"So where do you kids want to go?" Iwaguchi-san asked looking back at us. "I’m not really familiar with this place so I don’t know any good place."
I looked at the girls since I had not been to this place but Haruka, Sakura, and Asumi looked like they had and so did Ai. So it was decided that it was them who will decide and I and Iwaguchi-san stood aside as the girls huddled together in a circle to discuss. I didn’t understand the logic behind it but I can’t really say anything honestly. I and Iwaguchi-san are strangers to this place and the best we can do is go to Nakawa’s Kitchen which was a popular restaurant chain and was just behind us.
"It’s decided!" Ai announced looking proudly and latched onto my arm. "We are going to Isekai Café."
Wait, what? Isekai Café? Is that the best they could come up with? It’s a new café chain that has opened up in the area and boasts its amazing food which is almost every food chain but it wasn’t something too fancy or unknown. There were so many other Café here but they decided to go there? Looks like that’s where we can go.
We started walking with Ai sending her coldness to me through conduction which made it really chilly for me but a good kind of chilly. We all need a bit of coldness in our life like this. Especially in the summer like this. The humidity is so much that even thirty degrees feels like fifty. I feel like a chicken in an oil pot ready to be turned into a fried chicken. I like fried chicken but not to that point that I would want to become that.
"So why decide on that café?" I asked Ai who was snuggling her head on my shoulder. "It isn’t really an unknown place."
"Well the one here has a special offer," she said with a grin on her face. This doesn’t seem good.
The café was in our peripheral and I looked at the big board on the side of the café and started sweating while I read it. It read...
"Challenge, finish our spiciest curry and rice, and get the meal for free."
It cost ten thousand yens?! What?! Who is taking that challenge? And why would anyone do that? Why would any sane person do tha- don’t tell me?
"We are here~," Ai said in a sing-song.
I looked at her dreading the next words that would be coming from her mouth. Her eyes moved across the group and her grin became wider and wider. This is not a good thing. Lord, please have mercy on the soul of the person who does it. Honestly, I just hope it’s not me. I can handle my spice at the very least but I don’t even know how spicy it is. Is the going to make you a hissing snake level of spicy or will make you turn into a fire dragon level of spice?
I don’t want to be a fire dragon. I’m happy staying a human.
"Let’s go," Ai said, "Kazu-kun," and latched onto my arm. Oh god help me. Please, I beg of you.
We all march into the café all eyes were on us since from the look of it, it looked like Iwaguchi-san was our delinquent uncle who was here to give us a treat. I mean, looking at us, I won’t say that it’s far from the truth but most eyes were again, on Ai. I’m not even surprised. There is nothing to be surprised about. This is the case every time Ai is somewhere. Her beauty is so immense that no person can help but just fall in love with her, irrespective of the gender.
We headed to an empty seat and Ai sat right next to me and snatched the menu card from me. "Hehe, no need to bother about this Kazu-kun~ I have already decided what we are going to order," she said. Oh no.
"So, what will you kids have?" Iwaguchi-san asked.
"I’ll have pasta!" Haruka announced.
"Burger," Asumi said.
"I’ll have the same as Asumi," Sakura said.
"Well, this curry and rice look good," Iwaguchi-san said pointing at the challenge food. Wait, what?!
"I-Iwaguchi-san, you know that it is really spicy, right?" I asked him honestly worried about him.
"I do, what about it?" he said innocently tilting his head, don’t give me that! "And what about you two?"
Ai just pointed at something on the menu to the waitress and she looked at the two of us and let out a sweat looking at me, Ai, and Iwaguchi-san. What did she order? I’m scared, moreover, I’m scared for Iwaguchi-san. I saw the challenge from the menu card that Iwaguchi-san held and it was three million Scoville units!! Two million! For comparison, a normal pepper only has three thousand Scoville units. That’s a thousand times hotter than a normal pepper. What is Iwaguchi-san thinking?
Moreover, I’m worried about what Ai got us. And I just sat there patiently and nervously waiting for the food. Soon, Haruka, Asumi, and Sakura’s food arrived and they started eating.
"Itadakimasu," they said and started digging in.
All of a sudden, my nose tingled with the strong smell of curry. It smelled delicious honestly and as soon as the alluring smell stopped controlling my nose, I got to my senses and started sweating. Two big plates of curry and rice came before us along with a clock. I looked at the person who served the food nervously.
"Well now that you three are taking the challenges, here are the rules," what?! Three?! "The food should be finished within forty-five minutes and that includes both the curry and the rice. If you are able to do this, you get to walk away without paying and if you don’t, well you have to pay twenty thousand yens in total. Well then, your time starts now, good luck."
With this, he walked away and I just looked at our plate. Apparently, it was allowed for two people to try and finish it. That was the limit but honestly, I think even two people would not be able to take this. You would need at least twenty people to finish this monstrosity. It was a lot of food, you can feed the entirety of japan with this much food for one meal. Okay, maybe I am exaggerating here but this thing is not a joke!!
"Time to dig in," Iwaguchi-san and Ai said picking up the spoons nonchalantly. No way are they planning on finishing it. Ai passed me a spoon and smiled.
"Come on Kazu-kun, let’s go," she said the most dreading words with the sweetest smile in the world that my heart almost melted but I held myself together in time. No, if I listen to her, I will die in the toilet later on. I will die for sure!! We have a festival to attend! What is she even thinking?!
"Y-y-you want m-m-me to eat…..this?" I said pointing at the big plate of curry and rice that Iwaguchi-san had no problem eating. He wasn’t even sweating?! Wait, maybe it’s not even that hot. Yeah, maybe they just exaggerated. Maybe the real challenge is to finish this amount of curry and rice. Yeah, that is the real challenge.
Having that misconception, I did something that I will instantly regret. I took the spoon and scooped some curry and rice in it and placed it in my mouth. I pulled the spoon out and started chewing. Hmmm? Wait, it’s not that bad ac-
"Hmmmmmm?!"
Screw that, this is bad, really bad. So bad that I can’t even take another bite! It feels like a thousand ants are biting on my tongue and my lips feel like I just kissed a hot cactus. What did Ai even make me eat?! I looked at her and she looked at me confused tilting her head. Don’t give me that?!
I looked at Iwaguchi-san and he was halfway done?!
"I- ahh, I-Iwaguchi-san….h-how are you n-n-not sweating?" I asked him while suffering and drinking water.
"Me? Oh, I have a very high resistance to spice," he said with a smile giving me a thumbs up. "I mean, I had to finish the food Natsumi-san used to make back in the days when she still cooked and she always put too much spice in it and end up not eating it and giving it to me. It’s food after all so I cannot let it go to waste so I eat it."
He…..I….wow….just amazing. My respect for Iwaguchi-san just increased ten folds. Eating Natsumi-san’s cooking and still surviving. I think dinosaurs would have an easier time surviving the asteroid that crashed on the earth millions of years ago than eating Natsumi-san’s cooking. One of the many reasons why I started learning how to cook. Look Natsumi-san, I respect and love you but your cooking….I don’t know what to say about that. The only time a knife is good in her hand is while combat and not cooking.
The worst part is that it is so deceptive. Her food looks so good. To the point that a food critic would climax just at the look of it but the food itself….oh no Kazuki. Stop thinking, the nightmares of the past are coming back. Stop thinking about that!
As soon as I stopped thinking about that, the feeling of spice hit me back. I looked at Ai and she was holding something in front of me. What was it? I don’t know, it was shining. One spoon and I already feel dizzy. Huh? Why are there two Ai? One is more than enough, I won’t mind two but still. One Ai is all I want.
I felt weird, am I that weak? I was able to defeat some really strong vampires and the one thing that defeats me here is some capsaicin. Spice is not an actual burn. It is just tricking my mind. Yeah, I need to build that.
"Say aaaaah," Ai said and I involuntarily did and the next thing I knew, another wave of pain overcame me. I jolted up from my place and picked up the glass of water and chugged it. No, this won’t do. I need some milk. Yeah milk, I need milk.
"Ai!" I said to her in a hurry. "I need milk, quick!"
"Eh? W-what? H-h-here? I mean, will I even be able to do that?" she said while pressing her breasts?!
"No, not that milk! I mean, the one we drink normally," I said and picked up another glass of water on the table and picked it up to drink from it. I don’t care how it looked. I needed this water. If I don’t I will die today. Oh no, I feel dizzy. Is this the end? I’m blacking out. Mom, dad, I’m coming to see you.
"Kun….Ka….n…..Kazu…..kun….." Huh? I hear Ai, her voice is calling me. It sounds like I’m dead since the voice is muffled. Am I in heaven? Probably why I can hear Ai, she is an angel after all.
"KAZU-KUN!" I felt a big jerk and my brain got shaken into place.
My eyes opened and I found myself in paradise. Yep, my head was on Ai’s thighs as she was calling me out. Her hold hands were stroking my forehead and it felt really nice. Yes, do this more to me. I want more of this.
Huh? Why did my cheeks get wet?
I looked up seeing tears falling down Ai’s eyes and she hugged me with all her power. And by all her power, I do mean all her power. My bones were on the level of being crushed under the pressure as Ai held me close. I couldn’t hear anything. Things were going too fast for me. What had happened? Did I faint? Why did I faint again? Ahh, I don’t remember.
"You’re finally awake!" I heard Ai’s broken voice. Wait, is she crying?
I quickly got back to my sense and pushed myself out of the hug and looked at her. There were actual tears in her eyes. They were puffy and there was a look of guilt on her face. Not being able to bear this, I hugged her back really tight.
"I’m sorry Kazu-kun," she said while crying. "I just wanted to try this with you and….and…"
"Shhhh, it’s okay Ai", I said patting her head. "I did say this day was for you and you can do anything you want so you did because I wanted you to have this. So it’s fine."
This chapter is updat𝙚d by freeweɓnovel.cøm.
"It’s not!" she said loudly. "It’s not when you end up like this. You being safe is my first priority. I don’t care about anything else." She hugged me tighter and her words just melted my ears. Yes, the number one thing Ai worries about the most is me.
I wouldn’t really like to put it this way but at this point, it’s as if, I am all Ai has, at least from a close family point of view. Yes, I can say that because we are apparently married from her logic but that’s not the point. Ai has lost everything she held dear to her and then to live on, held onto a single thread, a single person which was me. I still don’t remember a lot about her but whatever it was, it just meant I mean a lot to Ai. Way more than I think I do. She doesn’t want to lose anyone close to her ever again.
So I’ll take responsibility for that and I’ll do it well. It’s not my obligation but a job I want to carry out. For Ai’s sake, and for mine.
"Ai, how much time is left for the challenge?" I asked her and she stopped crying and looked at me confused. "Do I need to repeat myself?"
"Um….ten minutes?" she said looking at the clock.
Feeling a bit better, I sat down on the chair and made Ai sit down next to me. I picked up a spoon and handed it to her.
"B-"
"Shhhh, you wanted the both of us to finish this, right?" I said with a kind smile on my face. "I did say today is your day so…let’s finish this…together, okay?"
"What about you though?" she asked worriedly.
"I’ll try to eat as much as I can, you have to take care of the rest, and can you do that?" I said and she nodded. "Moreover even if we lose, it’s Iwaguchi-san who will pay."
"Oi," he said. "Sigh, you kids are weird I swear. You just fainted and woke up and are doing this as if nothing happened. Seriously, you are something else."
"Well, we are, right Ai?" I said asking my beautiful girlfriend and she nodded happily.
Okay, I guess a little more torture won’t hurt. After all, if I faint, I get to be on Ai’s lap again so it’s a win-win.
"Hehehe," Ai giggled happily and we started eating. Lord have mercy on my soul.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------