled out a big boy of a fish. It has the same length as my entire forearm while being thicker than my thigh. Whatever the old man feeding these fish, it works wonders. "Ah, thank you."
The chefs also provide the usual like a hot steaming pot of rice, some dried seaweed, and miso soup. They also prepare a bowl of warm bread. Do these go together?
"Here." Tsuyo put the rice in the bowls and placed them in front of us. "Do you like putting some of the broth into your rice, Igo?"
"Depends on the taste, honestly." Tsuyo grabs a spoon and scoops up the broth before thrusting it onto my face. "Haaaah… Haaaaa…" It was still steaming when it got to me so I had to blow on it before putting it in my mouth. "Mmmm~~" It's savory, creamy, a little bit salty, and sweet. "I would love to pour some of this on my rice."
"Sure." Tsuyo poured some of the broth onto my rice until the white rice turned into brown rice. "Don't be afraid to eat the fish, Igo. The chefs have pulled out all the bones."
"Okay~~" Thank God they have spoons here so I can eat on my own. I used my spoon and fork to cut some of the fish in the pot and it was so soft that my spoon effortlessly cut through the meat. "Oh God…" I had to be gentle with the meat because I swear it'll collapse under its own weight.
"Igo, you better grab some of the vegetables too. You can't just have meat." Since when did you become my mom, Kara? "I'll tell Ochi that you're not eating your vegetables." She is the boogeyman, now?
"Alright. I'll do it. No need to get Ochi into this."
"Seems like you have experienced some of Ochi's more interesting side, Igo." You can say that. "She looks boring but she can be very persistent when she wants to."
"Hey! Kara is right here, you know? She'll strike you down using her thunder spell or something like that."
"That would be classified as a misuse of magic, you know?" I can see that but I believe Alice asks for it. By the way, why are you presenting my mouth with a slice of carrot, Kara? Are you feeding me? "Instead of stopping the misuse of magic, we'll be the one to do it." Do you want me to eat the carrot? Sure. I eat the slice of carrot on the end of Kara's chopsticks.
"Hey now! You're supposed to be flirting with me, not Kara!"
"Too bad that you're not as perceptive as I am, Alice." Don't start a war in this place, please. I want to eat in peace. "Don't you think I fit better for you than Alice, Igo?"
"Hmmmm… Can't exactly decide that right now."
"My boobs might be smaller but you don't need to be afraid of being in the news with me." I hate how easy it is for Kara to figure me out. Girls really have mind reading ability. "I would gladly let you have a taste of me."
"Let's talk about this when we are alone, Kara."
"Igo! You're so cautious with me but not Kara!" Cause she won't get me in trouble if people see me around her. "You understand that Kara is quite popular, no? She is also an important shrine maiden too. You'll get into more trouble when you are around her. Tell him, Tsuyo!"
"Honestly, you would get into the same amount of trouble regardless of who you choose."
""Hey!""
They're in unison in not having a mirror for self reflection. Maybe I should go with Tsuyo instead. She seems more reasonable than both Kara and Alice. Sad that she is taken.
"I can't believe you stab me in the back like this, Tsuyo. I might be crazy but I'm nowhere near Kara's level." It's insane how she can nonchalantly admit that she is crazy and pointing at someone and saying that she is crazier than her. Crazy people have no right calling other people crazy, Alice. That's the job of a psychologist.
"I beg your pardon, Miss Scorched." Miss Scorched? Where did that name come from? Is that Alice's new nickname? Who gave her that? "Which one of us is nicknamed for being hot both physically and mentally?"
"Mentally?"
"You do understand that people consider Alice as hot, right Igo?" That's kinda a known fact, Tsuyo. But I think if Kara wears something tighter than what she usually wears, people would call her sexy too. Her beauty is certainly around Alice's level and I've seen a lot of people drool over Alice. I would probably too if I don't know her personally. "She is known to, quote-on-quote, burn people that try to mindlessly approach her." That's more on the people that mindlessly approach her than on Alice.
"Who's the idiots that willingly put themselves in her view? She is married for God's sake."
"Even if she is married, she is still an important political figure, Igo." Ah… How the fuck did I forget about that important bit.
"I love it when Igo forget that part of me." I don't! People are going to think I'm some sort of important political figure as well and try to cozy up to me. I've already got plenty on my plate! "I can always come to you and relax."
"Isn't that what your husband is for?"
"I wish." I really want to meet Michael and see how he is for myself. Alice sounds like she despises his entire existence but she married him. Alice did say he changed but he can't be that insufferable that Alice acts like this. "Come on! Let's finish eating this! We still have somewhere to be after this."
XxX-XxX
"Please don't buy something too fancy, girls."
"Nothing is too fancy for you, darling. Quality isn't cheap."
Our next activity is shopping apparently. Mostly for me cause I'm still in my uniform. I become an eyes magnet whenever we go and I don't like it especially when I'm a part of a hidden military organization.
"Do you think this will fit him?"
"Mmmhhhh! It's too colorful for him. There's too much going on with that one."
"Then we'll just change the pants to fit more with the top."
"Which color? Black or blue?"
"It's summer. He'll get cooked if he is wearing black so we'll go with blue."
"There's also other colors, you know?"
I have no problem buying a shirt and shorts for me to use, my problem is where we are buying them from. I've noticed that things around me are getting hella expensive after I enter Azur Lane. Hope this doesn't affect my financial thermostat. I'll usually get clothes when my mom bought them for me and they are usually cheap. Having rich people buy things for you is kinda scary because you're afraid that you might get so used to the quality that you might not want to return to the cheap stuff.
"How about you try this, Igo?" Alice walked up to me and handed me several clothing items. "Let's go, the changing room is over there." Why are you pulling my arm? You can just point me at where it is, Alice. I can change on my own. The princess pulls me toward one of the changing rooms and we both enter at the same time. Fucking knew it! "Go on. Change. Ignore my existence."
"..." I debated with myself whether I should throw her out or not. I'm afraid that she'll whine like a little baby if I do it so I fight the urge to grab her face and throw her out. "Sigh… No picture, dummy." The princess quickly hid her phone back into her pocket after I warned her. "Why are we doing this, seriously?"
"What are you talking about? We are buying you casual clothing. I bet Stella never gave you anything other than that uniform, huh?" That's because I got my own, Alice. And would you mind stop ogling me that hard? This is not the first time you see me undressing myself. "That girl is all work and no fun. You should've picked me instead of her."
"After seeing what you are right now, I'm more glad that I picked Stella over you." This shirt's material feels so smooth on my fingers and skin. It's also pretty shiny. Did they drenched this in some sort of lotion or something? "And let's be real here. If you want to buy me some casual clothes. You would've done so before we met."
"All work no play makes Igo a dull boy."
"You said it yourself that I need to be more wary of people, no?"
"Yeah but not me. You know I've always got your best interest on my mind, right?"
"..."
"What's with that face?"
"This short feels nice."
"Hey!"
"Yes? What is it, my little cutie patootie?"
"Not fair! You know I can't get mad at you." Damn right! "What the hell is Stella doing? Has she never taught you to calm down?" I can do that on my own, Alice. I just can't do it with you. "If you want to know why I brought you here then you better wear that casual clothes properly." Knew it.
"I do hope you understand that I don't take jobs for you anymore, right?"
"Let's be real here. I can always make an offer you can't deny, darling~~?" What the fuck does she mean by that? "Kukuku~~ Come on, we're making Kara and Tsuyo wait."
"Can you wait for me to take these off first?"
"No need." Huh? Out of nowhere, Alice grabs the price tags of my new casual wears and rip them off. "We can use these." Can you?! I've never heard of this crazy concept before. Alice quickly opens up the curtain and we both walk out of the walking room.
"Hmm? Why are you not naked?" How do you silence a cat? Kara seems to need to be silenced for a few minutes.
"I know, right?! Igo has grown cowardly since I left him." I give Alice a light chop on the back of her head. "Ouchie!"
"Tsuyo, please chop Kara's head."
"Will do."
"Owie~~!" It is always nice to have an ally that I can count on.
"Come now Alice, we better pay these first or we'll get in trouble."
"Alright. Alright. Let's go to the cashier." Without any further ado, we walk up to the cashier and Alice casually places the price tags on the counter as if it's common sense. It's not, right? People usually pay while the price tag is still on the clothing item, right? "My darling is wearing the clothes. Can you just scan the tags?"
"Uuhh…" Fucking knew it. I better undress now and apologize! "Yes…" Please don't cave in! Hold your ground and point your weapon at the spoiled princess! The cashier grabs the tags and scans them.
"Here's my credit card." Alice casually brings out a black card and flashes it around.
"Ah! Yes!" The cashier hurriedly grabbed the card and swiped it. I understand what a black card means but is it necessary to use it? I know she had other cards in her wallet. "Thank you for your purchase!"
"Ah… One more thing. Do you have a reusable bag or something similar?"
"Yes!" The cashier grabs a reusable blue bag from underneath the counter. "Here you go."
"Thank you." Alice grabs the bag and puts my uniform in it. "Alright, let's continue our date, darling~~" Alice holds my hand and pulls me away from the store.
"Where are we going?"
"You'll see~~" With Kara and Tsuyo following behind us, Alice keeps leading me down the walkway until we reach a massive building that looks crowded as fuck. The doors have security personnels and people are showing their tickets to enter the building. There's something going on in there. The people going in are all wearing some very colorful accessories, flags, lightsticks, and etc. What kind of things are they doing inside?
"What is this?"
"A multipurpose building." I know what it is. I want to know what's happening inside. Why are these people carrying banners and shit?! What the hell is going on?! I can't read the sakuran word so I don't know what it is. "If you want to know then let's get inside, darling~~"
"I assume you have bought our tickets."
"Nope~~" This bitch! How can she be so nonchalant about this? Alice pulls me toward the door of the venue and when the guards stop us, she flashes something to them. What is that? The guard grabs the card and minutes later they are talking to their walkie talkie.
"What have you done?"
"Don't say it like I've done something horrendous." I don't even know what you have done, Alice. For all I know, you might have made some backhanded deal or something shady like that. Several minutes later, a group of people exit the building and approach us. I instinctively move my body in front of Alice. "Aaaww~~ Thank you, my love. But that won't be needed."
"Huh?"
The group consists of 3 women and 1 man. "You should've contacted me before, Alice." One of the women said to Alice. She has short black hair, glasses to cover her yellow pupil, and a cute flower ornament on her head. She is wearing a typical office lady outfit.
"Where's the fun in that? This is more interesting."
"And it seems we have a special guest with us."
"Come on now. It's not everyday I get to see one of the academy's best students perform." I'm sorry, what? What did you just say, Kara? The academy? Isn't that one of the other magic institutions in The Sakura Empire? "Being near Ochi, I have seen a lot of wonderful performances, you know? I hope you can at least prevent me from yawning."
"Even if your entire job is merely just to dance, my sister's show would open your eyes to true beauty." Alright, calm down. What's with the hostility, man? The man has long wavy light blue hair with a few strokes of dark navy. He has bluish light green eyes.
"You have to let it go, Tadashi. Alice is married. You have to search for someone else." Bad taste, man. Bad taste. You should search for a better girl. "She is happily married to her husband, you know?" I don't know about that. She is married but not happily. If she was, she wouldn't be here right now.
"I know that and I'm not angry!" Sounds like you are. Probably from all the teasing. Honestly man, it's a good thing that you aren't married to Alice. She's cheating on her husband at this very moment.
"Aaaaawwww~~ Sorry about that, Tadashi. I don't know that you like me. You should've told me, sweetie~~" My condolence, Tadashi. Alice has found your weakness. You'll be her toy for some moment now. "Don't worry, we can still be friends."
"Don't patronize me!" Honestly, I don't know which one is worse. Being rejected or being patronized by your crush.
"Damn, so this is the strongest student from the academy, huh? How cute~~" Kara, please don't pour uranium into the fire. The sly cat waltzes forward with her hips swaying extremely and approaches Tadashi. "There~ There~ You know I'm free, right?" Out from a pan and into a stove. Both of these girls are the same. "Do you want this big sister over here to heal your wounded heart~~?" If you want to heal him, the first thing you do is to not look so smug like that, Kara.
"FUCK OFF! BOTH OF YOU!" Wrong move, buddy. Responding to them only agitates them more.
"Kukuku~~"
"Kufufu~~"
"While those two are dilly dallying around, mind telling me what event this is, Tsuyo?"
"It's an idol concert." A concert, huh? It seems that The Sakuran Government still hasn't told its people about the impending doom or that these people just didn't care. Either way this is a weird sight to be seen. "Apparently, it's one of the most popular idols in The Sakura Empire. I myself have never attended her concert before so this should be interesting."
"How good is her song?"
"If you like up-beat cheerful heart pumping songs, you sure are going to like her." My genre of music is whatever the fuck pop out in my recommendations. I don't exactly have a concrete definition of which genre I hate or like.
"Would you mind continuing this inside, girls? I need to keep my eyes on the idol."
"Don't you think it's better if you stop them!" Sorry Tadashi but women are monsters no matter where they're from. Please bear with them so I can have my rest.
The guards move aside and our entourage enters the building. Instead of following the path that everyone took. the people that pick us up, lead us into a committee only door. There's a lot of things in this room like cables of all sizes, speakers, microphones, ladders, ropes, boxes, foldable chairs, and etc. More importantly, there's a stairs that lead up to the upper floors.
"Why are we using this stairway? Don't you guys have a more official one?"
"Eeeeeh~~~ You'll have to wait and squeeze past a lot of people. I prefer using this one."
We climb into another backroom at the top of the stairs. There's a lot of chests here and when I look into one of them, they're storing food and drinks. I wonder if they'll notice if I take one. There's a lot in the chest so it's unlikely that they'll notice if one thing is missing, right? We exited the backroom and were immediately greeted by the VIP room. Clean room, well lighted, no crowd, amazing seats, and have a good view of the stage. All of us sit down and watch as the show gets even more heated up.
"She is one hell of a star, huh?" A genuine compliment from Alice? That's rare. "With such brilliance, it makes you wonder why she even bothered attending the academy in the first place." I look down onto the floor below. People are cheering and chanting in unison that it shakes the building. They're waving their lightsticks together, making a synchronized beautiful dancing sea of light. They're more in sync than a properly trained army for goodness sake. What the hell is this?! Is this the Sakuran secret army?!
"She's an adult. She'll choose her own path."
"Yet you're always being around her, siscon. Worry much?" I think that's normal for siblings, Kara. Especially when they're famous like an idol. You need to make sure that they're safe from creeps like me.
"Shut up!"
"What's her name, Tsuyo?" The idol has 3 pairs of wings, 1 on her head, 1 on her back, and 1 on her waists. She looks like an angel with all of those wings. Her long fluttery blue hair shines brightly under all the stage lights. Her cheerful kind smile never left her face as she sang into the mic. Truly the embodiment of the word 'Idol'.
"Hanabi Miyamoto." Where have I heard that family name before? Eh! Probably from some sort of anime or something. "Are you interested in her song, Igo?"
"Well, kind of…" I have no fucking idea what the lyrics mean but it has a nice beat. "I can bop my head to it. Did she imbedded magic into her music to make it sound good?"
"I don't know about that. You should ask Kara." Eh… I don't want to get her attention when she is so smug like this. I'll let Tadashi be the target for a little bit longer. "I do say that her songs are quite charming to hear live. It has a different feeling from hearing it through the phone."
"Is that so?" I almost never go to a live concert before so I can't tell if she's right or not. One thing for certain though, it's a lot louder than I anticipated. Both from the sound system and the people cheering on. "I now understand why people get so pumped up in a concert." When everyone is pumped up like this, it's hard not to get into the flow.
"If you want to chant with them then please do so, Igo. Just imagine I'm not here."
"I can't exactly speak sakuran, Tsuyo. I don't know what they're saying. I should be asking you if you want to chant with them. You know more about the songs than me. Don't worry, I won't tell Stella if you're embarrassed about it."
"Fufufufu~~ I'm tempted but no. I'm not that kind of person, Igo. If I can, I would prefer to listen to music in peace." Yeah. I gotcha. There's always that moment when you just need to rewind and listen to music. "Does this atmosphere make it hard for you to breathe, Igo?"
"Sort of. Their spirits sure are something else, huh?" I wish I was as young as they are now. I know I'm in my 20's and that is considered young but I'm mentally tired, okay?! I have a lot of things to think about! "..." As I was watching the idol perform, something weighed on my shoulder. When I glanced at it, it was actually Tsuyo's head. She looks so calm and serene, a stark contrast to the atmosphere around us. "Mmh…" What can a man do in this situation other than make it as comfortable as possible to the girl that is resting her head on your shoulder.
.
.
.
"That was a wonderful performance, Hanabi."
"Thank you!"
After the concert ends, we walk backstage and meet with the idol that has been singing on the stage, Hanabi Miyamoto. I noticed that my translator automatically rearranged their name since The Sakuran uses their family name first so when Hanabi said that her name is 'Miyamoto Hanabi', my translator translated it to 'Hanabi Miyamoto'.
"I'm always amazed at the strength of your vocal cord. Singing like that for hours." I agree with Alice. I don't even have the strength to scream for more than 10 minutes and Hanabi had been singing for way longer than that. "You miss a powerful recruit, Kara."
"Sigh… I sure do." I don't think she'll shine as brightly as she is now if she was a shrine maiden though. "Our doors are always open for you, Hanabi."
"Can you ever get bored, Kara? How many times have you asked Hanabi that question?" Tadashi sounds annoyed. I guess rightfully so. If someone keeps asking me the same question over and over again, I would get angry too.
"Hahahaha! Thank you Kara but I would like to stay at the academy." Hanabi's brother, Tadashi was grinning smugly at Kara when Hanabi gave out her answer. "Don't worry! I would still perform shrine maidens ceremonies if you ask me!" Can you? I have an image that the ceremonies shrine maidens usually do are calm and serene, not loud and hectic like the concert was.
"Then how about singing for your transfer ceremony?" She is not letting her go, huh.
"Alright! Alright! Close it off! I can't have you poached my talent away now, can I?" The woman that picked us up earlier spoke up while clapping her hands. "If you take her away from me, how the hell am I going to finance myself?"
"Aren't you an academy's student? How much does it cost you to study there?" So Hanabi's manager is her classmate. "Are they running out of money or have those old crooks finally shown their greed?" What is this poison you are spewing, Kara? Do you have some sort of bad memories with them?
"Not yet." Tadashi? Are you on Kara's side? "I'm really eager to go at them."
"You're going against your elders. They have way more experiences than you." Kara did say that Tadashi is one of the strongest so is he going to fight them with fist? "They got experiences, you know? You'll likely lose."
"Nah, I'd win."
"Tsuyo." I whisper to Tsuyo as to not draw attention to me. "I heard Kara said that Tadashi is one of the most powerful in the academy but how powerful is that?"
"From what I've heard, he can concentrate lightning from an entire storm and have them strike down at the same time. I have no idea how exaggerated that story is though." How much volt of energy does a thunderstorm usually contain again? I would assume a lot so having all of that in a single strike should be devastating. And if that's true then Tadashi could only unleash his full potential if there was a thunderstorm. I wonder how strong he really is without a thunderstorm.
More importantly, I wonder who'll win, him or The Arsenal Bird.
Gone are the images of the dignified saintess, replaced by an image of dumb girl hugging a bunch of round cats.
"Oh my~~ What has this one done to deserve such punishment from her lover?"
Ah, the prostitutes.
"You royals are always acting high and fancy as if you weren't born to take my cock."
"Good~~ Good~~ Empty everything~~ Don't worry, I'll please the commander in your place."