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It was a tea set designed far more for elegant ritual than practical hydration; if one truly wanted to drink enough tea to quench their thirst, a standard ceramic mug would hold more liquid than this tiny, exquisite porcelain teapot.
Flandre, however, possessed neither elegance nor patience. She downed half the boiling hot pot in one massive, barbaric gulp directly from the delicate spout. Weighing the teapot in her small hands afterward, she found there wasn't even a full cup's worth of liquid left inside.
To prevent her older sister from shedding dramatic "little pearls" of tears upon seeing only half a cup of black tea left when she inevitably went to drink it, Flandre simply tilted her head back and drained the remaining tea directly into her own stomach. Ah, problem solved! This way, Sakuya would simply need to boil fresh water and make a completely new pot in a bit. Flandre nodded to herself; she really did care for her sister's emotional well-being so much.
"Second Miss, the fish you wanted..." Sakuya began, her voice strained as she finally managed to unlock the heavy stasis barrier on the freezer.
But there was a very serious, terrifying logistical problem occurring in the kitchen: Flandre had her 'Four of a Kind' cloning ability active this whole time.
If Flandre #1 (the Main Body) had just casually finished off a large plate of fresh rice cakes and an entire boiling pot of premium black tea while waiting... what exactly were the other three Flandres doing during that unsupervised minute?
"Thanks, Sakuya! We're off!"
The four Flandres wiped various suspicious crumbs, icing, and sauces from the corners of their mouths. Working together with synchronized vampire strength, they effortlessly lifted the massive, frozen fish onto their shoulders and flew straight back out the shattered window.
Sakuya was left standing in the freezing blast of the open freezer, staring helplessly at the completely empty, licked-clean prep counters. The meticulously planned, multi-course dinner she had spent the last two hours preparing for the Eldest Miss was completely, utterly gone.
"Good evening, Sakuya. I smell the sweet scent of rice cakes. Is that what we're having today?"
Remilia Scarlet, who had just woken up for the evening, came waddling sleepily into the kitchen wearing her frilly pink pajamas, rubbing one eye. As a Vampire, she naturally had slightly low blood pressure and would be adorably groggy for a while every night upon waking.
Za Warudo!
With all the prepared food having been blatantly eaten by her clone-happy sister, Sakuya had absolutely no choice but to activate her Time Stop ability in a sheer panic.
In the frozen, colorless world of stopped time, Sakuya moved like a blur. She quickly remade an entire batch of fresh rice cakes from scratch. While waiting for them to steam, she took the opportunity to sprint upstairs and tidy up the Eldest Miss's messy bedroom. She literally tossed the frozen Remilia into the air, seamlessly changed her out of her pajamas and into her formal dress before she hit the floor, and then pulled out her phone to desperately browse the Universal Shop app online for backup ingredients.
The Scarlet Devil Mansion was a grand, incredibly wealthy household with plenty of disposable income, and they strictly only bought the absolute highest-grade, gold-star products from Leo's Farm to maintain their aristocratic standards.
Ding!
"Please enjoy, Eldest Miss."
Accompanied by the cheerful ding of the magical oven, Sakuya smoothly released the time stop, wiping a drop of sweat from her brow.
Remilia blinked, glancing down at her already-changed formal clothes in mild confusion, but said nothing—it was just standard daily life at the Scarlet Devil Mansion. She sat gracefully at the long dining table, waiting for Sakuya to serve the steaming food.
"Why is the black tea so weak today?"
Taking a delicate bite of the fresh rice cake, Remilia wore an expression of pure bliss. But just as she was about to take a sip of tea from her porcelain cup to wash it down, she noticed the amber liquid was so pale and watery she could clearly see the painted pattern on the bottom of the cup.
"Well... the Second Miss came back to grab some things earlier and finished the first pot while I wasn't looking. This is the second steep of the same leaves."
Sakuya's eyes darted guiltily to the side, absolutely not daring to meet Remilia's questioning gaze. Because Flandre hadn't been home for the past month, the Scarlet Devil Mansion had been a much safer, quieter place, and the Head Maid had regrettably let her guard down a bit.
On the other side of the dimensional rift, back at the Stardew Valley Farm.
Leo was happily shaking his hips to an unheard rhythm while manning the flaming iron grill outside the farmhouse, cheerfully humming a pop song.
Twenty yuan a skewer, huh? Frozen, rubbery goods, huh? Take that, Luoyang street vendors! This right here was incredibly fresh, premium squid—a giant, muscular squid that had literally still been physically fighting him and Waka in the bucket just a few minutes before it hit the scorching grill grate. The rich, savory smell of searing seafood, garlic, and cumin filled the evening air.
"Big brother! Look what I brought back for you!"
In the distance, the four Flandres charged down the dirt path toward Leo like synchronized torpedoes—literal, high-speed blonde torpedoes. They had exited from the exact same spatial coordinates they had entered earlier. By the time Flandre had returned to Stardew Valley, Leo had already finished his trading at the Beach and headed home with his heavy backpack full of fresh seafood. So, Flandre had simply run all the way back up the mountain path while collectively holding the massive, frozen fish aloft like a battering ram.
Seeing the terrifying, gaping mouth of the frozen fish head getting closer and closer at Mach speed, Leo decisively abandoned his dignity and performed a frantic, tactical combat roll into the dirt. Throughout the entire evasive process, he kept a death grip on his iron grill tongs. The heavy grate clamping the precious giant squid remained suspended perfectly in the air, not catching a single speck of dust.
"What is this?"
After successfully dodging Flandre's torpedo crash—which left a deep trench in the dirt—Leo carefully placed the sizzling squid back on the grill frame. He dusted off his knees and took out his phone, opening the scanner app to identify the massive, frozen fish, which was currently lying on the ground and was about as tall as he was.
Beep.
"Supreme Bluefin Tuna. A top-tier, ultra-rare culinary ingredient; a masterpiece found only once in dozens of premium fish. The meat quality is superb, characterized by intense marbling. Recommended cooking methods: raw fish sashimi or rich fish bone broth. For specific slicing recipes, please follow the 'Night Sparrow Queen' cooking program every Sunday."
Leo's jaw dropped. Whoa, high-end stuff! This was the kind of legendary, mythical ingredient from foodie novels where a massive crowd of high-end Japanese restaurant owners would viciously bid on a live stream after it was landed at the docks, with a single, perfect fish selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Forget actually eating it; Leo had only ever seen pictures of this stuff in manga.
"Flandre, where did you get this from?"
Working together with Flandre's immense vampire strength, they hauled the heavy fish and placed it firmly on the outdoor prep table. Leo looked it over carefully; except for a single, jagged piece near the tail that had been cut off previously, the whole fish looked beautiful, its silver scales gleaming. Despite being frozen in stasis, it felt very firm and fresh to the touch.
"I took it from home!" Flandre declared proudly, puffing out her chest. "Sakuya doesn't know how to cook it; the fish she made from that tail piece tasted terrible! So I brought the rest here. Hurry up and praise me!"
Flandre carelessly said something that would have made the perfectionist Head Maid very, very sad and depressed if she had heard it. She stood with her hands firmly on her hips, her crystalline wings vibrating, looking exactly like a puppy waiting to be rewarded for bringing back a very large stick.
Leo chuckled, reaching out and affectionately rubbing the blonde heads of the four Flandres. Though he felt a bit troubled looking at the massive, intimidating tuna on the table.
He had seen educational sushi videos about this stuff before—specific, highly prized fatty parts like Chutoro (medium fatty belly) and Otoro (premium fatty belly), which supposedly had entirely different, melt-in-your-mouth textures because of the intense fat content. There was also the bizarre delicacy of tuna eye and rich bone marrow; he had only ever seen them on YouTube and had never actually eaten them.
"Wow! Such a big fish!"
The irresistible, spicy smell of Leo's barbecue drifted far across the Stardew Valley winds. Chen, the kitten who had been diligently fishing by the river all day, returned following the delicious scent. Her small, agile figure jumped directly onto Leo's shoulder, sniffing hard at the aroma of grilled squid and garlic in the air, her mouth watering.
"Who can help me slice this massive fish exactly along the spine bone?" Leo asked the group, tapping his chin. "I'll finish grilling the squid first so it doesn't burn. We'll have a taste of this raw tuna as an appetizer after dinner and then carefully put the rest away in the freezer; we absolutely can't finish something this incredibly big in just one or two meals."
Leo was still meticulously brushing spicy sauce onto the sizzling squid tentacles. Compared to the incredibly expensive, raw tuna whose specific flavor profile he didn't know yet, his mouth was currently craving the familiar, aggressively seasoned taste of his own street-style grilled squid much more.
"I'll do it!"
Flandre enthusiastically drew Lævateinn, her massive, flaming magical greatsword, and swung it in a devastatingly fast, horizontal slash.
This was technically her melee weapon, but because Gensokyo had strict, non-lethal spell card rules for dueling, Lævateinn had almost always been used by Flandre merely as a glowing wand to launch magical bullets. Now, in the lawless Stardew Valley, the legendary sword had finally returned to its original, brutal duty: physically cutting things in half.
SHING.
The impossibly sharp, magically heated greatsword sliced the massive tuna directly in two with zero resistance. Flandre's aim was incredibly, terrifyingly good; the tuna was perfectly, symmetrically divided. Even the thick, calcified spine bone was split exactly down the middle, revealing the rich, jelly-like transparent marrow hidden within the vertebrae.
"Perfect! Now, cut it into large, manageable sections," Leo directed, flipping the squid on the grill. "Remove the dark red meat from the bone, skin the fish carefully, and then go find a Gold-star wild Wasabi root in the storage chest to mash into a fresh paste."
Under Leo's precise direction, Flandre (using a much smaller kitchen knife now) and Chen successfully finished processing the massive blocks of fish meat. Meanwhile, the charcoal-grilled squid was finally ready, smelling like heaven.
Leo served six steaming bowls of white rice, and the bizarre little found-family group sat around the wooden table, having a wonderful, messy meal of spicy grilled squid and heavy garlic-butter Scallops.
Leo ate until his face was entirely covered in sticky barbecue sauce. Although his seasoning rack currently only contained basic cumin, white sugar, salt, and garlic, plus some savory barbecue sauce he had bought from Mystia's Night Sparrow Canteen, it was already a rare, incredible delicacy.
Once he got to know the Horse Girl, Special Week, better, Leo planned to officially buy some complex modern seasonings from her world. Compared to the rustic, feudal era of Gensokyo, the world of Uma Musume was highly developed and industrialized—perhaps even more so than Leo's original Earth—so the commercially produced seasonings and spices there would surely be much better and more varied.
After finishing the hot meal heartily, Leo wiped his mouth contentedly with a cloth napkin. He walked over to the neatly processed, ruby-red blocks of tuna meat, trying his absolute best to identify the specific cuts he recognized from videos.
He tentatively took a small spoon and scooped out a dollop of the transparent fish bone marrow. He tasted it carefully; it was a bit salty, incredibly fresh, and had a very unique, gelatinous texture, but it ultimately wasn't a flavor profile Leo particularly liked. He generously gave a heaping spoonful to each of the five little ones (four Flandres and Chen) waiting nearby like baby birds, then scooped out the rest of the rich marrow into a glass jar and put it in the refrigerator for later use in soup stock.