Kobato : The Novel (Chapter 2)

Exam 2 : The Secret of the Nabe?!1

“Cripes! Do you have the slightest bit of common sense in that thick skull of yours? Do you even know how to spell ‘common sense’?!”
Kobato continued to trudge down the road, not paying attention to Ioryogi. She was too caught up in her own thoughts to hear him.
“Huh, Hanato Kobato?!” Ioryogi asked, finally getting Kobato’s attention.
“O-Of course I do!” she said, snapping her head up to attention. “Here, look, I’ll show you!” she continued, bending down. She placed her finger on the sidewalk and continued on to try and draw on the concrete.
“Oops! That didn’t work!” she said, as Ioryogi climbed down from her bag. “The ground’s too hard, Ioryogi-san!”
She glanced over at him just in time to get some fire in her face.
“Kyaaaaa!”
“Of course it didn’t work!” Ioryogi yelled at her. “This is concrete! You think you can draw on concrete with your finger?! And even if you could, the stroke’s all wrong! I can’t believe you!!!”
“But, but, but!” Kobato argued. “Yesterday, in that manga that you threw out, someone drew on the ground like this-” she dragged her finger across the ground- “with their finger! And it worked!”
“You think you can pull off something you read in ‘Hokuto no Ken’?! Of course you can’t! It isn’t even real!”
“I’m sorry!”2

A ringing sound echoed across the night sky.
“Hey, Fujimoto! Your cellphone’s ringing!” the nabe-seller told his employee.
“Sorry,” Fujimoto said, and picked his cellphone out of his pocket, trying to balance the plates and bowls in his right hand.
“Who is it, kiddo?” one of the customers leaned out and asked. “Your girlfriend?”
Fujimoto glared down at the glowing screen, at the words “Yomogi Nursery School,” knowing exactly what this was about.
“It’s the school,” he announced.
“Better hurry up and answer it, then.”
Fujimoto flipped it open.
“This is Fujimoto. Sayaka-sensei. What? They’re at the school again…? I’ll be right over.”
Fujimoto turned to his boss. “I’m really sorry about this,” he told him.
“If something’s wrong over at the school, then you’d better get going.”
“I really am sorry,” Fujimoto said, slipping his bandanna off of his red ponytail. “There are so many customers tonight.”
“Don’t worry about it. Sayaka-sensei needs help, doesn’t she?”
“Thank you.”
Fujimoto bowed politely, then dashed off. Around the other corner, Kobato was still being verbally abused by Ioryogi.
“Zero common sense!” Ioryogi continued on. “You know nothing about this world, do you?! Unbelievable!”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Kobato whimpered.
Voices floated out from near the nab cart. Kobato could hear laughing and shouts of, “Whoo, all right!” She glanced over the nabe-seller.
“More nabe over here!” a voice called.
“And three beers!” another person ordered.
“Can I get another oden?” somebody else asked.
“Coming right up!” he called back.
“Wow! He looks really swamped!” Kobato noticed.
“It’s the season for it, all right! Warm stuff like this is great in this weather. And saké too, of course!” Ioryogi said, then lovingly cooed, “Saké.”
“Sorry about that!” the man told Kobato, who looked over. “I’ve got so many customers tonight! What can I get ya?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, I’m not a customer,” Kobato corrected him. “I just thought you looked busy.”
“Well, I sure am! And one of my employees had to take off early today, on top of it all.”
Ioryogi’s eyes snapped up.
“… This is a test,” he told Kobato.
“What?”
“I’m using this shop to test you. Show me you have some common sense when it comes to food!!”
“O-Okay!!”
“Here’re the two motsu-nabes!”
“Whoo, all right!
“Where’s that oden?”
“And our beer, our beer!”
Letting the energy stir up, Kobato got up right in the seller’s face and cried, “Let me help you, please!!”
“’Scuse me?!”3

“Bring those beers over here,” the seller told Kobato, handing her the tray.
“Yes, sir!”
“We’ll take one more nabe!” a person called from their stall.
“Right away!”
Ioryogi sat dazed by Kobato’s actions for a second, the, yelled in his head, “What the--! I don’t remember telling you to become his new temporary waitress! Dobato!!”
“Sorry for the wait!” Kobato apologized as she set the nabe down on the table.
“Oh, hey, do you think you could cook it for us?” the customer asked.
“Huh? Umm! M-Me?!”
“Yeah, thanks!”
“M-Me? C-Cook the nabe…”
As Kobato stared down in fright at the dish, Ioryogi said, “Now we’re talking! Show me what you’re made of! Master the nabe, Kobato!!”
She took a glance at it.
“All right!” she cried, taking the nearby tray’s entire contents and dumping it into the pot.
“Wha-! You’re not supposed to put that in there until it’s started boiling!” the customer yelled.
“What?!”
“Ahhh! You can’t add the meat first!” the seller cried, pulling the curtain apart to see what Kobato was doing. The customer took a nervous sip of water.
“Huh?! Nooo! What’re you adding milk for?!”
“What? B-Because it gives you strong bones!”
“What’re you doing?! Is that chocolate?!”
“It’s sweet and gives you lots of energy!”
“Ahhhh! No more natto! Stop!”
“Kyaaaaa!”4

Kobato stared down at the gurgling nabe. Different food products sloshed around inside.
“Yep,” Ioryogi quietly said. “That’s pretty much what I imagine Hell looks like.”
“Waaaaaaah!” Kobato cried, clutching Ioryogi tighter.
“Ko… Kobato!” Ioryogi said. “You’re suffocating me!”
“H-Hold on, I h-haven’t even tried it yet,” the customer said, picking at it with his chopsticks. The seller reached for a throw-up bucket.
“Seriously, Kobato, stop! I’m dying!”
The customer glanced up in surprise.
“This is delicious!” he announced.
Various people picked up bowels for their own piece of it, as the man said, “This stuff’s great!”
“It really is!” someone said next to him.
“Whoa, they aren’t kidding!” the seller said. “This is awesome! We gotta add this to our menu!”
Ioryogi, who had escaped Kobato’s grasp, was also happily slurping up some of his own.
“Thank you!” Kobato cried.5

Kobato glanced over at Ioryogi, who was ruminating next to her on the kiddy tunnel.
“So, Kobato,” Ioryogi said, finally looking up. “Today you scored a zero in common sense on the nabe test.”
“What?!”
“But I guess in the end your nabe turned out pretty good, so…”
He slapped some paint on her left cheek.
“40 points!”
“Awwww!” Kobato said, hanging her head down. “But, but, but!” she exclaimed, raising her head back up. “Tomorrow Kobato’s gonna try even harder!”
“Fine by me. So long as you stay away from nabe.”