3 The Cloaked Man and The Connection

I had a life, back then.

It was just starting, about to become a upward spiral into my greatest dream.

I can still feel the cold metal bullet, deep inside my skull.

Even if in this life, even if I try to replicate what my life could have been...

If I had the chance, I would go back. I want to go back.

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Waking up, Alice sat up in her bed. Right, she had closed the shop last night a bit after the man had crashed into her restaurant. She could barely remember her dream, but it was likely the same as always.

Putting on a apron, hairnet, and wielding a frying pan and spatula, it was time to begin preparing for the morning breakfast rush.

First, she would prepare the ingredients. Plant and animal life here weren't like those on earth, so ingredients would have to be substituted for the most similar ones that existed here.

A skillet, sitting atop a flame-spirit oven, began to heat up.

Oil, Chicken-Like meat, Onion, Mushrooms, and A type of bean that was as close to Soy Beans as she could find fell into the skillet first. Sizzling with a exotic scent, she could feel her thoughts begin to wash away as her movement became automatic.

Butter, rice-like grain, salt and pepper. Those went in next, flipping the skillet with her left hand and using her right to mix the ingredients.

A dash of Demi-glace sauce, and after flipping it a few more times, it would be placed into a melon cup to be shaped. It smelled heavenly, and the scent would soon attract the morning customers like hungry wolves.

Placing it on a plate, the eggs were up next.

Chickens didn't exist here, but a bird like it substituted it and it's eggs. It looked and tasted similar, but it was more dinosaur-like in appearance and laid mint-blue colored eggs that were similar in size to a ostrich's. Due to its size, rather then needing three eggs per person, one would do just fine.

Mixing it with chopsticks and straining it through a strainer, the pan heated up further, and the ringing of a bell signified a customer had entered.

Pouring it into the pan, it almost immediately began to cook. Using the same chopsticks, she began to mix the eggs, fast enough to appear to be a blur. Tilting the pan to the side, she began to fold it over itself, flipping it a few times to shape it further.

After half a minute of this, she placed it atop the rice, and using a adamantine metal knife, cut it in a way that let it fold over the rice.

She repeated this a few more times, and gave the first to a customer.

"Ah! This is good, dunno where ya come up with such recipes, but my stomach ain't complaining at all!" They spoke.

Omurice was a cuisine that didn't exist here previously to her creation, as due to it's difficultly it would have been impossible to discover beforehand.

"Thank you for your praise." Alice, while she disliked compliments on her appearance, was always more happy to have people appreciate her cooking. Appearances were randomly given, not controllable but could control one's life. Hard work was something that could be controlled, and in her situation control was a rarity. Not that it was bad to like getting compliments on looks, of course, it was just her personal opinion.

After the morning rush hour finished and she had around half a hour till new customers started flowing in, Alice decided to finally deal with her current bother, the cloaked man who had arrived yesterday. She was fully expecting something dumb, this entire world was made up of stupid cliche shit.

"Ah, Alice. You're here, finally." Spoke the soft voice of annoyance #1, Neryus. The clinic having been full, it was decided without her consent that the mystery man would be staying in the guest room. It was previously a storage room, but now had a blanket and pillow on the floor.

The man who stayed here sat in the center, wrapped in tons of bandages. He wasn't bad looking, but having lost tons of blood, he was as pale as a vampire. Black curly hair sat above brown-green eyes, and if he wasn't paled from blood loss he'd look slightly tan.

"O-oh, you're the person who helped me, right? T-thanks..." he seemed to have a stutter, not from a speech impediment but rather from remnants of fear. "I-I suppose I should tell you what happened... I-"

"No thanks. You don't need to tell me." Firstly, She didn't want a obviously traumatized man to have to relive whatever he went through. Secondly, she'd be roped into helping him with whatever demons or shit he wants her to stop.

"I-I mean, I would like to tell you... s-since it leads into my request..." Oh god, here it comes.

"I-I was sent from Akarui... to investigate some ruins... I had stayed back far enough not to die but... a horrible creature has been set free, we broke the barrier and set it free... in my fear, I ran all the way here..."

"Wait, you ran from Akarui to the edge of Genkai, bleeding like that?"

"N-no, I fell down from a tree and landed in a pile of thorns just outside of town... I-I got cut up pretty bad..."

"Why did you run here? To this specific town?" She was already annoyed, but she wanted to at least hear his reasoning for why he was here.

"W-well, I wanted to get as far away from that monster as possible... I smelled something good here, I haven't eaten anything but spiders for the past month...."

"Unfortunately I can't do anything about that 'monster' you mentioned, but I can offer you a meal. If you want to pay for it, you can work here as a waiter." She offered. Once he got cleaned up, he could probably get a few more customers in. He wouldn't be a rich-girl magnet like Neryus, but he could help.

"R-really?! T-thank you..."

Bringing up one of the extra Omurice she had made, the near second Alice had brought it in the man had snatched it and began eating it like a rabid wolf. She couldn't blame him however, he did eat spiders for a month, and with her amazing cooking no one could resist, it made sense he'd go rabid.

"Woah! Dish ish sho good!" He spoke with a full mouth, not wanting to pause his feast for even a moment.

"Of course it's good, everything I make is delicious!" She couldn't help but brag. Anyone could pick up a blade, but few could wield a spatula as well as herself.

"Ah, I forgot to say. My name's Rio."

"Alice, and this ass- I mean, my assistant is named Neryus."