Not gonna answer that one, huh?
“Can we use the materials upstairs freely?” Sasazuka asked, pointing up towards the ceiling.
“Yes, just like we discussed in the meetings,” I said. “Though, I’d call it junk, not materials.”
“Got it,” she replied. “Do you think things will go well?”
“I wonder about that. We’ll just have to get Runa to remember how it’s done somehow.”
When we left the Cattle Barn, the scent of cooked meat was wafting through the air. One glance told me where it was coming from. There were sausages cooking on a grill set up under one of the canopy tents. It was a large charcoal grill, about a meter wide, and it was lined end-to-end with sausages that were sizzling as they dripped fat.
“Ah, Hahihohi-han.” Runa swallowed the meat, then said, “These things are ridiculously good!”
“Oh, yeah?”
“There are plates and chopsticks over there! Try some yourself!”
It looked like she’d completely forgotten our fight earlier.
The Torchlight people were already in barbecue mode, opening canned beer and generally having a good time. Even with the sun beating down quite hard, they didn’t seem to mind. Maybe they wanted to get a tan? Many of them seemed to be actively exposing themselves to the sun aside from wearing sunglasses.
While I was standing there, unsure what to do, someone handed me a paper plate and chopsticks, and the next thing I knew we were getting freshly grilled sausages. Toriko and I rushed into the shade under the canopy tent. Tsuji and Runa were there too, so it was sort of a meetup point for us indoorsy types.
“They said we can grab some drinks there,” Toriko said, pointing to a massive cooler. I could see cans of beer and fizzy drinks floating in the ice water. Toriko had already acquired a can of Budweiser.
“You’re already drinking.”
“This isn’t enough to get me drunk. It’s like water.”
“You have a higher alcohol tolerance than me, Toriko, so you’re probably right.”
“You’re no lightweight yourself, Sorawo.”
I hesitated, but ultimately gave in to temptation, and grabbed a Corona beer.
“Cheers!”
Runa held up her can of coke, so we all kind of ended up saying cheers with her. I have no idea what we were supposed to be toasting, though.
It was obvious that Runa would be the one drinking a soft drink, but Tsuji had a plastic bottle of tea.
“Do you not hold your drink well, Tsuji-san?”
“Oh, I do drink. But I refrain from psychoactive drugs when I don’t have a reason to take them.”
“Is alcohol a drug?”
“It sure is,” Tsuji said in a playful tone. “And a fairly harmful one at that.”
“But you’ll take it when you have a reason to?” Toriko asked.
“Sure will. And drinking fine alcohol and having a good time is a perfectly valid reason. But I’m on the job now, so I figure I ought to stay sober.”
“I see a couple people here drinking on the job, though,” Runa said, looking at Toriko and me.
“Well, what’s the harm?” said Tsuji. “Their abilities aren’t influenced by alcohol. I just can’t say the same about my own.”
“Wow. Magicians sure have it tough, huh?” Runa snarked.
“Tell me about it,” Tsuji replied, playfully overacting. “It is tough. Even if it doesn’t seem like it.”
“The people from Torchlight didn’t hesitate to open up their drinks,” I observed.
“Well, many of them are foreign, so beer’s probably just like water to them. Due to genetic differences, Japanese people aren’t as good at metabolizing alcohol, so I think people from other countries must have a very different view of things.”
“And how about Sasazuka-san and Migiwa-san?” I asked.
The two of them were drinking with the Torchlight guys. Sasazuka was at home with them, so I could understand her making herself comfortable, but Migiwa was mixing in surprisingly well.
“I dunno, but Sasazuka-san’s probably trying pretty hard, don’t you think? There are a lot of men in her line of work, so it’s tough trying not to get looked down on for being a woman. I don’t think she could ever admit to not being able to hold her drink.”
“Ahh...”
I saw a female operator I recognized next to Sasazuka. Her name was something like Michelle, and she was with them the last time they came here. Maybe she and Sasazuka were close? Was such pointless speculation a sign the resolution I viewed human relations at had gone up? Or had my thought processes merely taken on an unnecessary bias?
“As for Migiwa-kun, he’s been getting up to all sorts of trouble overseas from a young age, so you may actually be seeing him more in his element here.”
Migiwa was not dressed in a suit, and was conversing fluently in English and (probably) Spanish. He was gesticulating, and had a wilder expression on his face than usual. I’d heard that the language you spoke could change your personality. Maybe it was true.
“Toriko, how many languages can you speak?” I asked.
“Huh? Why are you asking that so suddenly?”
“I’ve heard you speak English before, but French is an official language of Canada too, right? I seem to recall.”
“Well, yeah.”
“You don’t sound very confident.”
“Honestly, I never really picked it up.”
“Really? You didn’t learn it in school?”
“I had Core French, which is one thirty minute period a day, but that was it.”
“Yeah, you’re never going to pick it up with just that.”
Despite all of the English we were forced to learn in school, most Japanese people couldn’t speak the language, so it was probably about the same for Canadians. Here I was, starting to feel a sense of kinship on that, but...then I remembered Toriko was a bilingual speaker of Japanese and English. We weren’t even on the same playing field.
“Why did you suddenly ask?”
“Huh? Err. I just wondered what you were like speaking French. Do you know any phrases or anything you could say?”
“You sure do ask for unreasonable things sometimes... Hmm.”
Toriko thought for a little while, then bashfully began to speak.
“Emesunepasurugyaruderanruuto. Serugyarudeonsonburudolamendirekushon.”
“Ohhhh.” I had no idea what any of that meant, but I clapped. Toriko hung her head and took a drink from her can.
As I was thinking, I’d heard people say it before, but French sure does sound a lot like Touhoku dialect... Tsuji cocked her head to the side.
“Who wrote that again? Saint-Exupéry?”
“Pfft!” Toriko spewed her Budweiser, making me and Runa both reflexively jump back.
“Whoa, what gives?!” I protested.
“You’re making a mess!” Runa complained.
Toriko stared blankly at Tsuji, beer dripping from her chin.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to surprise you like that,” Tsuji said, half smiling, as she handed Toriko a whole container of wet wipes. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to say anything.”
Toriko nodded as she wiped her mouth. She wouldn’t make eye contact with me.
Based on her reaction, whatever she said was pretty embarrassing... Well, whatever.
I stopped thinking about it, and took another sip. Even knowing it was harmful, nothing could beat a cold beer and sausage dripping with juices in the middle of summer.