"Did you just… summon a kitchen?" Hikari wondered, following him through the arch. What a fascinating ability to have; did they all get something like this? Hmm, if that was the case… no, it didn't feel like she got anything quite so drastic in her own reincarnation. Hopefully, she got more than just cooking knowledge, or this would be an awfully unfair trade in comparison.

It was a nice kitchen; looking around she could see no shortage of tools – most of which she had never used, and some that she had no names for – but was immediately aware of something that wouldn't have ever been a problem in a kitchen before now but was quite the obstacle for a small, young fox girl…

"Ah, do you think there's some steps I can use? Doing preparation sounds like something perfectly within my capabilities, but…" she moved over to one of the counters for demonstration. If she stretched, sure, but that wasn't the right way to cut anything at all…

The smartest and cutest doll - Lena
@FujiwaraPhoenix@VitaVitaAR@Crimson Paladin

---

"Hmhm, as it should be. I am pretty great, aren't I?" Lena, of course, was completely oblivious to the elfs indifference as she went around checking the supplies. It was easy enough to gather up what she could, make a few makeshift bags out of the materials laying around. Nothing spectacular, but something that could help keep them alive for now, at least. She of course, also made sure to take a healthy helping of alcohol and refrained from indulging then and there just in case. Wouldn't do to get flat drunk in case this body could and its tolerance was zero.

Of course, leaving couldn't be easy.

"Hmm...flexible...?" Lena would proceed to test this. She'd stretch her arms, the ball and socket joints that made up her elbows allowing for her arms to bend in ways that would be difficult for normal bones to do. Her legs were much similar, as she'd be able to easily lift her foot right to her ear. "Hmhm, yes, it seems I am very flexible. Interesting. I could more easily work on smaller or hard to reach spots on machines, yes? Ah, but Javal, perhaps it would be best for me to scout over. I am lighter and smaller, aside from the fact that rubble looks unstable you should stay down here in case the zombies see us before we get over."

If nothing else, perhaps she could use that ability of hers to use the rubble to form some sort of barrier or wall, perhaps?

"I just learned how? Of course I did. I didn't look like this before. I don't even know where we are." Jor said as she was massaging out her legs. "That was my first time turning into a snake and back, though I can say for sure that I was quite adorable." She said proudly before most the rest of the room headed off toward the kitchen. Her legs stopped tingling so much so she attempted to stand though it was slightly troublesome for her still.

"So, uhhh..." Jor stumbled out, looking toward the familiar bird. "Delicious-looking bird woman." The snake wasn't fully sure in what manner she meant that... But she did feel a small bit hungry. "Pardon, Relki was it? You're a familiar? I'm a bit jealous of that little witch of yours. I kinda wish I could summon a little birdie too." Jor mentioned as she finally started to get the full feeling back in her legs and tapped each foot on the ground a few times to make sure it felt right. "I hope I get more use to this whole shapeshifting thing." She couldn't help but look at Relki and ask another question. "I think it'd be safe to call you my senior in shapeshifting. Any advice for a newbie?"

"Steps?" Nick parroted as he placed the first batch of ingredients he had taken from the witch's pantry down onto one of the countertops inside the kitchen. "Your guess would be as good as mine, but let me take a look around."

With the question as to whether or not Hikari would enter being a rather definitive "yes", though, the young man took a mental note to maybe experiment with this newfound pocket dimension at a later time. Regardless of how useful (or not) it might be in combat, having a little place to duck into wouldn't be as great if people could just bust the door down and loot the place anyways.

It didn't take too long to find something that filled Hikari's request, at the very least; the room with the massive pot that he had mostly glossed over had also come with a small stepstool with which to make reaching (and seeing) the top of it easier. Grabbing that and bringing it over for the foxgirl maid to use in her own efforts, therefore, was a no-brainer.

"I think that should be sufficient," he remarked before walking over to the nearby sink and turning the water on. The fact that it functioned was... To be expected, in a sense, but Nick was still left to wonder about why exactly that was the case.

For the moment, though, justifying everything with 'it's magic' would have to do. Regardless, the fox hadn't exactly given him any frame of reference for her confidence as to cooking, but it didn't hurt to try and request what he needed done before anything else.

"You can probably get away with kicking that to move around, so after you've cleaned up, could I ask if you could prep the mushrooms and beef?" the young man asked as he approximated the size of what he needed with his hands. "If you know what a beef wellington is, that's our goal for the main. Something about... That big will do for the meat. Mushrooms, fine dice and cook them off with some shallots. I'll handle the puff pastry, but otherwise we should have more or less everything we need for that... I think. Appetizer, probably going for something with cucumbers, dessert would probably be fine reusing any spare puff pastry for some fruit tarts? Yeah, that sounds about right for now."

If anyone else chose to hop in to watch or explore, though, Nick wasn't exactly in any position to stop them. As long as they didn't mess with anything or put them in danger, he had no reason to kick them out.

@VitaVitaAR@Raineh Daze@Pyromania99



Despite the shakiness of the stability of some of the footholds that Javal had taken to scale the rubble, in the end he managed to successfully climb to the top without causing any incident to alert the undead nearby. Whether or not that was by sheer luck of something naturally intuitive was something the man himself would have to find the answer to himself, but at the very least he would be provided with a vantage point from which to view the area past it.

Luckily enough, there were no undead to be seen on the other side of the roadblock here; only a massive hole in the side of the opposite building, the wall from which one would assume must have been what made up the blockade in the first place. Peering inside would reveal a shop that had most certainly seen better days; even from here, the half-destroyed countertops and displays were rather evident, though it was another question entirely if there were even any goods left inside—and even then one would have to wonder if the elements hadn't rendered them unusable by now.

If there was a basement here, then maybe the goods would have found similar reprieve as the store of preserved goods in the inn; who could say?

Supposing that exploring the building was deemed too dangerous to proceed with, though, the alleyway did seem to lead out towards an empty side path. Whether or not it was just as dangerous as walking out the other way was a risk that the group would naturally have to take, but it was still an option to pursue if they were so inclined.

@VitaVitaAR@Crimson Paladin@Rune_Alchemist

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 easy, so easy that it was second nature.

She couldn't say that she had ever had that sort of confidence in anything. 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 comfortable, 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 this 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, much longer than the easy work she was making of the mushrooms or the shallots after that.

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

---

---

The expression of mute confusion on Ilsa's face said it all. Here, in the midst of her home, some sort of new location had appeared from no-where, filled with some strange objects she didn't recognize but also plenty she did. It was a kitchen. That had appeared just like that.

The green-haired witch couldn't help but silently stare as things began to get underway. She'd expect that apparently the 'student' could cook, and the fox-folk girl was dressed as a maid so it perhaps wasn't particularly shocking she showed this capability as well.

No, no, all of that paled in comparison to what she was witnessing before her eyes.

As the fairy pair excitedly began to flit around the new space, examining absolutely everything as closely as possible, all that Ilsa could do was stare wordlessly.

It was some time before she managed to speak.

"---Let me get this straight," Ilsa began, facing Nick as a frown creeped across her features, "You're claiming to be a student, and yet you just summoned a closed space without any particular fanfare, at-will. Putting aside... whatever this thing is---"

She gestured towards a device she didn't recognize, with a pale blue base and what looked like a cup of some kind attached to it with a lid. The fairies had swiftly discovered it, the pink-haired fairy repeatedly twisting the knob on the bottom and pressing various buttons to make what looked like a blade on the interior of the cup whirr rapidly as the blue-haired fairy watched in awe.

"---Do you really expect me to believe such a claim? My mentor can construct a closed space, but I hardly believe the average student is pulling this off that easily."

Relki had been about to follow Ilsa, but she paused for a moment at Jor's questioning.

"Mmm..." She tapped her finger against her chin for a few moments, silently, before giving the shapeshifter girl a shrug.

"I don't know!"

Her cheerful answer probably wasn't the one that had been desired.

"As a familiar, this is just how I am. Ever since I was 'born'---"

The way she said born was somewhat unusual, almost as if it was referring to something other then a natural birth despite using the same word, but regardless---

"---I've been able to do it whenever I wanted. I can't imagine it's the same for someone who uses shapeshifting magic... is it? Hmmm..."

The raven familiar considered that possibility for a few moments again, then shrugged again.

"I wouldn't know, I guess! But I don't think I could teach you to fly, ether... so it's probably the same kind of problem!"

@Raineh Daze@FujiwaraPhoenix@Pyromania99

The smartest and cutest doll - Lena
@FujiwaraPhoenix@VitaVitaAR@Crimson Paladin

---

Well, no time like the present to get a move on.

In a perhaps rather reckless fashion, Lena would scale the pile of rubble, her light body making it rather easy to avoid causing any problems as she'd reach the top, and proceed to more or less just leap down the other side. Hypothesis proven that indeed, this body was much more physically capable than her old one. Perhaps she should have gone into robotics so she could embrace the warm embrace of the machine instead of engineering.

Oh well.

"I vote we get a move on." Lena suggested. "The sooner we get out of this place the better, yes? Though, suppose finding a map or something would be a good idea, too..." She'd make a move to head down the side path, trying to keep quiet at least in case there was anything creeping around.

The paths beyond the rubble definitely looked more appealing. One led into the ruins of what looked like a shop, the other was a side passage. The shop might have something useful, but they needed to get out of this zombie-infested town as quickly as possible.

Javal considered his options, and whether the shop could have anything that they needed, when Lena made her decision and headed to the side passage. Javal followed behind, wishing neither to hesitate nor risk splitting up. Of course, they still needed to figure out just how to escape this place. In theory, heading in any direction for long enough would eventually lead them out, but the streets, alleys, and zombies, and rubble might not permit an easy exit.

Perhaps it would help to locate a decent vantage point. The climb over the rubble had made it evident that his new body was fairly dextrous, perhaps there were other places that he could scale...

While something a bit rougher and more expected of a beginner home chef would have been well and fine, Nick had most certainly not expected that Hikari would be able to so easily match his skill in the kitchen. It had left him with some rather complex feelings, of course, but given how she seemed to have appeared as a maid and how he had access to this place to begin with...

Well, writing it off as her cheat meant that he wouldn't feel that bad about it in comparison.

"Better than expected, huh? All right, I'll leave that to you for now," he remarked as he finished forming and kneading the dough just enough to let it rest. The obvious lack of saran wrap or even parchment paper was a bit unfortunate at the moment, but the amount that he had made would probably be sufficient for their meal tonight... In due time.

As he set the pastry dough aside to rest, however, the young man would promptly find himself accosted by a none-too-pleased Ilsa, who wasted no time in breaking down how unfathomable his story had been when paired up with the new pocket dimension that he had found himself the proud new owner of.

"Uh... I mean, I'm just as surprised as you, but I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth," the young man replied as he, in glancing at the fairies messing with the nearby blender, ran over towards them and took a hold of the device. "Hey, no, that's dangerous, all right? If you want to watch us cook, that's fine, but I don't want anyone getting hurt on my watch."

There was a brief pause as he glanced at the other ingredients that he had initially planned to use for a dessert before deciding that keeping this pair out of everyone else's hair was probably a better use of his time while waiting for the pastry to set.

"How about this: I'll make you a sweet drink with this if you promise not to play with anything here, okay?"

Surely a strawberry milkshake would be enough to keep the pair satisfied until things were ready; with the fruit, milk, and honey on hand already, all he needed was a bit of ice to blend down with it...

And maybe that'd keep Ilsa from blowing her lid at him over this, too? Hopefully that would be the case.

@VitaVitaAR@Raineh Daze@Pyromania99



Having eschewed any exploration of the shop in lieu of a search for escape, the group would steadily make their way forward through the side path that, by the looks of things, drew them further away from the main roads. Bereft of any signs of life, the trio could well assume that it was clear of zombies.

In a sense, they weren't wrong... But they weren't quite right either.

The back alleys, clear as they were, brought with them an uncanny silence. Naught but the sounds of footsteps and breathing were their companions as the trio pressed ahead, but after half a minute of walking one of the doorways behind them would burst open, blowing rotten wood and stone all over the path behind them.

From the dust would emerge a behemoth of a man—or what had once been one—lugging behind it a massive rusted sword that cried out against the pavement as it scraped along. Parts of it's body were barely visible beneath the dull armor that it wore, but that might have only served to make it all the more menacing.

Unfortunately, the undead's grand entrance meant that returning the way they had come was all but impossible—not unless they wanted to take the zombie on in what little space they had. It wasn't impossible, but the option to run might have seemed more enticing in the moment.

@VitaVitaAR@Crimson Paladin@Rune_Alchemist