You Talk, I Listen My Own Way

I'm done for!

Having turned her back on him again, Soi Fon began to feel dizzy.

That introduction had been a complete joke.

This lady is so weird. I'm scared.

Soi Fon didn't dare look back. She walked forward one step at a time, and what else could Dōsan do? He followed without a word.

Where is she taking me? What is she going to do to me?

Is she looking for somewhere secluded to make her move?

"What have you been eating for your three meals lately?" Her voice drifted back to him on the wind.

What kind of question is that?

He'd spent the previous week eating hot pot with Sister Kūkaku and had gotten a bit overheated, so he'd recently switched to a very light diet.

Dōsan ventured an answer. "Lately, I've been eating some vegetables."

Just as I thought!

Walking ahead of him, Soi Fon couldn't help clenching her fists.

Those damnable nobles feast on meat and fish themselves and never care whether anyone else lives or dies.

"What do you usually do at the Shiba Clan?"

Sure enough, she knows exactly who I am.

Yet she really wasn't going to show any regard for Uncle Isshin, a fellow captain, or the Shiba Clan, one of the Five Great Noble Clans.

Dōsan's heart tightened, and he chose his words even more carefully. Worried that she had come for Sister Kūkaku and the others, he gave away no other information.

"Mostly training, I suppose. I train from five in the morning until midnight."

Training from five in the morning until midnight?

Soi Fon suddenly stopped in her tracks, and Dōsan, whose thoughts had wandered too far, nearly ran into the young captain.

The Shiba Clan is that unscrupulous?

She had entered the Punishment Force and trained there since childhood, and even now that she was its commander-in-chief,

Soi Fon still considered the Punishment Force's training methods far too brutal and dark.

But even that wasn't this extreme, was it?

They feed him vegetables and make him train day and night.

Soi Fon clenched a fist and punched the air beside her, stirring up a gust of wind.

What now?

Her leaking Spiritual Pressure spread backward, and Dōsan felt a chill on his neck. She isn't about to attack, is she?

"We're here."

Here?

Dōsan's heart sank. He turned to look to his left. This is...

A pork stall?

This is going too far. A man can be killed, but not humiliated.

"This way."

Dōsan turned again to look in Soi Fon's direction.

It's the Millennium Sushi Shop.

"Come in."

One after the other, the two entered the sushi shop.

The shop was fairly tidy. It was neither upscale nor particularly affordable, and it didn't get many customers. At this hour in the afternoon, not a single table was occupied.

Soi Fon walked straight to the innermost corner, swept her haori aside with one hand, and sat down.

What's going on?

"Sit."

Dōsan obediently sat down, a little stiffly. When he had first encountered Soul Reapers, he might have had the reckless courage of a newborn calf unafraid of tigers, enough to throw a punch at Isshin Shiba.

Now, he knew full well that the gap between himself and a Captain-level fighter was like an uncrossable chasm.

Dōsan sat across from Soi Fon with his legs together. At first, he stared at her without blinking for a while, but after a moment he felt that he was being too rude and glanced elsewhere.

Why isn't she saying anything?

"Order."

Order?

Dōsan stole a glance at Soi Fon. Her face was as expressionless as ever.

Dōsan felt he couldn't ask any more questions. He gave the menu a quick look: it was two whole pages long, with more than sixty kinds of sushi.

Dōsan was a professional too. He looked through the names of the dishes, secretly stealing glances at Soi Fon from time to time.

Honey seaweed sushi, blazing mountain sushi, and two-tael coin sushi. My intuition tells me one of those must be her favorite.

Dōsan wanted to be a little more certain. He stared fixedly at Soi Fon, hoping to pick up some clue, until she lifted her head slightly under his gaze.

Dōsan panicked a little, his face twitching. He snapped the menu shut with a loud smack. "Honey seaweed sushi!"

After speaking, Dōsan carefully watched Soi Fon's expression. He could clearly sense that the young captain's eyelids had lifted the instant he ordered the honey seaweed sushi.

Although it had been very slight, it was the first change of expression Dōsan had seen from the young captain.

I guessed right!

Dōsan involuntarily raised a fist, but the moment he felt the young captain's gaze, he panicked, waved his right hand twice, and laid it flat on the table.

"Order more."

That wasn't it?

"Um, give me an order of two-tael coin sushi too." Dōsan picked up the menu to hide his face and peeked at Soi Fon.

"Order more."

Still not right?

"Then I'll have an order of blazing mountain sushi too."

"Order more."

"I'll also have shrimp tail sushi."

"More..."

"Refreshing midsummer sushi..."

What's going on? Haven't I picked the sushi she likes yet?

He picked more than a dozen other kinds, but Soi Fon still showed no sign of satisfaction.

Making a reasonable guess, perhaps the quantity wasn't enough? Dōsan gently closed the menu.

Sister Kūkaku's stomach, for instance, was like the sea, its depths unfathomable.

"I'll have one order of every kind of sushi here."

"Are you sure, sir?"

Dōsan glanced at Soi Fon and saw that the young captain's eyelids had started moving again. From the shape of her mouth, she looked ready to say "order more" again.

This time, before the young captain could speak, Dōsan hurried to his feet. "Two orders! Give me two orders of each kind!"

"Very well. Thank you for your patronage."

The wrinkled old woman asked no more questions. As though she had returned to her youth, she ran to the kitchen at the fastest speed of her life. Along the way, she broke an expensive decorative vase, but paid it no mind.

She's so small, but she can eat that much? I suppose that's a captain for you.

Dōsan wiped his forehead. The young captain must have been too embarrassed to order so much.

This boy seems to have suffered a great deal. My finances are in a precarious state, but this is our first meeting, so I should at least let him eat his fill.

Soi Fon stole an uncertain glance at her wallet. Most of her salary went toward paying off the Second Division's debts, and she might have to tighten her belt for a while.

"I'm so hungry. Did Dōsan-chan really have to take this long to buy some groceries?" Kūkaku lay in the sun, basking with her belly exposed, too hungry to move.

"Sister, haven't you figured it out yet?" Ganju glared at Kūkaku. Leaning against a corner, he complained weakly, "You're always hitting and kicking Dōsan, so he must have taken the chance to run away."

"Big Brother Kaien once said you have to face every battle head-on!" Kūkaku raised her torso and argued back sternly, though she felt a little uncertain herself. "It's fine. Koganehiko and Shiroganehiko have already gone to the kitchen. There'll be food soon."

"Oh, give it to Bony instead. He's still little and needs to eat more."

Bony was a young wild boar Ganju had recently taken in.

"Dōsan-chan, why aren't you back yet?!"

With twice the menu's worth of sushi served on fancy tableware, the entire little sushi shop was packed full.

Is there really a soul who can eat this much sushi?

Looking at the young captain's slender arms and legs, Dōsan Hanyū, who considered himself a genius chef, clicked his tongue inwardly.

Now that's an eye-opener.

"Captain, all the sushi has been served. Please enjoy your meal at your leisure."

The wind teased the bangs on Soi Fon's forehead, stirring Dōsan's heartstrings as well. Soi Fon raised her head and replied in a flat voice:

"I'm not hungry."

Then she turned her eyes toward Dōsan. "It's all yours."

I ordered over a thousand pieces of sushi, and now you tell me you're not hungry?

I have to eat it all?

But seeing that the girl's gaze didn't change at all, Dōsan lowered his head and stuffed a large piece of sushi into his mouth.

???

"Come on, come on!"

"How many has he eaten?"

"This young man has already eaten a record-breaking six hundred and fifty-three!"

"Amazing! So he only needs another one thousand one hundred and twelve pieces to win and claim the title of Double Sushi King?"

"Urgh." Hearing the spectators around him, Dōsan, who had eaten until he was in a daze, nearly threw up.

What the hell is a Double Sushi King?

His lips pale and his eyes vacant, Dōsan turned his head and glared at the old woman who owned the shop. She really knew how to do business: she had actually called a crowd over to hold a sushi-eating contest.

And for some reason, the young captain hadn't stopped her either.

Looking at the lobster sushi in front of him, Dōsan closed his eyes, opened his mouth, and stuffed it in. He couldn't even taste it. He chewed a few times and swallowed it like a bullet.

He had eaten all the sushi he had eaten in his life, all the sushi he would eat in the future, and all the sushi he might or might not eat in the future.

Is this the young captain's punishment for me?

Dōsan stuffed another piece of sushi into his mouth and glanced at Soi Fon with lifeless eyes.

If I resist now, do I have a chance?