//Night 1 | Location: Nameless Forest - Lakeside@AThousandCurses@baraquiel@Nakushita@Yankee@Vertigo@Cu Chulainn“Mmm, a touch more salt would be nice, if I had any…”The broth, at least, looked to be working out. She had to restructure the way the firepit existed to begin with in order to get a flame hot enough for what she wanted, and even then, she was fundamentally cooking with four different small ‘pots’ to begin with. Thank the gods that a couple of the boys still used those old tin bento boxes for their lunches; it would’ve been impossible otherwise. With charred fish bones, cracked wolf-spider bones, some root vegetables that she taste-tested before applying, water from the lake, and now Kogen’s addition of some sort of weird flesh-mushroom-tentacle-thing, Kumi’s dish was coming along well. It would’ve been even better, of course, if she had noodles or something, but that was a dream.
A lot of it was a dream, really. A full seasoning rack, proper burners for easy heat control, long chopsticks, dashi powder, miso, mirin, soy sauce…
“I think it tastes fine,” Masami said, dipping her own chopsticks into one of the soup tins and licking it. She received a rap on the noggin for her trouble.
“Mmm, but this isn’t the best I can do, and…” Kumi quieted down as Sasuke emerged from the shelter. There was still a wooziness to his steps, his pale complexion somehow made even paler in the glow of the night, yet he held on still, sparing a smile towards Masami before turning towards Kumi.
“Asahi needs some food.” A wave towards Daisuke in the distance, the basketball captain asking the other students about their own ails.
“Is it ready?”“Mhmm! The healing thing that he can do, right? How’re you now? Ah, I guess you’d be fine now, if you can walk around…” Kumi chuckled, genuine joy mixed with a bit of self-deprecation.
“I’m sure Maki’d be happy to get a check out too. Uh, Masami, could you help him with?”“Eh…” The taller girl considered her options, then saw Kogen in the distance, playing with his tentacle.
“Hey Kogen! Help Sasuke with the food delivery here!”A small pause, and Kumi joined in.
“You can have some of it too! It tastes…ok!”...
It tasted more than ok, to those who were ravenous or who simply tired of chewing tough meat. The charred bones from both fish and beast imparted an umami flavor to the water, while the root vegetables and the chewy tentacles gave it textures that were actually palatable to the students. More importantly, it was simply
warm and filling, in a way that a haunch of fire-roasted fish or meat could not be. Asahi and Kogen, if the chuuni had helped out with bringing the soup over, would feel a warmth seep into their body that was natural, wholesome. Good, even.
A warmth that wasn’t just the forge within the guts, demanding fuel and granting power.
But that didn’t exempt Asahi and Duncan from having to stoke those flames regardless. Pink threads extended, and golden blood poured out, Maki actively holding back tears as her bones broke and mended, as the Duncan’s strange fluid caused a temporary change in her body that made it impossible for even her to remain stone-faced. It was simply
weird! It was a wibbly-wobbly sort of pain, like the nausea that accompanied a concussion followed by a sharp uppercut into your liver. You couldn’t just shrug that off!
Her hand and foot were back though. That was certainly cause to celebrate, even though both the boys got the sense that she may end up with broken bones again in the near-future, now that there was a magical healer among the students.
Yuki, however, did not wake.
And Asahi, as he probed the prone boy’s mind with his Facsimile, still could not lift the thick blanket of unconsciousness that had entirely smothered the thoughts and emotions that his ability usually would’ve made him privy to. Was it a mystery at all though? Or would he just reach the same conclusion that Masato had?
Yuki was comatose. You couldn’t heal from that.
“Hey.” Daisuke popped his head back into the room, accompanied by Hiroshi.
“We’re having a group meeting. Should probably come along.”…
There was a flicker of hesitation in Ayane’s eyes.
But she blew past that hesitation in the next breath and hugged Ayana.
“What truth, Ayana? I can hear you out, at least.” She pulled away from the hug, looking her step-sister in the eyes.
“Though if it’s just that you’re a masochist now, maybe keep that to yourself?”It was hard to stay mad, really, when even the victim didn’t seem mad at all about getting slammed into the ground by another classmate. With a deep, hissing sigh, the fashionista decided to put it behind her for now. She wasn’t going to bring this up if Ayana didn’t want to. And that seemed to be the end of that, for the time being.
“Right, since everyone’s mostly gathered here,” Hiroshi spoke up, arriving in the firelight’s gloom with the once-scattered students along with him.
“We should talk about the future. To guide this discussion, there are a few things to note.”“One. The monsters are likely going to continue to be a threat, and we don’t have the ability to make fortifications strong enough to hold them off.” That was true enough. A hut made out of wood and mud could keep out the wind and maybe even deflect some rain, but considering how those hulk-phants had bulldozed through the school bus on a whim? They couldn’t make a wall strong enough to keep the monsters out.
“Two. These monsters seem to be resistant to anything except things made of their own body. We can consider that a magical trait.” The fang-tooth dagger was brought to mind. Kogen would have the most intimate experience with such a thing, with how much effort it took for him to use the claw of Rin’s hammer in order to tear out the throat of one of those beasts.
“Three. Those Awakened need a lot more food than the rest of us.” An easy enough observation to make, considering how starved every one of the Awakened continued to be. Even after what would have been a full meal back in the ‘real’ world, here in the Otherside, they could still go for much more.
“Those are the main concerns to place into consideration. I have my own thoughts, of course, but for the time being, a group discussion will be conducive to getting everyone on the same page.”Hiroshi clapped his hands together.
“So. About the future. About what can be done tonight, tomorrow, and every day after. Does anyone have anything to suggest?”
Kronshi
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