Before long, following Uraume's directions, Sukuna found a fairly small lake. Even at its deepest, it was probably only five or six meters deep.
"Lakes this clear were already pretty rare in later times."
The water before him was clear enough to see the bottom, and he could make out fish constantly swimming around inside. They said water that was too clear held no fish, but here the opposite was true. Perhaps it was because nature had yet to be developed in this era, though Sukuna wasn't sure of the exact reason. After all, you couldn't expect a shut-in to know everything.
"Too bad this is just a parallel world. If it were the main world, I'd kill every last one of those Japanese bastards so they couldn't hurt anyone else. They polluted all the seawater in later times. Fuck, just thinking about it pisses me off!"
Watching the little fish swimming before him, he felt an inexplicable surge of frustration. He pulled out Kamutoke and blasted the lake.
Bzzzz-
In an instant, milky-white currents crisscrossed the lake's surface, then flashed blue and violet. Water was an excellent conductor, after all. Clouds of white mist rose from the lake, the powerful current even forcing water vapor into the air.
By the time the current vanished completely, plenty of fish were floating belly-up on the surface. The smell of cooked flesh wafted over, too; quite a few had already been charred. Only some of the fish in the deepest part of the lake had merely been stunned. Otherwise, he might have missed out on this meal altogether, since dead fish held no appeal for him.
"Uraume, scoop up all the fish that are still alive. Let me try making an all-fish feast!"
Looking at the unfamiliar fish, Sukuna suddenly felt the urge to show off his skills. Though he was clueless about everyday life and couldn't identify a single fish, as a shut-in who had lived alone, he could at least cook a few homestyle fish dishes.
"Yes, my lord."
Although Uraume had never seen Sukuna cook a meal himself, she never doubted him or questioned anything he did. Before meeting her, Sukuna had been something of a wilderness chef himself. His food simply hadn't tasted very good, and he had preferred eating raw flesh and drinking blood. But that wasn't really his fault. He had grown up without either a father or a mother, after all.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.
Streams of freezing Cursed Energy shot out, precisely encasing the surviving fish in ice. There were actually more than a dozen large fish and a handful of small ones. With twitches of her fingers, she drew them up one after another, the freezing Cursed Energy keeping them fresh as well.
As the fish came ashore one by one, Sukuna loosened up his arms and legs, then stepped forward to prepare them.
He carefully recalled the fish-cooking tutorials from his previous life, then confidently sliced open a fish.
These scales definitely all need scraping off. As the thought crossed his mind, his gaze drifted toward Kamutoke beside him. It had a small blade on it, perfect for scraping fish scales. That counted as putting it to good use.
"These disgusting guts need throwing out, too. And no fish heads. I hate eating fish heads."
He carefully recalled the steps, then set all four hands to work. Soon, the fish had been gutted and washed one after another. Of course, he only handled the gutting; he naturally left the washing to Uraume.
He glanced toward Uraume by the lake, unable to stop himself from praising her inwardly. As expected of someone Japanese, she really knew her way around preparing fish. At the very least, she was far better than a helpless idiot like him.
The blade in Uraume's hand moved swiftly as she picked out fish bones one after another. She also removed every scale he hadn't scraped off properly.
"Wait, Uraume. Take these fish heads and dig out the eyeballs. I want to make soup."
Sukuna kicked the fish heads beside him, his expression utterly disgusted.
"Ah, can't be helped. I've got to look after my own body. They say fish eyeballs are good for your eyesight, and I've got four eyes now, so of course I need to take extra care of them."
Seeing that Uraume would need a while longer to clean the fish, he casually scooped up a handful of clay from the bank and kneaded it in his palm. Finding its texture promising, he suddenly had an idea.
"If I don't have any cookware, can't I just mold some myself?" A bold idea immediately took shape in his mind.
"Today marks day one of my wild-man adventure!"
As he dug up handful after handful of clay and brought it onto the bank, he molded one pot, bowl, ladle, and basin after another. Though their shapes were a mess, they looked just barely usable.
Whoosh.
One hand formed a strange sign, and waves of scorching flame rose up. Almost instantly, they engulfed the clay cookware on the ground.
The flames were so hot that they warped the air. Only moments later, a sharp crack came from within them. Hearing it, Sukuna hurriedly stopped releasing fire.
"Now, it's time to witness a miracle!"
As the smoke and dust cleared, the ground revealed a scene of utter wreckage. Not a single piece remained intact. That lone sharp crack had come from a nearly fired bowl splitting in two. As for the other pots, bowls, ladles, and basins, needless to say, every one had ended in failure.
"Sure enough, society spent twenty years teaching me, and I'm still just a useless thing wriggling through it."
He glanced awkwardly toward Uraume. Finding that she wasn't looking his way, he hurriedly destroyed the wreckage on the ground, glanced toward Heian-kyo, and vanished from the spot.
"My lord... seems to be becoming more and more human."
She smiled faintly, then withdrew her gaze and continued digging out the eyeballs before her. No matter how Sukuna changed, Uraume wouldn't be surprised. His temperament had always been changeable. It was simply that now, compared with the terror of a natural disaster he had been before, he seemed more human.
In Heian-kyo, the roof of a sashimi restaurant had been sliced off. Inside, a figure with a terrifying face was searching for something.
"Just as I thought, they've got them here. I shouldn't have humiliated myself in the first place." (●-●)
There were plenty of iron utensils in the kitchen. Though Japan's ironworking techniques weren't very advanced in this era, they were good enough to make a few crude items. After all, they couldn't make porcelain, and some small villages even used animal skulls as cooking pots.
"Well, having their roof destroyed by me is an honor, isn't it? They ought to thank me. I'm such a kind, helpful person."
He cast a guilty glance at the roof he had sliced off with a single strike, then walked straight out through the front entrance, smashing through the entire front wall. After all, no doorway was large enough for him to pass through freely. He looked back once, then vanished from the spot.
"Let the wilderness cooking begin!"