“It is quite possible to have a party without alcohol,” Her Majesty said, standing up from the sofa. “Leave it to Garius and ourselves. We will throw a party the entire nation will—”
“I don’t think we need to go that far,” Minori-sama said. “If it gets too big, it’ll defeat the point. We need to be able to wave it in Shinichi-kun’s face. Ideally, we could do it in the hallway, right outside his room.”
She was right that if the objective was to make the goings-on irresistibly fun for Shinichi-sama, there would be no purpose to holding a gathering somewhere far from his room. This mansion was on the outskirts of the capital. In the castle, we could make as much noise as we wanted, and I highly doubted it would carry this far.
“I mean, it doesn’t have to be in the hallway exactly,” Hikaru-sama said.
“Yeah,” Minori-sama added, “I could send him pictures of all the fun we’re having via instant messenger.” The two of them nodded at each other. “Of course, that would mean being close enough to use the wireless LAN, so we would either have to do it here in the house, or at school. Or at the garrison, I guess.”
“That narrows down the possible venues. What do we do at this party?”
Minori-sama cocked her head. “If all we do is serve food, how would it be any different from any of our dinners?”
“Let’s see, parties... Parties usually mean singing and dancing, right? Remember in the story of the Heavenly Cave, how Uzume...?”
Then Minori-sama and Hikaru-sama stared into thin air. After a long moment, once again, they both sighed.
“What?” Her Majesty said. “What is it?”
“Oh, nothing.”
“She, uh... dances. Naked,” Hikaru-sama said.
“Dances naked?” Elvia-san asked.
“Yes. This goddess, Ama-no-Uzume, does a striptease to liven things up. I guess technically she doesn’t end up completely naked, but, well... just about. Everyone laughs because the whole thing is so funny, and the goddess in the cave finally peeks out to see what in the world is going on. Then Ame-no-Tajikarao—uh, this very powerful god, pulls her out of the cave.”
“So what you’re sayin’ is, I just hafta take off my clothes and dance in front of Shinichi-sama’s door, right?”
Elvia-san looked like she was going to set off right then and there, but Minori-sama grabbed her hand and stopped her.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Why not?”
“Shinichi-kun is in that room because of the trauma of being beaten to a pulp by you, Myusel, and Her Majesty. I don’t think we can know for sure what effect your striptease would have on him.”
“I don’t know, I think it’d get him out here, if nothing else,” Hikaru-sama smirked.
Elvia-san spent a moment blinking, then finally said, “So, you’re sayin’ you should do the dance, Minori-sama?”
“Why would I do that?!”
“Well, y’ said it can’t be me or Myusel or Her Majesty. So it just has to be someone else, right?”
“I see your logic, but no. Not biting.”
“Minister Cordobal, then?”
Minori-sama’s eyes snapped open. “That’s it!”
“Oh, please,” Hikaru-sama said. “Don’t. Then he would really never come out of his room again. And Minister Cordobal, don’t you look too interested in this.”
“Er... Hm.” Minister Cordobal almost appeared disappointed, I thought. Perhaps it was my imagination.
“The story of the Heavenly Cave is a metaphor, not an instruction manual,” Hikaru-sama said, crossing his arms. “All we really need is something that will pique Shinichi-san’s interest. It doesn’t have to be right in the hallway, and it doesn’t have to be naked.”
“Fair enough,” Minori-sama said. “Okay, ways to attract someone who’s deliberately acting disinterested. Sound. Or maybe... smells?”
Hikaru-sama tilted his head in thought. “But our usual dinner isn’t doing the trick. We need something special, something unmissable...”
“How about something special and fun?” Elvia-san piped up. “Like, you know—that meat we had at Shinichi-sama’s house!”
“Oh, the yakiniku,” Minori-sama said.
“We wish to eat yakiniku again!” Her Majesty chimed in, leaning forward.
Yakiniku: basically a simple meat dish, but unlike the food I make, it isn’t prepared in the kitchen. Rather, it’s cooked on a small grill right at the table. The flavor is provided by a sauce, and perhaps a bit of marinade, but how cooked the meat gets is at the discretion of each person at the table, so it is difficult to produce a consistent flavor. In that way, it could be considered more difficult to cook than the average meat dish. But if you can bring yourself to ignore these little details, then it’s a fun time that gives everyone control over their own food.
“Huh, yeah,” Minori-sama said thoughtfully. “Shinichi-kun’s room has a window—we don’t have to do it in the hallway.”
“Oh ho, so we are indeed going to ‘do’ yakiniku?” Her Majesty asked, eyes shining. She certainly seemed to cherish the memory of having this dish with Shinichi-sama and his family when we had visited Ja-pan. I agreed with her; it was pleasant just to recall that day. Perhaps it would be enough to tempt Shinichi-sama...
“Of course, I guess it won’t exactly be yakiniku,” Minori-sama said with a shrug. Then she raised a finger like a teacher instructing her students. “We have another word for it when everyone eats outside, cooking and having fun.” She grinned. “Barbecue!”
I thought I could hear voices from the front yard. They sounded awfully rowdy, obviously having fun. I had the curtains closed, but the sound still carried to where I was flopped on my bed, reading manga.
The voices were followed by something else: a smell. A good smell.
“That’s...”
By Eldant standards, this house was very solidly built, but the airtightness left something to be desired in comparison with a modern Japanese home. In particular, there was a tendency for smells from outside to get in even when the window was closed.
But this smell...
I sat up in bed. Now I could see there was a notification from the messenger app flashing
