Of course, all that worrying was for nothing.
Sitting at her usual “terrace” seat in front of a bowl of Mr. Sumo’s ramen, Haru took a slurp with a complicated expression...and with a truly odd look on her face...
“What is this?” she screamed. “I mean...it’s definitely ramen. I never thought I’d see it here, but it’s ramen! It’s other-world ramen!”
She inhaled the men with a tremendous amount of noise and gulped down the ra. Isn’t it hot? Then she came up for air—“Ahh!”—her face flushed. “Ohhh...it’s so good. It’s so goooood. Thank you! I’m so happy to be eating ramen!”
I held up a palm to Mr. Sumo, who was sitting next to me. He nervously touched it with his big hand and then removed it.
What’s that about? I slapped his hand to make a loud smack.
“Hee-hee.” Miss Lupe was looking our way and smiling. When our eyes met she looked away, but then I saw her hesitantly watching us again.
“What is it?”
“Nothiiiiing. Haru, I want a bite, too!”
“Sure. Wait a sec. I’ll make you a mini ramen. Sumo, bring me a spoon—the biggest, deepest one you have!”
“O-Okay.”
Miss Haru put soup into the spoon he brought, then she wound up a bite-sized bit of ramen and deftly arranged the other ingredients on top.
“Here you go.”
It was like a little bowl. What? It’s so cute! I wanted one too.
When Miss Lupe curled the noodles around her fork and took a bite...
“Kagh!” She choked on the steam and the smell. We all laughed.
“This is fun. Eating ramen with you guys makes it taste even better. This is how you live it up while you’re young! It’s the flavor of living it up!”
Beaming the whole time, Miss Haru drank every last drop of the soup. Miss Lupe got hooked on the flavor and ate another bowl.
After talking excitedly about ramen for a while, Miss Haru suddenly frowned with an, “Ahh!” Then she said, “Mm, it’s not really necessary...but there’s one more person who I think should eat this. Is that okay? I doubt he’ll say it’s good. He’ll only be a jerk, and...he’s a guy who makes all my fears and worries come true, but... Would you mind?”
Everyone knew exactly who she meant right away.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Huh? This is ramen? You expect me to believe that?”
After one bite of Mr. Sumo’s ramen, Mr. Crimson Chiba stomped on and triggered all of my fears and worries.
Miss Lupe heaved a sigh.
“No, I mean, seriously. What is this supposed to be? Are you mocking the way of ramen? Just so you know, I’m a ramen maniac who enters a ramen shop and sits there for two hours reading food manga. My studies are on a whole other level. By the way, the ‘ra’ in ramen means ‘pull.’ Because you stretch ramen noodles out by pulling. I know what I’m talking about!”
The questions coming out of his mouth received an answer: Miss Haru ground her teeth.
“And these noodles aren’t chewy enough. Gluten, they need more gluten. Do they not have bread flour here? First we gotta alphytemize that, if you want to be picky about the noodles. And the soup doesn’t pack enough punch. Like we need to dump some tōgarashi—”
“Tochigi...”
“It’s Chiba, but what?”
“If you miss the other world’s ramen so much, why don’t you go hunt down a boar-like monster? By yourself.”
Miss Haru had reached her limit. Incidentally, of all of us, she’s the one with the lowest limit.
Mr. Crimson Tochigi scowled. “Huh?” He has a pretty low threshold too. I imagine that the world they were from had a lot of war. “What kind of tone is that to use with someone kind enough to teach you about ramen?”
“No one asked you to teach us. And in this world, this is ramen. I was kind enough to invite you to have some. Quit whining and go back to Saitama.”
Their usual fighting started.
But Mr. Chiba kept slurping the ramen Mr. Sumo made even as he complained about it. Busy, busy.
“You’re the one who should go back. The one who’s going to re:create this world, the Invincible Innodiator Endless Crimson Rain Alter, can’t very well let it go.”
“Argh, talking to you is like talking to a brick wall. Maybe you’ll see that after you see what I can do when I get serious. Deactivate Level Bind!”
“What’s that about? Are you delusional?”
“The last person I want to hear that from is youuuuuuuu!”
Miss Haru’s face turned bright red, and she stomped her feet.
Mr. Sumo dithered, and Miss Lupe looked on disapprovingly. She always says these two “get along,” but it sure doesn’t seem that way to me...
The quarrel seemed like it was going to take a while, so I decided to have some ramen before it got cold—that is, a mini one made in a spoon, of course.
Yeah, this flavor is intense. But it seems to really sink into your body. It warms you up. Oh, right, she said when we were all eating it together that it was the flavor of living it up while you’re young. What does “living it up” mean, I wonder. Does it have anything to do with us? I’ll have to ask her sometime.
I’m sure it’s just another one of her indecent jokes.