Narrator's POV
"Come over! Don't let your stomach stay empty!"
A bustling city seemed to roar with the dozens of stalls on its main road, the massive marketplace allowed the people to buy whatever they needed, be it clothes, trinkets, books or in this very special occasion.
Food.
"Come over! One at a time please! This food is not to be messed with~! It'll fulfill any wish as long as you follow the instructions!"
A big food stall was surrounded by a rather big crowd with various women, men and even some young children, inside of the stall, a woman beamed quite happily while flipping an omelette before she set it down on a paper plate.
The woman looked to be in her mid 20s, long and wavy crimson hair reached her waist and a pair of blue eyes stared at the nearby customer, she was wearing a rather simple red dress that reached her knees, a pair of black stockings with high heels and a white slightly stained apron that hugged her figure nicely while on the back of her waist there were a pair of frying pans.
She turned around to look at the nearby customer and offered him the plate with the omelette.
"Here you have! A Heart Guiding Omelette" she smiled warmly before adding. "If you eat it in the next 10 minutes while staring at a wall and having a hand over your head at all times then you'll find the love of your life in 1 to 7 business days~"
The man didn't seem to pay much attention to what the woman said, he simply nodded as if he had actually heard the instructions she had just given to him, his hands held the plate and soon walked away, letting another customer walk forward in line.
"Now now~ you look like you have a small penis, so let me make a special hotdog for you~" The woman shamelessly announced to the now mortified man...but he still remained on the spot instead of leaving...
The crimson haired woman turned around and started to do her work, her movements a little too fast to belong to a regular person, especially because due to said movements, the people around the stall couldn't exactly make out what she was cooking, but after barely a minute...
"Here you go! That'll be 3 silver coins~"
She had already finished, and now a steaming hot dog laid in front of the man, who simply stayed rooted on the spot.
"If you eat it while being upside down and humming an opera song, you'll grow 4 inches!" She drove a hand to her mouth as if she were whispering the last part, when absolutely everyone was able to hear her.
Every gaze immediately moved towards the man...who just hung his head low and accepted the food, quickly paying and disappearing by hurriedly running, everyone could see the tears of shame and genuine hope in his eyes as he left....
"Now~! Who's the next one?"
From in between the crowd, a tall and muscled man basically forced his way forward, standing tall in front of the smaller woman, his brilliant and shiny bald head reflected the lights of the food stall.
"Hey, Bitch" The man immediately spoke looking down at her.
"Hello~ what would you like to have, rude line cutting sir~?" She looked up at him with a pair of thought-empty blue eyes.
"Last time you came I bought a stupid sandwich that was supposed to make my hair grow...but I'm still bald!"
"Did you eat it at sunset under the shadow of a 5 meter tall tree like I instructed?" She asked blinking innocently.
"Of course not! Who would do such a stupid thing for a stupid sandwich?!" His voice came out rather angry.
"Of course it wouldn't work then dummy~ you didn't follow the instructions~ but don't worry, I can make you another one free of charge to make it up"
The woman quickly turned around, and after some blinding fast movements, she stood back in the front with a simply meatball sandwich in between her hands.
"Here you go~"
She offered the sandwich to the bald man, but instead of taking it, he slapped it up to the air clearly enraged as if the woman had insulted his entire bloodline, he aimed his hand directly at her face and threw a punch...
But before his own hand landed, a much faster, smaller punch hit him straight on the nose pushing his entire body back and launching him directly into a stack of wooden boxes in the distance, letting him completely break them and fall unconscious....
The Chef barely managed to catch the sandwich before it fell to the ground, she let out a soft sigh of relief and shook her right hand a little before she smiled and raised the sandwich over her head.
"Since that guy is taking a nap does someone else want this Head-Flourishing Sandwich?" She asked to the other customers.
After a few seconds of silence, a smaller bald man carefully approached the woman, clearly a little afraid even though The Chef just smiled and set the sandwich on his hands
"That'll be 1 silver coin please~" she smiled happily at him.
"Y-Yes..." The bald man quickly paid and gave a step back. "I promise to follow the instructions..."
"Good boy~" she smiled leaning over the counter to gently pat the bald man's head. "Now~ who's next?!"
...
"Hm~♪ Hm~♪ HmHm~♪"
The woman hummed a wedding song lowly as she closed the food stall, she closed the windows and walked to the back of the stall, closing the door behind her and locking it with a key and then she looked right under the counter, seeing a rather big chest she effortlessly pulled out and opened
"Oh dear...this looks a little empty"
She stopped her humming staring at the almost completely overflowing chest filled with copper, silver and golden coins, keyword... almost.
She remained silent for a few seconds before she looked up at the ceiling of stall, where a sliding glass window remained half-open letting a small breeze leak into the insides of her food stall, a breeze that also allowed her to barely see a single strand of silver hair flowing while stuck on the hinges of the window.
"Did someone steal from me?"
Outside of the stall, already a few houses away, a cloaked woman jumped from one roof to the other, her dark cape fluttered a little before she jumped straight down into an alley, her boots landed on the ground and she stood still for a few seconds to catch her breath while brushing some strands of silver hair from her masked face.
"Hey"
The cloaked woman flinched and immediately jumped a few steps back, looking towards the entrance of the alley, seeing a certain crimson haired chef staring dead straight at her.
"You shouldn't steal from hard-working people you know~?" She smiled offering her hand to her. "Can you give me back the money you stole?"
The woman in the dark cloak gave a silent step back..before she immediately turned around and started to flee deeper into the alley turning around the corner, in response to this, The Chef just gave a silent sigh and started to also run behind the woman, moving her right hand behind her back to grab one of the two frying pan she had strapped on the back of her waist.
The woman with silver hair jumped over a few boxes and then immediately ducked and slid on the floor to dodge a flying frying pan that went right past her and hit the wall at the end of the alley completely burying itself on the wall which allowed the Thief to jump and use the handle as foothold for her to jump higher and grabbing the edge of the roof she pulled herself up and over the roof starting to run.
The Chef grimaced a little and ran to the end of the alley effortlessly pulling out the frying pan from the wall before she jumped high reaching the roof following behind the Silver-haired woman.
"Hey! I don't care what you stole from others just give me back the 162 golden coins you took from me" The crimson haired woman voiced out before she grabbed the second frying pan from her back.
In response to her words, the cloaked woman briefly stopped before turning around and throwing 3 knives at The Chef, though she quickly managed to react and deflect the three throwing knives with her frying pans.
In a fast movement the Thief closed the distance with her hand buried on a small bag on the left side of her belt, she quickly pulled her hand out also pulling out a short sword from the small bag using it to slash at the woman.
"A magic bag?" The Chef tilted her head back to dodge the sword. "I was wondering where she was carrying the money"
The Silver-haired thief threw various slashes and a few stabs, but the woman with red hair just effortlessly leaned to the side and deflected the attacks with her frying pans and when she saw an opening, she took it.
Her left hand held the frying pan in her palm tightly, and with a simple but lightning fast swing she forced the thief to defend using the sword as a shield, only for the weapon to immediately break on contact with the frying pan.
A loud bang from the frying pan hitting a solid wall echoed in the night as the thief's body was launched up and away, she fell down on another roof, sliding down a little on the tiles before she got up, a thin, green crystalized barrier surrounding her before it disappeared.
"A defensive artifact as well? If she has these kind of things why is she even stealing?" The Chef looked at the Silver-haired woman a little curious.
She held both frying pans in her hands, looking at the thief who stared at her for a few seconds...before immediately turning around and starting to run yet again.
"....okay, she's smart" she deadpanned seeing her run away.
The thief kept running and jumping from roof to roof trying to stay as far away as possible from the woman she had just stolen from, her eyes clearly showing a little fear.
The Chef meanwhile simply kept running after her, her blue eyes narrowed slightly before she stopped, grabbed the frying pan in her right hand tighter and flung it forward letting it fly across the air.
The thief turned around and seeing the frying pan get closer and closer, she raised her arms in front of her to block the attack, the cooking utensil hit her straight, prompting the green barrier to appear and block the attack...but that didn't stop it from cracking a little from the strike.
As the crack on her barrier slowly spread more and more, the thief's blue eyes widened as she looked up, the frying pan had bounced off the barrier and was now mid air, in a perfect spot for The Chef to jump and catch it with her free hand, immediately diving down on the paralyzed woman.
She crashed right down on the thief with another strike from the same frying pan, completely breaking the barrier this time and making both of them fall down into the alley at the edge of the roof the cloaked woman had stopped running.
The thief's back hit the ground making her gasp as air left her lungs from the fall, she tried to get up but the crimson haired woman sat right on her, straddling her as she raised the frying pan.
The thief struggled a little, but as The Chef got ready to strike, she drove a hand to her nose, pulling down the mask to look at the woman on top of her, clearly afraid and incredibly anxious.
"W-Wait!"
For a single second The Chef stopped right as she was mid swing to hit her with the frying pan, as she stopped, the Silver-haired thief let out a shaky breath, relaxing on the floor.
"No"
Something that immediately prompted The Chef to raise the cooking utensil again and slammed it down on the thief's head.
And with the loud bang of the frying pan hitting, various birds were startled and flew away.
★ ★ ★
A/N: we all need a dick-enlarging hotdog at some point.
That's all, there's nothing else I could say right here, I'll get right on writing the next chapter.
Hope you all enjoyed!