Ryuuou no Oshigoto! - Volume 7 - Chapter 2.2

  A SINGLE KNIFE

After nearly tripping over my own feet getting out of the restaurant, I find my 10-year-old apprentice waiting outside posing with her hands behind her back with an unnaturally large smile on her face.

Even worse, she looks cute enough to throw out my back glancing up at me as she asks, “Master? Did you come out here to eat zenzai with Auntie while your apprentice was working hard at the classroom waiting for you to pick her up?”

She’s so cute I could die.

But …… She’s scaring me …… to death!!

“And, what is this restaurant, exactly? Meoto Zenzai? That means couple, right? So, that’s how you write that word in Chinese characters.”

“L-look, I didn’t have a choice! Master Kiyotaki has gone missing and Keika sent me out to go look for him …… Yes, Keika! If you just ask Keika, she’ll tell you–––.”

“Keika is reflecting on what she’s done,” Ai says the scariest thing in the world with a happy, little smile. That fear is what’s keeping me from asking exactly what reflecting means.

Big Sis follows me out of the restaurant (she must have picked up the check). Her mouth starts nervously twitching the moment she sees Ai and I don’t blame her.

“…… How did you get here so quickly?”

“Didn’t you know? There’s a GPS tracking chip in Master’s phone.”

“Huh?!”

Big Sis and I scream in unison. T-tracking chip?!

That means …… She already knows about the two of us going to that place in Sakuranomiya?!

“I’m only joking. And, since I’m not a Shogi piece, I can’t appear anywhere I want like coming off a piece stand. I was planning to come here for lunch anyway.”

“In Hozenji?”

“Yes. I’m meeting my father in front of the Splashing Fudo.”

“Your father?”

My voice overlaps with Big Sis once again. …… What is going on?

“T-this is the Splashing Fudo?!”

Turn right out of Meoto Zenzai’s front door and the Splashing Fudo is right there.

Ai can’t hide her surprise once she sees the stone statue standing in the middle of a small, shrine-like pedestal.

“Yep. Not what you expected, is it? Caked in moss like that.”

Seriously, the whole stone statue is covered in green moss from head to toe.

You can barely make out the shape of a person, but it’s the famous Splashing Fudo.

“Fudo is a god of commerce and entertainment, so you can ask him to improve your Shogi skills if you want. That’s one of the reasons Master Kiyotaki used to bring us here.”

“Really ……?!”

“Since we’re already here, might as well pay our respects.”

I grab one of the ladles set out in front of the statue and scoop some water out of the nearby basin.

It’s up on a pedestal, so I have to fling the water a little bit to reach the statue and, just like the name, it makes a splash.

“I just need to put water on it?”

“Want to try?”

“Y …… Yes!”

Taking the ladle from my hand, Ai gets up on her tiptoes.

“Haah! Haaah!”

Splish. Patter.

Some droplets of water make it to the statue’s legs, but most fall short. Adorable♡

“…… That was pathetic. Give it here.”

Big Sis snatches the ladle out of Ai’s grasp, scoops up more water and douses the statue with a plooosh!

“A-are you supposed to use that much?!”

“Hahaha. This is Osaka. Overdoing everything is how it’s done.”

“But, now, I’ll be a stronger Shogi player, right Master?! Does it do anything else?”

“I think it helps with relationships, too.”

“!!”

In that moment, a lightning bolt of tension shot to the air around us, one stronger than any before.

“I’ll splash it again, the right way this time!! Please move!!”

“You’re the one in the way, pipsqueak.”

Ai picks up another ladle and tries to force her way to the statue, but Big Sis blocks it with the one in her hand. For some reason, it turns into a sword fight from there. The battle has begun!

“H-hey you two! Fudo will punish you, treating the ladles like that?!”

“Huh? Want your head on a pike?”

“Whose fault do you think it is this is happening in the first place? He’ll be angry at you.”

While I have no idea exactly whose fault it is, I apologize just to be safe. Sorry ……

“But, how long has it been all mossy like this?”

Ladle still at the ready, Ai wonders out loud as she tilts her head toward the Fudo statue. That’s when–––.

“It was already like that when I started my training here.”

“Daddy!”

“You don’t look any worse for wear, Ai,” says Takashi Hinatsuru with a clumsy laugh. He’s Ai’s father.

Gently embracing his daughter as she jumps into his arms, he gives me a respectful nod.

“Kuzuryu-sensei, Sora-sensei, it’s nice to see you again.”

“H-hi there ……”

I throw my head down as quickly as I can, and Big Sis silently returns the bow.

This reunion is nice and all, but what is he doing all the way out here in Hozenji? …… Just before I could ask, Mr. Hinatsuru’s eyebrows jump as if he just remembered something and says, “Kiyotaki-sensei is resting at the bar. Please, follow me.”

The bar Mr. Hinatsuru led us to was right next to Hozenji Temple itself.

The Shouben Tanbatei, a Japanesey place that also serves food.

Obviously, I did a double take as soon as I heard the name.

“Sh-shoben? As in going number one?”

“Actually, it means to correctly distinguish right from wrong. But, the name does appeal to the Osakan sense of humor.”

Stepping through the curtain-less door, the kitchen staff are busy prepping for the day. Several men wearing white bandannas are working hard without saying a single word.

Mr. Hinatsuru motions us to take a seat at the counter and all three of us sit down in a row. I’m in the middle, so it’s less than comfortable. I’m squeezed in pincerlike. Eager to get out of here as soon as possible, I cut to the chase.

“So, where’s Master?”

“Snoozing on the second floor. I’ll have someone go up and get him.”

Giving orders to someone on the staff, he steps up behind the counter across from us and pours three cups of tea.

“Now then, I’ll explain from the beginning–––.”

“We already know. Master drank himself to sleep here, right?” says Big Sis bluntly.

Mr. Hinatsuru just smiles and doesn’t say another word.

There is another question that needs asking. I take a sip of my tea and bring it up.

“If I may …… Mr. Hinatsuru, what are you doing in Hozenji?”

“I trained to become a chef right here in this very kitchen. Hozenji Yokocho is hallowed ground for us culinary artisans.”

“Say what?!”

“The man who owns this bar …… And my Master, by the way, fell ill a few days ago. There weren’t enough people to cover for him, so I came to help out.”

He pauses for a moment before saying, “Oh, yes,” like something popped into his head. “Do you know the song Moon Over Hozenji Yokocho? It’s the story of a young chef living and working in Hozenji Yokocho who journeys forth to continue his training elsewhere with only a single knife at his side.”

“Beats me.”

“Sorry, but I don’t ……”

Big Sis and I tilt our heads to the side.

“R-really …………… Well, it is an older song, after all ……”

Mr. Hinatsuru’s shoulders sink, looking dejectedly at the floor and taking a deep breath before continuing his story.

“My journey began here at Honzenji when I was in training, too. A request for young chefs came in from an inn on the North Coast. They were understaffed and looking for temporary help, a six-month contract to be exact. I must’ve been 25, maybe?”

“Was that inn–––?”

“Yes. The Hinatsuru.”

I knew that Ai’s father married into their family, but …… So, that’s how they met.

“The Hinatsuru’s kitchens were a disaster at the time. The former manager got a little too enthusiastic when a new major highway was completed and booked way too many guests, which put extreme pressure on the kitchen staff. Seriously, it was like a medical tent in the middle of a war zone in there …… I went in thinking I’d be the extra young guy helping out but wound up working as the head chef.”

“But you worked really hard, didn’t you Daddy? Mom always said the inn would’ve gone broke a long time ago if you never came! And if you’re going to get married, choose someone young with enough skill to know what they’re doing!”

Ai’s eyes sparkle as she looks my way for some reason.

Her father gives me a shameful grimace and says, “While my daughter may be exaggerating, it’s true that I worked as if my life depended on it. I didn’t return to the employee housing facility once during my first three months, sleeping in the storage room next to the vegetables instead.”

“Sounds like a rough place to work ……”

“Working at an inn is a constant fight against the clock. That being said, the human body does have its limits. Right at the beginning of my fourth month there, during a blizzard no less, I collapsed in the kitchen still holding a knife in my hand.”

Winters on the North Coast are brutal. Being from the middle of nowhere in Fukui Prefecture, I should know.

He couldn’t go to the hospital because of the snow, which of course also kept the doctors from coming to him. How did Mr. Hinatsuru get out of those dire straits ……? My palms are sweating just listening to him, and I’m not the only one on the edge of my seat.

Ai must be hearing this story for the first time, too, because she leans over the counter and yells “Daddy! Were you okay?!”

“Rather than taking me back to staff housing, I was carried from the kitchen all the way to the Hinatsuru family house. I suppose they were worried about something happening to someone else’s employee under their watch, but they took great care of me until the streets were clear enough to call a doctor. That’s when–––.”

“When?”

He takes a glance at Ai before saying with a mix of so many emotions.

“When this one’s mother ………… snatched me up ……”

He said snatched!

Just now, he said snatched, right?!

Whether his daughter understood the meaning behind her father’s choice of words or not, she seemed to be innocently enjoying the story.

“Oh, wow! You and mom getting married was destiny!”

“…… Hahaha …………… You’re the spitting image of your mother, Ai ……”

“Do you really think so?”

No doubt.

“Let me get this straight. You ended up marrying the person who took care of you after you collapsed?”

“In the end, yes …… But you have to remember that she was the heir to a well-established and highly successful inn, and I was just a chef. Not only were we from completely different worlds, our ages were fairly far apart. Not to mention, I was technically still in training. Akina …… Ai’s mother approached me first, saying I want you to marry me and stay here at the Hinatsuru, but I turned her down on the spot, finished my contract and came back to Osaka–––.”

Of course, he would. No matter how beautiful or rich the girl is, anyone would be scared before any joy set in if she opened with a marriage proposal. And doesn’t the patient normally fall for the caregiver in that situation? Very scary.

“But, that’s not where the story ends, is it?”

“That it is not. You see ……… She followed me all the way here.”

“Here?! A-as in …… Hozenji Yokocho here?! Ai’s mother?!”

“She dropped out of high school, renounced all ties to her family and insisted on working together with me.”

T-that super manager who’s devoted her life to that inn …… ran away from home?!

“Then?! What then?! What happened next?!”

“I couldn’t just kick her out on the streets, so she ended up living with me at my apartment ……”

“How old was Mrs. Hinatsuru back then?”

“17.”

S-s, 17?! That means …… he was living with a high school girl in the middle of Osaka?!

“Isn’t that against the law?!”

“Please don’t take this the wrong way, Kuzuryu-sensei, it’s far more acceptable than your current situation.”

“That’s right, loli-con. Die and repent in the afterlife, loli-con.”

I’m taking fire from both Mr. Hinatsuru and Big Sis. Kill me now.

Suddenly, Ai yells at the top of her lungs.

“Master does not have a Lolita complex! Also, that was a wonderful story about two people brought together by the Splashing Fudo! You think so too, right Daddy? That’s why you married Mom, isn’t it?!”

“W-well, that may be true …… But, thinking about it rationally, the lengths she went to back then certainly weren’t normal–––.”

“I’m telling Mom!”

“And there isn’t a better love story in the world, yep.”

Mr. Hinatsuru ……

Seeing another man totally whipped by his wife and daughter is making me embarrassed for him. He needs to stand up for himself more.

Me? I firmly believe the husband needs to wear the pants.

“Well, I have to admit that if the younger girl threw her life away all to be with me, I couldn’t say no. Any man would feel it right in their heart. Like, if Charlette gave up her French citizenship to be with me, I’d probably marry her right then and thereeeeee—ow! That hurts! Big Sis, that’s my fooooota-ta-ta-oowwwww!!”

“If it’s not one it’s another …… Men are all loli-cons …… All of them can just die ……,”

mutters Big Sis as she grinds my foot into the floor.

Even Ai’s upset, saying, “Why’s Charlette your example and not me?!”

“Isn’t Master awfully late?”

“Oww …… Y-Yes, he is. It shouldn’t take this long ……”

We’ve been here for quite a while now.

Mr. Hinatsuru sent someone back upstairs to check on him, but–––.

“…… It seems that Kiyotaki-sensei showed himself out the back door.”

“He what?!”

Well, I kind of expected this.

He probably thought seeing us would be too awkward. That’s how it always is after losing a match. I can relate so much, painfully so, that I don’t blame him for sneaking out.

And …… Honestly, I’m relieved.

Seeing my Master get checkmated last night was about as shocking as witnessing my father having an accident. I still need time to come to grips with him losing his skills with age.

That’s why I don’t want to see him just yet. Surely, Big Sis feels the same way.

“Kiyotaki-sensei left behind enough money to cover lunch and a taxi for all of you. I’ve got to pull out all the stops as a thank you for taking care of my daughter as well.”

Mr. Hinatsuru proceeded to whip up lunch for us. It was delicious, but Ai refusing to make me dinner when we got home was rough.