The last day of the voyage was soon approaching. Kotori had been able to see specks of land in the distance from the porthole in her room.

She had yet to make her dish but that was because she ran into a problem.

She didn’t have a Takoyaki griddle.

There was no sort of thing in this world. When she requested one, the sailor in charge of taking her request only scratched his head and said

“I don’t think we have such a thing”

It was greatly upsetting news. Kotori’s dreams of making Takoyaki had been shattered in an instant.

The sailor could only bring her a small griddle set. It was far from what Kotori needed.

Still, determined to make a similar dish she eventually went onto the deck to begin her creation. The reason was that it would get extremely hot and stuffy if she tried to cook in her own room. At the very least she didn’t have to burn firewood since Layla would be able to help with her foxfire.

It felt odd using a spirit for something as simple as cooking, but it seemed like Layla didn’t mind.

She brought along Amelie because she had enough to make several portions. Although Kotori could probably eat them all herself she still felt it would be nice to at least share some with a friend. Food is tastes better when eaten with someone else after all.

“Kotori are you sure you want to eat this?” Amelie said poking at the Kraken meat. She was giving a slightly disgusted expression.

[Figures] Kotori thought. To the average person the Kraken meat likely looked quite unappetizing. Its slimy skin and rubbery texture would turn anyone off if they ate it raw. But Kotori knew better. She knew how delicious Kraken(Tako) meat could be

It was a sunny day. Quite refreshing after being in her room the whole day. Across the deck, Kotori could sea the coast of the Eris kingdom on the horizon. Fawks had told her they would be reaching it by midday.

She had Umi cut the spring onions Kraken meat into small pieces, about the side of the finger joint. She then mixed flour, water, and an egg she filched from the kitchen into the batter before mixing it around with a fork she had also stolen from the cafeteria.

The mixture soon thickened and turned into a runny batter, not unlike a pancake batter.

She then mixed spring onions and some of the Kraken meat into the batter.

Next, she had Layla heat up the griddle while she poured a bit of oil onto it to grease it. Once Layla got the griddle warm enough Kotori poured the mixture onto the griddle.

The batter made a sizzling sound and Kotori could smell the hot oil and batter coming together to make savory smell. Once one side had finished cooking Kotori expertly flipped it revealing a crackly golden-brown crust

Kotori’s actions had attracted the attention of the other sailors. While they were doing their work onboard, she could see several of them sneaking looks at what she was doing.

Eventually, the other side finished, and she pulled the piece of food of the griddle.

Kotori cut a piece with a fork and ate it. It was delicious. The crust was perfectly done and tasted excellent due to it being made out of magic wheat. It was hot and crispy. The tako meat inside was perfectly tender and had a little bite to them which contrasted perfectly with the crunchy batter.

It was an amazing dish in its own right, but… it wasn’t Takoyaki.

[mhmmm this tastes more like pajeon no?] Kotori thought while munching on her creation. The food looked more like a crispy pancake and it was more akin to the Korean dish than the Takoyaki she had envisioned.

“So tasty!” Amelie exclaimed after having a taste. It seems like she liked the dish quite a bit. In fact, Amelie ate the entire pancake before Kotori could take another bite.

Kotori cooked another and it was equally tasty as the first.

While munching on the second pancake Kotori realized there was a problem. She didn’t have any sauce. While the dish could be eaten on its own quite fine Kotori wished for a bit of acidity to cut through the oil.

She ran back into the ship and to the cafeteria kitchen where she stole three more ingredients. A few heads of garlic, some vinegar, and a fish sauce. Ideally, she would’ve like to have rice vinegar, and some soy sauce but this would have to do.

Once she got back out on deck she saw a large group of sailors crowding around her stall with Amelie trying to ward them off.

“What’s going on?” Kotori asked while walking over with ingredients in hand.

“They want to try some” Amelie said sheepishly

The sailors all had a hungry expression. Kotori had eaten the ship's food and it left a lot to be desired. So she understood why they were acting the way they were.

Kotori sighed it seemed like she couldn’t get herself out of this situation

“Alright tell them to line up” She finally said.

The sailors looked extremely happy to be given food.

“Finally some good grub!”

“I thought the girl was weird but she seems pretty alright if she’s feeding us”

“I’ve gotta tell the fan club about this!”

[Please no] Kotori thought

Kitsura

I love pajeon.