After deciding what to do, Shirou casually bought the rest of the seasonings, focusing on essential ones like cream, salt, sugar, and black pepper, and picked up a few tomatoes, carrots, and green beans along the way.
"The seasoning aisle seemed to have pretty much everything, but the seafood section was a bit lacking?"
Shirou carried a large basket of items to the checkout, thinking about how the seafood options had seemed sparse while he was browsing.
He figured it was because Lungmen wasn't coastal. He remembered that Lungmen was a mobile city, and that so-called mobile cities had been born to escape natural disasters.
That topic seemed to involve a lot of complicated history, so Shirou just remembered the gist of it.
However, his memory seemed to have improved significantly. Absorbing that much knowledge all at once usually required a period of digestion, but now he seemed to retain it just by reading it.
Shirou didn't even want to think about it anymore; whenever something felt off, he could just blame it on the Holy Grail.
When in doubt, let the Holy Grail carry the burden.
Following his memory, Shirou successfully made his way back from the supermarket to the dormitory.
After heading upstairs, he plugged in the refrigerator, put the items that needed chilling inside one by one, and placed the seasonings in the cabinet, organizing everything primarily for his own convenience.
"I remember there's a rice cooker around here, and the kitchenware is in this cabinet. Oh? There's an oven over here too!"
Shirou remembered seeing some cookware and basic appliances while tidying up yesterday, but he had just left them alone after a brief straightening up. Now that he could use them freely, he planned to set out some of the items he used frequently.
Some of the items were quite modern, and he had to study them for a while before he roughly figured out how to use them.
After putting everything in its proper place, the kitchen finally started to look like a real kitchen.
"Alright, let's prepare the rice first."
Shirou washed the rice thoroughly, poured it into the rice cooker, and added a little bit of oil along with the water. Adding oil made the cooked grains look fuller and shinier, and gave them a better texture.
"Let it soak like this for a bit. I'll prep the other ingredients in the meantime."
Shirou dried his hands and took out the food he needed.
He started with the meat, cutting the feathered-beast meat into small chunks, sprinkling them with salt and black pepper, and setting them aside to rest while he handled the rest of the ingredients.
Omurice was generally a relatively simple dish; you cooked the meat first, then added the other components, and finished with a splash of ketchup before tossing it with the rice.
Shirou watched until the rice in the pan was completely stained with the red of the ketchup, then stirred it until it was a bit drier before transferring it to a plate.
Next was the egg portion. This time, Shirou wanted to try making a ribbon omelet. It was relatively simpler compared to a standard omelet, and it made for a quite pretty presentation of omurice.
Shirou poured in the beaten eggs mixed with milk. Once the bottom layer set, he used chopsticks to pinch it from both sides toward the center, gently shaking the pan while slowly rotating his chopsticks so the egg formed a swirl. Finally, he placed the egg atop the shaped mound of rice, and it was done.
Shirou carried the rice to the table and tasted a bite himself.
"Hmm... The flavor doesn't seem to be very different. I can slowly experiment with the rest later."
Shirou was in quite a good mood. At least the food here tasted pretty much the same; feathered beasts and eggs tasted just like ordinary chicken and chicken eggs.
Just as Shirou was about to take another bite, someone suddenly knocked on the door.
Shirou put down his cutlery and walked over to open the door, only to find Exusiai standing outside.
"What's wrong?"
Shirou looked at Exusiai outside the door, wondering why she had suddenly come downstairs to find him.
"Shirou, Shirou, are you cooking?"
Exusiai clenched both fists, asking with an excited expression.
While lounging upstairs and lazing around just now, she had suddenly smelled a wonderful aroma, and after searching for a while, she realized the source was right downstairs from their dorm.
Thinking of the new tenant downstairs, Exusiai felt it was necessary to drop by for a proper chat and build some rapport.
So, she had come down.
"Uh, yeah. Just experimenting with some cooking."
Shirou was caught off guard by Exusiai's arrival.
"Can I take a look? It smelled really good from upstairs."
Exusiai's gaze fixed on the plate of yellow goodness on the table, her eyes continuing to sparkle.
Looking at her reaction, Shirou felt like he had seen this somewhere before. Didn't Saber's expression when looking at food while starving look just like this?
08 Texas, you betrayed me!
In the end, Shirou still let Exusiai in.
As soon as she entered, Exusiai went straight to the kitchen to see if there was anything else cooking, but to her disappointment, she didn't see what she was hoping for.
She was just surprised to find that, unlike the empty state of yesterday, the kitchen now looked like that of an ordinary home.
"Did you want to eat omurice?"
Observing Exusiai's behavior and the way she had looked at the omurice by the door earlier, he deduced that she must have followed the scent here.
"But there's only one portion, right? It wouldn't be very nice to snatch food from you."
Exusiai had originally come hoping to freeload some extra food, but she had never considered stealing meals from Shirou, especially since he was a patient.
"It's fine. I was just experimenting anyway. As long as you don't mind that it's a test dish and that I've already taken a bite, it's totally okay."
Shirou didn't mind. He had worried about the possibility of failure when shopping, so he had bought extra ingredients. Besides, Exusiai and Texas had both helped him a lot that morning.
"Really? Then I won't hold back!"
Hearing Shirou's words, Exusiai dashed straight over to the table and stared at the omurice.
Exusiai looked at it from the left and examined it from the right.
"It looks pretty different from the ones sold outside. The ones out there just have a fully cooked egg draped over the rice."
Exusiai experimentally scooped a spoonful and ate it in one go.
"I brought you a new spoon..."
At that moment, Shirou happened to walk out holding a clean spoon, only to watch with his own eyes as Exusiai used the exact spoon he had just eaten with.
The two red-haired people stared at the spoon in each other's hands—and in her mouth.
After about five seconds, Exusiai pulled the spoon out of her mouth, walked up to Shirou, swapped the spoons back between their hands, and then acted as if nothing had happened, returning to her seat to continue eating her omurice.
"..."
Shirou washed the spoon, having no intention of returning to the living room just yet.
After thinking for a moment, Shirou decided to make one more portion so Exusiai could take it to Texas.
As for Sora and Croissant, Shirou wasn't sure if they were around. He would hand Texas's portion to Exusiai first and ask about the other two afterward.
Sitting in the living room, Exusiai looked a bit awkward, but after taking a second bite of the omurice, she tossed that awkwardness straight out the window.
Awkward? What was that? It was just sharing a spoon someone else had used!
How could that compare to the plate of omurice right in front of her?
After a few more bites, Exusiai heard the sound of chopping coming from the kitchen.
Driven by curiosity, Exusiai quietly crouched by the kitchen doorway and watched Shirou cook.
Shirou was completely focused on processing the ingredients. Although Exusiai couldn't quite understand what he was doing, she could sense that his culinary skills were probably quite good.
When Shirou finished preparing the vegetables in his hands and turned around to grab the next ingredient, he caught sight of a glowing object at the doorway—which was Exusiai's halo.
"Want a drink?"
Shirou washed his hands, then retrieved a bottle of tea from the refrigerator and handed it to Exusiai.
"Are you making omurice over there too?"
Exusiai took the tea, then pointed at the ingredients Shirou was currently working on and asked.
"Yeah, for Texas. After all, you two helped me a lot this morning."
Shirou spoke while handling the ingredients. Suddenly thinking of something as he looked at the food in his hands, he turned his head and asked Exusiai:
"Are Sora and Croissant around too? If they are, I'll make a few more portions."
Exusiai's eyes rolled around, and she gave him a thumbs-up.
"They're both here!"
Shirou had a nagging feeling that she was acting a bit strange, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it, so he simply refocused his attention on the cooking.
"Then I'll finish Texas's portion first, and then make theirs."
For some reason, Exusiai looked delighted as she walked back to the table with the iced tea and continued eating her omurice.
When she finished eating, Shirou also plated up a portion and placed it in front of Exusiai.
"Would you mind calling the others down, or taking it up to them is fine too."
"No problem, no problem! I'll just take it up."
Exusiai picked up the plate and bolted straight out the door.
Shirou looked at the door Exusiai had forgotten to close, smiled helplessly, and returned to the kitchen to continue preparing the portions for Croissant and Sora.
Over on Exusiai's end, she went upstairs and knocked on Texas's door.
"What is it?"
Texas opened a tiny gap and looked at Exusiai outside the door.
"Shirou made a plate of omurice, want some? He says it's a thank-you gift for us helping him out this morning."
Exusiai asked, holding up the plate of omurice in her hands.
Texas glanced at it, then opened her bedroom door and stepped out, taking the food from Exusiai's hands.
She was currently wearing only a tank top and shorts; after all, since she was at home, she preferred to dress comfortably.
"Is this what he was cooking when we smelled that earlier? It tastes pretty good."
Texas took a bite of the rice, chewed carefully, and gave her verdict.
"Right? Right? Sora and Croissant aren't around, and Shirou is planning to make two more portions, so let's split this one between us."
Exusiai wore an evil grin, attempting to poach her partner's food.
"...Shirou probably confirmed whether both of them were actually there before deciding to make it, didn't he?"
Texas deduced her teammate's personality; Shirou had probably been tricked into making extra.
"Heh, and you figured that right out."
Exusiai tapped her own head lightly with her fist, striking a heh pose.
"I'll pass. This portion is enough for me, you figure out your own problems."
Texas had no intention of participating in Exusiai's prank, and the serving size of the omurice in her hand was quite generous already.
Just as Texas intended to carry it back to her room, Exusiai grabbed her around the waist.
"Don't be like that, I can't finish it all! Look, I even thought of you, isn't having company great?"
"Don't drag me down with you."
With a look of disgust, Texas pushed away Exusiai's leaning head while keeping a steady grip on the plate with her other hand.
Finally, with no other choice, Texas gave in to Exusiai's demand, threw on a jacket, and carried the food downstairs.
"Ah, Texas, you came too? I just finished making this. Where are Sora and Croissant?"
As Exusiai and Texas walked through the door, Shirou happened to be carrying two plates of omurice to set on the table. He greeted them upon seeing Texas in a jacket behind Exusiai, originally thinking everyone would come up, but it seemed there were only the two of them.
Texas placed her plate onto the table and reached out to grab Exusiai by the scruff.
"Sora and Croissant aren't around these two days. This useless angel just lied to trick someone into extra food."
Texas swiftly laid out the whole story.
"Texas, you betrayed me!"
Exusiai tried to break free from the other's grip, but she was held firmly in place.
"Ah... I kind of guessed as much, I just didn't expect it to actually be the case."
Shirou had already had a pretty good idea of what Exusiai was up to after witnessing her few odd behaviors. Back when he used to help out in the student council, people would occasionally try to freeload extra food under the guise of their friends. Even when he knew, he usually didn't call them out.
Before you continue