Toradora!:Spin-Off 2 Fall Fattened Tiger Chapter 1

Fall-Fattened Tiger

Chapter 1

Takasu Ryuuji remembered.

Come to think of it, it might be that in the beginning, her appetite for food was what brought them together.

"Hmm...."

It wasn't friendship, nor love, yet could he remember correctly just how this strange, family-like relationship, solid yet complex, came to be? It was ...

"Hmmm......"

... to be precise, perhaps, fried rice. Indeed, it was fried rice. It started with that unforgettable but awful night, and then feeding her fried rice at three in the morning.

"Hmmmm......."

"Hey, that's enough. It’s fresh food, if you keep it in your hand like that it’s going to go bad, and the other customers will be annoyed at you."

"Shut up!"

Overwhelmed, he sadly kept quiet. Though he had a strong reply on my lips, he thought that perhaps it would be better to hold his tongue. "Shhhh!" Huffing through her bared fangs, Aisaka Taiga again... "Hmm......" ...swallowing her anguish.

In that small right hand there was a chunk of pork shoulder roast. In the left hand a pork-loin block. Shoulder roast if we make homemade chashu (and, make simple curry with the broth), pork-loin if we cook trotter for Japanese style kakuni, so WHICH ONE!!? Forced by Ryuuji to decide, Taiga was looking over the pork on the meat counter, slowly freaking out.

Light and fluffy waves of hair reaching her waist, transparent milky-white skin, she had a refined beauty like a French doll. Short for a second-year high school student, the whorl in her hair didn’t quite reach Ryuuji’s chest. Combined with a petite build, Taiga was rather cute today. With those big chunks of meat in both hands, thinking about what to do with that simple mind, "I would just as soon eat both...", Taiga is a beautiful girl, of course.

An exceptionally beautiful girl, and...

"Ummm......Ahhh......! I give up, I can't decide! Ryuuji, it's your choice! Because you’re making it, and are a better judge with that pig-nose sniffer working, you choose delicious things! Now do it!"

...rather bossy.

"Who has a pig-nose!? No way. Well then, cheaper it will be. Today roast, we'll make chashu. It's decided."

".....!?"

"What? What’s up? You’ll make kakuni of course? In that case make them separately,"

"....!"

“What’s up, seriously? Doesn't roast sound good? Sounds good to me! Good, it’s decided. Let’s go."

Comparing the cuts of meat in both hands, not wanting to let them go, Taiga finally shouted "Hya!" and closing her eyes, she returned the pork loin block to the meat counter. At that, Ryuuji dropped the chunk of roast into the basket.

" … ’Hya!’ … ?"

"Let’s leave already, let’s go quickly, we’re done. If you stay here you’ll get lost again! I’m starving, so I hope you don’t take forever cooking! Go for chashu! After that, what will have for sides?! Potato salad or macaroni salad would be good!"

Yanking the edge of Ryuuji’s basket, Taiga left the meat section with her eyes looking rather desperate. … Leaving still rather regretfully, at the last moment looking back to where the pork loin was. Ryuuji was by now a little exasperated.

"You’re really something, saying you’re hungry lately, pretending it isn’t just greed, eh?"

"Dirty!? That's really cheeky! What can be said about this lowly, vulgar, taxing, bumpkin, this pig-dog block of rotten meat!"

--- Wasn't that a bit abusive?

Before he could reply, she gave Ryuuji a deep poke in both eyes.

"My eyes, my eyes!"

"You’re a bad person; you should repent. Ha! What's with the drama, you completely disagreeable rascal? Hold on, aren’t you embarrassed? People are watching."

She poked him in the eye up to the second joint!… Scary… Those public high-school uniforms over there!… and so on, women look away… everybody averted their gaze, even with his eyes closed it must certainly have hurt. Ryuuji was in the middle of the store aisle, in pain, a figure in school uniform with his eyes pushed in, crouching, unable to get up. It hurt, it didn’t hurt, it hurt to death.

Arms crossed in zama style, Taiga sneered down at him in contempt. A most evil, violent, tyrannical, brutal and strong wild beast --- indeed, she was also known as the ”Palmtop Tiger”. That she is known by that name probably bothers the tigers.

"You really complain. Well, OK. Because of my super good pure and gentle heart, I’ll gather and bring up the purchases for you. I got so hungry during your little show that I got rather anti-social. … Whatever else, you’re sure a lucky guy, what with me helping you out with the shopping. Shouldn’t you be grateful? Don’t you see? But that’s okay, because I feel I should, from now on I am going to help you as much as I possibly can."

Hmph. So she says.

… Come down now, fire and brimstone!

Ryyuji’s scary eyes glittered like crazy, glaring at Taiga as if they were about to spout blood. Incidentally, his eyes were simply bad genes, and his eyes were red only because they had just been poked badly. Unfortunately, since he didn’t actually have demons in the family, he couldn’t curse anybody. At that very instant,

"Gyaa!"

Taiga fell on her rear. Everything in the aisle within one meter in front of her went flying. Of course, it wasn’t divine punishment. It was simply Taiga’s clumsiness. Ryuuji’s resentment was forgotten in a hurry, drawing near and reaching out to Taiga,

"Oh, are you OK?"

"… wha… eh! From that shock now I know! Today we will make kakuni of course!"

"… is, is that so?"

Taiga’s greed was showing again.

In the basket she replaced the shoulder roast with the pork loin, added the ingredients for macaroni salad, milk, eggs for making tomorrow’s lunch, ham, spinach and some cheap pasta. And now her eyes rested upon some kinds of seasonal mushrooms. Thicker mushrooms are cheaper, but these ones,

"Oh, these shimeji…! These maitake! Such huge shiitake! The trumpet mushrooms are big too! Look at this fine bunapii root… of course it tastes like fall! Let’s make mushroom sauce!"

By the mushroom counter, Ryuuji, pain in his eyes forgotten, almost leaping for joy, began fishing. Taiga’s eyes also glittered while she brought out her hands,

"Truly delicious! As usual, seasonal stuff is the best! Ryuuji, this one too, this one too!"

"Oh, that too, that too! Eh? What’s that!?"

In her hand was a wooden box of matsutake. Quickly taking it from Taiga’s hand, he quietly and unobtrusively put it back on it the counter.

Indeed, the season was fall. Here and there in the supermarket plastic maple-tree ornaments were installed; over by the fish-counter housewives gathered for fresh saury. Incidentally, with regards to the Takasu family, saury was last night’s feast. Sizzling crispy broiled skin, body covered with thick fat, drizzled in soy sauce, with plenty of grated radish and sudachi too…

"... Chestnut rice… and mushroom curry perhaps ... !"

"...Waa...!"

Ryuuji filled a bag with nice round chestnuts, then was attracted, as if in a dream, to the long line for saury. Taiga was hypnotized by it too, and followed. And, lined up in a row next to the chestnuts on display, big bunches of white grapes, their sweet smell a torment.

"Uwaa... looks good! I rather like that, grapes… man, why does fall have so many yummy things!?"

"I really love grapes too! Well, shall we buy some!? … It can be dessert!"

"Eh, eh, eh… no… way! Seven hundred eighty yen, that’s still expensive!"

Grabbing only chestnuts, Ryuuji escaped, pulling his eyes away from the grapes. Such is fall, when speaking of fall cravings. Taiga’s appetite is a strange thing, seeming a base greed, a awful spirit, but it is not. For myself too, and everybody else is pretty much the same.

Speaking of the fall harvest, seasonal things are naturally delicious (amongst other things), and your body, done in by the summer heat, finally gets back into condition and begins to want wholesome energy.

That is what they call fall. Horses also get fat, you might say.

"OK, let’s pay the bill. Since it’s crowded, just wait by the exit!"

"OK!"

Once Taiga had left, Ryuuji got in the line for the cash register, mixed in with the housewives. On top of the basket was a tote bag, so he indicated that he didn’t need a bag from the register. To this point, there was completely no hesitation in his manner.

With his fatherless upbringing, Ryuuji’s housekeeping experience is no less than five years, even though he’s only in his second-year in high school. Since this last spring, acting as a real mother for another person, had only increased his abilities. And from the first, that person with the evil bloodshot eyes tolerated the eating and eye-poking.

"Welcome! Do you have a point-card?"

"Yes, I have one."

"Well... kyaa!"

"..."

The cashier yelped --- just once: women are getting better these days. Choosing the seasonal ingredients is fun and all, but besides cooking, general housework is what Ryuuji loves. He doesn’t think a little bit of shopping is a problem. Thinking about menus, thinking about nutrition, thinking about which season it is while comparing this and that, making decisions. More than some clumsy game, the abuse Ryuuji received was an impressive spectacle.

Carrying his basket filled with things for cooking, with a good-humored look on his face, he looked around for Taiga.

"…Ou!"

Ryuuji jumped instinctively.

Certainly fall is here – fall’s appetite is here. Here--, waving to Taiga’s form, could not help but be truly surprised. In spite of the fact that dinner was coming, and in spite of the kakuni he was going to make, Taiga was waiting for Ryuuji those few extra minutes at the corner of the bakery in front of the supermarket, standing there eating a muffin.

"Ah, there were sweet potato muffins. In season." See ya!

"What are you eating!? From here we’re going to eat!"

"It’s OK, come on, come on! We’ll just use a little less rice."

She stretched her mouth around the muffin to bite it, but suddenly Taiga said "Ha!" and her face got serious.

"What’s up? What’s happening?"

"What shall I do? My throat is dry."

"Yeah, that muffin-something you were greedily standing and eating there, would surely make you thirsty. Have patience until we get to the house, then we can put on some tea."

"...What shall we do? I would like try a latte. Look, over there, in the park there’s a coffee shop."

"What!? The way it is, I’ve decided no way! From here we’re going to eat! Take a look at my shape! Don’t you have pork!?"

“Right away, it’s next. Just chill, alright? I tell you, if you have some, you’ll be satisfied. You don’t even need sugar. My treat! You were the one who said he liked the coffee over there! Let’s have some, OK?”

On and on she went, while packing muffin in her mouth, Taiga took Ryuuji along with her, they indeed went to the café. The plan was to get a latte without sugar. Somehow, when they saw the menu, “Wow, they’ve got Cinnamon Maple Cream Latte!”, they said, naming the most incredible thing they saw, moreover Ryuuji took the opportunity to wash his hands, “Come now! Fall’s latest product, pumpkin roll cake! By request, de-li-ci-ous!”

Indeed, fall is certainly here.

Fall’s appetite is here too.

Fried rice was the catalyst. The very beginning was Taiga’s appetite. Everything came together eventually when she snuck into the house late at night, Taiga fainted from hunger, when he made fried rice his luck ran out. Ryuuji’s mastery of cooking caught Taiga’s eye, and since then, the Takasu home had another sort-of member that came every day to eat. Speaking of that appetite, it was truly becoming a problem. Where in her body that chowhound was putting it all was pretty much a wonder.

Back to the present. Greeting fall’s appetite, Aisaka’s appetite was also rather bottomless. That night’s kakuni supper also, “Seconds!” “Seconds!” “Seco….” “…time to stop” “…nds!”, the cooker’s chestnut rice continued there until it turned color.

Well, isn’t it healthier than no appetite? I was thinking, if there are leftovers, I wouldn't be able to avoid saying something, but --– Ryuuji was bad manneredly eating the boiled rice from the ladle with his front teeth. Taiga gulped down Ryuuji’s extra portion. Come to think of it, this week Ryuuji’s not had a single refill. If you think about it well, it’s a good thing, Ryuuji one bowl, Yasuko one bowl, the two of them together seemed like one person. Since he was always cooking for three, Taiga came to eat as if she were two people.

“Ahh… that was good, that was good… and tea?”

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