Delicious, succulent, melts in the mouth! So good!
His movements instantly shifted from "testing the waters" to "sweeping everything away."
He plunged half his body into the refrigerator, his paws working in tandem, stuffing salmon, rice balls, unidentified shellfish—all sorts of food—into his mouth one after another.
Just as he was eating in a daze, almost forgetting his own name—"Snap!" The overhead light suddenly flickered on, illuminating the entire kitchen as bright as day.
Po froze. Oh no, caught red-handed. Instinctively, with a speed that even Tigress would be ashamed of, he shoved the remaining half-fish and an entire box of rice balls into his mouth, puffing his cheeks out until they were bulging.
Food must not be wasted; that was the second truth. After doing all this, he guiltily and slowly turned around.
Standing at the doorway was a young man with Red Hair, wearing a simple T-shirt and trousers, his expression just as stunned as Po's.
—
Shirou Emiya looked at the panda in front of him, fat as a ball, then at the ransacked refrigerator, and the drops of premium bluefin tuna oil on the floor.
A talking panda. Calling himself the Dragon Warrior. And a player from a different faction.
There were so many absurdities that he didn't know where to start complaining.
"Uh... actually," Po scratched the back of his round head with his paw, flashing what he considered his most sincere and harmless smile.
"If I said I was just sleepwalking and happened to be checking the freshness of your ingredients, would you believe me?"
Shirou Emiya didn't answer. His gaze fell on the open refrigerator door, and his brow furrowed involuntarily.
The cold air was constantly escaping, which would affect the preservation of the other ingredients inside. This was even more intolerable to him than catching a thief.
He stepped past the panda, who was still rooted to the spot, walked straight to the refrigerator, and slammed the door shut with a "bang."
Then, he crouched down, pulled a clean rag from the shelf nearby, and began to wipe up the oil stains on the floor.
Po was stunned. This reaction wasn't right. Shouldn't a normal person shout "There's a thief!" or grab something and charge at him? Why did he... start cleaning?
"Um, brother," Po cautiously approached him.
"Don't just stay silent, it's kind of scary. I admit, I'm in the wrong, I shouldn't have stolen food. But I was just so hungry, I felt like my stomach was stuck to my back. Look, I swear, I'll pay you back! Do you accept gold ingots here?"
As he said this, he earnestly patted his furry body, but of course, he found nothing. Oh, right, Po had almost forgotten that ever since he became the Dragon Warrior, the villagers never accepted his money when he went to eat.
"We use U.S. dollars here."
Shirou finally spoke, his voice calm and without a ripple. He stood up, tossed the clean rag into the sink, then turned around, looking at the creature in front of him properly for the first time.
"Guardian Faction?" he asked.
Po stopped moving, his small eyes under his dark circles widening.
"You know? Oh! I see it!" He pointed at the top of Shirou's head, as if he had discovered a new continent. "You have something on your head too! A scale! A white one! What faction are you? Arbiter? Or a merchant?"
"Neutral."
"Neutral?" Po tilted his head. "Meaning, you don't help either side, you just watch?"
"You could put it that way." Shirou nodded.
With the other's identity confirmed, the tension in the kitchen instantly dissipated, replaced by a sense of shared awkwardness.
"So... you also suddenly arrived in this World?" Po asked tentatively.
"Yeah."
"Then when did you arrive? Do you know where this is? Do you know how to go back? My dad is still waiting for me to eat breakfast! And Xiaozhen, her training is just at a critical moment..." Po's barrage of questions came tumbling out like peas from a pod, his tone full of anxiety.
"One month ago. United States, New York. Don't know." Shirou answered all his questions with the most concise words.
Po instantly wilted, like a deflated ball, his ears even drooping.
"A month already... then you..." He looked at Shirou, then at the spotless kitchen. "You just work here?"
"Yeah, room and board included, plus a salary."
"Room and board! Plus a salary!"
Po's eyes lit up again. He subconsciously licked his lips, savoring the taste of the food from earlier. "The things in your shop are so delicious! Really! That fish, it melts in the mouth, and the rice, it's sweet, pressed neither too loose nor too tight, it's practically a divine skill!"
"I've eaten the noodles my dad makes; those are the best noodles in the World. What you made can rank second! No, tied for first!"
Facing such straightforward and enthusiastic praise, Shirou Emiya was, for once, at a loss for how to respond. He just glanced at the torn packaging in the trash can.
"That was a rice ball bought at a convenience store." He pointed out a fact.
"...Huh?" Po's smile froze on his face.
"Convenience store? What kind of shop is that? It sounds very convenient! Are their chefs also this amazing? To be able to make so many delicious things."
"That was my leftover staff meal for today, not something sold in the store."
"So it was you who made it!" Po realized with a start, and immediately followed up with another round of praise.
"I knew it! Something this delicious couldn't possibly be made by just any shop! You're a genius! What's your name? I'm Po, the Dragon Warrior!"
"Shirou Emiya."
"Shirou!" Po called his name quite naturally.
"The way you closed the fridge door just now was so cool! You had a sort of... master's demeanor! Are you hungry? How about I make you a bowl of noodles? My dad's secret sauce for zha jiang mian, I've learned about seventy or eighty percent of it!"
As he said this, he wanted to head over to the stove, completely forgetting that he was the "thief."
Shirou Emiya finally couldn't help but massage his temples.
"You," he pointed at Po's round belly, "aren't still hungry, are you?"
"Uh..." Po looked down at his stomach and answered honestly.
"I ate too fast earlier, just lined my stomach, maybe... thirty percent full?"
Shirou was silent. Po reminded him of Saber, who was also a big eater.
He looked at Po, then at the bottom shelf of the refrigerator that had been swept clean, and then at the clock on the wall. Two in the morning. Kick this panda out? He looked like he didn't know anyone here, and he was a national treasure giant panda after all. Let him stay the night? The attic only had one bed.
In the end, all his thoughts converged into a barely audible sigh.
"Wait here." After saying this, he turned and walked toward the prep area.
Po stood rooted to the spot, watching Shirou's back, not understanding what he was going to do.
He saw Shirou open another refrigerator, taking out some items. These were the scraps cut off while processing the tuna today, some fish meat with fascia and poor appearance. Normally, these would be discarded.
Yet Shirou carefully spread this fish meat on the cutting board, gently chopping it with the back of his knife, removing the fascia bit by bit, and mincing it into a fine fish paste.
Then, he scooped out some still-warm rice from the pot, took a small earthenware teapot from the shelf, and put some tea leaves and shredded seaweed into it.
He spread the fish paste over the rice, sprinkled on some chopped green onions and sesame seeds, and finally, slowly poured the piping hot tea along the edge of the bowl. A wave of steam, mixed with the fragrance of tea, rice, and the fresh aroma of fish, instantly billowed in the kitchen.
"Sit." Shirou pointed to the small stool used for staff breaks in the back kitchen, then placed the steaming bowl of tea-soaked rice in front of Po.
Po's eyes had been unable to look away since Shirou started processing the ingredients.
He watched those originally unremarkable scraps, in the hands of the Red Hair youth, turn into a dish that looked appetizing enough to make anyone's mouth water, as if by magic.
He carefully picked up the bowl and took a sip of the soup first. The warm tea broth, with the toasted aroma of brown rice, diluted the last trace of any possible fishiness from the fish paste, leaving only the purest deliciousness.
Mixed with the rice and the soft fish meat, it slid down his throat, and a gentle warmth rose from his stomach, instantly spreading through his limbs and bones. Delicious.
Completely different from the raw, cold food he had wolfed down earlier, this was a warm taste that could soothe the soul.
Po looked up, watching Shirou Emiya, who was leaning against the counter, arms crossed over his chest, quietly watching him. Under the light, the young man's expression remained indifferent, but in those amber eyes, there seemed to be some emotion flowing that he couldn't read.
"Gulp, gulp..." Po stopped talking and buried his head, eating heartily; the sounds he made were the highest praise for this bowl of food.
Shirou Emiya watched the scene before him, listening to those satisfied swallowing sounds, and the bit of gloom in his heart from having his ingredients stolen dissipated unconsciously.
This World seemed even more absurd than the Holy Grail War.
He thought.