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They noticed a guy hanging around their performances, always too far to be spoken to, yet too close to make them feel entirely comfortable. Airi dismissed him as some sort of potential pervert-stalker at first, but when Hinako grabbed her arm suddenly after one show—Stupid Hina. Didn't she understand that Airi couldn't play if Hinako strained her arm by pulling on them with her freak monster strength?—and told her to look, Airi found that she knew the guy from somewhere before, even though she logically knew that she had never seen him prior to the shows.
He was good looking enough, with his blue eyes and wavy hair making him stand out from the crowd, and the bunny parka was either the cutest or dumbest thing Airi had seen in her life. Hinako wanted to corner him and speak with him, and even though Airi repeated numerous times about how that was a terrible idea—potential stalker, remember?—she would be lying to herself if said she didn't feel the same way.
But even though their loyal fan/potential stalker hung around after each show, staring at the two of them from afar, he always seemed to vanish before either of them could actually go up to him and start talking.
"He could be a really shy person," Hinako said one night. Their latest performance had been at Nagoya, and sure enough, their mystery fan had been there again. Hinako had actually leapt down from the stage in order to talk to him before he could get away, but as soon as did so, he turned around and fled.
"Anyone would be scared if they saw you galloping towards them like that," Airi muttered, scowling at Hinako as the other shot her a look. "What did you think he was gonna do when you jumped off the stage with your ugly face?"
Hinako stopped where she was. "Airi~," she sing-songed, plastic smile frozen on her features, "did you just say my face was ugly?"
"Are you hard of hearing now too, you old hag?"
"Okay, that's it!" Hinako shrieked, and Airi fled down the street, laughing as Hinako gave chase. By the time the pursuit was done, it was late at night, and they were on a small side street neither of them had been to before.
"Ugh," Airi said. "Great. Look where you chased me to, Stupid Hina."
"I chased you? No, my dear, dumb Airi, you led us here all by yourself. Now come on, lead us out. Running after you made me hungry."
"Pig," Airi said automatically. She glanced around them and realized the street they were on, while empty, didn't feel threatening. The residential homes were smaller and more old fashioned than the neighborhoods she was accustomed to, but they were clean and quiet. Short of a couple of residential buildings, however, most of the street was dark.
Except one location. One that had a small wooden sign jutting out from above the doorframe that proclaimed itself to be a restaurant.
"We'll go there," Airi said, pointing at the building. "We can eat and ask how to get to the train station at the same time."
Hinako squinted at it. "It looks kind of small."
"That just means it's cozy! Now come on!"
She dragged Hinako to the entrance, where they were greeted by five cats meowing and weaving through their legs. Hinako cooed at them, but Airi pushed through the door. The interior was warmly lit and just plain warm, which gave a few strike against it. The heatwave across Japan gave no respite at night, and even Airi would never be caught dead in Hinako's outfit, she had to admit that she was jealous of how cool Hinako had to be wearing practically nothing.
The bar was to the left of the door, and the chef was dutifully chopping up ingredients as Airi and Hinako seated themselves in front of the counter.
"Welcome," the chef said, and Airi couldn't help but to stare at him.
"Haven't I seen you somewhere before?" Hinako asked. The chef looked up, and Airi's first reaction was to scramble off her seat because, wow, did he have the face of a thug. Yet she remained on the chair, body relaxing as she took a closer look at him. Something in her gut understood that as thuggish as his face was, the chef was a kind man. Maybe a little or a lot thickheaded, but good.
Why or how she knew that, however, she couldn't explain.
"Hmm," the chef said. "I was on TV a long time ago."
Hinako leaned in closer—bending over unnecessarily as she did so, the attention whore—and examined the chef's face. "Maybe that's where I recognize you. Why were you on TV?"
"Sponsored Keita's first boxing match."
"Keita?" Hinako exclaimed, slamming her palms on the counter. "Keita Wakui, the boxer from Osaka?!"
"Who?" Airi asked. The chef nodded.
"He's my friend."
Hinako leaned back and smiled. "No way! I'm a fan of his! Hey, could you tell him that Hinako Kujou is a huge fan, and that she's rooting for him at the junior nationals?"
The chef nodded solemnly. "Jungo will be sure to tell him."
"Jungo?" Airi said as something clicked into place. "Jungo Torii?"
The chef nodded again. Airi leaned back as far as she dared on the stool. "I read about you in a magazine. Aren't you supposed to make the best chawanmushi in the country or whatever?"
One more nod, and then, from seemingly no where, Jungo produced two servings of chwanmushi and set them down on the counter.
"Please eat it," he said. "If it's too hot, I have frozen chawanmushi on the menu as well."
"I've had it cold, but who's ever heard of frozen chawanmushi?" Airi muttered, but as soon as she placed a spoonful of it in her mouth, all of her confusion vanished, replaced with the flavor of the chawanmushi. The silky texture of the egg was divine, and the savory flavors of shellfish, mushrooms, and ginko seeds permeated the egg evenly, all in perfect balance.
Beside her, Hinako looked to be in rapture, if the way she had her eyes closed and mouth turned up in a smile, spoon still inside, was any indication.
"This is delicious," Hinako said once she pulled the spoon out of her mouth. "No wonder they say you make the best in the country."
"Yeah, it's really good," Airi said around her spoon. Jungo's face lit up, and he smiled.
"I'm always happy to hear people say my food tastes good. Food is supposed to bring people joy."
"This is definitely making me very happy," Hinako replied. "What else do you have on the menu? If your chawanmushi is this good, then I can't wait try everything else!"
Jungo stared straight ahead of him. "There's only chawanmushi. My old boss told me it was too dangerous to make anything else."
There was a moment of silence. Then:
"Dangerous? How can food be dangerous? That's stupid."
Jungo shook his head sadly. "No, it's dangerous. Tried making curry. Put a customer in the hospital because he burned his taste buds off."
Airi saw Hinako slowly put down her spoon. "W-what kind of curry were you trying to make?"
Jungo looked down. "Extra spicy curry."
"That's no reason to send a man to the hospital," Airi said, and Jungo's face fell.
"A-ahhhh, come on, Airi! It's not like he meant to do it, right, Jungo?" Hinako said loudly, standing up suddenly and patting Jungo on the shoulder. "It just means you have to try again!"
"I did. Two more customers in the hospital. They threatened to shut down my restaurant."
Hinako sat back down.
An uncomfortable silence filled the restaurant, not helped by the fact that Airi had lost most of her appetite as well, and therefore couldn't even distract herself with the rest of the chawanmushi. After a few minutes of fidgeting and shooting desperate looks at Hinako and getting them returned, she lost her patience and slammed her fists down on the counter.
"Oh, who cares about the stupid curry?! You're not a curry chef, so what? You make good chawanmushi! The best chawanmushi! That's good enough!"
"Yeah," Hinako said, standing up again and slamming her hands on the counter as well. "Your chawanmushi is the best, and you're the best at making it! You're a chawanmushi man, and you should be proud!"
"Yeah!"
"Yeah!"
Jungo stared at the two of them in confusion. "Jungo is proud," he said, sounding a bit confused. "I am proud of my chawanmushi."
"And there you go," Hinako said, crossing her arms and sitting back down. "You're the best chawanmushi chef in Japan, and this is the best chawanmushi restaurant in Japan. You don't need anything else on the menu."
"Mmm."
"In fact," Hinako continued, "this chawanmushi is so good, I'd like to order four more bowls of it! To go!"
"What," Airi monotoned, but Jungo had already brought out four servings of chawanmushi in take-out containers, neatly bagged.
"On the house," he said as Hinako reached for her wallet. "...Thank you."
And that was how Airi and Hinako found themselves waiting for the train with four bowls of the best chawanmushi in Japan.
"Really?" Airi muttered. "You took advantage of him to get free food?"
"I was going to pay for it, Airi," Hinako said. "He just beat me to it. Besides, if I'm not mistaken, you were the one who started it."
"Started what, stupid Hina?! I didn't start anything!"
"Ah, ah, ah, denial is bad for your complexion, Airi."
"Yeah, I bet you'd know all about that!"
Hinako opened her mouth, no doubt to give another pathetic retort, when the train pulled up and the door opened, only to reveal their mystery stalker fan emerging. Hinako closed her mouth. Airi forgot about the argument. Their mystery stalker fan looked nervous.
"Uh," he said, and the announcement overhead asked all departing passengers to board.
"Uh," said Airi.
"Uh," said Hinako. "Hey, you want some chawanmushi?"
Mystery Stalker Fan (He deserved those capitals by now in Airi's mind) looked to the side. Looked at the bags. Looked at the other passengers.
"Nah, you keep it," he said, then ran away.
"What the heck," Airi said once he was gone. "Did you just offer him our chawanmushi?!"
"I couldn't think of anything else," Hinako muttered, then gave her a not-so-gentle shove into the train. "Now come on, we're gonna miss the train if you don't get in!"
"Of all the things you could have said, you offered him chawanmushi?!"
"I panicked!"
"CHAWANMUSHI!"
They ended up getting kicked off at the next stop, but eating the chawanmushi had made up for that.