By the ti school was done for the day, I still hadn't heard back from Nanase.
Even if she were to say that everything was ready to go today, it's not like Horikita and I would be able to take action anyway.
There was still a more pressing issue that needed to be dealt with first.
And that was my arrangent with Amasawa to make her a ho-cooked al. As long as my cooking was up to snuff, it was an exceptional opportunity to get her to partner up with Sudō. That being said, it was by no ans an easy task.
When I arrived at the entrance of Keyaki Mall ten minutes before the appointed ti, it didn't seem that Amasawa had arrived yet. Instead of fiddling around with my cell phone or sothing, I just casually observed the students entering the mall from where I stood. The students, ranging from first-years to third-years, were happily chatting about this and that as they steadily flowed into the shopping center. The temperature had felt warr than usual this morning, but as evening approached, it was beginning to cool down. The temperature would probably drop even further by the ti night ca around.
Finally, just before the appointed ti, Amasawa showed up.
"Perfectly done~ Ayanokōji-senpai~"
As soon as we t up, she smiled broadly and nodded her head several tis, as if she was satisfied with sothing.
"What are you talking about?"
"You waited at the eting place before the girl showed up. Without doing anything like, excessive either~"
She was surprisingly perceptive. Or, perhaps I should say that she had a solid understanding of my actions, no matter how trivial they might have seed.
By 'excessive', she was probably referring to the fact that I wasn't ssing with my phone or making a call.
Soon, I had to face Amasawa's test. In other words, I had to buckle down and cook sothing for her by hand. That being the case, the ti I spent standing here could've been a good last-minute opportunity to look up recipes and take various other counterasures. A good analogy is that it would've been no different from staring at the textbook right up until the chi of the bell on the day of a test. Of course, doing so in and of itself wouldn't have violated any of the rules Amasawa had put forth.
However, being on my phone like that might make seem like sobody who wasn't confident in his cooking.
The sa thing went for making a phone call, as it could've given off the impression that I had been discussing the matter with sobody else. Therefore, in order to highlight my composure, I deliberately didn't do anything that would seem excessive. I had planned on instilling this image of within Amasawa without her realizing it, but it appeared as though she had seen through from the very beginning.
"Well then Ayanokōji-senpai, shall we go?"
Amasawa spoke as soon as she joined up with and the two of us entered the mall together.
"To buy ingredients, right?"
"Oh yeah. That too~ You've gotta buy the stuff you'll make for . Do you have the points~?"
"I should."
In truth, I really didn't have all that many left, but I wouldn't say anything unnecessary like that in front of one of my underclassn.
"Good! I don't need to hold back then~ Lem see... I think I heard my classmates say that they sell all the essentials here, but... I wonder where the shopping baskets are~?"
Instead of heading for the supermarket, Amasawa walked straight into 'Hamming', a shop specialized in selling ho goods and other daily necessities, and picked up a blue shopping basket that she had found near the entrance.
The words 'That too~' that she had said earlier weighed on my mind.
Although I knew I was supposed to cook her a al, did this an that there was sothing else I had to do other than buying ingredients?
Amasawa stopped by the section where the kitchenware was on display.
This brought back mories of how, when I first enrolled here, I had made several trips to this very store to buy all of the things I needed.
It wasn't just the school's students who made use of these supplies, but also the faculty mbers and the employees who worked in the cafeteria or the cafes around campus, so the store had a particularly large section set aside for kitchenware. I could rember the first ti I ca here and how it was difficult to find what I was looking for right away.
From the look of it, they had co out with an assortnt of new products since my last visit a long ti ago.
Perhaps the fact that Amasawa had stopped by here ant that she was looking to buy so specific specialized equipnt or sothing? After all, the store had peelers, graters, mortars, and countless other cooking utensils. Given all of the variety, there were naturally several that I didn't own as well. Either way, it was just weird that she hadn't bothered to run any of this by . It made sense to that she'd at least check to see which utensils I did or didn't have first. Considering our current ti constraints, it would've been easy for her to ask about it as we walked together, but...
I held back my desire to ask her about it, allowing Amasawa to remain in control for the ti being.
I opted to try and bring up a subject that had nothing to do with cooking utensils.
"Have you done any cooking of your own before, Amasawa?"
"? Not at all. I'm not the type to just whip up a al on my own. I'm the kinda girl who'd rather let others cook for than make things for myself."
She explained such before stopping in her tracks, having apparently arrived at her destination.
The journey so far had gone without a hitch. She looked away from , fixing her eyes upon the shelf of goods in front of us.
For a couple dozen seconds or so, she stood there, lost in thought with her arms crossed, almost as if she was troubled by sothing.
Then, as if having made up her mind, she nodded confidently, muttering an 'Alright~' to herself as she did so.
"To start out we'll need a cutting board, right? Then a kitchen knife? Then there's bowls and a whisk, and after that we'll need a pot and a ladle as well, huh~?"
She tossed each item into the basket one after the next as she listed them out loud.
The last item she put in was a big round spoon, which, apparently, was known as a ladle.
"Hold on a second. I have almost all of these things you're getting back in my room already."
I was struck with a bad premonition about this, so I hurriedly began to speak up, but...
"It's fine, it's fine. I'm just having you buy these exclusively for when you cook for ."
She's just having buy these for what now...? The cutting board she had put in the basket was of an even higher quality than the one I was using in my own room right now. It seed like it was made out of hinoki cypress and cost just over 4000 points. All of the other items were high-class as well.
At this point, it didn't seem like she was finished yet as she went off once again, setting her sights on the next set of shelves. Her troubled deanour from earlier was nowhere to be seen, as she proceeded to take hold of a small fruit knife without hesitating in the slightest.
"For soone to claim to be a skilled cook, owning a Petty knife is an absolute must, wouldn't you say~?"
She spoke in a casual, relaxed tone as she tossed the knife into her basket. For a stupid amateur like who didn't even know that fruit knives were also known as Petty knives, that knife was very expensive, priced at nearly 3000 points. Even though there were nurous cheaper options on display next to the knife she had chosen, she didn't even feign an attempt at acting like she was interested in them. As far as I could tell, the difference in price ultimately boiled down to whether or not it was being sold with a sheath and whether or not it had been manufactured within Japan. But even then, the knife she had chosen was still an excessively luxurious one.
Apparently, a skilled chef was expected to have mastered the use of this kind of tiny cooking knife.
"This is just a question, but the one who's paying..."
"Well, that would be you of course, right Ayanokōji-senpai?"
I already knew I was supposed to be paying here, but the total was easily over 15,000 points by now. Since it has co to this, I might as well throw away the cheap one I had been using up until now. If I thought of the food I'd make for myself using these high-class tools when I cook on my own in the future, then maybe I could co to terms with the purchases sohow...?
"Ah, like I ntioned earlier, you're buying these to cook for exclusively, so don't go wearing them out with everyday use, got it?"
"Are you so sort of demon?"
I got ahead of myself and vocalized my stingy thoughts, but Amasawa had unnervingly anticipated that.
"You can call it quits now if you want to, you know~?"
She spoke provocatively, her hands still clutching onto the handle of the blue shopping basket.
She had grabbed onto my weakness, fully aware that there was no way I could refuse, dancing in the palm of her hand.
15,000 points was an unbelievably cheap price to pay for getting Sudō partnered up with an A-rated student. I had no choice but to cut my losses and make a decision.
"No, I understand. I'll accept all of your conditions, so feel free to buy whatever you want."
"Do you think I'm a bad girl?"
"I wouldn't say that."
Amasawa fixed her eyes on mine and then, having seemingly co to realize sothing, smiled broadly.
"Then everything should be A-okay, Senpai."
In the end, it was decided that I would purchase everything, from the pot to the ladle and all sorts of things in between.
Each item, bought under the horrifying condition that I would only use it when cooking for her.
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