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North-South Spring Roll
On the evening three days after the trip to Hokkaido, Chihiro arrived at Itsuki’s apartment to cook dinner.
Chihiro wordlessly slipped the apron over the windbreaker, and got ready to cook. Itsuki asked,
“Ah, wait a sec.”
“? What is it?’
“There’s crab.”
“Miss Kani?” Chihiro’s head tilted slightly.[53]
“No, not the Kani Lord.”
Itsuki said as he stood up, and went to the fridge.
There was a full snow crab, more than 50cm in length, stuffed inside.
“Crab!” Chihiro’s eyes widened.
“Where did this come from?”
“Bought it from Hokkaido.”
This crab was delivered on that particular morning, and as it was too big, it was hard to put inside the freezer, so Itsuki could only put it inside the fridge. As a result, the crab was slowly thawed, causing the fridge to be dripping in the condensed liquids from the crab, with a lingering stench to boot.
“Eh, Nii-san, you went to Hokkaido? When?”
“Three days ago.”
“Why didn’t you say anything about that?’
“…Well, it was just decided at the last moment. That idiot Setsuna had a crazy idea of wanting to eat some salmon roe.”
“I remember Setsuna-san is the illustrator in charge of your novel, right?”
“Yeah. It’s that Puriketsu.”
“That shaking…”
Chihiro’s face went beetroot, and asked, “So you went with Setsuna-san?”
“Yep.”
“That’s…”
Chihiro immediately showed an envious look, and stared at the crab.
“Hm…how do I deal with this large crab…it’s already thawed, so it’s best if it can be used for cooking…anyway, why such a large crab? Do you really like crab, Nii-san?”
“I-I don’t really like it that much!”
Itsuki denied with an agitated, reddened face, but calmed down immediately.
“I just bought it because I found it cool. It has claws and shell after all.”.
“Just because it looks cool.”
Chihiro looked dumbfounded, and removed the crab from the fridge.
“It’s heavy…how do I deal with this…is there anything you want, Nii-san?”
“Crab roe.”
“…What about the meat?’
“I’ll leave it to you.”
“…Understood.”
Chihiro let out a little sigh, and laid the crab on the cooking table.
Chihiro, who would normally mutter in a troubled manner, showed a vague smile on the lips. It seemed this supreme ingredient left Chihiro wanting to show off.
After leaving the cooking to the little brother, Itsuki got ready to return to the desk, and stopped.
“Ah, right.”
“What?”
“And there’s another local produce.”
Itsuki opened the fridge, and took out a black object wrapped in a vacuum pack.
“What’s this?”
“Chiraga”
“Chiraga? …Kya!”
Chihiro’s face approached the thing, and let out a girlish squeal as he retreated.
Itsuki was holding the Chiraga he bought from Okinawa—pig’s face.
The entire shape of the face was distinct, not just the unique looking snout. On first look, it appeared to be an entire pig’s head. It was terrifying.
“Wh-wh-wh-wh-what is that?”
“Pig’s face.”
“I think I saw it on TV before…some famous produce from Okinawa…”
“Right, I bought it from Okinawa. Rather delicious too.”
Chihiro was dumbfounded.
“When did you go to Okinawa?’
“Just a week ago.”
“Why?”
“Because…the air conditioning malfunctioned, and it’s too cold to be in the room.”
Chihiro looked incredulous.
“Just because it’s cold…you could have returned home. It’s nearby…”
“Ahh…I forgot about that.”
To be honest, Itsuki initially did not forget about evacuating to his old home, but that he chose not to.
“Seriouly…” and while Itsuki played dumb, Chihiro let out a little sigh.
Seeing Chihiro with such a reaction, Itsuki…too knew that such a smart little brother would not have missed out on the fact that he was playing dumb.
However, Chihiro did not pursue the matter further.
“…Anyway, how is this Chiraga to be eaten?”
Chihiro asked as he stared at the nice looking pig face.
“The shop I ate this at had it sliced into thin pieces.”
“Speaking of which, I think Okinawa called the pig ears, Mimiga or something. Just think of it as something similar and it’ll do, I guess…hm…there’s also crab…”
Chihiro gauged the crab on the cooking table and the pig face in Itsuki’s hand, giving a grim look as he started to ponder.
“…Crab and pork…hmmm…”
“Well, pork can be kept for a longer time. There’s no need to use it today, right?”
“…No, I’ll try. Focus on your work, Nii-san.”
“Oh, okay.”
Itsuki left the pig face with the little brother who appeared to be all fired up, and left the kitchen.
匚
After about an hour, the dish was completed, and the tabletop of the kotatsu was packed with a scrumptious dinner that was obviously a little too much for just two people. The duo started to tuck in.
There was salad with sliced lettuce, tomatoes, pig skin, and an exorbitant serving of crab legs and pon vinegar.
Deep fried spring rolls and raw spring rolls of crab meat and sliced pig face.
Frozen soup of crab and pig face.
Fried rice made of crab and pig face.
It might be Chihiro’s insistence, but every dish had pig face and crab, none of them made without any of those two ingredients, and most importantly, every dish was delicious.
Amongst them, the one with most praise was the deep-fried spring roll. The boiling hot pork oil and Snow crab juice wrapped underneath the crispy skin fused together to form a rich fresh taste that was not only delicious, but also a perfect sense of blissfulness with the thick crab meat and the crispiness of the pig face.
Itsuki exhaled hot air from his nostrils, huff, puff, and enjoyed the spring rolls.
“Th-this is too perfect…a miraculous harmony of the northernmost and southernmost produces…! If I’m to name this, let’s see, South…Southern Cros…North…Northern Cross…Southern…Northern…well, I guess ‘North-South Spring Roll’ is fine.”
Itsuki originally intended to come up with a cool, creative dish name akin to that of a cooking manga, but just could not come up with one that read well, and could only compromise.
“You like spring rolls?”
“Yep.”
Itsuki nodded honestly, and Chihiro beamed.
“…Oh yeah, you went to Okinawa with Setsuna-san, Nii-san?”
“No, I went to Okinawa with Miyako and Crab Lord.”
Pikun, Chihiro’s eyebrows twitched.
“Heh…I see…so you went to Okinawa with two girls…”
“…So what?’
“It’s nothing. I just find you mature for doing this, Nii-san.”
Chihiro’s voice had a strange reproaching tone to it, and Itsuki felt a little awkward.
“…It-it’s nothing amazing to be going on a holiday, right? I took a flight to Okinawa, and in the blink of an eye…right. Not exactly…a single trip takes three hours, about the same time to go to Granny’s in Gifu. Speaking of which, you probably went out with girls too yourself, right?”
“I-I—”
At this moment, the smartphone in Chihiro’s pocket rang.
Chihiro fished it out, and touched the screen.
“…Hello?”
“Ah! Chihhii?”
Coming from the phone was a voice of a lively girl.
“Ho-Hold on a moment.”
Chihiro hurriedly got up, and hurried to the kitchen.
While Chihiro whispered into the phone “Tch, I guess handsome guys are like this…” Itsuki sighed as he glanced aside at him.
It seemed Chihiro was not dating with anyone, but there was once when Itsuki glanced through his phone contacts, and saw an entire column of girls’ names.
Back when Itsuki was in high school, he had nary a single girl in the contact list. It would be said that rather than girls calling him, there were so few times during his school days when he spoke to girls…or rather, not just girls. He hardly spoke with boys. Truth be told, he was alone.
“…”
He recalled that dull, dark high school light, and felt gloomy. While marveling at the delicious crab and pork, he gorged into the north-south fried rice.
He kept eating, and then Chihiro, done with the phone call, returned.
“Your girlfriend, Chihhii?”
Itsuki teased, and Chihiro blushed.
“Seriously, I said I don’t have a girlfriend.” He said with a huff.
Itsuki did not mind, and continued eating, sharing with Chihiro his trips to the aquarium in Okinawa and having seafood rice in Hokkaido.
Once food was done, Chihiro put the remaining food into the fridge, washed the cutlery and cooking utensils, took the washed clothes out to dry, cleaned up the bathroom and washroom, scrubbed the floor, separated the trash, and left Itsuki’s room.
“See you next time, Nii-san…come back home when you have time.”
“…Oh, okay…when I want to.”
“…”
Chihiro looked a little peeved, and turned away, “Ah, wait.” Itsuki called out.
Itsuki returned to the room, and took out the bag of gifts on the table, handing it over to Chihiro, who was outside the door.
“This is for back home. Awamori and Shiroi Koibito, and a key holder for you.”[54]
Chihiro received the bag, reached the hand in, and took out the key holder.
There was a cute deformed whale shark dangling on the ring.
“For me?”
“Yeah.”
Chihiro’s face turned red, and he looked up at Itsuki.
“Th-thank you…”
“Yeah.”
“Whale shark. This should be the same strap as yours, Nii-san.”
Chihiro showed an earnest smile on the androgynous face.
And upon seeing the smile that could only be described as adorable, Itsuki’s heart skipped a beat for some reason.