Lyrical Sword

Chapter 5: New friendships

Special thanks to Jose19 for helping me out.

Beta read by Opal.

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-Apartment complex-

"It smells so good!!!"

A few days passed since the initiation battle, more specifically two days. Since then, not much happened with Shirou aside from laying on his bed inside the hospital and recovering. 

The same applied to both Subaru and Teana. They were in a worse shape than him in his opinion, given he only suffered from a fractured rib and his bruises weren't that bad. But they kept denying his words and instead worried about him the entire time, Subaru going so far as to even apologize extensively for having kicked him in the stomach and not having noticed the destroyed Barrier Jacket. 

Teana, sharing Subaru's guilt, also asked for forgiveness; she felt that it was her duty to take into account any changes and react accordingly. Had she not been so distracted and swallowed by the moment then the orangette could have avoided such an outcome. 

Safe to say, the atmosphere afterward was awkward. Having to placate both of them and keep reassuring Subaru that all of this was no one's fault but his own. It took a full hour for both to begrudgingly accept his words and he even had to throw in the promise of a small dinner invitation to show them that he wasn't mad about anything. 

This promise led to his current position where he witnessed Subaru inhaling the food on her plate like a vacuum cleaner. Teana by the blue-haired girl's side hiding her face away to not show her embarrassment, a sight that amused Shirou quite a bit. 

'Their personalities are the opposite of each other, yet they are best friends.' 

"Woah, I didn't know you were such a great cook, Shirou!" Subaru said, her cheeks bulging and filled with pieces of steak and potatoes. "I don't mind getting sent to the hospital if it means you'll invite me for dinner again, hehehe—!" Pa! 

Her friend's fist came crashing down like a sledgehammer and hit the poor girl's head. Teana now had a veins throb on her forehead as she was getting increasingly annoyed and embarrassed by Subaru's shameless behavior. 

"Oi, we are invited guests, behave like one! And don't start planning to get more food, you make it sound like we eat garbage." Despite saying that, Teana had to agree that none of the dishes they ate so far came close to what Shirou prepared for them. It wasn't like Midchilda didn't have restaurants with galaxy-renowned chefs — their dishes just cost a lot of money neither she nor Subaru found it logical to spend. "I won't be against paying another visit to you again." She whispered, taking a bite of her dish, her eyes widening as she wasn't expecting for the food to be this good. 

"Glad you liked it, I was afraid my skills wouldn't be up to par with this world's cuisine." 

"Were you a chef before becoming a mage?" Subaru asked, curious about Shirou's past. 

"Ah, not really. I did work at a bar in the past, the owner was a good friend of someone I knew and it made it easy for me to get a part-time job. Aside from that, I mostly just worked around fixing cars and bikes with my neighbors and doing small odd jobs. Though surprisingly I never took a position in a kitchen. After that, I just continued my studies at university and now I'm here."