Their New Adventure: Chapter two
Their New Adventure
Chapter two
By
Pyry Cole
This is a free fan fiction and is not to be distributed for profit. Also, the characters and places involved in this fiction do not belong to me and are trademarks of the Ban-Dai Corporation. Now that that's out of the way on to the story!
Chapter Two: Trying New Things
Riku grabbed Kogenta gently by the hand, leading him into the main room. Kogenta blushed, holding onto Riku's hand as they walked to the other room. He had never felt hunger before, and the thought of eating still disgusted him. However he had to. The hunger was painful and made him weak in the knees.
Riku sat Kogenta down at the table and headed off into the kitchen. While the food was being prepared the aromatic scents of fresh mountain vegetables wafted through the house. Kogenta lay back slightly, supporting his weight on his arms while he waited. The scents had somehow helped him detach from his surroundings.
He thought about how he'd bonded with dozens of toujinshi in the past, but it was nothing like this. He could never forget Riku after their contract was complete. Kogenta spent many of his days simply watching the ex-toujinshi, fawning. He hadn't thought that Riku felt the same way about him, until long after he left. Of course, looking back now, it only made sense, considering how quickly their bond developed. It was faster and stronger than any other bond formed between a shikigami and his toujinshi. It developed so quickly that their feelings had probably become obvious to everyone except for them until Kogenta had left.
The sounds of clattering dishes and scraping knives stopped. By this point the aroma from the food had become a bit more pungent, and obviously burned. Even after five years, it seemed that the boy was still a terrible cook. Riku rounded the corner carrying a pair of small, black-lacquered bento boxes. Kogenta's eyes widened as they were set on the table. Both of them contained some red-colored rice and steamed azuki beans with black sesame seeds. One of them had a small umeboshi. Each was served with beef and green beans, a few mountain vegetables and a touch of radish and a small chawan filled with prepared matcha. Most of the foods looked lovely, even though they were slightly burned.
After placing the trays on the table Riku sat down next to Kogenta and leaned in close to him, pointing out the spread. "I made us some Hokaben, and for the occasion, a little sekihan." He leaned in closer. "I also used up my last ume..." he pulled Kogenta in a bit closer and whispered in his ear "... just for you."
Kogenta gulped. Never before had he needed to eat, so he was unsure of how it would taste, and if he would offend Riku with his reaction. He hesitantly picked up a pair of chopsticks and reached for the umeboshi, taking a small clump of rice with it. The byakko brought the small clump of fruit and red rice to his lips, pausing for a moment and making a second gulp. He slowly put the umeboshi in his mouth, the moment it had touched his tongue he had nearly gagged but managed to control his reaction. He chewed it up quickly and forced it down, coughing for a few moments afterward. Kogenta was not prepared for the first bite. His taste was far too sensitive, especially for something so salty and sour. He quickly reached for his chawan and gulped down the thick, bittersweet matcha, exhaling a sigh of relief afterward.
"How was it?" Riku asked
Kogenta chuckled and shot a glance at Riku from the corner of his eye. ".... Worse than I thought!" he jested loudly and smiled.
After that first surprise the rest of the meal went fairly well, and was far easier for the shikigami to stomach. This was the case at least, until the sensitive byakko had taken his first bite of the kinpira gobo which was both sweet and a bit hot. Kogenta was in no way prepared for hot foods of any degree. The burning sensation had quickly filled his mouth and he began to panic.
"It's Hot! Hot! Hot! Hot!" Kogenta yelled, fanning his tongue.
Riku laughed for a moment, and then calmly stated. "For someone so strong, you sure are a baby, Kogenta."
Riku pointed toward the kitchen, "Go in there, there's some bread. Bite into it and it'll make the heat stop."
The panicked shikigami ran into the kitchen to find the bread Riku spoke of. However, he found two different loaves side by side. Kogenta didn't know much anything about bread, so he judged them quickly. One of them had a light green tint to it, the color of that thick tea. Kogenta thought for a moment. If it was the same color, perhaps the bread was matcha flavored... he actually liked the matcha. The shikigami shredded the packaging to get a slice of bread out quickly, spilling some on the floor. He did not hesitate to quickly bite into it.
"Aieee! HOTHOTHOTHOTHOTHOT!"
Riku could hear the byakko screaming from the nearby room and stumbling into the wall, followed by a thud and the shattering of a clay pot. He ran into the kitchen quickly. When he entered he saw bread strewn about the floor, and a fine white powder filled the air and covered much of the counter and the ground. Among the bread and flour lay Kogenta; face up twitching with his eyes wide open and tearing, quietly repeating, "Hot.... Hot... Too hot..."
Riku rushed to the side of the struggling shikigami to help him out. Luckily the flour pot had missed him by centimeters. Riku inspected Kogenta and noticed one of the pieces of bread near him. It was clear to him that the shikigami had gotten into the wasabi bread. He turned around and got some soy milk from the refrigerator and poured it into a small glass. Meanwhile Kogenta got up behind him and grabbed him by the shoulder.
Kogenta lisped angrily fanning out his mouth and panting, "Why did you thend me in there alone! "Go get thome bread" you thaid! I didn't know what to look for! Now my mouth'th on fire! Well...? Can't you thay thomething?!"
In response Riku thrust the glass toward Kogenta's face, stopping centimeters from the byakko's nose. The quick thrust caused Kogenta to recoil at first, partly afraid that Riku may have been trying to hit him with the glass, mad at him for the reaction. Kogenta's expression changed from one of surprise and fear to one of confusion for a moment until Riku spoke.
"Drink this" he said flatly.
Kogenta quickly complied, greedily gulping down the chilled beverage, stopping only for a few moments to breathe. It helped to reduce the burning greatly and its flavor was subtle enough not to disturb his delicate senses.
"Thanks" Kogenta replied with a smile
Having gotten through that crisis Kogenta recovered his composure. He became worried that his outburst may have caused hard feelings because Riku had remained quiet.
Kogenta looked at Riku with wide, innocent eyes. "Are... you ... are you mad at me for messing everything up?"
Riku remained silent
"Riku?" Kogenta spoke, his eyes beginning to water slightly. He was still not receiving a response.
"Riku!? I'm sorry. I was bad... bad shikigami! Please... please... talk to me... hit me as hard as you can... anything! Please just don't stay mad."
Riku finally responded, a very serious look in his eyes. "Kogenta..."
"Yes?" the shikigami questioned.
"I'm sorry, I kind of lost track. Let's get you cleaned up... okay? You're a mess." Riku said, rubbing the back of his head and smiling with slightly flushed cheeks.
Kogenta recovered, no longer sad or afraid of what he might have caused. He had become happy just to know for sure that Riku wasn't mad with him, and that he didn't hate him for everything he'd done. His elation quickly changed from thoughts to actions as he leaped toward Riku and gave him a big hug. This had inadvertently covered him in flour as well, as Kogenta was completely covered in the stuff.
Riku chuckled, "Well, I guess you won't be the only one getting cleaned up now."
To Be Continued
Well that's it for the chapter... yeah kind of crappy and boring. But things have to start somewhere.
I would like to take a vote on where the story should go at the end of the next chapter... I have two story-arcs in mind that are possible.
Either choice one: Riku takes Kogenta with him to his school and enrolls him. It's a school set up by Souma, and it specializes in training toujinshi/shikigami as well as people capable of using toujin-fu, in order to help them become better... something would happen eventually, and the story would take off that way. Also, Kogenta would learn to use toujin-fu (later vote would be whether it becomes a more romantic feature, or a more adventurous one.)
Or choice two: They receive a letter from Teru and Rina, which leads them on an adventure in far off lands. This one would leave less time for romance, but would have more action. (Later votes.. I'm not entirely sure what vote types would come for this one)