Okay, more like 44 hours.
>>4700 Both are correct, and believe it or not, 'omelet' is apparently the older of the two spellings in English, first attested in the 17th century, with 'omelette' only showing up around the end of the 19th century. If it's any consolation, the single-t version annoys the hell out of me, too.
---
[X] Omelettes are always good.
[X] ...about the dreams you've been having.
[X] ...about her workout yesterday and what sort of training she does.
[X] ...about what happened during the search yesterday.
[X] ...about cooking.
As you continue to look through Yuugi's food supply, your options for breakfast get fewer and fewer. Sure, there's always rice and miso soup, but you can't shake the urge to show off and make something a little more exotic. Has Yuugi ever even had a western breakfast before? Vegetables... you could make some hash browns, but that's not really a full meal. Meat... well, western meals do center around the meat, but you're making breakfast, not dinner.
You close the icebox lid and move past the stove, following the same path you took the first time you used Yuugi's kitchen, but this time, something catches your eye; a medium-sized jar, tucked between the icebox and the counter, filled with a cloudy liquid. Curious, you crouch down and grab it, setting it on the counter and pulling off the lid. Immediately, a strong, earthy smell, similar to the one you smelled when you first entered these caves, hits your nose, and you push the jar away from you. As you do, something shifts within the jar, and against the dark-colored countertop, you can nearly see through the liquid to the real contents...
"...Eggs?"
"Mm-hmm," Yuugi replies from behind you. "There's not much demand for 'em down here, so the farmers just store 'em up and sell 'em by the dozen."
"Huh," you say, reaching into the solution and pulling out one of the eggs. So this water is to preserve the eggs? The shell feels a little waxy to the touch, and that smell is more than a little unusual, but the fact that they don't float tells you that they haven't gone bad yet. "Is it all right if I use some of these, then?"
"Go for it. What for?"
...Yeah, that sounds good. "You ever had an omelette before, Yuugi?" you ask.
"Don't think so," she replies, stepping up next to you at the kitchen counter. "What is it?"
"It's... hm, sort of like a combination of tamagoyaki and okonomiyaki. The base is egg, but then you put a bunch of other stuff in it."
"For breakfast?" she asks skeptically.
You shrug. "It's pretty filling, but it tastes good."
"...Eh, I'll try anything once." Yuugi says, still sounding a little unconvinced. "What should I do?"
Well, that just means she'll be that much more surprised when it turns out to be delicious, right? "Can you chop up some vegetables?" She nods in response, and you pull down some onions and mushrooms and pass them over to her. A quick dip back into the icebox for a bit of the ham you saw earlier also reveals a wedge of cheese, tucked away in the corner; it's an odd color and a little crumbly, but it tastes good, and the texture shouldn't matter once it's melted. You take both items out of the icebox and leave the ham to thaw for a bit while you go to work on the cheese.
For a few minutes, the two of you work in companionable silence, Yuugi continuing to slice up the vegetables as you gather up everything else you'll need. Try as you might, though, you can't quite put your dream this morning out of your mind, and the silence only sets your mind running in the same old circles. Three times in a row... this isn't just some strange, magical coincidence, is it? Yuugi must know something about what's going on.
"So, uh, Yuugi..."
"Hm?"
...Of course, that doesn't make it any easier to bring something like this up out of the blue. "I've been... having some kind of unusual dreams lately, and I was wondering, uh--"
"Oh." The way the knife in her hand pauses mid-cut tells you that she knows exactly what you're talking about, and you stay quiet as she fiddles with her hands nervously, searching for the right words.
"That, uh. It's... yeah." She heaves a great sigh, setting the knife down and laying both hands flat against the table, and you sneak a glance over at her, only to find that she's already looking at you, mouth twisted down in a worried expression. "You... saw those too?" she asks in a small voice.
'Too'? "Yeah."
"Ah." She clasps her hands together on the table, her fingers twitching nervously again. "Uh, sorry 'bout that."
"No need to apologize, it's not like anything bad happened." So the dreams really have been her doing? "What... what are they?"
"Just what they look like, really. My dreams. Or, uh, memories, I guess." Yuugi chuckles slightly, pushing herself away from the counter and turning away from you slightly. "Manipulation of dreams was Mom's power. I guess it got passed down, sort of, but... I can't really control it, and I don't know what sets it off. So..." She turns back to you, not quite looking you in the eye. "...uh, yeah. Bein' farther away helps, so I can move out into the living room or something and see if that fixes it."
"You don't have to go that far. It's not like they're really bugging me or anything." ...Well, no, of course it doesn't bother you; it's not
your memories being put on display against your will. "Er, I mean, I'm not trying to pry or--"
"No, yeah, I know!" she interrupts, looking a little flustered herself. "I mean, if you're interested, I'll tell you about back then myself sometime, I'm not tryin' to hide anything, it's just... She finally meets your eyes. "...I'd rather talk about the good times than the bad times, y'know?"
"Yeah, I can understand that," you say. "And I can be the one to move out to the living room. It's not like I have any stuff of my own to move."
"I guess that's true," she says, smiling awkwardly, and the two of you share a glance for another second or two as the conversation peters out before simultaneously turning back to the food in silence.
...And staying in silence, neither of you sure where to begin the conversation again. Well, this is uncomfortable. "So, did you already finish your workout today? I didn't hear you throwing any boulders around this morning," you say jokingly, trying to lighten the mood a little.
"Today's a rest day," Yuugi says with a more genuine smile, clearly grateful for the topic change. "Tomorrow I do lower body, then the day after is upper body again. Ah, I can still help out if you wanna work on flyin' or something, though," she adds.
"Hmm... maybe for a little bit, after breakfast," you reply. You know you probably shouldn't strain yourself before the search today, but you can't help but want to learn to fly, and considering how much you drank last night, you actually feel relatively good.
...Well, physically, at least, you think gloomily as you're reminded for the first time today of your duties at the palace. "I told you I was going back to the palace for another search today, right, Yuugi?" you ask.
"Oh, yeah," Yuugi replies, digging her knife into the still partially-frozen ham. "Did you ever tell me how that all ended up yesterday?"
You didn't, did you? "Pretty badly," you say, frowning unconsciously as you pull more eggs out of the jar. "There was a fight between one of Satori's pets and two of the oni."
"Mm. How bad?" Yuugi asks neutrally.
"I'm... not sure." After hearing Yuugi describe an oni losing a finger as "nothing serious" yesterday, you really don't know how serious the injuries you saw actually were anymore. "The council head sent one of them home from the search to heal."
"By himself?"
"I think so."
"Then he's fine. The council head would have taken him back personally if he was really hurt," Yuugi says. "How about afterwards?"
"There was some shouting, but the fight was the worst of it."
"So not too bad, then." Yuugi chuckles. "I'd be more surprised if there wasn't any shoutin'. Is this enough stuff chopped up?"
"Looks good," you say, cracking the last of the eggs into a bowl and pulling a fork from the drawer in front of you to mix them with. "Can you grab a pan?"
"Yeah," she says, setting down her knife and opening the cupboard before her... and scanning its contents for a moment, a confused expression on her face, before closing it again.
"Uh, wrong one," she says, shuffling closer to you to open up the neighboring cupboard.
And closing it again. "You really don't cook much, huh?" you ask with a smirk as she finally finds the right cupboard on the third try, pulling out the pan and walking back around to her original position.
"Yeah," she laughs, a slight blush rising to her cheeks as she lights a small fire under the pan. "With Yamame around, s'been a while since I've even bothered tryin'. Recipes and stuff aren't really my strong spot in the first place."
"Really? The stuff at your distillery looked pretty complex."
"Eh, that's different. With booze, even if you mess up, the worst you've got is bad booze. With food, you don't cook it long enough, you get sick, you cook it too long, you get charcoal, you spill a little oil, you've got a big old fire..." She shudders slightly, clearly recalling an unpleasant memory. "I'd just as soon try my luck with a big hunk of meat on a stick."
"Just like the stories? How traditional," you say with a chuckle, reaching past her slightly to scoop the onions she chopped into the pan.
"Guess I'm just old-fashioned. I've still got my old tetsubou layin' around somewhere, too." She leans in a little closer to you as you do, resting her elbows on the table and bringing her face near yours. "S'matter of fact, I think I even have a tiger-skin loincloth hidden away somewhere." Another little lean, and she's practically whispering in your ear. "Wanna see?"
"Uhm." Your brain knows the answer to this one (
extremely well, in fact), but the connection from it to your mouth doesn't seem to be working quite right, and you stammer just long enough for Yuugi to take a step back, poking a slim finger into your ribs.
"That's for makin' fun of me for not knowin' my way around my own kitchen," she says lightly, walking past you towards the door. "I'm gonna go wake up Yamame, so you can take care of the rest, Chef Taizou."
...Well. "Yeah, I do!" you call after her as you snap out of your stunned silence, just as she reaches the kitchen door. Her only reply is a laugh, but you could swear you see her hips give a little extra sway before she rounds the corner towards the bedrooms and out of sight.
You finish cooking the vegetables in short order, then pull them out and pour in the eggs in their place. As you wait for the mixture to get firm enough to add the fillings to, you look back out the kitchen door in time to catch a glimpse of Yuugi carrying a still-sleeping Yamame in her arms out to the table. Another minute of cooking, and you add the fillings and fold the omelet in half, then take the entire pan off the fire and out into the living room.
Breakfast passes peacefully, though you suppose that's to be expected when one of the diners is still only semi-conscious; Yamame can't seem to decide whether she'd rather eat or sleep, and you and Yuugi struggle not to laugh every time she spears a piece with her fork, raises it partway to her face, then slowly lets it fall again as her eyes droop closed. Just as you had hoped, Yuugi loves the omelette, and wolfs down her entire portion and a few bites of Yamame's while wondering aloud about what other sorts of things you could put into one. After the meal, Yuugi snatches your plate and insists on taking care of the dishes ("I oughta do something, since I can't cook, after all," she says with an outstretched tongue and a wink), leaving you alone with Yamame in the living room.
"So you're staying here?"
"Hm?" you call back through the door, the post-meal stupor already creeping up on you, confusing your thoughts. "Where else would I go?"
"I just thought you might decide to do some investigation on your own. You've got a little while before the search."
"I... guess so." You look back towards the door to the kitchen that Yuugi left through. Something's not quite right here, something that you can't put your finger on, but it's not enough to stop you from talking. "Where would I go, though?"
"I could show you." A small laugh that stirs something in the back of your mind. "I could even come with you, if you'd like."
"You..." What are you even talking about? You haven't told Yuugi about...
"Me?"
...That's not Yuugi's voice. "Gah!" You jump backwards, banging your legs against the underside of the table, as Koishi...
appears next to you, seeming to fall out of thin air. She gives another giggle as you press a hand to your heart, steadying your racing breathing and scooting as far away from her as you can.
"Hello!"
"H-How did--" Stupid question. "What are
you doing here?"
"You found out that I made you forget, right? I came to say that I'm very, very sorry and I'll never, ever do it again!" she says, with a beaming smile that eliminates what little impression of sincerity her apology had to start with. 'Made you forget'... is she talking about that secret door?
So she's admitting to it, then. "Is that all you wanted to say?" you ask coldly, the anger at having your memories tampered with rising to the surface. "If it is, then you can go now."
"Oh, please don't be angry!" Does this girl ever
not have a humongous grin on her face? "I'll even do something for you, to show you how sorry I am!"
"Do what, exactly?"
"You want to know something, but somebody else is trying to stop you," she says, in the sort of voice people use with small children. "That's what's in the back of your mind. And what you want to know about is the garden..." Koishi leans closer to you, eyebrows raised in innocent curiosity, and her closed third eye swivels on its stalks, bearing down on you from a different angle. "...or maybe not? But either way, I can help!"
"By. Doing.
What?"
"Hiding you, of course!" She shifts her sitting position slightly, reaching across the table, and before you can stop her, her hand stops in front of Yamame's sleepy face and snaps loudly, once, twice.
To no effect. Her eyes flicker shut again, without any sign that she's even noticed that Koishi's in the room.
"See?" she says happily, settling back into her seat and making a 'ta-dah!' gesture with her hands. "I can take you anywhere you want to go!"
You frown. "What am I supposed to tell Yuugi?"
Koishi's grin gets a little sharper for an instant, and she glances back at the kitchen door before rolling her eyes back over to you. "She doesn't have to notice."
Hmm. As leery as you are Koishi after what she did to you, the fact remains that everything she's said is right, or at least pretty close. The door in the basement of the palace, the oni you overheard plotting murder the night before last... you may not have a chance to figure out what's actually going on without Koishi's help.
[ ] You don't trust her. You can't trust her. Stay here.
- [ ] Take Yuugi up on that offer to help you with your flying.
- [ ] Just try to relax and rest up for the search.
[ ] You'll take her offer...
- [ ] Tell Yuugi that you're leaving first. Of course, she'll probably wonder what you're going to do... (Write-in)
- [ ] Just leave; let Koishi take care of the details.
[ ] ...and go...
- [ ] ...to the palace. You need to know what it is that Satori wants you to hide.
- [ ] ...to investigate the oni from the night of the party. This could be a matter of life or death.
[ ] Write-in
---
If there's a consensus on what to do by Saturday, I'll try to start writing then; weekdays are going to be harder for me for the next few months, so I'd like to shift my deadline back to Sunday night without going through another 9 day wait.
Speaking of spelling, why isn't 'consensus' spelled like 'census'?
