It was the morning of the second day of the Treasure Tree Festival. I’d expected another "three-point formation" ambush from Kuro and the others, but Kuro had noticed my lack of sleep and suggested we switch to co-sleeping every other night instead. Not that it was gone for good, mind you...
At any rate, thanks to her suggestion, I managed to sleep like a log. Now I felt ready to give the second day my all.
Come to think of it, I wondered where everyone was. Were they already in the middle of getting breakfast ready?
Mulling that over, I walked down the massive corridor toward the dining hall. Before I even reached it, familiar voices drifted from behind the door.
"K-Kuro-san, stop, please! At this point, that isn't even a baby castella anymore! It’s just dark matter in the shape of one!"
"I want to be an explorer... someone who's always searching for new flavors."
"Why are you looking so enlightened?! If Kaito-san eats that, he won't be an explorer—he'll be exploring the afterlife!"
I froze. I was overhearing a truly terrifying conversation. A new creation? Was Kuro really experimenting again?
This was bad; my Sixth Sense was blaring a frantic alarm. I needed to slip away quietly before anyone noticed I was—
"...Kaito... good morning."
"...G-Good morning..."
But reality is a cruel mistress. Just as I prepared to make a break for it, the door swung open, and a lovely Isis-san appeared wearing an apron. Of course, her opening the door meant the two inside spotted me immediately.
"Ah, Kaito-kun! Look, look! I made a new kind of baby castella!"
"Kaito-san! Run! She’s going to kill you!!"
Kuro turned to me with a beaming, radiant smile. On the plate before her sat... a glowing gold "something" covered in red spots.
That wasn't right. That wasn't a color anything meant for human consumption should ever be. Alice was looking at me with a face of pure desperation, practically begging me to flee for my life.
"K-Kuro... isn't that... a slightly dangerous color?"
"T-That’s not true! It’s delicious... probably. I mean, I haven't tasted it yet, but..."
She added something extremely ominous at the end! That was a total red flag. Those were the words that always preceded a culinary disaster.
"N-No, I mean, why didn't you taste it yourself first?"
"Because I wanted Kaito-kun to be the very first person to eat it..."
Kuro blushed slightly, looking incredibly adorable in her apron.
Darn it. I mean, look at her... she definitely used real ingredients, so at worst, it would just taste a bit off, right? And she’d gone through all this trouble just for me...
"Um, w-well, if it’s just one bite..."
"Yay!"
"Kaito-san, you are way too soft on her!"
I knew exactly what Alice was getting at, and I was painfully aware of it myself. But if I refused now, Kuro would look so sad. That was the one thing I couldn't bear to see.
To protect that smile, I would charge headlong into a death trap if I had to!
"You're saying that out loud, you know?! You just admitted it’s a death trap!"
"Here, have one while it's nice and hot!"
"And you're just ignoring him completely?!"
Ignoring Alice’s frantic commentary, I reached out and picked up the terrifyingly colored baby castella. To my horror, it felt soft and squishy.
H-Heh, challenging the unknown was supposed to be exhilarating... the way my body was shaking must have just been a warrior’s pre-battle shivers. And the cold sweat pouring down my back? Surely just my fighting spirit reaching a fever pitch.
"H-Here goes... ugh?! Agah..."
Under Kuro’s expectant, twinkling gaze, I forced my trembling hand to toss the treat into my mouth.
The texture was soft and rubbery, and an indescribable foulness immediately exploded across my palate.
Wait—no, maybe it was actually good? My tongue was tingling with sharp, electric shocks and my skin was crawling, but I suppose one could call it a... delicacy?
"...Oh, Mom? Dad? Is that you? Why are you waving at me? Hahaha, I can't hear what you're saying... but I'm coming. I'm coming over to you right now..."
"Kaito-san?! Snap out of it! Don't you dare go toward the light!!"
Alice’s voice reached me through a thick, hazy fog as my consciousness slowly drifted away into nothingness.
Dear Mother, Father—the human body is a strange thing. Sometimes, the survival instinct kicks in regardless of one’s will. That’s exactly what happened here. One bite of Kuro’s dark matter—her baby castella—and I checked out. The sheer awfulness was enough to shut my brain down entirely.
Kuromueina watched Kaito collapse with a guilty, awkward look on her face. Alice lit into her immediately.
"Seriously, Kuro-san?! Kaito-san’s soul just left his body! What the hell did you put in those?!"
"U-Um... well, first there was the Golden Frog meat..."
"What kind of person thinks putting frog meat into a baby castella is a good idea?! Are you a devil?!"
For once, Alice was the voice of absolute reason. Kuromueina shrunk back, hanging her head as she sat in shamed seiza on the floor.
With a heavy sigh, Alice hoisted Kaito up and carried him over to the sofa.
Throughout the entire commotion, Isis alone remained unbothered. She simply turned toward the kitchen and focused on her own task: crafting a lovely bento.
She carefully arranged vibrant, delicious-looking food inside a round container, topping it off with a cute heart symbol right in the center.
"...Kaito... I hope... he likes it."
The morning's chaos had been sparked by Kuromueina’s newest experiment. There was the Underworld King, who had inadvertently created a culinary monster, and Alice, who had fought a losing battle to stop her.
In the end, however, the winner of the morning was Isis—who had ignored the madness entirely to focus on making Kaito a proper lunch.
The Morning Cooking Battle
Kuro: The "Devil" of Baby Castella Alice: The "Common Sense" Position Isis: The Archangel