Between World Restaurant - Dxhaseoxd

He lifted the chopstick and was about to dig in, but before he could, he heard the sound of the bell above the door ringing. He had turned his eyes to look over out of habit, but the moment he saw who it was, his hand holding the chopsticks stopped and he knitted his brows again.

The person that had just walked in was Kinoko Doman, the head of the Kinoko Family.

Ninth Meal — Okonomiyaki (Part 2)

After a few seconds of being in a daze, Seimei decisively put down the chopsticks in his hands.

Before he could enjoy his meal, he had to take care of this problem first or he wouldn't be able to properly enjoy himself.

So he raised a hand and pointed it at Doman.

Doman who had just walked in was also looking around the restaurant as if she was looking for someone.

When she saw Seimei pointing at her, Doman couldn't help revealing a bitter smile. However, she still walked over to where Seimei was sitting and sat down in front of him.

Anna looked over and Doman said, "The usual."

Anna gave a nod in response to this and headed to the back to put in Doman's order.

The two of them just sat there in silence after Doman had ordered.

Finally, under Seimei's gaze, Doman gave a sigh and said, "It's not what you think."

Seimei gave a snort before saying, "If it's not what I think, then what could it be? We clearly had a deal and yet you're breaking it? Do you really think that we wouldn't find out about this?"

Doman gave another sigh before saying, "You never listen. I'm telling you that it's not what you think and you're still saying this."

Seimei gave another snort before saying, "Then tell me, what is it if it's not what I think?"

Doman paused for a second before saying, "It's someone using the techniques of the Kinoko Family to do these things."

Seimei narrowed his eyes to look at her and then he gave a snort once more as he said, "So you're saying that someone was able to imitate the secret techniques of the Kinoko Family and pull off something like this? Do you really think that I would believe that?"

Doman gave a snort this time, but she said, "If you put it like that, then it doesn't seem believable!"

Seimei gave a sigh before saying, "Are you sure that it's like this?"

Doman said with a nod, "It's really like this." Then she seriously looked into his eyes and asked, "Would I lie to you?"

Seimei looked into her eyes for a while before saying, "Then what are you planning on doing?"

Doman gave a shrug and said, "What can I do? I've already sent people out to find this person, but until they do, there's nothing that I can really do."

Seimei hesitated a bit before saying, "I've already sent word to the emperor and he's going to send people to deal with it."

Doman trembled when she heard this and she looked right at him before asking, "Why would you do that?"

Seimei shook his head and said, "What do you think I could do? If I didn't report it to the emperor after receiving an order, I would have been declared a traitor and I would have been forced out of my country. My entire Takenoko Family would have suffered because of it."

Doman pointed a finger in his face and said, "You couldn't just wait for a bit before reporting it? If you just gave me time, I would have been able to do something before it escalated like this!"

Seimei said with a snort, "If you could deal with it, you would have dealt with it already and I wouldn't have needed to report it."

Doman trembled with anger when she heard this. She pointed her finger in his face again and said, "You, you, you! You just had to bring it up, didn't you? You really are a piece of work, do you know that?"

Seimei stuck out his tongue without a reply.

Doman stood up and put her face right in front of his before saying, "You're acting like a child now? Do you really think that this is what mature adults do?"

Seimei didn't care as he turned away from her.

As he did, he couldn't stop a faint blush from appearing on his face because of how close she had put her face to his just now. At the same time, seeing him turn away, Doman also realized how close she had been to him and a blush appeared on her face as well.

She quickly sat down and there was a short silence between the two of them before they started arguing again.

If the people from their families saw them now, they definitely would have been shocked.

Gone were the two calm and serious heads of their families and they had been replaced with these two that were bickering like children. They didn't have a single trace of the prestige that they should have had as family heads and insteadthey acted more like their age.

After all, both Seimei and Doman were only fifteen years old.

They had taken over for their families early on because of their talent, but that didn't mean that they were adults yet.

There were still some parts of them that were like children.

The two of them argued and made up again and again, but the customers around them weren't bothered by this at all. After all, the two of them were old customers and all of the other customers knew that was just how the two of them had acted.

In fact, they had actually mellowed out compared to before.

After a long time, Anna finally came back with another okonomiyaki that was exactly the same as the one that she had brought for Seimei and placed it in front of Doman.

However, before Doman could start eating, Seimei suddenly swapped the two okonomiyakis on the table.

His okonomiyaki that had become cold because he had left it for so long was now in front of Doman and the new steaming hot okonomiyaki was in front of him.

Doman pointed at him and said, "What do you think you're doing? You're even taking my food now!"

Seimei just stuck out his tongue and said, "It's your fault that mine went cold, so I'm taking yours instead."

Doman wanted to say something, but then she just gave a sigh and settled down.

She opened her mouth towards him and said, "Feed me."

Seimei wasn't surprised by this at all, instead he revealed a smile.

He picked up the chopsticks and cut a piece of the steaming hot okonomiyaki before lifting it up and bringing it to her mouth.

When Doman saw this, she didn't hesitate to take a bite of it.

The way that they acted, it was almost like they were loversBut of course, that was what they were.

While they were heads of families that had been at each other's throats for centuries, in their generation that feud didn't exist.

Their parents didn't even know about this.

But when they had met in this restaurant, something had clicked between them and over time, they got closer and closer until they finally confessed their love for one another.

Without this restaurant, it would have been impossible for them to fall in love like this.

But because of this restaurant, a love story that rivaled Romeo and Juliet had been born.

The heads of the opposing Kinoko and Takenoko Families of the Land of Ocean and Land of Sea respectively. Two houses that were equal in prestige, but had been feuding because of their loyalty to their countries.

Yet they had fallen in love with each other.

When they first met, they had argued and quarreled with each other like one would expect. But as they were just children, they were able to settle their arguments much easier than adults.

So while they were here, they would argue and then play with each other.

Since both of them were from onmyoji families, they were both interested in the same things and they learned techniques from each other. That was also a big contributing factor to their reputation as talented onmyojis.

After all, they had the legacies of two different families of the same power behind them.

Eventually, it was Doman who actually confessed to Seimei.

Girls did always mature faster than boys and she was able to recognize her feelings for him before he had realized his feelings for her.

But after she confessed, Seimei realized just how important she was to him and accepted this confession.

So behind the backs of their families, they started dating in this restaurant.

On the surface, they would fight like one would expect from heads of opposing families, but when they came to the restaurant, they would act lovey dovey with one another.

They had even come to an agreement that they would avoid conflict between their families as much as possible. But it was impossible to avoid all conflict since they were major families serving the emperors of two opposing countries.

That was why Seimei had reacted so strongly when he had heard that there were traces of the Kinoko Family's techniques found with the spy.

He had thought that the woman that he had loved had betrayed him and he was worried that she would no longer be in love with him.

Yes, he wasn't worried about being betrayed and he wasn't worried that his family was in danger. All he cared about was whether she still loved him or not, which was why he had rushed to the restaurant after hearing about this.

Now that she had dispelled this worry, he could finally relax.

Neither of them cared about their problems anymore and just focused on their food.

After feeding Doman, it was now Seimei's turn to eat.

Doman cut off a piece of the okonomiyaki like Seimei had done and brought it up to feed him as well.

Ninth Meal — Okonomiyaki (Part 3)

Seimei opened his mouth wide and bit into the fluffy and steaming okonomiyaki.

When it entered his mouth, the strong taste of the sauce and mayonnaise filled his mouth.

Then it was quickly followed by the taste of the meat and the taste of the batter mixed together.

This was a pork meat okonomiyaki, so there was the slight smoky taste of the meat that helped enhance the richness of the entire bite. It mixed with the umami of the pork meat and created a rich taste that could only come from well aged meat.

It wasn't a strong taste though, it was a subtle taste that mixed with the batter of the okonomiyaki to give a balanced umami taste that delighted the taste bud.

Then there was the feeling of the bonito flakes that came with each bite.

It was a very unique texture, just like soft paper, but it also had a chew to it that released the umami taste of the dried fish. This mixed along with the batter and the meat in the okonomiyaki created an even stronger taste that was like a punch.

Then there was the batter that came with this bite.

The batter itself didn't have much of a taste, but rather it provided a base that helped the taste of the other ingredients fuse together. At the same time, the crunchy base of the batter created a nice texture that felt very satisfying to chew.

All in all, this created a perfect harmony of land and sea, as it fused the taste of the bonito flakes and the pork together to create a perfect bite.

After chewing it a few times, he couldn't help swallowing it right away.

The two of them continued feeding each other bites of the steaming hot okonomiyaki until it was completely gone.

Then the two of them turned their attention to the one that had gone cold that was sitting there.

Neither of them made a move to dispose of it, rather they brought it in front of them with sparkling eyes as if they were about to eat it.

Both of them took a bite of this cold okonomiyaki and revealed delighted looks when they bit into it.

That was because even though this okonomiyaki had gone cold, it was still delicious. It was a different kind of taste compared to the steaming hot okonomiyaki, but it wasn't any less delicious.

That was because after it had cooled down, the sauce had completely penetrated deep into the batter, giving it an even richer taste.

With the sauce soaking all of the okonomiyaki, it was a taste that was much richer than when the sauce was still steaming hot and only drizzled on it.

If the bite before was a jab, this was a full out knockout uppercut punch.

This taste was several times stronger than before and brought out the full power of the worcestershire okonomiyaki sauce. It mixed the umami of the bonito flakes that had melted into the sauce and the pork that was drizzled in it, creating a powerful umami punch.

Both of them had looks of delight as they ate this okonomiyaki and instead of the harmony from before, both of them fought over this one.

The reason why they had been so generous and kept offering the other person bites of the steaming hot one wasbecause they had wanted to keep this cold okonomiyaki for themselves.

But since that plan didn't work, the only thing that they could do was use force to take as much of the okonomiyaki for themselves as possible.

There was a clash of chopsticks that appeared over the okonomiyaki, but of course there weren't any hands holding them.

Since they were onmyojis, they naturally fought with the method used by onmyojis.

They controlled the chopsticks like shikigamis and used their magic to clash with one another.

It was evenly matched at first, but Seimei was quickly able to find an opening in Doman's defenses and broke through with his chopsticks. But before he could take a bite of the cold okonomiyaki, Doman used her ultimate technique.

Pouty lips!

She pouted her lips and revealed an aggrieved look as she said, "You're just bullying me!"

When this happened, Seimei had no choice but togive up.

When it came to her cute appearance, he had no defenses at all and he would be slaughtered in one move. He just couldn't say no when it came to her cute appearance, so he had no choice but to relinquish the okonomiyaki to her.

But of course, Doman didn't keep it all for herself since she did want to share it with him still.

Even if she wanted the larger portion, she still wanted to feed him from time to time.

So she used her chopsticks to feed him bites between her bites.

Though she did take two bites for each bite that Seimei received

The two of them like thiswas just too dazzling for the lonely dogs around them. They couldn't take being fed dog food like this and they started cursing the two of them, but they were lost in their own world, so they didn't hear any of it.

In fact, as powerful onmyojis, they naturally had protections against curses from other people.

So what these people that cursed them didn't know was that their curse had been rebounded and had been applied to themselves. All they had done was cursed themselves to be single even longer for cursing the two of them to break up.

When they finally finished the last bite of the okonomiyaki, they settled down and no longer fought like before.

Instead, they cut that last bite perfectly in half and fed it to each other.