For a while after that, Aiden played the role of waiter. With a blank expression, he mechanically dropped more meat, seafood, and vegetables onto the sizzling grill.
Gion was clearly enjoying herself.
Maybe it was the alcohol, but the collar of her silk robe had slipped lower and lower. A tempting flush colored her flawless face, and her foxlike eyes shimmered with heat and languor.
She still ate elegantly, but there was nothing slow about her pace.
Aiden silently did the math in his head.
What the hell, is this woman part glutton? Smoker prepared a mountain of ingredients, and I'm still not even full, but she's practically wiped it all out by herself...
Finally, when the last of the food on the grill was almost gone, Gion reluctantly set down the chopsticks that actually belonged to Aiden.
She let out a long breath and rested her chin on one hand. Her slightly hazy eyes studied Aiden, as if she were weighing something.
Good food and drink left her looking lazily at ease.
"Aiden," she said suddenly.
"Ma'am!" Aiden immediately stood at attention.
Gion lightly tapped the table with the tip of her chopsticks. "This meal is very good. Your cooking is much better than those Headquarters mess hall chefs who only know how to make pig feed."
She paused, and her tone shifted. "But this is Marineford. Here, strength is what matters."
Her lazy eyes swept over him again, and she shook her head. "I remember you. Your daytime training, swordsmanship, Rokushiki, hand-to-hand combat, every part of it is..."
She seemed to search for the right word, then gave up. "A complete mess."
Aiden: (.-＿-.)
He immediately put on a properly ashamed expression.
Gion kept looking at him with that lazy gaze. "You're weak, but your stamina is decent. Barely enough to count as someone worth teaching."
"Here's how it is."
She sat up a little straighter. The drunken languor seemed to fade, replaced by the authority of a Commodore.
"I never eat for free."
"In my opinion, you do have some talent. You just lack proper training. Starting tomorrow, I'll give you private lessons and guide your training personally."
Then her tone shifted again. Her red lips curved into an amused smile.
"In exchange, you'll also be making me private meals. Whenever I'm hungry, I expect to be able to eat your cooking. On demand."
Aiden almost laughed out loud inside. What a joke.
With the kind of stats he had, what exactly could Gion, a commodore, teach him? Give him pointers on swordsmanship?
But after thinking it through, he realized he really could not refuse.
What happened tonight could be treated as either a small matter or a big one. Sneaking into the kitchen and stealing ingredients... if she really decided to press the issue, he would be in serious trouble.
Agreeing to this was the simplest way to smooth everything over.
The moment he understood that, Aiden instantly switched into his overwhelmed rookie act.
"R-Commodore Gion! A-are... are you serious?!" Aiden stammered, eyes shining. "You're really willing to guide me personally?"
"O-of course I'm willing! Forget private meals, I'll cook for you every single day if that's what you want!!"
Gion was very pleased with his flustered, excited reaction.
She liked having everything firmly under her control. Now that she was full and a little tipsy, it was time to head back and sleep.
Gion picked up Konpira and walked toward the door.
Then she suddenly turned back. Her cheeks were still flushed from the alcohol, but her eyes had regained some clarity.
She looked at Aiden, her lips curling into a playful smile. "Then it's settled. The first lesson starts tomorrow night. Make plenty of good food. Don't disappoint me."
With that, her figure flashed, and she disappeared into the night, leaving behind only a faint trace of fragrance.
Half an hour later, Aiden finished cleaning up the mess with a blank face, mentally cursing Smoker eight hundred times over before pushing the door open and returning to the dorm.
As expected, Smoker was not asleep. He was sitting on the edge of his bed like a prisoner waiting for judgment.
The moment he saw Aiden come back, his whole body stiffened, and cold sweat broke out across his forehead.
Aiden did not say a word. He simply took off his coat and began rolling his wrists.
The atmosphere in the room instantly turned heavy.
Smoker finally could not take it anymore. He swallowed hard and asked in a tiny, trembling voice,
"...Y-you're back. Commodore Gion, she..."
Aiden stopped moving. He turned around and looked at Smoker with the calm, flat stare of a man looking at a corpse.
Smoker felt a chill run down his spine. He gritted his teeth, squeezed his eyes shut, and shouted,
"...You're going to hit me, aren't you?!"
Aiden smiled.
"Hit you?"
He walked over step by step, bent down, and gave Smoker the warmest, kindest smile imaginable.
"That would be too gentle."
Smoker: (´･ω･`?)
In the next second, the dorm was filled with the sound of fists slamming into flesh, along with Smoker's barely suppressed screams.
"What the hell did you promise me?! You said you'd cover for me?!"
"This is what you call covering for me?!"
"You ran?! And faster than me?!"
Half an hour later, Aiden pulled back his fists, feeling completely refreshed.
Smoker lay on the floor with a bruised and swollen face, curled into a ball and unable to move. Groaning miserably, he screamed in his heart,
Liar! This bastard is definitely a liar!!
All that crap about not being able to control his strength... who the hell was that supposed to fool?!
Aiden ignored Smoker, who was lying on the floor pretending to be dead. He went straight to his bed, sat down, and calmly reviewed what he had gained from tonight.
Beating Smoker up had only been a way to vent. The deal with Gion was the real prize.
"Even if I have to waste some time playing along with her..." Aiden rubbed his wrist. "It's not really a bad thing."
He knew very well that his average performance in recruit camp would not stay hidden forever.
"Having Gion, a Commodore, give me private lessons is the perfect cover."
The corner of Aiden's mouth lifted slightly.
"If my strength suddenly improves later, I can just say it's all thanks to Commodore Gion's guidance. With an excuse that solid, nobody's going to dig any deeper."
And besides...
The image of Gion under the moonlight flashed through his mind. Her face, the silk robe, the soft curves faintly outlined beneath it.
"Having a beautiful teacher give me one-on-one lessons every night... doesn't sound like such a terrible burden."
That thought pleased him.
As for Smoker...
"...Tch... bastard... you hit way too hard..." came the weak groaning from the floor.
Aiden pretended not to hear a thing. After washing up, he got into bed and pulled the blanket over himself.
With his roommate's miserable groaning as a lullaby, Aiden closed his eyes.
That night, he slept very well.