Chapter 69: Oyakodon
Chapter 69:
Oyakodon
Oyakodon
Hachirou was a performer born and raised in the Mountain Nation. He traveled to towns and villages throughout the land, performing for crowds.
Just after sunrise, he looked at his map, carefully navigating his way along the still-dark mountain path.
The Mountain Nation’s roads were dangerous even to experienced travelers, especially the thin paths that covered the mountainside. One wrong step could drop you headfirst to the bottom of a ravine. The forests surrounding the mountains contained a host of dangerous beasts and monsters that attacked anyone who came near their territory.
Furthermore, criminal troublemakers banished from their villages made their new homes in the woods, away from the watchful eye of the law. They became bandits, attacking innocents for their goods. And travelers who died on the mountain ended up cursing the world, causing themselves to be reborn as undead beings that killed humans.
The mountain paths connect to the land of the dead.
At least, those were the words passed down in the Mountain Nation.
I wonder if Mom and Pop are doing okay…
Hachirou had decided to visit his parents. Despite the perilous path and his sweat-covered body, he had a bright smile on his face. It was that kind of day. Spring had just ended, and summer was starting.
By the time Hachirou arrived at his destination, it was much brighter out.
“I’m finally here.”
He stood before a sight he’d come to love—a wooden door with an illustration of a cat.
Hachirou wiped away the sweat he’d shed on his journey, checked that the sun was just overhead, and turned the doorknob.
***
The door opened as the sound of bells rang out, and Hachirou stepped through.
Huh? Mom and Pop ain’t here yet, I guess.
Hachirou looked around the restaurant. The usual, strange guests were present. However, he didn’t see the pair he was hoping for.
What if… he worried. No. There’s no way.
Before they’d last parted ways, he’d promised to meet them during the daytime on the summer’s first Day of Satur.
In other words, it had been a year since he’d entered one of the doors scattered throughout the nation and seen his parents.
His memories of them from a year ago—older faces and wrinkled skin—had Hachirou concerned. But he did his best to brush that aside.
It’s no big deal. They’re probably just running late. That must be it.
Hachirou decided to grab some food while he waited. He kept reminding himself that his parents weren’t the type to just go and drop dead.
“Welcome to Western Cuisine Nekoya! Is this your first time here?”
Perhaps because he was still standing at the entrance, thinking, a young, blonde demon woman with black horns approached Hachirou. She was dressed in a western-style uniform that brazenly revealed her legs.
Hachirou didn’t remember her being at the restaurant when he’d last visited. As far as he could tell, she thought he was a newcomer.
Although initially struck by the woman and her beautiful hair—he never saw anyone like that in the city—he finally replied, “No, actually. I haven’t been here in about a year, so I was just a little lost in thought.”
Hachirou heard the sound of bells ringing as the front door opened and sensed the new arrivals.
“Whew! Getting old is getting old. Never thought it’d take so long to climb such a tiny mountain.”
“You’re quite right… Oh, if it isn’t Hachirou! Did we make you wait long?”
Hachirou’s heart skipped a beat as he heard a pair of familiar voices.
“Mom! Pop!” He reached down and grabbed the two in his arms. The elderly visitors patted their son Hachirou—who was several feet taller than they were—on the head lovingly.
“Now, now! Hold yer horses! Yer much too old for this, ain’t you, my boy?”
“Hachirou will always be our little boy, no matter how old he gets.”
***
Since he was just one more mouth to feed, Hachirou had already been abandoned in the mountains by the time he could recognize objects around him. Then, as luck had it, a halfling couple who’d already seen their children leave the nest had found him.
As a child, Hachirou knew only the village he was born in and little else. From the halflings, he learned how to survive the harsh mountains and protect himself, as well as various arts that he could use to make a living. He traveled with the couple for ten years.
After a decade had passed, and Hachirou had grown into a capable young man, he parted ways with Mom and Pop, as all halflings did when they came of age. The couple returned to their life of peaceful travel.
“Come now, it’s about time you put us down!”
“Right, right! We’re quite famished, you see. We didn’t eat anything this morning.”
“Oh, yeah. Sure.”
Hachirou snapped to his senses. Slightly embarrassed, he set the two down.
“Hey, young lady. You’re the waitress here, right? Take us to our table!”
“We’re starvin’, so grab us a menu as soon as you can, lass.”
The waitress chuckled at their demands. “Right this way!”
She did little to hide her smile as she led the couple and their son to an open table.
“I’ll bring your menus out in just a moment.”
“Ah, sorry—hold on a second.”
Hachirou stopped the waitress before she could go back to grab menus.
“Hmm? What can I help you with?”
“We’re actually ready to order.”
His parents nodded.
***
The Restaurant to Another World was full of all sorts of delicious food, and although Mom and Pop were old, they could eat a lot. But they started every meal at the restaurant with something specific.
“Could we get three orders of oyakodon? If you could bring them out ASAP, that’d be wonderful.”
Oyakodon was the elderly halflings’ favorite dish and a meal that meant so much to Hachirou himself.
After ordering, the trio shared stories and memories they’d accumulated throughout the year.
“You went all the way to the Sand Nation?!” Hachirou asked.
The pair answered confidently.
“Yup! It was mighty hot over there, let me tell ya.”
“We’ve been there several times, but yowza—it’s as full of sand as ever!”
Halflings devoted their entire lives to travel, so it wasn’t particularly rare to meet those who’d seen every country on the continent. The two elderly halflings sitting in front of Hachirou were such travelers. That was what made their stories so interesting—they’d seen and experienced so much of the world.
“But ya know, we met a pretty surprising group—halflings who’d crossed the sea!”
“That we did! We ran into a couple of young halflings who’d crossed the ocean by boat. They told us all about how boring it was. They never wanted to do it again!”
“Wow!” Hachirou replied. “Well, the Mountain Nation is the same as ever. Oh! But recently, that ogre couple who lived by the road for so long, and fought back the elimination squad from the city, up and disappeared. The place is much safer these days, or so I hear.”
Hachirou continued to fill his parents in until the master—another face Hachirou hadn’t seen in a year—brought their oyakodon.
“We best eat before it gets cold.”
“Shall we get to eatin’, then?”
Unable to resist any longer, the halflings picked up their chopsticks and took the lids off their bowls.
“Hooh! What a wonderful smell.”
“Truly. No matter how many times I eat oyakodon, the scent always does me in, that it does.”
The pair took big sniffs of their oyakodon before cheerfully digging in. Watching them stuff their faces, Hachirou removed the lid from his own bowl.
He felt his stomach tighten in response to the sweet, salty smell. He gulped, grabbed his chopsticks, and looked at the meal in front of him.
The otherworldly dish known as “oyakodon,” which consisted of a bowl of white rice topped with chicken meat and egg, was luxurious beyond words.
God, I love this stuff.
The colorful layer of egg was reflected in Hachirou’s eyes. He took a moment to enjoy the dish’s aesthetic beauty, as well as its rich scent. He even enjoyed the bowl’s weight in the palms of his hands.
All that was left was to dig in.
Gently, Hachirou broke his chopsticks in two and prepared to take his first bite.
Between his chopsticks, he grasped a large piece of chicken—fatty, with its skin still attached. Wrapped in soft, cooked egg, it sat atop rice that had absorbed its brown juices.
The colorful green and white scallions caught Hachirou’s eye, as if beckoning him to hurry up.
He stuffed the oyakodon into his mouth.
Aaah…
The moment he closed his lips, the hot oyakodon came apart. Its complex, hearty flavor spread across his tongue. The rich chicken skin and savory, tender meat combined with the onions’ crunchy mouthfeel, the sweetness of the rice, and the sweet and sour sauce, thoroughly engaging and entertaining Hachirou’s taste buds.
This is dang delicious.
Hachirou teared up as he chewed his meal.
He thought back to being abandoned by his birth parents, remembering how lucky he was that Mom and Pop had picked him up. They’d been depressed by his situation, so they’d taken him by the hand and led him through the doorway.
Then, together as a family for the first time, the three had eaten the oyakodon the previous master had made in his mysterious little restaurant.
Hachirou remembered how the meal’s amazing flavor had been enough to make him forget his despair. The halfling couple had watched Hachirou dig furiously into his meal.
“Ya see, this here dish is called ‘oyakodon.’ In the master’s world, ‘oya’ means ‘parent,’ and ‘ko’ means ‘child.’ So, the parent and child are eaten together.”
“We’ve been thinkin’… Since we’re here, sittin’ and eatin’ oyakodon together, ain’t we already like family?”
Their kind words had pierced Hachirou’s broken heart, and the world he’d once seen in shades of gray suddenly regained its color.
On that day, the two halflings in front of him became his true parents.
After enjoying his first bite of oyakodon at his own pace, Hachirou felt his stomach start to growl.
It was pressuring him for more, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to resist its call.
Aw, crap. No more holding back.
Placing the bowl directly to his lips, Hachirou shoveled oyakodon into his mouth, just as his parents were doing. Occasionally, he reached for the miso soup that came with the meal or cleansed his palette with the sour pickled radishes on the side. But his hands never stopped moving.
The three of them finished eating at nearly the exact same time.
“Whew! Now, that was some good eatin’.”
“Plate number one’s finished, yes it is!”
“What next?”
Hachirou’s parents placed their chopsticks down, satisfied, and reached for the menu as if it were the most natural thing to do.
Of course, Hachirou joined them. Peering at the menu, he pondered what to order next.
The halflings were getting old, but they could still put away food, and so could Hachirou. One bowl of oyakodon would never be enough to satisfy any of them.
“How’s about…”
“And then…”
Although their stomachs might have been bottomless, their wallets were not.
The happy family thought carefully about what to order next as they leisurely enjoyed their time together.