[h2]Abe Hikari[/h2]

With the steps to give herself enough visibility, and a good chef's knife in hand, Hikari felt… confident. It was a strange feeling. In the context of a kitchen, she could only ever remember being very cautious handling a knife and making big, rough slices. Even just peeling the shallots would have been a challenge. Now? It felt like it was going to be [i]easy[/i], so easy that it was second nature.

She couldn't say that she had ever had that sort of confidence in [i]anything.[/i] Oh, she had been good enough at business, but that always carried the undercurrent of imminent failure and long nights extra put in to prepare, especially with any presentation to give after. But long practice and experience didn't ever make her [i]comfortable[/i], merely… passable. Thinking back, she honestly couldn't say she remembered ever having this confidence maybe since she was a child? 

Okay, first the meat – a few easy slices was all it took, although she had the idea that maybe they should have prepared [i]this[/i] the day before, optimally. Now… ah, get another chopping board, she wouldn't have thought of that without this strange external knowledge worming into her brain. Hmm, she liked this knife, though, so go clean it, then… finely dicing the mushrooms! 

If she had wanted proof that her cheat ability was either to do with her appearance, or maybe just knives for some bizarre reason, then this was it: before winding up here, every movement would have been made with extreme hesitancy to protect her fingers, leading to an even, roughly-chopped mess of mushroom after… well, who knew how long. Much, [i]much[/i] longer than the easy work she was making of the mushrooms or the shallots after that.

Not that it wasn't still inconvenient being [i]short,[/i] she had to pick up and move the steps – and the ingredients, carefully – to be in position to fry the mushrooms into a duxelle.