Cooking Companion

After breakfast, which was green waffles and pancakes with scrambled eggs and bacon or sausage links, I decided to stick around the Dining Hall a bit. There was one person I had not spoken to much, and today seemed like a great day to do so: Teruteru.

As everyone else departed the Dining Hall, I stayed behind to talk to Teruteru, and see if he needed a hand with today's dinner, since it would likely be a holiday-themed one.

Not surprisingly, he was very eager to accept my help, and asked me to drop by the Kitchen around 4pm. I obliged, and took my leave, looking for something to do in the meanwhile.

I headed to the Game Room, and played Roulette for a while, getting up to 3000 Monocoins before stopping at 1pm, when Rantaro came in. The two of us played darts and Chess for a while (he beat me all 3 times at Darts, but I beat him both times at Chess). We really did not talk about much of anything, but I enjoyed his company, and he seemed to enjoy mine.

When 4pm hit, Rantaro decided to come with me to the Kitchen. Teruteru was surprised to see Rantaro accompany me, but did not seem to mind his company. Teruteru handed each of us aprons.

"Tonight, I plan on creating the legendary St. Patrick's Day dish of corned beef and cabbage, served with mashed potatoes, steamed carrots, and dinner rolls. While that may seem simple to some, I see every dish I create as an opportunity to serve up an unforgettable experience! Now, of course, everyone's tastes differ depending on likes and dislikes, their memories and perceptions, so it is up to each person to truly decide what is tasty to them. Therefore, a true chef must create enough sides to appeal to everyone, even if the main course is not to their liking, so that everyone leaves full and happy! That's where the mashed potatoes, steamed carrots, and dinner rolls come in, naturally."

Rantaro nodded, clearly impressed with Teruteru's speech. As for Teruteru, he looked over at the potatoes and carrots.

"I must make sure the meat is...properly prepared, so one of you can peel the potatoes, and the other one, the carrots."

"I'll volunteer for the potatoes," Rantaro announced. "I always worry about nicking myself when peeling small objects, and Shishano's fingers are smaller than mine."

I smiled and sighed internally, not wanting to peel the potatoes anyway, and grabbed the first bag of carrots.

Rantaro went to the kitchen counter, on the far side of the room, so I sat at the kitchen table in the middle, my back close to the entrance. As I opened the carrots, I sensed Teruteru's presence on my right, and was instantly dreading my decision to sit here.

"Hey," Teruteru said in a low, quiet voice that instantly annoyed me. "Is there any chance the two of us can be together?"

I managed a smile and replied, "Absolutely."

Teruteru smiled and responded, "Oh? And when can we make that happen?"

I looked him dead in the eye, smiled very politely, and answered, "When you are lying dead in front of me, and I am draining your blood and removing your organs, preparing you for burial."

Teruteru's eyes grew wide, and his face went a bit pale. Meanwhile, I returned my attention to the carrots, finally opening the bag and beginning to peel them, one by one.

After peeling all the carrots, I ran water over them to rinse them off, then put them off to the side for Teruteru to steam, then went over to Rantaro to assist him with the last of the potatoes, peeling and slicing them up so they would be easier to mash. Teruteru thanked us for our assistance (in a way only Teruteru could muster; I am not repeating his words), and Rantaro and I parted ways. Looking at the time, it was around 4:45pm, so I decided to take some time to myself, in my dorm room.

At 7pm, there was a knock at my door. Curious, I checked my peep-hole, then opened the door to Toko.

"Teruteru s-said to get everyone re-re-ready for dinner. Head to th-the Dining Hall if you're hungry."

I nodded. "Thank you, Toko. Are you going to join us, as well?"

Toko scoffed. "Why? Do you think I'm too u-ugly to eat with the rest of you? M-maybe you should get a dog bowl and put it in the corner, let me eat out of that ins-stead!"

I sighed and shook my head, not wishing to engage with Toko any further, and simply walked past her towards the Dining Hall. She muttered something else, but I could not make it out.

Eventually, everyone except Toko, Fuyuhiko, and Mondo showed up. According to Sakura, Mondo was headed up to the Dojo to "blow off some steam" on the punching bags. Fuyuhiko still refused to leave his room, saying his outfit was an insult to him as a Yakuza, and as a human being. As for Toko...apparently, she was just being Toko. Jack had apparently came out earlier today and tried chasing Rantaro around the Second Floor for half an hour, but Rantaro had lost her by sneaking downstairs while she was looking in the Exercise Room for him.

As expected, Teruteru did an incredible job with the St. Patrick's Day dinner. The corned beef was delicious, despite the saltiness of the beef initially catching me off guard. Teruteru had also prepared lamb, in case anyone did not like beef. The carrots were tender, but not falling apart, and the mashed potatoes were incredibly smooth. I ate two plates, one with beef, one with lamb, and got the carrots and potatoes both time.

Even Hiyoko had nothing negative to say about the food, and Tenko, despite being the last one to show up, admitted she was happy not to have missed out on such a great meal.

"Well, of course you're happy not to miss out. These are the world's tastiest dinners I'm serving up, after all. That is what I cook for you all. After all, both life and cooking need a sense of adventure sometimes, and what greater adventures than the flavors I present to you all?"

Sakura responded, "Indeed, your mastery with food is second to none, Teruteru."

Nekomaru agreed with Sakura's comment, as did Mahiru and Rantaro.

After everyone was finished eating and the plates were put up, Mahiru got a group picture of everyone together in their St. Patrick's Day outfits, by putting the camera on a timer on the Dining Hall table and having everyone line up for the shot. After the picture was taken and everyone got to see it, she hooked her camera up to her E-Handbook and sent the photo in the Group Chat, so everyone could download it to their own E-Handbooks if they wanted to. It was a shame that Toko, Fuyuhiko, and Mondo weren't in the picture, but they each had their reasons.

Tenko volunteered for dish duty, which seemed odd to me, but I had no desire to take her place. Teruteru said Tenko could clean the dishes and silverware, and then leave. As for Teruteru, he insisted on cleaning the pots and pans used for cooking himself, as he said it would take much longer to clean those.

Full from dinner, and happy from the group photo, I decided to head back to my dorm room to get some rest, and ended up going to bed early. My full belly made sleep difficult, but I eventually drifted off to sleep sometime before Monorakun's 10pm Nighttime announcement.

The next morning, Monorakun's usual morning announcement woke me up. I got up, stretched, and went to open my closet. It opened with no problems, and I grabbed my outfit for the day. I put on my tights and dress, got my heels on, brushed my hair, and then headed towards the Dining Hall for breakfast.

Hiyoko and Mahiru were just outside the Dining Hall door, their noses scrunched up. Mahiru had her hand over her mouth, as if something had made her sick.

"Eee-Yuck!" Hiyoko blurted out. "It stinks in there!"

"Yeah, it really does, Shishano. I don't have the stomach to see what's wrong. Can you go check and see?"

Sure enough, a familiar smell entered my nostrils. It was like burnt pork, with a hint of charcoal, sulfur, and a hint of sickly-sweet that's hard to describe. It reminded me of my early days at the mortuary, my first day working the crematorium with my mom and dad. I smiled inside, remembering how proud I was to show my parents that I could perform a proper cremation all by my...

Wait a minute. Why is this smell reminding me of THIS?

My eyes suddenly going wide, I headed quickly into the Dining Hall. The smell was coming from the Kitchen door, and got stronger as I approached it. However, I did not see anyone inside the Dining Hall, nor did I hear anyone inside the Kitchen. I looked back, and Mahiru and Hiyoko were staring at me from the doorway, holding their noses.

Entering the Kitchen, the smell was almost overpowering now, except I was already familiar with this smell, and was hoping I was wrong. I noticed the oven was on, and set to its maximum temperature of 500*F. Finding that strange, I turned the oven off, closed my eyes and took a shallow breath to steady my nerves, and then unlocked and opened the oven.

Inside was Teruteru, cooked in the oven, his hands falling out as the door opened. I saw hand smears all over the inside glass, as if Teruteru was trying to push the door open from within.

I walked out of the Kitchen and waved Hiyoko and Mahiru into the kitchen, knowing what would happen as soon as they stepped inside. As soon as they looked at Teruteru, I was right.

An alert went over the monitors. "Greetings, everybody! I have a special announcement to make. Your breakfast this morning shall consist of three sets of eyes on a dead body. Everyone report to the Kitchen, NOW!"

The three of us looked at each other. Mahiru and Hiyoko, with equal parts disgust and confusion. Me, with equal parts confusion and annoyance, because I would have to search Teruteru's cooked corpse for clues as to what exactly happened to him. He was a pervert, true, but he was our cook, our chef. His meals were second to none; now they were just...none.

Did Teruteru perv on the wrong person? Was someone plotting his murder already, and found an opening to execute their plan? Suicide seemed unlikely; the oven door was locked from the outside, like most other manual oven locks function, but stranger things have happened in this place.

Who killed Teruteru, and why?

Sadly, that was not going to be the only question we would have to answer this morning.