Used To Play With Fire;; Steam Bun Shuffle Job.

Why in the world had she thought this was any inkling of a good idea? Yeah, this whole thing was going to be one big mistake, thus sucked, why couldn’t she have thought ahead at the time she accepted this job! Jiyu’s current internal panic? Was caused by her accepting of a mission to help cook in Oak Town, it sounded like such a simple task at the time, and should be simple for most anyone; However between her mother’s fiery death and being burned by her captors over two years, Jiyu was left scared to death of any visible fire. When the mission was to cook? Jiyu was going to be in trouble, sure she could simply cook cold foods, but well, the mission stated two mages, so she had randomly put up her own paper asking for one of her guild-mates to come with! Now she was wishing she’d been smart enough to ask marschal to come, since she wouldn’t be so damaged in pride if it was him seeing her fear. In the end thought, Jiyu had not thought that far ahead, and now she was going to be around one of her worst fears with a random member of the guild, this was not going to be fun. All she could do was wait until her mission partner showed up.

Magna's gaze had swept across the job board looking for a job to take. He'd been considering taking one to go and help cook at a place, but considering that was his job here at the guild it didn't seem like it would be much different. He wanted to get out of his comfort zone. However, now that he was looking again that job wasn't present and in its place was a note that looked quite different from the job requests. It was a flyer requesting the aid of a mage within the guild. It didn't say what for or who had even given the request, but that didn't matter to him. It was written by a guild member and they wanted help. If anyone was good to give help it was an ace and Magna was a pretty friendly one at that. As such he pulled down the flyer and pocketed it before heading over to the meeting location.

When he arrived he saw a girl he recognised from the guild. If he recalled correctly she was the one Gala had made a sardine crostini and he'd provided a supear soda to go with it. He paused for a moment going through the names in his head and then recalled her name. Or at least something similar. Jiya? Joya? No that was a country he'd been to and quite enjoyed though the cat people had been a bit too amorous for his liking. Seriously, just because you had a tail didn't mean you were there to get some tail, but what could you do? Some rare ingredients grew there and he went there for that purpose. Now  what was the name? Jeyu? That sounded about right. "Hey there Jeyu right?" he said hoping he'd got the name right. Normally, he was really good with remembering things but it seemed to many people had these short four letter names nowadays that he tended to stumble on them. Especially when there were so many new people and the new guild and everything. He'd get the hang of it eventually.

Like Magna the girl was certainly not one of the oldest members of the guild. Magna himself was only 15, yet had risen to a high position. By appearences alone he'd judge her to be in her early twenties at the oldest. Older than him he was sure, but wasn't quite sure how much by. He wondered what the job would be. It would be quite a surprise and something to make him chuckle when he realised the job he'd dismissed earlier was now the one he was on. It was going to be fun.

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Thinking somewhat further on cooking, the wind mage realized she could not even a remember a time when she had cooked with fire. Until her Mother was killed in that fire? The beautiful woman was the one who did the cooking, and while her fathered cooked a handful of times after she passed on, the kitchen had fallen into deep disrepair without her. Since her mother had been ‘making toast’ when the house burned down? Jiyu had never even tried cooking anything with fire herself, when she fed herself she was eating all her meat and such raw, or making something like sushi, food you did not need flames to cook! Anytime she’d had something cooked by fire in any way, she’d gotten it from a restaurant or someone she ran into while traveling before she joined Black Rose, and then there was the fact people always tried to force cooked food down her throat in the guild, but that was irrelevant.

Jiyu had been waiting for a decent time in the described location, which was a building across from the silvermoon, to ensure it wasn’t just a guild-mate who felt like talking to her and actually the one who was coming with her. However? The wind mage had not suspected the man who showed up would be the one to take the request, her eyes widening slightly, something of caution and fear sparking in them. “Magna” from what she recalled before being kidnapped and held captive, he used cooking based magic, and that undoubtedly had to include fire somewhere! Plus he did most of the Guilds cooking, he was very close to fire and he was the one who accepted to come with her, shit.

“J-i-y-u actually” the female spoke, her voice still somewhat soft but since she returned it had gained back a velvet line to it, her odd eyes filled with determination glancing up at the male. Why was she always looking up at everyone else? That was annoying, especially when he was coming on a mission that included one of her largest fears. “But it’s good enough, c’mon let’s go, I don’t want to be late to the restaurant.” her hand touched the hair next to her ear, gripping and running through it, flicking it softly as she stood up and turned around, to lead the way to the job, in spite of her still healing body she didn’t seem different from the day she joined.

"Ah sorry about that. So many people with four letter names ending in u recently. Plus with the whole guild destruction and what not....kinda hard to keep track. I'll remember for next time." he said and paused. It was a rather odd situation for someone to be older than him, of that he was fairly certain, and yet shorter than him. Not by a huge amount, but enough that she was looking up at him. When she mentioned that the job involved a restaurant his eyes widened slightly in surprise. Who would of guessed that he'd be going on the job named 'steam bun shuffle' again. The last time he'd attended his job had been with the current guildmaster Izayuki and back then it just so happened to be a cooking contest with the best dishes sent out. A cooking contest that he and Izayuki had won though it had been quite close. That was why he sometimes introduced himself as the iron chef, or at least in cooking circles. It seemed he'd have a chance to renew that title. He wondered if that just made him an iron chef twice or if it would make him some other kind of metal. Perhaps a steel chef?

Then again what if it was a different restaurant this time? So he'd be an iron chef in two different restraurants. Iron + Iron just made more Iron. It wasn't like it was going to be a job involving a bunch of iron chefs with the best one coming out on top? Or was it? That would certainly be a job worth taking. Last time he'd served his seven courses of seven colours, a set of dishes that utilised the rainbow fruit in various ways. This time he hoped to be able to use that as well, but perhaps with some other ingredients. Then again, what if it was just cooking what had been requested? That didn't really pose a challenge or not much of one unless the restaurant had certain specialties. In truth his curiousity was peaked and he was quite looking forward to the job.

"Aye its not a good idea to be late. You arrive late, dishes go out late, orders pile up...disaster." he said knowledgeably. He'd worked in kitchens where people hadn't cleaned up properly or had arrived late or just weren't that good at managing time. The more dishes that piled up the harder it got and generally the more frustrated and angry the head chef got. "So you ever worked in a kitchen before? Any specialities?" The job in question was in Oak Town which was a fair distance from Rose Garden. As such it made sense to try and get to know the strengths and weaknesses of his partner for the job. He'd not seen her in the kitchen at the guild. In fact, he hadn't seen her much except around Marschal. He wondered why she'd not taken Marschal on this. Then again Marschal didn't strike him as the cooking type. Besides, he was probably busy or drunk or both. A drunk in a kitchen generally ended in disaster. Yes, not taking him was probably a good idea though not directly requesting the help of either of the chefs in the guild was perhaps an odd choice. Even if his ace status was intimidating the other one, Gala, was a newcomer and probably closer to her age. He'd of made a good partner for this job. Still, he'd come along and now it was up to him to help her succeed. He'd try to be more of a sous chef unless he needed to step up. That would allow her own talents to grow. This was her job after all. He was just tagging along to help out.

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He said recently and that was just what kind of urged on how ticked off she was, her joining had not been recent, her return sure, but she had two years before. Apparently being captured and held captive for two years? Could cause people to forget you very, very easily. However thinking about that time and how much of it had been taken away from her, that hurt and so she chose not to let the thoughts settle too far into her head. If she recalled those event's too much? There was no way she could get through a mission, especially one that involved flames at one point or another! So she distracted her own mind, by taking in details about the chef in front of her, the partner she'd have for this mission.

"Nope, my first and only job has been Mage Work." the female spoke up, laughing slightly as she recalled the fact that prior to joining the guild she actually had not even needed money that badly. While she was traveling? People pitied the child or ogled the woman and gave her what she wanted. Until she had taken on the life of a mage at the prompting of some Black Rose member's when she wandered by, she'd gotten by without very much, but now that she was settling down, well. "Anything that doesn't involve fire I can do." the female spoke up, looking up and over as they walked to get towards Oak Town, starting to wish she's brought Marschal's jacket with her on this one too. However? it was too late to go get it now, so she'd have to live with the fact her lack of weight, the bruises and burns marks, all being visible.

She could handle anything not involving fire? That was perhaps an interesting one for a job that involved cooking. It was perhaps not ideal, but there were ways to work around it. He wondered what her reasoning for doing things not involving fire was, but decided not to pry. He did not know Jiyu that well. In fact, before the destruction of the original Black Rose guildhall he'd been either out of the guild, in his room or in the kitchen. Unless he went on a job with the person he probably hadn't interacted wit them much. It just wasn't in his nature to go out and interact people willy nilly or it hadn't been back then. Unless of course he served them at the bar, which had been his main job. Now though he was trying his best to help the guild grow back to what it was. Well, perhaps not what it was in the same way, but certainly a strong guild once more. As such, it was his duty as an ace, to begin interacting with people and helping them grow one way or the other.

Anyway, she wouldn't use fire or at least didn't want to. That was the gist of his understanding. As such he would have to consider the best way forward. It depended on what they would be cooking, but there was certainly a lot of prep-work before things went in pots or in the oven. "Ok then Jiyu. IF you focus on preparing the ingredients then i'll cook them." he said with a nod and a smile. It seemed he'd be the head chef on this job after all. That was a shame. "Maybe in the future though, if you want, you should stop by the kitchen and i'll teach you how to cook using fire and other forms of heat." He was quite skilled at cooking and had taught before so he hoped he could teach her as well.

She was going to bite him, and she'd go for the throat and she'd kill him! Jiyu's head raced as she perceived the expressions flickering across his face at her mention of not being good with fire. Beneath her fluff ebony hair and thick skill, her brain could only make out mockery and other negative things, and she couldn't stand it. Of course, the female reminded herself that she had been jumping to the wrong conclusions several times lately and that this was likely due to the strain her two year experience still placed onto her brain. What she was actually seeing on Magna? Likely was much simpler and more innocent than what her head was coming up with, thought it was very hard to keep on believing that, when all she desired to do was lash out at him. However she knew this was not Marschal,the other's in the guild might not forgive her out bursts so easily as her savior.

      "Fire is too dangerous." her gaze was hazy and her expression very distant, as if a memory was playing before her. That certain memory? Was being dragged away by one of the village women after her childhood house burned down, when she was seven, the fire her mother died it. To add salt into the wound? They had not believed what she saw before the fire, and few approved of her practicing her mother's magic. After all that she did not like thinking of her home village or fire, and the recent experience of being burned nearly every day for two years, just because she refused to eat for her captors, had successfully steered her far away from fire.

        "I can cook, sushi and such, just nothing involving fire, but that system works for me, both the reference to my cooking skills and the ideal on how to do this job." it seemed she liked fish or at the very least meat, since she had Sardines the last time he saw her. In truth? She barely even ate vegetables or such, most of what she ate was meat and when she could manage it that meat was raw. However she had a soft spot for sweet, especially anything with a cherry flavor.

It seemed, based on her words, that in her past she had a bad interaction or interactions with fire. It was true that it was a dangerous element. People had lost homes and/or lives due to it. Forests had been destroyed and turned to desert. It was a dangerous and powerful element, but no more dangerous or powerful than others. If it was harnessed in the right way then it was a useful tool. Water was equally as dangerous and yet that was much more commonly used. In a way, water could almost be considered more dangerous at least if used in the right, or perhaps depending on your perspective, wrong way.

"Fire, like any element or tool, is only as dangerous as you let it be. On occasion it can get out of control, but so can water or earth. Each is as destructive as the other if used incorrectly." he said with a shrug. There was little he could do to convince her, but he thought he'd at least give his opinion on it. "But I do see your point." He was ready for this job to begin though it seemed that she had been a tad annoyed about being put onto preparation duty. Perhaps there would be some sort of thing she could cook that didn't involve fire. Though that wasn't up to him. "If there is anything that can be prepared on the menu that doesn't involve fire...feel free to take those tasks on." That was the best he could do in this case.

It wasn't long after this conversation that the two arrived at the restaurant in question. It was a rather posh restaurant and as he guessed the restaurant was not the same one he'd been on last time. "Well, time to earn the title of iron chef. You ready?"

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Jiyu had never went seeking out flames at any point in her life, at least not literal ones, she was always fanning metaphorical flames. Every single day she'd lived? The female was always doing something that could tick other people off, and that was what they called playing with fire, she was very good at it, but otherwise she avoided anything related to flames. Her blue eye looked over at him "The title doesn't really concern me, I'm doing this to become a better mage." however she didn't seem to be suggesting she would do anything but her best work, because if you wanted to be a good mage, you could never shrink any of your jobs.

The wind mage went into the restaurant first, looking forward and than around, ears twitching at the sound of a bell ringing after them. "We're the mages you guys requested." the owner was over to them quickly, he was an older man who looked far too run down to still be standing. "Thank heaven's, I shall leave the kitchen up to you two." the man then went and slunk down in a near by chair, leaving Jiyu to blink aimlessly at the fact the whole thing seemed to be left up to them! Glancing at Magna she prayed he had some good idea's, because he knew she could only do things that did not involve fire.

Of course when they went into the kitchen someone had a fire on.

"I'm going to go prepare ingredients." her voice was so incredibly shaky and she had paled so much she looked exactly like a ghost, her eyes trembling and wet as she stumbled away from the small flame being used to fry an egg. That was definitely confirmation that her 'bad experience' was more of a traumatic experience, eyes looking haunted as she breathed shallow and quick, picking up a knife. Luckily? She seemed decently able to cut up the fish she pushed up from the bucket beside the counter, however she was far away from the flame as she could be in the room, and she refused to look in that direction, her fear never seeming to fade through the whole night.

"You can talk to him."

It was finally closing time, and the flame was turned off, no more fire in the kitchen, after telling Magna to turn their job in, the wind user ran out the back door, into the alley behind the restaurant. Jiyu knew he'd come eventually, they had to walk back together she was pretty sure, but the female needed time away from the cooking mage, trying to sooth her heavy breathing as she blinked wet eyes, a few tears falling, her body sitting there. For the moment? She'd sit here until the B ranked mage came back here and told her they could go, hugging her own arms as she bit her lip to keep from actually crying.

This wouldn't do, Jiyu knew it was impossible to get through life without encountering fire, and one day she might have to fight a fire mage. With the type weakness? A fire mage would kill her if she couldn't combat her fear enough to effectively fight.