A Bunch Of Pies & Tubs Of Sherbert

”weeeeeee” shouted Kaya as she moved from one side of the train to the other. She had been doing that the entire time they had been on the ride. Even though she was accustomed to travelling on trains, she had just discovered this new way of playing. Jin attempted to stop her the first few times but then realized she was too energetic after eating Magna’s food. ”So, we’ll need a bunch of ingredients” said Jin to Magna who was sitting in front of them. They had got the job and had travelled by sea after which they got on the train which was now headed towards the blockade. They could easily take down these monsters by fighting them but neither of these two mages would resort to violence unless it was the only option. As another option was available to them and that option was cooking, it was obvious what the two would be doing.

It was about evening now, the sun had begun to set and the two were getting closer to the blockade by the minute. Jin had been on a similar job before but that time was with Elyx and he had recently joined the guild. They had beaten up the vulcans and other monsters to get rid of the blockade at the time. May be this time, the cooking would prove more useful and keep them away from the train tracks longer.

Get Rid of the Pesky Blockade:

"Ingredients shouldn't be a problem. With our two magic's combined neither should be the cooking process." he said calmly considering the idea. Managing to complete a job with his cooking would be truly amazing. It would prove that his style of living was useful to the guild other than for filling their bellies. He'd used his cooking in unusual ways to help bring down the dark principal and he'd got paid for winning the cooking contest at Shuffle. However, this would be the first time he'd used proper cooking to avoid combat. He was really looking forward to it. "Well, ingredients for a few shouldn't be a problem. For 100 pies and sherbets is going to take a while. I'm thinking meat pies of some kind, so a savoury pie, followed by the sweet sherbet. Dinner and dessert." He considered the possible options. It would be quickest and easiest to just prepare 100 of the same pie, but that would be boring and he wasn't sure if it would be suitable. No, he would have to make quite a few varieties as he explained to Jin and the rather erratic Kaya.

"In my opinion we shouldn't focus on just one type of pie. A mix of meats, sauces, gravys and even pastry types would be best." he said after a bit of thought. Yes, there was plenty of stuff he could make. Chicken and mushroom, chicken and gravy, steak and kidney, steak and ale, steak and cheddar. So many options. "In my storage i've got quite a bit of meat and i've got a lot of stuff that can make some good sauces. With the rainbow fruit I have been growing I should be able to make plenty of sherbet quite easily. Can you provide the ice? Pretty sure there is water nearby."

Jin nodded, ”That’s true, we can work it out. It’s just the numbers though, it’ll take us some time”. They were supposed to make a 100 pies and a 100 tubs of sherbert. Jin was going to let Magna take the lead since it came to cooking. Magna was the one who cooked with passion and actually gave it a thought. Jin just did it because he had to and he was still in the process of learning anyways. This was the perfect time to learn from Magna and by example too. ”If we’re making different kinds of pies, we should divide different sections and make multiple tables for each section. So the two of us can make more than a few simultaneously. Setting it up would take quite a bit of time but once done, it should be easy enough” said Jin, thinking about the set up that would be required.

”I want pie and sherurira…..bats too!!!” said Kaya overhearing the discussion between Jin and Magna. He couldn’t help but smile at how she struggled with the word that she wasn’t familiar with. Kaya did leave some clues about her young age when she struggled with words since she was still learning to speak properly. The train came to a halt and the driver came back addressing the two mages: ”The blockade’s up ahead. Until you guys clear it, the train can’t even turn around gents”. Jin stood up and smiled at the driver, ”Don’t be too worried, Black Rose is on the case”. He turned as the guild tattoo was visible on the left side of his neck, he picked up Kaya and walked out of the train.

Magna nodded in agreement. "That's one of the reasons I put a lot of equipment on the train. My summoned up stuff won't be enough." he said and went to one of the carriage's that they had specifically hired out. Magna placed his hand on a panel and it glowed briefly before the side collapsed down revealing several large carts. These were sealed up. Magna quickly hopped on board and brought out Aegis who without prompting began to push one of the three carts over towards a clearing nearby. Magna began to push the second. "Could you bring the third one Jin?" Magna asked and then without waiting for an answer pushed the cart he had over to where Aegis was waiting and standing defensively. He'd keep an eye on things whilst they set up and cooked.

"Kaya. Help out Aegis with the patrolling of the area please. I'll make you some pies and sherbet especially for you once we are done...and you can be my taste tester." he said knowing Kaya would respond very positively to the offer of food, especially Magna's food. She also liked the knight so would probably be happy to work with him.

Jin had almost forgotten about the supplies. Magna had come well prepared having read the description of the job. Jin jumped up the carriage and began pushing the third cart as Magna had asked him to. Kaya had already run off to right when ‘guardy’ appeared. She stopped when Magna began talking to her to listen to her. ”waaa!!!! Maggy’s food!! yay!!” she said running off to Aegis’s side. Being hyper and happy, she starting running around the metal armor wearing individual in celebration of the food that came after. ”Ne ne guardy, we’ll eat pies, and sharurira…bats later!!!” she said over and over. After saying it a few times, she climbed up Aegis’s armor and sat on his shoulder so she could continue conversing with the quiet individual. Jin just hoped that she wouldn’t bother Aegis too much.

Jin pushed the cart to the clearing where Magna had put up the other carts. ”Do you expect those creatures to pest us while we cook for them?”, he couldn’t be sure since he didn’t know how those monsters would act. Jin had dealt with quite a few of them by now but each had its own personality. He couldn’t predict what the ones they were going to deal with now would act like.

Magna was always entertained by Kaya. If it wasn't for the deep bond he shared with Aegis and the family history on top of that he'd honestly have quite liked Kaya to be his own companion. He'd been tempted to steal her many times and she was always welcome at his room to try food. He wondered if in the future he could get the stoic knight to open up more and be a bit more lively. He felt that Kaya might be able to open him up as he already showed her a lot more attention than he did most. HEck, he even spoke to her.

"I do not eat, but I will enjoy seeing you happy so I will help you with the guarding as Magna requested." he said only just loud enough for Magna's sharp ears to pick up. He raised an eyebrow. Aegis would of done it anyway, but he'd now tried to convince Kaya it was only for her sake. It seemed he really did like the small cat.

"I don't know if we will get any trouble from them, but it gives those two a chance to bond further and keeps Kaya out from under our feet. Plus its a good precaution." he said and thwacked each of the carts causing them to fold open revealing quite a complex gourmet kitchen with many ovens. It was going to be necessary. He nodded in approval. It had been pricy and in truth it had probably cost more than they'd be rewarded, but it would be a good test and besides he could use these in the future.

"Right. Let's prepare the pastry and we can put it in the fridge to chill for a bit whilst we prepare the meat."

Jin couldn’t hear whether Aegis had replied to her or not, he was busy with the carts and all. With a movement of Magna’s hand, the carts opened up to a complex combination of ovens and other much needed stuff. ”It looks like you spared no expense” he said noting the fine equipment that was in front of him. Jin nodded agreeing with Magna, it would be good for Kaya to interact more with Aegis. May be she could learn to be more subtle like Aegis and Aegis might end up opening up more thanks to Kaya’s poking nature. ”Yeah, you’re right. Better safe than sorry, if they made a mess while we were cooking it would put us behind schedule”, he said opening up the fridge. He brought out some ingredients and began preparing some stuff for the pastries as Magna had mentioned before. ”Leave the pastries to me, you start with the meat”, pastries was a delicate thing to work with. However, having a sweet tooth he knew how exactly to make a tasty treat. Despite being helplessly in love with sweet stuff, he still could restrain himself when it was necessary; as in this case.

He began making the paste and the other necessary ingredients that would then be placed in the fridge to chill after which he would join Magna in tending to the meat.

With a nod Magna bound his headband around his brow. He inhaled deeply extending both arms almost as if he was preparing to conduct an opera or a concert. With a deep exhale suddenly pots, pans, meats and other necessities began to appear. Now as the time to show his true skill. He began to rapidly move using various knives and other items to dice, cut and otherwise prepare meat and vegetables. As he worked he put stuff onto cook at varying heats, but it seemed despite the amount and the variance between them he knew exactly what he was doing. He was in his element. The kitchen was his domain and he would prove that today.

As soon as all the meat was cooking he quickly cleared off the sides, putting some parts to the side for use later, and cleansed down the counters before summoning up even more counters and pans. The meat and vegetables were cooking. Now it was time to work on the various sauces. His movements were precise and swift. However, what was perhaps more amazing was that he had started off relatively quick, but as he worked he seemed to be getting faster. The sizzles and hisses of cooking meat and vegetables, the slicing of ingredients, the thump of hammers on the side all blended together to form another type of recipe, a musical one. There was a rhythm to his cooking and the tempo was increasing.

Magna stepped into his own world and Jin humbly focused on regulating the temperatures as Magna cooked the meat. He didn’t have to do much since things moved around at will for Magna. It was a spectacle, Jin had never witnessed before. It was beautiful magic, he was in awe of what was happening around him. Jin being a magic fanatic was happy to have seen a magic capable of such movements and such capability to make food with precision and taste. This was the embodiment of Jin’s beliefs in magic: “magic can accomplish wondrous things” . His job was relatively easy right now, he had to stand back regulate the heat and make sure nothing was over cooked. As a heat manipulation magic, that was as easy as one, two, three for him. He didn’t even have to move around to feel the temperature, he was close enough and was able to control temperature without having to make any visible effort.

”This is so beautiful Magna. I have seen your magic before but nothing like this”, now he understood what Magna meant when he said his magic wasn’t exactly for fighting. Jin couldn’t agree more, such magic belonged in this domain. Where Magna was free to put his recipes into practical form and develop new tastes and perfect them. Thanks to Jin’s heat, cooking would be the easier part. Also to expedite things further, he began to reduce the temperature at a nearby location turning the moisture in the air to ice. They would need quite a bit of ice for the sherberts they were going to make.

Magna smiled and winked at Jin, but didn't let it break his flow. His movements would be truly impressive to most people who might observe. Poetry in motion. In this situation he was a true head chef mentioning to Jin exactly when something needed doing that he couldn't do at that moment in time. It was a perfect flow. It almost looked like even if the area had been filled with obstacles, or laser grids or things like that then it wouldn't stop him flowing perfectly. Jin was an ideal ally. HE had good cooking knowledge and instincts and his magic was perfect as an aide. It was a shame he didn't have the same passion as Magna, but he was learning and improving. He saw it as something worth improving on even if it was only to do better at his job. That made Magna happy to some extent. Perhaps one day he would invoke greater passion in Jin.

"Your heat magic really is impressive too. Its so useful." he said as he continued to work. The pies were now being put into the ovens ready to cook, which meant it was time to begin preparing the sherbet. However, not all the pies were put into the oven at the same time. They were instead put in at various times whilst he began preparing so that they would all be ready at near enough the same time with enough of a gap that he could get all one hundred out.

He summoned up his most important ingredient. The only that would be used for the sherbet. His pride and joy, for the time being, the rainbow fruit. With this he had won the title of iron chef, began bonding with Romulus and many other things. He had the only rainbow fruit trees he knew of outside of Joya. He began the preparations to seperate its juice into its seven different coloured components and one that was a mix of all seven together. These seven component colours he began to mix together into various combinations giving him many different varieties which meant many different varieties of juice for the sherbet.

Jin smiled as his magic was complimented. He honestly felt pretty useless since Magna was doing most of the work. It was kind of expected though, the guy was a cooking mage so he did the cooking. Finally, delicious smells of food began to escape their area and reach the seeking noses of vulcans and other monsters who were up ahead. Those guys were angry probably because they were hungry. Jin and Magna were still at a distance but it was getting dark now and thanks to their cooking, the area was lit up like new years eve. The creatures didn’t have any trouble noticing that there was something going on in the distance. And the delicious scent of food was coming from that direction. Kaya and Aegis were now back from patrolling.

”Ne ne guardy, are they done yet?” she inquired for the fifth time from Aegis. Apparently, she hadn’t moved an inch from Aegis’s shoulder. She had been sitting there comfortably and probably filling Aegis’s ears with questions and stuff. Jin didn’t know whether Aegis was happy with Kaya or he was mad at her for being too nosy. It wasn’t possible to understand the guardian’s feelings since even his eyes were hidden under the mask. In the distance, they began surrounding the two mages and their friends. Neither of them did a good job of hiding their presence, even Kaya who wasn’t trying could feel them around her.

The monsters, or in this case customers or perhaps customonsters were beginning to come following the scent of pies and sherbet. It was just as they were getting closer that the first pies were finished and Magna quickly began to put them up on the side dividing them into sections based on the filling and pastry type. Overall they had made twenty different kinds of pie, five of each of them. There was also twenty different kinds of sherbet. Each made specifically to compliment the pie they had been served with. It probably wasn't necessary. From what he had seen vulcans weren't exactly gourmands. However, just because the custom might not appreciate the subtlety of the cooking was no excuse to not do his best. Besides, they might not realise it, but their bodies would.

"Hello there." Magna said loudly with a big smile on his face. "My name is Iron Chef Magna Victus and as you have requested I have made you 100 pies and 100 tubs of sherbet with the aide of my sous chef. Please help yourselves and then as promised remove the track from the tree." he bowed deeply and waited for the approach of the customonsters. "Bon appetit."

The monsters were, surprised to say the least. Each time they put up a blockade, they were beaten up by mages and set home. Jin was one of the mages who had beaten them up and sent them on their way. It was truly rare for a chef to arrive and cook for them the amount of food they desired. Thinking that it was some sort of trap, they stayed behind until finally a courageous customonster emerged. ”Do enjoy yourself” said Jin pointing at the pie in front of him. By then, Jin had made quite the bit of ice, actually more like a tall glacier; he accidentally over did it. He began mixing the ice with the sherbert to serve it along with pie. The Vulcan took the first bite and then dived into the pie, filling his mouth with both pie and sherbert simultaneously. Having noticed this, the large crowd among them dived in. They began eating the food that was presented to them and as elegantly as it was made, Jin almost felt bad for the food.

”Well, that was bound to happen anyways” he thought to help him not to over react at the sight in front of him. Kaya was angry at how they devoured the food so eagerly, she stood up on Aegis’s shoulder looking down on the monsters. ”Why those monstors!! Eat with a spoon, loonies!!” she said shouting in the distance. However, the loud sounds they made as they ate, Kaya’s voice was barely audible. Only the two mages could hear what she was making a fuss about.

It was as expected. The customonsters had no grace at all. They were inelegant and devoured the food as if there was no tommorow. There certainly wouldn't be for the pies and sherbet. He had thought they might take some for later, but instead they were stuffing their bellies to the state where they would likely cause a stomach ache of some kind. A few of them as they began to stuff their face fell backwards into a stupor. No, not a stupor, a food coma. Well, that wasn't particularly good. It meant that the blockade wouldn't be removed by the vulcans or goblins. Or at least that was what he expected. However, there was one vulcan left standing at the end. It had a full belly, but hadn't succumbed to the food coma or belly aches.

"You...good cook" the vulcan said pointing at Magna. "You mean man from before...but you helped. Me want to keep word" he added pointing at Jin. It tilted its head and then turned to look at the blockade. "Friends ate too much good food. Won't be able to move tree by self." Magna nodded understanding. It seemed it truly wanted to do as it had it promised, but couldn't.

"Don't worry. Aegis will help." he said and the knight walked over with Kaya still on his shoulder. His emotions were unreadable, but his body language didn't seem to show any annoyance. It seemed that despite Kaya's constant talking and questioning he had enjoyed the guarding. He extended his arm and asked Kaya to please get down from his shoulder so he could help remove the tree.

Once she was off he focused on the gem on his forehead and got out the large axe he named Rex. With little hesitation he ran at the tree and began to slice deeply into it. He wouldn't be able to help the vulcan move it all in one piece. However, if they broke it into smaller pieces then between the two muscular creatures they should be able to move it.

Finally, they had stuffed their bellies to their satisfaction and were now on the floor, ending up in a food coma. It was quite the situation but thank fully, there was one left standing. ”Mean? I’ve never been accused of being mean before. Oh well, it is understandable coming from him”, he thought and considered it to be justified. Kaya didn’t like that part and jumped off of Aegis’s shoulder, ran up to the Vulcan and bit his leg. Though, she felt no threat and didn’t change into her large form. Her chibi form was not able to cause any damage. The Vulcan didn’t even realize that his foot was bitten. Jin shook his head and told her to come back to him. She ran off to Aegis instead who was now cutting through the large tree. She transformed into her large form and helped Aegis move the tree. After that, the train began moving ahead and the train tracks were open. The two Black Rose mages along with their companions went to the office of the station controller. The events had unfolded in front of him, so he was happy with the outcome. The two mages were given their rewards and then they took the train back to the port. From there, they embarked on a ship and headed back to the guild island.

The job was completed and neither Jin nor Magna or their friends had to resort to violence. The first of its kind for Jin and he really liked the feeling of it.