K – Seven Stories - Chapter 11

Food grudges are nothing to sneeze at. The original text is provided by .

K ~ Seven Stories: 24 Pieces
Piece 11: Mishakuji Yukari (A Verse to Fried Chicken)
by Suzuki Suzu

“In the seasoning, your feelings are hidden~”

When this verse flowed out of Yukari’s mouth as he was beating eggwash in the bowl, he found himself very surprised.

What he was busy with at the moment was cooking. Adding the beaten egg to the chicken legs that were left until now in the fridge, he started rubbing the eggwash onto them. The meat was so cold his fingertips stung with pain, but it was a small price to pay for the exquisite taste he knew this extra effort would help achieve.

This deep-fried chicken was going to be the main item on the menu for tonight’s supper, as well as the star of tomorrow’s bento.

Adding wheat flour to the mix, Yukari rubbed it on as well. As he did, he recalled where he heard the verse he just recited.

It was when he was still apprenticing under the Colorless King Miwa Ichigen. Having left the preparatory steps to the younger apprentice, Yatougami Kuroh, to take care of, he took the kitchen knife to help his mentor cook. When they finished seasoning the chicken and were in the process of frying it a second time, Ichigen composed that poem on the fly.

All the numerous verses of radiant poetry that Ichigen recited had been etched into Yukari’s memory. Sometimes, their brilliance would revive through Yukari’s daily life like that, spilling out the young man’s mouth unbidden. And at those times, along with a touch of sentimentality, Yukari would feel keenly that his now late master really was alive inside his pupil, his radiance filling Yukari from within.

“…Alright, done.”

Scooping up the chicken out of the oil, Yukari put it on a sheet of baking paper when he suddenly remembered: ah, right, he didn’t prepare the bento box yet. It was probably in the storeroom, he guessed and, leaving the cooking unattended for a short while, went to get it…

When he returned, he found something he’d really rather not: Iwafune, beer in one hand, was snacking on the fried chicken. On the baking paper, there was nothing left.

“Oh, Yukari-chan! This is really yummy. It makes perfect snack to go with my beer! Ah, but there’s pretty much nothing left, so c’mon, keep ‘em coming, will ya!”

The kitchen knife Yukari threw grazed Iwafune’s cheek before lodging into the wall behind the older man.

Closing his hand around another knife, Yukari recalled, “When snitching food, be ready to eat just retribution for what you ate!”