Too Many Losing Heroines! - Volume 1 - Chapter 1.4

Intermission:

Even Though She Was Hungry—She Was a Good Girl, an Angel

A MECHANICAL BEEP SOUNDED FROM THE RICE cooker on a dimly lit countertop. A pajama-clad Yanami Anna made no effort to stifle her yawn as she peeked into the fridge.

“Eggs and not much else.”

In the crisper drawer she found some shriveling komatsuna spinach and half a pack of ham. Only frozen pasta and some ice cream greeted her in the freezer. Some extra excavating, however, managed to unearth an opened bag of mixed vegetables.

“Maybe I can work with this?”

Yanami Anna laid out her spoils: eggs, ham, mixed veggies, and some yellowing spinach. She gnawed on her ice cream bar pensively. Cooking was by no means her strong suit, but a certain fussy boy’s lack of enthusiasm had gotten under her skin.

“Since he wants to play that game…”

An idea. Yanami swung open a cupboard. Past an assortment of canned goods originating from all manner of places and times, she pulled out a particularly dusty one from the back. Its label read thusly: “Imperial Hotel—Special White Sauce.”

This would do nicely. It was grand—it was special—it would break that jerk’s poker face for sure. Yanami eyed her secret ingredient with pride, until she noticed the best-by date hidden at the edge of the label.

What year is it again? she wondered. Reiwa started in 2019, so…

That was close enough for Yanami. She clunked the can down onto the table. If a guy like Napoleon could make or eat canned food—she couldn’t remember which—a hundred years ago, what was one or two past the date in modern times?

Yanami took a chunk out of her ice cream, satisfied with her theory. Then she knelt down on the dark kitchen floor, held her head, and made a closed-mouth shriek into the lonely silence.

And so that summer night went on for fifteen-year-old Yanami Anna and her hypersensitive teeth.