[Episode] Dinner's Served!

Summary:

"Land a-hoy!" a shout could be heard coming from the top of the mast where the surveying platform was located. Time to rest those sea legs! Destination... Notice. Slowly but surely, a figure was taking steps, climbing up the crew cabin stairs and eventually, emerging from the shadows of the doorway onto the deck. It was no one other than the boxing bear Ryoichi himself.

"Oh home sweet home.." mumbling while he was stretching himself to get his whole body back moving from having quite a nice nap. He took in a deep breath and looked around himself. It was once again a beautiful day with clear skies, sun rays blazing down on the skin, occasionally a soft wind breezing through the air, and the sound of seagulls singing reaching all the way to ears.

With the binoculars that he had grabbed from the close-by hanging hook on the mast, he took a look at the island while standing at the frontest part of the deck. "Oi helmsman! I advise docking at the eastern port! Surely way less crowded!" he shouted out as he had turned towards the rest of the ship once more. While having spoken the truth, the dock truly had been full of ships, most of which were trading ships... He seemed to have a different motive in mind.

Why take a long route all around the main part of town which is obviously but a tourist trap. Why not take this chance to rest the sealegs on someplace quieter? Also of course... Being from Notice himself, how can he forget to visit his own family while there? They are near the eastern dock too! Coincidence? I think not.

"Oi oi! That ain't my decision to take and not your orders to give! Commander! What do you think?!" the helmsman shouts out at Yumiko, where ever the heck she was at that moment. Some of the eyes and ears were now on Yumiko, to see what orders will she give... Will Ryoichi be listened to? Or will the crew set their course on the crowded tourist trap?

Word Count:

Great success! Ryoichi couldn't help but have a broad and genuine smile over his face. He had successfully managed to "convince" the helmsman and also Commander Yumiko to take the course to another port. Surely this was a good idea... Unless times have changed and the eastern port had become as popular? Sure hope not.

The course was set now to the Eastern Port, towards which Helmsman now began to navigate. The journey with the marine ship should not take too long towards there. Despite its large size, it moved fairly quickly. Nevertheless, there was still enough time until reaching it. This gave plenty of time for the marines to finish their remaining work on the ship before being allowed off onto the land.

Fortunately for Ryoichi, his line of duty, for now, was fulfilled and he could enjoy the time until reaching the port... Unfortunately, he lacked absolutely any idea what to do... Go back and take that short nap for those half an hour? Heck no, he already had slept so hard his face looks like he had been hit with a pillow. What to do...? What to do...? Ryoichi grind his mind hard to figure that out.

Got it! Was it a good idea or not? Who knows... But why not go over to Yumiko and talk to her? Despite her being his higher up, they have not had any other meaningful conversations ever since the incident at Flevance, if you can actually call that a conversation they had over there. Nevertheless, he gathered himself, buttoned his Marine-issued shirt completely up, and began to make his way to Yumiko. The proper impression is important when talking to the higher up after all!

"Commander Yumiko.. Thank you for supporting my advice.." he would perform the salute as he is was expressing his gratitude. It was clear that it actually meant quite a bit for him... A higher-up trusting his advice and orders others to act upon it. It sure does feel good... Even if it was such a minor thing. This whole ordeal did manage to create some curiosity within him though. Doesn't she like crowded places? Did she decide to avoid the main port for that reason or is there any other hidden unknown reason? Did she decide to go to Eastern port to make Ryoichi happier? So many questions!

"Have you ever been to Notice, Commander? You seemed to have an instinct to, listen to my advice and go to the Eastern port." he inquired her with a similar broad smile on his face. What best way to get some answers to the countless amount of questions he has then simply ask... Not straight forward, but beat around the bush a bit, yes...

Word Count:

A swift salute was cast towards the helmsman, to indicate that he is doing a great job and to thank him, doing as Yumiko was suggesting. Back to the conversation though! "What's that?" he mumbled lowly to himself. As did the ears to Yumiko, same did for Ryoichi. The animalistic instinct, some could even call it a curse. An ability to hear better than those who have not consumed the devilish fruit themselves. Ryoichi couldn't help but overhear the soft murmur himself.

Who disturbs the conversation? How could one let that slide like this? This isn't the first time he has heard people back talk, especially when Commander Yumiko herself is in the play. He couldn't help but immediately shift his head towards the location where the soft murmurs came from

"Who said that?!" he asked with a slightly louder and hearable tone to those who are away from him. This was met with silence. While his head was turned, Commander Yumiko who was right next to him had cast her own gaze... That chilling gaze... That was all it took to silence the murmurs, leaving Ryoichi's question just hanging in the air. After a soft sigh, he turned his head back to face Yumiko. It is time to continue with the conversation, again...

Weirdly, to his surprise, all it took was to simply ask Yumiko. Straight forward... No beating around the bush... And many of his questions that he had in his head got the answers. Why was it a surprise though? Well simply because Ryoichi had not imagined she would reveal her reasons that simply. Having displayed herself as a fairly strict worker, she has also displayed herself as a fairly conservative in Ryoichi's eyes, holding back from talking that much... Perhaps Ryoichi is in the wrong with thinking that? Or perhaps she is opening herself up more? Questions for another day surely.

He nods his head a bit as Yumiko bluntly but fairly openly answered the questions, he couldn't help but cast a soft smile towards her. One particular thing made him curious though... Home. According to Yumiko, that carried a lot of weight. But why is that? Should he ask about it from her? While he was thinking that, he was asked a question himself. Somehow, it felt like a question Yumiko would ask, which is actually completely fair, considering she had never visited Notice herself.

"Well.. The main part of Notice is quite large, fairly popular amongst traders and tourists, as you could already guess because we are avoiding the main port... *hahaha* The eastern port is less densely populated, last I remembered... Sure hope it has stayed like that. Anyway, it connects to a smaller part of town on Notice. It ain't as well off as the main part but it isn't bad either... Something of a middle class? As the world government would call it." this was followed with a brief pause to catch his breath... Only to continue a few seconds later.

"Speaking of world government, the whole Notice is ruled by an elected council... Which is blessed by the World Government. How it actually works, I don't know... Not exactly my line of work yet..." he couldn't help but chuckle. He did manage to answer all of Yumiko's questions? Right? Maybe he missed something? Eh, Yumiko will remind him if he did so.

This was met with another cricketing silence. To break it though, Ryoichi was about to ask Yumiko. "You mentioned that home carried wei..-" and interrupted he then was... "Get ready to dock!" the helmsman shout out at the crew. Ryoichi had been so on duty with talking Yumiko's ear off, and also including his back facing the land, he had completely missed the port entering. Well... Here they are now!

Lower the anchors! Pull up the sails! Lower the ramp! You are free to go off onto the shore! Welcome to the Eastern Port! Unfortunately to some people's imagination, it did not look like some tropical luxurious port that some may have hoped... Those are for rich folks in the main port. The crew was met with a typical semi-industrial-looking dock, but who cares? To see the real beauty of the town, they had to walk past it... And past it they shall go. Let us hope no one leaves the ship unattended.

Word Count:

One would have expected more members of the crew to have the permission to leave ashore, but in reality, it was just twelve people, including Ryoichi himself and of course, commander Yumiko. Perhaps that was for the best? Surely that leaves fewer people over who Yumiko needs to keep an eye on. To those who could not leave the ship had to stay and attend to it, keep it clean, guard it, restock the goods and if nothing else to do on it, just rest and enjoy the sunny day.

The docks and the part of Notice town were separated by a five-minute walk on a cobblestone road. The road was fairly wide. It had a reason to it of course. The road was the main communal for the carts filled with goods that were exported from Notice and imported into Notice. Those same trading carts could be seen at least three times while the crew was on their way to the town. "Oi! Out of the way! Stop blocking the way!". That seemed to be a regular phrase to the group of twelve who seemed to "block" the road for the traveling carts. It was a two-way road... Just go around! Strange are the ways of some people sometimes.

Finally! They seemed to have arrived. A big sign was greeting the group... "Welcome! To East Notice!".  Ryoichi couldn't help but grin at it. At the first glance, it all still looked the same. The east dockside of the entrance to the town was the same as he had remembered it. It was bustling with local and foreign traders, selling all sorts of goods, starting from your regular vegetables, all the way to different kinds of novelty items. Despite it not being in the central town where tourism was booming, it was still fairly crowded. There was no lack of clientele in this area.

It was no surprise that the group of twelve stood somewhat out amongst the other people. While the country was under World Government's control, the sight of marines was nothing new... But to have that amount of them at the same place at once... That seemed to ignite some weird suspicion, leaving a fair amount of people to ask softly and lowly from each other what was going on? Those who were bolder and did not care about their marine status "swam" next to them and tried to start their bargaining, offering different goods.

For Ryoichi, the continuous questioning did not escape his ears, but he did not mind it. All he did was smile at them and keep on moving, not trying to cause any trouble or anything... Then again, why should he? He's a marine after all. He seemed to be quite overjoyed to finally be back, even though he just had stepped into the city area. It was time to proceed out from the trading area, with whoever was willing to keep on following. Out of twelve, four were already "consumed" by the charm of the trading town.

"You can truly get lost in this part of town, especially in this crowd *haha*" Ryoichi grinned as he turned around to face the rest of the crew who were following him since he was their "guide". Walking forwards with your back facing the way is a dangerous task, just like it was this time.

Cling! Cling! Cling!

The backward walking Ryoichi had stumbled his way into one small stall, having lost his sense of track and having had started walking somewhat diagonally instead. This had caused him to fall onto it, and in the process, fall onto and pull down some mugs and glasses, sending a couple of things rolling to the rest of the crew as well.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE YOU BAFOON?!" a loud shout came from the middle-aged man who had sat next to the stall, presumably the owner of the stall. Even though the damage was not great, it was enough to anger the owner who had rushed over to Ryochi and grabbed him from his Marine-issued shirt. "You rat bastard! You are gonna pay fer all of thi..-".

The loud tone and anger slowly, but surely started to lower the moment when the man had raised Ryoichi up a bit from the shattered glass and mug rubble. "No way... The bear?!". This was met by extreme confusion on Ryoichi facial expression... Has he met the man before? While the question was still lurking in Ryoichi's head, the rest of the crew, if they had inspected further, would already have the answer. The mugs that had rolled over to the crew had different kinds of pictures engraved onto them, all containing the bafoon who had stumbled into the stall. If the sign above the stall was not already a dead giveaway... This was the stall that was selling Ryoichi's "memorabilia" from his boxing days! What a celebrity... Surely...

Word Count:

The silence was in the air at the location where the group stood. While there were no words said, the faces did say something... Confusion... What the heck was happening? Ryoichi stumbling over like that because he was walking backward. Apparently, the stall he had stumbled into is dedicated specifically for him... And a cherry on top of it all was Commander Yumiko flying all the way to the location from the ship where she had stayed, and immediately went onto her knees to apologize. It was as if she had done it before, truly strange to kneel and apologize like that, especially on Notice.

This deafening silence had to be broken, and who better to do it than the stall owner himself, after all, it was him towards who Commander Yumiko so frantically was apologizing. "Oh no no no no little miss, it's all okay I cannot accept money from you... Especially when the celebrity himself has stumbled upon us all.". With a swift motion, hands grabbed onto Ryoichi once more. Up you go! The stall owner swiftly helped the local celebrity up, included in the helping hand was also the special soft clapping from the dust on clothes and hand straightening it. What a service!

It took some time until finally Ryoichi himself finally had figured out what the heck was going on. "Me? A celebrity? What? Why?" he kept questioning the stall owner who was rubbing his hands together while admiring his "hero" in front of him. "Yes of course you are! Your final matchup against that slimy no good Eagle opened a lot of people's eyes to your greatness. We cannot forget about the ordeal with the bear too! Bloody magnificent!" the loud tone of the stall owner was enough to start attracting people around. Wait, HE DOES LOOK FAMILIAR!

More and more people, even if a fraction compared to the entire crowd, began to recognize Ryoichi. And thus began the surrounding. The group slowly but surely began to be surrounded by people. Pieces of paper, baskets, jars, what had you... Everything was suitable to be autographed immediately!

"Oi, Jorge! Let everyone know! The local bear has returned home!" like a small-scale plague, the stall owner set the word to spread, to all those people, who truly cared.

Grandma Ayugai:

A small match lit up the wood that was in the fireplace. It was time to heat that metal stovetop up. A tea kettle full of water was placed on it. Mid-day teatime had arrived. A small fragile-looking old lady reached her shaking hand towards the glass pot full of herbs. Black tea, the favorite of the old lady.

It didn't take long until the kettle was already whistling out that the water was ready to be poured into the teapot filled with black tea herbs. The table on the terrace was being set with a single small plate and a teacup before the hot brew of tea was brought onto the table by the old lady. What a lovely day it truly was to enjoy a cup of tea outside.

"GRANDMA AYUGAI! I BRING NEWS! GOOD NEWS!" a man in his late twenties was screaming his lungs out as he was running towards the house. He began to huff the air when he had finally stopped by the house, standing in front of the terrace. "Oh Jorge my sweet little boy. What news do you bring to old nana Ayugai?" the sweet fragile old lady smiled towards the boy. The news had now spread to the possibly the biggest fan.

"Moonpie is here?!" now that was a sight to be held. Just a moment ago, the old fragile lady with a shaking hand holding onto her teacup was now standing up and began to walk in circles on the terrace... As if she was still in her first youth! That's all it took to ignite the fire within her?! "So much stuff to do! My Moonpie is coming!". Down the tea and no time to waste! Duty in the kitchen is awaiting!

Word Count:

"Okay okay please, one at a time.." Ryoichi waved his hands in front of him a bit, trying to stop the crowd from overrunning him and the rest of the crew who had followed. Eventually, he was simply forced into "submission" by the crowd who simply wanted a mark of their local celebrity having noticed them. "Okay okay, who's got a pen?" A simple, possibly a stupid question... Met with at least ten pens free to be taken and used... This was a market area after all.

One by one he was giving his best to write down on to each item that was thrown at him. It was clear that he had not really signed many things in his life. The writing was rough, each and every signed item's signature looked slightly different. Similar, but different. While in the middle of the signature handing, his head turned towards Yumiko. He was met with a fairly grim-looking woman. He had made ladies angry before but that felt weirdly different... More personal to be exact.

"I'm sorry commander Yumiko! I am but a simple bo..-" and interrupted his sentence was. What was going on? Seeing Yumiko on her knees, or on a knee, is not the first time, considering such a similar thing happened only minutes ago. What is new and strange is that someone is kneeling before him... "Commander, please..." but again, interrupted by a fairly loud-speaking Yumiko. Weirdly, deep down, those words hit him in the right spots, liking them, but they felt over-exaggerated. It's not such a big deal as her or others make it out to be.

No, that is not the right thing to feel and like, right? Right... Just when he was about to say something once more, by Yumiko's orders, every other marine that is accompanying them decided to drop on their knees as well, but obviously, they did it as a weird form of mockery. If it was an attempt towards Ryoichi, it had obviously flown over his head, unfazed by them. Could be different to Yumiko though.

A heavy sigh was released at this whole ordeal. Ryoichi found it weird and unnecessary, Yumiko seemed to find it as her job to revere him as a hero while in reality, he was nothing but a local small-time boxing champion, but, she seemed to like it. The rest of the marines had found it as an opportunity to "mock". The crowd however seemed to love every moment out of it. "What subordinates! The Bear has found good ones!"

Despite the situation being what it was, Ryoichi couldn't help but crack a smile on his face as well. While it did bring a bit of joy to him that people remembered him in a good light and many looked up to him, that was not the main joy bringer. The twinkle in Yumiko's eyes... Noticed by senpai! How can this not bring joy to one?

Time "flies" fast when you are "enjoying" yourself, but it was really a time to keep on moving. After about ten minutes of trying to not be stomped by the fans, he began to try and keep on moving through the crowd to finally proceed to their next destination. "Sorry! Excuse us! We really need to keep on moving!". Without even thinking of it, his hand weirdly and automatically just moved towards Yumiko's hand, from which he tried to grab and begin to move away with her. "Crew! Let's keep moving!". Imagine the shock on the crew's faces... When they saw what Ryoichi was doing with Yumiko! Shameful display? Maybe? If only Ryoichi was not distracted enough to notice it.

Word Count:

"What? Does the bear have a girl? Possibly a wife? Are you certain?.... Holding hands?!" Jorge, the young man who had rushed over to give Grandma Ayugai the good news, was in the middle of a den den mushi call. The caller on the other being none other than the stall owner himself thanks to who the whole shenanigan had begun. Is it all true though? Does the bear have a girl? If so! Those surely are good news! Right?

A girl? Those words were enough to make the ears of Grandma Ayugai twitch. Smack! A ladle was hit at the front doorway. The scrawny old lady's shadow emerged from inside the house. "A GIRL?! A WOMAN HAS ENTERED MY MOONPIES LIFE WITHOUT MY APPROVAL?! NOT ON MY WATCH!". So full of life when a "rival" enters the life. How can the elderly lady let that slide? That's right... She won't! "I shall put her to a test! This feast shall prove her worthy!". This was followed by a weird, witch-like cackle. "Rivalry" was brewing! "But discreetly. Yes yes, for sure."


Keeping on moving, they were. The situation has remained the same. While it felt odd that something was slightly dragging Ryoichi down, it did not feel like much to him, all thanks to Yumiko's lightweight, hence why still, he has not realized what he was doing aka, holding the hand of the commander herself.

They kept on moving, not stopping at any of the market's stall owners' requests and offers. Perhaps it was for the best? If they had stopped, they probably would have been swarmed once more by his fans, who had decided to keep on following him, Yumiko, and other marines who also had broken free from their surrounding attempt.

"Please keep on following me, commander Yumiko... I know a place where they won't come... My parents are off the island currently so that's the only other place I know right now." he spoke, softly panting in between the sentences. While doing so, his head was like a swivel, looking left and right, trying to find some narrower streets that would bottleneck the following crowd at least a little bit. This was not an easy task, due to the fact that more often than not, those narrow alleyways were full of crates, trash cans, and whatnot.

Fortunately, it did not take too long more until they found a good enough route. Now all they had to do was pass through it... And all that was left was a wide-open road, on which it did not take too long, to reach the small house on the plain grass field. They had finally made it!

Word Count:

"Good.. We made it... Maybe even lost the chasers. Did everyone manage to follow us?" Ryoichi turned himself a bit, only to see that everyone in the crew who were allowed ashore had managed to keep up with him and Commander. His sight then shifted back onto Yumiko. Sorry commander, I don't wish to hide anything, it's just hard to talk while run...-" And behold... What his eyes were seeing. What just a little bit ago looked like a well-dressed young Samurai, had now turned into a roughed up, more homeless like Samurai... Was it really all Ryoichi's doing?!

And the cherry on top of it all. It was about the time when Ryoichi finally had noticed what he had done. With widened and full of surprise face, he had finally come to realize that he had held the hand of Yumiko this entire time! This can't be good. He immediately let the hand go off Yumiko... Only to then follow with something that might bring even more shame and misunderstanding, depending on how people decide to look at it. He immediately tried to begin to move his hands on Yumiko's roughed up dirty robes and hair and possibly face, frantically trying to remove the junk that had come along with her from the alleyway, and if able to manage to remove it, very very gently trying to slap the dust off from her robes.

"I am so so sorry! Please forgive me, Commander! I was trying to get us away from the mad fans since I have seen how they can get so I dragged you along to the only member who is still on Notice right now from my family as it could be a good hiding place momentarily from those crazy fans! I am so sorry please please forgive me!" he spoke franticly and in an extreme hurry as he was trying to give his best to clean the commander up. It was his fault that she looks the way she does right now. What a scandal this could turn into if Yumiko decides to report about it to other higher-ups!

While Ryoichi was trying to frantically remove the dirt from Yumiko, the sounds of warning came from the location of the crew. The crazy fans are back! They managed to follow the group to the location even after it seemed like they had shaken them off.

"Is that my moonpie I am seeing.". The sound came from the terrace of the small house, where the frail granny Ayugai was now standing. Ryoichi immediately motioned towards the crew to come with him, same was motioned to Yumiko, swiftly heading towards the house itself. "Nana! You need to hide us all quickly!" Ryoichi pleads to his grandma. Surely the house is big enough to accommodate them all for this brief moment.

This was met with a hearty chuckle from non-other than the grandma Ayugai herself. "Halt! People people... I think you have chased my precious moonpie enough already... You have my utmost gratitude for letting me know he has arrived. This shall not be the last time he comes, I am sure of it. With just a few sentences, through some weird magic? Or perhaps even from sheer conviction ability, the chasing fans had stopped, to listen, what the granny had to say. Granny the all mighty?

Word Count:

Framed pictures:

Shock! What kind of authority does the granny have?! For Ryoichi, this was not the first time to see her being that "all-mighty", but this was the first time for him to see her handle such a crowd of people. Just a few words and that's it? The crowd stopped chasing and eventually, they turned around and were on their merry way, back to their daily lives.

The elderly lady turned around, having a broad smile on her face. "Nana is so sorry for the fan club. They can get right crazy sometimes." the chuckling elderly lady was walking over to Ryoichi only to then hug him immediately. This was responded to by Ryoichi who accepted the hug as well, but instead of doing it silently, he couldn't help but have a question that needed an answer. "Fan club? Wait... This crowd was your doing?!"

Ryoichi could not believe it. Nana in her age would pull something like this off? Also... Why would she do that?! "So you are the reason we almost got ran over?!" the marines could not believe it! They almost got killed because of their crewmate's family! Obviously, this was a heavy exaggeration on the part of the marine, which Nana immediately laughed off, following by Ryoichi doing the same. No need to show yourselves being so weak! "How else do you think I can keep an eye out when you arrive on the island. You never visit me these days." the Nana was speaking with a somewhat playful disappointed tone. "I was going to visit you this time..." Ryoichi mumbled with a very hearable tone while he himself was also removing his marine-issued tank boots, and placing them down next to someone's sandals. Who could be that mysterious mannered person?

The crew then was welcomed further from the doorway all the way into the main room of the small house. While crowded, there was still some room to move around freely. The room was modest-looking, with not too many ornaments, but there were plenty of plants and indoor flowers, giving the room a nice scent. What may have caught an eye the most were three a bit larger framed pictures on the chest of drawers. While the marines went to inspect the pictures, specifically for one reason, the Nana decided to take this moment to interrupt whatever Yumiko was doing. She truly seemed to be fascinated by her, for some "odd" reason... Especially fascinated due to the fact that everyone else was wearing shoes still... But Yumiko wasn't. "Point.." the Nana mumbled.

"So you are the mystery girl... Welcome!" Nana smiled broadly as if she was happy to see Yumiko, immediately then trying to give a gentle hug to her. There was no weird motive, right? Right... Not really a way their culture would behave though, which immediately those marines who paid some attention, as well as Ryoichi, found it extremely weird. What was going on?

"Ooooh who's this pretty girl on those pictures? She looks really nice, hot even! Hey Ryoichi! Is that your sister?" the marines were questioning about the woman in the picture. She sure was cute, and toned even, which gave a certain sex appeal, which some of the men seemed to like a lot. A vein appeared on Ryoichi's forehead when he heard those questions. Well, it wasn't really the questions, it was more about those specific compliments that visibly angered Ryoichi a bit. This was however put to a hard stop when Nana decided to speak up. "Oh that is me, you young lads... Do you like it?"........... SHOCKING!

Word count:

"Not a girl but a Samurai Kamaitachi?" Yumiko's response seemed serious, but for Grandma Ayugai, this did nothing but put a smile on her face, followed by a gentle chuckle. It seemed clear she had understood what Kamaitachi means, what else to do for an elderly lady in her spare time but read books and do crossword puzzles? "Oh kids these days, saying all kinds of silly things.". Granny smiled widely as she gently patted Yumiko's shoulder, having found her response a bit amusing, despite Yumiko seeming to be quite serious about it.

Ryoichi blinked at the interaction between the two, but, everything seemed to be in decent order, nothing he had there to step in between. But that did not stop him from shifting his sight back at the lusting marines, looking at them with the same facial expression as he did when they "complimented" the looks of his young grandma on the picture. Fortunately, there were some really tasteful comments and compliments as well, courtesy of Yumiko herself. This leads the frown of Ryoichi to shift back to a more neutral facial expression.

A door was opened by the Granny while she was answering the compliment of Yumiko. "Sport and being fit has always been in the bloodline of Ayugai... Unfortunately in my generation, doing sports was hard while also maintaining a family. I am glad my son managed to enjoy this sweet nectar of sport making a bit more, but my sweet sweet moonpie here had managed to step it up even more."

The door had opened, which revealed a room. Immediately as the door had opened up, a blast of extremely pleasant scent exited the room, intruding into the noses of the marines. This was an especially strong scent for Ryoichi, due to the obvious reasons. "No way Nana..." Ryoichi immediately moved over to the doorway, which leads into a fairly modest-looking dining room. The Fanclub had relayed quite some info to Nana... There was an exact amount of chairs around the dining room table, some looking the same, some different from each other. The table though... The table was served with all kinds of home-cooked meals, the true source of those pleasant smells that are intruding in the nostrils. Grandma had done her magic and gotten it all cooked just in time for everyone... Possibly record time for cooking? Who knows.

Ryoichi did not wait a moment longer and immediately rushed to the table to take a seat, his tongue sticking out from his mouth, salivating. How can anyone even say no to such a feast? "What a feast! No way we can miss that!" the marines followed Ryoichi into the dining room as well. For Yumiko though, Granny had felt she had to gently nudge her from behind, trying to very gently lead her to the dining room, and sit her down next to Ryoichi. "To maintain our muscle mass, the Ayugai family has always held feasting dear to us... Food makes you strong. If you eat well, you will look just like me someday." she chuckled softly as she was trying to seat Yumiko down.

It was time to feast! Out of blue, suddenly, granny Ayugai seemed to hold a spatula in one of her hands, and a ladle in other. This was followed by another hearty chuckle and a genuinely happy smile. The door shut closed, click click... Door locked... No-one in... No-one out... UNTIL THE PLATES ARE ALL CLEAN! "Let the feast begin my children!"

Word Count:

Names in bracket are "modified" names to fit the theme of the episode more

Ryoichi Ayugai uses:

[LT] Weaving (Chow down!) on the grand feast
[LT] Champion's Jab (Food in left) on the grand feast
[LT] Right Straight (Food in right) on the grand feast
[UT] on the grand feast

The Grand Feast uses:

[MT] on Ryoichi Ayugai
[LT] on Ryoichi Ayugai
[LT] on Ryoichi Ayugai
[UT] on Ryoichi Ayugai

The member 'Ryoichi Ayugai' has done the following action : Dice Roll

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#1 'Reflex Check' : 13, 14, 10, 3

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#2 'Reflex Check' : 17, 18, 9, 5

Before Ryoichi even began the feasting on this grand meal, he waited for the moment when the entire group of people had sat down, and the moment he had heard the familiar click... Oh, it brought back memories of the olden days of the feasting. It was the time... Fork on the left hand, knife in his right hand, time to gather food onto the plate!

Starting off simple, some mashed potatoes and a couple of pieces of meat... Nothing too big for the beginning. There are still lots of things to enjoy. But there was no time to waste. Time to chow down! While as the crew, as well as Yumiko probably have seen, Ryoichi can be a quite composed and simple eater, having quite some manners at the table surprisingly... Not so much this time. He did not behave like a beast per se... But his motions and eating were similar to a person who has not eaten in days...

Ryoichi started to swiftly stuff down the mashed potato with the swift left hand that was holding onto the fork, this was followed by slicing the meat pieces with the knife in his equally swift right hand. After the first bites though... He couldn't help but feel the warmth and taste of the food in his mouth... So good! Home cooking! Nana's cooking! The problem of stuffing one's mouth too much though is that they will have a hard time chewing on what they eat... Better be careful with that.

While Ryoichi was busy chowing down, he suddenly heard something interesting, somewhat even shocking of a revelation from Yumiko who had refused to eat. "Wfhaft? Yfou haf not eatenf fof da..-" followed by an immediate cough from Ryoichi... He knew the dangers of stuffing his mouth too much and talking... He had not listened. But the key question was... Why would Yumiko not eat for that long?!

All of sudden, when Yumiko was trying to exit the room, it felt as if the sinister music was playing in the room, sending chills down everyone's spine. Perhaps even Yumiko could feel that. All of sudden, behind Yumiko she was standing... Grandma Ayugai, not having what Yumiko is trying to pull. "Have you not been taught that Granny's feast cannot be denied, not mine, not any granny's. How rude of you little girl.."". A slight display of strength was then shown by Granny who somewhat gently but felt forcefully, tried to redirect Yumiko back to her seat next to Ryoichi.

"A samurai is sentient like we all you silly, we all need to eat to maintain our true strength... No wonder you look so scrawny. Nana Ayugai cannot let you leave before I see your cheeks stuffed and you be healthy again..." this was followed by a genuine smile as her hand was gently patting on Yumiko's shoulder. Perhaps Yumiko did not notice it, or feel it, but this was Nana Ayugai showing her true care for her grandson's close people... Or as she saw Yumiko be. Nevertheless, this genuine care did not miss the other marines either, from who Nana constantly asked if everything was to their liking.

Word count:

COMBAT TRACKERS:

Round 1

Yumiko uses:
[MT] "Have at thee!" (Ravenous Hunger) on The Grand Feast
[LT] Unwavering Conviction (Firm Denial) on The Grand Feast
[LT] Storm Chaser (Breaking Fast) on The Grand Feast
[UT] on The Grand Feast

The Grand Feast uses:
[MT] Piercing Insult on Yumiko
[LT] Foreign Flavors on Yumiko
[LT] Too Spicy on Yumiko
[UT] on Yumiko

The member 'Yumiko' has done the following action : Dice Roll

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#1 'Reflex Check' : 12, 9

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#2 'Reflex Check' : 10, 8, 9, 10