Chapter 294 - 294: Sayuri's Dark Cuisine!

Sayuri stood in the lecture hall for a good while, the stack of manuscript pages clutched in her hands.

She looked down at the cover, where Tsushima Kagami had written "The Little Prince" by hand.

"...write both our names together in the author's credit..."

She murmured the line again under her breath, her ears growing hot.

What even was this?

Was she really going to finish a proper, serious work together with Kagami?

All she'd done was glance at the picture book and toss out a few offhand comments.

How had it turned into this?

She sat and waited a while.

Only then did Tsushima Kagami walk in through the classroom door, wiping his hands with a tissue.

"Looks like next period's modern literary history. We should head to the classroom soon."

Tsushima Kagami said, walking up beside Sayuri.

"Ah, okay."

Only then did Sayuri snap back to herself and hand the pages back to Tsushima Kagami.

"Keep this copy, Sayuri—take it home and see if it sparks any ideas."

"Okay! I definitely won't let you down, Kagami!"

Sayuri made the promise to Tsushima Kagami, as if she were also cheering herself on.

"No need to put so much pressure on yourself. Just approach it the way you always do when we draw together."

Seeing that Sayuri looked both excited and a little nervous, Tsushima Kagami smiled and tried to reassure her.

"The way I always do when I draw?"

Sayuri thought it over.

"Oh right! What about the doujin convention this summer?"

"It'll be the first convention the four of us—me, Kagami, Akane-senpai, and Sonoko-senpai—have gone to since starting college."

Tsushima Kagami blinked, caught off guard by how fast Sayuri's train of thought had jumped.

One moment they'd been talking about the illustrations for The Little Prince, and the next she'd leapt straight to this summer's convention.

Then again, thinking about it, ever since exam prep had started...

it really had been a long time since the four of them had properly drawn together.

The thought brought a small pang of nostalgia.

"You've got a point. Even if we're not all at the same school anymore, the Manga Research Club still has to keep going."

"By the way, if we're doing the summer convention, can you manage it with your part-time job too, Sayuri?"

Tsushima Kagami asked, turning to her.

Sayuri quickly stood up and thumped her chest in assurance.

"Of course I can manage!"

"Oh no, this is bad!"

Mid-thump, Sayuri happened to glance at the watch on her wrist.

Class was about to start.

Tsushima Kagami only then remembered he'd meant to bring her along to the next classroom.

Instead they'd ended up chatting again.

"Quick, quick, let's go!"

Sayuri stuffed the pages back into her bag, zipped it shut, and patted it twice, as if worried they might escape on their own.

Then she grabbed Tsushima Kagami's hand and dashed toward the door.

Her steps grew light without her noticing.

The afternoon class was Modern Japanese Literary History.

Sayuri sat by the window, sunlight pouring through the glass and making her drowsy.

On any other day she'd probably have been asleep on her desk by now.

But today she was wide awake.

Not because the lecture was interesting, but because her mind kept circling back to what she and Tsushima Kagami had talked about at noon—The Little Prince.

She closed her eyes, trying to picture the little figure in her mind.

What should he look like?

What kind of tone should the little prince speak in?

And that opening passage about the boa constrictor and the elephant—if she drew it, what palette should she use?

Kagami had said to draw it "like a child would."

But she wasn't a child anymore.

It had been a very long time since she'd drawn anything the way a child would.

She could barely remember the last time she'd drawn purely on a whim.

"Sawamura."

A voice suddenly came from above her.

Sayuri's eyes snapped open to find the teacher standing right beside her desk.

Looking down at her.

"Uh—here!"

She shot to her feet on reflex, nearly knocking her notebook off the desk.

"I was just asking—what do you think is the core conflict in the relationship between Sensei and K?"

The classroom went quiet for a beat, then a few stifled snickers broke out.

Sayuri's mouth moved, but her mind was blank.

She hadn't been listening to a word of the lecture.

Wait—was this question about Kagami's own novel, Kokoro?

It had actually been chosen as undergraduate teaching material at the University of Tokyo's Faculty of Letters?

Amazing, honestly...

How had Kagami explained the novel's intent and themes to everyone before?

She couldn't remember a single word of it.

"Um..."

She bit her lip, about to bluff her way through with whatever came out.

"It's about the boundary between the 'self' and the 'other.'"

The voice came from behind her, not loud, but just enough for the teacher to hear.

Sayuri turned to see Kagami, seated in the row behind her, head down, flipping through his book.

As if the line had just been an unconscious mutter to himself.

The teacher glanced at Tsushima Kagami, then back at Sayuri, the corner of his mouth curling slightly.

"Looks like someone's bailing Sayuri out."

"Never mind, then. Sit down."

Sayuri let out a breath and dropped back into her chair.

Once the teacher had returned to the podium,

she snuck a glance back at Tsushima Kagami.

"Thanks~"

"Don't zone out."

"Yeah, yeah, I know."

"Now then... Tsushima."

The teacher's voice—barely back at the podium—made Sayuri jump all over again.

She spun around at once, holding her textbook up in front of her like a shield, pulling the silly trick of thinking that if she couldn't see him, no one could see her.

"Yes."

Tsushima Kagami snapped back to attention and found the teacher looking at him.

"Since it was you, Tsushima, who brought up mono no aware literature earlier, what's your take on the concept of yūgen within it?"

As he spoke, the teacher wrote the question on the blackboard behind him.

Tsushima Kagami glanced at the board—a discussion of the concept of yūgen within mono no aware literature.

He paused a moment, gathering his thoughts.

"I'd say yūgen isn't just about vagueness or restraint—it's more of a lingering resonance, a meaning that lives beyond the words themselves."

"Beyond the way I tried to embody it in certain chapters of my own Snow Country, you also see it plenty in haikai poetry and Noh theater."

"For instance..."

His answer came at an unhurried pace, clearly organized.

The teacher nodded, satisfied, glanced once more at Sayuri in the front row, and continued the lecture.

A few classmates nearby murmured among themselves.

"Tsushima's answer was really good..."

"Well, he did get in at the top of the class."

When the bell rang, Sayuri packed up at lightning speed and bolted from the classroom.

She was afraid the teacher might suddenly remember something and keep her behind.

Out of the building, she headed down the slope to where Tsushima Kagami stood waiting for her.

"No more classes after this—are you heading straight home, or somewhere else?"

Sayuri asked.

Tsushima Kagami thought it over. There wasn't anything waiting for him at home anyway, so he figured they might as well sit in the library.

He looked at Sayuri.

"Want to go sit in the library?"

"I'll keep writing the next part of The Little Prince."

"And you can think about the illustration style while you're at it."

"Then it's decided!"

Sayuri, suddenly fired up, pushed Tsushima Kagami toward the library.

Inside the library.

They found an empty table and sat down.

Sayuri pulled out the assignment the teacher had given earlier.

She figured she'd finish the report first, then think about the illustrations.

Tsushima Kagami had already finished his report ahead of time, so he spent the rest of the period continuing the next chapter of The Little Prince.

His notebook lay open before him, pen hovering above the page without landing.

He was thinking about what kind of person lived on the third planet.

The first planet had the king, representing power.

The second had the vain man, representing fame.

So the third would be "the drunkard."

He thought for a moment, then wrote a line on the page.

[On the third planet lived a drunkard.]

He paused, then kept writing.

["What are you doing?"

the little prince asked the drunkard, who sat silently before a pile of empty bottles and a stack of full ones.

"I'm drinking,"

the drunkard replied, looking dejected.

"Why do you drink?"

the little prince asked.

"To forget,"

the drunkard answered.

"Forget what?"

The little prince already felt sorry for him.

"To forget my shame,"

the drunkard said, hanging his head.

"Ashamed of what?"

the little prince asked, wanting to help him.

"Ashamed of drinking!"

the drunkard said, and after that he fell completely silent.]

Tsushima Kagami stopped writing there.

He stared at the passage for a long time in silence.

The drunkard's logic was absurd.

He drank because of the shame, and the drinking only deepened the shame.

That kind of absurd loop wasn't rare in the adult world.

Plenty of people got trapped in binds they couldn't escape, knowing something was wrong but having no idea how to climb out.

But the little prince didn't understand it.

He was too pure—too pure to grasp such self-contradicting logic.

Tsushima Kagami kept writing.

[The little prince left, baffled.

"Grown-ups really are very, very strange,"

he thought, as he continued on his journey.]

Once he'd finished the line, Tsushima Kagami leaned back in his chair and let out a long breath.

He turned to look out the window and found the sky had already darkened.

He'd been writing for over two hours without noticing.

He pulled out his phone and saw a few unread messages.

Yukinoshita Shizuku.

"Going to a mock driving test with Shizu tonight, I'll be back late."

"Sort dinner out yourselves, don't wait for us."

Hiratsuka Shizuka.

"Kagami, what do you feel like eating tonight?"

"I'll bring it back for you~"

Tsushima Kagami smiled at the messages, and just as he was about to reply,

another one came in.

He opened it—this one was from Nayotake.

Nayotake.

"The lab session in the medical department ran long today, I'll be back late too."

Was nobody coming home tonight?

Tsushima Kagami thought it over, then replied to each message in turn.

By the time the closing bell rang, the setting sun had begun to bleed a warm orange across the western sky.

Tsushima Kagami packed his bag at a leisurely pace, still mulling over where the next part of The Little Prince should go.

The library was gradually emptying out.

"Kagami, let's go!"

A bright voice rang out beside him.

Tsushima Kagami looked up to see Sayuri standing next to him, hands clasped behind her back.

"Sayuri, are you free?"

"I'll treat you to dinner."

Tsushima Kagami smiled at her, watching her expression turn surprised.

"...?"

"Aren't you supposed to eat at home?"

"Shizuku and the others are all busy tonight, they said they'd be back late."

"So I figured I'd just have dinner with you before heading home."

"Don't you have time?"

"I do, but..."

Sayuri said, then suddenly looked up at Tsushima Kagami.

He'd expected her to react the way she usually did—jumping around, thrilled.

Instead, her face stayed perfectly calm.

She walked over and, quite naturally, took over the half-packed things from his hands.

and helped stuff them into his bag.

"So Shizuku, Nayotake, and Shizu are all not coming home for dinner, right?"

"So?"

Tsushima Kagami slung his bag over his shoulder and glanced at her.

"So..."

Sayuri's eyes lit up.

"So I might as well come over to your place instead! I can even cook for you!"

Tsushima Kagami's steps faltered.

He turned to look at her with an appraising eye.

"You... cook?"

"What's that look supposed to mean!"

Sayuri puffed out her cheeks.

"I've been secretly practicing lately! Don't underestimate me!"

Tsushima Kagami went quiet for a moment.

Several possibilities ran through his head.

If this followed anime logic,

right about now would be...

a scorched pot, lopsided vegetable cuts, and the kind of dark cuisine that made you question your life choices.

Then again, maybe Sayuri's cooking would turn out surprisingly good?

After all, though he'd never tasted her cooking, he'd seen how meticulously Kosaka Akane had trained her to brew coffee, and the coffee itself really wasn't bad.

So maybe her cooking wouldn't be too bad either...

No, better not risk it...

"I think..."

Tsushima Kagami chose his words carefully.

"You can come over, and we can just order takeout."

"That way we both get to slack off together!"

"No way!"

Sayuri flatly rejected the idea.

"It's a rare chance for just the two of us—how could we settle for something as unromantic as takeout!"

"Just the two of us?"

"Yeah! It's been ages since we've been alone together like back in the Manga Research Club days!"

"Didn't you use to complain every day back then about missing Akane-senpai and Sonoko-senpai?"

Tsushima Kagami said with a laugh.

"Oh come on, it's different now!"

Sayuri protested quickly.

"Well, we're pretty much inseparable these days too."

"We probably spend more time together at school than we do with Shizuku and the others."

Tsushima Kagami said it with a grin, watching to see what interesting reaction she'd give.

Sayuri thought about it for a moment.

But she didn't show the flustered, bashful look he'd expected.

Had Sayuri really grown up, become more mature and composed?

"It's true we spend a lot of time together at school."

"But..."

"But what?"

Tsushima Kagami looked at Sayuri as she pondered.

She looked back at him.

"But somehow it doesn't feel like it has the same spark as back in the club, does it?"

"Is that so?"

Tsushima Kagami tilted his head, looking at her.

"I knew it—now that we spend more time together, we've stopped appreciating it, huh."

"Can we never get back that old feeling?"

"Women, huh!"

Tsushima Kagami sighed, putting on a look of dejection.

"Oh come on!"

"That's not what I meant, Kagami!"

Seeing him say that, Sayuri panicked at once.

She kept trying to comfort him, not realizing he was only pretending to be down.

In the end, flustered and out of ideas, she started pounding her little fists against him.

"Ahem, ahem!"

"Sayuri, who comforts someone with their fists!"

"Hmph, you're doing this on purpose just to tease me, Kagami!"

"You're the worst, Kagami!"

Sayuri, now sure he'd been teasing her all along,

crossed her arms and turned away.

Watching her genuinely irritated expression, Tsushima Kagami finally sighed.

though the corner of his mouth curled up despite himself.

"Fine."

"But let's be clear—if things go sideways, I'm taking over."

"Relax, relax!"

Sayuri's mood flipped at lightning speed, and she turned back around, all smiles again.

She grabbed his hand and headed for the school gate.

"Nothing's going to go wrong, I promise!"

The setting sun stretched their shadows long across the school building, the two silhouettes gradually weaving together with the rhythm of their steps.

Watching the girl bounce along ahead of him, Tsushima Kagami couldn't help feeling lighter himself, caught up in her mood.

Tsushima Kagami's house was a two-story standalone home in a quiet residential neighborhood.

They pushed open the iron gate to the yard, crossed a stone-paved path, and reached the entryway.

"Excuse the intrusion~"

Sayuri called out as she took off her shoes, even though she knew no one else was home.

"No need to announce yourself, there's no one here."

Tsushima Kagami took a pair of guest slippers from the shoe cabinet and set them by her feet.

Sayuri slipped them on and headed for the kitchen like she knew the place by heart.

She opened the fridge and started pulling things out.

Eggs, milk, vegetables, and a frozen piece of cod.

"Hmm... let me think."

"I'll do a grilled cod set meal, with miso soup and a salad on the side."

Sayuri counted on her fingers, her face full of confidence.

Tsushima Kagami leaned against the kitchen doorway, arms crossed over his chest.

watching her stand in front of the fridge, thinking through her plan.

"So, isn't it annoying, figuring out what to cook every day?"

Tsushima Kagami asked with a grin.

"Not really. Turning limited ingredients into something delicious—just thinking about it makes me happy."

Sayuri turned to face him.

"You'd better not let Shizuku hear you say that."

"She's been so fed up lately that she's been roping Hiratsuka into cooking to share the load."

Tsushima Kagami said, bending down to play with Yukino, who'd wandered up to his feet.

But the only part Sayuri latched onto was Hiratsuka Shizuka.

"What? Shizu can cook now too?"

"Did Shizuku teach her herself?"

"Then I definitely need to show off my cooking talent!"

Sayuri abruptly scooped up all the ingredients from the fridge.

and carried them over to set on the counter.

"Apron."

Sayuri raised both hands the way surgeons did on TV.

waiting for Tsushima Kagami to tie it on for her.

He walked over, took his own apron down, and held it out to her.

She didn't take it, just glanced at him.

"Just tie it on me already."

"Yeah, yeah, okay!"

Once he'd finally gotten the apron on her,

he looked at how it hung on her.

The apron was a bit too big, draping loosely off her frame.

"Are you sure you don't need help?"

Tsushima Kagami asked again, just to be sure.

"No, no, I've got it!"

Sayuri pushed him toward the living room sofa and plopped Yukino into his arms.

"Just sit here and play with Yukino, and wait to eat!"

With that, she turned back to the kitchen, picked up a knife, and started on the vegetables.

Tsushima Kagami sat on the sofa and picked up a paperback, pretending to read.

though he kept glancing at the kitchen out of the corner of his eye.

He watched her hold the knife over a round tomato, hesitating for a long moment.

Then, as if steeling herself, she brought the blade down.

The tomato rolled away untouched while the knife hit the cutting board with a sharp clack.

"Ugh..."

Sayuri frowned, retrieved the tomato, held it down carefully, and tried again.

This time it worked.

But the slices came out wildly uneven.

Some were as thick as bricks, others sliced nearly transparent.

The corner of Tsushima Kagami's mouth twitched.

Then he saw her pick up an onion.

One chop split it clean in half, and one half bounced right off the cutting board.

It tumbled through the air twice before landing on the floor with a smack.

"Ah!"

Sayuri crouched down in a panic to grab it.

Tsushima Kagami silently raised his book a little higher to hide his face.

It's fine, it's fine, every beginner does this,

he told himself.

After a while, noticing she'd gone quiet,

he lowered the book and looked over at the open kitchen.The onion beneath her hands had already been chopped fine.

But her eyes were squeezed shut, tears streaming down in fat drops.

The onion fumes had clearly gotten to her.

Just as Tsushima Kagami was about to tell her how to handle onions next time,

he saw her reach up, without thinking, to wipe her eyes with the same hand that had just touched the onion.

He flew to her side in an instant, alarmed.

"Don't move!"

"Don't wipe it with your hand!"

Once he'd finally helped her deal with her onion-stung eyes,

she shooed him off again.

and turned to deal with the cod.

She took the cod out of its packaging, rinsed it briefly, and set it into the preheated pan.

There was a sharp sizzle.

Oil splattered in every direction.

Since she hadn't dried the fish's surface, it reacted violently the moment it hit the hot oil.

Scalding droplets popped like tiny firecrackers, spattering across the back of her hand.

"Hot!"

Sayuri yelped and yanked her hand back, nearly dropping the spatula.

That was finally too much for Tsushima Kagami—he set down his book and strode into the kitchen.

"Let me handle it."

"No!"

Sayuri stubbornly pushed him back and picked the spatula back up.

"I've got this!"

She flipped the fish carefully with the spatula, her movements as clumsy as a toddler learning to use chopsticks for the first time.

By the time she managed to flip it, the underside had already gone a bit charred.

Tsushima Kagami stood half a step behind her, ready to step in at any moment.

Watching her fumble with the fish in the pan, and remembering the near-misses when she'd almost cut her fingers—times he'd only just managed to steady her hand in time—left him with a tangle of feelings.

Part of him found this clumsy version of Sayuri kind of adorable.

Part of him was genuinely worried she'd actually get hurt.

"Turn the heat down a bit."

"Go easy when you flip it."

"Salt—yes, that's enough, don't add any more."

He stood beside her, coaching her step by step.

Sayuri kept saying "I know, I know," but obediently did as he said.

Finally, after forty chaotic minutes, dinner made it to the table.

Grilled cod, miso soup, white rice, and a salad that didn't look particularly appetizing.

Tsushima Kagami sat at the table, looking over the spread.

The rice looked normal enough on the surface, but he had a feeling it wasn't going to be that simple.

One side of the cod was charred black, while the other still looked half-translucent and raw.

The tofu in the miso soup had crumbled to mush, and the seaweed had been boiled to shreds.

As for the salad, unevenly cut vegetables were piled haphazardly on the plate, looking like a typhoon had just blown through.

But across the table, Sayuri sat with her chin propped on her hands, eyes shining as she watched him.

"Try it! Try it!"

Tsushima Kagami took a deep breath.

How to put it.

At least it wasn't like in some anime, where the finished dish turned into an unidentifiable black blob.

He picked up his chopsticks, lifted his rice bowl, took a piece of cod, and put it in his mouth along with a bite of rice.

The rice was undercooked.

Soft on the outside, but with a hard core inside.

The cod's exterior was bitter and burnt, while the inside still had the texture of raw fish.

The two combined in his mouth into a flavor hard to put into words.

But Tsushima Kagami's expression didn't change.

He kept chewing, swallowed, and picked up a second bite with a perfectly straight face.

"Well?"

Sayuri asked, expectant.

Tsushima Kagami looked up, a gentle smile on his face.

"Mm—oishii."

His tone was calm and sincere, as if he were genuinely savoring some exquisite delicacy.

"You should try some too, Sayuri~"

Sayuri's face lit up instantly with a brilliant smile, as though she'd just received the best compliment in the world.

"Yay! Then let me try some too!"

____

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