This World

by Lee, TD

  My whole body relaxes with each chew. I feel comforted by love, or what I imagine what love would be. Unlike with the dumplings that feel like a warm blanket around me, the chicken and waffles feel like my body is already warm and relaxed. Why am I imagining myself showering in fruit juice? Each berry hugs me tightly, and I allow the embrace. Then, like an angel from the sky, a chicken lifts me into the air, showing me a world I’ve never seen before. It’s a journey.

  A wonderful journey.

  “How wonderful! You balanced out a lot of the flavors. Your combination of pastry with fruits is truly uncanny,” Teresa compliments as she wipes away some syrup that slowly trailed down her chin.

  “Th-thank you!” Yukina responds with a gracious bow.

  Leonardo chimes in, “I agree! Your use of the blueberries to balance out the flavors is very smart and refreshing. Not many people would use fresh blueberries as they are in a breakfast dish, most would cook it or create it into a syrup.”

  “Good, very good! I’m feeling pumped!” Mohn says, looking like he’s about to inhale everything in front of him.

  Miriam sighs, criticizing, “You don’t have the same issue as Marcelle, however your dish emphasizes more on the waffle than it does the chicken. Your chicken is very good, however the waffle is what takes center stage in this dish rather than the chicken. It’s unfortunate as I would have loved to see what you could have done. There are also a lot of good flavors you have, but they are mostly sweet flavors. While the sweetness comes in different varieties, my mouth feels as if it just ate sugar and can’t tell the difference.”

  “I-I’m sorry!” Yukina responds, bowing again. Damn, Miriam is quite the critic.

  The MC announces, “That’s it from the judges folks! Now it’s time for you to cast your votes. Please press the red button if you think Yukina Togo should be the victor or press the blue button if you prefer Marcelle Durand’s dish! We will then announce the winner of today’s Gourmet Duel in a few minutes! And definitely continue eating!”

  So we get to vote as audience members? That’s pretty cool and interactive. Now the question is who do I vote for? Both of these were so good that it’s really hard to choose. The crepe dumplings were definitely a twist on dumplings and crepes that it definitely has the creativity points. But the chicken and waffles were so heartwarmingly good that it comforted me. Damn, this might be the hardest decision I’ll ever make.

  Hiro taps me on the shoulder, asking, “Who’re you voting for? I think I’m going with Yukina.”

  “Any reason why?” I ask curiously.

  “Not only was the food good, but it made me feel emotions while I was eating it. It was so nice and heartwarming, like a mother’s love in a really weird way, if that even makes any sort of sense,” he laughs quietly.

  I return the laugh and reply, “Strangely enough, that does make sense to me. But I’m not sure who to vote for, both sides were so good.” Seriously, this is such a hard decision because both dishes were so good in their own different ways.

  “Choose the one that resonates with you more I guess?” Hiro suggests as he takes another bite of the chicken and waffles. The one that resonates with me huh? I really don’t know, both just made me feel different things, but were both great experiences. It’s a duel in my head now.

  After a couple of minutes both Hiro and I finish our food. I’m a little sad that it’s gone now. It’s all just a memory now. The people around me are discussing the food and who they’re voting for too. From what I can gather, it’s about half and half. Either we got lucky and got two really good chefs to make this decision difficult or we’re just really overthinking it.

  The MC’s voice echoes throughout the entire arena again, “Alright folks, I hope you have cast in your vote! Let’s see the results now! First let’s see who the judges vote for.” A blue light lights up in front of Miriam and Leonardo’s desk as Mohn and Teresa’s desk light up red. “A fifty-fifty split! This is where you come in folks, you all are the tiebreakers! Whoever has the most votes from the audience will win this Gourmet Duel!” On the TV are Marcelle and Yukina’s pictures with numbers rapidly rising under them. As the numbers rise, all of the tables are glowing either red or blue to indicate who voted for which chef. As expected, Hiro’s table glows red. Mine, it’s glowing blue. As the numbers are slowing down, the MC announces, “And it appears that Yukina wins this Gourmet Duel with two more votes than Marcelle from the audience! What a close match!”

  A roar of applause and cheering erupts from the crowd, me included. Yukina’s face shines brightly with a smile as she takes off her headband and bows. The applause echoes loudly, completely overpowering what the MC is trying to say. Marcelle and Yukina shake hands politely. Marcelle then walks into the hole in the wall as Yukina’s assistant chefs crowd around her to cheer and embrace her.

  “Well folks, that is today’s Gourmet Duel! I hope you all enjoyed the food and your time here and I hope to see you next time! Have a great day1” the MC says, bidding everyone goodbye.

  Everyone gets up and slowly make their way out of the arena back into the crisp air. Man, that was amazing. I’ve never seen such a cook-off or had that amazing of food. Sorry Chiffon Room, but I may have a new favorite place. Then again, I can’t exactly go to Gourmet Duel whenever I want though so Chiffon Room definitely has a very special place in my heart.

  Hiro stretches his arms out, even groaning a bit. “Oh man, that was some good food!”

  “It was, a little too good,” I remark. The clothes being blown away comments this place gets definitely makes sense now. I feel like a whole new world of food has opened up to me. “So now what? You wanna do anything else mister hero?” I gently nudge Hiro’s arm.

  Hiro crosses his arms, his eyes burrow in thought. “Not really, I have a thing with some teammates later today if you’re okay with hanging out with them. Actually, that sounds great. My best friend meeting my teammates!”

  “Uh, sure thing, but what do you guys have planned?” I ask.

  “I dunno, they’re the ones that were planning it. All I know is where to meet them,” he replies with his usual honesty.

  “Alright then,” I remark, “well we can just hang around and just see what’s going on today.” I start walking which prompts Hiro to follow.

  “Sounds good! It’s been a while since we’ve hung out like this,” he says with a wide smile on his face.

  Hiro and I kill a bunch of time walking around and going into some stores just to browse at stuff. Most of the stores we went into were mostly gaming related, we mostly checked to see what’s new. I debated about getting a new game only to realize I still haven’t finished that RPG that’s sitting in my system at home. Of course, we do go inside some stores that specialize in superhero related stuff, but it’s Hiro’s day so I’ll let him have this one. He was really fixated on a nice jacket with leather sleeves that he said looks like his favorite superhero’s jacket. He didn’t get it though, but he did heavily debate about it. Hiro and I also discuss the Gourmet Duel a lot since it was just so amazing. How can anyone make that much food and have it be such amazing quality? That’s not something you get to experience every day.

  When it comes time to meet up with Hiro’s teammates, he leads me through really busy streets to meet up at a really popular city plaza. This city plaza has a bunch of popular restaurants, though they’re probably not as good as Gourmet Duel, stores, and any other thing you can think of. There are plenty of food stores that have glass walls that lets everyone look inside, peeking into the cooking process. It’s usually pretty busy once it gets into the evening. There are a bunch of fancy lights that have been put on too. All throughout the plaza are long benches, tall lampposts, and several random statues of random people or animals. Tall flowery trees of all sorts of colors are in bloom too. In the middle of the plaza is a small grassy area where people can just sit and relax to talk to each other and whatnot. In the middle of the grassy area is a tall clock where a familiar face is standin
g under.

  “Sadie!” Hiro call out with his arms wide open.

  Sadie turns around after hearing Hiro’s voice. She runs to him and hugs him tightly. “Hey, you’re here!” she says happily. She briefly glances at me and her expression briefly changes to an annoyed one. When she pulls away from Hiro her expression becomes happy again.

  Hiro looks around, asking, “Where is everyone? Are they running late?”

  “Oh, um,” Sadie stammers a bit, she even avoids eye contact, “they all cancelled.” She looks at Hiro with a saddened expression. “Justine and Maxi were dispatched to take care of something in the ocean. Felicity came down with something. Marcus is stuck on a sudden patrolling duty. Everyone else, I don’t really know what they’re doing. They didn’t really tell me.”

  “Oh, okay,” Hiro says. Even though his face says he’s fine and happy still, his voice is really what really makes me know that he’s disappointed and sad about the situation.

  “But I’m here if that means anything!” Sadie exclaims, she smiles at Hiro hoping that he’ll be happy.

  Hiro smiles widely, pulling Sadie in for another embrace. “It’s definitely okay, thank you.” When they pull away from each other again, Hiro turns to me apologizing, “Sorry Ridley, there were definitely more people that were supposed to come. I didn’t think they would bail last minute. I really wanted you to meet some of the other teammates I have.”

  “It’s fine, I think I’ll let you and Sadie go do what you guys had planned,” I say. Honestly, after that wild ride of a cook-off and just hanging out with Hiro in general, I’m pretty exhausted. Not to mention that Sadie is subtly giving me a death glare. She obviously wants to be alone with Hiro.

  “You sure?” Hiro questions.

  “And be the third wheel? I’ll pass. But I am pretty tired so heading home isn’t too bad of an idea anyway. I’ll see you tomorrow though because of your ceremony thing or whatever, right?” I say, yawning.

  Hiro becomes a bit flustered, he starts rubbing the back of his neck. “W-well you wouldn’t be third wheel, it’s just that-”

  “It’s fine Hiro, I’m more than okay with heading home. I’m tired, it’s been a pretty eventful day,” I say, yawning again. “I think all of that food is finally taking its toll on me.”

  “If you’re really okay with it,” Hiro remarks.

  “I am, don’t worry,” I reply.

  “Alright then,” Hiro says. He moves over to me and pulls me in for a hug. “Thanks for today, I really, really appreciate it. You’re awesome!”

  “You’re welcome man, you deserve it,” I say, patting him on the back a little bit. We pull away from each other and I start walking away. “You two have a good one!”

  “You too, get home safe!” Hiro calls out to me as he waves.

  “Goodnight!” Sadie adds on with a smile. Huh, maybe she isn’t completely vicious.

  As I’m walking away, I take a quick peek back to see Hiro and Sadie walking deeper into the plaza. Sadie’s arms link with Hiro’s as they’re admiring the lights set up all throughout the plaza. What the lovey-dovey hell is this romantic ass atmosphere? Whatever, gotta head home and relax. It’s been a deliciously tiring day.

  Chapter 6

  My alarm wakes me up bright and early. As soon as I got home I crashed on my bed. Didn’t really realize just how tired I was even though all I really did was walk around and eat yesterday. Still thinking about the Gourmet Duel food though, it was so good. I even dreamed about a glorious food heaven where the food from Gourmet Duel was surrounding me like a soft bed. I definitely need to go back one day. Guess I’ll have to just be satisfied with this normal cereal.

  Hiro’s ceremony thing starts at 10 which is in two hours. Hiro said to come a little early just so I could get priority getting inside before news teams or whatever take over. Doesn’t sound too bad, but I’m pretty sure I’ll just be in that one room during the fieldtrip to watch. Will I get to see Hiro before the ceremony? Not that I really need to.

  After I finish a mundane breakfast, I shower to get yesterday’s musk off and change into some presentable clothes. What should I even wear to something like this? I don’t think it should matter too much. I do bring a jacket since it’s a little colder than it was yesterday. I make sure I have everything before I head out. Phone, check. Headphones, check. Wallet, check. Keys, check. Sanity, check.

  Walking through the ever so familiar path to the train, there’s the usual stuff. Stores are opening, some people are moving about, and super people and birds are flying. Man, I really miss having a car, but it’s not really worth having one because there are so many ways that a car can get destroyed. I walk by a couple of cafés setting up, one in particular is Reali-Tea that’s doing that Spectral Singer thing. There are several Spectral Singers items that are being displayed through the window. Any Kirika stuff? Wow, I really am back into her music huh? There’s a bunch of charms of all sorts in a bunch of different art styles. There are even some figurines of the Spectral Singers. However, most of the merch here are of Spectral Singers I haven’t seen before. Actually, they’re of the two that were advertising this collaboration thing. There’s merch of them in several different costumes as well as their spectral hero partner. It’s amazing how detailed these figures are, and just how many of them there are. But there’s only one thing of Kirika and it’s just a charm. Oh well, to even get one I have to go inside and actually get something, but I clearly have better places to go.

  I continue going to the train station. I look up to see what’s on one of the big TVs. How is it that every time I’ve been looking at the TV there’s some sort of broadcast about the superhero murder thing? This time around the blurred image is of a classroom with a black sword stabbed into the desk. The sword looks kinda familiar, mostly because of the way the hilt points out into multiple directions. Whatever, not really any of my concern anyway.

  I finally get to the train. Doesn’t take long for the train to arrive. It’s a Sunday so it’s not horribly crowded. Since the Mobile Knights facility is on the other side of the bridge, the train has to go through an underwater tube that lets everyone in the train get a quick peek of the underwater scenery. The water is vibrantly blue that it’s pretty surreal. There’s a bunch of creatures lurking in the water though. Luckily, most of them don’t try to attack the glass tubes. Even some of the underwater citizens are swimming about.

  The train ride isn’t too long. I get off at the stop Hiro told me to get off and pull my phone out for the GPS. This side of the city is pretty unfamiliar to me so I wouldn’t even know where to begin. I exit out of the station to find myself in a massive cityscape. Even though I live in the city, the buildings here seem a lot more elaborate, yet compact. A bunch of businesses and establishments just seem to be stacked on top of each other, utilizing limited space the best they can. Roads intersect and twist with each other that it confuses me, there are elevated rails for trains to zip through and around buildings and neighborhoods, and there’s tons of TVs and signs placed about. Some streets even have a manmade creek or reservoir that flow through them.

  Even some of the people who live or work around here are a bit different. There’s some anthropomorphic animals, also known as just morphs, that walk among humans; in recent time, there have been an uprising of more of these morphs integrating themselves into human societies. The morphs kinda face a similar thing like the mutated heroes, just because they’re different from ordinary humans, people will freak out. It’s weird

  As I’m walking, I notice a bunch of banners advertising the Festival of Fireflies that’s coming up in a couple of weeks. I’ve heard of the Festival of Fireflies, but never attended. There’s several festivals that happen throughout the year, but I never attend since I don’t have an interest in any of them. Although, I do hear about the food and I’ll go for food. Hiro has invited me to check out some festivals in the past too, but I always declined.

  The Mobile Knights facility is in my view. Tons of cars
are parked all around the facility and there’s already a crowd at the front doors. I’m early, yet it seems like I’m not early enough. There are so many cameras and people, a line has even formed. I honestly didn’t think this would be such a big deal, but apparently it is. Are all ceremonies here like this? Weaving my way through the crowd, I try to make it to a staff member. The only staff member I can really see is that lady Hisako who’s dressed a lot more formally today than she was before. I approach her, saying, “Uh, hi there. I’m supposed to tell someone that I’m Hiro’s guest.”

  Hisako looks at me, saying, “Can I get your name? I can’t just let anybody in.”

  “Ridley Law,” I answer.

  “Ah, yes, Ridley! Hiro does have you on his guest list,” Hisako confirms with a smile. She looks to the side and signals two guards to come towards her. “Can you two escort Hiro’s guest?”

  “Yes, ma’am!” the guards speak in unison and even salute Hisako. She must have a lot of authority around here. “Please follow us.” We enter the building. One guard walks in front of me as the other is directly behind me. For some reason, I get this feeling like I did something wrong even though I know I didn’t. Hell, I just got here, but I can’t help it. Maybe it’s just the fact I’m in a nice facility with guards equipped with guns, but I feel like if I do anything I might get tackled.

  I’m lead through several long hallways and doors. We’re in an area I don’t remember ever going to during any fieldtrip. The guards stop at both sides of a door. One says, “Please enter through here, we will wait outside.”

  “Um, alright?” I mutter. Are we at the actual place to watch?