A Tale of One Deviant (Book One)

Chapter 26: Old People Friends...Weird, For Sure

     As soon as the maids were gone and showed no sign of immediately popping in again, I fought with the hairband that held my curls until I got it off, letting it spill out onto my shoulders comfortably and covering my face. I shook it back like a wet dog, happy of having it free. I felt like I was forcefully becoming Asian with my eyes being pulled to the sides, having that hairband on.

     If that was part of the fashion here, I was moving away. Far, far away, until I couldn't see another hairband.

     "Sissy...are you okay?" Hera looked at me from the left, leaning over concernedly. Her hair was almost spilling into the food but I frowned and caught it, saving it from being coated in some sludge looking jam. I was not having a fun time right now, so yeah it was sludge to me. I never liked jam anyway.

     "Sure," was all I supplied.

     I was honestly happy that she cared. Truly.

     But I just didn't want to experience anymore "care." The maids from before gave me enough.

     I started serving myself with nearby foods, which looked like we were from Europe. There were jams, cheeses, meats, fruits; basically, a combination of food so unlike Japan it was ridiculous. I wanted to gag.

     I will probably never have white rice again as long as I live...

     I've never seen rice here. Ever.

     Or soy sauce. Fish, even though we were probably too far away from the sea to get some while fresh. Seaweed. Miso. Oden. Yakisoba. Sakuyaki, nikujaga...Okonomiyaki, even though that was an extremely long shot. Nothing.

     Takoyaki...*sob.* Never again...!

     And the weird thing is, no white bread even though I didn't eat much of it to care. I had to subsist on hard, black bread that people still couldn't properly make in this time period. It had to be soaked in soup for me to even sink my teeth in a bit like a regular human child.

     How did soldiers subsist on rations if this charcoal was already considered a delicacy? What was the shape of their teeth? A regular person's teeth?

     I got so mad once that I secretly made my Vampire fangs come out and voraciously tore into it like I hadn't eaten in days. Since my Vampire teeth were retractable, or should I say able to shorten and dull themselves instantly, it was easy to hide the evidence if anyone walked in suddenly. When the maids came to collect the tray of food, they were surprised to see almost not a single crumb of bread since they knew I usually tussled with it.

     But still, it was like anything Japanese was disowned or banned! Oh, the horror! It was a miracle I had survived up until now, making my parents think I was a very picky eater even though I was just tying not to choke on their regular food or something. They thought I was vegan now, because I didn't touch the salted meat that became the usual even for nobles during wartimes.

     I was fine with that, because I got to live off of gorgeous fruits and vegetables that I'd never seen before! There was no such thing as an apple but instead a shershee, no broccoli but instead jari...wonderful.

     It was like dining on thousands of yen worth of foreign tropical fruits and vegetables.

     I grabbed a few of the fruits and started splicing them up into itty bits efficiently, taking out my frustration on them. People around me started talking and eating again, having mercy on my plight.

     The people present were Grandfather at the head of the table, Grandmother next to him, Seahorse and Monkey next to her, and across from her was the last one I named that I couldn't remember.